Having gotten a general grasp of the rules for Flame River Racing, we promptly decided to give it a try. As soon as we stepped onto the teleportation magic circle and the staff member activated the magic tool, I found myself aboard one of the racing boats.
We were already positioned over the lava, in a somewhat open, cavernous space where floating letters hovered in midair.
[You will be moved to the starting point in one minute. Until then, you may check the boat's controls.]
Ah, I see. This was a chance to test how responsive the steering was... It turned out that moving left or right simply required shifting your weight in the desired direction. Leaning hard made a sharp turn, while a subtle shift produced a gentle drift, allowing a fair degree of control over your lateral movement.
However, the turning speed wasn't particularly fast. To dodge obstacles, you clearly needed to start maneuvering well in advance. They had likely kept the steering sluggish on purpose so raw reflexes wouldn't create too big of an advantage.
The controls seemed intentionally tuned for broad, sweeping motions, making it difficult to pull off flashy techniques like dodging hazards with razor-thin precision.
Depending on when you noticed an incoming danger, there might be times when you couldn't avoid a volcanic bomb or obstacle even if you saw it coming, so I would have to stay sharp.
Still, with movement strictly limited to left and right, the mechanics weren't complicated. After a quick trial, I waited out the remaining time. Once the minute was up, the boat began moving on its own, cruised out of the cave, and came to a brief halt.
Looking around, I could see everyone else aboard similar small vessels as a massive digital countdown began ahead of us.
It was a ten-second countdown. The moment the numbers hit zero, all the boats surged forward at once, and... right off the bat, a pinpoint volcanic bomb plummeted directly onto Lilia-san's boat, bringing her to a dead stop... While the random nature of the hazards meant an instant strike was always possible, I couldn't help but feel terribly sorry for her.
Even so, I couldn't afford to be distracted. The race was underway, and I had to focus on the course ahead... The lava river was reasonably wide, easily accommodating all ten boats without feeling cramped.
Perhaps because we were still right at the start, the view ahead was wide open, making it easy to read the terrain.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, the path ahead suddenly branched into three. More specifically, the center route sloped upward, flanked by downhill paths on either side, and I could spot a Wind Orb hovering right along the middle course.
...That looks incredibly suspicious. Given that this race was all about reaching the summit, the middle path seemed advantageous even without the Wind Orb, but... it was so glaringly obvious that it felt like an outright trap.
Then again, they might be playing a double-bluff, meaning the center actually was the best route... Yeah, I had no idea.
For now, my boat was drifting closer to the right-hand path, so forcing a lane change here risked crashing into someone else... Wait, come to think of it, there hadn't been any speed boosts yet. If all the boats moved at the same speed, we should have been in a straight line, so why was the pack slightly staggered from front to back? Ah, could it be that steering left and right scrubs off your speed...? In that case, swerving too much is a bad idea... I'll just hold my line and take the right path.
Glancing at the others, while it was still anyone's guess which route the slightly delayed Lilia-san would take, everyone else seemed to be picking their lanes and making adjustments just like me.
Assuming the center was simply the fastest, Hina-chan, Eta, and Anima positioned themselves toward the middle. Luna-san was also angling for the center, though in her case, she was probably trying to see through the double-bluff.
Joining me on the right path were Aoi-chan, Theta, and Caraway, while the rest appeared to be heading down the left. Just as I was marveling at how quickly the pack had split up, several volcanic bombs came raining down.
Ah, this could get nasty. If you glued your eyes to the course ahead, you might miss the volcanic bombs dropping from above, but if you focused solely on dodging bombs, your course navigation would suffer.
Worse, the bombs could actively force you off your intended line. Just now, Aoi-chan swerved hard to dodge a falling projectile, drifting dangerously close to the center route. She scrambled to steer back after clearing it, but if her timing had been a split-second later, she would have been forced down the middle path whether she liked it or not.
Despite the simple controls, this race required a surprising amount of tactical thought. Since I was competing, I wanted to go for first place, but...
While weighing my options, I hit the fork and coasted down the downhill slope of the right path as planned... only to find a cave straight ahead, where the river split into three paths once more.
Wait, are there really this many branches...? I can't even see inside the cave... Welp, I'll just casually pick the left one.
Singularity: "Welp, I'll just 'casually' pick the left one."
Multitude of Blessings: "We've been waiting for this moment!"
Abnormal Good Luck: "You want first place? Leave it to me!"
Overwhelming Destiny Power: "Don't think, feel..."
Serious-senpai: "...Ah (I see where this is going)."