The race has become barbaric and some racers on the rear start to crash their vehicles onto each other. Ben's group isn't an exception. They're trying to crash on their rivals' cars.
A car hit Ben from the left and try to destroy his car. The navigator even opens their car's window and shoot some mud balls at Ben's car. Ben activates his car's magic shield to protect it from the mud balls.
Ben needs to get away from this group as fast as he can. He knows that crashing onto other vehicles will just slow them down. It is proved when the ones behind start to get left further. Those people just waste their speed to do the unimportant thing.
Ben guards his position and tries to move faster. But his opponents also keep moving faster while trying to crashing Ben's car. He gets overtaken, then he overtakes back, only to gets overtaken by other racers.
The racers in his group are crashing into each other. But they still prioritize their speed. They also have some skills when crashing onto another vehicle and when dodging or blocking the crash. So their battle is interesting to watch by the audience.
His group is consists of 4 vehicles. There are 3 magic cars, which are Ben and 2 racers with the old model car. The 4th one is a biker with an old model engine too. The biker is also attacking with his spells while dodging attacks by cars.
The racers except Ben have many experiences. They can keep up with Ben's car's speed without apparent exhaustion even when they try to crash onto other vehicles. So these racers must have a high amount of MP.
Ben's car is the fastest here, but he's not skillful enough to reaches the most front. The continuous attacks make him unable to move faster than his current speed. This rocky ground also makes it more difficult for him.
That's why the other racers in his group can overtake him many times. Ben is relying on his car's performance to overtakes them back. He also uses some weapons on his car to attack back and prevent the others from attacking like the wheels' weapons.
The rocky track finished after many kilometers. Now they enter a mountainous track with hills, uneven ground, cliffs, big rocks, plants, etc. This is a big challenge and the hardest track in this race.
Ben raise his car's air suspension to make his car higher. It will help his car avoid hitting some small rocks or logs on the way. On this track, vehicles' speed doesn't matter. Only skill matters here.
But Ben is used to this kind of terrain because his village is inside a forest and near a mountain. So he has driven through this kind of track many times.
Ben can drive faster than the others in his group and get closer to the front group. Ben can drive through the bad ground with ease. Then when the mountain track end, Ben is just a little behind the frontest group.
After the mountain track, they enter the forest track. It's Ben's everyday meal, so he uses this chance to move forward. He drives faster than the others even though he doesn't know this forest. But he is experienced with forest ground.
When they leave the forest, Ben has entered the front group. Surprisingly, Raymond is also skillful with a forest track. Raymond has left the group far behind and drives fast.
"He's not number 1 for nothing," says Ben while looking at Raymond who has gotten far.
They enter the last track now, which is an open ground with tall grass that can cover their sight. The most difficult thing in here is to find their way back to Capital and finish this race.
The other racers have their navigators look at the track. They have sunroofs on their cars for their navigators to get higher POV and search for their track. The 2 racers in Ben's group and Raymond in front also have their navigator find the route.
Ben doesn't have a navigator, so he uses another method. He uses his magic sense to detect other racer's positions. Ben locks his sense on Raymond and the 2 racers in his group.
It takes 15 minutes for them to leave the tall grass field. It's really wide and they can't find the way out fast enough. When they get out, the positions haven't changed at all.
They finally enter the highway near the Capital. They drive on the highway to the Capital. Ben drives faster to chase Raymond. The other 2 also drive faster and use all their MP.
Ben can't leave the 2 racers even after he uses almost all his car's power. Then they enter the city road again and it becomes difficult for Ben to overtakes or leave his group to chase Raymond.
On the city road, Ben become number 4 because the other 2 are faster on the city road. Then they enter the last road before reaching the finished land.
Ben uses this chance to move very fast and overtakes the others. The others also drive as fast as they can to keep their position. This long straight road will decide their fate in this tournament.
Ben lower his car's suspension to get more downforce and get faster. Ben push his gas full and put one of his hands on a blue button behind the steering wheel. He waited for some time and push the blue button.
The button is actually Ben's version of magic NOS. His car accelerates very fast and chases Raymond's car at the very front. His sudden acceleration makes everyone surprised. It even makes the host become very excited.
Ben moves very fast and gets closer to Raymond. Raymond realizes this and puts more magic power on his car to move faster. They reach the finish line side by side, but Raymond passes it first.
The audience gets very thrilled by the narrow win. Both cars have become very close and they move very fast before the finish line. It's very unusual because Raymond usually wins with a large gap.
The crowd cheers after watching some good battles in this race. They also never seen a car as fast as Ben's car. He has broken the record for top speed in this tournament.
Too bad that his gap with Raymond was too far. So he couldn't overtake him before the finish line. If the track is a little longer, then Ben will win. But that's not a reason at all.
Raymond, Ben, and the 3rd position will go to the podium now. They go to a room behind the podium first to have a little rest. In the room, Raymond approaches Ben and talks to him.
"Damn son, you're really fast back there," says Raymond to Ben.
"Well, I've prepared that for the end, but it's not enough to win. A 5-time champion is really different," says Ben lightly.
"It will change if the track is a little longer. Besides, you've surpassed the top speed record in this tournament. And I'm sure that speed will break every record for top speed anywhere," says Raymond.
Their conversation needs to be stopped because they need to come out. They go to the podium and get their prize for the race. Everyone cheers, especially for Ben who has made this race more interesting today.
Ben also feels really happy because of the good result in his first race. He doesn't win, but becoming a runner-up on his first race is unbelievable. But suddenly, Ben hears a deep manly voice in his head.
'Kid, come here!'
______________________________________________________________
Support me on Pa_treon if you like my story and want to read up to 25 chapters ahead of this novel and the other one. It will help me to buy internet data too.
I've uploaded Chapters 76 of this novel there today.
You can also become a character in the fanfic. Check out my page in the public announcement!
https://www.pa_treon.com/CaptMermain
(the web didn't use _underscore_, it's to avoid censorship)