[@Letter Bee]

[B]Francis Bertrand[/B]

Aimlessly firing from range would keep one relatively safer, but in the end, it was an utterly meaningless action. There was no purpose, and unchangingly repeating an action when it had proved to provide no result would not give it any purpose. In a duel such as this, any attack that served no purpose was a wasted attack, one that an opponent could take advantage of if they so desired.

Indeed, Lumen 1's machine dodged the beams with the same ease as he had done earlier, immediately firing off another missile as he danced away from the danger. However, the missile's target was not Henry, but in fact the cloud of smoke and dust where his initial attack had impacted with the younger pilot's shield. If Henry decided that sacrificing a part of his Rook so early on in the battle was a wise decision, then Bertrand would make use of that sacrifice.

His second missile crashed into the remains of the shield, exploding outwards and enlarging the dust cloud. It served the purpose of completely obscuring Bertrand's HFV from view, meaning that there would be no way for Henry's sensors to obtain a visual on the other Rook. All he could work on was the knowledge that his enemy was somewhere behind the expanding mass of dust and gas, and vague telemetry from his sensors on the general location of the other Rook. He wouldn't know what course of action Lumen 1 would choose to take. The dust was inhibiting aspects of his sensors.

For two long seconds, nothing seemed to happen.

Then a streak of light, a beam of particles, burst through the cloud towards Henry's position.

And behind it was Lumen 1's Rook, accelerators on its legs having kicked into action to close the distance between them. His beam rifle was still firing, launching several more shots towards Henry's general location.