If you broaden the perspective from Haruko to the professional leagues..
Then this isn't a tactic used because one can't play through an entire tournament due to excessive exhaustion, after all, professional matches only occur once a week.
Coach Himegomiya trembled. Well, thinking about it that way made it seem even more terrifying.
She could only pray for the players who were preparing for professional careers, hoping they wouldn't run into monsters like Hinata and Miya Atsumu, the first-team setter.
——Their opponents are definitely going to suffer a very, very miserable death.
Chapter 546: The 546th Fox
After Rishia's service turn ended, Miya Osamu was subbed into the game.
This substitution ensures that even if things don't go as planned later, Rishia can be promptly substituted back in to change the momentum through his serve.
But.. Miya Atsumu felt that it probably wasn't necessary; he simply wanted to drag Miya Osamu down with him.
He shouldn't be the only one getting tortured to death by the therapist in the afternoon!!
With Inarizaki holding a massive lead, Coach Kurosu, adhering to the philosophy of seizing every opportunity to train his players, substituted Fukami in during Tokura's Service Turn.
Exhausted to the point of collapse, Takahashi's vision went dark, he immediately prepared to collapse onto the floor.
You can't be serious! You aren't giving him any chances at all!
Watching Takahashi's pained expression, Unabara Uta let out a sinister laugh.
It was time to let Takahashi experience the suffering he had endured!
The closer they got to the stage of physical exhaustion, the more conservative Takahashi played. He even skipped the process of ball control at one point, relying on Tokura Ria's abundant stamina to have her run all over the court to save the balls.
After one round of play, it wasn't just Takahashi who was about to be driven to tears again; Tokura was also on the verge of crying.
Asahina and Coach Aran stared at each other from the Coach's bench, momentarily at a loss for words.
Without a doubt, their spirit had been crushed by Inarizaki; even if they were lucky enough to win this set, they wouldn't be able to play the subsequent matches at all.
Under Asahina's bewildered gaze, Coach Aran suddenly let out a laugh. "This time, they were simply outclassed in skill."
Hearing this, Asahina opened his mouth, but in the end, he couldn't say anything.
It was a fact, there was no way to dispute it.
Asahina gripped his pants and let out a soft breath, "I'll keep working hard."
He had watched Inarizaki's match footage more than three times this year, but the overall rate of change within Inarizaki was simply too fast; even the match footage from the National Sports Festival was no longer applicable to the current Haruko.
Additionally, Inarizaki is undoubtedly the undisputed prefectural champions, so the Haruko Preliminary Round doesn't even offer much value for reference.
In the end.. they actually only had these short four days left to prepare.
He had actually stayed up late yesterday, watching the match footage between Inarizaki and Itachiyama over and over again nearly five times, but after spending a long time writing and sketching out deductions, he ultimately reached a despairing conclusion.
Even with their own tactics being excellent enough, Inarizaki still produced players with qualities capable of dominating the match.
After Inarizaki had fully planned for the players' physical stamina through the early stages of the match, they could even win by simply dragging the game out until the opponents were exhausted.
Hakuma's physical condition is actually quite good, but his physique is too large, which results in higher consumption. Under normal circumstances, a five-set match wouldn't have Hakuma standing on the court continuously, because the slightly more than half-depleted stamina can be replenished after a short rest, but dragging the progress bar all the way to the end means there is no room for maneuver.
Compared to the players from Inarizaki, their rate of progress is indeed a bit slow.
“Give me the ball!!”
Even though the voice had become somewhat hoarse from constant shouting, that loud and energetic voice still commanded the attention of the entire crowd.
Osamu jumped quite half-heartedly near Position 3, leaving Bessho Chigen momentarily unsure of what expression to make.
By this time, Hinata had already rushed behind Position 4, after taking one final step, he jumped up violently.
Because of Miya Osamu's overly perfunctory cover, Hakuma and Bessho Chigen had already locked onto Hinata, jumping in tandem the moment he leaped to attempt a block against Hinata's spike.
Hinata seemed to jump with all his might, but his height only increased by less than thirty centimeters before he began to fall.
And in order to defend against Hinata's high contact point spike, Hakuma and his partner jumped with everything they had, but even though they realized Hinata was trying to use an individual time difference, they could only watch helplessly as Hinata landed.
Hakuma hurriedly controlled his body to descend. With his absolute advantage in height, he should be able to land and jump again to catch up while creating some distance..
As his feet hit the ground, Hakuma saw Hinata jump once again, reaching for the ball that was momentarily suspended in the air above Position 4.
His pupils dilated slightly, his attention forced toward his own legs and feet.
He should have jumped up, chased after it.
But his calves were sore and aching, his knees were protesting as well.
Repeating two jumps in such a short period was already difficult for him, as his knees and ankles were under immense pressure due to his physique, now his stamina was also reaching its limit.
Feeling his sluggish body, sweat dripped from under Hakuma's chin, he fell into a state of near helplessness.
Damn it, jump!
In the split second that Hakuma forced him to catch up, Hinata had already completed his spike.
The ball smashed straight into Karasuno's back court near Hirugami's position, a lightning-fast line shot that gave Hirugami absolutely no time to react.
The whistle blew, the Head Referee signaled a point for Hinata.
“That's terrifying.." Amatori, in the stands, covered his face with his hands, looking at the court through the gaps between his fingers. His sunglasses were hanging from his collar, reflecting a strange, iridescent light under the not-so-strong sunlight.
In the first two sets, it wasn't quite clear where Inarizaki's offense was centered, but in this set, Hinata basically didn't worry about defense at all, leaving it all to Ginjima and Miya Osamu, focusing his entire weight on the attack.
With both teams' starters on the court nearing the end of their strength, the advantage of the physical monsters was clearly on full display.
Iizuna crossed his arms in front of him and sighed, "This is pure recklessness."
This style of play relies entirely on Miya Atsumu's technical skill and Hinata's individual qualities; no matter when it's used, it is complete and utter recklessness.
But considering the ones executing it are Miya Atsumu and Hinata.. well, it's only natural.
Tokura Ria's serve was interrupted immediately. He let out an unwilling click of his tongue, his hands clenching at his sides before he could do nothing but let them go powerlessly.
The substitution signal sounded immediately after, as Asahina replaced Tokura Ria back onto the court.
Hirugami and Hakuma were indeed powerful enough at the front row nodes; they broke Suna's service turn in a single play, even after Hirugami rotated to the back row, they continued to score, successfully narrowing the gap just a little bit.
But it was only a little bit. Inarizaki quickly counterattacked, breaking the opponent's service turn while further accelerating the pace of the match, bringing the service right back to Miya Atsumu once again.
Atsumu bounced the volleyball in his hands, as the service time limit was halfway through, he raised his hand and tossed the ball up.
A difficult Jump Float Serve was sent toward Karasuno's back row, Takahashi, who was prepared, moved down to receive the ball.
After being hit by Miya Atsumu's serves for several rounds, he was finally starting to find his rhythm.
His anticipation was successful, he smoothly sent the ball to the front row.
Asahina sent the ball toward Hirugami's position, intending to let Hirugami execute a spread play.
Tokura's follow-up was also very fast. Under the condition of exhaustion, Hirugami's strong attack was not as difficult to handle as before; he gave up on directly blocking the touch and instead popped the ball up.
Miya Osamu quickly followed up to set the ball, sending it to Miya Atsumu in the front row.
Under Hinata's cover, Atsumu quickly transferred the ball to Ginjima on the other side. Ginjima executed a line spike, although it bypassed the block, it was saved by Takahashi's diving.
Karasuno attempted a counterattack, but the ball was once again tipped upward by Tokura's touch, Unabara Uta quickly followed up to receive it.
Atsumu jumped, raising his hand toward the ball.
After moving two steps toward Position 2, Hinata suddenly changed his direction and charged toward Position 4, performing a beautiful cross with Miya Osamu.
Atsumu, who had originally intended to give the ball to Miya Osamu, suddenly changed his mind the moment he set the ball.
Even though the conditions for Hinata's offense weren't particularly good, but..
He didn't care; he simply wanted to be a little selfish at this moment.
The ball was tossed high by Atsumu, falling toward the far end of Hinata's field of vision.
Facing Karasuno's Iron Wall that had already rushed toward him, Hinata leaped up without a hint of fear.
His contact point was high enough, since Karasuno's block could no longer jump to its maximum height, it meant he could choose to score by tooling the block, relying on the fact that the opponents only had their fingers within the range of the ball.
Although Karasuno vaguely sensed Hinata's intention, they had neither the time nor the opportunity to adjust. The ball hit the hands of the block and flew out of the court at a very steep angle. The whistle blew immediately after, the Head Referee signaled that Inarizaki scores.
As Hinata landed, he turned and waved his hands at Atsumu before jogging back to his position. Atsumu also raised his hands and gave them a heavy pat.
Hinata, who had been pushed back half a step by the slap, quickly shot him a protesting look.
Even if he didn't want to admit it, he was already extremely exhausted at this moment; Miya Atsumu was doing this just to bully him!
A laughing Atsumu patted Hinata's head: "Incredible, as expected of Inarizaki's orange flash."
Hinata lifted his chin with a hint of pride on his face: "Of course, I won't waste Atsumu-ge's amazing set!"
If he couldn't even spike a ball that was so perfectly tailored to his every detail, he might as well pack up his things and go home to reflect on himself!
Miya Atsumu found it very satisfying and turned his head to give his twin brother a look, but in the end, he only received a roll of the eyes from Miya Osamu.
Miya Atsumu was incredibly considerate toward Hinata, giving him wonderful sets most of the time, even when the balls weren't perfect, he wouldn't put that much pressure on Hinata.
But Osamu's treatment was completely different; many times, some bastard would not only give him an average ball, but would also demand that he spike it beautifully.
But Osamu couldn't say anything.
Because when Atsumu's sets aren't good, it's generally not his fault, but rather the first receive itself was poor, meaning the ball could only reach that level.
So.. even with a ball like this, it was still Miya Atsumu's "best effort," and he naturally had the right to demand a corresponding response from the spiker.
Osamu rolled his eyes again and turned his head to look toward the stands.
In short, Atsumu is a total jerk.
Where Atsumu couldn't see, Osamu couldn't help but curl his lips into a smirk.
But.. it's so good that Atsumu can meet Hinata.
He withdrew his gaze, turning his head to cast his eyes back toward the court.
Alright, it's time to put a real end to this long match.
Miya Osamu pulls off a second ball to score, Inarizaki match point.
In most situations where they were trailing, Karasuno would have been powerless to turn things around.
The service right passed to Tokura, since his position had changed before this, Tokura himself was the one responsible for this service turn at match point.