Most people felt that this move of Jiang Shaoyu's was suicidal — using one's weakness to compete against another's strength ... it would be strange not to lose.

However, as soon as Jiang Shaoyu attacked, the situation on the field was unexpected. With a gun in both hands, Jiang Shaoyu was shooting at a rate not much lower than Lin Xiao's, and his marksmans.h.i.+p was very good too. Every beam shot collided with one of Lin Xiao's — an opening began to appear in the encirclement of beams restricting Jiang Shaoyu's movements ...

"Holy sh*t, Jiang Shaoyu's long-range skills are pretty strong too!" Quite a few people exclaimed when they saw this. Mind you, mecha operators who were proficient at both close-combat and long-range combat would typically choose a balanced mecha to fully apply their all-rounded capabilities. They would not do as Jiang Shaoyu had, abandoning one of their strengths to focus on just one strength.

Jiang Shaoyu's counterattack was effective; he was no longer fully suppressed by Lin Xiao as before. The situation began to look increasingly promising for Jiang Shaoyu, and just when everyone believed that Jiang Shaoyu's chance was coming ...

That chance really came! Perhaps seeing how he was fast losing his absolute advantage, Lin Xiao panicked. He suddenly lost control of his initially very steady and rhythmical shooting. He pulled too fast on the trigger of his beam gun and actually ended up shooting several blanks, and the opening which Jiang Shaoyu was ripping through his encirclement became even larger due to this mistake.

Chance! A cold gleam flashed through Jiang Shaoyu's eyes. His fingers flew, and all the engines on his mecha were instantly revved to their fullest, pus.h.i.+ng his speed to the maximum limit. Although this kind of operation would cause wear and tear on the mecha's engines due to being pushed beyond capacity, Jiang Shaoyu could not bother about this anymore at this moment. Opportunity was fleeting — if he did not grab this chance and continued to wait, perhaps he would not get another one. At that time, it would most likely be impossible to turn things around anymore.

The speed of Jiang Shaoyu's mecha broke past the limits of a close-combat mecha, instantly drawing close to Lin Xiao. Meanwhile, Lin Xiao naturally did not wish for his advantage to end here. He too revved all his engines, retreating desperately, but he was still slower than Jiang Shaoyu by a beat — the distance between the two of them was eaten up in an instant.

At this time, Lin Xiao lost the distance he had maintained while suppressing Jiang Shaoyu through long-range attacks. In other words, his initially formidable and threatening long-range attacks were now completely useless. In the blink of an eye, the two combatants had switched over from long-range attack mode to close-combat mode.

"Lin Xiao's in danger now!" Seeing this, everyone felt that things were not looking good for Lin Xiao. Once things s.h.i.+fted to close combat, although a balanced mecha is also strong, it still would not be able to beat a true .

This was a battle between aces — even when one side seemed to have an overwhelming advantage, before the fight truly ended, no one would dare to say that victory was certain. Lin Xiao had had the upper hand all this while, but now he had become the disadvantaged party in the blink of an eye.

At this point, Ling Lan frowned slightly, a trace of contemplation coursing through her eyes ... had Lin Xiao truly made a mistake?

Right then, the two mecha on the field were still engaged in a pursuit, one chasing while the other ran, but now the roles had been reversed. The initial pursuer was now the one being pursued, the initial prey now becoming the hunter.

Lin Xiao did not forget to keep shooting with the guns in his hands as he retreated to prevent Jiang Shaoyu from getting closer and pulling him into a close-range grapple, but Jiang Shaoyu was not someone so easily deterred. His predictive ability was very strong, and the evasion footwork he was employing was also one of the advanced footwork at ace level. Lin Xiao's shooting did not give Jiang Shaoyu much trouble, and the distance between the two of them continued to shrink ...

"What do you think? Senior Zhao?" Ling Lan suddenly turned her head to ask Zhao Jun.

"As soon as the distance is closed and the fight moves into close-range combat, the chances of Lin Xiao losing will become much higher. Now it all depends on whether Lin Xiao can pull away again." Zhao Jun similarly did not think well of Lin Xiao's chances — challenging a close-combat mecha with close combat was really unlikely to end well unless you were piloting a close-combat mecha yourself.

"Jiang Shaoyu can conceal his abilities. What do you think about Lin Xiao? Can he or can he not do so too?" asked Ling Lan instead, clearly showing that she did not agree with Zhao Jun.

"Conceal? Can or cannot?" Zhao Jun was also a clever person. Enlightened, he said in shock, "Leader, you're saying that Lin Xiao's true strength is not actually long range but close combat?" If things were really as his team leader had judged, then this match would really be too interesting.

Finally, Jiang Shaoyu caught up to Lin Xiao. Jiang Shaoyu saw as the distance between himself and Lin Xiao shrunk, and a savage smile appeared on his face. He swung the mechanical beam gun in his right hand fiercely, intending to slam the other with it hard.

The beam gun whistled through the air — everyone in the audience could hear the sound clearly through the top-notch audio system in the combat stadium. Their hearts were raised up high in suspense — with this amount of power behind it, if struck, even an ace mecha would not be able to fully offset the violent concussive force caused by the impact. The mecha operator inside the c.o.c.kpit would certainly be injured gravely, incurring terrible internal damage.

Quicker than words could say, just as everyone was worrying for Lin Xiao, a loud ear-shattering 'bang' rang out. The two mecha had finally made contact for the first time in the fight.

Those with keen eyes could already tell that Jiang Shaoyu's attack had not worked. At the critical moment, Lin Xiao had used the beam gun in his hands to successfully intercept his opponent's heavy blow.

The two mecha were instantly sent flying backwards away from one another after the violent collision. At the same time, both their mecha each had an item fly off from them. Two loud booms, and those two items cut a lovely curve through the air before cras.h.i.+ng heavily onto the ground, smas.h.i.+ng open a shallow pit while sending a large spray of dust and dirt into the air.

Apparently, the beam guns of the combatants had been flung out of their hands due to the collision.

The audience had yet to see what had fallen onto the ground when the two mecha which had been flying backwards once again traded moves in the air. It turned out that as they were flying backwards, they had respectively drawn a cold weapon from their backs and had swung it without any hesitation at the other.

If either side had only been a beat slower, one of them would definitely have been able to hit the other with their cold weapon due to its length and weight. If the opponent was unlucky, he might have been struck at the waist where the c.o.c.kpit was — then, not only would the opponent have suffered concussive damage, his score would also have been deducted by one-third. A strike to the c.o.c.kpit was considered a very effective attack, thus garnering the highest point deduction on an opponent.

The two of them moved almost simultaneously, and so the two giant cold weapons clashed violently. The resulting force sent both cold weapons bouncing back and at the same time, their already stabilized mecha were once again sent spinning out of control. Only after shooting back several dozens of metres did the two manage to regain full control of their mecha again.

The two mecha faced each other from a distance of 200 metres. This bit of distance could be covered by the speed of a mecha in an instant, but the two fighters did not move recklessly. That last clash had made both of them keenly aware that the opponent before them was undoubtedly the strongest they had ever encountered thus far. The outcome would be decided in a split second; a reversal could occur at any moment.

The two youths vigilantly held their cold weapons up, keeping their eyes on the other as they waited patiently, each trying to find an opportunity.

The audience which had been completely spellbound by the thrilling fight earlier abruptly came to their senses. They began to exclaim,

"Who'd have guessed that Lin Xiao's close combat skills are not at all weaker than Jiang Shaoyu's!"

"Jiang Shaoyu was not the only one hiding his abilities, Lin Xiao was too!"

"Things will be interesting now. Both of them are good at close combat, so even if the fight is now in close-combat mode, the outcome will be hard to predict."

With the display of just those two moves, those with discerning eyes could already tell that though Lin Xiao's mecha looked like it was more geared for long-range attack, in reality, his close-combat ability was several degrees better than that of the average close-combat mecha. By this point, everyone understood that both Jiang Shaoyu and Lin Xiao had been concealing part of their abilities.

At this moment, Ling Lan turned to Zhao Jun and said, "Pay more attention to Jiang Shaoyu's movements. He may be your opponent."

Zhao Jun was taken aback by her words. He could only see that the two people on the field were evenly matched — it was very hard to predict who would win or lose; both sides still had hopes of winning. It all depended on who was better at grasping the opportunities they had, and who was more stable and able to keep their weaknesses s.h.i.+elded.

Seeing the doubt and surprise in Zhao Jun's eyes, Ling Lan explained, "Jiang Shaoyu was too impatient when turning the tables around. He did not think through why the consistently calm and collected Lin Xiao would make such a low-level mistake ..."

Only then did Zhao Jun comb through his memories, and indeed, even though Jiang Shaoyu had broken Lin Xiao's suppression, Lin Xiao was still the one with the upper hand. Lin Xiao's personality was cautious to begin with — he definitely would not waver so easily ...

Zhao Jun said in shocked realisation, "Was it all a setup by Lin Xiao?"

"Exactly so. Lin Xiao seems like he wants to use the opponent's most confident point to defeat him ..." Ling Lan stroked her jaw. This behaviour was actually very brutal and savage — by unfortunate happenstance, the opponent's confidence may be completely crushed. Unless against an especially hated person or for the sake of revenge, the average person would never resort to such means ...

A flash of insight sparked through Ling Lan's mind. Could this be because of Luo Chao? Although Luo Lang had been the one hara.s.sed, anyone who was interested could easily find out the truth of the matter and who Jiang Shaoyu's true target was. Luo Lang had just become a decoy s.h.i.+eld due to a misunderstanding.

A subtle smile hung on Ling Lan's lips. She really admired a senior who would openly seek revenge when his junior sister had been wronged, not to mention that the junior sister in question was a close childhood companion she had grown up with. Lin Xiao's current scheme was something Ling Lan was very glad to witness.

Sure enough, the following situation turned out as Ling Lan had expected. Lin Xiao's close-combat abilities were extremely solid, and his mentality was extremely calm and logical. Against Lin Xiao's sure and steady way of fighting, Jiang Shaoyu had no chance at all. In contrast, Jiang Shaoyu became increasingly anxious and impatient. It should be known that although three ace operators had come to partic.i.p.ate in this tournament, their proficiencies were not the same. He, Jiang Shaoyu, was operating a close-combat mecha, so his close-combat ability was definitely outstanding and noteworthy, Qiao Ting operated a long-range mecha, so his proficiency was undoubtedly in long range, while Lin Xiao operated a balanced mecha, so he should be about equally good in both. However, this balance also signified mediocrity — Lin Xiao should neither be able to beat him in close combat nor beat Qiao Ting in long-range combat. Originally, although he took this fight against Lin Xiao seriously, he had still believed that it would not be a difficult matter to defeat the other. As soon as he managed to get close, victory would be his.

But reality had now given Jiang Shaoyu a direct slap in the face. In his strongest suit, close combat, his opponent was no weaker than himself — instead, he was the one losing confidence as the fight went on. He could still comprehend why he was weaker than the other in long range, but if he could not beat the other in close combat either, then what face did he have as a close-combat operator?