"How many timessss are we going to have to hit them to make them sssstay dead?"
Count Luthor von Drakenbourg is part of the line up for this game. The skinks are evidently having to face teams bringing in experience from outside to make up the difference. The undead side nonetheless win the toss, electing to kick first. The ball sails high, but Rijj can't get his claws to the ball and it bounces just before him. Jarr opens with an early thrall KO, which Mejj follows with a sharp elbow-drop to take out Lee, but Novv stacks it and splits his head open moving to cover, putting himself out of the rest of the match. The undead response is mostly defensive, moving back and tying up the less agile sauruses. Rijj makes a grab for the ball, but the accurate pass bounces off Nirr's facemask, his attention diverted by the vampire eyeing him menacingly, and the ball scatters.
Shin hypnotises Nirr, leaving him rather quiet for the time being, but Ku's hunger takes him off the pitch in search of a spectator snack. In the meantime, Lee dodges around the field with shoves, keeping the ball guarded, but ends up surrounded by blue scales. Skinks get shoved around as most of the players focus heavily on the left hand side of the pitch. A failed dodge from Weyy leaves him hurting, and the Stormers floundering. Lee slips forward to grab the ball, before decking Vorr in the face and moving down, in range... should he sprint. Or should Takk not shove Park out of the way and bring him down with a heavy thump. The ball goes dead, far from safe, but with a wealth of skinks in the way.
Count Luthor takes time from his busy schedule to punch Rijj offpitch, while Shin settles on hypnotising Nirr. Lee jumps up, and thanks to that distraction, collects the ball with little worry, escaping in range of the endzone once more. The Count goes down for a second time, seeing four! Four stars, a-ha-ha-ha, leaving Takk to shove Lee away. Too little, all things considered, as Lee keeps hold of the ball, and an easy escape route with the right shoves. Shin takes the time to hypnotise Takk before feasting on a thrall, letting Lee slip through the dazed saurus' clutches and score.
The next Vampire lick off leaves Self-Inflicted to perfect their line up, but the lizardman run falters almost immediately as Vorr is wrestled down by Park, who receives a claw to the face as he goes down, leaving him injured. Mazz is left unconscious as he gets unceremoniously shoved off-pitch, and all the lizards can do is secure and delay in an attempt to stave off a last-minute touchdown from the vampire side... which fails to materialise thanks to that unending thirst for blood, and leaving the scoreline 1-0 at half-time.
The new half sees the skink kickoff, each side's fans cheering well enough to bolster each side. The initial drive goes well, making a mess of the lizardman line of scrimmage, with Ku collecting the ball rather easily. The skinks reply with a little shoving, the tactic seeming to be the need to shut down the agile, tough vampires... but standing better than the average saurus, that proves to be predictably difficult. Rijj goes down with a kick to the snout, delivered by ball-receiving Lee, who heads downfield, thrall in tow. Vorr joins him, smacked into unconsciousness. With nine lizards on-field, the skinks scramble to defend, the charging Takk managing to bring down Lee at the very least.
A shove to Rexx leaves him stumbling over the ball, knocked skittering into the crowds. The crowd lobs it down beside the skink endzone, but Rexx follows suit, the crowd deciding they'd rather not toss an angry saurus back onto the pitch. Tyrr the Slipstreamed takes advantage, slipping forth to pick up the ball, but fumbles the pass despite his own rather dextrous claws, leaving him look like the runt that bought lettuice to Dirr's barbecue way back when. Various hypnoses later, Count Luthor collects the ball, within spitting distance of the endzone. Four skinks descend on him, Garr, Ravv, Tyrr and Nirr all looking to bring him down, but only helping him out in the end. Invv tries to join the fray but is bought down easily. Takk is shoved off-pitch and KO'ed by an irate ogre spectator, while Garr goes down hard himself, out for the remainder of the match. Count Luthor slips away to hand off to Park, rapidly boxed in.
Jarr, however, brings him down, sending the ball off-pitch once more, the crowd throwing it right in the lizardman endzone. Needing to clear the ball immediately, Tyrr recovers, handing off to Ravv nimbly who jets off upfield, dazed thralls well in range of making a mess of his day. Unsurprisingly, he gets hammered by a trio of thralls, Lee the Thrall recovering easily. Invv takes a serious concussion that marks the end of his career as much other than fodder... but in turn Mejj snaps Ku's ribs, although he is soon patched up enough to merely be badly injured by the apothecary. Down to four players, Jarr, Mejj, Tyrr and Nirr, the Stormers can do little to halt the vampire advance.
The vampires apparently have plans of their own - Lee the thrall hands off to Shin, who, consumed by bloodlust, puts Kim out of the match and fumbles the pass in the process. In return Mejj stuns him, and then promptly jumps on him until he's unconscious in thanks. Tyrr slipstreams through a trio of tackles, recovering the ball securely, if not safely, Nirr following forth and showing how agile stunties truly are for once in their lives in an attempt to prevent a second touchdown. Although there's a good hit on Tyrr that brings him down, Park the Vampire fails to make good on the recovery, leaving the vampires having to settle with a 1-0 win over the skink side. Mejj finishes off by fracturing Park's skull, but the vampire, being a hardy creature of the night, shrugs it off as the match ends.
(... I'm doing something wrong. It was like playing against humans, except thralls were better than skinks, vampires better than sauruses, and hypnotism is incredibly annoying. Four games into the third season and I have exactly one win off my own back, but I'll be fucked if I know why.)