Chapter 8: The Race
No one counted down.
No one called it.
Both groups moved as though the same wire had been cut at the same time. Cassian and Arthur were already rushing forward. The Taurus lowered its shoulder and charged through the bushes. The spiky ape bounded through the branches overhead while the black hawk screamed directions from above.
The trees began falling backwards, descending on Cassian’s and Arthur’s group. But instead of stopping, the Cassian group kept rushing forward with grins. The deer at the back of Cassian’s group released another pulse of pale light, and Cassian’s entire group accelerated.
They rushed past the falling trees.
Arthur and the others jumped out of the way.
Arthur watched the gap widen. "They’re cheating."
"They are," Mithra agreed, running beside him.
"Oh." He said with a sigh. "That’s kind of disappointing. I guess they really didn’t have faith in their beasts."
"Truly unfortunate."
"Then again, I can’t blame them. Our beasts truly are great."
Mithra laughed, and somehow she didn’t slow down at all.
Arthur watched Mithra run and saw she moved differently. Every step flowed into the next. She wasn’t fighting the forest. She was flowing through it in one continuous line that happened to pass around things. There were no sudden adjustments or unnecessary effort, like the forest itself seemed to guide her movement.
Arthur immediately tried copying it. But his next step caught a root. He stumbled and nearly face-planted.
Mithra looked at him sideways. "That wasn’t it."
"I noticed."
Arthur regained his balance and then tried again.
He lasted three steps. Then smacked into another branch. "...Closer?"
Mithra smiled. "Worse."
Arthur laughed. "Progress."
Vedas looked over. "I don’t think that’s progress."
Arthur shook another leaf out of his hair. "It definitely is. I hit a different branch this time."
Mithra shook her head. "You’re going too fast."
"Isn’t that the point?"
"No." She didn’t elaborate immediately. "You’re too tense, leading to you fighting what’s already in motion."
Arthur replayed the stumble in his memory and how he didn’t let his feet finish their motions. He didn’t think the movement part would be so hard, yet his smile grew from it. Because it was too interesting and something he would figure out later
"Does that make sense?" she asked.
"Not yet," he said. "But it will."
Mithra yanked him sideways after grabbing onto his sleeves. Arthur almost protested and then realized something. The movement felt smooth, and he felt himself glide through the forest.
He hadn’t forced it.
"Hahaha, this is how it feels?" Arthur’s eyes lit up. "I like it!"
"I’m glad you do, but let’s focus on the race. We do want to win, right?"
"Of course! But that doesn’t mean we can’t test things out."
He pointed at Vedas who were running beside them. "Copy, Mithra."
Vedas looked horrified. "No."
"Try."
"I value dignity."
"Dignity is overrated; it’s the best time to learn something new!"
Vedas grumbled but trusted Arthur and watched Mithra for one full stride and adjusted his feet to match the pattern he observed.
Three seconds later, he ran directly into a bush.
For a moment there was silence, and then the bush shook, and leaves scattered outward in a small radius, and Vedas emerged from the other side covered in small branches and three different types of debris.
Arthur looked away.
Mithra nearly doubled over laughing.
Even Melo looked disappointed.
"...I hate everything," Vedas said, with great precision.
"Reasonable," Arthur said.
He pulled a leaf from Vedas’s left ear as they ran, and Vedas pretended none of it had happened.
Ahead, the black hawk suddenly swooped low. Its claws slashed through a thick branch, and the branch crashed directly into Arthur’s path. Arthur dove sideways. The branch exploded against the ground.
"Definitely cheating," he said.
"Definitely."
Cassian did not look back.
The race continued.
The Evolution Mark could be seen in its glowing blue light from across the clearing. It was close. The problem was that at their current pace, it was not close enough.
Mithra looked sideways at him once, evaluating something, then made a decision. "Melo."
The giant fox looked back without breaking stride, all three eyes attentive.
"Help."
Melo swung sideways and grabbed the back of Arthur’s uniform in her teeth, lifting him before he could object. His feet left the ground before he had registered it was coming.
"Wait—"
She set him on her back in one motion, and Mithra was already up beside him, and then Melo lengthened her stride, and the forest began moving past them at a pace that made the previous running feel like a different activity entirely.
His grin instantly returned.
"THIS IS AMAZING."
The forest blurred as the wind roared past them. Vedas was rushing ahead of them, using his spear to slash through the obstacles and attacks coming their way.
"Melo, sweetheart. Let’s get some payback. Use your illusion and introduce them to some friendly fire." Arthur says as he lightly caresses Melo’s head.
Mithra raised a brow but also nodded with an amused smile. Melo’s eyes shined in delight before she launched the attack when the Ape once again tried throwing some logs. Instead of throwing it backwards towards them, it hurled it at the crocodile, making it spew flames at Taurus, who had to quickly jump out of the way.
And then the Black Hawk didn’t call out anything. Leading Cassian and his followers to be smacked in the face by a branch that came out of nowhere.
"Haha, that was a beautiful Melo."
"As expected of my sweetheart. You know where to hit them where it hurts." Mithra nodded with a grin.
"...amazing, fox."
The gap to Cassian’s group started closing.
Cassian looked back for the first time in the entire race. His expression darkened, but it didn’t look as bad with the leaves and red mark on his face.
Still, even with Melo’s help, it wasn’t enough.
The gap was narrowing, but the mark was right there, and at this rate, Cassian’s group would reach it first. Arthur looked ahead and calculated the distance, looked at Vedas running beside Melo, and felt something arrange itself into an idea.
Mithra, who had apparently developed the ability to recognize the silence that preceded Arthur’s plans, looked at him. "Arthur."
"Hm?"
"Whatever you’re thinking."
"I’m thinking we’re going to lose."
"And the other thing you’re thinking."
He looked at Melo, then at the Evolution Mark, then at Vedas, and pointed at each of them in sequence to make the plan clear.
"Throw her," he said.
The silence that followed lasted long enough for everyone present to complete their own processing of this proposal.
"No," Vedas said.
Arthur blinked. "You don’t trust your throw?"
Vedas frowned. "I trust my throw."
Arthur tilted his head. "...But?"
Vedas looked at Melo. "...Fox."
Melo slowly opened one eye.
Arthur nodded. "Oh. Fair concern, but my plan will work."
Vedas folded his arms and looked forward, which Arthur recognized as the posture of someone who had decided against something and was not interested in revisiting it.
Arthur sighed and crossed his arms. "I guess we really will lose. Maybe the Taurus was right about us."
Vedas went still.
"What?" Mithra said, very quietly.
"If we do lose, Cassian’s words will ring true. That we aren’t strong enough."
A vein twitched in Vedas’s forehead.
Mithra immediately realized what was happening. "Arthur."
"Hm?"
Mithra shook her head. "Don’t."
"I’m motivating him."
Vedas gripped his spear harder.
Arthur then paused as he held his chin. "The Taurus is probably laughing already."
Vedas slowly turned toward Cassian’s group. The Taurus glanced over and then grinned. It then laughed as it turned back with a triumphant huff.
A livid expression appeared on Vedas’ face. "...throw fox."
Melo rolled all three eyes, and then she looked at Arthur. Her gaze shifted to Vedas and Evolution Mark and nodded with a sigh.
Mithra started laughing before it happened.
Vedas planted his feet, gripped one of Melo’s tails with both hands, and swung.
The forest disappeared into wind and motion and a brief sensation of flight, and then Arthur was crashing through something. No, it was several somethings, branches and bushes and at least one small tree that had done nothing to deserve its fate.
Then the ground arrived.
He was looking up at the canopy.
The Evolution Mark was two meters away.
Arthur stood up.
He looked at the mark. He looked at the direction they had come from, where the forest was settling back into place. Mithra was lying in a bush, laughing too hard to stand. Melo sat upright, doing her best to look dignified.
He raised both hands. "We win!"
Arthur spun toward Mithra. "We actually did it!"
Mithra was still laughing too hard to stand. "I can’t believe... that worked."
Arthur pointed proudly at Melo. "I told you!"
Melo lifted her chin. The giant fox looked extremely pleased with herself.
Arthur laughed. "You’re amazing."
Melo’s tails immediately swayed a little faster.
Mithra noticed. "She likes compliments."
Arthur grinned. "Good because she’s getting a lot more of them."
[Requirement Completed]
[Lead Followers]
[3/3]
Arthur blinked. ’...Huh?’
His eyes slowly widened.
It wasn’t talking about Goblins.
Vedas hadn’t led monsters.
He had led a team.
Arthur smiled as he grasped that Goblin Commander really is about leadership.
Then his eyes widened as warmth spread through his chest. It was just like when he got Vedas to trust him, then after they defeated the boar together, and now it was happening again.
A notification appeared.
[Synchronization Increased]
[30%]
For a brief moment, Arthur felt what Vedas’ determination and joy were like after throwing them. Then another notification appeared.
[New Evolution Information Acquired]
[Requirement Revealed:]
[Reach Level 20]
Arthur froze.
Level 20.
Arthur understood. The closer they became, the more Vedas’ future opened before him. Now he had a new goal to reach, making him clench his fist in joy. They were only Level 5, which meant they would be hunting a lot more monsters.
’I want to leave this place with a Goblin Commander!’
Melo closed all three eyes.
Mithra gave up on sitting and lay down in the bush and laughed at the sky. "When did you start doing things like that?"
The giant fox huffed.
Mithra smiled. "Did Arthur corrupt you?"
Arthur pointed proudly. "See? I knew she’d understand."
Melo opened one eye and then immediately closed it again.
Mithra immediately pointed. "Not your fox."
Arthur looked at Melo. "What do you think?"
Melo slowly turned her head away.
Arthur nodded. "...Negotiations continue."
Mithra laughed again.
"She’ll come around." Arthur pocketed the Evolution Mark. "I wonder how upset Cassian is going to be."
Behind him...
A tree exploded.
Arthur blinked. "...Probably more than I expected."
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