"Bee... hah..."
Terimon's breathing had grown unbearably heavy. Every inhale was like dragging air through an old, worn-out bellows, her chest rising and falling violently.
Sweat had long since soaked her hair. It slid down her cheeks, almost blurring her vision.
Even the turf beneath her feet seemed to have turned muddy and viscous. Every step took several times more effort than usual.
She gritted her teeth hard, glancing from the corner of her eye toward the still-steady, still-composed silver-white figure beside her. An absurd feeling welled up in her heart.
"Damn it... this monster..."
Right now, Terimon wanted nothing more than to curse her arrogant pre-race self.
From the start of the race until now, she had poured everything into carrying out her tactical plan, tangling with McQueen and clashing against her with all her strength.
But now, in despair, she discovered that the one being worn down was actually herself.
She had misjudged McQueen's stamina reserves, as well as her unfathomable racing intelligence.
Every time Terimon took the initiative to attack, McQueen brushed it aside as if it were nothing.
Across these 1,600 meters, she had not disrupted McQueen's rhythm at all. Instead, she had burned through a tremendous amount of her own stamina.
So much so that now, the accumulated fatigue was already becoming difficult for this European powerhouse to bear.
"Damn it, there's still... so far to go... can I even finish this...?"
She looked at the track ahead, which seemed to stretch on without end. The distance she could have crossed with ease in the past now felt impossibly far.
The aching signals coming from her limbs shrieked through her mind like alarms.
"First... steady myself for now..."
The musclebound girl clenched her teeth and made her final decision.
Her attrition tactic had failed completely. The only thing she could do now was stabilize her rhythm and preserve as much stamina as possible in preparation for the final straight.
She tried to adjust her form, attempting to enter the final turn ahead in the most efficient posture.
However, the double fatigue of spirit and body had already introduced a nearly imperceptible distortion into her movements.
And finally...
Thud.
The instant she stepped into the final turn, the stride that should have landed steadily wavered.
Under the force of the turn, her center of gravity shifted uncontrollably one step outward.
Bad!
The moment Terimon realized that her body was no longer as nimble as expected, resulting in a serious mistake, her pupils contracted violently.
An extreme chill shot from the base of her spine straight to the crown of her head.
She frantically tried to adjust her posture and compensate for the mistake, but her exhausted muscles lagged a beat behind.
In that flash of lightning.
"Hmph!"
A clear, cold snort, accompanied by a bone-deep chill, exploded beside her ear like thunder.
Boom!
Immediately after, a blast like the earth itself was about to be crushed underfoot erupted beside Terimon.
McQueen moved.
After being disgusted for more than half the race, the Mejiro girl seized the opening her opponent had revealed with razor-sharp precision.
Her pure white racing outfit suddenly turned into a blurred streak of light and shadow. Wrapped in the explosive roar of wind being torn apart, she flashed past Terimon's side.
Bzz.
Time seemed to stretch infinitely in that instant.
In disbelief, Terimon turned her head slightly. In her line of sight, only that dark, ice-cold side profile remained.
And those eyes, glowing with a deep, ghostly pure-white light.
Bang!
Only after that silver-white figure completely surpassed her position did Terimon snap back from that bullet-time sensation.
"..."
She stared blankly at the back already leaving her in the dust. The next second, a look of fierce resolve rose across her face.
...
Whoosh!
The instant after McQueen completed the overtake, Ascot Racecourse finally seemed to wake belatedly from that sudden rampage.
Across the stands, hundreds of thousands of spectators erupted into earth-shaking cries and uproar.
"She's overtaken! She's overtaken!"
The commentator's voice was excited and soaring. "Fast! So fast! Too fast! The instant she entered the final turn, Mejiro McQueen made her move!"
"She seized Terimon's instant opening, broke out of the pack, and is now hunting down the leading Carefree at terrifying speed!"
"Carefree is running away! Can she escape?"
Whoosh. Whoosh.
The violent wind howled past her ears. There were no longer any obstacles ahead of her.
The pure-white afterglow in McQueen's eyes burned fiercely. Wind gathered beneath her feet, and every step struck heavily into the turf, leaving deep imprints behind.
At a speed visible to the naked eye, she was madly shortening the distance between herself and the Front Runner at the very front.
Behind Terimon, a fiery red figure had also arrived at her side like a ghost.
"You worked hard, Terimon."
Sanglamore pressed her lips tight and whispered inwardly. Her eyes were filled with an unprecedented gravity and fighting spirit.
"Next, it's my turn!"
Just as she intended to go all out, Terimon beside her let out a hoarse roar.
"Don't you people dare look down on me!"
Boom!
Along with boundless dark-gray streams of light, a blazing afterglow suddenly ignited in the musclebound girl's pupils.
Domain!
A terrifying aura spread outward like a tide.
The instant she stepped into that great realm, Terimon's body, which had been nearing its limit, was infused with new vitality.
She abruptly lengthened her stride and surged forward like a fortress, crushing her way ahead in a frenzy.
"...This big idiot..."
After freezing for an instant, Sanglamore's lips also curved into a grin.
"That's right. That's how it should be!"
As the red-haired girl murmured to herself, her pupils also began to flash with a dazzling afterglow.
"This is what a race should be!"
At the same time, Generous, who had been lying hidden in the center of the pack, finally raised her head slowly.
The pale-gold afterglow in her eyes no longer flickered. It burned steadily now.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Gray. Red. Gold.
Three grand streams of light, as if piercing heaven and earth, abruptly descended from the void and transformed into the mental landscapes of the three.
Then endless fighting spirit filled the entire racecourse, setting off three blinding-fast streaks of light and shadow as they tore across the sky.
At this moment, they cast aside every stray thought.
They poured their pride and everything they had into their feet, racing toward the stage of the final showdown.
Boom!
With four deafening footfalls exploding one ahead and three behind, Ascot's turf was violently torn open.
The instant the four ghostlike figures entered the final turn, they abruptly reached an extreme burst that defied all common sense.
Within the pack, the Umamusume surrounding Carefree in an attempted siege almost instinctively sensed the sudden upheaval.
They wanted to accelerate, to keep up, to intercept.
But.
Putting aside the fact that these four leading powerhouses had already occupied absolutely favorable positions, that overwhelming explosive power alone was enough to crush every delusion of blocking them.
They could only watch helplessly as those four figures broke away from the pack at an unbelievable speed, as if forming a world of their own. Carrying an aura that seemed ready to destroy everything, they rushed madly toward the final straight.
At the forefront of this storm, a single black figure was bearing the greatest pressure alone.
"Hah... hah..."
Carefree, who had been leading from the opening phase until now, had a face filled with panic and fear that did not match her identity as the leader at all.
"No, no, no! There's definitely something wrong with this!"
Carefree gritted her silver teeth hard. Her lungs stung as if they were burning, but right now, she had no time to care about that.
Looking carefully, faint strands of lightning were also flickering in this escape expert's eyes.
Evidently, she too was a powerhouse Umamusume who had stepped into Domain.
But precisely because of that extraordinary perception, she knew with absolute clarity what horrifying thing was happening behind her at this very moment.
In her senses, the track behind her seemed to have transformed into an ancient battlefield from myth.
Three.
A full three vast auras, immense enough to suffocate her, were swelling wildly behind her.
"You've got to be kidding me... How can three monsters at this level appear in the same race?!"
Carefree wailed inwardly, moving her legs with every ounce of strength she had. Her arms swung violently through the wind as she tried to push her own speed to the limit once more.
"And besides..."
However, just as Carefree was still thinking and grumbling, her heart suddenly clenched.
Panting heavily, she only had time to turn her head slightly.
Then, in the corner of her eye...
A nimble figure with purple hair and white clothing appeared soundlessly beside her as if by teleportation.
"...Mejiro McQueen!"
Carefree forced that name from her throat.
But she could only watch helplessly as that pure-white figure went from even with her to a neck ahead, then from a head ahead to half a length, surpassing her little by little.
No matter how she roared and poured on strength, no matter how she wrung every last bit from her muscles, that back still gradually shrank and drifted farther away in her vision.
Watching this, Carefree felt as though her entire worldview had collapsed.
"...How is there still one more person who can fight those three monsters behind me without even entering Domain?!"
She began to wonder if she had walked into the wrong room before the race and gotten ELO'd by the system, matched against four equally ridiculous opponents.
And after McQueen mercilessly overtook her, only a few breaths later...
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three savage footfalls like thunder came roaring in.
Those three monsters, carrying boiling mental landscapes and spewing dazzling lightning from their eyes, each treated Carefree as a speed bump. One after another, they crushed past her with unstoppable momentum.
From that moment on, at the front of Ascot Racecourse, only those four ghostlike, high-speed figures remained.
...
"She's overtaken! Mejiro McQueen has overtaken Carefree and charged into the final straight first!"
The commentator's emotions had already climbed beyond measure. The frenzy in his voice seemed almost ready to tear the roof off the venue.
"Four lengths behind her are Terimon and Sanglamore, running side by side. It seems these two powerhouses have completely unleashed themselves!"
"And only one length behind them..."
At this point, the commentator paused, then shouted excitedly.
"It's Generous! The overlord, Generous!"
"So fast! So fast! She's charging up at a speed visible to the naked eye! This is insane! This race has completely become a one-act show starring these four Umamusume!"
...
On the track, the wild wind roared.
Aside from the pure-white gray-haired figure at the very front, who was tearing through the gale with composed ease, the three Umamusume behind her, all having activated Domain, were also locked in fierce competition.
But anyone with sharp eyes could see that the golden-haired figure in fourth had a speed that simply defied common sense.
Even though Terimon and Sanglamore ahead of her had both already stepped into the second stage of Domain and gained a terrifying all-around boost, Generous was still closing the distance between them at a visibly horrifying speed.
Behind them.
"Hooo..."
A long breath echoed around her. The scenery of the track retreated madly, and Generous stared ahead without expression.
The pale-gold lightning in the girl's eyes had now become a steadily burning sun, bursting with dazzling light that illuminated all things.
At this moment, nothing remained in her eyes except victory.
Boom!
Her bulging thighs crushed the turf beneath her feet.
The pale-gold stream of light was like a Sword of Damocles freshly drawn from its sheath, determined to pierce through everything. In an instant, it began to run completely out of control.
The overlord of Europe was unsheathing herself from the outside lane.
"Wha...!"
A mere one-length gap.
Under the shocked, disbelieving gazes of Terimon and Sanglamore, that golden stream of light crossed their shadows with overwhelming, unstoppable dominance.
In just a few breaths, their positions were completely reversed.
"Oh my god! It's Generous!"
The commentator clutched the microphone and roared wildly.
"An unbelievable final kick! Generous has forced an overtake from the outside, instantly tearing through Terimon and Sanglamore's defense, and has risen to second place!"
"Now, in her eyes, only Mejiro McQueen remains ahead of her!"
"Ooooooooooh!"
"Generous! Generous!"
At the commentator's cry, the spectators throughout the venue erupted into cheers.
...
Unlike the hundreds of thousands of spectators on the racecourse, who were boiling over completely, the private box reserved for overseas trainers had fallen into a deathly silence.
The world-class trainers all remained silent, their gazes grave as they watched the battle below, a clash that could be called world-class.
Kuroha stood quietly before the enormous floor-to-ceiling window, arms folded across his chest.
Reflected in his deep eyes was that golden stream of light, dazzling like the sun, which had forcefully torn through two great Domains.
Within his pupils, an imperceptible fluorescent glow flashed and vanished.
The power of Body and Breath Perception allowed him to roughly judge Generous's exact level of strength in this moment.
"As expected of the great rival of this era's protagonist. This strength... she's in a completely different dimension from the heavy artillery Umamusume."
Kuroha frowned slightly and thought to himself.
Judging from the overwhelming performance currently displayed on the track, Generous was absolutely worthy of her famous title as the reigning European overlord.
Even after Terimon and Sanglamore played every trump card they had, they were still crushed by her pure hard power.
With this terrifying chasing momentum, barring any surprises, this race should have become her victory march toward the throne without the slightest suspense.
Kuroha narrowed his eyes slightly. His gaze shifted from that golden figure, slowly moving upward before finally settling on the pure-white back at the very front.
Yes.
Barring... any surprises.
(End of Chapter)
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