If the power of the explosion exceeded the defensive capabilities of a mecha"s beam shield, then tragedy would befall the operator. The magnetic energy was especially powerful against metal — as soon as it came into contact with the outer armour of a mecha, it would ravage the electrical wiring inside it, causing the control systems of the mecha to malfunction and thus leading to the defeat of the mecha operator.

Qiao Ting was clearly well aware of the power of a ballistic rifle — Lin Xiao was likewise well aware, and he naturally would not allow Qiao Ting to hit his mecha if he could avoid it. However, he found that evading was really very difficult because only one of the three shots was targeting him; the other two shots had sealed off his escape paths on the left and right. If he did not dodge, he would be hit, but if he dodged to either side, he would also be hit. The only directions he could choose to escape from were up or down ...

Should he go up or should he go down? Lin Xiao knew that he only had one chance. Qiao Ting"s limit was most probably four shots — if he had the ability to fire five shots instantly, he definitely would not have just fired these three shots. If he had shot all five straight away, Lin Xiao would have had no other option but to admit defeat.

Lin Xiao knew that as soon as he chose the wrong direction, he would lose the match. He did not expect that the time to determine the final outcome would come so soon — he had initially thought that, at worst, he would be able to hold out till the time limit for the match almost ran out. This Qiao Ting ... he had still underestimated him.

Since it was a gamble either way, then he would just have to see how lucky he was. Qiao Ting"s hands were very steady, so there was no way to tell from them whether Qiao Ting was going to shoot up or down. Moreover, the two of them did not have time to hesitate.

Lin Xiao finally made his choice. Just as his body moved upwards, Qiao Ting also fired his fourth shot.

Right at this moment, alarms rang in Lin Xiao"s mind. Without conscious thought, his fingers reached out for the on-off b.u.t.ton for his mecha"s engines. Perhaps due to the pressure, his fingers actually vanished from sight for a moment as they moved and by the time they reappeared, one of his fingers was already pressing down on the b.u.t.ton and the engine instantly shut down.

The initially rising mecha dropped without the support of its engines and immediately after that, the engines rumbled once more. In the process, the engines had been recalibrated to zero level, so Lin Xiao rode the momentum to push the engines to push him down even further. With the addition of the engaged thrust of the engines, Lin Xiao"s mecha plummeted even more rapidly.

Turning off the engines had both a good side and a bad side. The good side was that one did not need to shift gears to move in the opposite direction, so not only could one save the time needed to change gears, this also would not cause much damage to the engines. If not absolutely necessary, a mecha operator would never switch so rapidly between opposing thrust forces. The bad side was that once the engines were turned off, the initial high-gear power supplied to the engines would be abruptly cut off and drop to zero instantly. When the engines were activated once more, due process would have to be taken to restore the engines to its initial high-powered state.

But at this time, turning off the engines was really the most suitable choice. Due to gravity, the mecha had already been falling rapidly, so when the engines were activated once more, the speed of Lin Xiao"s descent instantly reduced the restoration process of the engine in building up momentum, sending it directly into a high-powered state.

Of course, the main purpose of shutting off the engines was to cut short the time needed to switch directions. In a situation where every second counts, where one"s life hung in the balance, being able to shorten the time by even just 0.01 seconds could turn the whole situation around.

"Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong!"

Four bullets grazed by Lin Xiao"s mecha, hitting the boundary shield and emitting loud explosions.

Everyone could see the four large circles of light that had appeared on the shield in the wake of these explosions. The audience members directly facing these light circles were terribly shocked — their faces were pale as they wiped away the cold sweat on their foreheads, and only at this time did they notice that their legs were also weak from the fright.

When they had seen those four bullets heading straight for them, at that instant, they experienced the terror of impending death. Their hearts had stopped beating for about three seconds ... luckily, the boundary shield had held up, intercepting all the force of the bullets. Thus, their hearts resumed beating again, and they felt as if they had been resurrected.

Frankly, the audience members had just been scaring themselves. Any firearm that could appear on the mecha combat field here would definitely have been subject to six thorough examinations by the organizers before being approved. As such, the audience"s safety was a.s.sured — the force of any firearm on the field would never be able to overcome the defensive shields in place and harm the audience.

Although Lin Xiao had managed to avoid the crisis of being hit by those bullets, he was still in peril. His mecha was plummeting rapidly — if he could not stop his mecha before it hit the ground, he would have to bear the brunt of the collision. Even with the protection of the c.o.c.kpit, the resulting intense concussive force would certainly leave him dizzy and disoriented.

If he were not in the middle of a match, this might perhaps not be an issue; but now, there was still an eager Qiao Ting beside him, ready to pounce ... he absolutely could not make any mistakes!

Lin Xiao pulled on his mecha"s control stick with all his strength, cutting straight from a rapid descent to the maximum elevation thrust. This type of control method was extremely damaging to a mecha"s engines — if unfortunate, the engines might even explode from the strain. However, at this moment, Lin Xiao had no mind to take all this into consideration. With a twisted expression, he yelled, "Get up now!"

To pull a mecha up from a steep descent was one of the most difficult manoeuvres in mecha control. This was also why Lin Xiao had chosen to move up at first — changing directions after elevation was much easier in comparison to going down first. As for descending, due to the effect of gravity, it was difficult to adjust directions quickly. The engines would have to first offset the pull of gravity before they could perform the operator"s intended action. The time needed to offset gravity could very well leave him open to another snipe attack from Qiao Ting ...

Sure enough, Qiao Ting"s snipe attack came once more, but this time, four bullets came hurtling at him at the same time. It looked like Qiao Ting also knew that this was his best opportunity and so he was giving it his all, no longer holding back.

The audience could also tell that the match had reached its key moment. They kept their eyes glued to the field, waiting for the next scene to develop. Would Lin Xiao be the one to escape successfully in the end, or would Qiao Ting"s four shots prove effective?

"Bong! Bong! Bong!" Three shots exploded on the boundary shield as Lin Xiao dodged them.

Close after that, another "bong!" rang out, but this time, the explosion occurred at the right leg of Lin Xiao"s mecha. All of the audience cried out at this development — even as they were glad for Qiao Ting, they also felt sorry for Lin Xiao. This scene caused the expressions of the First Co-ed Military Academy"s students to change. They all knew that Lin Xiao was in trouble now. The exact same scene, however, was greeted with cheers by the First Men"s Military Academy"s students as they jumped around for joy. This successful hit meant that Qiao Ting had gained the upper hand.

Although the team members here representing the First Men"s Military Academy came from various mecha clans within the academy which were constantly fighting with each other trying to a.s.sert their dominance, right here and now, they were one team. They were all sincerely happy at Qiao Ting"s success and shared the pride and glory of the moment.

Qiao Ting"s attack did not end there — he did not ease up on his advantage, calmly pulling his trigger once more. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Four consecutive booms marked four more shots from his ballistic sniper rifle ...

On his end, Lin Xiao was already in a very bad state. Warnings blared in a continuous stream from his mecha"s A.I. — that final bullet had struck his mecha"s right leg and, in the subsequent explosion, the control systems of his mecha"s leg had been immediately destroyed. Although the systems of the others parts had not been affected, his overall balance was thrown off due to the malfunction of the systems of his right leg. To resolve this problem, Lin Xiao needed to instantly recalibrate his balance system ...

However, Qiao Ting did not give him the chance, once again firing four bullets at him. At this point, Lin Xiao knew his defeat was certain. Off-balance and dependant on his engines to merely stay suspended in the air, there was no more time for him to operate his mecha to dodge.

Lin Xiao was a decisive person. Since he knew it was futile to struggle any further, he immediately raised both his hands to signify his surrender. The referee had been closely monitoring the proceedings and so immediately raised his red flag. With that, the imperial operator watching the fight from an extremely high alt.i.tude instantly dived down and intercepted the four bullets headed for Lin Xiao with four shots of his own, setting them off before they could reach Lin Xiao ...

Lin Xiao"s surrender meant that Qiao Ting was now officially the king of the single mecha combat event for this tournament. When Qiao Ting received the championship trophy signifying this special honour, he suddenly found that he was not as happy as he had expected to be ... as he walked down the podium to meet his team members, he saw Ling Lan"s group leaving, and he abruptly understood.

In that fight with Lingtian, his ace mecha had become broken and battered from the self-destructs of the Lingtian members before he had clashed with Ling Lan, and thus had been on its last legs. However, even so, he still could not let go of the fact that he had been finished off by Ling Lan in one move. Only by fighting Ling Lan once more and dealing the other a clean defeat would he be able to return to how he used to be ...

Once again looking down at the trophy in his hands which represented the rank of top person in mecha combat, Qiao Ting then threw it aside carelessly to an admiring team member beside him. With that, he started to walk out of the combat stadium without a backwards glance.

"Boss Qiao, your trophy ..." The team member scrambled to catch the unexpected trophy thrown at him, calling out bemusedly to Qiao Ting who had already moved further front.

Qiao Ting turned his head and said lightly, "If you like it, you can have it."

"Ah ..." Not only was this team member left gaping in shock, but the other members were gobsmacked as well. This was proof of one"s status as the number one in mecha combat at the military academy level — how could it be given away so flippantly?

Though the typically domineering Qiao Ting did not like explaining himself, he had a soft spot for this group of members who had not abandoned him when he was at his lowest. Sensing his team members" disbelief, he thus added, "Not being able to become the number one of my own academy, then what use is there in gaining countless number ones outside?"

Qiao Ting"s words reminded his team members of their defeat at the hands of Lingtian. Reflexively, they turned to look at the figures of the Lingtian group disappearing in the distance ... it was as Boss Qiao had said. Without defeating that group, no matter how much glory they earned, they would be unable to cover up the fact that they had lost to someone else. At this thought, their initial joy and exhilaration disappeared. That trophy which they had admired so much earlier had now lost the appeal it had at the beginning.

Just like this, Qiao Ting"s group also left the venue. However, every member now had a clear goal in their hearts. They would defeat the Lingtian Mecha Clan properly once, and then move on to defeating the Lingtian Battle Clan once. And so, the two battle clans embarked onto the path of mutual rivalry ...The author actually uses this sound effect with English text in the raws.