ARRIVING AT THE DESTINATION, the group exited the car and walked to the construction site. There were only a few other riders who also decided to attend, and some of them hurled comments at them, most of which were directed mainly at Stephen.
"That's the guy trying to be the king?" a rider wondered. "Buddy looks like he's still in high school."
"He is," a rider next to him replied. "Don't be fooled, though. He definitely came here to check out the battlefield, sizing things up with those hawk eyes of his."
What Stephen was really doing was looking for the nearest bathroom. Willis was busy looking around to see how big the area was. He had never traveled outside of Utah, so he was taking everything in. Maxwell and Castiel were complaining to Kimberly because they had received detention despite filling in the trench back at school.
By the time the group was looking for a place to enjoy the main attraction, a man wearing a bull helmet with an orange visor approached them. Removing it, he revealed himself to be the team's leader, Clint Palmer. His face looked vaguely familiar, almost as if Stephen had met him before.
"Oh," Clint said. "You must be talking about my younger brother, Thomas, from the Rottweilers."
Stephen had never asked Thomas for his name when they met. Though the group referred to him as "Alpha," that didn't mean that was his name. Taking out his phone to show Stephen's group a picture, they saw the two brothers riding on a roller coaster together—and they looked almost identical. The thrill of coasters was enough of a reason for them to get into Dyna Blades.
Clint had heard all about how Stephen treated Thomas after their race. He thought his younger brother was joking when he told him that he had lost. Stephen humbled himself, stating that he only won because Thomas had stopped to rescue a puppy. This caused Clint to laugh, knowing how much of a soft spot his younger brother had for animals.
When Castiel asked about those two Road Riders trying to stop their car earlier, Clint apologized, stating that it was because they were driving on their territory. Placing his attention back on Stephen, he said, "I heard ya've got wings on your feet, hotshot."
Stephen grinned at the comment, deciding to shake his hand as a form of acknowledgment of being Road Riders. A bunch of Clint's teammates came by to tell him their match was about to start. Lifting up his shirt, it was revealed that Clint had been wearing a weighted belt the entire time. Even more interesting was how chiseled his muscular six-pack abdomen was.
"All my boys and I are participating, so mind keeping an eye on this for me," Clint asked.
Stephen reached to grab his belt. The moment Clint let go, Stephen's entire upper body fell to the ground, causing a booming noise!
"Careful, hotshot!"
Clint and Willis were about to help him pick it back up, but he held a hand out, stopping them from touching it. Stephen then lifted up the belt and holstered it over his shoulder like it hadn't bothered him.
"Haha!" Clint laughed. "Now I see how ya beat my brother, hotshot."
The team then departed as Stephen and his group found a convenient area to spectate the match. Standing several floors high above a platform, he set the weight down. In truth, he couldn't hold it any longer. It had taken him all his strength just to pick it up and walk up the stairs.
Any second sooner, his body would have collapsed. He stretched his shoulder, trying his best not to express the agonizing pain from just a few minutes of carrying the heavy object. Considering that Clint had been wearing it for much longer, casually removing it with one hand, he could only imagine how strong he truly was. This was the older brother of Thomas Palmer, the same man who stopped a semi-truck.
"Kim," Castiel asked. "Did your sisters tell you anything about Clint by any chance?"
"Yeah," she answered. "He's been riding for four years, the same amount of time it took him to get to a-rank." The group was stunned after hearing that. She further explained that if he wins this match, it'll be his third win. This prompted Stephen to ask what happens when an a-rank rider wins all of their matches.
Kimberly hesitated to answer at first, but she said, "He'll get a chance to climb 'Skytree Tower.'"
Stephen's next question was to ask what that was. However, a loud airhorn sounded. He was going to witness his first a-rank battle against two a-ranked competitors. The race: Drone.
Drone is the highest-ranked and most difficult battle in Wheels War. Carried out in a five-versus-five format, it's a team game where the winner is decided based on who can snatch both emblems first. Simple at first glance, but what makes the difficulty so extreme is that the emblems are hanging on a string attached to a quadcopter drone set on autopilot that is constantly moving around.
"So why does it take five people?" Maxwell asked.
Each person on the team plays a different role. Like a sport, the five roles are "Guard, Forward, Center, Receiver, and Kicker." Guards are responsible for defending their team from attacks. Forwards are in charge of attacking the other team. Centers have to try their best to assist the other roles, allowing them to act as either guards or forwards.
The two most important roles, however, are those of the receivers and the kickers. Kickers are responsible for chasing the drone. They are the only ones allowed to grab the emblems or touch the drone. If any other role touches either, their team is immediately disqualified. As for the receiver, they're responsible for luring the opposing team away by secretly pretending to be a kicker.
All the roles can be remembered based on their respective names. Guards defend, forwards advance, centers assist, receivers receive all the attention, and kickers—well, the whole game's a kicker.
And here's why: Whoever plays the kicker should not reveal themselves. Otherwise, the opposite team will make that rider their main target. The receiver has to do a good job pretending to be the kicker, giving the real kicker the opportunity to take the emblems. And if a team's kicker becomes immobilized, it's essentially the other team's win.
The playing field extends to wherever the drone flies. Since it's on autopilot, it randomly goes in and around objects, starting several meters above the ground. The more time that passes, the higher the drone ascends. Once it gets too high or becomes impossible for either kicker to receive their emblem, the race ends in a draw.
Offense, defense, speed, and strength are all essential. Individual skill alone isn't enough to ensure victory. If there's no teamwork, a poor game plan, or a weak formation, even a team full of a-ranked riders wouldn't be enough. That's what makes Drone the hardest race in Wheels War.
Standing in the center of the construction site were both teams. On one end was Clint's team. On the other was Team Nagini.
"Wait," Willis said. "Why's the other team only got two people?"
Stephen hadn't noticed at first, but one of those two was staring at him from below. It was the same boy he had met in the mysterious shop last night!
"I guess they're really confident," Kimberly answered.
Next to Nagini was a taller man with long black hair. His name wasn't on the roster, so they weren't entirely sure who he was. What struck them as odd was that he wasn't wearing any Dyna Blades.
"What're ya looking at?" Kimberly asked Stephen.
Down below, the man next to Nagini asked his partner the same question. The two were like animals, ready to strike at each other. It was as if a hawk was standing atop a branch, staring at the serpent hissing at it from the ground—almost as if it were telling that hawk that it would slither up that tree to bind it.
Their gazes separated when the horn sounded again, indicating the drone was at the right peak level for them to start. Clint dispersed his group of five to chase after it. Grinding up a large pipe, they each performed various tricks to twist and turn their bodies as they ascended. Following behind them was Nagini.
The bulls' team reached the top and jumped off to grind on the rails of a platform. One member stayed behind on the walkway to attack the incoming Nagini. Racing forward, he aimed a kick, but Nagini slid right under it. His serpentine flow made it look effortless.
Spin-turning, Nagini then kicked out his foot, releasing a thin red rope with a hook at the end. He then turned his body again, causing the rope to wrap around the other rider. Accelerating backwards, Nagini made the rider's body spin rapidly until he fell off the side of the rails. And just like that, the rider was rendered immobile.
"Is this for real?!" Castiel commented. "That kid did all that with his hands still in his pockets!"
Grinding backward on the rail, four ropes of about three meters each were seen trailing against the wind from Nagini's Dyna Blades. Nagini noticed that on the floor above him, a bulls member was grinding on the rail. Using the momentum, he turned his body and lunged toward the rider, flying right past him with a sadistic smile on his face.
The rider had just narrowly dodged but missed the ropes following behind Nagini's Dyna Blades. Two of the hooks latched onto the rider. Nagini then performed a complicated trick in mid-air, causing the hooks to violently slash away at his opponent. Blood spewed from the rider's body as he collapsed on the walkway.
"Just who the heck is that kid?!" Willis shouted. The whole scene had taken a drastic turn for the worst. They all thought this was going to be a normal race between two highly skilled teams—not a bloodbath!
Stephen's gaze turned to where Nagini's teammate was. Whoever that man was, he hadn't once put on his Dyna Blades. Rather, he was walking away from the area. It was almost like he already knew the outcome.
Returning to see Nagini, he watched as he skillfully dazzled the audience with his slithering, serpent-like movements. Little did he know, Kimberly was wondering how she had never heard of this rider before. With every movement and every trick, Nagini used the ropes to propel himself forward before executing near-impossible turns. Catching up to two more riders, he weaved past their attacks and flipped his body several times to slash at their legs.
The damage was so severe that the riders couldn't use their Dyna Blades anymore. Stephen looked to Kimberly for answers about what they were witnessing.
"That's not an a-ranked rider," she said. "He's far too strong, and there's something up with his partner, too."
The group agreed with her claims. A rider this talented would have had his name spread across the Dyna Blade world by now.
As they continued to watch, Nagini caught up to Clint. Clint turned around, prepared to fight. He was the last member of his team, so he had to be the kicker. Grinning sadistically at him, Nagini pounced forward.
Clint's eyes widened from inside his helmet. Before he knew it, Nagini's wheels had shattered his visor, knocking his helmet right off!
"Argh!"
Screaming in pain while holding his eyes, blood poured down his face. Not seeing where he was riding, his body tumbled over the rail. Nagini didn't seem satisfied, so he chased after him, jumping over the rail. When he looked to see where Clint had fallen, he realized Clint had managed to land inside the cabin of a tower crane.
Angered by Nagini's underhanded racing, Clint turned a lever to cause the jib to move. Where Nagini was falling was exactly where the jib was headed.
"Can he do that?" Maxwell asked.
The strangest smile covered Nagini's face. His eyes became bloodshot as he laughed at the incoming jib. "Ah-ha! I feel like I'm on fire!"
Nagini's Dyna Blades then created a high-pitched sound as the engines roared. A red light could be seen shining from the heels as the side bumper extended outward. His wheels then separated to give them the appearance of blades. Laughing like a maniac, he said, "This is what I live for! One wrong move and it's all over!"
"No matter how good you are," Clint said, "you can't dodge while in that position."
The instant the jib hit, Clint peeked outside to see what became of him. Many of the spectators were shocked to see Nagini grinding on the jib with his body bent backward!
"Is this the Road you sought for?!" he screamed. "Then I'll show you…"
Nagini broke through the cabin window and pushed Clint right out. Clint was about to land on the column just under the cabin until Nagini dove right after him. When he reached Clint, he twirled himself while extending his legs out in an acrobatic motion, causing Clint's body to be sliced from all different angles. He then kicked off him, allowing Nagini to safely land right on the edge of the platform. Everyone screamed as they saw Clint falling.
He wasn't moving. A fall from that height meant death. The ropes trailing with him suddenly tightened around Clint's body, causing him to hang in the air. His body was bleeding heavily, and he was clearly knocked unconscious from all the damage he had received.
Just above him was Nagini. "This is it; this is the lord's Venom Road!"