Chapter 174: Ochi's Mental Assassination

Sanada narrowed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then continued to Serve.

"Swift as the Wind!"

"Snap!"

The tennis ball hit the net again!

"Double fault!"

"0-15!"

"Point to the Ochi-Mouri pair!"

"Double fault!"

"0-30!"

"Point to the Ochi-Mouri pair!"

Outside the court.

"What's wrong with Senior Sanada?"

"How could he have consecutive service faults?"

Kirihara was somewhat worried.

"Senior Sanada, pull yourself together!"

Kirihara shouted loudly toward the court.

Beside him, Yukimura spoke up: "Kirihara, be quiet."

"It must be the pressure!"

Kirihara said in disbelief: "How is that possible? Senior Sanada usually puts enough pressure on himself as it is."

"He has always been in a high-pressure state and has already adapted to it; how could he be defeated by pressure?"

On the other side, the 1st String rest area.

"Ochi Tsukimitsu must have used his gaze to infinitely amplify the pressure already existing within Sanada while they were switching sides!"

"Sanada was thinking about how he had to hold his service game no matter what; this kind of pressure was originally not something to be feared for Sanada at all. By infinitely expanding this small bit of pressure, Ochi made Sanada's state of mind completely chaotic."

Takahashi pondered as he spoke.

"You saw it?"

Tanegashima continued: "There is no smoke without fire. As long as Ochi catches onto the pressure, even if it's only a tiny bit, by making eye contact with Ochi, the pressure in one's heart will be infinitely amplified, and then one will lose their composure and fail completely."

"This is also the reason why Ochi Tsukimitsu is called the 'Nemesis of Morale'."

"It looks like this middle schooler is in trouble."

Takahashi smiled slightly and said: "Sanada is the type of person who is strict with others and doubly strict with himself; he definitely cannot accept the fact that he was crushed by pressure."

On the court.

"How could I be defeated by a little bit of pressure?"

"Sanada Genichiro, you are far too lax!"

Sanada roared as he hit the tennis ball.

The tennis ball flew through the air in a wobbly path.

"It actually crossed the net! You really can't underestimate your willpower!"

Seeing this, Mouri quickly ran to the net, made a gesture of swinging his tennis racket forcefully, but gently dropped a Short Ball.

Just as Sanada prepared to rush to the net.

"This ball is mine!"

The figure of Takahashi flashed quickly, successfully returning a high ball at the spot where the tennis ball landed.

Mouri seized the opportunity and jumped up to smash.

At this moment, both Sanada and Takahashi were at the net, and just as Sanada prepared to run back.

"Don't worry about it!"

Takahashi's voice rang out.

Then, the tennis ball, which had already landed at the baseline behind the two, was pulled by a powerful suction force toward Takahashi, its height flying higher and higher.

Takahashi raised his hand and delivered a smash.

Although Mouri was surprised by the trajectory of the tennis ball, his reaction speed was also quite fast, and he ran forward quickly.

It might be another Zero-Style Smash; he had to return it before the tennis ball landed.

However.

Mouri felt that what he caught on his tennis racket was not a tennis ball, but seemed to be a very heavy lead ball.

He placed his left hand on the tennis racket as well, using the strength of both his arms to try to return the tennis ball.

After the tennis ball spun rapidly on the strings for a few turns, it then popped out diagonally and landed.

"15-30!"

"Point to the Sanada-Niou pair!"

"What a pity, I didn't manage to pierce through his strings!"

"I haven't mastered the technique of breaking the whole with a single point yet!"

Takahashi looked at the opponent's still-intact racket with some regret.

"Sanada, rest for a moment and adjust your mindset; let me handle these few returns."

Takahashi said to Sanada.

"What kind of joke is that!"

"How could I be crushed by pressure!"

Sanada's emotions were extremely agitated.

"Boom!"

"30-30!"

"Sanada and Niou pair scores!"

"Boom!"

"1-0!"

"Sanada and Niou pair scores!"

"I didn't expect that the Takahashi illusioned by Niou, relying on the combination of Anti-Gravity Domain and Zero-Style Smash, could actually take a game directly from the high schoolers."

"Mouri-senpai has no way to counter this move!"

Momoshiro was very surprised.

Fuji couldn't help but look at Takahashi sitting in the 1st String rest area; this combination not only made Tezuka lose points consecutively, but even the high schoolers were helpless against it!

This is still just Niou's illusion; if the real person were to play...

"If it goes on like this, the first victory will belong to us middle schoolers."

Kikumaru felt very excited.

"Don't be happy too early; I'm afraid Niou can't hold on for much longer."

Yukimura said.

"Why?"

Kikumaru was very confused.

"The gap in strength between Niou himself and Takahashi is too large; wanting to imitate Takahashi requires overloading his Spirit Power and physical strength."

"And the Anti-Gravity Domain has high requirements for spin, excessively draining Niou's energy, and the Zero-Style Smash also consumes a lot of physical strength."

"Just now, Mouri was almost able to return that Smash."

"I think once the high schoolers adapt to a few more balls, as one side wanes and the other waxes, this advantage will disappear."

Yanagi Renji explained.

On the court.

"Boom!"

The tennis ball was pulled by a strong suction force to above 'Takahashi', who jumped hard and smashed the ball.

"Boom!"

Accompanied by the crisp sound of the ball being hit, Mouri on the opposite side of the court moved rapidly.

"I say, you guys really like hitting balls that are hard to receive."

"However, I've taken this ball."

While speaking, Mouri held his racket with both hands and swung it hard from bottom to top.

"Boom!"

As the No. 10 of the 1st String, Mouri's own strength was quite good, and facing Niou's Smash which was constantly weakening in power, he quickly seized the opportunity to successfully return it.

Sanada looked at Niou at this moment; large drops of sweat were sliding down his face, and his breathing had become rapid.

In the last few balls, he had almost been fighting two people alone, and the previous game had mainly relied on the Zero-Style Serve he hit to hold on.

Is his physical strength about to be exhausted?

Thinking of this, Sanada let out a roar.

"Ah!"

"Bring it on!"

Seeing such a passionate Sanada, Ochi said expressionlessly: "It's useless, you are currently in a state of high pressure."

As soon as he finished speaking, Ochi saw Sanada raise his arm and swing his racket.

"Boom!"

Accompanied by the crisp sound of the ball being hit, the tennis ball flew toward Ochi's side of the court.

"Boom!"

Ochi moved quickly and swung his racket.

He carefully felt the touch coming from the racket.

"Recovered from the state of pressure?"

"I've never seen anyone recover so quickly."

Ochi couldn't help but exclaim.

"Hmm?"

Ochi was surprised to find a black stream of air surging out from Sanada's body.

"Is that... 'As elusive as Shadow'?"

Kirihara, who was watching the match, asked.

"It's a bit like it, but also not quite!"

Yanagi Renji pondered for a moment before answering.

Yukimura widened his eyes for an instant; this aura...

On the other side, in the 1st String's resting area.

Byodoin Houou, sitting on the ground, said with some surprise: "This aura is actually somewhat like the Asura Divine Path!"

As he spoke, he turned his head to look at Takahashi.