Silver Tear shot forward like a fired bullet, each step pulverizing the ground as the distance between her and the pack began to narrow down in real time. Wind brushed past her ears, pressure crushing against her face as the world had narrowed into lines and vectors.
Her legs propelled against the grass. At that moment, an engine had roared to life.
Everything in Silver Tear's perception was moving backward, except her. She was still in the phase of accelerating.
The effect of the buff was amazing.
At first, she wasn't accustomed to this kind of abrupt acceleration.
If she failed to control it, that kind of speed could make her fall. And falling at such high speed? She'd be directly put in the hospital for months.
Thankfully, her flexibility absorbed the strain while she grew used to it.
One second.
The distance began to visibly shrink.
Her eyes locked ahead. The pack was nearly a hundred meters in front of her. Even so, Silver Tear didn't panic. She drew in breath after breath, steady and measured, refusing to let her rhythm fracture.
She let the speed build up. Her gradual momentum had been set into motion.
Two seconds.
The runner at the very back felt it first.
At first, she thought something was wrong with her breathing. The air behind her had grown heavy like something massive was forcing its way through it. Then came the sound of hooves.
The heavy sound did not fade but instead kept growing in her ears.
A deep, relentless pounding that swallowed the track itself.
Three seconds.
Then the others felt it too.
A mounting pressure pressed against their backs. A presence, vast and merciless, advancing without hesitation. A solemn gaze swept across them, unseen yet unmistakable.
It felt like a blade poised at their spines.
'Move aside. Or be run through.'
At that moment, the hundred-meter gap was no longer a gap at all.
Four seconds.
Panic rippled through the pack. Their formation wavered.
Five seconds.
Silver Tear had arrived.
Her presence slammed into the rear of the pack like a shockwave. The formation shattered instantly. Runners faltered, strides breaking as instinct screamed at them to get out of the way.
"Nani?!"
"Where did she come from?!"
There was no time to react.
Gasps tore through the field as Silver Tear plunged into the swarm, her silhouette blurring between bodies. One Uma buckled under the pressure and veered off the outer lane—
—and in that single opening, a terrifying smile crept onto Silver Tear's lips.
She didn't slow down one bit.
The momentum she had built over those five seconds of the buff didn't vanish. Her trajectory shifted outward, her speed climbing even higher as she converted straight-line force into fluid movement.
"This is it! The path to my victory!!"
Silver Tear lowered her posture further and began to weave.
She brute-forced her way through the outer lane. Every step landed heavily on the track. No adjustment required.
It took exactly 2 seconds to reach the space just behind the front cluster from the last of the pack.
The leader felt her immediately.
Something was closing in from the side.
A cold, absolute pressure settled on their backs, like a hand tightening around their spines. Their legs screamed in protest. Every breath made their lungs feel like they were burning. They pushed harder out of sheer terror.
No! This wasn't right!?!
One of them dared to glance sideways.
What she saw was Silver Tear's face.
It was utterly cold and detached.
Silver Tear's bored eyes seemed to say.
"Stay out of the way. If you don't want to get hurt."
In that instant, the realization struck.
Silver Tear wasn't looking at them at all.
Only the road ahead existed in her eyes.
She passed them.
Their rhythms shattered. Their pacing collapsed. The pack reeled, broken by a monster that never acknowledged their existence.
And all of it—
From the instant she accelerated to the moment she seized the lead—
Had taken only eight seconds.
Behind her, hearts thundered. Instincts screamed as they chased the horse girl already pulling away, every step fueled by desperation rather than hope.
Silver Tear adjusted her stride. Her gaze stayed forward, her calm fully restored.
"…Alright. Now that every obstacle's been cleared, I can run properly."
She surged ahead, speed rising instead of fading. Her A+ stamina carried her effortlessly through the race.
That moment, she had become an unyielding force that captured the whole race course.
____________
But on the sidelines—
Rudolf said nothing.
Her arms were folded, posture rigid, eyes locked onto the lone figure pulling ahead. She had seen countless races, countless prodigies. She had witnessed miracles born from grit, tactics, and timing.
But this was none of those.
"…Eight seconds total." Rudolf murmured under her breath.
Five was used to erase a hundred-meter gap.
The next two were to dismantle the pack.
The remaining one to take the lead.
Her nails pressed lightly into her sleeve.
"This isn't a mock race anymore." She continued quietly. "It's a public execution for those girls' hopes and dreams."
Rudolf understood something the runners on the track could not yet articulate. Silver Tear could have seized the victory at the start, but she didn't. She had deliberately chosen to start late to give the other Uma Musume a chance to beat her.
It was a complete look down on the horse girls who participated in the mock race.
And that terrified her a little. She couldn't help but wonder if she and Silver Tear ran against each other, who would win.
Nearby, Maruzensky had stopped smiling.
At first, she'd watched with casual interest, amused by the late start, entertained by the audacity of it. But the moment Silver Tear entered the pack—
Her breath caught.
"…Hey. That's not fair." Maruzensky whispered, eyes wide, voice stripped of its usual playfulness.
She leaned forward without realizing it, fingers tightening around the railing.
She remembered that feeling.
When someone passes you, and you know in that instant, you're not in the same race anymore.
Maruzensky had lived through eras where speed defined legends. She knew what an overwhelming pace looked like.
This was different.
This was a pressure that crushed the will before the body gave out.
"…Worst of all, she didn't even look tired at all." Maruzensky said softly. "She looked… bored."
Rudolf closed her eyes for half a second.
"Hah… That's the worst part." She replied. "If she'd struggled, they could chase her."
Her gaze sharpened as Silver Tear settled into the lead, stride smoothing out, presence absolute.
"But now." Rudolf continued, voice grim. "Even the will to fight back was lost."
On the track, the other Uma Musume ran on in silence, legs moving, hearts hollow.
On the sidelines, two legends watched the same scene and understood, far earlier than anyone else, what kind of existence had just stepped onto Tracen's track.
A calamity on the track.
_________________
A/N: 2 Chap today is a stretch bruh.
Btw, my 1 am is so peak!! Ts is so peak!!!