Chapter 116: The Race 3
The boosters on his back ignited with a sound like a cannon discharging and he launched forward with the kind of acceleration that pressed the air flat in front of him.
A human body moving like a projectile, the loincloth billowing behind him as he broke through the sound barrier.
The resulting shockwave cracked the surface of the track behind him.
[IamTruck_kun: THE GERMAN IS A ROCKET]
[Borden: HE BROKE THE SOUND BARRIER IN A LOINCLOTH]
[Kamzy_1234: why does he look so calm while going that fast]
[Atticus: German engineering fr]
Panzer hit the spatial distortion barrier at the end of the track at full velocity.
And slowed.
The barrier caught him for a moment as the distortion field worked against the sheer mass of his momentum.
He pushed through it, the boosters working at full strength. The boosters screamed, and with a burst of energy he emerged on the other side, fifteen meters behind Veloce.
Third position.
From the Australian lane, Tread was already falling behind.
The tire legs had found their optimal surface, allowing him to maintain a steady speed that an average human could never attain, no matter how much they trained.
Yet, it was still insufficient.
He passed the spatial barrier with considerably more difficulty than the others. His tires screeched under intense pressure, sparks going off between them and the ground.
The nitro boosters roared to life, pushing him forward until he finally broke through to the other side.
Fourth position entering stage two.
The chat broke into a wave of mock praise.
[Raymond_Garcia_2989: he’s not racing them he’s just running his own race]
[GalacticDeer96: Australian delegation cooking quietly]
[AuraNova: Tsk, at least he’s doing better than the Chinese guy]
The Chinese hero had not reacted to a single thing that had happened on the track.
Not Light’s explosive start. Not Veloce catching and passing him. Not Panzer’s sonic boom. Not Tread steering through the track like a human-vehicle.
He ran with the same unhurried rhythm he’d started with, staff planting and lifting in a steady cadence, robe undisturbed, face entirely untroubled.
In the theater, Mercury watched him from her seat beside Tianzun with a calm expression.
"I find it amusing that both our countries are falling behind," she said. "We should really work with our teammates after this. Do they think the combat event will make up for all the points we’ll lose? We never know what the other countries might be planning."
Tianzun said nothing.
He was looking at the track. Specifically at the Chinese racer. A small smile had settled at the corner of his mouth.
And then the air changed.
It was subtle at first.
A shift in pressure, and then—
A powerful current.
A fierce wind gathered around Shifu, rapidly building into a cloak that trailed behind him.
And then he leaped into the air.
His legs crossed beneath him as the wind carried him effortlessly through the air.
It was as though the wind itself had accepted him. Rather than fighting against the air, his body slipped through it with almost no resistance. His staff angled behind him, the current catching it like a sail, accelerating him in a way that had nothing to do with running.
Mercury went very still.
Tianzun’s smile remained exactly where it was.
[Borden: wait what is the chinese hero doing]
[AuraNova: IS HE FLYING?]
[Kamzy_1234: Fahhhh! We got a budget Avatar on screen]
Julie’s voice had taken on the specific quality it got when she was watching something she hadn’t prepared commentary for.
"Shifu is using a wind current ability, and he’s picking up speed at an incredible rate! Will he be able to catch the others?"
He was through the field in seconds.
Not all the way to the front. But from last to contention in a stretch that left the chat impressed.
[Nyr01: Bro’s not so bad after all, but he basically has no hopes of catching up]
And then things started going wrong for the people ahead of him.
Tread hit the wall first.
A concentrated wave of displaced air swept laterally across the track.
It caught Tread’s modified lower body, sending him sliding straight into the wall.
The tire-legs scrabbled for balance, but failed terribly. Tread was sent crashing down hard.
[Nyr01: Spoke too soon. Lmao, bro has other plans]
[Kenzen: Well now we know how he intends to catch up to the rest]
Julie’s commentary landed on it immediately.
"AND TREAD FROM AUSTRALIA IS DOWN — "
[Atticus: was that the wind guy?]
[Raymond_Garcia_2989: THAT WAS DEFINITELY THE WIND GUY]
[Josh246: he took out Australia from the back of the field?]
[Kol_lol: bro was a sleeper agent]
[AuraNova: Well there wasn’t any rule against it. But since they want to play dirty, let’s see how long they’ll last 😈]
Panzer felt it next.
The air feeding his boosters simply stopped.
The oxygen the boosters needed to sustain combustion thinned, pulled away by an invisible force.
The flames died.
Panzer, mid-sprint at a speed that required active deceleration to manage safely, had no active deceleration available.
He crashed face-first into the track, rolling several times before finally skidding to a stop in a trail of dust.
Moments later, a wave of wind swept past him.
Shifu drifted overhead, seated cross-legged upon the current as though the crash beneath him wasn’t worth acknowledging.
Glancing up, Panzer gritted his teeth. "Damn you! Coward"
"—AND PANZER FROM GERMANY IS DOWN AS WELL — two competitors down in fifteen seconds — the chat has already figured out what’s happening and frankly so have I—" Julie’s voice had climbed.
[Borden: HE WAS SANDBAGGING THE ENTIRE FIRST TRACK]
[AuraNova: China didn’t send the wrong guy. China sent a guy who wanted everyone to think they sent the wrong guy.]
[Marypaz13: China came for the win this year again ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ]
[Raymond_Garcia_2989: so he was last because he was saving everything for this exact moment?]
[Josh246: China plays chess while everyone else plays checkers]
In the delegation box, Mercury turned to Tianzun.
He hadn’t moved.
The smile was still there.
She looked back at the track.
"Tsk," she hissed, "Just make sure your other racers are prepared"
Tianzun made a small sound that might have been acknowledgment.
At the front of the field, Light didn’t know exactly what had happened behind him. He knew something had happened.
The sudden absence of the sounds that had been tracking him, the change in the collective energy from the crowd above. But he didn’t have time to look back.
Because Veloce was still there.
Not just still there. Further ahead than he’d been sixty seconds ago.
Light gritted his teeth.
’He’s faster when I push harder,’ he thought. ’Every time I try to close the gap he absorbs the speed and I fall further behind.’
He looked ahead.
The third track was in sight. The relay zone. He could see the figures waiting — second runners, hands out, watching the entrance for their partners.
And at the end of the American relay zone, Nicholas stood there calmly, waiting.
Light felt something he hadn’t expected to feel at this point in the race.
Disappointment.
He was going to hand the rod off in second place at best. He’d started this race intending to build a lead comfortable enough that whatever happened in the second half wouldn’t matter. Instead he was about to deliver a deficit.
He pushed harder.
Veloce pulled further ahead.
Light pushed harder still.
’It’s not working,’ he thought. ’I can’t out-sprint someone whose speed is fuelled by mine.’
He could hear something building behind him—the roar of Shifu’s wind, far closer than it should have been, swelling like a storm.
Third track. Forty meters.
Twenty.
The Brazilian runner was almost at the relay zone.
One more stride and Brazil would enter the cave section in first place.
Light still hadn’t closed the gap.
He could feel the race slipping through his fingers.
While Light was lost in his own thoughts, he failed to notice it.
Nicholas finally took his hands out of his pockets.
Then, without a word, he slipped off his coat.
The chat exploded the moment they noticed him.
[AuraNova: HE MOVED HIS HANDS *Grabs popcorn*]
[Kamzy_1234: HE’S TAKING IT SERIOUSLY]
[Don_RaDjinn: Phantom Won’t disappoint! Time to pay these bitches back. Let’s fucking go!]
[Unknown: Why’s Everyone So hyped about this guy?]
[Phantomswife: You’ll find out soon enough!]
[Kol_lol: THE COAT MAN IS READY!]
Let’s Go!
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