The stamina issue here wasn't about base stats. Those differences didn't matter as much as people thought. The real problem was rhythm distribution.
And that whole distribution thing came down to distance aptitude, stuff like that.
Every horse girl showed different performance depending on the race distance they ran.
Take mill-distance aptitude at A rank, for example. That horse girl could perform at 100% in mill-distance races. All 100 stamina points got used. Other attributes worked the same way.
But if mill-distance aptitude dropped to B? That same horse girl could only perform at 90%. Out of 100 stamina, only 90 actually did anything. The other 10 points just got wasted, no matter how hard she pushed.
The math wasn't perfect, but it was close enough to matter.
So right now? King Halo's stamina was already lower than Seiun Sky's, she could only perform at 90% efficiency, and they were running an medium distance. She didn't stand a chance.
"Oh, ho, ho, ho. Next time, I absolutely won't lose to you." King Halo bounced back the second she finished her run, mood doing a complete 180.
Seiun Sky just looked at her with this knowing smile, not saying anything.
The confidence was there now. Complete confidence she could beat King Halo. The aptitude gap made it almost unfair.
After few minute passed. King Halo came back with her head hanging low again.
She'd tried mid-pack running style this time, carefully conserving stamina with proper rhythm control. Still lost to Seiun Sky.
3-length difference. At least that was progress. Better than getting destroyed completely.
"King, you're not allowed to use that move you pulled in the practice race."
King Halo's gaze went sharp, locking onto Hayato. "That move I pulled in the practice race?"
Seiun Sky and Silence Suzuka turned to look too, curiosity all over their faces.
"That move where you wanna broke through from Seiun Sky in the final 200 meters." Hayato gestured with his hand, mimicking an acceleration burst. "Think of it as a running technique. I call it a skill. The strongest ones are called ultimate skills."
"Right! I know that one." King Halo's whole face lit up, like she'd just found hidden treasure or something. "I don't know why my speed suddenly shot up, but if I use it, won't I just win?" The trigger seemed to be accelerating in those final 200 meters, right?
Hayato figured he needed to spell this out clearly for her. "Same as Suzuka's final stretch acceleration, your move has a name too. It's called Call Me King." Hayato made sure she was paying attention. "The activation condition is simple. Stay calm throughout the entire race, then accelerate only in the final 200 meters."
There was actually another condition hiding under the surface. King Halo's position had to be 5th place, around 60% back in the fieldrace.
Breaking it down: 1st place was the leader. 2nd and 3rd were frontrunner territory. Frontrunner positions maxed out at five horses. Everything behind that counted as mid-pack.
Which meant this skill only worked from mid-pack.
In real races, Hayato planned to have her aim for 5th based on how things looked. Keep it safe. No point gambling on a failed activation.
"Really?! You said my ultimate skill are Call Me King??" King Halo's eyes practically sparkled. "That feels like it was made just for me. Um..." She turned toward Seiun Sky with this incredibly smug look. "Seiun, let's see if you're convinced now. I've got an amazing move too. In official races, maybe you're not going to be my match at all."
Seiun Sky's eyebrows scrunched up as she looked at Hayato with clear complaint written in her expression. "Trainer, they both have one of these things. How come I don't have one?"
"Uh..." Hayato went quiet for a while, obviously searching for the right words. "Actually, I did teach you. You were just too dumb to figure it out."
"What? When?" The words barely left Seiun Sky's mouth before it hit her. That whole fishing rod nightmare at Kokyo Lake flashed through her head. Her eyes went a bit wide. "There's no way.... It can't be that, right?"
Hayato nodded, completely serious. "That's exactly it. No need to doubt it. That's how your ability works. Why didn't it awaken? No clue. Maybe the method was off."
"I... is that so?" Regret twisted in Seiun Sky's gut when she thought about all those days swinging that stupid rod. She hadn't taken it seriously at all.
Though seriously, swinging a fishing rod makes you run faster? What kind of backwards logic was that?
Hayato turned back to King Halo. "Using your ultimate skill Call Me King drains your stats. Mental drain, mostly. If you use it, you won't be able to train after that, so don't go using it during practice."
"Got it. Hmph..." She shot Seiun Sky this look.
The provocation couldn't have been clearer.
King Halo was different from Silence Suzuka. Suzuka using her ultimate skill didn't mess with her head at all. King Halo though? Staying calm for an entire race ate up mental energy like crazy, like trying to hold back a flood with your bare hands.
Another medium-race later, Seiun Sky knocked King Halo down again, 6 lengths this time.
Seiun Sky had really gone all out on that one.
The sun climbed higher. By the time noon rolled around, they switched to 3000-meter long distance.
Seiun Sky's turn to dominate. Even Silence Suzuka with her Deep Breath skill found it brutal trying to run breakaway style for 3000 meters without gassing out completely.
Her long-distance aptitude was just too low. The performance she could squeeze out was pathetic.
Those final few hundred meters? Stamina tank hit empty. She could only limp through the rest at average speed. Nothing left for a finish.
King Halo didn't even need mentioning. Suzuka pulled a full seven or eight lengths ahead of her. Main reason being Suzuka had Deep Breath keeping her going.
In the end, only Seiun Sky could actually sprint at the finish line long-race.
With what Silence Suzuka had right now, running her debut race would be fine. No problems there. GI-level races though? Winning those was basically impossible.
The downsides of great escaper running style hit me in the face pretty hard.
But Hayato had taken responsibility for Silence Suzuka. No way he'd just let her lose.
"Suzuka, forget about rhythm and all that stuff." Hayato's voice carried encouragement. "Do it your way. Run however feels right to you. This is just training. Winning and losing doesn't matter here."
"Yes."
After that, Silence Suzuka stopped worrying about rhythm control or any of the things Air Groove had drilled into her. Just forgot it all and went searching for her own style instead.
Long distance wrapped up. They moved on to 1200-meter short distance.
King Halo finally got to show off her advantage here. Still couldn't beat Silence Suzuka though.
Suzuka knew absolutely nothing about short distance racing, but her style was going all out from the beginning. Didn't need to know the technical stuff when you ran like that.
She just couldn't build up too much distance at the start. When she slowed down at the turn, King Halo caught right back up. But coming out of that turn, Suzuka hit her ultimate skill and opened the gap again.
King Halo threw everything she had at it. Could only close the gap to half a length.
Time kept ticking by while they kept training.
The sun dropped toward the horizon, painting everything orange.
After proficiency reached a certain level, Seiun Sky awakened a skill-Corner Adept (Normal/Yellow)
Corner Adept (Normal/Yellow): Slightly increase velocity on a corner with skilled turning.
Finally. Someone actually awakened a skill. Took long enough that Hayato had seriously started thinking the whole training approach was busted.
Corner Adept was a yellow skill. All yellow skills helped boost speed in some way. People called them minor skills in the game. Only had two levels to it. Upgrade it once and it'd turn gold legend skill, Professor of Curvature.
Seiun Sky's corner proficiency shot up after awakening the skill, and her speed jumped up pretty noticeably with it. She started showing signs of actually catching King Halo in corner, which freaked King Halo out when she saw that gap shrinking.
King Halo's corner technique was improving through practice too, but it wasn't anywhere close to as good as Seiun Sky who'd actually awakened the real deal.
"Huh? My corner speed went up?" Seiun Sky's ears perked straight up in surprise. Yeah, she thought it was pretty wild too.