Sorry for the wait! I needed time to come up with ideas for this made-up event.

Chapter 16: Double Dash Cycling

"GO!" Tim screams into the megaphone. Both the teams immediately step on their paddles and zoom off at the same time. "Both sides have started moving!"

"ANNA AND JUN! ANNA AND JUN! GO GO GO!" cheer the shamans from among the audiences.

"GET THOSE GIRLS! DONOBAN AND GINA! YOU ARE THE BEST!" cheers the Foxy Pirates.

Jun and Donoban are paddling at equal pace, so neither side seems to be gaining an advantage. Anna and Gina, who are behind their drivers, are hurling insults and comments at each other.

"You got an ugly face!"

"Your temper is as bad as a shark's!"

"You're skinny as a skeleton!"

"You got flat mounds on your body!"

Donoban smirks and says to Jun, "I told you earlier; I'm always prepared! That's why we have never lose a single cycling race!"

"So what?"

"You'll see!"

As both the bikes travel along the path, a large wooden pole with a board pointing away from the track appears within sight (imagine it as a large door besides the track).

"Hehehe! That wooden board will flip around and smack them like a fly!" thought Donoban. "That's why I said I'm prepared! There's no way they can get through this!"

When Jun's team is about to pass the wooden pole, it immediately turns around as if someone pushed it, and the board smacks right into their bike! But to everyone's surprise, the wooden board bursts all of a sudden into pieces and the bike passes through it safely!

"WHAT!" gasp Donoban and Gina.

"What happened just now!" exclaims Tim, riding on top of his Super Sparrow Gigin. "The great Slapping Wooden Board burst into pieces when it hit Shaman Team's bike! How is that possible?"

"Thanks, Anna!" Jun says to her.

"You should thanks Zenki for this," says Anna, gesturing to the red shikigami hovering in front of their bike.

"I don't know what you did, but you won't get pass the next obstacle we especially prepared for you!" says Donodan angrily while paddling his bike.

"Damn right! You cannot get pass the pendulum of doom!" says Gina.

Ahead of them is a gigantic wooden structure with a large blade tied below it, swinging left to right. Foxy Team got to the wooden structure first. It seems that everything was already prepared so they can win easily, as the blades are not in the swinging range of their track! Therefore, they did not get hit by the blades.

The blades, instead, are swinging left to right in front of Shaman Team. Just as their bike goes below the wooden structure, a giant blade approaches them from the side, ready to slice them in half.

"The blade is about to hit Shaman Team!" says Tim. "Will they be…"

Suddenly, the blade shatters into pieces when it is about to hit their bike!

"WHAT! THE BLADE BROKE INTO PIECES!"

"You're such a help, Anna!" says Jun while paddling the bike.

"It's thanks to Kohki this time."

"Hold on tight! We're going to catch up with them!"

Donoban and Gina are shocked and angrily that they got through the traps set for them without a scratch. "They must have some kind of strange power with them!" says Gina. "How else can those obstacles explode into pieces without an explanation?"

Jun's bike catches up with them and slowly goes pass them. Seeing this, Donoban paddles faster than before, trying hard to get pass Jun.

Gina reaches into her dress and takes out some small explosives, and throws it into the air ahead of Shaman Team. But all those explosives explode in midair before they even reach the ground! Of course, this is all thanks to Anna's two shikigamis.

The two Foxy Pirates are shocked at seeing this, and they ask, "What are those monsters you have with you!"

"You'll never understand this if you're not a shaman," replies Anna.

"They're now coming to the giant slope!" says Tim. "Its surface is very inclined, so trying to ride up it is very hard!"

"Ha! I'm prepared for this!" says Donoban. When their bike reaches the slanted surface, it travels up easily without slowly down a bit! But when Jun tries to ride her bike up, she has a hard time and skid back down to the ground.

"How did they get up there so easily?"

The reason the Foxy Pirates traveled up so easily is because there are tiny suction cups embedded on their bike wheels, thus allowing them to move up the surface without skidding back down.

Jun tries to paddle up again, but she just couldn't make it; she skids back down over and over. "I think we're stuck here…" says Jun sadly.

Anna remains calm and holds up a shell. "It's time to use this."

Foxy Team is on top of the slope, stopping there to rest a bit. All those paddling made Donoban's legs really tired. "Let my legs rest a little bit. Those two definitely can't get up here that fast."

Suddenly, a bike shoots up from the slope and flies overhead them! The two are shocked to see Shaman Team's bike flying through the air!

"That was amazing!" exclaims Tim. "Shaman Team's bike zoomed up the slope and into the air!"

"How did you store so much wind into that Wind Dial?" Jun asks Anna.

"I was storing it since we were on the ship," replies Anna. "I left it out on the deck and let it store the winds from the storms we encountered. That is why the wind is powerful enough to boost us up the slope."

"But are we going to fall down with a crash? We're several feet up in the sky!"

"Looks like it…"

As they fall towards the earth, Jun pulls back the handle and lifts the front wheel higher than the back one. The bike lands onto the ground with a thud on the back wheel and no damage was taken.

"It looks like Tao Jun is an expert in physics!" says Tim. "She lessened the impact of the landing by letting the hind wheel land on the surface first!"

"I can't believe they got past us!" says Gina angrily.

"Let's get them!" Donoban rides their bike down the slope, zooming very fast due to the slanted slope.

Anna looks back and sees them. "They're catching from behind."

Suddenly, several cannonballs are shot in from the side, fired by some Foxy Pirates. Zenki and Kohki used themselves as shields and destroy any incoming attacks, protecting Anna and Jun.

"That girl! Something must be done about her monster guardians!" says Foxy angrily.

"Coming up ahead is the Great Maze!" announces Tim. "It is a very long maze and one can get lost the whole day inside! It is split into two sections—one for the Shaman Team and for our team. Both sections of mazes are separated, so they will not run across each other as they find their way out."

Before them is some sort of a fort with two entrances in front of it.

"We got nothing to fear!" says Donoban. "Our mates have already prepared everything for us! The path we will be taking has arrows telling us the direction! We will never get lost, but our opponent will surely get lost, not only because they can't find the way, but boss has something up his sleeves!"

Shaman Team enters one of the entrances and stops there. "It's a maze in here," says Jun. "It's not going to be easy to make it out."

Suddenly, Fox appears behind them and chuckles evilly. "Hahahaha! You'll never get out here alive!"

"What do you mean, ugly haircut?" asks Anna.

Foxy drops onto his knees and cries, "Nooooo! You're making fun of my hair!" But he immediately gets back up. "You'll understand it soon enough!" He takes out a small capsule and throws it against the floor. The capsule explodes and thick smoke immediately fills up the maze. Foxy runs out from the maze and shows a thumb up to Foxy Team. "Take your time in your section of your maze! They'll never make their way out of the maze in that super thick smoke!"

"You're the best, boss!" says Gina happily, so Donoban zooms into their maze entrance and follows the arrows printed on the walls.

"Boss has filled up the Shaman Team's section!" says Tim. "They will surely crash into walls and won't make it out!"

Foxy hears several crashing sounds coming from inside the maze and wonders what is making those sounds.

On the other side of the maze, the wall bursts open and Shaman Team rides out! "WHAT!" gasps Tim. "Shaman Team busted through the walls and made it out in less than a minute!"

"Your shikigamis sure are a help," Jun says to Anna.

As they move forward, several pirates come and fire cannonballs at them. Their friends, along with both shikigamis, appear and start beating up those pirates for messing with them.

"You can do it, Anna! We'll protect you from all kinds of harms!" Yoh calls to them.

Foxy Team finally made it out the maze and is shocked to see Shaman Team a very far distance ahead of them, so they quickly step on their paddles and zoom forward.

Jun and Anna encounters Foxy besides the road, lying on the ground with a bag of ice on his head. "Help me… young ladies…" mumbles Foxy slowly and painfully. "I'm sick with a fever… Perhaps even a cancer… Please take me to the doctor…"

"Better luck next time, ugly," Anna says to him, and they continue on their way. Foxy is struck in the heart deeply and begins to weep tears of sadness.

"What cold-hearted girl Anna is!" says Tim. "She not only didn't fall for boss's trick, but also called him cruel names! What cruel woman she is!"

"Can you keep your mouth damn shut!" Anna shouts at him.

"And what bad temper she has!"

Donoban and Gina are catching up from behind. While paddling, Donoban takes out some knives and throws it at them, but Kohki appears behind the shamans' bike and blocks the incoming knives.

"There's one more obstacle left before the finish line!" says Tim. "And that is the Circle of Mirrors!"

Hearing this cheered up Donoban and Gina. "We're in luck now!" says Donoban with a smile. "Nobody can get through the Circle of Mirrors without slowing down!"

Foxy is standing just outside the Circle of Mirrors, which is nothing more than several mirrors placed in a circle formation. "Hehehe! Come on in and have it! None of our opponents have ever gotten through this unharmed!"

Jun and Anna paddle into the Circle of Mirrors and stop for a while. They look around for any possible traps that are in here, and when they see none, they continue moving. When Donoban and Gina got here, they stop outside the mirrors and stay there.

When Foxy sees Shaman Team in between the mirrors, he points his finger at them and fires a Noro Beam. "Noro Noro Beam!"

Jun sees the beam coming and quickly turns aside to avoid it. "Miss me!"

Foxy just smiles and says, "You know that beam particles can be reflected by mirrors, right?"

"Uh?"

"The same applies for Noro Noro Beam. The difference is…"

When the beam he fired and missed hit one of the mirrors, the beam splits into two more beams and bounces off to nearby mirrors and split into even more beams!"

"The Noro Noro beams split particles when they touch a mirror! Now that you are in the Circle of Mirrors, the beams will bounce around like no tomorrow, increasing in number! You can never avoid it! HAHAHAHAHA!"

A beam bounces towards their bike, so they quickly turn aside, but another beam immediately comes to them from the side. This kept on going for a while, until finally, they got caught in several beams coming towards them at the same time and got hit.

"This is it! Shaman Team is shot by Noro Noro Beam!" says Tim. "They will be slowed down for 30 seconds! And while that is happening, our team has already gone pass them!" Foxy Team travels outside along the Circle of Mirrors, heading towards the goal in front of them.

"No… They…. are… going… to… the… finish… line…!" says Jun, really slowly.

"They… are… cheating…" says Anna angrily and slowly.

"Noooo! This can't be!" screams Ryu from the audience!

"They're cheating!" complains Horo.

"You can't do anything about it," a Foxy pirate tells them. "As long as our team crosses the finish line, we win!"

And so it happens, Donoban and Gina cross the finish line, and Jun and Anna are still moving really slowly.

TO BE CONTINUED…

I don't really have any high hopes for this chapter, since I wasn't prepared for it… Surely it isn't exciting like the other two. Sorry about that… And yes, I made them lose on purpose. I have a good reason for this too.