A sinister crimson glow, sharp as a blade and fierce as blood, flashed through Dream Weaver's eyes—eyes deeper than the night itself.
That fleeting scarlet seemed an ill omen, making Narita Brian's nerves snap taut. But before her alertness could fully form, agony struck.
In an instant, the world transformed into a mountain of knives, a pit of torment. The falling rain was no longer water, but countless icy blades piercing through her racing silks, deep into the marrow.
Beside her ear, the metallic hum of a drawn sword erupted—an ethereal, demonic blade reeking of blood emerged from the void, slashing toward Narita Brian's slender neck.
Her body moved before her mind. Brian threw herself forward, narrowly evading the lethal strike.
Yet that split-second evasion broke her rhythm. The sodden turf and muddy ground seemed to devour her footing.
And she was at the curve's most treacherous point.
Centrifugal force pulled her low, nearly scraping the ground. The disrupted rhythm pushed her balance to the brink—one misstep from failure.
But she was no ordinary Uma Musume. With explosive force born of hardened muscle, she stomped the earth, wrenching her leaning body back on course.
Just as Brian regained her stance, before she could even catch her breath, a scorching wind assailed her again.
The cool curtain of rain suddenly boiled, turning into waves of suffocating heat. Her stamina, already drained from the uphill stretch, crumbled like a breached dam. Her legs faltered; the comeback she'd mustered vanished into nothingness.
"A Zone? And fully unleashed?!"
Gritting her teeth against the searing pain covering her body, Brian forced her way through the scorching rain.
To defy her instinct to flee, she bit her lip until she tasted blood—the metallic tang her only fuel to press onward.
The finishing move she had prepared became a mockery before Dream Weaver's fully unleashed zone.
The fierce duel Brian had envisioned—clashing fangs with one of her own kind—was rendered impossible by that cold, sharp demon blade.
Defying the deadly sensation creeping up her neck, she lifted her head with effort. Her sharp golden wolf-like eyes, now dimmed with pain, could barely pierce the rain.
Yet ahead, that crimson streak burned even brighter, fiercer than before, cleaving through wind and rain as it charged toward the finish.
"How… is this possible?"
Brian couldn't fathom where Dream Weaver found the stamina. Leading the pack was already brutally draining, let alone maintaining a zone in the rain.
And they had just endured a punishing uphill stretch. Even if she recovered slightly on the curve, there was no way she had enough left to fuel a full-powered zone.
Not to mention, Dream Weaver had no time to recover!
Brian had been hot on her heels. To keep her lead, Dream Weaver hadn't slowed in the curve—she'd accelerated.
Under such strain, how could she possibly have stamina to spare?
What Brian didn't know was that Dream Weaver had glimpsed the path to victory the moment she stepped onto the track.
A 3000-meter lead while maintaining a zone? The old Dream Weaver could never have endured.
But Dream Weaver, inheriting Northern blood, was now free of stat limitations. Upon entering this scripted world, her endurance was already rank A.
Once she learned her goal was long-distance racing, she devoted nearly all her time to endurance training. Compared to the elusive "guts," stamina was far easier to improve.
So by the time Dream Weaver stepped onto the stage of the Kikuka Shō, her endurance wasn't just A—it was A+.
That "+" was a significant boost, yet still insufficient for a 3000-meter lead. But she also had skills and items supporting her.
On the rainy Kyoto Racecourse, the hidden "Tokyo Swift" skill activated, boosting her stamina in the rain.
And the item "Banner Against the Tides," obtained from her last script world clearance, further enhanced her endurance in adverse conditions.
Combined, her endurance, while still labeled A+, was now not far from the crown-like S rank.
Not to mention her guts were also rank A. "Second Wind," triggered when her stamina depleted, granted her another burst for the final sprint.
And from the very start, by maintaining a low-intensity zone and leading the pack, Dream Weaver had manipulated the psyche of every racer. The entire field had fallen into her rhythm.
She could accelerate whenever she wished. The others, watching her retreating back, had no choice but to push themselves to keep up.
While she recovered, they remained tense, not daring to relax, their eyes locked on that crimson streak.
The duel Brian envisioned never existed.
Before Brian even bared her fangs, Dream Weaver was already sharpening her demon blade.
Victory favors the prepared. And Brian, accustomed to weaker rivals, was not prepared.
Though she yearned for a clash with her own kind, her two easy wins in the earlier classic races had lulled her into complacency.
Her fangs were not yet honed to perfection when Dream Weaver unsheathed her own razor-sharp demon blade.
Like an assassin lurking in shadows, Dream Weaver gripped her bloodthirsty blade, revealing its true edge only at the final moment—raising the demon sword "Murasame" to strike down Narita Brian, who stood on the verge of triple crown glory.
The blade flashed. The throne was split in two.
And the red characters flashing across the giant screen in the rain seemed like blood made manifest—the blood her demon blade must drink.
First Place: Northern Dreams.
Her black racing silks, reminiscent of a hussar's uniform, were obscured by the distant rain, hiding her features. The golden emblems of past glory were dull under the gray sky.
Only the crimson cape on her right shoulder, red as fresh blood, was seared into everyone's eyes.
With her own blade, she had cut down Narita Brian, the would-be king, and dyed her cape with the scent of iron-rich blood—now flapping fiercely in the stormy wind.
As they watched that crimson streak flying through the rain, the entire Kyoto Racecourse fell silent because of Dream Weaver.
She had won the Kikuka Shō. With her demon blade, she had severed Narita Brian's path to coronation.
And in doing so, she also cut through everyone's expectations.
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
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If you guys wanna check it out.