With the sound of the saxophones blasting over his car speakers, Jing floored the accelerator and zipped away from Max, who quickly chased after him in a roaring wave of red light. Both of them made the simple turns and loops on the current segment of the tracks. Even at such a ludicrous speed, Jing felt like these turns were no more difficult than being on a highway ramp.
In the control room
The atmosphere was tense as Valencia and Adam stared up at the monitor. What was supposed to be a farce of a race had suddenly become much higher stakes at much higher speeds.
"Valencia, I thought you said he was a normal dude." Adam yelled without looking away from the monitor.
"He is a normal dude! The stone he consumed was maybe worth 2 people's karma, any more and he would have exploded!"
"Then maybe you've found someone crazy, because that's way more speed than you could get from 2 people's worth"
"You'd better hope he doesn't explode before the end of the race or the Master's gonna blow us up! There's no way we can just sweep this under the rug anymore!"
As they continued to anxiously scratch their heads, the audience cheered in the plaza cheered as it became much busier around the television sphere. Almost immediately, new bets were made, and many snacks were sold and eaten. The crowd was filled with many different conversations about the race.
A couple was having an animated conversation near the sphere.
"I wonder why they took so long to get started?" A woman in work clothes.
"I dunno, maybe the newbie was just getting warmed up." said her partner, wearing a similar design but different logo.
"There's no way that Max loses though right?" Said the woman through a mouthful of noodles.
"Naw man can you imagine if the kid wins? Speaking of, I made some bets so dinner's on me tonight" Said the man happily
"There's no way you actually bet on the kid right?" said the woman incredulously
"Like grandpa always used to say! Never bet on red! Hot rod kid driving a stupid red car" The man declared proudly
"The kid is driving the silver car..." said the woman
The two looked at each other for a moment.
"Shit"
The race was becoming more intense as they continued to speed up. They were about in the middle of the race at this portion, and there were many long segments of road that only had gentle banks. In other words, both cars were able to push as strongly as they wanted.
Max continued to attempt to push into Jing's car as they drove along, but the silver aura continued to protect him as they drove along the road. In fact, it seems that the faster that Jing got, the more resistant he got to being pushed.
In Max's car.
"Something doesn't feel right..."
I've been at this for over a minute and he still isn't budging. I can't force him off the road anymore.
I'm not at 100% since the last race was only yesterday, but I should have more than enough energy to knock this child off the course.
Max had a decent track history of racing. His ability to apply force in any direction directly through an object that he was touching allowed him to move his car illogically, making him a menace at car combat. A few people had been able to compete, but only veterans with years of internal energy enough to resist Max's forceful driving. Even while a bit tired, he should have easily disabled his newbie opponent.
"Okay, new plan."
Max's car glowed with an incredible light as he car flew past Jing and Uru. They nearly flew off the edge in the wake of Max's incredible speed and force. Max continued at this pace for another moment before something incredible happened.
Max's car pushed off of the ground, rising slightly for a moment, before bouncing down again. His car seemed to sink far deeper than it should. His car rose once again before slamming on to the floor.
*CRACKLE*. The floating racetrack began to crumble as it split down the middle, creating two parallel tracks that continued to destabilize.
Quickly determining the optimal path between the two, he took the path to the left, before rising in the air once more, and crashing down. Completely separating the left track from the main.
As if a boat whose ropes to the harbor that had been cut, the left track started to drift away, preventing any possibility of Jing making it. Only a few seconds later, Jing was forced into the track on the right.
Max grinned as he saw Jing taking the other track. Technically, the track that he was on was longer than the one Jing was on, but the difficulty was much lower, allowing Max to simply floor the gas pedal and rocket towards the end of the course. Jing's track was fraught with terrain issues. Giant sections of track were missing, and some chunks of concrete were floating directly in the way. Jing would have to navigate around if he wanted to make it through in one piece.
"Oh that's not good"
Jing muttered, he was rapidly approaching the beginning of the obstacles, and immediately hit the brakes before he felt Uru resisting him.
"Uru we're going to turn into paste if we don't slow down here!" Jing protested.
"Trust me Jing, we need to take these next two turns fast or we're actually in more danger!" Uru warned. "The track is falling apart behind us!"
Jing glanced into the rearview mirror and saw that the track was indeed crumbling at an incredible rate behind him. It seems that Max's impact on the road had even greater consequences than earlier seen.
"Remember Jing, you're not alone here" Uru reassured him. " I'll plan the route, you just focus on each upcoming turn!"
"Why can't you do the driving? There's no way I can move you better than you can move you!"
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
"I can't seem to access that energy flowing from you when I move myself. If we're going to make it at all, we need that power"
"SHIT FINE".
Sweat beaded on Jing's forehead again, and he wiped it off before it entered his eyes. The first obstacles were finally approaching, and as he got closer, the obstacles were much larger than he had anticipated, hiding much of the later track from him.
"Its okay Jing. Just make this first turn, and make sure to hug the right side or we wont make the next one!"
Jing followed the instructions and narrowly evaded a second obstacle after the first turn. Without Uru's instruction, he would have slammed sideways into solid concrete.
"Keep it focused Jing, there's plenty left to go"
And with the odd combination of a human operating a car who was guiding him through the track, Jing and Uru swiftly made it through most the obstacle course.
"Hey the kid's not a half bad technical driver. Maybe he has experience in the overworld?"
"No you can see he's making some really basic mistakes, but it seems like he's got really good eyesight and memory! That's pure talent!"
One fellow was becoming particularly excited, he looked down on the ticket in his hands, he hadn't looked at the odds when he locked in his bet, and opened the small betting card. His eyes bulged when he saw the number inside.
"YOU BETTER WIN THIS RACE KID!" He starting screaming at the monitor sphere. His partner quickly distanced herself from him.
As if he could hear the man's cheering from the outside, Jing began pushing through the obstacles faster than he ever thought he could. The crumbling track was still close, but nowhere near a concern if they kept up the same speed.
"Jing we're almost there! And our opponent is right over there!"
Max's car was indeed visible from where they were. He was maybe five or six seconds ahead distance wise, but Uru and Jing still had more obstacles to go before they were able to catch up.
As Max approached the end of his individual track, he caught a glance Jing and Uru in his rearview mirror.
"Not good" he muttered. After driving for a moment, he muttered again "Plan C".
Max's car came to a near stop as a red light formed beneath him. After a second, his car went flying up into the air. The peak that he reached was much higher than the one he had achieved earlier in the race. The increased distance between the two racers gave Max a massive amount of time to set up this trap.
Once again, a massive red light surrounded his car, and he rocketed down in a straight line, his car landing with an incredible sound.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
Instead of simple cracking occuring from the center, Large chunks of the track started to simply fall away, leaving a massive chasm in the track that was expanding in both directions.
Max gasped for air as he stopped for a moment to breathe. He then floored the gas once more, breathing heavily and sweating profusely. With the propulsion of the red light, he was able to get away from the disaster zone of his own creation.
"Oooooh looks like that may be a coup de grace from Max! The famous Sundering! He hasn't gotten a chance to show off this move in the last few races due to lack of setup time, but once again, we get to see this iconic strategy!" The announcer was fully animated, her voice clearly heard over the cheering in the audience.
In the control room, the atmosphere was somber, but not quite distressed.
"At that height, he should be safe" Adam observed after staring at the empty track.
"Hopefully. As long as he doesn't die on the spot we should be able to keep him alive" Valencia mused, running her own calculations.
Their tension was going down as they watched Jing travel through the obstacle course. More than being impressed by his skill, they felt relieved since if he fell from the current part of the track, Jing might be injured but death was very unlikely.
"That being said, you sure you didn't pull some street racer or something" Adam fiddled with a pen, his now calm demeanor betrayed by the massive sweat patch on the back of his shirt.
Valencia didn't respond, and kept watching the screen.
Jing and Uru had no clue that they were within safe distance of the ground, and Uru had begun panicking.
"Jing as soon as we turn out of here there's just a huge gap! I don't know what to do!"
Jing hadn't spoken for nearly a minute as he had been completely focused on driving, his knuckles were completely white, and it seems that he hadn't lost tension nearly the entire time.
When he opened his mouth to respond, he relaxed slightly, and the slipped in his hand for just a millimeter, and the turn he made started skidding, sending him closer and closer to the edge.
"OH SHIIIII" Uru screamed as she tried to correct, but their current momentum would most certainly send them over the edge.
Jing's brain was spinning at overdrive, his head and face became red and he felt the cabin becoming blazing hot all of a sudden. He willed the car forward, knowing that it wouldn't obey him as there was no longer traction between his wheels and the ground.
In that moment, the left side wheels which had just crossed over the edge lurched back onto the track, as if Uru had been hit with a wrecking ball knocking her back on track.
"FUCKING OW WHAT WAS THAT"
"I-I.. I don't know" Jing exclaimed
he had felt a similar sensation as when Max had rammed into his car, but this time there was no car on his left side, just a sheer cliff, that was also crumbling away.
"Anyway Jing we're out of time! What do we do?!" Uru continued her panic now that their previous accident was behind them.
"We jump"
"WHAT?"
"I can do it again. I don't know what it was but I can do it again."
"Uh Okay Jing. There's a small ramp on the right side, we can use that to get some distance" Jing could hear the concern in her voice.
In Max's car, he felt a sense of discomfort as he drove away from the chasm at a slower speed. With all of the crazy maneuvers and long distance drive, he had barely enough energy left to finish the race at full speed. He deliberated a moment, and actually slowed down. His exhaustion had taken a turn for the worse. He turned his attention recovering some energy and keeping an eye on Jing.
If he pulls tricks again we end him Max thought to himself. There's been too many variables.
"It looks like Max has burnde up the rest of his energy!" The commentator spoke with vigor "If the other contestant can just bridge the gap, there might be one more struggle before the finish line!"
Jing followed the last of Uru's instructions and found where the roads joined back together. Max was only a few seconds ahead of him, those few seconds however was an entire missing section of road. Over the last few minutes, his body had been continually heating up, and despite his attempt to cool down with the AC, he felt like he becoming ever more feverish. Opening the window at this point was not an option. Even the tiny amount of drag from the window could be fatal. If he didn't get enough speed, there'd be no way for him to make the gap. He hit the gas, and made for the ramp. The speedometer began to touch the far right side, and Jing could feel Uru groaning in pain as he pushed her to the limit.
And, before he could think about it any more, he was midair.
The moment he took off, he felt weightless, and his sweat finally rolled into his eyes. He kept his eyes open through the burning, and looked over the wheel at the other side. The other edge seemed so impossibly far away, and he could see that he was no longer ascending, and no where near the edge.
He let out a roar, and willed the car forward, flooring the gas in midair as the pain in his eyes finally forced him to close them. He needed just a little more, and somehow, he felt like he had traction beneath him for just a moment.
From the outside, people saw the silver aura around Uru become slightly tinged with red, and the car flew right out of the air towards the edge.
Somehow, despite an impossible trajectory, Jing and Uru made it over the edge with all of their momentum, and flew past Max who was relatively as slow as crawling at this point.
Max's face burned with rage and confusion as he tried to will any more force, but somehow drew on nothing, and drove to the finish line only a few seconds after Jing and Uru.
The cheering in the plaza was enormous, led by a man who had begun haphazardly buying everyone in the plaza drinks. Security had almost removed him as he was becoming a nuisance, but after the race ended decided to let him spend his money.
Uru was equally exhilarated, whooping and hollering for a moment before noticing that Jing wasn't celebrating with her.
"Jing we did it! we somehow beat Max!" Cheered
Jing did not reply
"Jing?"
Jing hadn't responded to anything since the car had stopped. Valencia and Adam had reached Uru and Jing before Uru noticed that Jing seemed to be barely awake.
Jing was breathing shallowly in the driver's seat, the incredible sweat and steam coming off of his body showed an incredible fever. His hand reached weakly for the door, and he unclasped his seat belt and tumbled out of the car onto the floor. His eyes fluttered one last time before he passed out.