The Innkeeper



Unlike the previous race where Lex had a very aggressive start, he decided to drive a little more tamely this time. The primary reason for that was the fact that every other racer around him was driving like a maniac!

He had not progressed ten feet (3 meters) forward when the first cart crashed into him! Lex had immediately deployed defensive techniques to keep his cart safe, but the thing was so had everyone else! Like hooligans everyone drove left and right, pushing everyone beside them off the track or trying to damage their vehicle!

Since the only techniques one could use were defensive, the only way to attack other contestants was to use the power ups, or to crash the cart itself into them. When it came to the matter of a physical contest, everyone was fairly confident in their own defensive techniques, so if such rough driving continued, the first to be disqualified would be those whose techniques failed first.

Lex did not think for even a moment that someone could breach his defense using only golf carts, but at the same time he was not planning on relying on such mundane tactics for knockouts. The severe lack of speed and close distance between all the racers made it hard for Lex to avoid getting crashed into, so he didn't even try.

Instead, he entered into the state of 'flow' and honed onto what his intuition told him. Instead of trying to avoid crashes, Lex began to maneuver his cart so that instead of pushed aside, he would be pushed forward!

His perception of time seemed to slow down as Lex applied the limited knowledge he had gained of drifting to angle his cart just right beforehand so that when the inevitable crash came, he would move along his desired path.

Since the beginning of the race had been so chaotic and exciting, the crowds were going wild while Awry could only comment on some of the crowd favorites. Gerard was in the lead, his ingenious use of his bloodline allowing him to escape the chaos before anyone else. Even the nearest racer was far behind the racing savant, not to mention still embroiled in the mess.

But, suddenly, from the corner of his eye, Awry saw something very unusual. Between all the madness that seemed to be sucking everyone in, one cart seemed to be moving with the chaos, as if it were a ship sailing over stormy waters!

"Wait a minute folks, turn your attention to cart number 69!" Awry spoke with the excitement of a child.

The driver seems to be using the other carts to his advantage. The random madness, when seen from the perspective of the cart, seemed a carefully orchestrated plan designed to gain every possible inch over the competition!

"The other carts are not obstacles in its path but the wind beneath its proverbial wings! It's gliding through! He just passed number 50, oh no wait, yes, he gracefully took the attack from fan favorite Brandon and bounced off of the underdog, vice-captain Booty, and he managed to push himself out of the crowd!"

By the time it took the crown to find the cart the commentator was talking about, Lex had already pushed away from the remaining carts! But the race had only begun, and he was not the first to escape either.

He floored the accelerator as he spread his spirit sense up ahead to check the track for traps! The track started at the stadium but did not leave the village immediately. Instead, it seemed to be diverted towards the heart of the village, where the giant orb of water floated in the sky!

After a sharp turn through which Lex was able to drift beautifully, Lex finally saw the first contestant ahead of him. He did not recognize the man dressed in a giant black hood, but that didn't-

A section of the road underneath the racer in front of Lex sprung up from the ground, a massive spring connected underneath keeping the road bouncing up and down. The contestant had been launched vertically into the air, but his forward momentum kept him moving.

For a moment Lex thought he had fallen for a trap, but then Lex saw the racer land effortlessly in a different section of the track, bypassing the ordinary path completely!

"Cart number 13 takes the lead!" Awry suddenly roared as an image of him jumping up and down from excitement was shown in a corner of everyone's screens. "Gerard, in cart number 01 has fallen behind. What an ingenious move by the contestant called Xenmas, although it remains to be seen if it was skill or dumb luck!"

Lex himself was unsure of how the other had done so, but he did not try to emulate him. Even with his intuition, it was impossible to predict what kind of trap would be triggered, so every time he sensed danger, he made sure to avoid it! And there were many such instances!

Disguised almost perfectly, Lex actually ended up overlooking several traps with his spirit sense, and would have been a victim to them were it not for his intuition. But since his methods were working Lex would not waste time dwelling on it, for the first real challenge finally appeared.

In front of him, Lex saw a shining golden box in the middle of the road. That would be a power up, something he should have been excited for. But directly behind the power up… the road began inclining upwards. Slowly at first, but eventually the incline changed from being gentle to directly being vertical, aiming towards the floating orb of water in the sky!

This… this was not in any of the plans for the race Lex had seen! Although Lex had told Mary to overlook the design of the race, and that he would directly approve it through the system without looking at the plans… this was pushing it, no?

But before his brain could fry, he noticed other drivers going up the vertical road. It seemed their carts were not falling off, and had been kept attached to the road somehow.

"Interesting," he said, driving straight into the power up.