[@Crimson Lion]

Riku remained unshaken. Even as fierce battles raged in the distant mountains, he stayed resolved to remain where he was. So far it didn't look like anyone's score was increasing yet, which could be a good sign for him. With any luck, he might have even been able to wait out the clock and win that way. But he couldn't help but notice occasional flashes of light reflecting in cavernous spots in the mountains. It didn't look like any sort of attack, in fact it looked a lot more like...

"So one of them's not a complete coward after all." he muttered to himself. The reflecting light had to be from the scope of a rifle, which he had to guess meant someone thought they could snipe him. Didn't seem like a very smart idea to him, though. After reaching his spot, the Metal Angel had remained stationary and outputted next to zero particles in all this time. That meant that by now he was basically back to full energy, or very close to it anyway. So even a decent shot would have a hard time taking him down thanks to his high energy levels. Still... wouldn't hurt to maybe play a mind game or two. He watched for any sort of pattern to the flashes, if or when it would show up in the same locations more than once. In the meantime, he reached the hand of his Metal Angel up to the DODS Rifle currently docked into its back and leveled it toward the mountain range. He was aiming for where he roughly predicted the next flash would show up, and when it did...

Riku fired the DODS Rifle, it's drilling beam lancing toward the general direction of the flashing light. There was no way it would accurately hit, but that wasn't the point. What this was was a warning shot, plain and simple. He was sending a message to the would-be sniper: [i]I'm onto you.[/i] But Riku didn't stop there. He'd opened up the public channels beforehand and now spoke into it, "Well, what're ya waiting for?" he asked. Everyone would hear this, specifically the sniper in question, "You gonna come at me or not? Or are you too much of a chicken-shit to fight me?" Riku didn't normally trash talk like this, but right now he was using it as a form of strategy. Even without physically taking a swing or shot at anyone, this could very well allow him to get inside someone's head and give him a psychological edge.