Snippet #2769785

"So, who are you all rooting for?" Trisha asked with energy. "Any favorites you think you will win?"

"I-I dont think that we are allowed to have favorites..."

"Dont be so shy! And of course we are allowed to have some opinions of our own, so long as we try and talk about everyone! Its the judges that have to be impartial, not us!"

"I...I see..." Iviri mentioned.

"So, who is it? Who is it?"

"Ummm...Well, I kind of know too many people in the Games to say".

"Oh relax, I am sure you wont hurt their feelings!"

"I really cant though..." Iviri mentioned. He really did know too many people participating. There was Demor, Ixa, Rivyan, Nao, and a couple of others. Iviri knew quite a few people.

"Awww. What a buzzkill. What about you Doctor?"

"Oh no, I am not opening that can of worms either. A lot of my students and alumni are participating. I only wish them all good luck".

"Haaaaaaaaaa...."

Meanwhile, in the race...

Astral and Luna were neck and neck, near the upper middle, or lower upper groups. They probably could be going much faster, but they were constantly clashing with each other, making it difficult for either of them to get near the lead.

Meanwhile, Ixa was gliding forward, and occasionally create a shield of ice to stop Ixian's stun bullets. At the same time, Nao who had shot out in the beginning was nearing the first gate. He had passed through all the checkpoints, so now it was time to enter the first of the transport gates.

It was easy for him to move fast inside a city, especially one he knew the layout for, but now...now was where it would get tricky.

At least he was able to avoid or run past the robots that got in everyone's ways. And so, having passed through all the Checkpoint Gates inbetween the start and the Transport Gate, he went through and...

"You have got to be kidding me! Full Charge Kick!" he called out as he spun himself around in mid air and delivered a kick to a very large snake that had been waiting right at the gate. The electrical burst stunned it momentairily, but this left Nao in a free fall. It appeared the Transport Gate from City Zone to Jungle Zone did deposit into a jungle...but the cave was near the edge of the cliff, and according to the signs and navigation robots that pointed the way, everyone would have to go down the cliff anyways. After all, the next gate was miles away deeper into the jungle.

As Nao landed though, he soon realized roughly where this Zone was, or what it was based on. Some of the swampy jungles to the north, full of peril such as sludge pits, murky water, and quicksand. And those were the normal threats. There was also something known as Sinking Grass, which was like Quicksand but looked like a grassy patch of land. The only difference in how you could tell what it was was that the grass was a slightly different shade of green, and that there wouldn't be anything in it.

There were also giant serpents like what he encountered before, as well as trees that had tops that would shoot out weird tendrils, wrap them around creatures that could fly, and quickly pull them into it to be eaten. Interestingly enough, it only seemed to target creatures that could fly though. You could tell what they looked like from leave shape, size, branches, and the fact you would see a spot that looked like normal bark from the sky...until it opened up and shot those tendrils at you to pull you in and swallow you.

And then of course, there were Murkwolves, Killer Moles, Deathromas (flowers that spew poisonous gas), and so on.

As for what he landed in, it was a Sinking Grass pit. It had already started to swallow up his shoes, but he had no intention of sinking, or running the entire race barefoot, so he let out a powerful electric charge. Unfortunately...Sinking Grass was essentially made of Earth and Rock, so it was fairly useless. As a result, he took out a piece of cloth, and ran electricity though it. This caused it to take the shape of a sword, which he used to cut up the ground as he pulled his sleeve up a little and shot a grapple hook out of a gauntlet device on his arm. Combined with the disruption of the ground, he was able to pull himself up.

"Alright then" Nao said as he surveyed the surroundings. "Lots of trees in the way, not organized nearly like the streets so I wont be able to move as fast in lightning form. Lets just do short zaps from branch to branch for now. I definently do not want to be airborn here. Leaving aside the Skyhook Trees, pretty sure I saw some flying creatures up there that would eat people who tried, and fighting all of those things would just slow me down".

And with that, he began zapping from branch to branch, moving quickly as possible while avoiding any Stickybark trees, which were trees so sticky it was better then military grade glue or duct tape.

Meanwhile, Cyrus who had been flying at top speed sped around the corner in the City zone as he saw a few others enter the Transport Gate to the Jungle Zone before him. Confident in his wings and speed, he rushed right through...and because he was flying, did not fall off the cliff as everyone else did. He also did a barrel roll to avoid the snake, however...

"GRROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRR".

"Uh oh?"

He panicked a little when he saw two flying serpents hop out of the forest to try and eat him, as well as spotting several things that looked like Skyhook Trees.

"This seems extremely prejudiced against people who can fly!" Cyrus complained as he began to take evasive measures.

And back in the City Zone, Jaune and Shinku were also making their way towards the transport gate along with their Armor Spirits, while in Level 3 forms. Jaune was in the lead, but Shinku had been using bursts of fire to keep up. Still, they were not anywhere close to being in the top ten yet.

Well, maybe they were a little close given how many holes they had seen triggered, but they didn't know for sure. Still, they were not out of the race yet either.