Chapter 59: The Freak Duo vs. Blocking Strategies
Kageyama Tobio's powerful jump serve was received somewhat reluctantly by Ichise Guren. Although like his blocking, Ichise Guren's height and arm length gave him extremely strong defensive coverage, when it came to reception quality alone, focusing on attacking spikes and blocking left him somewhat inadequate.
After all, human energy is limited.
Without a solid first pass, tactical sets naturally couldn't be executed, and besides, Yamaguchi didn't know how to do that kind of setting anyway. Yamaguchi Tadashi, serving as the setter, just gave an ordinary high set.
And this kind of high set was naturally Hyakuzawa Yudai's favorite type of spike. The two-meter giant leaped high, carrying unmatched height, and thundered his all-out effort toward the other side of the court.
"One touch!"
The double block formed by Kageyama Tobio and Hinata Shoyo used soft blocking to successfully touch this spike, greatly reducing the power of the attack.
And in Team A's back court was an excellent libero with national tournament experience—Hoshino Masaru.
Another extremely high-quality first pass gave Kageyama Tobio ample space to display his abilities.
Kageyama Tobio quickly scanned the entire court situation. This return was of excellent quality—if it couldn't be converted into a score, it would be such a waste.
With Kageyama Tobio's personality, never mind such a good first pass—even if the pass quality wasn't so good, he would definitely try every possible method to set a ball that could score.
The mindset of fighting for every point was one of the factors that made Kageyama Tobio's improvement so rapid.
'Good, I've drawn Ichise's attention. With Tanaka-senpai on the left and Hinata on the right, as long as I can deliver a quick attack, I don't need to worry about their group blocking.'
'Drag the offense and defense into 1v1 situations.'
'This ball, it really has to be...'
Kageyama Tobio's hand movements began along with his gaze. When his eyes locked onto Hinata Shoyo already in the air, his hands, which had just made contact with the volleyball, completed a miraculous super-quick attack.
Smack! Thud!
Hinata Shoyo, with a slight time difference, broke through the blockade network established by Hyakuzawa Yudai's super-long reach.
'This isn't a dream—I can rely on Kageyama's sets to have attacking power that can compete with blocking!'
Hinata Shoyo looked down at his slightly reddened palm, then at Hyakuzawa Yudai across the net who was breathing heavily from his recent sprint defense. A sense of happiness welled up naturally.
Using the 'freak quick' as the offensive pivot, Kageyama Tobio's second attacks and Tanaka's one-on-one attacks against Tsukishima Kei gradually increased. For the first time, Team A's score surpassed Team B's.
Sugawara Koshi expressed his admiration next to the second-years.
"No matter how many times I watch that quick attack, it's just too amazing."
"Agreed!" x3, came the responses from the second-year students.
Standing beside him, Sawamura Daichi was also seriously thinking about what method he should use to handle this freak quick if he faced it.
Before he could figure out a countermeasure, Ichise Guren had already set up a formation specifically designed to counter this quick attack.
Since it was an irregular practice match, the rules about rotation and positioning weren't strict—basically anything goes. So Ichise Guren didn't even wait for the start of the second set before making substitutions directly.
He placed Hyakuzawa Yudai on the left to guard against Tanaka Ryunosuke's spikes, while Tsukishima Kei began a one-on-one marking battle with Kageyama Tobio.
Ichise Guren began closely marking Hinata Shoyo, deliberately leaving an opening beside him for Hinata to spike into. It was like in a soccer match when a goalkeeper deliberately doesn't stand in the center but positions himself more to the right side.
Because he knew clearly that with the opposing 'shooter's' ball speed, if they attacked the side with the smaller gap, he could reach out and defend it. And if the 'shooter' attacked the side with the larger gap, being prepared, he might also be ready to make the save.
And Hinata Shoyo, facing his first volleyball strategic battle against Ichise Guren, also understood with his much-improved brain that this positioning meant Ichise was specifically targeting him.
He also prepared mentally to compete with Ichise Guren in volleyball tactics.
It was still Kageyama Tobio's serving turn. Another merciless powerful jump serve thundered toward Hyakuzawa Yudai's position, who steadily received the ball with his long arms and solid weight.
Team A's blocking remained scattered. Although Ichise Guren didn't actively call for the ball—he didn't intend to directly overwhelm the opposition with his spikes, as that wasn't his goal.
But if the opposition dared to ignore Ichise Guren and directly double-block Hyakuzawa Yudai or Tsukishima Kei, Yamaguchi Tadashi wasn't stupid, and Ichise Guren wouldn't give the opposition this easy pressure-relief opportunity.
Focusing entirely on blocking required pressure—if you really don't guard me, then I'll really spike.
After Team A once again completed their reception duties through one touch, Hinata Shoyo didn't foolishly fall into Ichise Guren's trap. Instead, through his own thinking, he began attempting to tear open Ichise's targeted setup.
First, he retreated to the back court and charged toward Hyakuzawa Yudai. This forced Hyakuzawa to follow Hinata's rhythm and jump.
Because his jumping speed couldn't keep up with the freak quick—this super-quick attack that could spike directly upon reaching its peak—when jumping second.
But Hinata Shoyo, who had disrupted Hyakuzawa's defense line, used Tanaka Ryunosuke's body as cover to discreetly give Kageyama Tobio a hand signal to set upward.
Kageyama Tobio, with his extremely high volleyball IQ, quickly understood Hinata's meaning and immediately gave Tanaka Ryunosuke a quick attack.
Although he only had a two-step approach and didn't understand what this ball meant, in Tanaka Ryunosuke's world, as long as the setter passed the ball to him, he had to spike it down with everything he had.
The volleyball passed over the fingertips of Hyakuzawa Yudai, whose feet had just left the ground for his second jump. His fingertips could even feel the airflow carried away by the passing volleyball.
But feeling was just feeling—and being able to only feel meant he hadn't touched it.
The volleyball landed softly. Hinata Shoyo, using his brain, had torn a small crack in Ichise Guren's targeted layout. This was Hinata Shoyo's first time in his volleyball career using his mind to complete an offensive-defensive strategic battle, rather than just recklessly jumping and spiking.
For Hinata Shoyo, this ball was like opening the door to a new world.
But for Ichise Guren, this ball was merely the beginning.
The next ball, he directly positioned all three blockers in the center-left. Facing Hinata Shoyo's charge, to avoid being caught off-guard, Tsukishima also indicated he would stand in the center and jump to defend when Hinata charged the defense line.
This way, Ichise Guren could follow and mark Kageyama Tobio, and if Hinata ran to the other side, Ichise could also follow up to provide help defense.
This time, after Hinata discovered that only Tsukishima jumped when he charged, he quickly shifted his center of gravity and ran toward the right side.
When he saw Ichise Guren following with intense pressure, Hinata immediately changed his plan to jump and defend on the right. Instead, using his natural agility and the advantage of his low center of gravity from being short, he made a jumping feint to trick Ichise into shifting his center of gravity upward, then ran back to the center to execute a center-net quick attack with Kageyama Tobio.
The next time, Hinata and Kageyama executed an A-tempo quick attack. Although the spiking speed wasn't fast enough yet, Hinata, who could now choose certain spiking routes in the air, could still occasionally score a point when facing single blocking.
Whenever Ichise Guren used positioning and his physical abilities to forcibly keep up with Hinata's quick attack and block a ball, the next ball would see Hinata and Kageyama rely on weapons from their arsenal to combine into new variations and score.
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