Chapter 288 - 288. Keep The Beat

The woman with dragon like wings landed right in front of Sammy. Her face was a serious mask without any emotion showing. Her wings folded themselves and the silence between the two grew stronger. Sammy was about to ask what was wrong when the woman grabbed her hands and jumped. 

"That was so smart! I never even felt you hooked on me because my wings were strong enough to pull your light body with me. I can't believe that just happened. I thought I was just dragging a little because I was nervous so I ignored it and focused up!" 

The reaction was not what Sammy or the audience had expected and it was met with many cheers of joy. They were enamored by the positive reaction and were instantly starting to pair the two together as the best friends that had met at the tournament. 

After the woman calmed herself, Sammy finally got a word in. "Thank you, but if I tell you the reason you might laugh…" 

"Reason? You have to tell me!" The woman was right in her face at this point. 

Sa,m,y grew a little embarrassed and tried to keep her voice as low as possible, "

I can't fly yet. I can only hover and kind of direct myself before falling." 

"You can't even fly yet!!!" The shouts and general shock echoed through the entire arena. The audience slowly started to murmur before it became an uproar of shock and awestruck cheering. 

"We just found out that our winner can not even fly yet! It seems she had not mastered her super power and thought up the sneaky strategy to win even without fully flying! What an amazing youth. Looking in to this we have found that she has registered with multiple other youths all in different tournaments. They are all still in high school!" The broadcast gained a huge following in the next minutes and Asher started to laugh while watching it. 

"Hey man, I know that girl just did something amazing but don't let it get to your head." One of the kinder participants nearby in the waiting room thought Asher was having a mental breakdown and tried to help. It was only kindness for a newbie. 

"Oh no, sorry. I just can't help it. Sammy gave away so much about my friends and me. But I'm really happy she won." Asher was barely able to hold back his laughter as he stopped the nearest people in their tracks as they realized that he was one of the group that had just been mentioned. The room was soon a buzz that marked him as a bog fish to target and defeat in the random pairing matches. 

Meanwhile, Cara was on her tenth lap and still holding pace. She had not used any of her strategies yet but had intentionally set herself up in the back of the group tp watch what the others did and conserve her energy. 

At the very start, she had witnessed many super powers being used to get ahead and slow the other competitors. The biggest being someone whose every step put off flames. This wasn't a violation of the rules because they weren't physically touching their competitors. It was a dirty move that took out a full forty people instantly. 

Cara also saw a few using super powers related to air and even someone that caused the earth to vibrate and put someone off balance constantly. The most dangerous though was a woman running with blue and pink smoke around her. Every time someone got close they would fall asleep or become wide awake and run until they passed out. Her super power pushed people to extremes of sleep or wakefulness and was hard to counter. 

Luckily, this woman had a very poor pace and Cara could tell she would not pose a threat unless she came near. At the start, she had seen a shifter with a cheetah super power who had rushed many laps ahead. The man was now panting and the farthest behind, However, Cara was impressed that he was still moving even though it was barely faster than a walking pace. 

Seeing that there were only about sixty participants left Cara decided that it was time for her to start using her super power. She had devised some plans that would help her put people off and help her win in the end. 

The spectators were confused when she took off and reversed her sweat shirt to expose the speakers. Cara put it back on in that form and put the hood up adjusting her noise canceling head phones. With a few taps of a button, the speakers blared to life in to a fast paced beat. It was her heart beat being played louder for everyone to hear. 

The nearby runners were slightly surprised but nothing changed. However, they noticed the rhythm changing and becoming frantic as Cara moved around them. It wasn't that Cara's heart was beating faster, but she was manipulating the sound to appear this way. No one knew why the beat was increasing but Cara noticed that the pace around her increased and some runners passed the others. 

Before they realized anything the pace had become much faster and the runners were far ahead  competing with each other. Cara had tricked them in to increasing their pace and competing with each other. The results showed in just three more laps as the runners she had tricked fell out of the race due to exhausting themselves. 

Her next task was one she had practiced constantly while running. She switched the speakers from her heart to a microphone that projected her voice. She began to talk while running. Only those who she wanted, heard it thought. 

"Hey, I'm going to catch you." 

"Your shoe is untied." 

"Ha, you really thought you would win?"

"The crowd is booing you. Good luck with that."

"Why are you so slow? Is that all you have?"

Cara projected and directed her voice to choice competitors causing them to have a multitude of reactions. Some thought another participant was picking a fight causing the nearby participants to use their powers and force each other out of the race. Others buckled under her mental barrage and fell out of the race themselves. By the time Cara had decided she had done enough, there were only three competitors left. The woman with the two different smokes coming off her and the cheetah shifter. 

"To all the spectators. I am about to use my trump card. Be warned. Cover your ears" Cara said this allowed while keeping the sounds from traveling to her competitors. She was able to d this but her next move she had a lot less control over due to the high pitch it would hit. 

She started to slow her pace slightly and take deeper breaths. She clicked the volume on the speakers higher and higher until they were at max. When this was ready she breathed in even more and let out a silent shout. The audience didn't notice anything for a moment before a very high pitched and annoying ringing began to grow in their ears. 

Cara had to adjust herself slowly to hit the right pitch but as she got near it the audience and her two opponents began to feel the stabbing ain in their ars. The high pitched sound was slowly growing causing them to cup their hands over their ears. 

Cara still had more breathy and pushed herself further. The cheetah shifter fell and stopped running with tears down his face. The woman was still ahead but Cara watched her sway as iof she was barely able to stand anymore. 

Feeling that she was reaching the end of her breath Cara gave it a final push and saw her competitor crumble to the ground song with some of the audience who had not heeded her warning. Cara continued to run as she adjusted her pace. Just because she knocked them out did not mean the race was over. She needed to get as much distance and time as possible before she stopped. The judges needed to know for sure that she was the best runner out there. 

After seventeen more laps Cara found her legs had turned to jello and she slipped. Her shoulder hit the ground and she rolled to a stop. The audience burst in to cheering even though some of them were still being treated by some of the medical staff. They totally ignored her power since the announcer had explained that she had warned them and that it was a risk they had taken by signing the waivers when buying tickets. 

"That's my daughter! MY DAUGHTER! She runs every day! And she just WON!" Cara and Ashers' father was not deafened at all. He was used to Caras' power after these years and had covered his ears when he heard her warning. But he knew others were harmed and had to yell to make sure they knew just how amazing she was. Hearing this made Cara smile before realizing that all eyes were on her. She had officially made a splash and could feel that she might not want to be law enforcement anymore. This feeling was intoxicating.