Uma Musume: From Being Knocked Ten Meters Away

Chapter 405 An Unforeseen Dire Situation

Feeling the approaching chaos, the Northern Black Horse couldn't help but look back again.

Before anyone knew it, the two seniors, Zhongshan Festival and Dongbao Lone Wolf, had been left behind, while the two seniors, Golden Master and Great Shock, followed closely behind like shadows.

On the inner track, the Golden Master's signature long golden hair was no longer flowing and smooth, but rather somewhat disheveled, covered with mud and water, making it look much heavier.

It is with this sense of weight that the senior’s arm swings and steps appear even more sharp, each arcing movement cutting through the distance between himself and others.

From the outer path, with even heavier muffled thuds and ripples of mud, it seemed to be in sync with the master craftsman, relentlessly closing in.

"It shouldn't be like this..." With this thought popping into his mind, Beifang Xuanju gritted his teeth.

As the competition progressed, everything deviated from the pre-set "scenario simulation".

She had expected the situation to be a tug-of-war with her pursuers, but the pursuit and pincer attack by two top seniors prevented her from entering the ideal situation, and she was also unable to accurately judge when they would catch up from behind.

What's worse is that there has been no change in terms of physical exertion compared to pre-match predictions.

The muscle soreness is becoming sharper, and the tingling and numbness caused by lactic acid buildup is becoming more clearly perceptible.

Each step felt incredibly difficult, like pulling rusty gears, accompanied by a burning, stinging pain.

However, when she realized these things, she didn't have time to analyze or judge them. She was shocked to find that the two seniors who were more than ten or even twenty meters away when she turned her head just now were now at a position where she could clearly perceive the dense pattering sounds they were making on the muddy track.

She could even distinguish the breathing from behind, one inside and one outside, and even hallucinate that the hot air exhaled from those breaths was spraying directly onto the back of her neck.

Feeling its advantage rapidly diminishing like the receding tide, the Northern Black Steed gritted its teeth once more and let out a muffled roar from its throat.

She could tell that she still had enough energy left, at least enough to maintain her current speed and finish the last leg of the race.

However, just as she was about to unleash all her remaining strength, a roar from behind completely suppressed it all.

"Right now!"

The roar was like a bomb that could pierce eardrums, accompanied by eerie bursts of water and thunderous footsteps.

As if startled, the Northern Black Steed turned sharply toward the direction of the sound, only managing to catch a glimpse of a golden afterimage like lightning.

The next second, she instantly realized that it was the last step of the master goldsmith she had experienced before.

Realizing this, a familiar sense of oppression, accompanied by a fleeting afterimage, swept over them. At the same time, a similar terrifying commotion and momentum suddenly erupted from the outside.

Completely unaware of how his gaze shifted, once his eyes regained focus, the Northern Black Steed could only see:
Like a dark torrent, it had previously been running on the unobstructed outer lane, but now, with this perfect choice, it had avoided all competition and was already half a body length ahead of her.

Watching helplessly as his two seniors surpassed him one after the other, Beifang Xuanju's mind went blank, and his heart suddenly skipped a beat, as if it were about to shatter his ribs, thumping loudly.

She could hear the muffled thuds of mud splashing into her rapid breathing, and every hair on the back of her neck trembled.

Every step felt like walking on a knife's edge. The protests of the muscles came from the distant nerve endings, but were drowned out by the sharp tinnitus brought on by the adrenaline.

My vision began to blur, and the finish line twisted into a strange arc in my swaying field of vision.

Northern Black Horse forced himself to focus, but could only helplessly realize that the remaining track, the finish line, and the two figures, one gold and one black, were distorted into a terrible oil painting in his field of vision.

However, inexplicably, she suddenly felt her breathing stop abruptly, and all her senses went to zero in that instant: the weight of the mud, the resistance of the wind, the panting of her opponent—all of these disappeared.

All that remained was the thunderous roar of his heart pounding against his chest, striking every nerve like a war drum.

She could feel something breaking deep within her spine, a dormant force bursting forth, bringing a searing pain that swept through her entire body. "No...no...I can't stop here!"

She didn't know if it was a thought that popped into her head or a roar that actually came out of her mouth.

All she knew was that after she yelled, her voice was torn to shreds by the oncoming gust of wind, and her vision became increasingly distorted.

The golden figure of the Gold Master suddenly blurred, and the shocking black outline also became illusory.

The world ahead was reduced to just the finish line, and the white light grew brighter and brighter, illuminating her face, contorted with tension.

Sweat dripped from her brow bone, her eyelashes trembled violently, and her pupils burned with a ruthlessness she herself had never seen before.

"Come on—!"

This time, her roar was completely a shout from her mouth, because after that shout, she could truly feel her skull going numb from the sound:

"Let's see...who lasts the longest!!"

Following that same roar, his already nearly depleted physical strength suddenly erupted like a volcano.

Her arm swings became so frequent that they were almost invisible to the naked eye, and with each push of her arms, she kicked the mud into a fan-shaped brown curtain.

The bulging veins in her right leg muscles almost burst through her skin, and her figure shot out like a compressed spring.

The airflow created impacts behind and beside her, and these impacts, like explosive rocket propellant, allowed her to catch up with the Golden Master in an instant.

In an instant, it caught up with the great shock again.

As if unaware that their junior had overtaken them just moments before was now overtaking them again, the two female racehorses, who had briefly taken the lead in this race, were simply unleashing a speed just as terrifying as that of the Northern Genko.

In an instant, the routes of the Northern Black Steed, the Golden Master, and the Great Shock drew ever closer.

Three shadows intertwined in the mud, forming complex geometric patterns. The mud churned into boiling brown waves beneath their feet, and each intersection was accompanied by a violent collision between their bodies.

Their tails tangled in the collision and the gust of wind, each flick sending mud splattering onto each other's necks.

Witnessing the final and most intense moment of the match, the audience outside the stadium erupted in astonishment and cheers.

The most excited one was still Golden Ship, who was thrilled from beginning to end. At this moment, she was hanging on the railing, frantically slapping the railing: "Oh oh oh oh! Well done, Xiao Bei! It was an absolute monster-level burst of energy!"

Yi Lutong shook his head in agreement: "Indeed...it's amazing. I feel like this level of explosive power might even be much stronger than yours, A-Chuan..."

Almond-eyed, her voice trembling with excitement, exclaimed, "We won! Senior Xiaobei is going to win! She can definitely win!"

The athletes, including Roaring Thunder, Crown Satomi, and others who came to cheer on the next race, as well as spectators like Kozumi Satomi, shouted their hearts out towards the track, just like the spectators at the race.

However, amidst this astonishment and excitement, some people remained calm.

The East Sea Emperor and McQueen Megumi exchanged only one glance at each other, and after seeing the admiration and amazement in each other's eyes, they nodded in tacit agreement.

Many trainers kept a close eye on the three female racehorses at the front of the race, especially the Northern Black Horse in the center.

Yasui Makoto also gazed at his racehorse companion, then, glancing at the 200-meter marker out of the corner of his eye, nodded with a mixture of satisfaction and regret, shook his head, sighed, and whispered:
"Although we still achieved our goal, it's a pity... the tipping point is approaching..."

(End of this chapter)