Most of the craft zoomed by in a sleek black and gray, with minute colorful accents, as they streaked in a grey rainbow.
The hover-platforms followed the racers as they flew down the streets. Still, Fernando veered left and right on the fake steering wheel near the front. His parents took their eyes off the idyllic afternoon sunshine to chuckle at their little boy.
“I hope he neva changes. Sech a sense of playfelness ‘dat I wish I had in my youth.” Said Carnatia, leaning onto her husband.
Years of being together, he could completely decode her thick accent. It threw him for a loop in the beginning, but now it was like he spoke an entirely different language.
“Well, he’s only15, he’s still a kid.” Said Malemoss. “But when he gets ol-“
She sucked her teeth. “Now-”—She sat upright—“why did yuh ’ave to go and say all that?”
“Awe, my sweet...he won’t stay a kid for eternity.” He gazed at his son, who leaned on the guardrails to get a better view.
Malemoss waved his hand and made a fist, a grey cloud-like fog forming in his palm, as he manipulated the element of Gas. He pulled Fernando off the rail with a mighty gust of wind.
“But I’m with you, my love. I never want him to grow up.”
Their tires crushed the pebbles as the racers picked up the dust from the now dirt road, as they left the white and green city.
The fires of the Sinder Forest had lit up the racers eyes as they zoomed ever closer. They and the roadway had garnered a fiery red hue. A stretch of plains had divided the city they had just left and the scorching habitat. But the racers blew past the divide in seconds.
They were now surrounded by dense, flaming forest, who’s canopies eclipsed the area in a red and orange hue.
As the engines howled and thundered, the woodlands crackled back. His racing friends had told him about the dangers of the ever burning forest. Where the smallest trees were a dozen meters high, where the heat could melt flesh itself.
He peered into the forest for a fleeting moment. His gaze fixated on a glowing red creature, deep within. It ran through the smoldering inclined woodlands on all fours, almost as fast as the race car itself. Kaspur felt goosebumps instantly on his entire body, as if it was a sign to “stop driving.”
He snapped out of it as he heard the crash of a fallen tree, and the cracking bark that soon followed as it cascaded downhill.
His hand jumped on one of the gears, sending him and the organic vehicle a few meters into the air, avoiding a deadly collision.
Soon up ahead, another scorched trunk began its descent, tumbling down faster than one poor lad could react. The fiery debris paralleled that of the oncoming logs.
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“Where are these things coming from??” Kaspur said, as he attempted to survive the onslaught.
He drifted the bends on the mountain, becoming tighter and tighter as they ascended to the peak. His eyes darted back and forth, keeping watch for any more stray logs.
30 racers behind him. 9 in front.
The speeders grazed each other as the road became even thinner. Some had been too close for comfort, resulting in even more flames on the track, and even less competition.
Speeding towards the peak of the mountain, the same glowing creatures tore down the trees and threw them down on the road, almost a dozen were present, maybe more.
Upon closer inspection, he could see someone influencing their actions, a humanoid figure.
“A Beast Keeper?? Now is not the time.”
Kaspur alternated between the road and the violet-skinned, horned humanoid who stood atop a thick branch, who wore a huge beige coat that somehow didn’t explode in flames.
Fernando noticed the figure as well, and raced up to his parents.
“Who’s that, why are they on the track?”
“I’m not sure, but I assume they’re working for the race. My guess is they’re job is to make the Race that much harder by using animals.” Said Malemoss, as he squinted down at the track.
“37 racers left as they blast through the perilous Sinder Forest and race off towards the peak of Mt. Ferno! These racers aren’t playing any games folks!”
The crowd became almost deafening as they cheered.
Kaspur’s heart leapt out of the speeder as he saw the horizon and the setting sun.
A ramp up ahead, a massive ramp that led off the mountain entirely.
Driving off a mountain at speeds where his eyes sunk into the back of his skull? Instant death.
His body told him to think this through.
But when did Kaspur Maskiya retreat in the face of danger?
He pounded the acceleration booster and the gas pedal. He flew off the ramp and entered a free-fall, as he saw a dozen other speeders do the exact same thing behind him. They were 300 meters off the ground, plummeting towards a massive ravine that cut through the Sinder Forest.
Did he know where he was going? No.
Partly because his eyes were glued shut, as he held the wheel with quaking palms.
Fernando, his parents, and the crowd, all gazed in astonishment. Their jaws dropped, and their eyes grew wider than ever. Gasps drowned out the cheering that was rampant, seconds earlier.
The entirety of the crowd was at the edge of their seats, as they gazed at their favorite racers, plunging towards their doom.
Fernando started sweating, considering if he should use his power to rescue them.
But he realized he couldn’t save them all, he just wasn’t powerful enough. In fact, he didn’t even know if he could save Kaspur.
It was almost cartoony, the way all the speeders were diving into the inferno.
Fernando raised his arm and clenched a fist, a green fog manifesting itself once again, but before he got a chance to drop his arm-
“Ladies and gentlemen, behold, Segment 3!” Haviar chuckled at all the onlookers on the edge of their seats.
A colossal hole opened in the side of the ravine, on the trajectory of the racers. Three massive columns rose out of the ground as well, high enough to avoid the flames of the forest. The cheer of the crowd was a direct opponent to the roar of the engines, as the void in the ravine grew larger and larger.
“WHAT?” Fernando leaned even farther off the railing than before.
Upon closer inspection, he could see three humanoids standing atop the pillars. Peoqoyians, no doubt. Natives.
Their lime-colored skin, in direct contrast with that of the orange, red, and black, that surrounded them.
In tandem, the Peoqoyians pushed and pulled the landmass below them.
They were opening the gateway to the exclusive underground course as the racers began to soar into the enormous tunnel, exactly as planned.
No instant deaths. At least not now.
Kaspur opened his eyes for a fleeting moment as he peered into the massive hole in the ravine. If he didn’t have a helmet on, his eyes would now definitely be at the back of his skull.
As Kaspur and the racers stared into the void of blackness, one by one, they landed on the metallic surface with a hard thud. Their headlights illuminated such a miniscule area, it would’ve been the same with your eyes closed.