Oz, perched on the cart's canopy, sighed. "Mein Fräulein, it’s a slime. It doesn’t have a constitution. Also, the race has started."

The slime had already launched itself down the first drop, leaving a trail of violet sparks. Fischl shrieked—a dignified shriek, of course—and kicked her cart into motion.

Fischl stared. Then, with the gravitas of a queen accepting a crown, she took it. "You fight with honor, creature. I shall call you… Sir Bounceton."

"Pathetic creature!" Fischl declared, her eyepatch gleaming under the sun. "You face the sovereign of the Immernachtreich! Your conductive constitution is no match for the night-vision of my raven!"

And as the sun set over the temple, the Prinzessin and the slime sat side by side—one regal, one gelatinous—sharing a very questionable, slightly electrified snack. The race was over. The real adventure had just begun.

The track was absurd. A corkscrew loop over the ruins of the Thousand Winds Temple, a straightaway through a field of whopperflowers, and a final chute lined with electro-charged puddles. But Fischl, the Prinzessin der Verurteilung, had accepted the challenge. Her opponent: a single, gelatinous Electro Slime. Her vehicle: a modified Favonius Lance-turned-steering-pole attached to a rickety cart. Its? A perfectly spherical bounce.

"Midnight Phantasmagoria!" she yelled, summoning Oz to fire a bolt of lightning. But the slime absorbed it . With a gleeful plorp , it grew twice its size, crackling with stolen power.

"Oh no," Oz muttered.

The final stretch: the electro-puddle chute. Fischl took the high road—a rickety wooden bridge. The slime took the low road—bouncing directly into the puddles, each impact sending it rocketing forward like a pinball of pure voltage.