[@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 [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pJtG8BBmqQ]specific song[/url] 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.