7800° Fahrenheit

John had had no idea that David was fast enough to keep up with them - they were going over one-hundred fifty miles per hour. The lead Phoenix had the aerial advantage and dove down toward him. David disappeared, the Phoenix diving through where he had been moments before. He reappeared below, a horizontal blur that tore the Phoenix to shreds. Ashes rained down as it was reborn, and John hardly saw the fledgeling firebird before its apparent owner unsummoned it. With that, John left the aerial combat to David.

A good thing too, since the gang of firebirds in the sky had distracted him from the gang of Firebirds on the ground. They had surrounded him, while Robert and Jenny were trying to get in through their blockade. Their windows were tinted, and Advanced Spy did nothing. A Mana Bolt at the window did nothing, and they slowly closed in more and more.

“Alriiiiight, looks to me like the Muscleman teamed up with our mystery racers to try to take out the Firebirds! Will their unlikely alliance yield results against the 82nd rated Abyssal racing gang? Probably not! Doc Brown has still left the scene, and The Blur has just made it to the second obstacle, marking the halfway point. Everybody except for the last remaining Nightsister are right on his tail. She trails in far last, and I doubt she’ll finish at all. Wouldn’t be the first time a girl didn’t finish, am I right? Now let’s see how they handle: The Burning Rings of Fire!” the announcer narrated, and the Firebirds pulled off as John looked ahead. Ahead, the asphalt road separated into three paths each with segments slowly moving up and down. Around each segment a metal ring burned with everlasting flames, and John had a fleeting thought that naming them “The Burning Rings of Fire” sounded a little redundant.

“I have no idea which of these is easiest, but I’d say our chances are better if we split up,” Robert called over the wind as they all noticed the Firebirds doing exactly that. David returned to John, who noticed the remaining two Phoenixes returning to their masters. John took the left path, Jenny took the right, and Robert drove down the middle.

John gunned down his path, nervously following the decline as he watched Robert and Jenny follow their inclines. The black, unmarked asphalt road gave way to a dirt path, and John’s tires groaned in disagreement as the rough road dug into them. Hopefully that’s not as bad as it sounds, John thought as he watched the Firebird ahead jump straight through the fire. John drew the Midnight Duster closer around himself as he drove through the flames. They licked at his heels, and he took a sliver of damage. A Phoenix emerged from the car of the Firebird ahead, and John hoped the last one was with Robert and not Jenny.

David burst out of his chest, a feeling not altogether pleasant to John. He tore at the Phoenix with everything he had, and John was glad that David was on his side. He had little time to think this, as the road suddenly shifted and his attention was thrown back to it.

David teleported above the Phoenix, Orion to its owner, and dove down at him at an attempt to perform the same sneak attack he had performed on Orion’s fallen comrade. Orion wasn’t so easily fooled, and a pillar of flame erupted where he had been a moment earlier. David fluttered back at the last second, teleporting more on instinct than anything else. He became invisible, hoping to hide his location from the attacker. Orion sent out an unbearable heatwave in response, sensing the locations void of violent incalescence to detect where David appeared and disappeared.

John hung on for dear life as the road started to shift onto the wall until nothing but fire remained instead of the “ground”. He was glad he was on a motorcycle and wondered if Robert had encountered such an obstacle. He doubted the much heavier vehicle would be able to drive along the wall at the speeds he had seen it go. The road went into a tunnel, and the only reason he could see at all was the headlight on the motorcycle. Soon, he found himself inching toward the ceiling instead of the wall.

The second I start hanging totally upside-down, I’m going to fall. That is, unless I make it quick. It’s like the bikers who ride in a sphere in the circus. They can ride along the top for only a moment, and that’s all I need, John thought, and his fears became true. He saw the Firebird ahead attempt to drive on the ceiling and watched as his car crashed on its roof. I’ve gotta be quicker than him.

Pumping the throttle, John unequipped everything save for his underwear - anything to make him lighter. Faintly, he heard the announcer boom through the solid ground, “Well, well, well. One of our mystery racers has decided to birthday-suit-up! I will say even if he’s not tan like our Tan Linez service would ensure, he’s certainly a piece of eye-candy. Our ratings just went way up! The wall of flame rapidly approached.

Orion felt his master’s distress but decided to keep fighting his opponent nonetheless. David was not so heartless. He felt his friend’s distress but knew he wasn’t hurt - yet. He decided that his efforts would be better spent eliminating an enemy than retreating to a situation he wasn’t sure he could help. That, or his feral, animal anger at the thing threatening to hurt the one being he loved kept him attacking it. A little bit of both.

He teleported around, trying to confuse his enemy. He didn’t know how the enemy knew where he was, but the singes and near-misses on both wings proved that his enemy did in fact know where he was. He dove toward Orion from above at top speed, feinting toward the right in the last moment in a blizzard of feathers, before sinking his talons into his opponent’s head. Orion burst into ash before returning to his owner, a newborn Phoenix once more.

The wall ahead turned to flame, and John used Move to both push his wheels against the ceiling as he briefly drove against it and him further forward. He felt himself starting to fall, and using the last of his mana, he doubled down on Move, letting him drive on the ceiling just long enough to make it back to the ground. As a consequence, the metal on the motorcycle had bent and growned. Move had grown more powerful than he gave it credit for, and he felt himself slowing down. The tunnel started to end, and in unequipping his protective equipment, he failed to notice that the motorcycle no longer had any flame shielding. It had caught fire, and John ditched it just before the end of the tunnel. That thing took some serious ****, he thought as he sprinted up the incline, the final part of the tunnel. Rushing out, he caught sight of Robert and a Phoenix tearing at his roof. The Firebird was nowhere in sight, and John assumed he had beaten it.

Robert slowed down upon seeing him on foot, and the Phoenix retreated to regroup upon the arrival of a new enemy. John made his way to the right of the car before diving through the passenger seat window. “Hiya Rob!” he informally exclaimed before rearranging himself. Leaning half out the window, John held his breath until first he saw the Firebird emerge from Jenny’s path, then Jenny herself, her head down and her red hair just barely poking out of her helmet. He couldn’t see the expression on her face, but he could imagine it perfectly. Determined, with her brows creased and a slight quirk to her smile.

You know, I can hear how worried you are about me. I’m a higher level than you, you know? her voice rang out in his head, and he finally let out his breath. Looks like I got off better than you did! He couldn’t disagree and instead decided to focus on the two remaining Firebirds. Another emerged from the path behind them, and John realized he was wrong in assuming Robert had beaten his. Just after, the last Nightsister drove out of the path John had just come out of. Suddenly, the road shifted back to asphalt, and skyscrapers surrounded them on each side once more. Johnny, Jenny thought, pulling up next to the open passenger window,