DISTANCE TRAVELED: 10.28 MILES
Michael and Trya ran through the desert. "How many racers have died already?" Trya looked at the pad in her hand that covered all of the race in real time. "About 30 people have met their demise. We're almost in the lead!" Michael smiled. "Really? What place are we?" he asked. Trya, pressing multiple buttons to discover their position in the race, smiled. "You're 12th, and I'm 13th!" Michael scoffed. "I sense something out of the blue coming at us at full speed… what could it be…?" Trya, looking behind herself, shrugged with no care in the world. "I don't really know. I've been feeling watched for about an half hour ever since we left Sunstone Village…?" Michael, unveiling a bomb on his racer tag, sighed. "If we leave the race route, our heads will be blown off. Be sure not to go outside the area of the raceway, or you won't live to see Embercliff." Trya smiled, her beautiful hair following her head. "Right!"
"For a kid, your predictions are high!" a man exclaimed in the distance, throwing multiple rounds of shurikens coated with lightning at both Michael and Trya. "I KNEW someone was coming after us!" Suddenly, a snake appeared out of the sand, narrowly missing Trya. "It's 14th and 15th place!" she exclaimed, looking back at the opponents. "We can't stop here, if we start a fight, more and more people will get ahead of us!" Suddenly, Michael let out a smile that nobody had ever seen before. "You can get a headstart, Trya. I'll catch up with you later!" he whispered. Michael, looking at the person that dared to interrupt his voyage to 10,000 dollars, scoffed with his pocket knife he clasped. "Who the hell are you!? Are you looking for a fight!?" Without a word, the man threw a bomb filled to the brim with poison gas onto the sand where Michael had been confronting him. But before it could even detonate, Michael countered the attack by throwing it back at the sender just to see a gas mask covering his face. "I'll keep you here. My alliance should be catching up to that wretched witch soon." Michael sighed. "Do I really have to battle you?" The man, adjusting his thick sunglasses with his blue hair, smiled in admiration. "Yes, you do. I'll be sure to kill you before I get knocked down to 20th place!"
ROBIN - A criminal originated in Ironhold with a bounty of 1,495,060
Jumping back onto the massive snake, Robin smiled back at Michael. "Chain Mouth, activate!" he exclaimed. Suddenly, a thick chain had come out of the mouth of the snake, leaving Michael in a clash with the massive force supporting it. "Now, Venom Bomb!" As the bomb rolled back down to Michael, he barely dodged it by teleporting 50 feet away, leaving him right in front of the explosion. Fidgeting with his pocket knife, Michael charged up to Robin. "I can't breathe when he detonated the bombs near me! I think he and his snake have the same attacks, however…" Before Michael could even conclude his thought, the snake had already charged back across the battlefield to him, ready to eat him in one gulp.
Michael sighed. "Focus…" he thought to himself. Zoning out in the middle of chaos, Michael had remembered one word Jayden had said to him while he was young but still training. "Lightning Mania!" he thought in his mind, experiencing the production of lightning on his palm. Now, it was back to the present, where Michael was currently battling Robin. "Don't let him out alive, Hawk! We gotta move on, under any circumstances!" Suddenly, a massive spell of silence was cast over the battlefield, marking an unexpected end to the battle - until Michael had cut through the body of the gigantic snake, making it squirm around with a feeling of hostility. "Shit! He got Hawk!?" Landing on the ground, Hawk closed his eyes before making a slight movement once again. Robin sighed. "Looks like I have to battle myself, now…" Suddenly, a massive dust cloud engulfed the entirety of the battlefield, giving Robin a massive advantage over Michael. "Before you die, I'll tell you my specialty! I was an Aybara reject! Now that the organization has fallen, I CAN DO MY OWN STUFF NOW! I CAN SEE THROUGH SAND LIKE GLASS, AND I CAN LIGHT YOUR SOUL, HEART AND BODY ON FIRE!" Switching his position, he had finally resorted to charging at Michael, who was still trying to focus his power on another perfect Lightning Mania. "Shit… that wasn't enough. Lightning Mania has to be at least as strong as Kevin's Exothiuium gun…" Using an eye glow to slow down time, Michael had finally gotten ahold of the power!" Suddenly, a massive lightning bolt emerged from the light sky, forcing the entire battlefield to set on fire and collapse. "I'VE FINALLY GOT IT!" Michael screamed in excitement. Focusing his vision on Robin once again, he charged across the battlefield. "FIRE ROPE!" Robin exclaimed, trying to wrap Michael up with the fiery inferno of chains. Dodging the rope, Michael had used his red eye glow to create an explosion, which was countered with the battlefield being completely covered with fire. Now that the battle was getting down to it's final stages, it was time for Michael to unleash the attack that would end it in one shot. "One shot… that's all I need," he thought to himself. "Kevin, Samantha, Gerald, Spooky… I'll survive this and win 10,000 dollars! NOTHING WILL STOP ME!" he exclaimed. Robin let out a warm chuckle. "If you think you or that idiot girl are going to win shit, think again! YOU'RE DYING HERE TO ME, RIGHT NOW! HAWK WILL BE AVENGED!"
Meanwhile with Trya, the woman continued to run to the city of Alya, where her father had last seen her. Shedding a tear, she ran into the city, unaware of the unfolding events that would happen when she and Michael would arrive at Embercliff.
TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT CHAPTER - Lighting Mania Prime! Michael's Desperate Attack!