’Osho, the Mana strong.’ Gale spoke through their bond, and Osho had to agree. There was a LOT of Mana-based engineering within this Rollercoaster. Well, a lot more than most things.
The Mana moved in ways Osho quickly realized he wouldn’t be able to figure out how it worked unless he spent ample time studying it. But then again, is that why he was here?
Suddenly, he felt a hand slip into his, and he turned to face Ellie with a bit of surprise. The girl looked both excited and more than a bit nervous.
"Nervous?" He asked, and she faced him with wide eyes.
"Nervous? Ah, yeah... I mean no... well, yeah." he mumbled over her words and said with a small squeak. Yup, ⁶ nervous.
Osho smiled and gave her hand a small squeeze.
"If it’s any consolation, Irene looks like she’s about to have a panic attack." He said and perked his head in the direction of Irene, who looked like she was regretting every life decision she had made this far, her face pale.
Kurt was trying to comfort her while Sam was doing everything she could to not laugh at the poor girl’s expense. This also served to calm down Ellie a little bit as she seemed a bit relieved that she wasn’t the only one who seemed nervous.
As for Osho, well, he’d be lying if he said he didn’t feel a little nervous. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been on a Rollercoaster, both in this life and the last, so for him to get on something as extreme as the Bloodbath was certainly a bit unnerving.
But that made him even more excited to experience it.
Slowly, more people filled in the remaining seats, and chatter started to fill the ride as different moods started to mingle in the air.
’Good thing I can turn it off.’ Osho thought, referring to his ability. While he didn’t need to put in much effort to see the ribbons connected to beasts now and could just have them float around passively, he discovered that they got annoying very fast, and he preferred to just have it off unless he needed to use it for something.
Or if he felt like he would be ambushed by a beast he wasn’t able to see.
"Alright folks, the ride will begin shortly. Remember the rules, and please, don’t do anything stupid." Off to the side, a staff member said with a small bit of exasperation. It would appear that people had done something stupid enough times for them to make it a warning.
’Here goes.’ Osho thought as he felt the Mana start to move.
A moment later, the ride activated.
A wave of nervous tension passed over the riders as some people fell silent while others began to nervously converse. Only a few people seemed calm enough, most likely those who had gone on the ride before and knew what to expect.
The tracks, a few noticed, seemed to be magnetic as there was no friction and, thus, no shaking. Which was interesting as despite that, there was no risk of the cars suddenly flying off as they seemed anchored to the rails without physically touching them. Definitely some magic involved.
The cars started to climb, and Osho was immediately baffled. Right off the bat, the incline was pretty much 90 degrees, and he could feel gravity trying to pull him back down as they steadily progressed upwards.
He looked to his side and saw Ellie once more had that wide-eyed look on her face. He then faced the others and saw that Irene had just shut her eyes tightly, her lips pressed together. Kurt looked like he was doing some breathing exercises, and Sam just looked like she was about to have the time of her life.
’A maniac, that one.’ Oshi thought as they finally reached the peak, which was well over 200 meters (656.1679 feet) tall.
Osho exhaled. He could see a lot from up here. The buildings looked like the layout of someone’s city in a city managing game, and the people looked like ants.
’Interesting comparison on my part.’ He thought briefly.
"H-Hey guys, look here." Ellie’s slightly shaky voice caught their attention, and they turned to see her with her phone in selfie mode.
"Say cheese." She said, and Osho made a simple peace sign while Sam offered a toothy grin. Kurt just smiled a bit with his lips while Irene looked like she wanted to be anywhere but there.
Ellie took the selfie before quickly storing her phone and gripping her seats tightly with one hand and gripping Osho’s hand with the other.
An unspoken rule seemed to pass over the riders as everyone subconsciously raised their hands.
’Osho, why is—’ Gale was unable to get his question off as the ride went over.
Osho expected the ride to be intense. From its appearance to the name to the buildup. Everything pointed to a ride that would leave a lasting impression.
’Fast!’ He thought as they descended with a vengeance. The speed was extreme, almost too extreme. How were they going so fast? Even if there were measures in place, surely the ride couldn’t handle such extreme velocities. Or rather, the riders.
Yet he had no time to think about that as they seemed about ready to smash into the ground. Where was the rest of the track?
At the last moment, the ground opened up, and and the cars were soon underground.
Osho’s vision was obscured, but he could still use his Mana sense. However, he was immediately thrown off as despite feeling like they were moving so fast, his Mana sense pointed at something else as ut showed that, while moving quickly, they weren’t moving nearly as fast as what Osho perceived, which gave him a realization.
’Right. It said something about illusions.’ In that case, did that mean that the ’speed’ of the ride increased or lowered based on the perception of the one riding it to make it seem more thrilling? What could Gale possibly be seeing right now, then?
Whatever the case, Ishi made the prompt decision of turning off his Mana sense. Why? Because it made it less fun to know you weren’t moving that fast!
Right now, this underground section was filled with all sorts of twists and turns. They even did a loop once, and the fact that they couldn’t see any of it but could still feel their bodies being tossed around was both terrifying and thrilling.
As quickly as it started, though, it ended as Osho was hit with a beam of light that let him realize they were no longer underground. He spared a glance back and saw that other than the screaming riders, the distance between where they had entered the ground and where they had come out from... actually wasn’t that large.
’Another illusion? No, even then my Mana sense would have picked up something. Spatial compression?’ Once again, before he could dwell on it, the ride entered its next phase.
Osho suddenly found himself twisting as the track went from straight and horizontal to spiraling and horizontal.
He had a genuine worry of being thrown out of the ride at that moment as he could feel the force was trying to wrench him out of his seat, but he was also keenly aware that the force acting on him wasn’t as strong as it was meant to be. Once more, some magic was involved.
As soon as the spiral ended, it immediately transitioned into a large loop that had everyone screaming at the top of their lungs, and they weren’t able to settle as immediately the loop ended, they were thrust into a series of smaller, faster loops, and by the time those ended, they entered another rapid corkscrew.
This happened two more times.
After that, the track finally evened out as everyone finally got a bit of a breather. But only a bit, though, as they suddenly noticed that there was no more track a few dozen meters ahead of them.
Osho felt genuine panic take over the riders as even though they had seen the track was before entering, the knowledge did little to prepare them for being dropped in person.
’How will this work?’ He mused with anticipation as the screams got louder. Heck, some people were begging and talking about how they didn’t wanna be there anymore. Reasonable assessment in Osho’s opinion.
The cars reached the end of the track and indeed flew right off.
Oshi felt himself become weightless for a moment before gravity once more took hold and they plummeted. But it was clear the fall was controlled as the cars moved in a near-perfect arc and didn’t just fall haphazardly.
Once more, it looked as though they were just going to crash straight into the ground. But at the last moment, more tracks appeared from the floor and the cars slid onto them with almost immaculate ease, no jarring impact occurring as the fall had been softened with Mana.
The ride finally slowed down after that and gradually came to a stop.
"That’s the end of the ride folks. Did y’all have fun?" The staff member who had sent them off asked with a big grin, and the grin seemed genuine this time as he watched them miserably groan and shake their heads.
"I’ll take that as a yes."