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210. A Race
🕑 Added 2024-11-06 15:00:06 +0000 UTCIt was simple math, in the end. He’d had to catch the nag to ride it. That meant he was faster than the horse, even at its fastest. He didn’t know what came next, so he’d been seeking to save his aether, but he had no more option. The nag couldn’t be enticed to run faster, so he had to run himself.
But it was a horse race, after all. Crossing the finish line without a horse might mean disqualification. Was he willing to take that risk? Was he willing to bear that chance?
Absolutely not! With a grin, Ike bent and grabbed the horse, putting it on his shoulders. The nag was so surprised that it didn’t even kick, it just jumped and froze. Ike lowered into a running stance, careless of the horse on his back. It was as though he bore no weight at all.
I’ve carried a mountain. You think I can’t carry a horse?
Ike blasted off. Lightning chased him, unable to keep up with his speed. The storms chased after him, left in his dust. With the speed of the most cutting winter wind, with the instantaneosity of a flash of lightning, he blasted over the earth.
Five horsemen remained in front of him.
The first two he passed in seconds. They stared, unable to believe their own eyes. Only after Ike powered by did they think to reach for their weapons, and by then, it was too late.
Three.
The third one turned back and saw him coming. Her eyes narrowed. She reached into her bag and threw out a handful of shining metal caltrops.
Ike laughed. He hopped into the air and soared over the trap, landing easily on the other side. He touched down beside her and blasted off again.
Two.
Warned by the sound of Ike’s landing, the second horseman turned back. She slashed at him, her sword fast as a darting sparrow.
But sparrows had nothing on lightning. Ike’s feet gently pattered over the flat of her blade, and he burst past, closing in on the man in the lead.
The blond turned back, face twisted in utter shock, then disgust, then shock, then fear. He didn’t launch an attack, but simply turned to his horse and snapped the reins. Unlike the nag, his horse quickly reacted, bursting ahead. He pressed his hand to the horse’s shoulder, pouring mana into it. It whinnied and charged. Its eyes glowed, madness bright in their depths. Its tail went high. It soared ahead, as fast as the wind.
The first horseman had a lead on Ike, but he was gaining with every passing moment. The line loomed. Ike was clearly the faster. The only question was which of the two of them would cross the line first.
Behind Ike, the two horsemen formerly in second and third bared their teeth. They lifted their weapons, preparing to launch attacks at him.
White threads twisted around their wrist and yanked backward, pulling them straight off their horses. At the other end of the threads, Wisp grinned. “Go get ‘em, Ike!”
Ike blasted ahead. With each step, he closed in on the blond boy. The line loomed. So close. And yet, the boy was still ahead of him.
Ike narrowed his eyes. Lightning Dash was the basis of all his skills. From the beginning, he was a man who favored speed. He wasn’t going to give up here. No—to lose in a contest of speed would be to deny his entire being. Since he’d started as a mage, he’d never met someone on-Rank with him, to whom he lost in speed.
And this won’t be the first! Ike’s knees rose. His strides lengthened. He ate up the ground. Lighting flared, the beams widening. His form blurred. The white line approached, and Ike approached a blur, little more than a speedy shape in the grasslands.
The blond looked back. His horse reached out its neck, inches from the white line.
Ike charged past. With milliseconds to spare, he blasted over the finish line. He staggered to a halt on the other side, utterly exhausted. Carefully, he set the nag down and patted its shoulder. “Thanks.”
The horse harrumphed and walked off, searching for sweet grass to nibble on.
The blond drew up to Ike, still on his horse. He stared down at Ike, his chest heaving. “How? How?”
“If you spent a year carrying a mountain, you’d find a horse pretty light, too,” Ike said lightly.
The boy shook his head. “Not that! How are you fast? Faster even than the fastest horse in the trial?”
“Let’s just call it skill, and leave it at that,” Ike said evenly. He looked the boy up and down, suddenly taking an interest. The fastest horse in the trial? Hmm? If you knew that, why not go for it? Unless you knew that its stubbornness was also a sort of trap, but that begs my next question. In the first place, how do you know so much about the trial? It’s almost like you have insider knowledge… the kind of insider knowledge someone who manipulated Mag to come here with the other half of the skill might have.
“Who are you?” the boy asked.
Ike put a hand on his hip. “You can call me Ike. It’s all the name I have. And you?”
“Rufus A…nault,” he finished, a bit awkwardly.
Ike smiled. Hello, prime suspect. Ah, though I suppose I shouldn’t be too harsh. After all, whoever finished first would be my prime suspect, regardless. He’s just also acting suspicious.
“Ike? Never heard of you,” the girl who would have been second said. Waves of dark brown hair fell past her shoulders, plied back from her face with a messenger cap. She grinned and hopped off her horse. Walking over, she offered her hand to shake. “Scarlet Brose. Friends call me Scar.”
“Ike,” he repeated, smiling back as he took her hand.
“Sorry about attacking you. All’s fair in love and war, after all.”
“No, no. I would have done the same.”
Their smiles both took on a savage edge. They kept shaking hands, neither wanting to let go first. Internally, Ike laughed. She wasn’t feral, but nonetheless, she was just as aggressive as himself or Wisp. He had the feeling that they’d either be the worst of enemies or best of friends, if they got to know one another.
The girl who would have been in third harrumphed and ignored them entirely. Dark hair fell in a tight bob around her head, save a narrow ponytail that ran straight down her spine. Scar gestured over her shoulder at her. “That’s Vi, by the way. Heiress to an assassin troupe, if you’d believe the rumors. Personally, I do. She’s haughty enough for it.”
Ike chuckled, not sure how to react to that. Nodding at the boy still on his horse, he asked, “What about blondie? He an heir of some sort? I mean, he’s sure the type to demand shit of other people. Feels like he is.”
Scar’s eyes widened. She chuckled, then patted Ike heartily on the shoulder. “Ooh, I like you. Yes, we’re going to be great friends. Him, I know nothing about, but I have to agree. Hey, blondie. You the heir of something?”
Rufus startled. He blushed, expression somewhere between embarrassment and fury, and turned his horse away, trotting to somewhere he couldn’t hear them.
“Heh. I’m going to go pull that thread. Stay crazy, my friend.” With a wave, Scar took off to chase down Rufus.
“Who was that?” Wisp asked, walking up behind him.
Ike shook his head. “I don’t know. Scar? Or something?”
Wisp chuckled. She nodded at him. “I gotta say, I didn’t see that last trick of yours coming. Save a horse, ride a mage, am I right?”
Embarrassed, Ike rubbed the back of his neck. “I had to do what it took to win. I mean, speed’s my whole thing. I couldn’t let myself come in second place.”
“Totally agree. However this trial realm is decided, it’s probably a good idea to grab number one where we can. I mean, I can’t imagine it hurts to take first place, right?”
“Right. Speaking of, what number were you?” Ike asked. He hadn’t kept track of Wisp as the race was coming to a close, and he earnestly had no idea where she’d landed in the order of racers.
“Eh, tenth, twelfth, something. Not bad, given I don’t know a single thing about horses. No, okay, I do know one single thing about horses. They taste…okay.”
Ike chuckled. He shook his head. “Gotta say, that’s exactly what I expected. And Shawn?”
“Is moving around way too much! Where’s my shoulder?” Shawn demanded. A heavy weight slammed into Ike’s back, and Shawn let out a relived sigh. “Ahh… easy riding.”
“What place were you?”
“I don’t know, thirtieth? Somewhere in there. I can hold my own weight, so my horse essentially had no burden on its back, and that was enough to give me an advantage. Plus, I know my way around fine horses, so I picked the best one available to me, to start out with. Don’t underestimate someone who spent their whole life surrounded by treasures!”
“Right, right. Grandpa,” Ike teased.
“Damn straight.” Adjusting his pose, Shawn fell back asleep.
Ike lifted his chin. “Where’s Mag?”
“Who cares?” Wisp muttered.
“Hey, hey, come on. We shouldn’t abandon him.”
A shadow fell over them. Mag swooped out of the sky, clutching a pygmy horse in his claws. He landed beside them, exhausted. “What a stupid idea. Horses are clearly inferior. Why would a flying being like me ever ride one?”
“There he is,” Ike said.
“You should’ve picked the pygmy horse,” Wisp said, laughing.
Ike rolled his eyes. “I didn’t know I was going to turn the horse race into a foot race, honest.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She opened her mouth to say more, but at that moment, the voice sounded again.
“The ranking of riders,” it intoned, and with that, a shimmering list written in light appeared overhead in the sky.
