"The final four hundred meters! The sea wind blowing in from the Persian Gulf opens its arms to the horse girls—which one of them will be the first to conquer this passionate beauty and taste the sweetness of victory? Polar Hero is still in the lead!"
"It's as if the cheers of the entire stadium exist for her alone! Go, Polar Hero—seize the win!"
Though she was drowned in the roar of the crowd, and even the commentator seemed openly to be on her side, Polar Hero felt not the slightest bit happy. Her ears folded back, and she felt utterly miserable.
Compared to embracing victory, what she really wanted to ask was:
What the hell was that?
Clutching the railing in the stands, Mtoto nearly jumped on the spot. "The spectators' expressions haven't changed at all, which means… a domain. Who? Who awakened that power?"
She looked around tensely, hoping with all her heart that it was one of the British horse girls.
Then, in the next instant, a ghastly white flash of lightning illuminated the darkening world.
No—perhaps "illuminated" was the wrong word.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say it simply rolled over everything.
That towering bolt, magnificent as a mountain, dyed heaven and earth in a deathly white.
The dirt track turned white. The horse girls turned white. The entirety of Meydan Racecourse turned white. That blinding radiance swallowed everything whole.
And almost in the same second, thunder came crashing in, bearing with it a world-shaking force.
No, that was no mere thunder.
It was terror from antiquity itself—the kind of fear engraved in the deepest instincts of every living creature.
The sheer force of that roaring wave of sound brought even the sea wind from the Persian Gulf to a standstill.
It displayed the most tyrannical violence imaginable, shredding the sea breeze apart with absolute force, not even giving it the chance to scream.
Of course, it gave no chance to the horse girls crowding around Xingyun Liuge either. Their cries were devoured by the thunder, and they lost speed instantly. A narrow slit opened in the encirclement around her.
Xingyun Liuge stamped down hard with her left foot and seized that fleeting instant, breaking through the pack's blockade.
Heaven-Splitting Thunderfall — usable once per month:
One: designate a circular area with a radius of five lengths. After a one-second delay, all living beings within that area except Xingyun Liuge are slowed by fifty percent for two seconds and suffer heavy stamina loss. If Xingyun Liuge herself is within the area, she recovers one-fifth of her stamina.
Two: designate an area and forcibly alter the weather state within it.
(Only one of the two effects may be used each time; both share the same cooldown. "A butterfly flaps its wings in South America, and the result may be a tornado in Texas.")
Polar Hero could clearly feel that the sea wind hindering her run had vanished. Running no longer felt so difficult. More than that, she could feel a faint push coming from behind.
The wind had reversed. They were no longer running into a headwind, but with a tailwind.
If that were the case, then she—Polar Hero—might actually be able to hold this pace. Maybe… maybe she could drive all the way to the finish and take the victory.
But—
The moment she remembered that the one who had caused that heaven-rending spectacle was right behind her, her legs went weak. It felt as if all her strength, and all her courage, were ebbing away like the tide.
That hadn't just been lightning and thunder.
No—what she had heard was supreme power roaring aloud, proclaiming the descent of an absolute sovereign.
Run?
No, no, no. Escape was impossible.
There was nowhere to run.
"Hah… hah… hah…"
Polar Hero's eyes widened. She realized she could no longer maintain her speed.
"The final three hundred and fifty meters! But Polar Hero, who had the lead, is losing speed! The outcome is still undecided!"
"Seabird! Seabird is accelerating! But Latifa Dubai comes surging up from the outside as well! The two of them pass Polar Hero almost at the same moment! What terrifying finishing kicks—so this was the moment they had been waiting for!"
The two of them thought the same thing at once:
No.
This was not the moment they had been waiting for.
They had been waiting for the three-hundred-meter mark.
According to the available statistics, if a horse girl could seize the lead at that point, then under the influence of the headwind, her odds of taking the race would jump to more than eighty percent.
That was the moment they had gambled everything on. For that one instant, they had carefully preserved enough stamina to unleash their final contest.
Polar Hero in front?
She had only ever been bait.
Everything had been arranged to pave the road for Seabird—including Seabird pretending to be the bait herself.
But the violently twisting heavens and the abrupt reversal of the wind had shattered all of their plans. They had no choice but to make their move early!
Otherwise, if Xingyun Liuge caught up to them, it would all be over!
The two horse girls roared their last and surged forward together, crossing the three-hundred-meter marker side by side.
Yet neither of them felt any joy.
Instead, their sense of pressure doubled.
Because the same green flash appeared around both of them at once.
Their proud finishing kicks had activated simultaneously.
If this had merely been a head-to-head showdown between the two of them, then fine—it would have come down to who was stronger.
But there was still that silver-haired monster behind them.
That thing that looked ready to turn the world upside down was definitely coming.
She was the less-than-twenty-percent victor.
"Xingyun Liuge! Xingyun Liuge seized that blink-and-you-miss-it opening and broke through the pack's blockade! So fast! So fast! One passed, two passed, three passed! What an astonishing finishing burst! Ahead of her now remain only Seabird and Latifa Dubai! Can the two leaders hold their advantage—or is Xingyun Liuge about to overturn the entire race?"
The commentator was shouting so hard that his face had turned red, the veins bulging on his forehead as if he might black out from oxygen deprivation at any second. Around Meydan Racecourse, cheers and screaming voices merged into one endless wall of sound. Even the horse girls themselves no longer knew who exactly they were cheering for.
The final one hundred meters.
The three horse girls ran shoulder to shoulder.
The wind howled.
Electric power surged.
The crackling lightning surrounding Xingyun Liuge flaunted its presence without restraint.
"There's no way I'm losing to either of you!"
Seabird let out a ringing cry, scarlet light flowing through her eyes as a crushing, domineering pressure swept toward the other two.
Latifa Dubai gave a muffled grunt, but in the next heartbeat an unprecedented emerald flash burst from her eyes.
"I refuse to lose!"
A powerful gust erupted beneath her feet. Her white robe snapped loudly in the wind, and the headscarf she wore was blown high into the sky.
"Latifa Dubai! Latifa Dubai takes the lead!"
"But—!"
The commentator pushed himself so hard he nearly shouted himself senseless.
A violent electric current, hot enough to melt metal, swept across Xingyun Liuge's entire body.
The lightning surged, flared, scattered—yet it also seemed to shape itself into a blazing white crown above her head.
It was as though she had been outlined in a dazzling, incandescent border of white brilliance—one at once fiercely radiant and terrifyingly cold—so that even every single strand of her hair looked sacred, majestic, and inviolable.
In that instant, Xingyun Liuge exploded with a force like ten thousand thunderbolts, transforming into a comet of lightning that tore through the raging wind and bent it to her own use.
None could defy her.
Boom!
With a thunderous blast, it felt as if the track itself had been shattered beneath the force of Xingyun Liuge's step. Savage currents swallowed the entire stretch of racecourse in an instant, and even all of Meydan seemed cloaked in a web of crackling, violent lightning.
It was a banquet for thunder-serpents.
Boom!
A branching pillar of lightning shot skyward, turning the dim world as bright as day.
The storm ran wild.
Thunder roared.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter108)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 99
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 95
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 99
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 92
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 47
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 44
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 43
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 26
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 32
Uma Musume: From Beginner 26
My patreon : patreon.com/queen_sin