A speed race? An item race!

"Hey, little Wizard!"

Tony suddenly called out, "Want to race? Let's see whether your magic or my armor comes out on top."

Hermione was speechless at how eager he looked.

Clearly, her mockery had bruised his ego, and now he was trying every way he could to save face.

He was the head of a leading defense conglomerate, a capitalist big shot pushing forty. Why was he acting like a child?

Looking at Tony, who was still a kid at heart, Hermione nodded. "All right, but the loser has to shout 'I'm a puppy' three times in front of Pepper!"

"Agree, and I'll race you. Otherwise, go play by yourself."

"No problem!"

Tony was feeling playful. Ever since he had taken over the company, nobody had treated him this way. Rediscovering some of his childhood fun actually made him feel much more relaxed and happy.

Since you've managed to amuse a genius like me, I suppose I'll go a little easy on you. Can't let you lose too badly... Tony thought.

Seeing Tony's confident expression, Hermione had no trouble guessing what he was thinking. She sneered inwardly.

You asked for this!

"Stark Tower is the finish line. First one there wins!"

With that, the Iron Man Armor suddenly accelerated, instantly breaking the sound barrier with a series of sonic booms.

Hermione knew that no matter how much she accelerated, her Broomstick could never catch up with the Iron Man Armor.

But she wasn't worried in the slightest.

After all, her magic had never been limited to a Broomstick.

"Accio Iron Man Armor!"

Hermione raised her Wand and pointed it at Tony's back.

Flying at high speed ahead of her, Tony felt immensely satisfied as he watched Hermione fall far behind.

Looks like your magic isn't all-powerful after all. My armor is still better!

The next moment, while Tony was still gloating, his body jerked. Some inexplicable force seemed to yank him backward. Although he was still flying forward, his speed plummeted instantly, dropping back to the speed of sound.

"Sir, something is pulling the armor backward!" JARVIS offered another belated warning.

"Thanks for the useless warning. I already noticed!"

Tony looked back and discovered that not only had he slowed down, but Hermione had somehow sped up considerably.

It felt as though an invisible rope had been tied to the back of his armor, with the other end attached to Hermione, and he was towing her along.

What was going on?!

The gap slowly closed, and Hermione's figure grew clearer.

Seeing her faintly mocking smile, Tony immediately realized what was happening and shouted, "Cheating! You're using magic to cheat!"

Hermione gave a soft huff, pointed her Wand at her throat, and cast Sonorus on herself. Then she said, "You were the one who wanted to see whether my magic or your armor was stronger. Now that I've used magic, you're going back on your word?"

"To think the great genius Stark would be such a sore loser."

Tony was left speechless.

He had meant to race on speed alone, but he had forgotten that Hermione's magic included far more than flying.

And he was the one who had proposed a contest between magic and technology, so Hermione wasn't breaking any rules.

He had no way to argue back and could only swallow the loss.

Seeing Tony stumped delighted Hermione.

The Iron Man Armor was far too powerful for her lv2 Summoning Charm to pull it over to her. She couldn't even make him stop, only slow him down considerably.

But she didn't need to actually summon it.

As long as the spell wasn't canceled or the summoning completed, the Summoning Charm would remain active. In effect, the stronger side kept pulling on the weaker one.

The result was that the Iron Man Armor towed Hermione along, doing her work for free.

It was an unconventional use of the Summoning Charm that nobody had expected.

A simple Summoning Charm, yet it presented Tony with a problem he couldn't solve.

Seeing this, Tony gritted his teeth. "JARVIS, divert all power to the thrusters. Even with her little tricks, that girl can only keep pace. She can't actually catch me. As long as I reach Stark Tower before her, I win!"

At his command, the flames from the Iron Man Armor's thrusters grew larger, and his speed increased.

A little later, seeing Hermione trailing far behind and still unable to catch him, Tony grinned smugly again.

"Hahaha! Just a cheap trick, after all. It can't do much against an absolute difference in power."

He wasn't wrong.

Hermione could keep him from pulling farther ahead, but she didn't have the strength to catch up.

However, she had never intended to actually catch him.

Anyone who had watched The Racing Brothers knew that going faster than your opponent wasn't the only way to win a race.

Making your opponent go slower than you was another option.

For example, the racer ahead might suddenly trip, a tire might fly off, or the engine might blow...

Devil Commander would have called her a real pro.

A smile slowly spread across Hermione's face.

Seeing it, Tony's smile gradually faded.

Hermione slowly raised her Wand.

Tony's eyes widened little by little.

Here it comes. She's doing it again!

"Impedimenta!"

The moment she spoke, there was a thud. Tony felt as though his armor had hit something. The impact left him reeling, and his speed abruptly dropped.

"Did I hit a bird?!"

Recovering his senses, he hurriedly asked.

JARVIS answered instantly, "No, sir. No obstacles detected ahead."

Just as Tony was about to ask another question, a voice rang out again.

"Impedimenta!"

Thud!

Another hit.

"Impedimenta!"

Thud!

"Impedimenta!"

Thud!

Poor Tony kept crashing into inexplicable walls of air, stumbling through an empty sky. It felt as awful as getting caught in a glitch in Earth Online.

This was undoubtedly the most miserable race of his life.

He swore that once it was over, he would go to Monaco, find a proper Formula One race car, and remind himself what a normal race felt like.

After who knew how long, Stark Tower finally appeared before him.

Finally... Tony was practically in tears. He was about to make one last dash to seal the race when he discovered that Hermione had somehow pulled up beside him.

Then she darted ahead, shooting into the CEO's office.

Hopping off her Broomstick, Hermione turned around and waved at Tony, flashing him a sweet smile for good measure.

That infuriating smile nearly made Tony pass out.

He failed to brake in time, smashed headfirst through the tempered glass, and plunged into the office.

Chaos erupted inside. Walls cracked, desks and chairs went flying, and unfinished paperwork fluttered through the air, all just as Pepper opened the door and witnessed it.

"TONY! STARK!!!"

Pepper let out a piercing shriek, followed immediately by an angry roar.

Opening his faceplate, Tony glanced at Pepper, his face ashen, and opened his mouth to say something.

A moment later, he still couldn't get the words out. He took a deep breath and shouted:

"Woof! Woof! Woof!"

Then he turned and fled the scene as fast as he could fly.

Pepper: ???