Wereball Series - Along Came A Mate

Chapter 14

In wereball,  werewolf universities, like ours, compete against each other over the course of the season. A team also represents a particular pack. Sometimes the smaller packs are absorbed by a large one,  as they cannot afford their own teams. Since my pack is massive, we have our own team.

The competition is beyond intense, almost ridiculous. Honour and pack pride are deeply involved.

The game is similar to American football, though slightly adapted for werewolves, containing a few key differences. The absence of protective gears is one.

Wereball does not require the usage of any safety items. Sure, players can wear helmets, pads, and gloves, and so on, but the majority choose not to. 

It is not manly enough, not to mention the crowd often mocks the rare player wearing gear. Hence, most of the players wear no equipment to showcase their strong, manly features. 

As I pointed out, stupid.

The arena of wereball transports you back in time to the days of the gladiators.

Crazed crowds scream all the time, as if possessed by spirits of people who had died in madhouses. The players are among the strongest members of the werewolf packs. Some of them are so gigantic they might as well belong to a different species. 

Post-game brawls are normal. Indeed, the more a game is 'beautiful' and exciting, the more bloody the post-game fights.

Aside from the absence of safety equipment, the main detail that would catch the attention of a human eye is the presence of two huge wolves in the field. Their intent? Knock out players, regardless of which team they belong to, and create destruction during the first part of the game.

Oh, and most importantly, there is one rule:

No rules.

The players were are allowed to punch, kick, trip, hacke, tackle, and wrestle with each other in an effort designed to heavily injure, tire, or slow the opponents and break through their defences. Often descending into a real fight.

Welcome to the wereball's world.

##

A typical wereball stadium was divided into three streams. The one reserved for the host team's fans was in the north wing, the one reserved for the visiting team in the south wing, placing a safety distance between the supporters, and then there was the one reserved for all the others, in the middle. Usually that was filled with people from nearby packs, or from the same pack members of one of the teams who did not want to get too involved in the turmoil or were afraid of the aftergame 'hustle and bustle'.

Usually each team had their own club of "Ultras" or wolves who technically were the most fanatic and enthusiastic fans, but, in reality, they were mainly there to intimidate and attack supporters of rival teams. Actions ranged from simple taunting and spitting, to throw objects at opposing fans, including stones, bricks, branches, and broken car parts.

Hand-to-hand combat with sports bats, glass bottles, machetes, and firearms usually took place after the wereball match.

Humans called these phenomena "hooliganism". Personally, I called it primitiveness. However, it was so ingrained in our culture that we just got used to it. 

Thanks to the Goddess, wereball players were gifted with hard heads, difficult to break.

Some Ultras clubs had long standing rivalries. 

The club of my pack, of which Tiziano was the president or 'the first in charge' to mention his words, claimed that the Comet Club equally hated all the other clubs. Deep down everyone knew they had reserved a special spot for the Dark Diamond Ultras Club, whose president was spoken of in the same horrible way as the Terminator.