"Every team member will be placed someplace differently," the announcer said as her bubble neared the runners. "The teams with only three or four members can choose racers to run the stretches they lack teammates for after the third or fourth stretch respectively."

Everyone except for Adela, Iah, Ashynna, Yen, Ulissis, a white haired, blue eyed boy called Marshall, and the green haired H.E.H. girl whose name was Aida, were warped away into different areas of the track.

"I'll run through the rules quickly. First off you are only allowed to use three spells. You aren't allowed to use space, time, or teleportation magic. Second you will each be given a baton with the flag of your country. You aren't allowed to throw the baton or roll it over to your next member. The third rule which relates to the first is that you are allowed to eliminate members by using your magic."

I glanced up at the big screen televisions spread throughout the stadium. The camera zoomed into the five who stayed back as they were handed a baton that resembled their flags.

"Get into your positions. Get ready...and start!" Adela, Yen, and Ashynna bolted out of the starting line while Iah and Aida started off slowly. Everyone else ran at a more moderate pace.

"What's with your team member?" I asked, turning to Azure.

Azure looked up and smiled. "'Buy your time, your opponent will tire soon enough'," he said, most likely reciting someone else's words. "Though cousin originally planned to have Darin run the first part... wonder why he switched spots."

"I bet it was cause he wanted to race Adela," Celeste said, giggling.

Right, those two mentioned having had a rivalry since kids.

Lei stood up. "Sister, slow down!" he yelled.

"She can't hear you," Eu said. "You might not have noticed, but since the race began, a one way sound proof barrier was put up. We can hear them, but they can't hear us."

"So our cheers are for nothing?" I asked.

"The sentiment is still there, though," Lei's uncle said, chuckling.

"Damn," Lei said. "Sis... slow down, don't exhaust yourself... that strategy... Iah used it against me when we first fought didn't he?"

"Seems that way," I said, nodding. "He kept taunting you to exhaust yourself... and he did the same with me." I chuckled. "In the end we were too much for him, as he was exhausted himself."

Lei nodded. "Right, Iah had to use a lot of energy to block our onslaughts."

"No way," Azure said, his eyes big. "You two are that strong?"

"You battled Iah?" Celeste asked, as intrigued as Azure. "So one of you two defeated my cousin?"

"It was me," Nyima said.

Celeste smiled at Astra. "I see you have quite the teacher."

Astra ate some popcorn that I had brought her on the way here. "Shh, papa should appear soon."

She was right, Yen was rapidly nearing the four mile mark of the first five mile stretch whose marker was near a museum. Sirius was ready to receive the baton. But Yen's speed was quickly starting to drop.

I turned my attention back to Iah who was far behind everyone else, having barely passed the one mile mark. He removed something from his wrists that caused dust clouds to cover his section of the track. He moved faster than I had ever seen him move. About as fast as Lei in fact! He quickly caught up to Ulissis who was a quarter mile away from him, all in the matter of mere seconds.

"Incredible," I said. "Why did he not show this speed off before?"

Lei stared at Iah in amazement. "He... he as fast as me... but how? Did he always have this kind of speed?"

Aotsuki grinned. "Yeah, but brother is an earth user."

"What does that mean?" Lei asked.

"She means that my son likes moving slowly," a woman said. I looked up and saw a black woman with raven hair and dark chocolate colored, almond shaped eyes. "My son actually learned that style from another earth user. One who used a shield as weapon, as odd as that might sound."

A shield as a weapon? What kind of fighting style was that? Speed but with a weapon meant for defense...

"You're that lady who escorted me during the trial!" Lei said, gasping.

She smiled at him. "Yes that was me. My son told me to watch over you."

"Here I thought he didn't care about my brother going to jail," Kun said, crossing his arms over his chest.

She smiled and turned her eyes back to her son. "Iah is a good kid... even though he can be cynical and snarky at times."

"Look, brother is almost caught up to your sister!" Aotsuki said.

Lei and Kun turned their attention back to the track and saw Iah starting to close the distance with Yen who was a few meters aways from Sirius. The boys looked as if they wanted to scream but they held it in.

*Ulissis*

Iah was fast, I didn't think he could move that fast. At first I had thought that he had used something to cheat but it started to look to me like it was his natural speed as he started to slow down as he made his way to Orichalcum.

"That guy must have some good genes," the green haired girl from H.E.H. said.

"I think it's his hard work, or a mix of both," I said.

"Why haven't you used any magic to slow the rest of us down?" she said as she ran ahead of me.

I sped up. I was still quite a distance away from Alto. "I don't want to," I lied. I ran past her. We were the ones at the very end.

"Ulissis," Alto yelled. He reached out his hand for the baton. "After this go to the 4th runner mark. Aban or I will run the final stretch to allow Arima to rest for the next event."

So, Arima is more of a substitute should one of us three get hurt. "Sounds good to me!" I said as I handed my baton over to him.

The H.E.H. girl handed her teammate her baton. Her teammate ran fast, almost as fast as Iah did. I guess it was to be expected from a guy with an athletic build like the one he had. Alto luckily was keeping up well, but that didn't surprised me either. Alto after all was the most athletic of our team. Had Alban not taken up smoking, he likely would've kept up with Alto's performance. Not that he was shabby. Alban could still run faster than me. Now, boxing was the area where I excelled at. Though Alban and Alto were good at it too...

"Your teammate is interesting," the girl said. "Oh right, I'm Aida. You are?"

"I'm Ulissis. I have to go to the next mark soon so I can't talk."

"That's fine," she said, following me. "My team also only has four members participating, so one of us has to run again."

"No offense but you're not the fastest in your team. Wouldn't it be better if one of your teammates ran instead?" I asked.

She chuckled. "I didn't show anything at all. In fact my team already planned to use me to fill in the empty spot since the beginning, why else do you think I saved my strength? Is it not the same with you? Running twice."

I stopped walking. My sides were beginning to feel the pain from running at a level I wasn't used to. I had originally planned to take it easy, but we had begun to fall too far behind.

"Look," Aida said. She was looking at Wahkan's second runner who was leading everyone else. Not even Etsuko and Orichalcum could catch up to him. "That guy... he must be from good stock too."

"What's with you and 'stock'? You think that we're limited to our genes or something?" I snapped.

"Of course," she said, shrugging. "A person with 'short' genes can't hope to grow up to be six feet tall."

"It's not impossible. Environment also plays a role."

She laughed. "Environment? My country has managed to rise from the rubble it was in, not based on the environment we were raised, but on the superior inherited intellect of the vanguard. In other words us here and those helping led our nation back home." She glanced back at the track.

Her teammate had passed one of the Rios members and was about to surpass Alto who had gotten a head start ahead of him. "You see? That boy was born with superior running skills. I will admit that environment can help... we have trained these genetically linked skills and perfected them, creating a truly magnificent athlete."

"Go Alto!" I yelled. Alto looked at me and smiled. He sped up.

Aida raised her hand. Her teammate nodded at her and slammed into Alto with enough force to push him out of the track like a race car hitting another into the sides.

I glared at Aida. "That was dirty!"

She lowered her hand and glared at me. "We can't afford to lose here, boy. You best be ready for the fourth part, I'm going to show you my true skills."

What in the world was her issue?

"That girl is interesting isn't she?" a masked woman said. "Oh sorry if I scared you, I'm Ashynna Babette. You must be Ulissis from Sefa, right?"

"That's correct. You were incredible out there, by the way!" I said.

She stared at the race. The man from Wahkan was handing the baton to Orion. "Those Wahkanians...I didn't expect them to have so many Hoshi on their team."

"Hoshi? Are they a strong clan?"

"Oh yes," she said. "While their numbers have dwindled, their people are still very powerful. The most renown Hoshi family leads Tora, a nation that is said to have been founded by a couple from a foreign universe."

Foreign universe? What? Wait, was that the reason they possessed such rare powers like warping space and time?

"According to ancient Kyuu Seishinian legend, they were deemed too strong by the fourth Magus Maximus. The power of the Hoshi made Tora the strongest nation of the alliance formed by the second Magus Maximus which had persisted up to her ascension to the throne. A throne that is said to have belonged to the Huo wife of the second Emperor, a member of the Wudi clan."

"The Wudi?"

"As you probably have learned, the Wudi and my clan hate one another. This legend explains the rivalry between our two clans. The Hoshi led Tora, Wudi led Mina, Xian, Wahkan, Shui led Sera, and Kyu Hyaku led Kyuu Seishin were once said to have been allies. Once the fourth Magus Maximus overthrew the previous Emperor and killed the former second Emperor, the alliance was in doubt, as to be expected after going against the ones who formed the alliance. The Hoshi no longer had any restraints to their ambitions... nor did the Fourth."

"I have also heard that tale before," Iah said as he walked in unannounced.

Ashynna backed away and bowed slightly. "The future prince of the Wudi, nice to meet you."

"Don't fear me, I won't hurt you."

"Why are you all gathering here?" Yen said.

"Tell us," Adela said with a playful smile.

"It's nothing," Ashynna said, turning her back to them. She vanished in a pillar of light.

"Wait, I thought that no teleportation magic was allowed!" I said, dumbfound.

"During the race," Iah said. "She's done her part. As have I."  

**Solar Note: Hope that you enjoyed this chapter :3. Thoughts on the race thus far?**