Reid charged toward Amuro with murderous intent. Fully sensing Reid's mental pressure, Amuro naturally dared not divert his attention to attack others.
After just a glance at the Joyeuse Gundam's assault, Amuro judged that Reid was most likely going for a horizontal slash.
However, his sense of crisis warned him that he could not take the enemy's attack head-on.
Amuro trusted his instincts completely. So when the Joyeuse Gundam's horizontal slash reached him, the Nu Gundam dodged sideways at the last possible moment and attempted to fire the Beam Cannon concealed within its Shield at the Joyeuse Gundam.
Newtypes could sense each other's attack timing, so Reid was not at all surprised that Amuro could evade his frontal assault.
Of course, Amuro's tactic of hiding a cannon in his Shield posed little threat to Reid either.
After all, Reid was quite familiar with the Nu Gundam's armament configuration, even though this particular Nu Gundam was a hybrid of the old version and the Fukuoka Nu Gundam.
Amuro had attacked from behind, exploiting the opening when the Joyeuse Gundam's horizontal slash missed.
But he clearly underestimated the Joyeuse Gundam's turning speed.
With Nein's assistance, the moment Reid realized his slash would miss, Nein received the judgment and began controlling the Mobile Suit to turn accordingly.
Thus, just as Amuro raised his Shield, the Joyeuse Gundam had already completed its turn. Before its Beam could fire, a flash of sword light swept past, slicing open the Beam Cannon muzzle at the bottom of the Nu Gundam's Shield and simultaneously detonating the four missiles arranged around the muzzle.
Amuro reacted swiftly. The moment the Joyeuse Gundam turned and struck the Shield, he immediately abandoned it and retreated. So the explosion of the four missiles only destroyed the Nu's Shield, depriving it of a decoy for locking on.
Moreover, after discarding the Shield, Amuro wasted no time and turned to flee toward the nearby Debris Belt.
In Amuro's view, the Joyeuse Gundam was clearly designed for close combat, and the two exchanges just now proved its melee prowess surpassed that of the Nu Gundam.
Amuro reflected that if their roles were reversed, even if he could sense a sneak attack from behind, his response would definitely not be to turn and slash the cannon barrel. Instead, he would execute an emergency stop with a backward kick, followed by an overhead hook.
Though inelegant, that maneuver would be the easiest to perform in such a situation—dodging the attack from behind while kicking the enemy's Mobile Suit to prevent pursuit.
Of course, Amuro wasn't saying that turning to slash the cannon barrel was a bad move; it was simply something he couldn't pull off.
The Nu Gundam's reaction speed was already quite fast, but in that scenario, there was absolutely no time to turn. The agility of the Mobile Suit before him was clearly superior to the Nu Gundam's.
In a duel between Newtypes, if one Mobile Suit had a clear advantage in arm swing speed and short-distance maneuvering, insisting on close combat would only be asking for trouble.
So Amuro immediately decided to change the terrain. Their current location lacked sufficient cover, allowing the enemy to fully exploit its mobility advantage.
Amuro wanted to shift the battlefield, but Reid naturally wouldn't agree, especially since Amuro was heading toward the Debris Belt. The complex terrain there would not only hinder Reid's charge speed but also make it easier for Amuro to set traps.
Thus, Reid raised the Super GN Sword, switched it to gun mode, and took aim to fire.
However, Amuro had anticipated Reid's move.
Reid had just raised his gun when four or five decoy balloons were launched from the waist-mounted hardpoints of Amuro's mobile suit.
This time, the armaments on the Nu Gundam weren't hastily added on the battleship—Amuro had ample time to equip the gadgets he needed.
As soon as the decoy balloons emerged, the automatic targeting system of the Joyeuse Gundam lost its lock.
However, Reid wasn't alone. Nein instantly took over the targeting system, switching to manual control under her command, so the crosshairs returned to the Nu Gundam hiding behind the decoy balloons the very next second.
But Reid still underestimated Amuro's tactics. As soon as the crosshairs stabilized, Reid immediately fired.
Just as the beam shattered the balloon, it erupted with a massive amount of Minovsky particles.
Well, this time Amuro didn't hide space mines inside the decoy balloons—he directly filled them with Minovsky particles instead.
A large concentration of Minovsky particles can form an unstable I-Field.
Amuro clearly intended to use this chaotic I-Field to block enemy beam attacks, or at the very least, distort the angle of the beams.
But the shot Reid fired was a GN Particle Beam, which, upon contact with the high concentration of Minovsky particles, instantly triggered a massive explosion.
The explosion destroyed several nearby decoy balloons, releasing even more Minovsky particles, which then reacted with Reid's subsequent rapid-fire GN Particle Beams, causing secondary explosions.
So, Amuro stared wide-eyed at the massive explosion behind him, wondering if the beams from the mobile suit Reid was piloting were really that flammable and explosive? How could shooting a decoy balloon create such a huge fireball?
But this actually worked in Amuro's favor. There were no shockwaves in space, so as long as he stayed outside the explosion radius, even the largest fireball was just like watching fireworks.
Instead, Amuro used the cover of the fireball to continue fleeing toward the debris belt.
Reid, on the other hand, felt a bit frustrated. Although he knew Amuro would fill decoy balloons with all sorts of strange things, who would have thought he'd fill them with Minovsky particles?
Wouldn't it be better to convert all those Minovsky particles into MEGA particles for firing? Using them to fill decoy balloons was such a waste.
But now Amuro had done exactly that, and without even realizing it, he triggered an explosion between GN particles and Minovsky particles, effectively achieving his goal of providing cover.
Reid could only sigh at Amuro's incredible luck, then activated his GN Field, preparing to charge straight through the fireball and intercept the Nu Gundam at close range with speed.
However, as soon as Reid emerged from the fireball, he saw five more decoy balloons directly in the path between him and the Nu Gundam.
This time, Reid didn't dare shoot to detonate them—creating another huge fireball would only obstruct his vision and detection.
But Reid also didn't impulsively try to ram through or slash the balloons with his mobile suit.
After all, who knew what Amuro had filled these balloons with?
If they were still filled with Minovsky particles, charging in and breaking them would set off fireworks right beside him, which would still affect his vision.
So, Reid chose to use his Head Vulcan Gun to shoot down the balloons. After all, decoy balloons were just real balloons, and in the vacuum of space, the Head Vulcan Gun could break them from a distance.
And then Reid witnessed why Amuro was widely regarded as the dirtiest tactician among all Gundam protagonists.
Because this time, he had switched to space mine decoy balloons.
If Reid had recklessly charged forward or directly swung his sword earlier, he would have taken a solid hit from a medium-sized space mine.
The power of this type of mine isn't particularly great—in the anime, even the Chad Doga wasn't destroyed by it, so the Joyeuse Gundam would certainly be fine too.
However, its explosive impact would be enough to make the Joyeuse Gundam stumble, and it would look quite embarrassing.
Although Reid didn't suffer any losses this time, he felt thoroughly disgusted.
Reid was now experiencing the same feelings as those pilots who had been tricked by his own tactics in the past.
So, Reid decided he couldn't just take this lying down—he had to return the favor. Since Trans-Am had to be saved for a decisive moment,
and activating Trans-Am now to teleport over might not guarantee an instant kill on Amuro.
Amuro's danger sense was too abnormal; it wouldn't be surprising if he could react to a teleportation backstab.
After all, even Ribbons in 00 managed to dodge a fatal blow after being teleportation-backstabbed and cut off one of the 00 Raiser's GN Drives. Someone as acutely sensitive to danger as Amuro could certainly do the same.
Thus, Reid began to reveal his cards.
The Sword Saint System activated, and the two GN Buster Swords mounted on the shoulders of the Joyeuse Gundam shot straight out.
Just as Amuro was about to enter the debris belt, he suddenly sensed something. He abruptly halted the Nu Gundam and then saw two streaks of sword light flash in front of his mobile suit.
Sensing the rapidly moving GN Buster Swords, Amuro murmured,
"What kind of weapon is this? Funnels? No, these are swords—flying giant swords!! And they're so fast!"
However, when Amuro said they were fast, he was actually just casually maneuvering the Nu Gundam left and right, easily dodging all the attacks from the GN Buster Swords.
The flight speed of the GN Buster Swords still couldn't compare to beams. Amuro could even dodge beams, so attacks at mere supersonic speeds were naturally no challenge for him.
After all, with Amuro's Newtype Awakening Value, judging the position of the GN Buster Swords was quite simple.
But now Amuro was in a bind. He tried to destroy the GN Buster Swords with his high-power beam rifle.
However, the GN Buster Swords inherently had the ability to slice through beams. Even the so-called high-power beam rifle was ineffective, with three to five beams doing nothing to them.
Yet, ignoring these two GN Buster Swords wasn't an option for Amuro either.
Because of the presence of these two swords, Amuro had to constantly maneuver the mobile suit to evade, making it impossible for him to accelerate. As a result, Reid had already caught up.
Given the situation, Amuro had no choice but to turn and face his opponent. Leaving his back exposed to Reid was far too dangerous.
Still, Amuro made one more attempt: he deployed the six fin funnels on the left side of his mobile suit.
Seizing the opportunity, he grouped them into sets of three, directly forming a beam scattering membrane barrier to trap the GN Buster Swords.
Amuro chose this method to seal the GN Buster Swords as a mere test—he wouldn't be surprised at all if the beam scattering membrane was pierced.
But his move proved highly effective. The Joyeuse Gundam's GN Buster Swords suddenly lost power, trapped within the barrier.
The reason the GN Buster Swords lost sustained power when enveloped by the beam scattering membrane was that the beam scattering membrane was a special ability derived from the interaction between the psychoframe and the pilot's brainwaves.
Once the beam scattering membrane enveloped the GN Buster Swords, Amuro's psychic power severely interfered with Reid's psychic control, directly causing the GN Buster Swords to lose control.
The Beam Scattering Membrane possesses a certain degree of physical interference capability. After the inertial impact force of the GN Buster Sword was neutralized by it, and without further commands, it naturally could not move.
Actually, if the Nu Gundam today were a Psycho-Frame Mobile Suit, this scene would have turned into Amuro attempting to seize control of the GN Buster Sword.
In that case, Reid would have to try competing with Amuro, whose Psychic Power was amplified by the Psycho-Frame.
Unlike now, where Amuro doing this requires continuously consuming a portion of his Psychic Power to seal the GN Buster Sword.
On Reid's side, after the GN Buster Sword lost connection, there was no consumption for Reid himself, only Nein continuously attempting to regain control of the two GN Buster Swords.
Therefore, Reid, who had finally closed in on the Nu Gundam again, completely ignored the two GN Buster Swords and swung his sword to slash at the Nu Gundam.
Amuro had no other countermeasures at this moment. His flight speed couldn't match the opponent's, so he could only first draw his Beam Saber to face the enemy.
However, Reid also played a dirty trick here.
When the Joyeuse Gundam swung at the Nu Gundam, six balloons instantly popped out from the Decoy Balloon box at its waist.
The Nu Gundam's targeting naturally became instantly chaotic.
Fortunately, Amuro's main purpose this time was to parry, not needing to aim at anything, just needing to set up his stance.
But the Nu Gundam raising its Beam Saber would inevitably slice open these Decoy Balloons that had already been thrown at its face.
Amuro would put things inside Decoy Balloons, so Reid naturally would too.
However, Reid filled them with Quick-setting Gel.
As the Nu Gundam sliced open Reid's thrown Decoy Balloons, the Quick-setting Gel bombs inside instantly exploded, coating both Mobile Suits.
Reid was prepared beforehand, covering his entire Mobile Suit with a Lambda Driver Physical Interference Layer, blocking all the Quick-setting Gel. His Mobile Suit didn't get any on it at all, and with just a slight movement, he shook it all off.
But the Nu Gundam was thoroughly coated. Not only were many joints of the Mobile Suit covered, even its head got a patch, and several sections of the panoramic screen in the cockpit displayed mosaic effects.
Although, before the gel solidified, the Nu Gundam had already completed its blocking action, with the Beam Saber stopping the GN Buster Sword's slash, the Nu Gundam's joints being covered by Quick-setting Gel caused its limb flexibility to degrade directly to the level of a 21st-century robot.
Yet even after being tricked, Amuro could still find an opportunity to counterattack.
He controlled the Long-Range Wing Funnel on the right side of his Mobile Suit to detach and generate a Beam Greatsword, thrusting directly at the Joyeuse Gundam right in front of him.
Reid sensed this attack beforehand, knowing the GN Field couldn't block it, so he deployed the Beam Shield on his left arm to block this strike.
However, the Long-Range Wing Funnel internally housed two small Minovsky Particle Fusion Reactors, providing ample power. Even though the Beam Greatsword was blocked by the CE Beam Shield, the physical interference generated, coupled with power comparable to a Rocket Propeller, still pushed the Joyeuse Gundam back a distance.
Meanwhile, Amuro intentionally shut off the Nu Gundam's thrusters, using the impact force from the Joyeuse Gundam's slash to directly plummet into the Debris Belt.
At the same time, the six Fin Funnels trapping the two GN Buster Swords were recalled.
Right in front of Reid, using the beams from the six Fin Funnels, they burned away the Rapid-Hardening Gel already solidified on the Nu Gundam's surface within one second.
Here, Amuro was truly bold and confident. If the output of the Fin Funnel beams had been slightly higher or the beam exposure time a bit longer, the armor of the Nu Gundam would have been damaged, especially in areas with thinner armor like the joints.
But this time, Amuro had clearly tuned the Nu Gundam perfectly. After such maneuvers, no visible damage could be seen on the Mobile Suit itself, and its mobility remained largely unaffected. With a swift dodge, it vanished into the Debris Belt.
Watching Amuro, that sly old fox, flee into the Debris Belt, Reid could only intensify his perception and pursue him inside.
After all, Reid couldn't just wait outside like a sitting duck, fearing the traps Amuro might set in such complex terrain.
This Debris Belt was not small. Amuro could easily use the various wrecks within as cover to continuously fire at the Joyeuse Gundam, leaving Reid even more passive in the end.
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