The scent of green grass drifted on the wind, and the fierce sound of running shook the empty racecourse.
The umamusume currently leading the pack was Mihono Bourbon, but during the latter half of the final turn, her running speed and momentum began to drop. The red particles radiating from her whole body were fading as well, turning into white waves of air.
[Mejiro McQueen], currently in second, sharpened her gaze. She knew clearly that her chance to win was now.
Purple flames of aura erupted completely. [Mejiro McQueen] used her ZONE's effect to erase the influence of her opponents' interference, stacked a Flash Skill on top of it, and began to burst. Deep marks were left beneath her feet. Facing the wind resistance ahead, her speed rose higher and higher.
The commentator shouted at the perfect moment. "[Mejiro McQueen] is starting her burst! I didn't expect her to still have the stamina to burst at this point! Mihono Bourbon's position is beginning to fall!"
First and second place changed hands.
At the same time, two figures flew forward from behind.
Agnes Tachyon, whose body bloomed with blue particles of light.
Duramente, wrapped in pitch-black spirit.
The other runners were no match for those two at all. The pair broke out of the pack with unstoppable force, quickly catching up to Mihono Bourbon, and both of their momentum continued to rise.
"Agnes Tachyon and Duramente are chasing!" the commentator said, watching their positions on the track. "The race has finally entered the final straight. [Mejiro McQueen] is currently in the lead, but the runners behind have all caught up. Who will be the umamusume who decides victory? Mihono Bourbon is still holding on!"
Mihono Bourbon, whose burst state had originally vanished, saw the two behind her about to catch up. Flashing light bloomed once again beneath her feet, and the waves of air around her body turned crimson again.
Agnes Tachyon and Duramente, behind Mihono Bourbon, saw this. Though they were thinking different things, both chose to accelerate again in perfect tacit agreement, refusing to give Mihono Bourbon even the slightest chance.
"Mihono Bourbon, you are indeed strong," Duramente thought, black light burning in her eyes and her will fierce. "You are a worthy opponent. But victory will belong to me!"
In an instant, Duramente completed the overtake from the outside lane. While Mihono Bourbon was still holding on, Duramente crushed past her with an even stronger posture. This was Duramente's respect for Mihono Bourbon.
Agnes Tachyon followed behind Duramente.
"Not enough. More. I need more!"
Agnes Tachyon, who should have been a nuisance runner, was now displaying terrifying speed. Even Duramente at full burst could not shake Agnes Tachyon off. In fact, it looked as if she might be overtaken at any moment.
[Mejiro McQueen], temporarily in the lead, heard the approaching footsteps behind her and felt that things were going very badly. She tried to squeeze out more power to raise her running speed, trying to escape her opponents' pursuit. But even though she still had a certain amount of stamina left, she could not run any faster. Each time she tried, her body gave her a powerless feeling, as if the strength could not be released.
"Damn it. Is this as far as I go?"
[Mejiro McQueen] thought through clenched teeth.
In the next instant, those two opponents caught up.
Her momentum was suppressed by them in a heartbeat.
As if she had been forced into a corner as the weak one, her speed could not keep up with them, and her position began to fall.
"Duramente and Agnes Tachyon are now side by side! The finish line is ahead-"
The commentator stared at the finish with excitement. In the next instant, both of them crossed the line almost simultaneously, and he shouted, "Across the line! They crossed at the same time! Who is the winner? Let's look at the slow-motion replay and the system's judgment!"
The big screen showed the slow-motion replay of the finish. Even in slow motion, the two were so fast that only blurred afterimages could be seen, but the result was still clear.
The first to cross the line by a step was Agnes Tachyon!
The results appeared on the big screen the next second.
"The results are out!"
First place was Agnes Tachyon.
Second place was Duramente.
Third place was [Mejiro McQueen].
"Hah, hah, hahaha..."
Agnes Tachyon spread her arms behind the finish line.
What an exciting race.
She turned back to look at her opponents this time, not hiding her current mood. Even though she had once given up on racing, in this tournament she was gradually recovering the original impulse that had made her want to run in the first place.
She simply wanted to run faster.
But without enough pressure, without opponents who could make one's heart race, there was no possibility of running faster than [now]. And even if all those conditions were met, the body still might not be able to support an umamusume in fulfilling that wish.
In this tournament, however, there was a chance for that wish to come true.
"This is truly wonderful."
...
Demon King Gold Ship watched Agnes Tachyon as her mood settled and asked in an odd tone, "Well? Is your heart surging now too?"
Agnes Tachyon looked at the cold, forceful Demon King before her and gave a helpless smile. "My Demon King, it is indeed as you said. This tournament is worth participating in."
"Then enjoy it to your heart's content. I will show you scenery you have never seen before, just as you wish. But the premise is that you can continue to keep up. As my retainer, you wouldn't say you can't claim a seat in the top eighteen, would you?"
Demon King Gold Ship stated her thoughts. She sincerely wanted to grant Agnes Tachyon's wish. Though she was a Demon King, a Demon King was still a king.
"That really is something to look forward to."
Agnes Tachyon also wanted to participate in the final. She had a premonition that it would absolutely be a race she would never forget.
The difficulty of entering the top eighteen was indeed very high.
But to obtain a ticket to that race,
it was worth the challenge.
"Cafe, the same goes for you. Keep up with this Demon King's footsteps. Since you are my retainers, failure is not allowed!"
Manhattan Cafe was silent.
Seeing her name in the next race, Manhattan Cafe stood up from the premium seats and walked outside.
Premium seats were a privilege reserved for the top 100 on the points leaderboard.
In reality, however, few people liked that location. Compared with normal spectator seats, it was merely a little quieter. It was not actually better for watching the race. But for Demon King Gold Ship, that sense of superiority was important.
In the next race,
Manhattan Cafe won without incident.
Then it was time for the original King Halo's race.
Whether it was luck or misfortune, the racecourse randomly assigned to the original King Halo was the turf sprint she was best at. But the opponents randomly assigned to her were anything but simple: Mejiro Ramonu, internationally first-class runners, and even juniors she would only meet in the future. Among the participants in this race, she was the only one making her first appearance. Generally speaking, the matching system would pair runners with similar appearance counts and win rates together.
But the original King Halo had been matched with high-win experts.
Her luck was rather poor.
Even so, the original King Halo did not feel unlucky at the moment.
When she saw the race information,
she thought excitedly, "Great, it's a course I'm good at. If it's this distance, I should be able to win. No, I have to win. I don't want to be eliminated in my very first appearance!"
Though that was the fate of the vast majority of "her."
She was different.
In the stands, King Halo frowned tightly.
Kitasan Black, beside her, could not help sighing as well.
"What a shame. She clearly got a course she's good at, but her opponents are too high-level. It's like a newbie challenging a high-rank arena. Even if she inherited part of Halo's power like that [McQueen], with this opponent lineup, I still don't think she has much hope of winning this race."
Tokai Teio said from the side, "Right. It's not that she has absolutely no chance, but if she wants first place, her probability is not even ten percent. If she wants to win, she doesn't only need to perform perfectly. She also has to affect her opponents' performance."
But how difficult would it be to realize something like that?
Rice Shower clasped her hands together. "Good luck."
Mejiro McQueen smiled.
"As long as the chance of victory is not zero, there is still hope."
King Halo was silent.
If it were King Halo herself, she was confident she could use the original King Halo's current strength to win this race. But judging from the original King Halo's own performance, her chance of victory was indeed not large. Right now, King Halo only hoped that the original King Halo would realize what she needed to do.
"If you are calm enough, you should understand that what you need in this race is to fight for first while securing third, not blindly chase first without thinking. Don't disappoint me."
While everyone observed the participants,
the commentator began introducing the racecourse conditions and the popular runners. As a runner who was not outstanding to begin with, and who was making her first appearance, the original King Halo naturally did not have many popularity votes.
After all, popularity votes gave audience members event-point returns once the race ended. Under normal circumstances, the audience would only vote for runners they liked or believed could win the race. Marginalized runners did not receive much attention. If one wanted to become popular, one had to prove oneself in races.
Soon, the race began.
Leading was a Silence Suzuka from a certain world.
Second was an umamusume from America.
Third was Seeking the Pearl.
Fourth was Rhein Kraft.
Fifth was Mejiro Ramonu.
The original King Halo's start was below the level of this race, and she had already fallen behind at the starting line.
Fortunately, she was a Betweener.
Falling behind at the start was not much of a loss.
However, at the start of the race, the original King Halo did indeed feel that this race was not going to be so easy. Quite a few runners gave her the sense that they would be difficult to defeat. Her originally relaxed mood suddenly became incomparably heavy. She felt that this race might be bad. She had clearly been lucky enough to draw this course. Was she really going to be eliminated in her first race? She truly was not willing to accept that!
"No. I absolutely can't betray the other me's feelings! Think. If it were the other me, what would she do in this situation? No, that's not right! The other me said I can't possibly do things the way she does. I have to factor that in too. I absolutely cannot be eliminated in my first race!"
In the past, the original King Halo had not understood how to use her brain in a race. Like most umamusume, she would only obey the tactics her Trainer had arranged in advance, or else run according to her instincts. But after receiving King Halo's experience and King Halo's personal guidance, the original King Halo had learned what a truly first-class umamusume was like.
She must never stop thinking.
Fuse thought and reaction together.
Only then could she grasp a chance at victory.
The original King Halo began observing the condition of the other runners. This was not especially difficult. As a Betweener positioned toward the rear, she would not be crowded together with too many other runners, so she could adjust her route more easily to gain a wider field of vision. There were also skills in the skill books that could increase her field of vision.
It was just that in the past, she had never had this awareness.
Although the original King Halo could not observe and predict with the precision of King Halo, she could at least observe the differences in strength among the other runners. She could identify the runners who posed a significant threat to her, and she could also judge their preferred distances from how they adjusted their positions during the race.
"Damn it!"
The more the original King Halo observed, the darker her expression became.
There were way too many strong runners in this race.
Wasn't a first-time participant usually supposed to meet opponents of similar level? After all, this was no longer the very beginning of the tournament. There were too many participants now. As long as one was not too unlucky, one should not match against overly strong opponents, much less multiple opponents stronger than oneself.
But what was going on with her?
There were at least five runners stronger than her in this race, and that was only what she had observed so far. Her observational ability was not especially outstanding, nothing like the other her. Who knew whether someone else was deliberately hiding their strength?
The original King Halo's head hurt.
In this situation,
no matter how she looked at it, it seemed impossible for her to take first.
Unless she could control the rhythm of the race.
But while she knew such a thing existed, she could not do it.
As a Betweener running from the rear, trying to manipulate the race's rhythm was truly too difficult.
On top of that, she was not a blocker.
If she were a blocker, she could try.
Do not ask why she did not become a blocker. It was because blockers were usually cut off from the championship. At least in the race data she had collected, blockers had less than a one percent chance of taking first place.
And what she wanted to become was a runner like King Halo.
Blocking skills could be learned.
But she would never become a blocker.
So, what should she do in this race?
...
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