Duel

Here he was in front of the stadium, there was not much of a crowd however Leylin knew the impact this duel would have. Princess Cornelia was present along with Princess Euphemia, Empress Anne, and even Prince Schneizel.

As Leylin got in his Knightmare he set his AI chip into full combat mode.

"AI chip dedicate all computational power to identifying possible dangers and changes to simulation"

Leylin had a simulation of the battle already however it was not as accurate as he only had records of Guilford's fights from the year prior when he was still in Military Academy. So he would need to play on the defensive till the AI chip was able to identify Guilford enough to predict with certainty.

[Affirmative…. Chances of victory with no injuries: 60 % | Chance of victory with minor injury: 37% | Chance of victory with a major injury: 3%]

Leylin was confident in being able to act defensive and dodge Guilford's attack till the time came thanks to his AI chip, so he relaxed and got ready.

Soon the door opened and Leylin moved out to the field. There Guilford was moving in as well. They had decided on a Knightmare battle and both had Glasgow. While specialized frames existed, they used Glasgows to have a "fair" fight.

Soon a horn blew and both of them accelerated their landspinner. They also did not have any guns and used only a baton and slash harken in the fight, to prevent cheesing through a lucky shot.

That plus it seemed Lord Guilford had heard of Leylin's score in marksmanship, and while Gilbert was no slouch Lord Guilford did not want to take any chances. Leylin had no objections to this as he wanted to use this event to make a showing.

Ass both of them accelerated towards each other both fired their slash harkens. They each hit each other nullifying them. Soon Leylin moved slightly left and decided to make Guilford chase him.

Guilford dutifully chased him as both the slash harkens were coiled back.

"Runaway like the coward you are, you will not be able to escape" Guilford yelled as he fired his slash Harkens again, this time accurately.

[Beep… danger detected…. Move left for 2 seconds]

Leylin followed the instructions and easily dodged the slash harken.

This continued on for a few minutes as Guilford began to get irritated.

"Why do you keep running, fight me face to face like a man" He yelled over the com.

"As you ask" Leylin replied finally having ignored all such calls for the past few minutes.

"Huh"

Leylin's Glasgow made a sharp turn as he rushed towards Guilford who had just missed his slash harken and was waiting for it to come back. Leylin then fired his slash harken towards Guilford.

They hit their mark but failed to penetrate the armor, surprising everyone.

"What how could this happen," Cornelia said as she observed the battle. "There must be something wrong with the firing mechanism of Leylin's Knightmare"

"It could be the angle was not right for the hit," Empress Anne said as she observed the fight.

"No, the slash harkens are weapons made for Knightmare on Knightmare combat. If they hit they will penetrate. Someone tampered with the Knightmare" Cornelia stated.

"But both Knightmares were provided by House Lanford, they are a neutral third party." Empress Anne continued. "It does not matter anyways that Leylin kid has just been running away. Is that how he expects to defend you. This farce of a match should not even be needed."

"Please mother, it is Guilford who wanted this match. I know he did not have a hand in this, he is someone too focussed on honor to do this. However, this does not prevent others from doing the same."

"Well, it does not matter anyway as the winner is already decided," Schneizel said as he too came into the conversation.

"What do you mean brother," Euphemia asked. "I'm sure Mr. Leylin still has a chance. He still has his baton left."

"No Euphemia, you see it's Mr. Guilford who has lost, He lost before the dues even began."

"Why is that? I know Leylin probably has some plan, however even I am unsure if he took his slash harkens failing into consideration."

"I don't know the strategy he would use, I'm just talking about how composed he is even after his slash harkens failed. That is not the face of a man without a plan."