Splatoon Manga: NightRoad

Chapter 53: Arrival

⭐️Chapter 53: Arrival

Meanwhile, Rider and the squidbeak were faced with the new challenge of escaping the forest, with the shadowlings hot on their trail. They had seen Jet and Crow shift to shadow form to chase them, and now Rider needed to be prepared for more bullets, lasers, and probably feather projectiles. He wasn't stabilized on the bike, and Jet was being serious now. He looked up, to see if anything was following him from the air. Sure enough, he saw Kuro and Negro, each taking aim with their shooters. That must mean that Noir and Heise were here somewhere...ah, there they were, speeding through the trees.

He grumbled something to himself. He was alone in planning, and would need to focus on each team one by one. Okay, so who was top priority? The beasts, the fliers, or the runners? Let's see. The beasts would most likely be a forest obstacle, but Crow could still fly. He had lived through Jet's bullet frenzy once, and he was sure he could do it again.

The fliers only had their inking weapons and not blades or anything, but they were still dangerous. They could try and swoop in at any moment to steal any of the weakened squidbeak. Not to mention Crow covered both "beast" and "flier" category. Rider would have to find a way to lose them. Maybe he could trick them into running into trees?

And lastly, the runners/shadow travelers. To be honest, Noir was the only true threat, and Heise was considered backup to Rider. So...forest obstacles vs nuisances vs The edgy man himself...fliers first. Rider needed to find a way to shake them off his tail. Speaking of tail, a dark area formed under the bike. He wasn't about to let everyone get thrown into the air.

He accelerated, just as a barracuda's tail shot out of the shadows. It sunk back down and caught up to Rider again. Kuro and Negro had flown closer in an attempt to get a better shot. Rider had to look ahead at the path ahead in order to decide what to do. He saw a heavily forested area up ahead. This would mean an advantage to the runners, but a disadvantage to the beasts (due to their size) and the fliers (who wouldn't be able to follow them with all the trees and branches).

He figured he could zip in there real quick and make sure the fliers were down before turning back into the original path, since the original path's worn-down-less-planty path was easier to ride on. And so he did.

"Hold on guys, it's gonna get bumpy!" He said loudly.

The squidbeak couldn't really do much while being hidden in Rider's jacket, but they could hear him. They braced themselves as Rider went off path and into the woods.

"They're going off path...what do we do?" Heise asked.

"They might be trying to throw us off...or separate us. Stick together as much as possible!" Noir replied.

As Rider had predicted, Kuro and Negro stoped before they could fly in.

"What are you doing?! You're supposed to help!" A voice in each of their heads yelled.

"We can't! The trees are too thick and we'd more than likely wind up getting hit by branches or something! And I'm not about to fall for that again!" Kuro said in her mind, since the motorbike and the others had already sped off.

"Relax, captain. We'll get 'em on the way out" Negro thought, since there was no other known way of getting into inkopolis other than that gate.

I mean. There technically was, but chances are they'd run out of fuel before they even got to one of the other entrances. Meanwhile, Rider hadn't heard anything hit the trees, so he was wondering if this was a trap. He did see that Noir and Heise were the only ones following him, though. So with that, he quickly swerved around (almost flinging Ebony and the squidbeak off in the process) and drove back. Once he hit the main road, he turned again and continued down it. For some reason though, neither Kuro nor Negro were present.