Ch.350[Episode 350] Event: Race

“Ugh!”

Another team had just been eliminated.

Strangely, it was a team riding a train made of Lego, which was hit by a meteor falling from the sky and shattered into pieces.

“Lady Hime! Debris at 3 o’clock!”

“Got it!”

The Matsuri, ridden by Sir Dominic and Unryu Hime, was in relatively good condition.

Overall, they were only in 7th place.

Considering the Matsuri’s amazing speed, this wasn’t particularly meaningful, but they were currently in the middle of an event race.

The fact that they had avoided all sorts of adversities with the Matsuri, which could be severely damaged by even the slightest touch, was truly remarkable.

Hime needed to avoid the debris following Sir Dominic’s warning.

Having already passed the intersection, Hime kept the front wheels as they were and switched tracks, beginning to run on two rails at once.

Of course, this was something that could rarely be successfully done even in Gacha Land, but whether it was thanks to the influence of Sir Dominic’s [Cinematic] or because Hime’s driving skills were that good, the double-track drift was executed successfully.

The debris passed by the Matsuri with a very narrow margin, just two or three sheets of paper’s width.

The last piece of debris actually scraped along the side of the Matsuri, leaving a gash, but thanks to their excellent response, there was no major damage.

After overcoming danger once more, Hime immediately returned the train to a single track.

The double-track drift was good for getting through emergencies or keeping opponents in check, but it was quite taxing on the locomotive.

“The skill cooldown is complete! Now we can safely get through once—”

“Look ahead! Kraken!”

Hime had informed Sir Dominic that her special skill was recharged.

However, this harsh event seemed unwilling to give them time for such chatter, continuing to push Sir Dominic and Hime to their limits.

The Kraken’s massive tentacles writhed in the air before crashing down toward the Matsuri.

The tentacle, looking like a gigantic pillar, came down like a whip tearing through the air, and its position was so precarious that the Matsuri might be smashed to pieces if it hit.

Sir Dominic was at least a tanker, and his stats were reflected in the vehicle, so it was in decent shape, but the Matsuri with its weak durability had only two options to deal with that tentacle: either pass by at a faster speed or somehow endure the tentacle once.

Naturally, Hime chose the former, but unfortunately, there was a lead runner on the track the Matsuri was running on.

It was a fortress-like locomotive covered with copper and brass armor plates.

“This is troublesome, isn’t it?”

Koume, holding a shuriken cannon, said.

“I can’t block it with the shuriken cannon!”

“It’s okay. I can use my skill now.”

Koume frantically scattered shurikens toward the tentacle and the locomotive ahead in panic, but what could mere shurikens do?

However, Hime seemed relaxed, as if she had a clever solution to this situation.

The tentacle slowly descended.

It seemed to be coming down slowly because the tentacle was so huge, but in reality, it was being swung at several times the speed of sound.

The sound of air being torn apart was as loud as thunder.

A terrible noise, different from a whip, deafened their ears.

Sir Dominic raised his shield and stayed close to the Matsuri.

He was preparing to minimize the damage to the locomotive.

However, Hime told Sir Dominic to stay away.

“Sir Dominic! I’m going to use a skill, so please keep your distance! We might collide if you’re not careful!”

After saying that, Hime suddenly began to increase the locomotive’s speed.

The fortress locomotive ahead was extremely slow, so the Matsuri soon came close enough to collide with it.

At the same time, the tentacle landed on the ground.

Sir Dominic thought his vision had suddenly darkened.

When the tentacle elastically stuck to the ground, it became like a sealed room with no light entering.

Fortunately, Sir Dominic was a tanker and had damage reduction skills, so he didn’t suffer much damage from the tentacle’s attack.

At most, the spider tank’s side mirror was slightly crooked.

However, Sir Dominic wasn’t in a good mood because the Kraken’s tentacle was emitting an unpleasant slime that was very slippery and sticky.

The Kraken raised its tentacle again.

Having attacked once, it needed to assess the situation and prepare for the next attack.

Sir Dominic’s vision brightened again.

As the tentacle lifted from the ground, light began to enter again.

As soon as the tentacle was raised, Sir Dominic first looked for the Matsuri.

He needed to perform his escort duty, but first, he wanted to confirm that the Matsuri was intact.

“Hmm.”

Sir Dominic looked in the direction where the Matsuri had been moments ago, but it wasn’t there.

Instead, there were only crumpled metal plates from top to bottom, but fortunately, there were no remains that looked like they belonged to the Matsuri.

They must be the remains of the locomotive that had been blocking the Matsuri’s path.

Sir Dominic looked a bit further ahead.

“That’s a relief. It seems fine.”

And there was a ghost train running past the locomotive that had been blocking the way.

What exactly had happened just now?

…

Just before the tentacle fell, Hime had moved very close to the locomotive blocking her path.

Then, instead of slowing down, she began to move forward even faster.

And just before the tentacle touched the ground, Hime used her special ability.

[Phase Shift].

The skill that traverses between the material world and the spirit world manifested throughout the entire locomotive.

The locomotive transformed into a ghost-like state before touching the tentacle, allowing it to avoid the attack.

Moreover, there was something else that could be done while traversing between the material and spirit worlds.

It was the ability to pass through locomotives in the material world.

How could anyone stop a train running on a spirit realm path different from the material world?

Thus, Hime’s Matsuri was able to avoid the Kraken’s attack while simultaneously overtaking those blocking the way.

Of course, this only applied to Hime and the Matsuri.

It had nothing to do with Koume’s survival.

However, Koume also managed to survive the previous attack.

The details won’t be disclosed here as they involve ninja secret techniques, but roughly speaking, she was able to avoid the Kraken’s attack with ninja arts.

…In other words, she luckily dodged it due to her evasion stat.

“Everyone is safe.”

Sir Dominic said with relief through the radio.

“We should be fine if we continue like this.”

“That may be true, but—”

Sir Dominic glanced around.

The Kraken’s attacks continued, but it seemed unlikely that the next attack would be directed at Sir Dominic.

There were many teams left, so the Kraken’s attention was divided.

Sir Dominic and Hime were relieved by this fact.

That’s when it happened.

“Shell from 6 o’clock! Shell incoming from 6 o’clock!”

“—What?”

Suddenly, a massive shell flew from behind them.

A black bomb-shaped shell with a white skull drawn on it.

…

Sir Dominica and Tsuki moved slower than the other teams.

They chose the rear position, which was relatively comfortable to move in thanks to the front teams drawing all of the Kraken’s aggro.

Of course, their Yukionna had the disadvantage of being slow because too much attention had been paid to attack power.

“It’s slow, but very safe. I like it.”

“Right?”

Sir Dominica quite liked this locomotive, which was slower than others but had strong firepower that allowed for both offense and defense.

Surprisingly, the Yukionna was so powerful that it could block the Kraken’s attacks.

Another tentacle attack came down above them.

At that moment, the huge cannon loaded on the back of the Yukionna spewed fire.

The cannon fired an enormous shell toward the tentacle.

The shell, reaching just short of the tentacle, immediately oxidized into a huge flame with a tremendous explosion, so powerful that the tentacle forgot about attacking and started looking for another target.

Truly a locomotive that embodied the saying “offense is the best defense”!

While other locomotives were being devastated, the Yukionna was operating as safely as possible.

Of course, the large cannon made it difficult to respond to minor variables, but even this was protected almost perfectly by Sir Dominica’s escort.

“At this rate, all the other teams will self-destruct.”

The armored warrior participating as a gunner snickered.

“Aren’t we going to get first place?”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

Tsuki dismissed the warrior’s words.

“We might place in the rankings, but first place will be difficult. The other teams are quite formidable too. Above all…”

Tsuki slightly turned her head to look ahead on the track.

“Sister Hime won’t be such an easy opponent.”

“…? Lady Tsuki?”

Tsuki rekindled her determination, vowing to do her best.

At that moment, the warrior called out to Tsuki as if he had discovered something.

“Isn’t that Lady Hime’s locomotive?”

“What?”

The warrior pointed down the hill as he spoke.

This course had a downhill path, with tracks zigzagging along the hill.

People at higher elevations could see those at lower elevations.

Tsuki turned her head to look down the hill at the warrior’s words.

And indeed, she noticed Hime’s Matsuri was there, just as the warrior had said.

Tsuki clicked her tongue at the considerable distance, but soon thought of a clever move.

“Let’s give my sister a present.”

“Pardon?”

“Let’s feed her a cannon shot.”

Tsuki realized that the angle was perfect for a magnificent cannon shot.

Without Hime, they would almost certainly secure third place.

Perhaps they could even aim for first place?

When else would they have a chance to check her?

All sorts of thoughts ran through Tsuki’s mind.

And she came to a one-word conclusion.

“Fire.”

“Yes!”

At Tsuki’s command, the warrior immediately aimed the cannon at the Matsuri.

And he fired the cannon, predicting the path it would take.

This cannon would fly for about a dozen seconds before hitting the Matsuri.

This was just before the Matsuri was about to be attacked by the tentacle.