Many people were in attendance for the big semi final match that would feature another installment in the fierce Beacon Hills-Octo Valley rivalry, taking place at Bluefin Depot; many students from other schools were also in attendance to scout the two mighty giants that'd be performing today, especially a group of friends dressed in some Elites gear who were on recon checking out the two teams that'll be facing their friends in the final. In the group, there was Ollie, a boy with short maroon red tentacles, a freckled face and lax Orange eyes-wearing a long sleeved purple tee shirt that had the Elites logo on it; he was known for being the most calm and mellow of his peers. Cannola, a girl with long Tan curly locks and Yellow eyes who wore attire similar to Squid Girl's; she had a pleasant permanent smile and sweet personality. Apollo, a boy with Navy blue tentacles who appeared to be the leader of the bunch since he had the most commanding presence of them all, showing no expression other than a stone faced one-he meant business. The last one was Chlora, a girl with Greenish-Yellow tentacles that were tied up in one big pink ribbon, who held a tablet in her hand as she followed right behind the boy with the Navy blue hair.
As they all took their seats on one of the long row of bleachers that were specifically made to float in the water so that many could attend these events and not worry about their safety; Cannoli became even more ecstatic-"To think we'll already see a match worthy of a championship final so early on in the sporting calendar year. Which team are you picking, Ollie?"-Elbowing the Maroon boy next to her-"Huh, Ollie?"
Ollie shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, it's a hard choice…"-She looks at him with question-"I'm at a dilemma right now, because as a fellow Inkling I should be supporting Beacon Hills with the intention that we can get revenge on them in the final. Yet, I find myself rooting for Octo Valley."-He looks around at the other supporters in the audience-"Did you guys ever notice that its rather quiet compared to in recent years? Everyone here is very conscious about what happened last year."
"You mean that corrupt match last year, the one where the government solidified just how low they were willing to go to take everything away from the Octarians." Apollo said with disgust, focusing his attention on Beacon Hills as they entered their spawn point; everyone from the team greeted the crowd except for Gin, who was laser focused on the match and didn't care much for interaction with the audience.
Gin's eyes sharply peered through the entire metallic battleground before him, making mental eye contact with the peering glare from Shiva; it's about time for another match with these freaks.
"Everyone…" he said in a serious and firm tone, "That team is coming for our blood. They want our heads for what happened last year. Deny them! Deny them any feeling of redemption!" he yelled, glaring at them; they all nodded reluctantly, preferring not to see the captain like this. Alumia lifted her head up nervously and stared at Gin's back, "Aw man, whenever captain Gin's like this it means we're going to have a tough game on our hands!" she whispered to Platinum; he shrugged his shoulders and laughed.
"No point in getting serious here, Gin. The winter championship is what matters. Take it easy, man." He said while resting his hand on Gin's shoulder.
Gin took a deep breath and found his cool-grinning a little, "Fine…but don't cupcake this match! And I better see you guys obliterate them or you're running laps around Beacon Hills when we get back-win or lose."
3…-the crowd silences-2…-both players from each side began to narrow their eyes as they concentrated on their how they'll attack-1…-both teams are released from their spawn points and bolt for the central areas, hopping over the grates and stall structures that were laid out. Both teams had studied their plans overnight, both knew what scenarios may derive from their actions on the field and how to counter them- both teams knew that whoever could get to the 50 point margin first would basically have this game won.
Gin splits away from his team-who were heading to the right central area-and shreds through the silver ink he inked to meet Shiva at the right central area; both of them waived their teams away to the right central area, knowing that this section would be the setting for their personal fight. They stare each other down with menacing glares, her-usually calm-Green eyes clashed with his slick Wolf grey eyes, their breathing got heavier as they both grasped their guns tightly-clenching their teeth.
"Gin…"
"Princess…"
"It's never a pleasure to see you're ugly face." Shiva snarled.
"As if anyone would be happy to see a monster like you…no wonder we slaughtered your people in the war. No wonder we ripped out your hopes and dreams last year. It's no wonder you'll always be rejected as a race, as a nation, as a living species you'll only be seen as our slaves! Nothing more than vessels for our future! There's no other worth for disgusting creatures like you!" Gin retorted, smirking; Shiva's blood boiled with complete rage as her body trembled.
She lowered her head and stared at her feet, charging the modified Octoshot in her hand-"I dare you to say that again…"-lifting her head, showing the fire burning in her eyes and in a very intimidating tone, he fist balled up furiously-"I dare you to say that again, you racist bastard! I dare you to say one more thing about my people!"
"Did I make it personal, Octoling?" he taunted, tilting his head back a little for him to appear to look down at her.
"What color…what color is your blood Gin…!" Shiva yelled as she inked the turf and burrowed herself, swimming towards Gin.
"Bring it on!" he responded, inking some turf around him and also submerging into the ink.
"So right off the bat the two captains are havin 1? Man, they really hate each other…" Chlora remarked as the two captains exchanged turf after every shot violently.
"It's a match between two of the four big giants…of course it'd get intense like this!" Machi said, crossing her arms as they turned around. All of their eyes widened once they caught a glimpse of her face, "You're…!?"
"Nice to run into you all again." She said waving hello and shaking hands with all of them.
"Machi…I forgot you came to these events."
"Of course, I have to show my support for these events. There's so much excitement when we get towards this time of the year!"
Machi was a big follower of turf wars, attending every tournament whenever she could the chance to; she had a fondness for seeing the Beacon Hills-Octo Valley rivalry. "It's one of the fiercest rivalries in the sport; I'm surprised to see Beacon Hills trailing though. But I guess whoever will win the one on one between Princess Magenta and Gin will certainly impact the performance on the match as a whole…"-she turned her body towards the right half where the rest were-"It's not usual that Beacon Hills plays in this style though."
Apollo nodded, "Correct, Beacon Hills are known for their conservative and tactical play where they perform a square rotation play. Here, they're too jumbled together and not in sync. They're falling right into Octo Valley's type of play."
Machi put a finger to her cheek with question-"Really?"
"There are two types of formations that serve as the fundamental tactics for any player: Zone formation, and the Man-to-Man formation. In the Zone formation, a team will uniformly disperse and conservatively form a polygonal shape where they guard the inside-this helps them in the way that they can guard the inside of their space while still being able to break away into the man formation should duty call. The man formation is the aggressive one of the two formations where every single player has their own assignment and must focus on that one assignment, working to pick of their opponents one by one." He added, giving a crash course of turf war 101.
Beacon Hills weren't in good shape being behind 56-43 with 2:35 left on the clock; although they had a ton of time to rally a comeback, there was no assurance against a feisty opponent like Octo Valley. Alumia was forced to flee back up to higher ground, swimming up the wall to her left-deciding to use her charger to her advantage while Silvia and Platinum would contend with the three Octolings on the turf since being on level ground would only serve as a disadvantage. Silvia swam around avoiding the specs of ink that infiltrated her silver ink; Platinum covered her with his roller, deflecting as much of the ink as he could while Alumia supported them both by sniping at their opponent's feet.
Why did we have to change weapons so soon!? She complained as she struggled to splat one of the Octolings.
"First, Vaairie-the user of the multiple weapons but specifically the Octo slosher, Ciri-the user of Octo splatling, and Reluna-the user of the Octo Launcher. Along with Princess Magenta, the four of them have been together competing since they were children in the junior leagues." Apollo said while he observed the tenacity that the Octolings were showing as they defended the turf that was mostly in their Fuchsia ink.
"They haven't given Beacon Hills any chances for an opening, even countering some of their shots…" Chlora added.
Cannoli assessed the current situation, "I say maybe when they use their special weapon they'll regain some advantage? They have a little over two minutes before the game will really heat up."
Machi laughed, "No worries about them, they aren't the type of team to get contained for so long in a match.
Silvia hid behind the tall platform reloading her ink with Platinum covering for her with his sprinkler holding them back. As it stands right now, we've got to use Alumia's Killer Wail to push them back and then I'll use my Inkzooka to splat them down in one-go.
Ciri and Vaairie continued to apply pressure as their precision aim began to penetrate through Platinum's Dynamo roller. Platinum's concern grew as he felt the force from the enemy ink begin to weigh heavy on his weapon. I'm going to get splatted at this rate!
Alumia has one eye closed as she focused her vision into the scope, "Just a little more…" she said to herself, aiming at Reluna. Reluna fires her Octo launcher at Alumia; Alumia retreats, knowing one hit from that blast of ink and she's splatted. Reluna, pushes forward-brushing past Silvia and Platinum; both of them see the Octoling zoom past-exchanging looks with her as she grinned climbing up the wall that Alumia was at. Reluna corners Alumia, aiming the rocket launcher in front of her face; Alumia gets splatted and sent to respawn. A hopeless feeling overcomes the duo after seeing their teammate's soul fly to the spawn point.
"Whoa! Our first splat comes in with a minute and twenty one seconds left in the match!?" Cannoli marveled, tugging on Ollie's sleeve; Ollie gently removed her hand.
"I was starting to think we might not even see a splat the way these two teams have been playing. Neither of them is giving up any turf. Look at Beacon Hills; they're still holding their own!" Machi applauded.
As some time passed by, 1:23 remained on the clock as the match was beginning to hit crunch time; the match was continuing to stay in Octo Valley's favor with them leading firmly by a score of 64-35. Octo Valley had eventually found a way to splat Silvia and Platinum on separate occasions in order to increase their lead, forcing the trio from Beacon Hills to retreat and defend the higher ground on their side since the right central area was under Octo Valley's control; at the same time, Gin and Shiva were still dueling it out with both of them releasing their specials at least once-but not splatting the other. The crowd was on the edge of their seats, one side was nervous while the other was eager for the result. Both teams didn't dare try to interrupt their captain, trusting in their captain's ability to seal the match for them. Silvia's special weapon was finally ready for firing and she finally found the perfect opportunity to use it along with Alumia's Special; they both nodded and gave Platinum the signal to get ready. Platinum dove into his ink and swam to the side as Alumia took out her Killer wail and took aim with the large megaphone. The killer wail released an ear wringing wail as it fired the loud waves of sound, rupturing all three of the Octolings and splatting two of them; only Reluna managed to escape in time. Silvia unleashed her Inkzooka and fired rapidly in Reluna's direction; Platinum launched his Inkstrike and aimed at the right central area, trapping Reluna and drowning her in the silver ink for the crucial splat. The match was slowly creeping back to being a toss-up as the Beacon Hills players rallied for a comeback attempt; Gin and Shiva paused and looked over, seeing the tornado of silver ink flush away all the fuchsia ink that had been occupying for most of the match.
Oh no…it's happening again! Shiva thought with concern, feeling the trauma from the previous defeat begin to reappear. Gin smirked as he felt Shiva's worry, knowing this match was his once he got a splat on her.
With 55 seconds left on the clock, Gin and Shiva ferociously battle for the match to earn the ticket to the finals against the Elites of Squid Academy-and the bragging rights for this installment of the rivalry. 52-47 was the score line as the match closely approached a climatic end!
She's taking forever to use her special…could she possibly be saving it for when I use it? It's possible since her special weapon is the Inkzooka, and she hasn't used any more of her suction bombs to gain an advantage…what is this sneaky girl up to?
Gin swims up the ramp, and makes a final analysis on Shiva while she backed away-still inking her turf. No doubt! She'll use her Inkzooka at the moment I use my Inkstrike in an attempt to splat me before I launch my weapon! She knows that if things stand the way they are, she'll have the better advantage of winning. She knows I need a decent set of three seconds to launch, and she knows I can't summon my teammates since they're in a pinch as is with their situation…
"So he has no choice but to go for it and hope he doesn't get splatted at the last second." Machi said with conviction, reading Gin's thoughts.
Gin glared at the ground for millisecond, "Damn it!" he yelled, taking out his Inkstrike; Shiva went automatic as her eyes dilated, taking out her Inkzooka and firing at Gin with all the power she had. Gin hurriedly launches the rocket, but gets a face full of Fuchsia ink at the same time, and splatted. Shiva sighed of relief, feeling that the victory was secured-until she saw a massive shadow envelope her; the Inkstrike was about to splat her and take all the turf! Shiva knew she couldn't avoid the impact, but she could still try one last effort to secure a win. She throws out a suction bomb far away with a last ditch effort, and then gets splatted by the massive tornado!
The whistle blows, the match is over, and everyone is up on their feet to see the result; many people were saying Beacon Hill won it in a classic style, defeating Octo Valley the same way that they did last time-many others said otherwise. Shiva respawned at her point looking up at the scoreboard with anxiety; Gin also looked up from his spawn point, awaiting the result as stone faced as usual. Judd appeared; ready to give the result-doing his little dance.
The board read:
"51.3-49.6 with the winner being Octo Valley!"
Shiva dropped on the floor, crying tears of joy-covering her face with her arm as she bawled; Reluna and Vaairie hugged as Ciri fell to her knees, thanking the Great Cthulu. The audience is stunned by the result; even the people who were rooting for Beacon Hills were stunned. The margin was that close! Shiva's final effort turned out to be the play that saved the campaign for Octo Valley. Beacon Hills were defeated, but none of them were as defeated as Gin-who sat on the point with his knees up and his eyes glued to the scoreboard as he buried his head in his arms.
Machi smiled as she crossed her arms with satisfaction-closing her eyes and bowing her head, "So we'll finally get the match that's been two years in the making…Octo Valley versus the Elites of Squidcom."
