After about three minutes of holding his head on the floor trying to stop the pain he was feeling up there, the pain slowly stopped as the goalkeeper slowly sat up on the floor with a not-so-pleasant look on his face.


    "I don''t even know the difference between what I felt back then and what I just felt now." He muttered.


    The pain was quite evident in his voice.


    <Seriously? That can''t be true, there had to be a drop in the intensity of the pain>


    ''If you''re sure that there was a drop in the intensity of the pain, then it was so insignificant that I wasn''t able to notice the difference, the only thing that changed was the duration, it was five minutes thest time, this time it was just three minutes.''


    <The drop in pain intensity was insignificant and the only thing that changed was the duration of the pain>


    ''Yeah.''


    <Apart from those which you have already mentioned, I also realized that the skillsted for eight minutes this timepared to five minutesst time>


    ''Yeah, I forgot about that one.''


    <So, three minutes were added to the duration of the skill, and three minutes were deducted from the duration of the painful drawback>


    ''Yeah, you didn''t need to spell it out for me.'' He said subconsciously before getting up from the floor. ''If I can only find a way through this excruciating pain, this skill will be super handy for penalty shootouts, but this pain is unbearable for me even if it''s just three minutes.''


    <Maybe, there''s a way around it>


    ''And what is it?''


    <Um...I''ll need you to test out the skill a few more times to see before I can figure that out, that is if there''s a way around the pain>


    Dave was quiet for a while as he shifted his gaze from the goalpost to his front door.


    <Do you understand, Dave? You have to try it a few more times so that I can see if I will be able to figure something out>


    ''Yeah, try it a few more times.'' He said subconsciously before he stuck both of his hands into his pocket and began to make his way toward the front door.


    <Where are you going?>


    ''To grab a drink and try to recover a bit, there''s no way I''m going to activate that skill immediately after recovering from that pain.''


    <Okay, but you are going to try it again, right?>


    ''I don''t know, but I want to find a way around that excruciating pain.''


    The goalkeeper made his way inside and straight to the kitchen to grab himself a ss of orange juice.


    ''We''re second ce in the Bilbeth Premier League with two matches yed, this season started out pretty well.''


    <Yeah, but it''s only two matches so far, so there''s nothing to get excited about yet>


    ''Yeah, but seeing our current position on the table is a huge morale boost to the team and we will perform even better.'' He said subconsciously before taking a sip from his ss of orange juice.


    He stood there for a while staring off into the distance and looking at nothing in particr before he made his way to the couch and slowly sat down on it.


    ''I''m sure I will be able to deal with a penalty shootout on my own, but it would be really nice to have a skill like focus in my arsenal of skills that I can use in the middle of a match without having to worry about anything.''


    There was no response or anything from Catherine as she listened to the goalkeeper vent in his mind.


    Just as the goalkeeper was going through a lot of things in his mind, something suddenly came back to him.


    ''I think I''ve got something, Catherine.'' He immediately said subconsciously.


    <What is it?>


    ''Do you remember when the skill was deactivated? I didn''t feel anything immediately until I tried to reach out to you through my mind, maybe that''s why the pain started, maybe if I avoid talking to you subconsciously three minutes after the skill is deactivated, I won''t feel any pain.''


    <That could be a possibility, there''s about a fifty percent chance that this is the case>


    ''If it is, then it is the way around the pain.''


    He quickly dropped the ss on the table without finishing the juice and quickly rushed outside.


    He quickly went around the area to pick up all the balls and quickly returned to the ster to put all of them in it and test out his theory.<novelnext></novelnext>


    <You know, it was your idea to test out this theory of yours so don''t me me if it doesn''t work and I won''t listen to your venting>


    ''Are you trying to discourage me from doing this now?''


    <No, that''s not it, I just don''t like it when you try to put all the me on me>


    ''Fine, I won''t me you for anything if it goes wrong.''


    <Nice>


    The goalkeeper quickly slid his hands into his gloves before he pushed the start button and quickly made his way to the goalpost.


    "Here we go again." He said before letting out a deep sigh.


    [ Focus activated ]


    Everywhere suddenly went dark as the first ball was quickly fired toward him.


    He was able to keep out all the balls up to the fifteenth ball which was when the skill reached its limit.


    [ Skill duration has been exhausted ]


    [ Focus deactivated ]


    The notification popped up on his screen as the sixteenth ball was shot toward him.


    He allowed the ball to fly into the goalpost as he immediately shut off his mind to avoidmunicating with Catherine.


    The first minute slowly got exhausted and nothing happened, that got Dave really excited and that was where things went downhill suddenly.


    ''It''s actually working.''


    As soon as he said those words subconsciously, he felt that familiar stinging pain in his head.


    "Arghh!" He yelled before crashing to the floor clutching onto his head with both of his hands.


    ''What went wrong, Catherine?''


    <I can''t say, exactly>


    He stayed with his hands on his head, gritting his head and waiting for the pain to go away anytime soon.


    He wouldn''t want anyone to see him like this, especially not Emma but it looks like he was out of luck today as Emma happened to have entered the area at that exact time that he was lying on the floor in pain.


    "Dave?" She gasped before quickly making his way to her.


    She tried to find out what was going on, but there was no response from him.


    "Hey, what''s going on?" She asked after lifting his head and cing it on her body.


    A few seconds after doing that, the pain slowly began to die down slowly until it was finally gone.


    "Emma." He muttered after slowly opening his eyes and as soon as he saw her face, a smile appeared on his face.


    "Hey, what was that?" She asked with a worried look on her face.


    The goalkeeper didn''t reply to her as he slowly got off her body and sat up on the floor.


    ''It didn''t work.'' He said subconsciously before biting his lower lip.


    ***


    Mass release goals.


    A magic castle= one extra chapter.


    Two magic castles= two extra chapters.