"Huff... Hah..."
Up ahead, Suave Dancer's breathing was heavy and ragged.
She could feel the power she had "borrowed" from that gate gradually fading away.
Every second she remained neck and neck with McQueen consumed more of her final trump card.
"I only learned how to do this shortly before the race. Is my technique still too crude?"
"How much longer... can I maintain it?"
Her mind raced through the calculations.
At the current rate of consumption, that power would last another four hundred meters at most before vanishing completely.
Once it did, her speed would plummet.
"I have to find a position where I can decide the race... before this power disappears."
The time she could wield the borrowed might of [World] was slipping away.
But she could still invoke the true [World] to decide the outcome!
That was how Suave Dancer intended to win.
She refused to believe that McQueen, who was matching her current state through sheer brute force, could possibly be expending less energy than she was!
Suave Dancer swept her gaze across the course ahead.
Not far away, the fourth turn was gradually emerging through the curtain of rain.
It was the final turn at Longchamp Racecourse. Beyond it lay a brief downhill stretch.
And after that came the final straight.
"The fourth turn... then the final straight..."
A sharp gleam flashed through Suave Dancer's eyes.
That was where she had to make her move.
She would combine this borrowed power with an all-out burst and attempt to seize even the slightest lead before they entered the final straight.
"Then, at the exit of the fourth turn, I'll invoke [World] and settle this with McQueen once and for all!"
The instant she made that decision...
The pure-white figure beside her suddenly changed.
Suave Dancer froze for a moment before her pupils contracted sharply.
She could sense an extremely familiar presence emanating from McQueen.
The fluctuations of that presence...
They were exactly the same as Suave Dancer's current state!
"What?!"
Deep within McQueen's pupils, the pure-white lightning quietly began to change.
It was no longer an ordinary, radiant glow.
Just like Suave Dancer's crimson-gold lightning, it suddenly blazed with overwhelming intensity, while the streams of light surrounding her swelled violently!
...
At that moment, countless scenes flashed through McQueen's mind.
It had been near the beginning of the year.
At the Mejiro training grounds...
She had run alongside Oguri while sensing the strange fluctuations of power emanating from her gray-haired senior.
Unique Skill: Festive Miracle!
According to Kuroha, Oguri-senpai's unique running technique naturally incorporated the power of a [Domain].
In the end, however, McQueen had shaken her head dejectedly at Kuroha.
"Trainer, I can't learn it."
Kuroha had not been surprised. He merely smiled and gently rubbed her head.
"That's all right. I haven't figured it out either."
"If you can't learn this, we'll train something else!"
"There are still plenty of other ways for you to improve."
That conversation had become nothing more than a vague fragment within McQueen's memories.
She had trained with Oguri for some time and had certainly learned a great deal from the experience, but she had never managed to reproduce that particular technique.
Until now.
After Suave Dancer demonstrated it in full before her eyes, McQueen finally understood the source of the [Domain] power woven into that Unique Skill.
"So that's how it works..."
The pieces she had once been unable to understand suddenly fell perfectly into place.
After spending only a few hundred meters experimenting with it, she easily reproduced the same power wielded by Oguri and Suave Dancer.
At that very moment, the data displayed on Kuroha's system panel for McQueen abruptly changed.
Within the Unique Skill column, The Duty of Dignity Calls Lv 5 slowly faded away.
In its place appeared...
Domain Unique Skill: Stake It All on the Name of the Strongest Lv 5!
It was as though an invisible gate had opened a crack of its own accord, pouring power into every inch of her body like flowing water.
"It's as if it knew exactly what I wanted... and simply gave it to me."
The thought surfaced within McQueen's mind.
Then...
Thud!
Her foot struck the turf.
Before the water she had kicked up could even fall, her figure was already several meters ahead.
"Wha?!"
Suave Dancer's eyes widened. Her lips parted, yet she could not utter a single word.
Just as McQueen could sense that Suave Dancer's power closely resembled Oguri's, Suave Dancer could also tell what McQueen was now wielding.
That was her technique!
"McQueen!"
The commentator's voice tore through the curtain of rain.
"McQueen has suddenly accelerated at the entrance to the fourth turn!"
"Suave Dancer appears to have been caught off guard! The gap between them is opening once again!"
"Is it already impossible for her to catch up?!"
"OOOOOOOH!!"
An earthshaking roar erupted from the grandstands.
Suave Dancer could not hear any of it.
Her entire attention had been seized by the pure-white figure beside her.
"Hey, McQueen..."
"Don't tell me you learned that just by watching me do it once?"
McQueen smiled softly, her voice sounding exceptionally clear amid the rain.
"Thanks, Suave."
"..."
Suave Dancer stared blankly for a moment.
After a brief silence, she threw back her head and unleashed laughter louder than the thunder within the torrential rain.
"Hahahaha!"
"McQueen, you're so absurdly strong that it's almost unbelievable!"
When her laughter subsided, Suave Dancer lowered her head slightly, her eyes overflowing with joy.
She had lost.
Yes.
The moment McQueen learned that technique from her, Suave Dancer's defeat had been decided.
She had no trump cards left with which to contend against McQueen.
Even if she unleashed the full power of [World] at the end, the outcome would most likely be the same as it had been at the Irish Champion Stakes last month.
She would lose in the contest between their finishing kicks during the closing stages.
Yet Suave Dancer's joy did not come from knowing she would lose.
She was overjoyed because there was still so much of her future ahead of her!
The stronger McQueen became, the more certain Suave Dancer was that the rival she pursued truly deserved everything she was willing to stake in order to defeat her.
Whether it takes me one year or two...
I'll keep running.
I'll run and run until I finally catch you!
"Thud, thud, thud!"
The fourth turn rapidly swept beneath their feet.
Two streams of light, one pure white and the other crimson-gold, raced onward as the newly opened gap between them gradually widened.
The final straight was nearly upon them.
The final act of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe was about to begin.
(End of Chapter)
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