Race

The explosion caught everyone off guard. Despite Alan mentioning an obstacle, they didn't expect an explosion to happen so quickly.

It was almost impossible to guard against. The black cloud rose towards the sky, and the ground was scorching with flames.

Whoosh!

From the black cloud and dust, Mathew jumped out, running towards his one-mile target with all of his speed.

But half of his body was scorched by flames. The skin was melting.

It was almost like he dived into a volcano and came out with some massive burns.

"Mathew!"

On the Human Stage, Adam clenched his fist.

He knew Mathew understood the assignment.

This wasn't a fight. This wasn't about strength. It was all about speed. And, he was going against one of the fastest races in the universe.

If he wanted to win this battle, he must sacrifice everything.

These obstacles.

They weren't his enemies. They were his friends. They could stop the Erdim for a split second, giving him a massive edge in this run.

Just as Mathew expected, Erdim got behind because he had to release a protective layer of Cosmic Energy around his body.

This caused him to waste one second. It shouldn't be much, but for people of their level, it was extremely wasteful.

Even a nanosecond could decide the winner and loser of this game.

But when he saw Mathew so much ahead of him, he instantly increased his speed.

This increase was so much that he almost caught up to Mathew.

Of course, this was simply because he had to decrease his speed during the explosion to cover his body with Cosmic Energy. If he hadn't done that, he might have crossed half of the track.

But just when he closed the gap, they encountered something.

A dark green circle with strange symbols appeared underneath their foot, and a large creature came out of the rune.

The creature was almost ten meters tall, holding a gigantic ax, and had a power level similar to theirs.

And, there were two of them.

One for each.

When Mathew saw this creature, he instinctively glided underneath its leg. His body crossed the gigantic creature, but the creature turned around and swung its axe towards his back.

Splash!

Mathew saw it coming. He knew the ax was coming towards him with full force.

So, he let that ax strike him.

His back was almost split in half. A large wound appeared on his back. He used cosmic energy to block the blood flow.

Bang!

The ax did come with a lot of power. He propelled himself towards the finishing line at an extreme speed, almost surpassing his previous speed.

"Mathew!"

The other contestants from the Human side shouted simultaneously. Their faces were covered with worry.

They couldn't believe what Mathew just did.

"Mathew knows this. His desire is different from what we are led to believe."

Adam spoke with a deep voice.

Charles clenched his fist and said.

"It's his sister. Mathew wants to fight for a better future for his sister."

Penny's eyes widened as she closed her mouth with her hands.

"At the cost of his future?"

"If we don't win, do we really have a future?"

Eric spoke with a gloomy expression.

"Those races consider us nothing more than ants. No, we are lower than ants. They can destroy us at any moment they desire."

"Mathew's parents were both Diamond Rank superheroes. He should've had a good life, but both of his parents died when he was only ten."

"This made him realize that if he wanted to survive, if he wanted to save his sister, he must reach Rainbow Rank. That's the only rank that can truly survive anything. That's what he was led to believe."

"So, to achieve this rank, he sacrificed everything, all the resources that his parents saved for him and his sister."

"She was only two years younger than him, but was only at Silver Rank. The difference in their rank made it hard to believe that they were brother and sister."

"Most importantly, his sister never blamed him for this. She always supported his decision. That's why he lived every day of his life in guilt. Now, he has a chance of changing all of that."

"A chance to make his sister's life better. So, he must fight. He must win this game."

Mathew was truly giving it his all.

His Superpower lightning allowed him to achieve superhuman speed and strength.

But he had poured all of that power into speed.

He was moving so fast that everything around him looked in slow motion, but he knew he wasn't going to win so easily.

He heard about Chicken Race.

They were considered the fastest race in the universe. If he truly wanted to win, he had to use every single advantage he had.

The previous creature bought him a few more seconds.

Erdim seemed quite surprised by this obstacle and was trying to run around it.

But Alan had also prepared it to move at lightning speed, making it almost faster than Erdim.

When he tried moving around it, the creature struck him with the ax.

Facing such a difficult situation, he had no choice but to achieve light speed.

This was gonna take a lot out of him, and he might even get punished for using this speed.

But he had no other choice.

He couldn't run straight since the creature had already moved the ax in front of him. He would be a chicken on the chopping block if he moved straight.

He gritted his teeth.

'I don't have any other choice. I should've used this speed in the first place. Now, I have to run around it.'

That's exactly what he did.

Bang!

The ax struck nothing but the ground as Erdim swiftly turned around, made a round around the creature, and ran straight towards the finish line.

He was almost three or four seconds away from the finish line.

The distance was so close that with his light speed, he had no trouble reaching that distance in less than a second.

But there was one problem.

Mathew was in front of him, and he was also less than a second away from the finish line.

But just before they could reach there, another obstacle came in front of them.

This time, it was laser beams with the power to melt steel.

Since the laser moved at the speed of light, it wasn't something they could dodge easily.

Especially since they were concentrating on reaching the finish line at their maximum speed.

'I can't dodge it. I mustn't dodge it.'

Mathew thought to himself as he dashed forward. He could dodge it, but that would give his opponent more than enough time to cross the gap and reach the finish line.

On the other hand, if his opponent did dodge this laser, it would be his win.

Unfortunately, he was wrong.

This time, Erdim understood Mathew's mindset and realized the importance of not dodging this attack.

Boom! Boom!

The laser pierced through their chest. Neither of them suffered a serious injury, but both got a hole in their bodies.

But since they were running at different speeds, Erdim had a clear chance of winning.

Just a second before Mathew could reach the finish line, Erdim had already caught up.

It was so close.

At this distance, it was almost impossible to win.

Because Erdim was moving faster than him. So, Mathew had no choice but to take drastic measures.

Splash!

Suddenly, his blood veins popped out. Blood splattered everywhere, and the lightning emerged around him.

Mathew turned into a bolt of lightning.

The blood reached Erdim, but he was so stunned by Mathew's performance that he forgot to keep his lightspeed.

Before he could even react, Mathew had already crossed the finish line.

His body landed on the other side, charred with lightning bolts and blood drying all over him.

Despite his condition, he had a deep smile on his face.

'Anne, your brother did it. Friends, I will leave the rest to you.'

With those thoughts, he lost consciousness.

"Mathew!"

Charles and others shouted, running towards them.

Although the distance was quite far away, they still reached there in less than a minute, especially Adam, who reached there before them.

At the same time, Erdim also crossed the finish line, but he didn't get any attention, not even from his commander.

Because their eyes were all on Mathew, who was no longer conscious.

"Congratulations! This is what I call 'True Awareness'. Don't feel sad for him. Because if you don't win upcoming games, all you will be doing is wasting his sacrifice."

Alan appeared next to them and spoke with a strong voice.

His eyes fell on Mathew, and they glistened with appreciation.

This man was ready to push himself to death before even the start of this round.

Because the move he used had instant activation with a long preparation period.