77 Race (2/2)

Several gasps resounded after that statement. Even the strangers seated beside the person who spoke turned to stare at him.

”I still think Talo will win today.”

”But isn't he already older than most of the players? His reputation is already receding.”

Ling later ignored the gossips around. He noticed that the gate to the stands was already full so he and Maga were left outside. Several people were even grumbling and arguing around them because they weren't able to get seats.

However, Ling wasn't concerned with the people anymore. His eyes were trained at the sky. The shadows of the flying creatures distracted him earlier, and now, he was looking at them.

Although most of the flying beasts were not the same creature as Maga, there were still dragons flying around, big and small. Ling and Maga even noticed one slightly bigger than Maga, and Ling had to hold his friend's snout to stop it from getting attention to them.

Afterwards, Ling led Maga behind the stands and the two turned themselves invisible before flying up together with the other creatures. Despite this city's different attitude towards dragons, Ling was still a little vigilant. Besides, he had felt that more and more people were staring at them—or most likely at Maga—once they entered the city. Even the riders up in the air were flying closely around their position earlier.

In a while, that thought took a back position in the two children's minds. A bang finally signaled the start of the race.

Like the riders flying in the sky, the participants have various beasts as mounts. Most were large ones with sleek bodies, horns and four legs. But others still used birds which used its two legs to run and its wings to pass the obstacles.

However, the biggest beast in this race has wings and was running on four legs. It was the dragon, which was being ridden by the mayor's youngest son acording to the gossips. It was evidently fighting for the first position against a huge wolf-like creature with three horns on its head.

As the sun was about to set, the participants finaly entered the forest where the last obstacle was. Aside from avoiding the closely clustered trees, they had to dodge the arrows flying around.

The real challenge though was the made up bog covered by a white 'mist'. After reaching this spot, several participants had already shouted their loss.

Some of them were still inside and the audience couldn't determine the situation since even the broadcast was not able to describe it. Only the shouts inside was letting them know how difficult it was.

The whole race took hours to reach this point. After another hour, the first to reach the city was a young rider on a four-legged, winged creature. He raised his hands up in the sky as he roared together with his dragon amidst the cheers.

Afterwards, Ling and Maga watched the awarding ceremony with sparkles in their eyes. They had closely followed the racers, especially in the forest as they remembered the familiar course they had traversed together since they were younger. They had a plan now.