Pace Chaser.
"Ugh... a full runaway..."
Tokai Teio stared blankly at the figure far ahead, racing farther and farther away in the opening stretch, and felt a headache coming on.
She herself had used a full runaway in the Yayoi Sho before, and in past training, Kuroha had often arranged for Fujimasa March to cooperate in drills as well.
By all logic, Tokai Teio should not have been unfamiliar with this tactic.
But that was only by ordinary standards...
"I hate calculations!"
The crescent-banged girl ground her teeth together, and the smile on her face sagged just a little.
It was true that Tokai Teio was not unfamiliar with the full runaway strategy.
But compared to other standard tactics, she was actually a very poor match for dealing with it.
Once someone in a race used a full runaway, the other Umamusume behind her would be the first ones forced to endure the torment and pressure of watching the gap grow wider and wider.
That kind of misjudgment generally led to one of two outcomes.
Either they reacted too slowly in the middle phase and could not make up the gap the runaway leader had built early.
Or they moved too early, only to lose speed in the final straight and give up the right to fight for victory with a finishing burst against the others.
Kuroha really had been deliberately training Tokai Teio's resistance to full runaway tactics. After all, among the Front Runners active in her generation, two of them were reckless runaway types.
That was also why, even though all five of Tokai Teio's attributes had almost reached around 1100, her Wit was only a little over 900...
"If you want to become the strongest in the world, a strong body alone won't cut it. Intelligence is just as important, Teio~"
For a moment, it was as though Teio could see her trainer right in front of her, pinching her cheeks as he said, "You need to work hard at studying, racing, and thinking things through after the fact. You're Tokai Teio, after all."
"...Why can't everyone just run normally and settle it in the final straight by seeing who's actually faster?!"
Teio sighed inwardly. But in the very next instant, her expression sharpened.
Deep within her pupils, the crimson lightning that had been flashing and surging grew even brighter, as if it were painting everything before her in blazing color.
The distance left in the race... her remaining stamina... the top speed of her finishing burst... the gap between herself and the girls ahead...
All of that data meshed together in Teio's mind like high-speed gears turning against one another.
And in the end, it slowly assembled itself into an equation leading to victory...
...
Before long, the battle for position in the opening stretch came to an end.
The rhythm of the girls gradually settled down, and they began running the course in an orderly flow.
Ibuki Mai Kagura's sudden full runaway had thrown the pace of the field behind her into chaos for a few brief seconds, but they quickly adjusted.
And Kagura did not keep up that full runaway for very long. After opening a gap of nearly ten lengths over second place, she eased off her speed.
At the same time, in the middle section of the pack.
Nice Nature was following the pace of the group without haste.
Her breathing was steady, but deep within those seemingly calm eyes of hers lay a darkness that ordinary people would never notice.
Every so often, amid the howling wind, a thread of strange crimson light would quietly slip from her body, something absolutely invisible to normal eyes.
That eerie red light spread silently like an invisible serpent, deliberately avoiding Tokai Teio and instead striking with precision at several of the other likely threats around her.
"Stop." "Slow down a little." "You're going to fall behind." "Don't rush."
That uncanny power, carrying some strange will of its own, kept interfering with the rhythm of those girls' races.
And the Umamusume touched by that red glow all began to feel a burst of irritability and unrest.
Unnecessary, even plainly wrong emotions rose up in their hearts.
Their breathing patterns began to slip into extremely subtle disarray.
Some even started wasting extra leg power and stamina by accelerating at the wrong moments, only to inexplicably slow down again.
"It's still not enough."
And yet the Nice Nature causing all of that wore a grave expression as she stared at Ibuki Mai Kagura in the lead, and Tokai Teio up in the forward group.
Her red skill was continuously weakening every Umamusume except those two.
This was Nice Nature's strategy.
She understood the limitations of that strange power very well.
If she tried to use it forcefully on a monster on Tokai Teio's level, not only would it fail to take effect easily, it would also instantly drain an enormous amount of her mental energy.
That was why she was preserving the bulk of both her stamina and concentration to the bitter end.
She would absolutely not touch Tokai Teio until then. Instead, she used that extra power only to precisely interfere with the other girls who might affect her shot at victory in the final phase.
If everything went according to plan, then by the time they reached the final straight, she should have the most strength left of anyone.
And if that happened, then by focusing her full-powered demonic force on a single target, maybe - just maybe - she could make it work on Teio.
But Ibuki Mai Kagura's full runaway had gone beyond her expectations.
That gap of more than ten lengths was so large that Nature's demonic power could not reach her.
"It's okay... over 2000 meters, a full runaway at that pace is a death sentence!"
"As long as I hold onto my strength... hold onto enough strength to affect Teio for even a short while..."
Nice Nature clenched her teeth and fixed her eyes on the petite figure up ahead.
She was saving everything for the final straight.
All for the sake of gambling on that one tiny chance, at the very last moment, to fight Teio in a contest of finishing speed!
...
Before long, they were already more than halfway through the bend.
Tak-tak-tak--!!!
The pounding footsteps of the eighteen Umamusume thundered like war drums as they swept through the turn.
"They've passed the 1200-meter marker and are now entering the third turn!"
Above Nakayama Racecourse, the commentator was energetically calling the action.
"In first place, it's still Ibuki Mai Kagura, but her speed has come down now. Is that because the full runaway in the opening stretch took too much out of her?"
"Eight lengths behind her is second-place Shako Rindou, followed half a length behind by Blizzard..."
"Tokai Teio is currently lying in wait in fifth place."
On the course, within the second group.
Shako Rindou slowly let out a breath and looked at Ibuki Mai Kagura, eight lengths ahead. A sharp gleam flashed suddenly through her eyes.
"1200 meters already? I need to start taking some of that distance back."
The moment the thought came, she acted on it.
After roughly estimating her remaining stamina, the veins in the well-trained muscles of her calves bulged sharply.
Boom--!
Her speed instantly rose another notch as she charged toward the girl ahead!
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]