Speedrun

Facebasher tossed his greataxe far up into the air as it began to spin around its axis. Once it reached the apex at around 10 meters (32.8 feet), it started to spin downward and smashed into the bridge pavement with great velocity.

That was the signal. Evan and Sightseer dashed forward.

While Sightseer was two agility points ahead of Evan, it didn't mean that she was two agility points faster. There were several other factors.

One advantage that Evan possessed what that he had the D-rank Heightened Reflexes proficiency that gave him the +1.2% Vizor Synchronization rate in addition to the 95% that everyone else possessed as the standard.

It might not seem like much, but it meant that Evan possessed extra control over his character, and it also meant that the mind-link to Soulbound Online happened faster. This became noticeable as Evan reacted to the signal slightly faster than Sightseer, giving him a head start.

Having the first crack on acceleration was a big deal when they only had 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) to race. The tunnel into Talker Mountain was the finish line!

Another factor was that armor played a role in movement speed. Otherwise, everyone would be wearing the heaviest armor they could wield. Hence, Evan decided to remove his set of Epic armor. Even Sightseer followed suit and removed her set of Unique light armor. She was more competitive than Evan had realized.

Her dark elven hair absorbed the rays of moonlight as the laced hair fluttered gracefully to the rhythm of the wind while her rapid pace accelerated.

At the 200-meter mark, Evan was still ahead of Sightseer by a short margin. The rules were simple. They couldn't attack each other directly with any items, but they were allowed to use the environment to hinder each other and cause obstacles to stand in their way.

Sightseer shot an arrow at an angle. Moments later, the arrow landed a few footsteps next to Evan, causing the pavement to splash small rock pellets in every direction.

[-1 HP]

Evan lost balance, tumbled around, and lost half of his forward momentum. Sightseer was now in the lead!

Since Evan was unwilling to waste his precious explosives for a simple contest, he chose to put his bets on his trusty boomerang. Also, if the explosives accidentally hurt Sightseer, he would be disqualified, hence another reason to stick with something more precise.

Evan possessed a C-rank combat proficiency with Ricochet weapons and an E-rank specialization proficiency in Aerodynamics mastery. The former added a 20% bonus to physical damage and +10% accuracy, while the latter added more ricochets and made his Twig-Leaf boomerang travel 5% faster.

Since he didn't want accidental ricochets to bounce onto Sightseer, he mentally signaled his weapon to return after its initial strike. The boomerang traveled in a wide arc, slid in front of Sightseer, and obstructed her movement by slicing off the pavement in front of her, then traveled back toward Evan.

A quick-witted Sightseer Faint Stepped, turning herself hollow for a single breath of time and dashed past the stone particles that would otherwise have halted her significantly. She turned around and fired off a Syphoning Breath.

The magically air-infused arrow traveled past Evan in a blink of an eye.

—

[You have been slightly Syphoned!]

[All stats reduced by 10% for 10 seconds!]

—

'What? That works too?' Evan noticed that his speed had suddenly dropped.

Sightseer was now leading by at least 15 meters (50 feet), and the speed advantage she had acquired gave her an additional edge over her competitor. If this continued, she'd certainly win!

Having crossed 700 meters, only 300 meters remained before the victor was decided. Evan could no longer toss his boomerang due to its limited range and accuracy at farther distances. He only had one option left that he could think of.

The whole idea sounded outlandish, but what other choices did he have? Though the game didn't have stamina bars or limitations to how long one could sprint, the increased physical burden to the body was still calculated by Evan's overall stats. He started to notice a mental strain as if he had spent too much energy in a short amount of time.

He quickly turned around 180 degrees while leaping into the air. As his feet left the ground, he activated Soul Blitz and leveled his arms at a downward angle.

Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!

Each shot from Soul Blitz gave him a large boost in speed as he traveled faster and higher into the air. Once he had reached the altitude he desired, his next shots were fired horizontally to attain maximum acceleration to his now rear momentum.

Through leveling up, his increased stats made the recoils more tolerable than before.

Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!

Sightseer grew curious at the sound of strange explosions and finally decided to turn around for a short glance. Her eyes widened as she noticed that Evan was several meters up in the air, about to surpass her lead with his ridiculous but original move.

Evan landed in front of Sightseer with a grin plastered on his face and kept dashing forward as fast as he could. Because his landing was off-center on the bridge, Sightseer saw an opportunity and fired off a Rapid Draw.

Five arrows struck the feet of a frozen Gargoyle statue in the vicinity of Evan. The statue's foundation collapsed and tilted in Evan's direction.

"Nice move!" Evan snorted as he threw his boomerang at the falling statue.

The boomerang couldn't possibly stop the weight of the statue, but the initial hit and following ricochets stalled the rate of toppling and gave Evan enough time to pass the statue before it struck the ground.

Moments later, Mille and Facebasher arrived at the finish line.

"That was so exciting to watch! Well done Sightseer!" Mille cheered and gave the victor her signature bear hug.

Facebasher rested next to Evan that was laying sprawled on the ground.

"How did you lose that?"

"Shut up." Evan hissed.

"Well, I guess her title as a top 3 ranker in the Edin region isn't just for show. You were outmatched at the end there."

"If I knew she was hiding that skill, I wouldn't have asked for a race." Evan complained.

"Haha. Competition stuff was never your thing. You should've gone for rock-paper-scissor instead!" Facebasher jeered. He would make sure to remind Evan of this loss and taunt him in the future.

"Hey, don't paint me out like that. Now, stop being toxic and help me up." Evan sighed. "On a more serious note, let's find this Ruslow the Assassin so we can finally complete the Quest."