@Crimson Lion

The moment Riku was through the canyon entrance, he slowed his Gunpla and double checked his energy levels. Just under 80%, which he had to guess was a bit more than where Seo was at due to going directly from one engagement to another without taking any time to recharge. That combined with entering combat in a zone his Gunpla would have a disadvantage in would hopefully be his undoing by the end of this. Statistically speaking, the Alvaaron was technically a superior machine compared to the Leo - especially thanks to it's anti-beam coating and GN Field effectively rendering the Leo's Beam Cannons next to useless against it. So Riku needed to play his cards right.

Luckily, he knew the Alvaaron's GN Field needed to consume particle energy reserves in order to be deployed. So if Riku could force Seo to burn enough of his energy reserves, that would at least nullify or reduce the effectiveness of the GN Field. As for the coating, well, there wasn't much Riku could do about that, but thankfully all his other weapons were ballistic rather than beam type, so that could serve as a workaround.

After turning his Leo around to face the entrance he had just come through, Riku could see Seo's Alvaaron approaching fast. Like before, his next maneuver required timing. Unlike before, he'd potentially face a severe punish if he got this wrong. He readied the missile pods mounted on his Leo's legs, but didn't fire them until just as the Avaaron would make it through the entrance. However, Riku wasn't aiming for the Alvaaron - at least not directly. No, he had locked into the canyon walls on either side. His shot would hopefully trigger a rock slide directly over Seo as he made his entrance.

Unfortunately Riku didn't have time to watch the aftermath of his attack unfold. Instead he redirected power to the thrusters and once again made his way deeper into the canyon.

@Crimson Lion @Shiyonichi

There Jun was, the thrill of battle rushing through his body as he faced off against three foes. Then a certain someone in a Red Zaku interrupted his fun. They even had the guts to take a shot at himself. However, watching the assailant make its entrance and attacks brought Jun enough time to react with a move of his own. The Captain Miracle removed the easily accessible Buster Gun from it's side and activated it's thrusters. The Gunpla slid across the surface in a half-circle around the Zaku, evading the machine gun fire at a hair's breath.

"Those moves,....Kai Asakura! Hey don't get in the way, I had them just where I wanted!" Jun stated angrily, he had thought back on Kai's battle that he had seen earlier this morning and thought they were familiar. "Dammit, now they're gonna get away! This is all your fault!" he looked at one of his monitors and caught sight of the three GN-Xs and the Graze leaving the scene.

Jun clenched his teeth in frustration, he was caught between wanting to take down Kai and taking on the group that was escaping. Without waiting, the Captain Miracle charged forward, weaving left and right in it's pursuit as it fired it's blaster multiple times at the Red Zaku. At the same time he was readying the Zamber in his other hand to slash at Kai once he closed the distance. "Well, the best solution is to just take you down first and then get rid of them afterwards! Yeah!! That's definitely the best challenge to take on!!"

Kai turned as the Crossbone made it half circle to prevent it from flanking him. In a contrast to Jun energetic movement dodged the beam shots with the minimal amount of movements weaving through the beam barrage by moving an inch to the right or left allowing it to pass by hit in a narrow miss as he did a tight zigzag forwards, as he seemed to have intended to finish this in melee battle as he put his machine gun back and seemed to reach for his heat hawk...

Only that was a feint.

The Zaku suddenly kicked the ground sending a wave of wet sand fly at Jun to blind him, using the opening the Zaku flicked his shoulder putting the Bazooka at it’s side and detaching a Bazooka clip from the shoulder shield which went fly upwards before being caught by the other hand of the Zaku which quickly put it into place in a single smooth motion, turning the usual four second reload into a second and a half.

The Red Zaku jumped up to create space to fire the Bazooka at Jun. Then using the recoil and the Zaku thrusters to boost himself further upward to get to a vantage point for a juicier target, the retreating G-NXs, they were currently dragging their injured comrade away meaning they were closer and clustered together and they were also slowed down and now where focusing on Naoki who went to chase them down. Kai grabbed on to the Bazooka with both arms to stabilize his shot before firing, with full intent to finish them off.

“There you are! Get over here.” Blade said through the public channels as he thrusted his own beam saber forward. Beam saber clashed with beam saber, releasing a shockwave and giving Blade the opportunity to kick the other fighter away. As the lone Astray pilot floated there he looked up at the flying angel, Blade began to taunt. “That was your brother? Interesting, didn’t even know what hit him.” The wing zero then points his beam saber at him. ”You think your a match for me and wing zero? Come on then!”

“Y-you insult my brother then insult my skills!! You won’t get away with this!!! I’ll show you the skill of the man who’ll destroy the Yellow Jacket!!” Falling for Blade's taunt, the Gunpla Fighter switched the beam saber to his left hand and unsheathed a katana like blade. He charged forward one last time with its two sabers, slashing and stabbing furiously as he approached.

---

As Seiichi entered the canyon he was immediately greeted with explosions, but not from him but around him. The rumbling disoriented his machine and caused the leader of Zenshin High to lose control, crashing to the ground as the rumble around him began to pile around and pin down the Royal Alvaaron. As the rocks began to surround the camera of the alvaaron, the last thing Seo sees is the back of a Leo unit. With a single act of defiance before he lost complete visual be tried to fire his beam rifle, only to fire into the side of the canyon at the realization that his arms were already crushed.

“Dammit, I’m pinned. But my gunpla still works! If I can just position the beam cannon properly I ca-” He started until he saw the power levels of his gunpla. 14%, now 13%. After flying at high altitude during the beginning for a solid 12 minutes and firing non-stop at the GM, his energy was on the low side. Looking at the round's timer, there were only around 5 minutes left.

Things were not looking good for Seo. He was trapped with almost no power and if he used what little power he did have left he’d be defenseless, with an unmoving machine. He laid at the beginning of a canyon, open to anyone who wandered the open desert or those exiting the canyon. He was in a bad spot and if he tried to escape he’d just become a more visible target. He began to power down the Alvaaron in an attempt to hide, seeing it as his last choice. His opponent had taken his prey and points, taken his pride in the ambush, taken his freedom in the rumble, this damn Leo had taken everything short of his life in this game!!

“If I survive this I’m gonna destroy you, LEO!!!” He yelled at no one as the gunpla remained under a pile of dirt, only a hand sticking out.

Far off into the canyon, Riku’s radar shows the Alvaarons signal powering down, and that combined with flying farther away into the canyon has made the signal diminish to nothing. As he continues to fly, not 100% clear on Seo’s fate, the Leo's long range camera catches a glimpse of two gunpla sword fighting in the sky, far ahead and high in the air above the canyon.

---

As Naoki charged at the escaping GN-X, he launched a barrage of fire with his machine gun doing damage to the one being carried. He quickly began to catch up to the trio and once closer he threw away his machine gun, unsheathing the axe at his hip. Unknown to Naoki, Kai had launched a bazooka missile at the trio and in tandem now Naoki.

Seeing this opportunity, and the situation they were in, Hachiyama made a decision. He struck the arms of his allies GN-Xs with his own, then put full power into his thrusters. “Kobayashi, Tanaka, RUUUNN!!” He yelled as the red GN-X tackled Naoki and his Graze before charging into the missile, using Naoki as a shield.

With their close proximity, even while grappling, Naoki had control over his jetpack and angled it so now both would be hit by the missile. The explosion caused a large smokescreen of black and now pink smoke (Signifying a suit's destruction) around the two.

Watching the scene the other 2 GN-Xs watched before taking their allies sacrifice to heart and leaving. “We need to survive, Or else we can’t help Seo next round.” He said as he observed the round's timer. 4 minutes left. “We just need to survive!!”

“I won’t let you!!” A voice yelled through the public channel to interrupt him. Out of the smokescreen of the blast, Naoki and the graze, now severely damaged and missing its jet back from the blast, free runs forward with it’s axe and the GN-Xs GN Rifle in hands.

The two GN-X runs full blast away as they are chased by the newly armed Graze.

With the two semi famous combatants, Kai’s explosion causes a small pause in combat as the Origin Zaku gains both distance and altitude on Captain Miracle. The explosion disorients Jun for a moment but he immediately regains control, camera trained on the now floating Zaku.

---

Outside of battle, the crowd watches them staredown with excitement. Earlier during the Zakus entrance people had noted the similarity to Chars entrance, and now, as an energetic and powerful Gundam and the all red Zaku fought, people again brought up the similarity. It was as if they were seeing a recreation from the Universal Century; the crowd around Table B began to grow louder at the stand-off as they watched. That combined with the fact that they were 2 were semi-famous made the battle all the more remarkable.

Contrasting to the crowd's excitement, in the back of the arcade stood a stranger in a hoodie, inhaling in annoyance as he watched over both tables. Things … were not going as planned.

@Crimson Lion@Blade17

When Seo's signal appeared to stay put until he moved out of range, Riku could only assume that his plan had worked - better than he intended. Honestly, he only intended to deal some blunt force damage to the Alvaaron in addition to potentially slowing it down. But was it actually stuck? If so... then Riku may have actually achieved a rather hilarious outcome for his bout against Seo. He slowed down, not want to waste any more Plavsky Particles once he reached around 50%.

In fact, Riku actually let himself come to a stop. If he didn't move, his particles could recharge a bit, albeit slowly. He also stopped because his long range scanner detected two new signals high up above the canyon. Two Gunpla appearing to be dueling with blades in the sky. One a Wing Gundam Zero and the other an Astray. Well, the Zero would obviously be more than a match for a Leo, going by the in-universe lore of the After Colony setting. The Astray... Riku wasn't sure. Admittedly that was a series he had yet to really watch so his knowledge of its capabilities were limited.

Like before, he decided to use the scope of his Long Rifle to get a clear look at what was happening. And it looked like the Zero was at an advantage, appearing less damaged. Riku wasn't exactly keen on the idea of engaging a new opponent with his energy at its current levels. After all, Seo had just made that same mistake and he paid dearly for it. No way was Riku going to make that same mistake himself. The smart thing to do here was turn around and go back and finish off Seo. And yet... what if he did pull this off? What if he did take another shot, steal another point, and then rush back to finish off Seo? There were only about 5 minutes left on the clock for this round, so would the Zero have enough time to chase Riku down before time ran out? Riku already knew he could get back to the other entrance and potentially finish off Seo, the only real variable was just how fast that Zero could fly and how much energy it had burned already throughout this round. It was a pretty crazy gambit, and one Riku wasn't sure this Leo could pull off. But what about Riku himself? Could he pull this off in spite of the Gunpla's limitations?

And then all off a sudden, a certain song started playing in his earbuds. Not the usual heavy metal fair he typically listened to, but rather a song from Iron Blooded Orphans. Riku smirked to himself, almost as if the song had made his decision for him. He'd take the song's advice and...

The shot was fired, aimed squarely for the center mass of the Astray's torso unit where it was most likely to hit successfully. Immediately Riku swerved around and hauled ass in the direction he had originally come from. He was taking the advice offered by the song playing in his ears. His energy reserves were beginning to drop during this.

45%...

40%...

38%...

By the time Riku made it back to original entrance his plavsky particles were reading at just over 33%. Unsure if this was enough, and assuming Seo was still trapped under the rocks, Riku switched onto the public channels. He even allowed his song to trickle into the comms so that even Seo and possibly Blade would hear it as well. The Leo's Beam Cannons lowered, leveling themselves to take aim at the fallen Alvaaron. Hopefully Seo was low enough on energy that his GN Field couldn't be activated. He also hoped the rocks had damaged the anti-beam coating enough for this attack to deal the killing blow. And finally, just as the cannons finished charging, Riku spoke over the public channels, knowing Seo would recognize his voice.

"Checkmate, Seo. Sayonara." he said before taking the shot. And it wouldn't be until after the dust cleared that he said anything else, "Flag. Raised."

@Shiyonichi

The explosive force from the missile knocked Jun's Captain Miracle backwards. From just a glance, one would be able to see the sparks popping off here and there on the Gunpla. The irritated Jun took a second to look at the readings displaying his mobile suit's condition.

Torso at 80%
Right forearm at 60%
Left forearm at 65%
Head at 75%

Not only that,, but there were 4 minutes left on the clock

That would be enough to worry anyone else, but Jun didn't falter in the heat of battle. In fact, a confident arose across his lips at the capabilities of his opponent that was hovered in the air above him. The fleeing enemies became less of importance to him.
"Bastard, I'll show you what happens when you turn your attention away from me!" taking the opportunity of the Red Zaku momentarily focusing on the group far ahead, Jun fired two shots from his Gun Blaster at the Bazooka Kai was carrying. The idea was to create an explosion from the strike to momentarily stun him.

After that motion, the Captain Miracle gave a small pump to it's thrusters to meet in the air with the Red Zaku as he returned the Gun Blaster back to it's hip. However, Jun intentionally stopped just short of meeting at the same altitude as his enemy. Instead he was a space below, trying to stay out Kai's front line of sight. He then pumped his thrusters yet again, this time forward, ending just directly below the Red Zaku. It's left hand now free, Captain Miracle reached out to grab at the Zaku's right leg to swing it down at the ground below, using the thrusters once again to increase the throw's ferocity.

@Double @Crimson Lion
Blake dodge and weaving and blocking the katana with his shield and scuffed and said,” such a good gunpla. You built it well.” Then the zero system alerted Blake of the beam shot, making the wing zero flap his wings he propelled backwards. Blake looks around and said,” that’s a shot from a leo. He turned wing zero into bird mode and took off in the direction of where the leo went.

Seeing where the Leo was going Blake followed he presumed that it didn’t have alot of energy left to go. Wing zero in bird mode was pretty quick he was able to catch up to the Leo, Blake said to the pilot if the leo,” hey you, good shot but that was pretty stupid of you no?” He wasn’t picking a fight or anything he was honestly asking a question,” Leos don’t have much energy for sky or space battles, not very agile, need a hand?” Blake semi transformed the wing so the hands were out he reached out towards the Leo offering his assistance.

“Sacrificing yourself for the sake of your comrades, I got to commend you for that.” Though Kai was disappointed that he had only managed to take out one target when he originally estimated that he would take out at least 2. It would appear that the Graze had quite the solid construction, being able to take both a Bazooka and Mobile Suit detonation.

The beam shot went through the barrel of the Bazooka, however due to the angle that both of them were standing the beam could only hit the barrel and not the chamber that the ammunition was held giving him plenty of time to just toss the damaged weapon aside.

When the Crossbone, grabbed the Zaku’s leg, Kai made sure to make Jun realize that he had made a mistake. The Crossbone was a small sized unit, it’s smaller hands couldn’t get a good grip on the bulky leg of the Zaku. The red Mobile Suit bent both of it’s legs before kicking off the pirate Gundam face using it’s non grappled leg, breaking free from the hold, flipping back.

As the Zaku flipped back Kai detached the remaining Bazooka magazine, while drawing it’s machine gun, as the Red Mobile Suit righted itself the Gunpla fight activated his thrusters to dash back, then fired his machine gun, detonating the magazine in a explosion that would shake the battlefield.

The sounds of footsteps signaled defeat in Seos heart, and as he tried to jiggle the wings of his Alvaaron one more time the only thing he got in response was a public channel opening up, the voice behind it familiar, "Checkmate, Seo. Sayonara."

And with that, red replaced blue and the word TERMINATED appeared in block letters. And all he could do was seeth at the thought of a platinum haired teen.

---

@Double@Blade17
At the destruction of the Alvaaron, within the span of a minute, chaos ensued at a single area of the map, the east canyon entrance. With the bright pink explosion caused by destroying the Royal Alvaaron and the high speed flying of the Wing Gundam, all eyes in the desert could see that there was action happening in one spot, and with only 3 minutes left in the round anybody without points would have nothing little to lose.

And that especially ran true for a lone purple Astray unit piloted by one Hanako Yui, the oldest of the Yui triplets. At the beginning of this tournament she had joined only to support her two idiotic brothers in their endeavors of gaining a locals win, what she didn’t sign up for was for her brothers to go aggro at the sight of the first threat on they see!! Worst of all, because they were fighting over who would get the kill they just rushed in without her!! So now here Hanako was, Astray prone in the middle of the desert, covered in sand in order to camouflage the gunpla. She trained her long barrel sniper rifle at the entrance of the gate as she saw the wing gundam descend and began firing, hoping to shoot either the one who destroyed her brothers or to shoot the ones already there.

Within the Canyon, a lone Gunpla waited. Ever since the 2 Astrays entered battle with the wing, Nishiyama realized that either one group or the other would exhaust their energy and that they'd be easy pickings if he timed this ambush right. So he waited, deep within the canyon as his brown OZ-12SMS Taurus slowly and quietly moved further and further down. Eventually, however, his perfect moment would come, as the Wing descended and provided not 1 but 2 targets for him in the form of a Leo. Hiding around the corner and moving slowly with his energy output at almost 2% basically, Nishiyama waited for his chance. And that chance came when both pilots were interrupted by outside fire coming from the desert. He turned the corner and let loose a barrage of gunfire.

Now the Wing and the Leo are cornered within the walls of the canyon, gunfire raining at them from both sides, and a timer with 2 minutes and 30 seconds left.

---

@KenjuGuy@Shiyonichi
Over at Table A, a similar situation was happening. With the explosion caused by Kai's stunt along with the explosion of Hachiyamas MS, the scattered fighters throughout the battlefield understood where the most action was.

Naoki, in his ground pursuit of the GN-Xs, realizes that without his back thrusters he wouldn’t have the speed to catch up to the two and quit his pursuit. “Damn, didn’t know Hachiyama had it in him. What a guy.” He thought, looking over the damages to his gunpla. “Good thing I replaced the graze's arms with a leos, the graze would’ve never survived otherwise.” He said before he pressed a few buttons, prompting the damaged left arm of the graze to detach itself and fall to the ground, along with its ax. “With how damaged it was it’ll only be dead weight for now.”

He looked at the timer. 3 minutes left. He wanted to look at the battle between the Shark and Reaper but was immediately interrupted by an eruption from far out inland. A distant explosion of pink smoke and the silhouette of a fast-approaching Gunpla alerted him. Where the two escaping GN-X were heading now stood a charging Destiny Gundam, its two anti-ship blades at its side. The Destiny Gundam danced around the air for a moment before making a B line for the center of the arena where the shore and ocean met and Naoki smiled, ready to defend himself from the upcoming challenge he was about to face, only for the gunpla to gain altitude above them, and deploy its High-Energy Long-Range Beam Cannon and Beam Rifle.

Naoki watched confused at its stop before realizing what it was going for. Only 1 minute and 20 seconds were left, and they were to far to engage in combat with. The gunpla unleashed the last of its energy reserves and fired at the two gunpla in the middle of the stage, launching a barrage of lasers at the two in hopes of a last-minute kill.

@Blade17@Crimson Lion

It was apparent early on that Riku had miscalculated the Zero's speed, and he knew why too. The bird mode, he'd forgotten to factor in the suit's Bird Mode. That meant the Zero was going to be on top of him much sooner than originally calculated. To top it all off, his long range scanner was picking up a faint signal coming from the desert. Someone had been watching, and if it was a sniper they only needed a well aimed shot to take Riku down.

Why couldn't it ever be simple? He made his Leo take a few steps backward, and then turned it around to face the landing Wing Zero. No plan, no back up, no weapons worth a damn that could be used against it. Still, his gambit paid off. He was at 3 points which would all but guarantee him first place in this round. So even if he was terminated now, there was no way to stop him from advancing to the next round. That being said, Riku much preferred to not see his brand new build be completely trashed in its first operation. And that was when the Zero's pilot spoke.

"Hm?" Riku was genuinely confused. Why talk? Why offer to help, in fact? Why not just blast him and score a point? Riku rarely ever communicated with his opponents. The thing he'd said to Seo a moment ago was the exception. Most of the time talking to one's opponents just gave them a way to get inside your head. Hell, it was a trick Riku himself had used before. But this scenario necessitated that he go ahead and respond, "I dunno if you were paying attention, but that 'stupid' stunt of mine just secured my 1st place ranking in this round. By now it's statistically impossible to dethrone my lead. Hold on-" his Leo's scanners interrupted him. Yet another signal? Faint, but surprisingly close by, within the canyon itself even! Well sonuvabitch, someone was trying to use his own tactic against him!

"Someone's out there in the desert, scoping both of us out. They're too far for me to reach in time, but I'm guessing that won't be a problem for your Zero and its bird mode. You can have them." while he said this, his Leo took one more step forward and he readied his missiles. Whoever was hiding back there was much closer by now, and Riku was willing to bet he could get the jump on them so long as he was quick enough on the draw with his missiles. The second he spotted movement, he let loose a salvo of missiles into the canyon corridor. He didn't lock onto anything, since doing so would take more time. Instead he merely hoped whoever it was would find themselves walking into an unexpected salvo missiles. Once Riku could make out the shape, he identified the target as a Taurus. And he let his missile pods reload themselves while he locked onto their position.

"I'll take the rat who thinks he can use my own gambit against me!" he said, mostly to the Zero but since it was on open channels, Nishiyama in the Taurus would hear it too. And with that, Riku unpaused his music and deliberately chose a specific song to play through his earbuds. In addition to firing his second salvo of missiles, Riku also quickly leveled his long rifle to take aim. The specific rifle he chose was a bit special, as it's long barrel combined with a scope attachment allowed it to be used as a sniper rifle. However, it also came standard with a 120 round box magazine plus a semi-automatic assault fire mode that allowed it to be used as a more traditional assault weapon for occasions precisely like this. So unlike with the sniper shots from earlier, Riku unloaded semi-automatic rapid fire at the Taurus in addition to sending out salvos of missiles. Time was rapidly running out, as was everyone's particle levels. No reason not to go for a last minute 4th point just to truly dominate the scoreboard. Go big or go home.

As the Destiny’s beams showered the area toward the Zaku and the Gundam, Kai tossed his machine gun aside to draw his heat-hawk, before taking a deep breath. A ripple goes through the Gunpla fighter’s mind as quickly closed his eyes, before opening it, which the Zaku mimicked by flashing it’s single eye glowing a burning crimson.

The Zaku started to weave and block though the barrage at one point it even seemed like the Zaku was going get hit by the anti ship rifle, until it brought down the heat hawk causing the beam to disperse into series of smaller streams of energy, the most damage it did was cause it to graze against side of the Zaku’s forehead.

Kai maneuvered though the barrage, maneuvering out of the cluster of beams and at a higher altitude than his attacker, he spun the Zaku to build up momentum before tossing his Heat-Hawk with everything the Zaku could muster. Normally this would only be a short to mid ranged attack, however, this toss had for more power than anything a simple straight build could have pulled off, the Hawk left the Zaku’s hand sounding less like something that was thrown and more like it was shot out of a cannon. There was so much force behind the throw even the Zaku itself couldn’t handle the backlash as it’s arm started to spark before going dead as the hawk became an orange blur heading towards the Destiny who was so confident that it wasn’t able to be counter attacked.

In the real world Kai rubbed his forehead as he removed his hand, it revealed a bruise that seemed to have come from nowhere...

Jun had been back-peddling the moment Kai's Bazooka had been readied. So once the explosion ignited, no noticeable damage had been taken. However, the force of the blast was enough to throw Captain Miracle hurling into the air. It only took a moment for him to realign his center of gravity using the boosters on it's feet.

"That son of a-" Jun began to swear before getting cut off by an array of lasers hurling down at them both. A wide, maddening grin spread across Jun's face. If anyone saw it, they would undoubtedly say it resembled a shark. A ridiculous plan had surfaced to his mind that caused him to the crossbow-looking Peacock Smasher. So instead of defensively running away, Captain Miracle shot up towards the source of the fire. He was already damaged and time was running low so he didn't need to risk defeat for something so silly. Yet he did, because the thrill of overcoming this outrageous challenge outweighed the logic and fear.

The Captain Miracle was using all it had in order zip around like a fly in order to evade the beams. Jun was a fool, but even he knew that one hit by that High-Energy Long Range Cannon was enough to destroy him. Even so, he continued his insane pursuit to reach the Destiny Gundam while doing his best to avoid that main threat! Captain Miracle's Zamber was doing the brunt of the work, slashing and deflecting the lasers from the Beam Rifle! The adrenaline was pumping faster and his focus was honed to the finest point! Yes, this was without a doubt Jun's Reckless Ingenuity!

A beam struck his left leg and then another clipped it's right shoulder. The Zamber couldn't take much more either. That didn't stop his ragged drive through the fiery hail of lasers. It also helped that the Destiny Gundam's attention was diverted towards the Red Zaku down below.

Now a dozen spaces away, Jun took action, turning his Gunpla's shoulder back and hurling his now damaged Zamber at his target.

Simultaneously, what looked like a spinning axe flew through the sky and cut deep into the left arm of the Destiny Gundam at the exact moment Jun's Zamber struck and plunged into right arm. By some chance of fate, a momentary teamed assault of the Shark and the Reaper had manifested, causing a burst of smoke and fire to burst from the Destiny Gundam as it fell from getting kicked out of the way by Captain Miracle.

Yet that wasn't the true aim of Jun's plan, it was once he snatched the High-Energy Beam out of the blazing smoke that the Destiny Gundam had left. Time was running low, so Jun immediately began to charge the cannon as he spun Captain Miracle around. His Peacock Smasher readied as well, he aimed both weapons down at the battlefield below.

The Cannon would fire it's terrifying long range beam and then the peacock smasher would follow along and strike with nine simultaneous beams. His triumphant voiced boomed throughout the open coms "VICTORY IS MINE!!!"

He took the risk and now he had his reward, but did Jun have enough time!? DID HE!?

Kai watched as the reckless Gunpla Fighter was dashing in, the Gunpla fighter was already preparing his next move, as that Destiny wasn’t the serious threat that he had to face, no it was the damaged Crossbone. Kai grinned with excitement as he fired up all his thrusters. “Alright, let’s give this all we got, Zaku!” At this moment the machine and fighter had truly become one

At this point the Zaku wasn’t just a simple model kit as it seemed like Char himself was piloting the mass production machine as it became a crimson comment soaring at it’s enemy like a Crimson comet in the night sky, Kai flipped the Zaku into a diving kick. The sheer amount of speed and it own power caused it to start steaming as air was pushed away to create visible streams and made no attempt to try and avoid the Captain Miracle’s attack when it started to turn to fire.

“WE’LL END THIS!” Kai shouted back as the Zaku’s eye flashed a blazing red.

It would only take a moment for the winner to be decided, but did they even have one?

@KenjuGuy@Shiyonichi
With only 50 seconds left, both tables began to feel the intensity as all combatants entered what would be extremely dangerous firefights.

In Table A, the top 3 combatants now stood in the same area above the sky. 2 different weapons were thrown at the Destiny Gundam, destroying its left and right arms, and as the pilot tried to aim its long range cannon at the now close enemies it was immediately kicked and destroyed in a pink explosion by Jun and had their cannon taken.

The sun began to set on the virtual battlefield as everyone knew there was little to no time. The last 2 airborne combatants made their move. Jun fired an array of lasers down at the Zaku Origin, using the last of his energies to forge a path of destruction. Kai blasted forward like the red comet himself, using the last of his energies to break through all in his way. Lasers began to close in on the approaching red blur, grazing the red suit lightly as it charged forward with no stopping, and as the two battle worn suits began to enter 20 meters from each other … they stopped.

Everything stopped.

And a robotic voice yelled for all to hear. “TIMES UP!!!” And with that, the two gunplas fell to the table, damaged but not out and frozen in time aiming at each other.

---

@Double
Meanwhile at Table B, The two new allies quickly moved on Rikus advice, commencing their counterattack!!!

"I'll take the rat who thinks he can use my own gambit against me!" Rikus voice said through the public channels as his missile volley launched towards the peeking Taurus. Nishiyama cautiously backed up and returned fire, trying to wonder if he had maken a mistake in his plans as explosions filled the air around him as they struck the side of the canyon. He needed to retreat! He could always get points in round 2 right? It was fine to run right?! He transformed his taurus and tried to gain air in an attempt to escape but was shocked when automatic fire began to rain onto him. Now in the air and defenseless, the taurus blows up into pink smoke at the insistent barrage.

---

@Blade17
Simultaneously, Blade had transformed and headed into the desert, dodging and weaving the blasts from the Astray as he closed in, firing its two rifle shots forward in an attempt to destroy Hanako's unit. Hanako shot back, before jumping out of her hiding spot to perform an evasive maneuver and flying into the air. Blade transformed as he approached and the two clashed beam sabers, Hanako parrying Blades first attack despite using a much slower unit. The two reared back before charging at each other.

However, before either of the two could fully end the battle, a robotic voice yelled for all to hear. “TIMES UP!!!”. The gunplas fall to the table. Both the wing and the ashtrays have the handle of their beam sabers pressed against each others chests, showing that if the battle had lasted a second longer both would have perished.

---

“TIMES UP!!!”. The robotic voice yelled to Naoki as the match ended, the holograms around all contestants began to unravel. Naoki panted as his heart raced watching the battle at the end. He released a breath he didn’t know he was holding. What was that? It was like he had seen two world class fighters with how intense the fighting between the two of them felt. Or maybe it was just his imagination again. Still, their skills were real.

“THE NEXT MATCH WILL BEGIN IN 15 MINUTES, PLEASE MAKE ANY REPAIRS BEFORE THEN. I REPEAT. THE NEXT MATCH WILL BEGIN IN 15 MINUTES, PLEASE MAKE ANY REPAIRS BEFORE THEN.” The robotic voice of the tables said as the 2 sets of 10 hexagonal tables began to slowly move towards each other, eventually creating a large 20 hexagon battlefield. Above the tables a scoreboard popped up.

Scores:
3 -Kusaka Riku
2 -Blade
1 -Kai Asakura
1 -Takamaki Jun
0 -Yukihiro Naoki
0 -Hanako
0 -Koga Kyo
0 -Hamada
0 -Kishimodo

Eliminated:
2 -Kudo 0 -Hamachiyama 0 -Kobayashi
0 -Tanaka 0 -Komi 0 -Seiichi Seo
0 -Akihiko 0 -Mitsuki 0 -Nishiyama

At the announcement, Naoki moved to one of the work stations in the arcade to begin repairing his gunpla. He thought of Seo and the rest of Seos teammates. It was a shame they couldn’t take part in the next round, but that's what happens when your gunpla is destroyed during an elimination match, as opposed to a point based tournament that some shops do. As he repairs his Graze, Shinrai approaches his station, a tablet in hand. “Hey Shinrai, did you SEE the end of that fight? It was amazing!”

Shinrai nodded before speaking, “No. I was actually watching the other table, and theres something I wanna show you that surprised me.” He said as he turned on the tablet to show the near end of the Table B battle, when Blade offered help to Riku. “Interesting right?”

“Definitely … I’ve seen what the Shark and the Reaper have done in person now, there's no denying their strong. And with Rikus current placement I can confirm he’s skilled. But this guy is a complete mystery to me … I need to see him in action.” He said as he finished his repairs, replacing the beyond repair left Leo arm with his Grazes original left arm.

Shinrai nodded at Naoki's reasoning, leaving to go observe the other contenders.

@Double@Shiyonichi@Blade17@KenjuGuy
Soon, the second round was about to begin and all remaining contestants gathered around the table to see the new map. It was a large mountain range with a large river running down its middle. At the north was a dip in the mountains that housed a mining town, complete with a large mine shaft just large enough to hold a mobile suit. Near the south, the mountains turn to cliffs overlooking the ocean, a large body of water with strong tides at the border of the map. In the east the mountains continued for as far as the eye can see. And finally in the west, there is a large valley, easily visible by all.

As the fighters surrounded the table to their starting positions, most combatants avoided the west and instead gathered around the other 3 areas. 2 heading towards the mountains, 1 heading towards the mines and Hanako heading towards the cliffside oceans respectively. Naoki waited as he watched Blade, deciding to follow him.

(The table is now 20 hexagons big!!! Battles that take place on one side of the map might not be seen or heard by those on another. Everyone please decided if you will be entering the arena from the North, South, West, or East )

(Edit: added where Hanako was placed.)

@Shiyonichi @Crimson Lion @Double

"Dammit, I almost had him!" Jun cursed as he picked up his Gunpla from the platform. He was frustrated, especially once he looked at the score board. He only saw a measly point of '1' next to his name. As prideful as he was, he was obviously hoping to reach double digits and get the highest score. Yet the reason he couldn't reach that goal was because of a certain someone, Kai Asakura.

Seeing the source of his fury, Jun quickly stomped over towards the blonde fighter. "Don't think you'll get so lucky next time! I'm gonna make sure to crush you in this next round!" Jun only had those parting words to say before moving along to a nearby table. Being the loud-mouth he was, he of course wanted to say more but time didn't allow that. After all he needed to repair the damages to his Gunpla before the next round started.

As he replaced the damaged parts with the spares in his bag, Jun thought back to the scoreboard. The top one there was someone named Kusaku Riku. If Jun was going to become the winner then he of course had to deal with them. Still focusing on dealing with his Gunpla, the boy called out to a random young man walking by with a hat on, "Hey! Whose Kusaku Riku?"

"S-Shark!?" The resulting shout and the recognition of the person surprised the young fighter. "..I think that's him over there," the fellow timidly responded while pointing at someone. They were a white-haired boy who dressed alot like a tough punk. More importantly, they were holding a Leo at their disposal. 'That's him huh. Just another person I have to conquer,' he thought to himself, taking a mental note of the fighter as he finished up his repairs.

Now done, the self-proclaimed genius placed his Captain Miracle on his respective battle station. "Takamaki Jun, Crossbones Gundam: Captain Miracle, taking off!" he shouted, his Captain Miracle setting off near the mountain cliff that overlooked the ocean in the South. "Yeah, this looks like an awesome spot to fight!" he settled his mobile on the side of the mountain, fired up for battle

"And that's one more mark for my score." Riku said to himself when the Taurus blew. That honestly went a lot better than he expected. With Seo, he knew a good battle plan coupled with some mind games would do him in. His other points were clean shots sniped from afar. The Taurus had been the only unknown variable, and so Riku initially expected for it give him trouble. But it's pilot apparently panicked after getting shot back at so quickly and wound up exploded.

With that, the round ended. Riku reached across the table to his Leo, offering a knowing smirk in Seo's direction. Going ahead and confirming that, yes, the Leo that had harassed and eliminated him was indeed Riku. Riku was also surprised by how little damage he'd managed to walk away from this battle with. Apart from a few minor scuffs and scratches from the Taurus's gunfire at the end, the Leo hadn't taken hardly any damage at all. So repairs were rather short, not even really needed in all honesty. That suited Riku just fine, and even so he didn't intend to use the Leo for the entire tournament. He just wanted to use that opening round as a way to field test it. And he definitely got results from it.

No, Riku put the Leo back in his bag. He had something else in mind for the remaining rounds. Riku hadn't come to the arcade today empty handed. He brought one of his "main" gunpla builds with him specifically for the later rounds of the tournament. Riku even double checked the rules, and indeed saw no rule against what he was doing. So once the second round was announced, Riku took his place at the table and docked - not the Leo - but Metal Angel instead. Its name appearing in place of the Leo's designation underneath where his name displayed on the login screen.

And when the time came for the round to begin, "Metal Angel, launch!" and he sent the blue and white brawler machine out onto the table. It became easy to tell why most of the players avoided the western valley... and it was because Riku placed himself there. A place where an ambush was impossible due to the wide open space. No tricks, no traps. Just the intimidating-looking Gunpla standing there like a statue... waiting. Riku knew his performance in the last round put him way ahead of the others, and that would almost certainly mean some would be tempted to target him. But putting himself in this location meant that the only way to target him... was to challenge him openly. So there the Metal Angel stood, waiting for whichever player was brave enough to challenge the leader of the scoreboard first.

@KenjuGuy@Crimson Lion@Shiyonichi@Blade17

“Well, whose to say you weren’t the lucky one, ya punkass?” Kai took his Zaku off the table along with his weapons. The Zaku itself didn’t have much damages besides it’s arm. It would appear that using “that ability” was a bit too much for it, meaning he would have to use it sparingly. As for the weapons the Machine gun and Axe were fine, but the Bazooka was unsalvageable. Kai picked up one of the last remaining Leo’s from the pile before sitting down.

At the end of his repairs the Zaku had both of it’s arms replaced with the Leo’s, the arms were a different color than the red Zaku body, but that was fine with Kai, he wasn’t trying to enter a building competition after all, though the most important part was him taking the Leo’s weapon and using it on the Zaku. On the Zaku’s left side was the shield of the Leo, on the other side was the powerful dober gun, it had the Leo’s beam rifle along with it’s machine gun and heat hawk and to make up for the lost explosive power from the destroyed bazooka Kai scavenged some panzerfausts and crackers from another Zaku kit which a child was too impatient to cut out and disposed of.

Now that his Gunpla was sufficiently equipped Kai thought about the battle. This Riku had 3 kills, that gave him a massive lead above the competition. They didn’t just need to watch out for the amount of points but the amount of time between each kill. Just like how his fight with the loudmouth has shown, the greater your opponent the larger the amount of time it would take, meaning that the most effective method to insuring your victory would be for the lower pointers to take down the highest scorers first. Meaning that Riku would likely be at the center of a massive battle.

Kai took his Gunpla and set it at the table. “Kai Asakura, Char’s Zaku... Taisen, launching!” The heavily armed Zaku launched from the gate before flying low towards the cover of the rocks to give him cover. It was time to fight.

Blake got wing and got up stretching as he looks at wing and smiled and said,” nice let’s make it to the finals alright wing.” He looks around and walked to the other table. Looking at the map.

He soon set up himself and set his wing on the pad and said,” gundam zero wing ready to launch.” As he launched himself and flew the map destroying a few as he call it goon gunplas.

As participants began to choose where they’d fight, some decided to move to have a view of the competition while some moved to specifically avoid the competition, Riku specifically. With Riku on the western battlefield, many of the weaker contestants thought to hide in the east. And those hungry for points followed them. Soon all participants were in place, with most grouping up around the eastern mountains or above the southern ocean, and the battle commenced.

With Blade moving to the south side, Naoki followed in hopes of seeing him in action taking a position to Blades left. On Blades other side Naoki sees a teenage girl (Hanako), glaring out the corner of her eye at Blade. Seems like Blade had made enemies here already, not that he could judge having a whole gunpla club go after him for some reason at the start of all this. Past her was the Shark, seemed like he was going to be in the south as well.

“All participants, please dock and prepare for launch. In 15 … 14 … 13 ...”

As the countdown continued, everyone around the table began to get ready.

“Yukihiro Naoki. Become a reality, Graze Customized!!!!!” He yelled as the gate opened, showing the wide ocean.

---

@Blade17@KenjuGuy
Immediately entering the ocean area, all that where there were assaulted by the Wing Zero Gundams long range double buster rifles, dancing in the air as he fired blasts and signifying his presence and location to the other 3 battlers.

Hanako dodged and weaved around the cannon's blasts as her eyes were trained on Blade. “Unlike my brothers, I excel in the air!!!!” She yelled over the comms as she blasted forward, charging at Blade with unreal speeds for an Astray before she strikes at him with her beam saber, ready to parry any attack he countered with using her shield.

Naoki meanwhile flew low before diving underwater, knowing full well that despite the nanolaminate armor of his Graze he would still receive heavy damage from those buster rifles. As he cruised underwater he viewed the battle above while eying the now mountain standing Jun.

---

@Shiyonichi
In the mountainous East, all three contestants seemed to have the same idea of using the map's naturally mountainous area to hide behind and assess the situation. All three fighters forgoed immediate fighting in order to get more advantageous positions.

Although not directly between the two, Kai sat with enemies both to his left and right.

Hamada, a college student piloting a gold Buster Gundam, sat to the north as he tried to get a lock on the other battlers energy radars. Slowly realizing that all three had hid outside of their radar's reach, Hamada changed plans, he sat in a small valley as he positioned his cannon upwards, firing mortar shots all around the mountains at the other 2.

The other pilot, Kishimodo, a young woman piloting a straight-built victory Gundam who was hiding closer to the coastline wasn’t confident with her plan. Hiding during the first round and not really understanding what was now happening in the second, she hid as she saw the other 2 do the same. Now as the buster gundam bombarded the area she panicked and began firing rapidly in the direction of both Kai and Hamada in hopes that one would hit.

---

@Double
In the East, Riku stood in solidarity as he stared out into the mountains that contained the rest of the battlefield. The valley was quiet and uninteresting as only Rikus Metal Angel stood. As time ticked on, a reflective light could be seen shining from cave entrances in the mountains before disappearing, reappearing at different cave entrances every so often. Rikus' instincts had immediately told him what was happening. He was being scoped out.

Blade laughed and said over comes,” so do i so let’s go!” He blocked any attack of hers with his shield as well as he moved backwards as he put away his two rifles. He fired his vulcan guns from his side forehead and his machine guns mounted on his shoulders.

As he backed up he took out his two beam swords his shield mounted on wings arm. He floated there saying,” so what now princess?” Teasing Hanaka. As he turned on his zero system, what indicated the zero system was the back side fins extending. He was getting ready to launch forward. The zero system feeding him multiple ways to win the battle. He can only use this for a 5 seconds before tiring him and wing zero out.