Chapter 115: The Race 2
[Kamzy_1234: WHY IS PHANTOM IN THE RACE]
[IamTruck_kun: Bro came to a race in a coat and gloves.]
[Alex_Rhynsburger: He’s not even warming up.]
[AuraNova: Is he seriously just standing there with his hands in his pockets?]
[Gustavo Castillo: Coat guy energy. Always coat guy energy.]
[Raymond_Garcia_2989: I’m betting on him. I’m going to lose money, and I’m doing it anyway.]
[Justin_Dunbar_5410: Same, honestly.]
[Firekid6969: THE MAN IS IN A COAT.]
Julie let the camera rest on him for one extra beat.
"And Phantom," she said. "Representing America alongside Light. You don’t need me to introduce him." She paused.
"He’s wearing the coat."
[entire chat: LMAOOO]
[Kamzy_1234: she said that’s enough information]
"Rules," Julie said, shifting modes.
"Each racer carries a relay rod. At the checkpoint between Stage Four and Stage Five, the rod is passed to the second runner from your country. If the handoff is missed, your second runner continues without it, but your country loses points for the exchange. You can still place—you just lose the bonus."
She let that settle.
"Marks for this event are allocated by finishing position. First place takes the full fifty. Second takes forty-five. It descends from there." She paused. "Every mark matters and brings your country one step closer to winning the competition."
Within the theater room, Dana watched the racers.
’We have no idea what kind of abilities these racers have... But I’m sure they didn’t just pick random people.’
Her eyes moved down the line, assessing each participant with the practiced eye of a supervisor.
Then it fell on Nicholas.
He still hadn’t taken his hands out of his pockets.
She let out a slow breath.
’Just try not to finish last,’ she thought. ’That’s all I’m asking.’
Below, a coordinator approached Julie’s booth and handed her something. She looked at it. Her expression lit up.
The camera caught it.
"Oh, they gave me the—" She held it up. A starting pistol. Compact, official, loaded with blanks. "They gave me the gun!"
[AuraNova: Peach fairy with a firearm is terrifying]
Julie raised it excitedly.
"On your marks! The race begins in—" She pointed it skyward.
A hushed silence filled the arena as thousands of people held their breath in anticipation.
"THREE—"
The racers dropped into their starting positions.
Light’s body flickered.
Tread’s tires roared fiercely against the ground.
Veloce’s eyes were fixed ahead.
"TWO—"
Shifu straightened his posture, standing calmly.
Panzer’s boosters released a burst of engine smoke.
"ONE—"
BOOM.
The sound of the gun hadn’t finished echoing before Light was gone.
He blurred, reality seemed to shift around him as he tore through space and time in an instant.
One moment he was at the starting line in a runner’s crouch.
The next, the space where he’d been contained only an afterimage—a streak of white-gold light burning across the center of the track before fading from view.
The crowd erupted.
[AuraNova: HE’S ALREADY AT THE MIDDLE OF THE TRACK!]
[Atticus: WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!]
[IamTruck_kun: light particle movement is INSANE he’d take someone to another world faster than I would]
[Josh246: America ate]
{Literary_Archive: How’s the camera keeping up with this crazy speed?!}
{Slim: Peach Fairy’s ability! She always gets the best shots}
Dana watched from the theater with a quiet smile. She’d seen Light run before but she’d still held her breath at the start.
She leaned back, relaxing slightly.
’That’s why we picked him for the first half,’ she thought, a small smile climbing up her face.
The first track was the longest straightaway on the course—eight hundred meters of flat terrain leading into the first spatial distortion barrier.
The barrier was exactly why they’d needed Light.
A spatial distortion that dense required a body capable of moving faster than the distortion could register.
Light particles moved at a frequency the barrier couldn’t fully process.
Anyone slower would simply be pushed back.
Light hit the barrier at the far end of the track.
And passed through it as though it wasn’t there.
The crowd gasped and Julie’s voice cut through it.
"Light from America has broken through the first barrier! FIRST IN THE FIELD!"
"People, if you’re not watching this, I don’t know what you’re doing with your lives!"
Julie’s words caught in her throat as she noticed someone else.
The chat noticed it before Julie did.
[Kamzy_1234: wait who is that behind him]
[Raymond_Garcia_2989: is that... the Brazilian guy is MOVING]
[Borden: he’s catching up. he’s actually catching up.]
[Kol_lol: HOW]
[Masatoshi_K: He didn’t even stand out in any way!]
[Yamatekudastop: Ngl they got us good]
Veloce had started three positions to Light’s left and had been half a second behind him off the gun. At one hundred meters, he was two body lengths behind.
At three hundred, one.
At five hundred, he was shoulder to shoulder with Light and he didn’t look to be stopping.
In the theater room, the Brazilians wore smug smiles on their faces.
But the show wasn’t over.
Julie’s eyes widened.
"AND VELOCE FROM BRAZIL IS—WAIT! WAIT! IS HE GAINING?! HE IS GAINING ON LIGHT—" A pause.
"Chat, I need you to know I am trying to remain professional right now and it is very difficult—"
[AuraNova: SHE SAID TRY. I Don’t know wtf is going on!]
Watching from the theatre, Selena frowned as she noticed something odd.
"Wait... every time Light accelerates, Veloce gets faster too?" Selena muttered.
Dana’s expression darkened, "He’s stealing Light’s momentum..."
"No... It looks more like he’s stealing his speed"
She understood the ability a bit better.
It scaled.
The closer he was to another moving body, the faster he became. A proximity draft, biological and automatic, pulling speed from the presence of competition the way a flame pulls oxygen.
The technical name for his ability was Speed Absorption.
"I thought we had them with Light’s speed! Fuck those Brazilians" Selena muttered.
The closer Light ran, the faster Veloce got.
And Light was running at near maximum output.
"Thank you for your speed" Veloce words reached Lights ears and right then, he blasted forward, gaping Light.
Dana’s smile had faded slightly.
"Fuck, they got us"
She watched the gap widen with every passing second.
"I’m not losing to you!" Light roared as his speed increased, he blasted forward, surpassing Veloce once more.
[Skinandbones: Go Light!]
[Happymoon: Get him Veloce]
"Oh! It’s not just the two of them!"
Just when they thought they’d seen it all.
Behind the two leaders—
BOOM!
The sound came from Track Three. A contained explosive crack that drew every camera toward it.
Panzer had activated.
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