Flay was stunned in the cockpit when her killing blow was completely seen through, and her previously fluid movements stiffened for an instant.
Xia Ya would never let such a fleeting opportunity slip away. Although Flay instinctively tried to adjust the Gundam's posture at once, Xia Ya moved faster and more decisively.
The Unicorn Gundam did not draw its sword. Instead, it clenched its mechanical fingers, and the steel fist of its right arm crashed into the Goddess of Liberation Gundam's facial armor with howling momentum.
The immense physical impact traveled through the metal frame. The Goddess of Liberation Gundam staggered violently through space, and its Beam Saber missed completely after losing balance.
Immediately afterward, the Unicorn Gundam's left fist struck again like a sledgehammer, smashing squarely into the central monitor visor on the Goddess of Liberation Gundam's head amid a dull crash.
Metal fragments flew everywhere, and the main monitor flashed with blinding red warning lights.
Flay forcibly pulled the main control stick and steadied the Gundam.
As she retreated to widen the distance, she frantically pulled the trigger on the Beam Rifle in its right arm. Beam after beam wove a dense interception net through the void.
Xia Ya guided the Unicorn Gundam through the beam net with barely a hair's breadth to spare. The rifle in his hand also fired exceptionally precise suppressive bursts, but the Goddess of Liberation Gundam used the instantaneous acceleration unleashed by its wings of light to leave multiple afterimages in the void once more, evading every counterattack.
The two top-tier Gundams streaked past one another at high speed amid the raging flames, while the glow of beams and physical ammunition reflected endlessly across each other's armor.
At last, Flay seemed to conclude that this long-range exchange could not break through Xia Ya's