Following Scarlet Blue in front of me, we entered the rocky area…… which is quite scary. The space between these boulders would normally be wide, but that’s only when we can fly straight.
The Flying Board is quite large to begin with, and because it’s designed for three people to ride in, it’s also inevitably wide. And because this thing doesn’t fly straight, meanders and would sometimes make a strange trajectory, this place felt quite narrow.
[……Aoi-chan, how good are we with the magic power reserves?]
[We’re consuming more than we originally planned, but we were originally thinking about the allocation with a little leeway, so we’re still okay.]
[Kaito-senpai, you alright with the controls there?][Going through this path makes me feel cautious. I mean, this place feels narrower than I thought…… However, as long as there are no sudden changes, I think we’ll be fine.]
Our original plan was to gain altitude and descend before passing the checkpoint, so we didn’t intend to go this fast. However, Scarlet Blue’s superb attack forced us to increase our speed.
The rocky mountainous area was quite convoluted when flying at a low altitude, and I could only occasionally glimpse Scarlet Blue’s Flying Board at the time of my field of vision.
However, they haven’t fatally taken a wide distance yet. It seems like we have just barely avoided losing in this decisive battle. However, we can’t let our guard down just yet.
Two of the teams that had gone in as fast as we did had hit a rocky hill and dropped out, so we had to be careful not to make the same mistake as them.
[I guess what’s truly fortunate is that our Flying Board has been working rather smoothly so far.]
[Our Flying Board certainly is unstable, but it’s not making a drastic change in movements. I hope it will remain stable at least until we pass through the rocky area.][Kaito-senpai! Aoi-senpai! I see the checkpoint!]
Now that we were maintaining a low altitude, we didn’t need to adjust altitude much and had Hina-chan concentrate on looking ahead.
As Hina-chan said, the checkpoint ahead of us is now visible but…… uwahh, the checkpoint is in between two rocky mountains, and it looks like we’re going to pass between them.
In other words, the arrangement is almost like missing the checkpoint is equal to a collision. Concentrating more than I have done so far, I adjusted the positioning of our Flying Board and successfully evaded the mountains.
[Alright, we managed to get through there…… What should I do about our altitude?]
[We’ve passed through the checkpoint, so it would be safer for us to ascend. Hina-chan……]
[We can’t!]
[ [ Eh? ] ]
As long as we pass the checkpoint, it should be safe to raise altitude and get away from the rocky hill. In fact, Scarlet Blue ahead of us, and the other teams seemed to be gaining altitude as well.
That being the case, I thought it would be better to go to a higher altitude for safety until the next checkpoint above the forest area, but Hina-chan strongly refused.
[I can’t really explain why…… but “I have a feeling that a strong wind will be blowing”.]
[Wind? It doesn’t feel very windy……]
[No, but I think believing in that intuition is important, so I think we should trust Hina-chan here and keep our altitude low.]
Hina-chan didn’t seem to have much confidence in what she felt either, but her wild instincts aren’t one that can be taken lightly.
Since the Flying Board is in the shape of a large board, wind blowing will have a considerable effect on it, and since we’ll pass the rocky mountainous area soon, it’s okay to continue at a low altitude.
Just as I was thinking that, I heard the sound of strong wind and saw Scarlet Blue, who was flying ahead of us, and the other teams that had gained altitude, being greatly stirred by the wind.
As expected of the teams that had flown through the narrow rocky mountainous area up to this point, they were able to regain their footing even when the wind picked up, but they were having difficulty flying and had to lower their speed.
In contrast, the rocky mountains between us acted as a barrier against the wind, allowing us to fly almost unaffected, and as a result, we were able to close the gap with Scarlet Blue without consuming any magic power.
[Amazing, it really turned out just like Hina-chan said.]
[Ehehe, I don’t really know what that was, but I’m glad I could be of service.]
[Thanks to Hina-chan, we’re doing pretty good. We’ve shortened the distance between the leading team, and since the wind is blowing and the other teams seem to be having a hard time flying, we might even be able to stay ahead of them.]
[……It won’t be that easy.]
[ [ [ ! ? ] ] ]
We were in quite an advantageous situation, and just as I thought that if we could stay in the lead and gain distance, we’d be able to win, a Flying Board overtook us from the side. On it was the team clad in black robes…… Black Muscat.
[That was a brilliant assessment of the situation, and for you to be first-time participants…… I knew you really weren’t a group we could underestimate. We were curious why you had made this movement, and it really was a good choice not to ascend.]
As to be expected from the veteran Black Muscat. Seeing our movements, they thought we had some sort of reason for doing such and while the others were gaining altitude, it seemed that they had opted to maintain a low altitude.
Then, while we were relaxed, thinking that we gained an advantage over the others, they accelerated and overtaken us. I could really feel the difference in our experience in this area.
However, this isn’t all bad. We had already been going faster than planned up to this point, so having Black Muscat in front of us at this point was an advantage for us since we could use them as a reference for our pacing.
Since there are still two more points for us to contend against the others, one in the forest area and the area before the finish line, we’ll stay behind and try to overtake them when we see an opening…… Unnn, it’s turning out to be a pretty hot-blooded development.
<Afterword>
Serious-senpai : [Scarlet Blue didn’t drop out of the race, but they still suffered a great loss. And coming out at that moment is the Black Muscat…… This really turned out to be a good development, and I’m satisfied for the first time in a while. Also, Hina’s reaction there, I guess that’s due to the God of Sky’s Blessing? The reason why Kaito didn’t notice the wind is because the God of Creation’s Blessing isn’t affecting their Flying Board…… However, since the God of Fate’s Blessing is affecting their board, his board adjustments are doing fine?]
