Today, the fierce races were still ongoing.
The next race was a team race.
There were fifteen umamusume in total, randomly divided into teams of three. The only difference between a team race and an individual race was that as long as one member of a team won, the rest of her teammates could receive a guaranteed 5 points no matter how poor their rankings were. Therefore, even weaker participants could be carried by a powerhouse in a team race if they were lucky. But for those who were truly strong, whether it was a team race or an individual race, what they had to do did not change.
"Hello, everyone. I will be commentating the next race. We will now begin introducing the runners-"
As the runners entered one by one, race montages flashed across the big screen. After every runner reached the front of the gates, flames burned across the big screen. The mark of a popular protagonist appeared, and the most eye-catching was the third favorite.
"Third in popularity: Orfevre! Total points: 55. Current record: four wins in seven races. She possesses extremely strong bursts and flexible position-changing ability. She currently ranks in the middle among the top 100 on the points leaderboard!"
Orfevre folded her arms, her gaze cold as she looked toward her teammates. Her teammates were Gentildonna and Montjeu. It was a fairly strong lineup, above average among all participants. If the three of them could cooperate properly, they should be able to achieve a decent result. But very clearly, none of them were willing to stand behind anyone else.
"Orfe, in this race, you may serve as my knight. As long as you cooperate with me properly, I will take victory!" Gentildonna said proudly.
Orfevre glanced at her coldly and could not be bothered to answer. That contemptuous look already explained everything.
Although Montjeu did not know these two umamusume, after sensing their force, she still said amicably, "Although this is a team race, you two, let us each rely on our own ability."
And so, the team's policy was decided.
They would fight separately.
"Second in popularity: Kitasan Black. Her current total points are 70, with six wins in eight races. She possesses an endlessly adaptable running style. Rumor says she is the most dazzlingly talented genius umamusume in this tournament, able to imitate other participants' exclusive skills during races!"
Kitasan Black, who had originally appeared coldly, felt her mood waver for an instant when she saw her two teammates. Her teammates were none other than the Satono family's two young ladies, Satono Crown and Satono Diamond. Their heated gazes made her feel somewhat restless.
"Kitasan-san..."
Satono Diamond suppressed the surprise in her heart. "I'll do everything I can to support you. I won't drag you down."
"Same here. This race is in your hands," Satono Crown said, also feeling that this race had a lot of hope.
The reason she and Diamond had not been eliminated, to be honest, had more to do with luck than strength. On top of that, the two of them had only experienced three races so far. In this race, they were filler members. Their strength was almost in the bottom tier.
But their luck was good, and they had matched onto Kitasan Black's team.
Kitasan Black was silent.
She did not pay attention to the two young ladies.
Instead, she looked toward the first favorite.
Her expression was incomparably serious.
"The last to appear is this runner: first in popularity, the most favored umamusume in this race, King Halo! Her current total points are 50, with a record of five races and five wins. She is undefeated, and she is also a holder of a divine skill. Without question, she is the protagonist of this race and the umamusume I favor most!"
King Halo noticed Kitasan Black's gaze.
She turned her head and looked over.
Seeing Kitasan Black's stunned expression, the corners of her mouth lifted. To King Halo, being matched against Kitasan Black was a good thing.
Because the current her needed exactly such an opponent.
The [force] she had accumulated had already reached the peak.
The aura of ZONE was spreading. Without question, she had already made every preparation. It was time to open this door.
King Halo's two teammates had originally wanted to speak with her, but after noticing the two who were locked against each other like needles against wheat awns, they were suppressed by that terrifying force and felt awe for a moment.
Her teammates
were [Tokai Teio] from the main world
and Tokai Teio's Maruzensky.
Neither of them was weak. At least in this race, their strength was among the front ranks. They were far more capable than the two sheltered young ladies on Kitasan Black's team. But very clearly, with their strength, they still could not step into the struggle between King Halo and Kitasan Black. That was a battlefield on a completely different level.
"The introductions of the popular runners are complete..."
While the commentator introduced the course,
in the spectator seats,
Tokai Teio said seriously, "Halo seems to intend to use Kita to push open the gate of ZONE. She's finally made up her mind. She clearly hasn't fully awakened yet, but this heightened sense of presence... her ability probably won't be simple!"
"Let's keep watching," Mejiro McQueen said with a smile.
She was looking forward to the surprise King Halo would bring, because so far, King Halo had never disappointed her.
Rice Shower, however, looked at Kitasan Black with some worry.
She could sense Kitasan Black's anxious feelings.
On the other side,
Agnes Tachyon curiously asked Demon King Gold Ship, "My Demon King, which of those two do you think is stronger?"
Demon King Gold Ship watched King Halo and Kitasan Black.
Then she answered without hesitation. "Hmph. Although Kita's talent is indeed the strongest of all the umamusume I have seen, this girl does not live up to her talent at all. And before the power of a god, a mere mortal is nothing but sand."
What did King Halo's talent matter?
Only a god could oppose a god.
Kitasan Black could not win.
Demon King Gold Ship firmly believed this.
The signal that the race was about to begin rang out. The runners still outside the gates were urged to enter quickly. Once all runners had entered and the gates closed with a heavy sound, tournament music began playing throughout the venue. The race venue quieted down. As the big screen's camera drew closer to the gates, sliding across the faces of each runner, it finally returned to the first favorite.
The signal gun for the start fired.
The gates opened with a bang.
As the runners started, the commentator's voice immediately followed. "The race has begun! We can see that the runners are out of the gates. But Orfevre, was she distracted? Orfevre had an unexpected late start! The two currently competing at the front are Maruzensky and Kitasan Black!"
Hearing that Orfevre had a late start,
Gentildonna and Montjeu's expressions changed at once.
They knew Kitasan Black's strength. For this race, they had both carefully chosen to run as Leaders. They had not expected that their teammate Orfevre would not only choose to run as a Betweener, but also have a late start right at the beginning. What kind of joke was this? How could a runner of this strength have a late start?
Orfevre fell to the very rear of the pack. She had originally planned to run as a Betweener, but now she had become a Chaser.
A dim light flashed in King Halo's eyes.
While everyone thought Orfevre had made a mistake, she noticed that Orfevre seemed to intend to mark her.
"A genius's instinct?"
Even after knowing Kitasan Black's strength, Orfevre could decisively give up competing with Kitasan Black and choose to fall behind in order to watch King Halo, a rear-positioned runner. As expected of the runner known as the tyrant.
But-
"Your decision is meaningless."
King Halo thought with incomparable calm.
Orfevre might believe that she had noticed the danger. But in reality, the moment Orfevre made that choice, she had already been eliminated. That was King Halo's prophecy.
King Halo's gaze turned forward.
Her field of vision was incomparably broad.
She could even achieve an overhead perspective.
This was the effect of [Transcendent Vision] plus the support of various field-of-vision skills. During a race, she possessed multiple perspectives.
So-called "omniscience" was no more than this.
Kitasan Black, currently in the lead, had unsurprisingly activated Mejiro McQueen's style mode. Perhaps she felt that if she used this strongest power, she would be closer to victory. But through analysis, King Halo could draw one conclusion.
For Kitasan Black to use this perfect imitation from the very beginning was simply a waste. Even if she did not use Mejiro McQueen's style mode, and only used ordinary Mimicry combined with Kitasan Black's own strength, she would still be able to take the early advantage.
Moreover, King Halo could say with absolute certainty
that Mejiro McQueen's ZONE was fundamentally unsuited to Kitasan Black. Mejiro McQueen's ZONE was powerful precisely because it had low consumption. But Kitasan Black used her own ZONE to imitate Mejiro McQueen's ZONE. Although she could obtain the same ability, the consumption rose. That was truly a flawed move.
"As expected, you are still too naive. You only rely on your own talent and run wild. A you like this can only stop here."
King Halo had already calculated Kitasan Black's upper limit.
The race's rhythm continued to climb.
Although Maruzensky wanted to interfere with Kitasan Black, she was not good at this kind of action to begin with. On top of that, Kitasan Black, using Mejiro McQueen's style mode, simply could not be stopped. As the race continued, by the end of the first straight, Maruzensky could no longer keep up with Kitasan Black, whose speed had been stacked upward.
"Could this be-"
"Kitasan Black has already entered a solitary run!"
Shocked cries filled the venue.
One had to admit that the strength Kitasan Black displayed while imitating Mejiro McQueen was indeed powerful. It gave people the feeling that they were truly watching Mejiro McQueen race. But only Mejiro McQueen herself, Demon King Gold Ship, and the others knew that there were still differences here.
Compared with Mejiro McQueen's control over rhythm, Kitasan Black preferred forceful bursts. Such a Kitasan Black was indeed strong, but once she encountered an opponent at the same level, her weaknesses became incomparably obvious.
Tokai Teio sighed. "She really hasn't noticed. Kita relies too much on ZONE's power. This won't do."
Perfect imitation. This ZONE ability was indeed terrifying.
But this ability was absolutely not supposed to be used this way.
Kitasan Black still did not understand.
The race continued.
It reached the second straight in the middle phase.
King Halo began moving forward from the outside lane.
Gold light flashed in her eyes, turning them into shining golden pupils.
At the same time, an arc of electricity crossed her eyes.
Divine skill, activate.
ZONE!
Awaken!
The force that had originally vanished like a ghost unfolded at this moment. That terrifying force made every participant feel fear at the same time. It was not an interference effect. The force was simply too powerful, as if they had encountered something above them on the food chain. Their life instincts were issuing warnings. It was pure suppression by power alone.
[Earth Power: Gain a second stamina bar. Stamina can be used to resist all interference effects. Gain one unique active ability: burning stamina becomes forward momentum. Based on the total stamina consumed in this race, gain a one-time speed increase effect!]
Double stamina.
Resistance.
And an ultimate burst.
As expected of a divine skill.
It was absurdly powerful.
However, compared with the power of the divine skill, King Halo cared more about the ZONE she had just awakened.
[Order (ZONE):
First effect: The order of skill effects used, including opponents' interference skills, can be adjusted.
Second effect: Ignore skill restrictions by paying a certain amount of stamina to obtain the maximized effect of a skill.
Third effect: Speed continuously rises based on stamina already consumed.]
The moment King Halo learned what her ZONE was,
she knew that her previous idea had been realized.
After obtaining the divine skill, she had begun conceiving of a way to fuse the divine power into the seed of her domain. Although there was no way to plunder all of that power, the ZONE she had awakened now had, through her efforts, obtained a portion of divine power.
Terrifying force broke through the wind resistance.
Flash Skill, activate.
A dragon's roar rang out. What should have been the phantom of an azure dragon had now advanced into a golden dragon. King Halo's sprinting state was already unstoppable.
At this moment, the attention of the entire venue was stolen by King Halo.
Even White McQueen's emotions fluctuated slightly.
Demon King Gold Ship could not help standing up.
"This girl!"
What kind of joke was this?
Wasn't the earth divine power the weakest?
How had it become this strong?
"King Halo has begun to accelerate! Terrifying, too terrifying! She has no opponents at all! Her position is rising rapidly! She's catching up! She's caught up! In just one straight, she has charged from the rear all the way to Kitasan Black! Is this a divine skill?!"
Even the commentator was stunned.
When they entered the second straight, Kitasan Black had already led second place by nearly a huge margin, while King Halo had still been in ninth toward the rear. Who could have imagined that with such a gap, King Halo could catch Kitasan Black within a single straight? One had to remember that Kitasan Black still had McQueen's template active!
Flash laid the road for King Halo.
The gate of the finish line was welcoming this great king.
King Halo's speed was still rising, with almost no end in sight. Double stamina allowed her to use her ZONE's effects to the maximum, remove all skill restrictions, and maximize skill effects. On top of that, her ZONE had a passive speed increase. The more stamina she burned, the faster she became.
Kitasan Black's eyes widened in horror.
That speed!
You're using cheats, right?!
Kitasan Black instinctively switched powers, wanting to use [Fusion] to restrict King Halo. But the instant [Fusion] landed, the power of the earth goddess erupted. In an instant, one of King Halo's stamina bars dropped by two-thirds.
[Fusion] was indeed terrifying.
But it was not enough.
King Halo shook Kitasan Black off in an instant.
And Kitasan Black, who had consumed too much, was now drenched in cold sweat.
[Fusion] had been immunized against.
At this moment, Kitasan Black had already panicked.
Because she could not think of a single solution.
Right now, King Halo gave her only one feeling.
Unbeatable.
In the past, she had only felt this from one person.
"Impossible. How can she be this strong?"
She's just King Halo...
How can she be this strong?
It was not only Kitasan Black.
At this moment, even Demon King Gold Ship in the stands was covered in cold sweat. She had known before that the earth goddess's skill effect increased stamina, so she had always felt that the reason King Halo did not use her divine skill in races was because the earth goddess's power was not easy to use.
But what was going on now?
Why did your ZONE and divine skill complement each other?!
Demon King Gold Ship instantly lost confidence.
She even felt a lingering fear and relief.
Relief that she had not really matched against King Halo.
Who could have predicted this kind of ultimate move?
The result of the race was no surprise.
King Halo won overwhelmingly.
She crushed Kitasan Black without even using the divine skill's burst. That terrifying burst left the whole venue silent for a long time.
...
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