A Little Bit of More

Rash Reasoning

The timer hit zero; the buzzer sounded.

"Run!"

Rashad took off, his heart beating very fast.

As he rounded the corner, dodging his first opponent, he heard the whistle of the disk fly past his ears.

Why are they aiming for my head? Rashad pivoted, pivot end, then pushed his weight off his left foot and leaped greatly into the air.
Cheering all around him, Rashad looked up to see everyone on there feet. While giving two air strides, almost as if he was running in air, Rashad caught a glimpse of Troy jumping up behind him, and quickly, Rashad regained control of his center of gravity. Twisting in a full two-seventy, he landed and started towards the finish. Troy gave chase, staying very close on Rashad's behind side.

"You won't make it out," Troy sounded confident.

"See Troy, that's your problem," Rashad jumped once more, followed again by Troy, "You're too cocky for your own good."

"Throw me the disc," Troy's teammate called from across Arena.

Rashad, hearing the comment, turned to look at whoever it was. It was just a random player that Rashad knew Troy wouldn't toss the disc to. Troy was what we would call a disc hog. He played by himself, for himself.

Leaping into the air for the last time, he noticed he was coming up to the end of Arena.

Hitting the peak of his jump, Rashad lashed out two malicious back cycle kicks. Troy embraced his arms around his head to block the kicks. Rashad was too quick though.

The first kick knocked Troy's right arm loose from his brace. Twisting in the air, Troy tried to throw the disk, but he was abruptly kicked a second time, this time in the head, sending him to the wall; the disc was left floating subtly towards the floor.

Out of breath, Rashad stood up and bowed to the audience. Walking over to Troy, he put out his hand to help him up.

"I can help myself," Troy said while wobbly getting to his feet.

"I only wanted to see if you were okay," Rashad added quickly stepping back.

Troy looked up, a trickle of blood lining the side of his left eye, spit out a tooth, and called out to someone on his team to help him back to their starting room.

Troy shot a glare towards Rashad, "Don't think this is close to being over," and limped away, given the aid of a fellow teammate.

"That was awesome!" somebody exclaimed, seeming pretty close.

Rashad turned to see Henry and Danika heading towards him.

"You went off my dude," Henry watched Troy leave with his team, then continued, "If I could've been in today, you wouldn't have had to play defense that whole time."

"Why didn't they put you in? I feel like I was the only one in the stadium." Rashad sat down to catch his breath.

"They said that I didn't seem into it today, but said I'd take Punishment Round tomorrow, probably with Troy after his match today."
Sitting beside him, Henry reached into his bag and pulled out some water and a snack. "Well, like I said, you were unstoppable."

"Thanks," Rashad added, mid-sip.

Danika looked at Rashad with her pretty green eyes. "Don't be a stranger," she said, leaving out past Rashad.

Finishing up his break, they headed out of the stadium to stand beside the main sign, where they usually meet up with Harmony, Rashad's sister.

"So why did you decide to strike at that moment," Henry asked obviously curious about the previous match.

"Dude, I swear to god, Troy is starting to be an aggressor."

"Troy has never beaten me one on one. Honestly it doesn't look like he could take you out either. As long as we're both in next round, I got you covered."

"Thanks," Rashad had looked over his shoulder, waving at Danika as she walked, "but boasting about that will take a turn in things for the worst."

Henry laughed maniacally, "Look who you're talking to! I know when I win. I know when I lose."

"Yeah, well that's just cheating."

Henry sat down and looked at Rashad, "Yeah, well if we are both in tomorrow, you'll see it's not cheating, just instinct."

Rashad then sat down beside Henry, patiently waiting for his sister to finish her session.