Through Fire and Stone

The straight leading to the U-Turn was nothing but an appetizer. It was a dangerous part, sure, but the racers weren't newbies—they wouldn't make such a basic error, not at this level.

Still, it's an undeniable fact that, thanks to the stunt we pulled, we managed to gain a few precious seconds of head start.

The next segment, however, was where we could stretch that lead even further.

"Up next is the Loops!"

Cassandra announced, fulfilling her role as navigator—though, to be honest, it was mostly for show.

A series of loop-de-loops came into view, designed to drastically reduce ship speeds—and this was also the first part of the track where actual "obstacles" began appearing.

I could already see the first loop forming ahead, about 5 kilometers away, but I made no effort to slow down. Instead, I pushed harder on the throttle, accelerating from 500 m/s to around 1 km/s in just a few moments.