"A Quick Duel" by Joshua Price

Nathan felt the sudden deceleration as his sleek, black Coyote with lightning bolts painted on the wings , the Black Thunder, slid into Battle Arena System 27. All around various pilots buzzed around in their craft, launching salvos of missiles and other projectiles are their intended victims, all in the name of fame and wealth that many victories would eventually achieve. As an Expert ranked pilot, many of those before him were far below his level, their tactics looked horribly predictable to his eyes. Hence why he never fought anyone below his own skill level anymore.

As if his opponent was the devil and someone was blabbing about him, a blue-painted Wolf called Frigid Fire jumped into the system and wasted no time getting a lock on Nathan and loosing a several missiles of the sonar variety. Nathan kicked the Black Thunder's powerful Prowler Engine to full power and shot down and below the missiles, narrowly evading them and causing them to loose their lock. He sped past his opponent, unleashing a volley of Ion Bolts and a Needle Rocket as he swooped past.

Frigid Fire moved to avoid them, taking a few ions to the shields. However, the way it moved had Nathan a bit suspicious. Unforuntately, he didn't catch on until many bolts of blue energy materialized before him and made their best attempt to collide with his ship. He cursed and dove as the shots from the opponent's Trap Cannon ravaged his shields, all but lowering them completely. Irritated, Nathan slammed his fist into one of the buttons on his console, causing the device at the top of his Coyote to release several large green-yellow sparks of electricity, which began to pursue his opponent.

Luckily, this forced the Wolf to break off a pursuit attempt in order to save its shields. Nathan glanced at the rear display and sighed as he noticed his opponents primary weapon of choice: Flare Cannons. Those things were nasty, and no doubt that guy was good at sweet-spotting them. Hence, he needed to end this quickly before his tricky weapons started to cause serious damage. He spun his ship around and then kicked in the afterburner to quickly change directions and held it to rapidly close the distance between him and his target.

The Frigid Fire had spun and changed directions after a narrow miss with an electron pulse. He moved in quickly from the sides and unleashed a torrent of red ion bolts and needle rockets. As was with any duel, most of his shots missed considering the size and skill of his opponent, but he wasn't about to let up. More blue energy materialized before him and he spent a brief instant thinking about dodging. He decided to take the risk.

The shots quickly overloaded his shields and started rending at his hull. Yet, taking the hits allowed him to keep the pressure on his opponent, who's shields were also down. Nathan let loose another trio of electron pulses and then kicked in a calculated thrust from his side to allow him to veer to the right as his opponent started to rotate and change fire his afterburners. Just as the Wolf passed in front of him, a well-placed Needle Rocket collided with the fighter, causing its engines to catch fire. Moments later, there was nothing left but a drifting Escape Pod.

"Great match, man," Nathan said as he hailed the pod, which couldn't send replies back due to the necessary conservation of energy, "you could of had me easily if you got the chance to shoot those Flares at me, I'm sure of it. If you're up to it, why don't you catch me in the bar when you get back? I love to chat with another skilled pilot."

Nathan closed the channel, hoping his opponent would accept. Between now and the bar, it was time to head back to Colosseum Station and collect his reward for the victory. Hopefully, when the tournament started, he'd have this kind of success every round. Though, with last year's champion, Shane Merrol, returning, he knew the fight for that title would be fierce.