"Coming from the countryside to Central Tracen, she stepped onto the stage of the Classic races carrying her dreams. She's put up impressive performances in her recent races—each time falling agonizingly short of victory, but everyone has watched her grow. We hope that today, she'll finally break through and answer the expectations of all her fans!"
Listening to the commentator's words, Special Week's expression turned serious in an instant.
The fans' expectations of me, huh?
I don't know if I can answer those expectations, but I'll give it everything I have! With that thought, she turned her head to look at King Halo standing nearby. Honestly, even though she'd grown a little stronger from her recent training, when it came to whether she could actually beat King Halo—she didn't have much confidence. But if she didn't try, she'd never know the result. Even knowing her chances were slim, she still wanted to give it a shot!
"Next is the introduction of our second favorite—are you perhaps a little dissatisfied with that ranking? Returning home from her studies in America, El Condor Pasa! In both her debut race and the Aoba Sho, she crushed her opponents with overwhelming dominance. Her ability is in no way inferior to today's number-one favorite! We're all greatly anticipating her performance today!"
Hearing her name called, El Condor Pasa waved at the spectator stands. She thoroughly enjoyed this feeling of being the center of attention. She was also satisfied with the commentator's introduction—of course, she should have been the fan-favorite number one. King Halo was strong, but El Condor Pasa wasn't going to come up short against her. If anything, she should be the stronger one right now!
But the commentator immediately moved on after introducing her: "And finally, today's main attraction—our number-one favorite, King Halo, the Satsuki Sho girl! Undefeated since her debut, she displayed sovereign-like dominance during the Satsuki Sho. We hope that today, she'll perfectly fulfill her aspiration of claiming her second crown!"
King Halo was quietly using her [Eye] to gather data on every competitor. While she could outwardly look down on her opponents, actually underestimating them during the race itself would put her at a psychological disadvantage from the start. It wasn't uncommon for stronger racers to lose to weaker ones because of mental issues—and beyond that, the gap in stats between this world's racers and her own wasn't all that large.
She looked at El Condor Pasa.
1111 Speed, 950 Stamina, 1010 Power—when bursting, El Condor Pasa could probably push these numbers to their absolute ceiling.
Her Wisdom was 1000, and surprisingly, her Guts was only 600.
Even though her Guts was a bit weak, El Condor Pasa's stat panel was still frightening. After all, she had built herself up to this level on raw talent alone, without any system assistance.
And unlike King Halo—an outsider whose stat growth was capped in Story Mode—El Condor Pasa was a native of this world, still in her growth-and-rising period. El Condor Pasa's complete-form stat panel might genuinely catch up to, or even surpass, her own. The thought made King Halo unconsciously furrow her brow.
As expected of the future world's number two.
But this world's strength curve was a little too unfriendly to her.
Yet she didn't feel any resentment over it—quite the opposite. The stronger the opponent, the more valuable they were to absorb. She would collect their data, shore up her weaknesses, and achieve evolution!
The glory and fame of this world meant nothing to her. Only continuous victory and the relentless accumulation of data were real. The opponents she truly needed to challenge were the five great mountains standing beyond this sky!
A faint glow flickered in King Halo's eyes.
El Condor Pasa, you too will become feed for my evolution!
"That concludes the introduction of our top favorites. The racers are now entering the gates one by one—it looks like everyone is settling in smoothly. So now, please welcome the field staff to quickly clear the track..."
The staff swiftly left the racecourse.
The signal lights atop the closed gates began to flash.
The racers stared at the gates with varying expressions, silently counting down in their hearts, ready to burst out at any moment.
The clamor in the spectator stands fell silent.
The signal light flashed, and the moment the gates swung open, every racer charged onto the track as one.
"The racers have cleared the gates smoothly! The first to break out in front is—" The commentator had just begun to speak when he saw Silence Suzuka and El Condor Pasa pull away from the rest of the field together. "It's Silence Suzuka! But it looks like El Condor Pasa is also competing for the lead? Wait a moment, let me check—El Condor Pasa's running style in this race isn't Stalker, it's Front-Runner!"
Hearing this, many in the spectator stands wore expressions of surprise. After all, El Condor Pasa had used the Stalker style in all her previous races. And whether back in America or during simulated races at Tracen Academy, she usually ran as a Stalker—occasionally as a Chaser. But Front-Runner? This was the first time she'd ever used that running style.
"I see."
While many fans were still stunned, Nishizaki Ryu and the other trainers had already figured out El Condor Pasa's reasoning. This was almost certainly a strategy targeting King Halo—because by now, plenty of people had already guessed that King Halo's Flash-tier skills were restricted by position and distance.
Sure, King Halo's burst power was terrifying, but apart from that burst, just how strong was she really? Nishizaki Ryu thought it through carefully. King Halo's ability certainly couldn't be called weak—even without using her Flash-tier skills, she'd been able to keep up with Seiun Sky's burst state during her debut race. But Seiun Sky hadn't actually debuted yet at that point, so realistically, that level of strength was still within manageable bounds.
What made King Halo truly terrifying was the burst power on display from her late-race skill combo.
But conversely, that was also King Halo's weakness.
If you targeted that one weakness, the other racers had a chance at victory!
Of course, thinking about it was easy. Actually setting up a strategy that targeted that weakness wasn't nearly so simple.
Anyone could come up with a strategy. The problem was never the planning itself—the problem was finding the uma musume capable of executing it!
"But can El Condor Pasa really pull off this strategy? And more importantly... how is she going to handle the stamina cost?" Nishizaki Ryu frowned, unsure how Tojo Hana was going to solve this problem.
A Front-Runner who wanted to run faster would burn through stamina even more brutally, and against an opponent like King Halo, winning with a Front-Runner strategy meant building a massive lead in the early race. But that created an unsolvable problem: how exactly was El Condor Pasa's stamina supposed to hold up under that kind of strain? The reason he hadn't let Silence Suzuka run that way was precisely because he knew her stamina couldn't take it!
Even if she managed to leave King Halo behind in the early race, what then? If Silence Suzuka burned out on stamina, King Halo wouldn't even need to come up with a counter—Silence Suzuka would self-destruct on her own.
Nishizaki Ryu's thoughts were quickly interrupted by the race itself.
Because at that very moment, Silence Suzuka's state was being disrupted again. This time, she didn't even manage to enter her zone before being stopped. An expression of unmistakable bewilderment surfaced on her usually impassive face—she'd been blocked from behind by another racer!
El Condor Pasa wasn't just contesting position with her—she had set up an interference play right from the start. Silence Suzuka's weakness was being exploited to the fullest!
This was Tojo Hana's tactical setup.
Watching Silence Suzuka, Nishizaki Ryu cursed inwardly.
"You strategy-game players are dirty!"
When he set up tactics, all he ever did was tell his racers when to push and when to conserve energy. He didn't go out of his way to dissect his opponents' weaknesses—that kind of approach wasn't easy to pull off.
For one thing, this kind of strategy demanded an extremely high level of tactical execution from the uma musume. If Special Week were the one trying to execute it, with her brain, it would be a complete waste.
Another problem: how could you be sure your opponent's weakness was real? Even if the weakness was genuine before, how could you guarantee that in this particular race, the opponent hadn't already prepared a countermeasure for her own weakness? That was why strategy was the kind of thing that sounded great in theory—but in practice, the more complex the plan, the harder it was to actually get useful results in a race.
But what set Tojo Hana apart from ordinary trainers was that she possessed the [Eye] ability. That meant she had one hundred percent confidence in her own intel, and she could verify whether an opponent's weakness was genuine.
So as long as she had an uma musume under her command who could perfectly execute her tactical setup, Tojo Hana's strategies would work perfectly. Just like right now—Silence Suzuka's ability wasn't actually inferior to El Condor Pasa's, and this was even her area of specialty—but she was still being effortlessly manipulated by El Condor Pasa.
"..."
With her weakness pinpointed and exploited, Silence Suzuka couldn't even activate her skills smoothly anymore. She looked utterly distracted.
"Just as I thought—you're no match for me."
El Condor Pasa accelerated past Silence Suzuka in an instant, snatching the lead under everyone's stunned gaze. The entire spectator stands erupted into uproar—they couldn't believe that a Front-Runner as strong as Silence Suzuka would lose the opening positioning battle to someone running Front-Runner for the very first time. Was El Condor Pasa really that strong?
Special Week, running behind them, felt her pupils tremble.
"What's going on—how could Suzuka-san lose to El Condor Pasa at a moment like this? This kind of thing... this can't be happening!"
Grass Wonder was running just behind Special Week. Watching the dazed Silence Suzuka up ahead, she silently cheered: El Condor Pasa, well done!
"Trainer, then let's go with what you said. King Halo—come on, show me your full power!"
A thrilled grin tugged at the corner of El Condor Pasa's mouth.
She immediately began unleashing skills as she sprinted forward.
She wasn't using Flash-tier skills to maintain her speed, but her skills never stopped activating—the moment one skill's duration ended, she immediately chained the next one to keep the buff going.
Nishizaki Ryu and Silence Suzuka's problem simply wasn't a problem for El Condor Pasa. With 950 Stamina and an Advanced-tier recovery skill, she had every confidence she could lead from start to finish.
"King Halo, don't disappoint me."
El Condor Pasa fought down the urge to glance back.
If anyone caught up, she would immediately notice. And right now, she couldn't sense anyone behind her.
In other words...
King Halo hadn't chosen to follow.
"How disappointing. Are you the same as Suzuka—the type who can't race once she leaves her comfort zone?"
If that was really the case, El Condor Pasa felt she had overestimated King Halo. A racer with that kind of flaw might be powerful within her own domain, but she could never make a run at the world's top!
"El Condor Pasa is now running alone in the lead!"
"Silence Suzuka seems to have made a mistake—she's now trapped in the middle of the pack, and it looks like breaking out again will be difficult!"
"Number-one favorite, King Halo—she's right there, but from the look of it, is she planning to keep her strength in reserve and stick to her usual running style? But isn't that a little..."
The commentator didn't finish the sentence.
What he'd wanted to say was: wasn't King Halo being a bit slow on the uptake here? Sure, sticking to one's own running style was generally the right call, but anyone with eyes could see that El Condor Pasa's current strategy was specifically targeting King Halo. Continuing to stick to her usual running style at this point was getting dangerous—not to mention that El Condor Pasa's strategy already looked like it was working. The gap was beginning to widen.
Special Week hesitated.
In fact, it wasn't just her—the other competitors were also watching King Halo's movements. They could all tell that El Condor Pasa was stronger than they were, and among the racers entered today, only King Halo had the strength to face El Condor Pasa head-on.
So if King Halo wasn't moving, none of them knew whether they should chase El Condor Pasa or not. After all, both El Condor Pasa and King Halo were their biggest opponents in this race. If they focused all their attention on El Condor Pasa, they'd have no answer for King Halo when she made her move. The current situation had become extremely unfavorable for King Halo—El Condor Pasa's strategy was succeeding spectacularly.
The reason these other racers were holding back was that the fates of certain racers in the previous Satsuki Sho served as perfect cautionary tales. So even though they were rattled by El Condor Pasa's strength right now, anxiously watching the gap between themselves and her widening, none of them chose to make their move. They wanted to wait for King Halo to act first.
This too, was probably within Tojo Hana's calculations.
Right now, Special Week and the others were all thinking the same thing.
Maybe only by letting King Halo and El Condor Pasa wear each other down could they steal a victory from between these two monsters.
Meanwhile, far away in France—
Valiant Dancer was watching her daughter's race today together with her current student, Legacy World. Watching the scene unfold, Valiant Dancer felt her daughter had finally met a real opponent today.
"That trainer on the other side has serious skill."
It wasn't quite that the woman could see right through to the color of underwear her dear Halo-chan was wearing today, but it was close. Plus, that El Condor Pasa girl—she'd heard mention of her from Secretariat—was a junior with respectable talent.
In Valiant Dancer's view, her daughter Halo had over a seventy percent chance of losing this race. And that was even factoring in that Halo still had hidden strength in reserve. If the level Halo had shown at the Satsuki Sho really was her full power, the odds of losing would be considerably higher than seventy percent.
"Sensei, it looks like your daughter is going to lose."
"Oh?"
Even though Valiant Dancer thought the same thing, of course she couldn't say so in front of her own student. Besides, even if it was the truth, watching her own daughter being defeated this way—rather than through a head-on clash of pure ability—made her a little unhappy.
Of course, this was just her playing favorites.
Strategy was simply part of racing.
But it was her own daughter who looked like she was about to lose.
"Sensei, I know this might be presumptuous, but I have to say—your daughter has less of a future in this profession than that El Condor Pasa girl."
Although Legacy World addressed Valiant Dancer as "sensei," their relationship was more like that of friends than of strict teacher and student. So her current assessment of King Halo pulled no punches.
"..."
Valiant Dancer didn't know how to refute Legacy World's words. Because El Condor Pasa's talent really was excellent—a wide range of running-style aptitudes, Flash-tier skills that were highly versatile with few restrictions.
As for her daughter Halo's talent—
Honestly, Valiant Dancer didn't actually know right now.
And meanwhile, the tense race continued to unfold.
...
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