Free Death's Academy by Michael Bast Page A

coffin. The roller stands forty feet in front of the coffin. Twenty feet directly behind the roller is the “peak,” a small, raised mound with a white circle painted around it. The peak acts like a base for the offensive player. Up to five offensive players can be protected inside the peak at a time.
    Sixty feet behind the peak are three golden rings spread out fifty feet from each other—one in left field, one in center field, one in right field. They stand ten feet off the ground and are six feet wide.
    So that’s the playing field. Let me explain how you win. The first team to score twenty-one points is the victor. There aren’t any time restrictions. In fact, the longest skull ball match in history happened just over two hundred years ago. It was between the Reapers and the Harps. It lasted thirteen hours and twenty-nine minutes. Two hoodies were hospitalized, and I’m happy to say five halos were too.
    You can score points in two different ways. When the roller rolls the skull, the offensive player can strike it and try to get it through one of the golden rings. It is extremely difficult. If you are successful, and the skull goes through the ring, then your team gets seven points.
    If you don’t get it through one of the rings, then you’ve got to run for your life for the peak. The defensive players can “bury” you in three different ways. One way is by catching the skull before it hits the ground. Another is throwing the skull and hitting you with it before you reach the peak, and the last way is by throwing it to the peak-man who stands withhis foot on the white circle surrounding the peak. If the peak-man catches it before the offensive player reaches the peak, then the offense is buried and the teams switch sides.
    However, if the offensive player makes it safely to the peak, then things get interesting. When the next offensive player strikes the skull, the player inside the peak can leave the safety of the circle and try to get the skull before the defensive team does. If he does, then he tries to throw the skull through one of the golden rings. If he gets it through the golden ring before getting tackled or losing the skull, then his team gets a point and he can return to the safety of the peak. As you can imagine, the more offensive players you can get into the peak’s circle, the better chance your team will have of getting the skull from the defense and throwing it through the golden rings.
    To stop the offense, there are six defensive players, not counting the peak-man and roller. Their jobs entail stopping the offensive players from throwing the skull through the golden rings. There are three ringers who protect their respective rings. There are two scampers who are fast and agile. They roam the field to bury the offensive player in any way they can. Then there is the plower. His job is to be the nasty one on the field. He does exactly what his name suggests; he plows the opposition into the ground.
    My job as the roller, which is by far the most important position, is to roll the skull in such a way that it makes it difficult for the offensive player to strike the skull. I can roll the skull any way that I want, but therule is that it has to roll across a piece of the coffin or the striker gets to go straight to the peak.
    A shrill whistle blast fills the air, and a tinny voice calls out over the speakers.
    “Captains to the peak.”
    I’m the captain, so I toss the skull over to the rest of my teammates. Mal and I catch each other’s eye. She gives me a thumbs-up and I nod back to her. I take a deep breath and slap my face a couple of times. “You can do it! You can do it!” I yell. I turn and head for the peak.
    My eyes wander into the stands, and I find the Regent’s box. I can see the Death’s Academy coach talking animatedly to some other people sitting around him. He’s probably talking up this upcoming year’s team and how well we are going to do. I say “we” because I fully