The Innkeeper

ραпdα- n૦νe|`c,0m

The moment Lex drove through the power up, a button on his golf that was previously gray turned blue. Lex clicked his tongue in annoyance, but didn't focus on it for too long. He, like every other participant in the race, had memorized all the available power ups and how to identify them. There were three buttons on the golf cart, each of which would turn a certain color based on the power up he received.

Once he used up a power up, the button would once again turn gray, meaning he could hoard up to 3 power ups at a time at most. The blue power up wasn't actually bad, but it was designed for someone who was trailing in the race. It would give the racer a temporary speed boost, its speed and duration based on how far behind he was.

Although Lex could not tell for certain, since the entire track was not visible to him, he was fairly certain he was in the top 10, so the boost would be short and tame. But beggars couldn't be choosers.

Lex's cart started going up the incline, the acceleration clearly dropped as the engine used more power to keep it climbing. Lex felt nervous about the climb, but there was no other track for him to follow. The gradient of the climb kept increasing, and kept slowing Lex down, right up until it reached about 50 degrees.

Lex felt a subtle shift in the way the cart was moving, and guessed that a hidden formation had been activated because gravity no longer seemed to be pulling him down towards the ground, and instead the direction of gravity was the road itself!

As if that wasn't enough, the speed of his cart skyrocketed and within moments, he found himself driving vertically up and reaching the floating orb. The speed boost explained why everyone else was so far ahead of him that he could barely see anyone. The only reason Lex could even see Xenmas was because he had skipped the track for the orb entirely!

The track went through a small tunnel right in the orb, and Lex once again entered his state of flow! His accelerated speed greatly tested his reaction time, and the tunnel going through the water was swerving left and right, making it hard for Lex to anticipate the upcoming path!

But due to his ever-increasing experience with drifting, his intuition and his state of flow, Lex did not slow down at all as he navigated the water tunnel!

Due to the fact that Lex never slowed down, he quickly caught up to the driver right ahead of him, but he immediately noticed something off! Even if the driver had slowed down for the turns, as someone who had gone through the preliminary round, he shouldn't have needed to slow down this much to navigate the tunnel.

His intuition suddenly blared a warning for upcoming danger, and Lex did not hesitate to swerve his steering wheel as hard as he could, pull the handbrake and hit the power up button at the same time!

"DRIFT KING LEO IS AT IT AGAIN!" roared the commentator as his body trembled from the adrenaline rush.

The camera quickly cut to Lex, showing what happened in slow motion. One moment he was going straight, and the next moment he started moving diagonally, while actually increasing his speed somehow! The next moment, the screen showed Leo's cart dodging a spear that had been launched from the water right underneath the track!

The spear was hard to see due to it being underneath the track that was now made of water, and its timing had been perfect. Yet the smoothe evasive maneuver pulled off by Leo and his calm expression told that everything was within his control.

Countless guests were beginning to switch their loyalty towards Leo, clearly impressed by his skill, when he discovered a secret none of the drivers before him had considered! The shift in gravity had not resulted from the track, but from within the cart itself! Leo had drifted right to the top of the tunnel, passing the contestant ahead of him while driving literally right above him!

Leo ended the drift and continued to the race, his cart not slowing down for even a moment the entire time! With that single move, Leo had determined himself as one of the favorites for the race, but it was unknown if his stellar performance would continue. After all, the race had just begun, and many were already catching up behind him!

Lex himself was not nearly as calm as he appeared. He had just become too used to masking his emotions and keeping a calm demeanor. But internally, he was feeling exhilarated!

The fact that he had dodged that single spear seemed to have incensed the track, if that was possible, and countless other traps kept appearing in his way. But he kept avoiding them effortlessly, and he was having the time of his life doing it!

He recalled long ago, when he had wished for more excitement in his life. For a time after that, he regretted making such a wish, mostly because he was always being hunted by zombies or wolves or miscellaneous bad guys, but right now he was having the time of his life!

There was something about going fast, the wind in his hair, dodging all obstacles, continuing on his path unimpeded-

His inner monologue ended quite abruptly when his cart suddenly slipped! Right in front of him there was a cart pile-up and due to his increased speed and loss of control, there didn't seem to be a way to avoid crashing!

He immediately entered the 'overdrive' state and realized what had happened. On earth, thin, nearly invisible layers of ice that formed on roads were called black ice, mostly due to the color of the road beneath them. Regardless of what it was called, the point was that it was an imperceptible layer of ice that covered the track, or in this case, was what the track had turned into!

For the first time in the race, Lex hit the brakes without the intention of drifting! But he was not aiming to slow down, either. Suddenly hitting the brakes caused the cart to skid even more, turning sideways as it continued to hurl towards the pile up. But just as it approached, Lex shifted his left leg out the open side of the cart and stomped the track using his immense physical strength!

Unanimously, the crowd's jaws dropped as they saw Leo jump the cart sideways, using the very limited free space between the pileup and the tunnel roof - or base depending on how you looked at it - and pass through without touching a single other vehicle!

Once the cart landed on the other side, it did a single, 360 degree swerve while Lex regained control and just kept on driving.

He exited the overdrive state as soon as he crossed the hurdle, his heart beating like‌ a drum during a rock concert! He had never been in any physical danger, but the thought of finally stumbling across an obstacle seemed more daunting than any real danger at that point.

Once across, though, he felt like laughing! He was Lex, the freaking Innkeeper- no, uh, he was Leo, the owner of Gamer's Den. Simple obstacles such as these couldn't phase him!

In the distance, Lex saw a bright light, indicating the end of the water tunnel, finally. He had already seen bits of the track that came next and knew that vines were going to be the next big obstacle, but he wasn't worried. With his intuition he was-

'FUDGE!" he roared in his mind the moment he exited the tunnel, because there was no track! He had been launched straight into the clouds with no track beneath him and no indication of where he was supposed to land!

He spread his spirit sense as far and wide as he could to search for where he was supposed to go next, but it was useless. Slowly and predictably, he reached the arch of his launch. For a single, uncertain moment, he hovered in the air, before he began plummeting through the sky!

Unsure of what to expect, since he was still within the clouds, his view completely blocked, Lex began using his defensive techniques to ensure the cart would survive the crash when, abruptly and unexpectedly, he sensed a track!

He slammed the accelerator even before he landed. His defensive technique had been employed just in time as his cart bounced on the ground once before firmly planting itself on the ground and continuing forward.

He burst through the clouds to realize where he was! He was in the floating city above the village, on a track that was completely separate from the one he had seen on the ground! How would this work?

He didn't have time to ponder as his intuition kicked in, warning of an attack coming from behind him. Lex recognized the sound of incoming artillery, and knew that someone behind him had used a power up targeting him!