It was too late. Vergil had already stepped onto the Sharpedo. He stood behind the fin and looked ahead. “I’ll go.”

“Uh,” Gladion. “Aren’t you going to sit down? Grab onto the fin?”

“No. Why would I?”

“The average speed of a Sharpedo is seventy-five miles per hour,” said Gladion. “And this one’s Hasty natured, so you’re probably gonna be going closer to eighty. Speed Boosts will make it four times faster, and tailwind doubles the speed. So at the end of it all, you’re going to be moving at over six-hundred miles per hour. And with the extra burst of speed you get from Aqua Jet… Vergil, you might be going faster than sound.”

Vergil smirked. “Then it should be a leisurely cruise.” He kicked Sharpedo on the side. “HYA!”

And just like that, Vergil sped ahead.

Sharpedo accelerated, a knife that cut through glassy water. Vergil swerved it left and right. He adjusted to its weight and figured out the handling. The path before him was full of twists and turns, and there would be no mistakes. Every move he made would be executed perfectly.

Sharpedo accelerated. He squinted. He could feel the speed now, how it excited the stomach, how it pricked at the eyes. He did not blink. He stayed affixed to the Gundam. It seemed so much slower now, now that he was beginning to overtake its pace.

But he could go faster.

“HYA!” Vergil struck Sharpedo with his scabbard. It roared and surged forward. A rush of water battered his ankles, wind pushed against him. He was pushing against a wall. But Vergil cared not for obstacles; if there was a wall in his way, he would simply cut through. So he unsheathed the Yamato and cut through his mach cone. The ride, he found, was far smoother for it. He sailed through, turned corners so tightly that he was directly tangent to the precipices of his watery path. It took him a matter of seconds to finally reach striking distance of the Gundam. Vergil would not face the back of a mere machine.

- Ragnarust Round 2