It was not a fight.
It wasn't even a close one.
It was one sided.
"Kuh!" Cecilia grunted, her unit flying away after taking another hit from Amuro's weird blades. Looking at her shield reserves, it's already below 80% from two attacks.
Two direct hits.
"Tsk!" Cecilia clicked her tongue before firing her sniper at the incoming grey unit.
The shot was perfect. Fired at mid range, it was impossible to dodge.
Yet Amuro did, twisting in midair to let the shit fly past him, barely grazing his own shields.
Since the start of the practice match, Cecilia had learned that the modified Uchigane now named Gundam Uchigane is far more nimble than any other IS unit in the world. Far smaller and more compact, Amuro is using it unlike any other IS unit. Not like a weapons platform but a part of himself.
It's like they're one at the same time.
"Keep your head in the fight." Amuro said as he cut through the gap between them. Cecilia gasped at how fast he entered her space.
But it doesn't mean she's out of options.
As Amuro rapidly approaches, he immediately notices her plan. The telltale movement of her hips are pretty glaring. As her missile launchers leveled on him, Amuro acted.
His IS lost flight and began to fall as two missiles were fired.
"What?" Cecilia gasped as she watched the man fall, two missiles chasing after him.
Did his IS malfunction?
But Cecilia has nothing to worry about. With the missiles locked on him, Amuro had to break them off. As he falls, he concentrates at the approaching ground. From the monitoring room, Chifuyu recognized the move he was about to pull off. A daring one at that. Meanwhile, Maya is biting her nails at the reckless maneuver. What the hell is that boy thinking? It's an untested IS for God's sake! Putting it to this kind of stress is not good for her heart.
Back on the field, the ground rapidly approached as Amuro fell.
"Amuro!" Cecilia gasped, chasing after the falling unit to catch him.
20 meters
15 meters
10 meters
5 meters
And in the last second, Amuro's Uchigane came to life, turning at the last second and avoiding the violent collision from the ground. The missiles meanwhile are not too agile enough to pull such a maneuver and slammed into the unforgiving dirt, causing an explosion of dust to which Amuro takes advantage of by diving inside, breaking visual sight from Cecilia.
Once he broke out of sight, Cecilia frowned. He had nowhere to go but up with her position up in the sky. Not wanting to wait and be on the back foot once more, she took the initiative by bombarding the area with missiles. She doesn't need to hit him, just force him to come out.
A salvo of missiles came from Blue Tears heading straight to the temporary smokescreen. Explosions rang inside as it expanded due to dust and smoke.
Then Amuro came out.
But it wasn't him.
"Wha-!" Cecilia gasped as she hastily blocked the thrown blade. Her sniper rifle took the brunt of it and she feared it was damaged. The blade itself ricochet off the distance after successfully blocking the attack yet there was no sign of Amuro.
Suddenly, something slammed at her side.
Hard.
Cecilia bit back a curse. Amuro had used the thrown blade as a distraction, giving him split seconds to move out and hide in her peripherals, out of sight of her vision. Amuro then proceeded to shoulder check her, dragging her across the sky and slamming into the barrier and causing sparks as he dragged her across it.
"Get off!" Cecilia roared, using her bulky leg armor to push off Amuro's smaller unit.
But instead, Amuro dodged the kick by angling his unit right to let the bulky limb pass below and resume his attacks by punching her.
If her Blue Tears have no shielding, she would probably have a black eye with how vicious each blow Amuro is throwing at her. Looking at her shields, she would be in the danger zone at less than 50% if this keeps up.
She has to escape.
Catching one of Amuro's punches, Cecilia pivoted in order to throw off the male pilot, throwing him to the barrier this time. Sparks came as the Uchigane slammed into the barrier before its pilot managed to stabilize himself.
But it's already far too late.
"My turn." Cecilia whispered as she fired her rifle at point blank range.
Yet Amuro kept on surprising her. At the last second, he used the barrier to kick off, boosting himself and dodging the shot altogether in one move.
Annoyed, Cecilia is beginning to lose patience at the elusive target. Since the beginning of this sparring match, she hasn't landed a single decisive hit.
Yet.
Drones detached from her Blue Tears before streaking across the air towards the retreating male pilot. Seeing the danger, Amuro quickly retreated, darting away as the drones gave chase. Meanwhile, Cecilia smirked at the sight. With the drones distracting him, she can finally get a clear shot.
But as she tries to aim at the retreating figure, she finally realizes why Amuro engaged in close quarters against her immediately.
"Wh-when did he break my scope?" Cecilia gasped at the missing scope of her rifle. She hadn't noticed it earlier due to the fast-paced action but now she realized.
She's a good sniper but she still needs a scope for precision, especially to high-speed targets which Amuro is proving to be one right now.
In the stands, the trio are watching the spar with rapt attention.
"Whoa, I didn't know Amuro-san is so good at this. He's actually putting up a fight." Ichika muttered in awe for his fellow male pilot.
"It's a surprise that he can put up a fight in the first place." Meanwhile, Houki frowned as her spar unfolds in front of her.
"For him to be this good at such rudimentary understanding and a beginner at IS piloting, is very suspicious." Houki muttered in suspicion.
"Bah! Forget that, look at him go! I've never seen an Uchigane moving at that kind of speed and mobility? Absolutely amazing! I can't wait to fight him next if possible." Rin excitedly exclaimed, her competitiveness in IS duels coming out for once.
If these are her opponent's level in the upcoming tournament, then she's getting fired up.
And maybe... Just maybe a certain someone will notice her if she wins.
"Hehehehe." Lingyin began to giggle as her imagination began to take over her thoughts of winning the tournament.
Houki deadpanned at the girl yet a tinge of jealousy was crawling into her heart.
Ichika? He's clueless, the guy is simply admiring the cool fight above.
Meanwhile down below them, Kanzashi frowned as she rapidly began typing in her laptop monitoring the Gundam Uchigane.
It is bad.
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"It's unbelievable, he's actually pushing Ms. Alcott." Maya looked in awe at the current fight. A sweet and smart student of her's could do such a thing and with a few weeks of IS knowledge to boot.
Truly she has a prodigy in her hands.
Smart and talented, this boy will go far.
"It is but there's a problem."
"Huh?" She turned to Chifuyu who was frowning heavily.
"His performance is impressive. Too impressive for his supposed knowledge level and experience. Yet here he is, already at Ace pilot level."
"A- Ace level?!" Maya stammered. For it to come out from Chifuyu Orimura, the Brunhilde, it carries weight.
Ace IS pilots are no joke. They're the best of the best, representing their countries on a global scale in their skill as IS pilots.
For Amuro to be compared as one...
"But unfortunately, his unit is not Ace material."
Suddenly, Amuro's Uchigane Gundam began to malfunction. Its left leg suddenly broke apart, sending its pilot careening after the loss of thrust and balance.
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Everyone panicked at the sight except for Chifuyu and Amuro himself.
But the one who panicked the most is Cecilia.
She hadn't landed a hit on Amuro yet his unit suddenly lost a leg. His shields should also be up so where the damage came from? She has many questions but there's no time, she has to save her ma- classmate!
"Amuro! I'm coming!"
Amuro himself meanwhile adjusted at the loss of the leg, stabilizing his flight and began to hover in order to land safely.
Only for the remaining leg thruster to break apart too. He sighs as he begins to free fall. Contrary to others' panic, Amuro is pretty calm himself. He isn't afraid of a crash as his barrier would just absorb the impact of a crash, keeping him safe and sound.
As such he went into a diving position to speed up, headfirst with his arms covering his head. As much as he would like to land feet first, he can't risk it with the loss of landing gears aka his leg armors.
Meanwhile, Cecilia's heart went into full- blown alarm when she saw him spiraling down. She hastily moved in.
Suddenly, Amuro's backpack suddenly detached from his torso, the integrity of his suit now compromised as it seems as warnings of his barrier turning off before his IS totally shut down, going back to its closed form as a grey bracelet.
" So that's why." Amuro thought as he fell.
He pushed it too much.
The Uchigane Gundam is still an experimental unit. An experiment to turn a grunt unit level IS into a high performance IS. The experiment is a resounding success if his spar with Cecilia counts but it seems like there are some drawbacks.
Unfortunately, the Uchigane frame is just not meant for high performance. It seems that it began slowly breaking down to the seams once he began to pull fast paced moves and maneuvers, stressing the unit's frames. The legs went undone first due to the amount of thrust he is outputting to pull off his maneuvers. The backpack came next, the main frame breaking down at the intense maneuvers and finally, total system shutdown as it can no longer keep up to the desired performance.
The Gundam Uchigane is scrapped at this point.
Fortunately, its IS core is still intact to its mainframe at his torso. It can still be rebuilt.
Amuro concluded as he fell, not really bothered about the impending crash.
Why would he when there's an Ace Pilot with him.
Before he crashed into the ground, Alcott's Blue Tears blitzed through the gap between them and caught him first. She then pulled up, stabilizing her flight into a hover as they both reached the ground.
"What the hell were you thinking?! Are you out of your mind?! Using an untested and unstable IS like that, aren't you supposed to be smart?!" Alcott practically spat her words as she held Amuro in a princess carriage.
Meanwhile on the seats, two girls practically squealed at the sight, unknowingly shaking and choking the poor man in between them. Below them, a certain girl pouted with a deep frown.
As for Amuro...
"Thanks, Alcott-san." Amuro jumped off her arms, ignoring her confused squawk, and began to pick up pieces of the broken IS frame.
Oh, there's his Heat Blades.
Cecilia can only huff in annoyance at the man's nonchalant attitude from a near death experience. Instead, she collapsed Blue Tears and began helping him.
This spar is over.
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