Her hooves pounded heavily into the turf, body leaning forward.
In sync with Maruzensky's motion, Tosho Boy behind her also coiled like a spring, power gathering in his legs the very same instant.
Bang—!
Supple, powerful ankles propelled their bodies forward in a surge.
"Ooooh! Tosho-senpai and Maruzensky-senpai are both accelerating—at the same time!"
Hishi Amazon's excited shout rang out, the entire training field erupting with deafening cheers from the students.
The race had reached its middle stages, but the current pace was still not a full-out sprint for the likes of Maruzensky and the others.
In a two-thousand-meter race, Uma Musume with high stamina, accustomed to longer distances, could pick up the rhythm at this midpoint to build a gap against those who relied on a late-race charge.
Take Green Grass, for example, who preferred mid-pack or come-from-behind running styles, saving her power for the final stretch.
To prevent her from swooping in later, Tosho Boy and Maruzensky had chosen this exact moment to shift gears.
It seemed they wanted to deal with the most troublesome threat first.
Watching their movements, Ten Point's mind raced.
Given her capabilities, accelerating here would be a bit premature. Conserving her leg strength for the final bend would yield better results.
But letting the two of them build a lead wasn't a good option for her either.
Once the gap stretched beyond a safe, recoverable distance, even going all out might not be enough to catch up to those two maintaining such a high speed.
Was she being forced to disrupt her own race rhythm?
In a showdown like this, rhythm was key to victory. Lose your running cadence, and your entire pace could fall completely apart.
In that case!
Ten Point made a third choice.
"The gap is widening! The distance between Tosho-senpai and Ten Point-senpai is growing! Could it be that she doesn't plan to accelerate here!?"
Watching the shifts on the track, Hishi Amazon gripped her microphone tightly, yelling with nervous energy.
This girl, she's really getting into the whole commentator bit...
Fuji Kiseki, standing beside her and wincing slightly from the volume, picked up her own mic.
"Given Ten Point-senpai's leg power, she's probably planning to make her move on the bend, to fight for position."
"But looking at the current situation, a late kick might struggle to overcome the advantage built up during the mid-race."
Once they hit the final straight, the distance might simply not be enough.
Though not a professional commentator, Fuji Kiseki was doing her best to infer the seniors' strategies.
No... with competitors like these, even a professional commentator might not know for sure.
Just as the gap between Tosho Boy and Ten Point widened to four lengths, Ten Point suddenly leaned forward and picked up her speed.
"Ooooh!? Is Ten Point-senpai accelerating now too! Why at this moment?"
The distance was already there. Trying to chase now, timing-wise, was completely inferior to matching their acceleration earlier.
"Is she going to close in!? Overtake Tosho-senpai!? No! Ten Point-senpai isn't choosing to accelerate further! She's maintaining a three-length gap!"
She still had something left in the tank.
Instead of letting the gap rapidly widen again as before, Ten Point held it at three lengths before it very slowly began to increase once more.
She was minimizing her stamina expenditure while preventing her opponent from gaining too much of an advantage.
In an instant, Ten Point had assessed the situation.
Faced with the options of disrupting her rhythm to chase or letting her rivals build a commanding lead, she had chosen a middle path.
Barely maintaining her own frequency, she denied her opponents the result they had anticipated.
Shooting a glance back at Ten Point, who hadn't panicked and had instead regained her pace, a 'troublesome' expression flickered across Tosho Boy's face.
After all these years, she was still this hard to deal with.
But just as Ten Point caught her breath, that rhythmic sound of footfalls remained steadily in her ears.
Green Grass!?
She hadn't been affected by the disrupted rhythm at all!
Even when Ten Point accelerated, Green Grass clung tightly to her heels, as if an invisible chain bound the two together.
And listening closely, her breathing was lighter and more relaxed than expected, showing no signs of heavy exertion.
Could it be...?
Ten Point's eyes widened as she realized—
The wind! It was the wind direction!
When Uma Musume sprint at high speeds, they create significant wind resistance. Breaking through that thick wall of air takes considerable effort.
The wind resistance varies depending on the direction.
And Green Grass was positioned perfectly in the low-pressure pocket Ten Point had just carved through the air.
By reducing the drain from that resistance, she could conserve more leg strength.
The racetrack wasn't just a contest of physical power; a battle of wits was equally important. Whoever could manage their race rhythm better, saving more leg strength for the final straight, held a greater chance of victory.
That Green Grass!
She usually seemed like a somewhat neglected, spacey senior.
But when it came to mastering a race, she was second to none.
This is bad...
Ten Point's thoughts raced.
If this continued, she'd be slowly bled dry by the hunter stalking behind, eventually consumed entirely.
The urgent task now was to find a way to shake her off.
Ten Point's gaze sharpened. Her only chance to win was to settle this with Green Grass before the final bend.
--+--
"A race with four competitors, but the cunning of fourteen..."
The black-haired girl couldn't help but murmur.
This was no simple contest anymore. It was each individual using their stamina, knowledge, and skill in a complex game.
Opponents created problems; you solved them. Countering moves, keeping the situation under control.
Not just for her, but for all the trainers and all the Uma Musume present who could see the deeper layers of this battle, it was a truly spectacular display.
Analyzing opponents, shifting strategies, minds and bodies operating at high speed.
It was practically a perfect textbook example.
Perhaps, as the students speculated before the race, the outcome was truly unpredictable, anyone could win.
"Unpredictable, is that what you think?" Sunday Silence suddenly spoke.
"I don't really see it as an unpredictable duel, though."
Even if everyone was holding something back, it was clear that one person, even in this tense situation, was running completely unawares, calm and self-possessed.
There's someone like that?
Who? Tosho Boy? Or Green Grass?
"Maruzensky," Sunday Silence said.
"From the start of the race until now, she hasn't shown her true speed."
It wasn't about conserving energy. For Maruzensky, the current race rhythm was still far from her limit.
Watching the grain-sized figures on the track, Sunday Silence sensed it.
The trump card she held close, hidden beneath the surface, not yet revealed in the slightest.
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.