"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 [b]western valley... and it was because Riku placed himself there[/b]. 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]