"The battle for the lead has narrowed down to four aircraft: Bibs 10, 11, 12, and 13!"
"The gap between them is barely a single plane’s length."
"Everyone is giving it their all."
The massive performance gap that might have existed otherwise had been closed by the auxiliary magi-devices Jin had prepared, leading to this neck-and-neck struggle.
All that remained was a test of crafting skill, piloting technique, and perhaps strategy.
"About thirty meters left... Now!"
Up until this point, Jin had been flying at the highest altitude among the four leaders.
Now, he banked into a diagonal dive.
The move added a slight boost of gravitational acceleration. While it technically increased the distance he had to travel, it resulted in a speed increase of roughly two percent.
In a race this tight, a two-percent advantage was significant.
"Oh! Jin-sama's Bib 11, Zero, has pulled slightly ahead!"
"What?! He can still find more speed?!"
Rubina was caught completely off guard. She was currently flying at literal full throttle, so it was only natural that she found it hard to believe he could accelerate any further.
In fact, neither Lordtoss nor Marikka could squeeze any more speed out of their engines.
"I’ll take that!"
Seizing the moment when Rubina’s aircraft control faltered slightly from her shock, Jin lunged forward, his nose grazing past Bib 10, Nile, as he leaped into the lead.
"Ah! He got me!"
"Jin-sama's Bib 11, Zero, has taken the lead for the first time... and he's over the liiiiine!"
The final order was Bib 11, 10, 12, and 13. Jin, Rubina, Lordtoss, and Marikka.
"A victory of strategy. He likely utilized the acceleration from his descent."
"That's Jin for you."
Sion didn't call it "the wisdom of age," but she privately thought that the youthful Rubina simply hadn't been able to anticipate that level of tactical maneuvering.
However, the race was far from over.
On the final straightaway, the second group was flying in the order of Bibs 2, 7, 4, 1, 9, 3, and 6. First, Bib 1 began to flag slightly, followed by Bib 9.
With the others being monoplanes, the biplane and triplane were at a disadvantage due to their weight and air resistance.
Next, Bib 3 began to lag. Just as he had placed 12th in the high-speed competition, a lack of raw power was his undoing.
The order shifted to 2, 7, 4, 6, 3, 9, 1, and in the end, it turned into a fierce duel between Bib 2 and Bib 7.
"Ten meters left... Oh! Look at that! Bib 1, Halcyon, has accelerated again!"
"What in the... Ah, she discarded her middle wing."
Since they were flying almost side-by-side, there was no danger of the discarded wing striking the aircraft trailing behind her.
"Marikka discarded her wingtips, but that girl threw away an entire wing."
Even as they spoke, the aircraft crossed the finish line.
"GOAL!"
The second group finished in the order of Bibs 2, 7, 4, 6, 3, 1, and 9. Natalia's triplane had managed to move up one position by shedding its wing.
"A heated battle has come to an end! Everyone, please give a round of applause for our contestants and their magnificent aircraft!"
Even before the announcement finished, the venue was swept up in a tidal wave of cheers and thunderous applause.
＊ ＊ ＊
The race results were as follows:
1st: Bib #11 Jin 2nd: Bib #10 Rubina (1st among official competitors) 3rd: Bib #12 Lordtoss 4th: Bib #13 Marikka 5th: Bib #2 Shu (2nd among official competitors) 6th: Bib #7 Werner (3rd among official competitors) 7th: Bib #4 Greena (4th among official competitors) 8th: Bib #6 Sidney (5th among official competitors) 9th: Bib #3 Eugene (6th among official competitors) 10th: Bib #1 Natalia (7th among official competitors) 11th: Bib #9 Elvis (8th among official competitors) 12th: Bib #5 Sireen (9th among official competitors) 12th: Bib #8 Florence (9th among official competitors)
"That was one intense battle after another."
"It certainly was. Even so, Jin-sama is truly in a league of his own. To take first place in every single event he entered... it's simply awe-inspiring."
"It really is. But Marikka and Ro gave it their all, too."
"Now, while the competitive segments have concluded, we ask the audience for one final set of scores. Design, innovation, unique features—anything goes. Please rate each aircraft."
While this relied heavily on the subjective opinions of the crowd, such a segment was indispensable for a competition of this nature.
The audience rated each aircraft on a 100-point scale. After the totals were collected, the magi-brain Testa divided the sum by the number of spectators (rounding to the nearest whole number) to determine the final popularity score.
＊ ＊ ＊
"The results are in!"
1st: Bib #11 Jin — 95 points 2nd: Bib #13 Marikka — 93 points 3rd: Bib #12 Lordtoss — 92 points 4th: Bib #1 Natalia — 89 points (1st among official competitors) 5th: Bib #10 Rubina — 85 points (2nd among official competitors) 6th: Bib #7 Werner — 84 points (3rd among official competitors) 7th: Bib #5 Sireen — 83 points (4th among official competitors) 8th: Bib #9 Elvis — 82 points (5th among official competitors) 9th: Bib #3 Eugene — 82 points (6th among official competitors) 10th: Bib #6 Sidney — 82 points (7th among official competitors) 11th: Bib #4 Greena — 82 points (8th among official competitors) 12th: Bib #8 Florence — 82 points (9th among official competitors) 13th: Bib #2 Shu — 82 points (10th among official competitors)
While those from 8th to 13th all finished with 82 points, their specific rankings were determined by the values before rounding.
"Looking at these numbers, the popularity of Jin-sama and Marikka-sama is undeniable."
"Ro did quite well for himself, too. And Rubina really held her own."
"Surprisingly, the triplanes and biplanes received very high marks."
＊ ＊ ＊
Following that, the total scores for all aircraft competition events were announced.
Listed by bib number:
Bib #1: Natalia — 220 points (3rd place) Bib #2: Shu Nidou — 180 points (5th place) Bib #3: Eugene Foul — 0 points (10th place) Bib #4: Greena Kuzuma — 40 points (9th place) Bib #5: Sireen Eschenbach — 120 points (7th place) Bib #6: Sidney Marek — 200 points (4th place) Bib #7: Werner Randol — 280 points (2nd place) Bib #8: Florence Fahlheit — 80 points (8th place) Bib #9: Elvis Alcott — 140 points (6th place) Bib #10: Rubina Garrett — 560 points (1st place) (Jin, Lordtoss, and Marikka were excluded from the total competition standings.)
Rubina's dominance in the points stood out significantly.
Immediately after the announcement, the venue erupted in applause.
＊ ＊ ＊
The participants were busy tidying up.
Jin, Lordtoss, Marikka, and the others praised one another's efforts as they packed away their equipment.
"Man, that was a lot of fun."
"It really was. Though in the end, I still couldn't beat Jin-sama."
"I enjoyed it too, for me-sh... I mean, for me."
In the middle of the cleanup, Jin spoke up.
"I’m really glad to see how much Rubina grew through this series of events," he said, offering her his praise.
"Eh? R-Really?"
Hearing her name mentioned so suddenly, Rubina, who was tidying up right next to Jin, was caught off guard.
"Yeah. I don't know exactly what the final tally will look like, but compared to when we first met, I think your skills have improved remarkably."
"That goes for the rest of you as well, though," Jin added. "I'm happy to see our descendants growing up so splendidly."
He spoke with a soft, sentimental tone.
"Once we're done cleaning up, they'll be announcing the intermediate results for all the competitions so far....Being able to compete with Jin-sama and everyone else was truly a joy."
Marikka spoke with similar deep emotion.
"Indeed, I feel the same way," Lordtoss agreed, looking up at the sky.
A clear, vibrant blue sky stretched over Onogoro Island, where the heated battles had just reached their end.