The Birth of A Volleyball Legend-Chapter 376: The Definition of Ace

"Oh! Lucas! It is him again!"

"He is such a beast!"

"He is not the best player in the country without a reason, you know?!"

"Come on, Lucas!"

After landing on the floor, Lucas just spread his arms widely, mimicking the Christ the Redeemer statue in his hometown. By the smile spread on his face, it was clear that he enjoyed every second of this, getting basked under praises like he was some sort of messiah. He didn’t even feel the weight of his teammates who jumped onto him, just standing still in the middle of the limelight.

"Damn, he is so badass." Ogawa couldn’t help but praise the Brazilian boy for his flair celebration. "I really want to try something like that in the future."

"Well, if you really want to do something so big like that, make sure you can do half of what he just did earlier, okay?" Akira smiled innocently, which also silenced Ogawa and all the players who had a similar thought.

Well, no one blamed them for cowering out from the challenge like that. After all, what Lucas did was indeed a bit too much here. Not only did he help the team cover the weak back row, read the game perfectly, and save the ball that was about to fall in such a difficult spot, buthe also recovered quickly and joined the offense a second later when everyone dismissed him, shocking all the Kyoei Gakuen players. That still didn’t count the block Lucas did earlier to Nitta which also resulted in a point for Konan High.Just in the last two plays alone, the Brazilian wonder boy really showed what it meant to be an all-around player.

"Everyone has a different definition of being an ace." Akira suddenly spoke with the ’Listen to me as I give you a lesson’ tone, making everyone turn their head to the coach. "For most players, being the ace is to be the one who breaks all the walls in front of him and gives his teammates a chance to fight when everything is not in his favor. For the others, being an ace means being the unstoppable spear that confronts all the walls in front of him directly. Not only that, there might even be tons of definitions of being an ace outside here, and there is no wrong answer to this question. However, here, you can see what being an ace means to Lucas Silva."

Yeah, everyone could see that Lucas was a different type of ace compared to the ordinary one. He wasn’t just a heavy-hitter on the court, but could also set his own wall, willing to run all over the court to do the dirty thing like saving the wild ball or something similar. That allowed the boy to get involved in everything instead of just waiting until the ball went in his direction just like any other ordinary ace, which also helped the team since the other Konan High players didn’t need to protect Lucas from receiving the first ball at all.

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So, yeah, by mere observation, everyone could see that Luca’s definition of being an ace was to leave a strong impact for the team even if he wasn’t the spear that broke the opponent’s wall, and honestly, that was far more terrifying than an ace who only knew how to jump and hit like a stupid monkey.

Akira smiled unconsciously as he watched Koji clenched his fist tightly with his eyes locking into the small screen in front of him. Even though it was a lesson for everyone, he had to admit that his first intention was to show Koji a different way of being an ace. He knew that the boy had low self-esteem as he realized he wasn’t the most dangerous player on the team. The ace title he had was just an empty title as the opponent didn’t even treat him as one. This would show the boy that he didn’t have to have the best offense in the world, but as long as he could make an impact constantly for the team, he would be fine.

’Hopefully, he could get something from watching Lucas’s game today.’

-0-

Back to Konan High’s gymnasium, the game was about to start again. With how Konan High grabbed the momentum as early as possible in this set, people would think Kyoei’s head coach would call a timeout to kill the opponent’s momentum. However, there was no movement on their bench, and while the atmosphere on Kyoei’s side was a bit glum, they all still had a fire burning in their eyes, showing that they were still fighting here.

"Come on, Lucas! Do it again!"

"Yes! They are like a cockroach, just stomp them until they die!"

"Kill them all!"

Lucas took a deep breath before throwing the ball high in the air, slamming it with all of his power. The target was still the same, Haruo, and as he got the momentum from the last play, his serve this time was sharp, with the additional rotation in it that gave Haruo a hard time receiving it.

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Fortunately, Haruo came from a school that insisted that even a middle blocker had to be decent at everything, so even with such a tricky serve coming to his face, he was calm enough to take a step back, bending his knee a little before letting the ball fell onto his forearms.

BAM!

"Oh! Nice save, Haruo!"

"Kusuda-senpai!"

Yamada didn’t even think as he saw Kusuda, the opposite hitter, standing freely on the right side. A chance like this was not something that came often, so the team needed to capitalize on it every time they saw one.

Unfortunately, Kusuda wasn’t a pure scorer. At best, he was a support player who was good at synchronization movement, but in a solo offense like this? Even he himself didn’t have the confidence to kill the ball directly. That was why when he saw Akihiro move from the center, even if Kusuda had a step advantage, he didn’t dare to do a reckless attack and decided to be more conservative by sending the ball to a spot he thought would be open.

Unfortunately, it seemed Lucas was determined to be a pest in the back row, as he didn’t let Kyoei Gakuen score any easy points.

BAM!

"Oh! Nice save, Lucas!"

"Nobu, left!"

"Captain!"

The ball moved quickly from being saved by Lucas to Sawada who rushed for it, and now it flew once again to the left side where Matsumoto was there. Of course, being the cockroach he was, Haruo wouldn’t let anyone go so easily. He also moved quickly to cover the sky from Matsumoto’s bombardment, and as a result…

BAM!

"Shit! Aki-senpai, cover it up for me!" Haruo shouted when he realized he couldn’t control where the ball would bounce off his hand.

"Oh! Nice spike, Matsumoto!"

"Their formation is in a scramble right now! We can take advantage of it!"

Aki and Ito, the two players in Kyoei’s back row rushed with their highest speed as their eyes kept tracking where the ball would fall. In the end, they finally managed to send it back to the court, yet with those two outside, there was nothing much the rest of Kyoei players could do for this possession.

’Tch! It seems we have to give up the chance to attack for now.’ Haruo clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Or… So that was what he thought.

However, the team’s ace had a different opinion here. As he saw Yamada was about to send back the ball to Konan’s side, he took a quick step back to prepare his run-up before shouting out loud, "YAMADA! DON’T GIVE IT AWAY LIKE THAT! SEND IT TO ME!"