By Lucas looks over the roster of potential teammates and is informed by a butler that the Nemesis Foundation’s technical staff have arrived and wants to support him. Lucas doesn’t want their help and recalls Aila telling him seven years earlier that he should play Gunpla Battle himself if he wanted to win. At the dorm, Yuuma is impressed with Sekai’s ability to file down some parts, and Fumina is amazed by the perfection of Sei’s building skill. Yuuma notes that Sei won the world championship with Gunpla he built at their age, which causes Fumina to wonder if she can ever build something as perfect. Yuuma thinks she can eventually because Gunpla will be with them for a long time. Sakai works on the Gundam Tryon 3 while the rest of the team watches a tournament commentary with Mirai and analyst Rainer Cziommer. Sakai vows to his teammates that they’ll be the best in Japan. The Meijin finds Allan in a bar having a drink to celebrate the arrival of worthy foes. He says that his team have been looking for strong adversaries to grow with, much like the Meijin did when he was younger. The next morning, lots are drawn to determine the brackets for the semifinals. The first match is decided as Celestial Sphere against Von Braun, while the second is the Try Fighters versus the Build Busters. Lucas is disappointed that he won’t get to fight Sekai until the final, but Shia steps in and declares that Sekai will be fighting her team. Sakai then butts in and boasts that he’s going to win, but Yuuma counters that he will. Saga shuts them all up by saying that it only comes down to strong ones winning and weak ones losing. Lucas’ team leaves to get ready, and the Try Fighters decide to tune their Gunpla. Before the battle begins, Lucas asks his teammates Aiba and Tomita to follow the instructions he created for them. Wilfrid tells his teammates that fighting Lucas will be a good test of what they’ll see in the open tournament. The battle begins in a level filled with floating islands, and Lucas appears by himself in the Crossbone Gundam X-1 Full Cloth to fight Celestial Sphere. Saga deploys Gundam The End‘s fangs, but Lucas destroys them all with one shot. He unleashes another round, which are destroyed with vulcans and the muramasa blaster. Saga blocks an attack from Lucas and rushes forward out of excitement.
Saga fires off several shots and is able to destroy Lucas’ peacock smasher. Wilfrid fires a beam from the Transient Gundam‘s GN partisan that blasts through the island and hits Lucas on the other side. Lucas hides inside the clouds and fires at Saga before falling back to meet Aiba. Wilfrid wonders where Lucas stores so many particles, but they then come under attack from Tomita’s Geara Doga C. The team splits up, and Shia is attacked by Lucas’ Core Fighter, which causes serious damage. Lucas flies through the hole that Wilfrid created, so Wilfrid tells Saga to give chase. Shia deploys Haro repair bots that start working on fixing the G-Portent. The Crossbone Gundam has its particles recharged by a transfer from Aiba’s unit, and Lucas arrives to dock his Core Fighter. He detects incoming enemies and tells Aiba to meet him at the next supply point. Lucas uses his knuckles and foot spikes to fight off both Wilfrid and Saga. Saga uses his Dead End Finger attack, but Lucas blocks with an I-field. Wilfrid attacks with his GN partisan and notices that the Crossbone Gundam’s particle output isn’t falling. Allan notices the same thing and realizes that Lucas’ teammates are recharging his particles. Wilfrid and Saga interrupt a particle resupply, and Saga destroys Tomita’s Geara Doga while Lucas escapes to meet with Aiba. However, Aiba’s Geara Doga is destroyed from a blast by Shia. Lucas is surprised to see her in action and is surrounded by all three opponents. Shia thinks they can win by just waiting out the last two minutes of the time limit, but Wilfrid isn’t interested in an incomplete victory. Saga tells Wilfrid to finish it, so he flies ahead on his own for a one-on-one duel. Lucas thinks that Wilfrid is either confident or a fellow Gunpla freak. Lucas activates Full Mode and Wilfrid uses Transient Burst when they attack each other with their melee weapons. The glow of the Transient Burst sets off a bright light that fills the stadium. Sekai and the others return to the stadium to see the end of the fight. Although the Transient Gundam is heavily damaged, the Crossbone Gundam falls to the ground in defeat.
This is the culmination of all the hype surrounding Lucas’ skills as the European champion, and it results in a battle that’s almost equal parts interesting and disappointing. It’s nice to see a Crossbone Gundam animated, and Lucas definitely puts all its abilities to full use. He shows impressive skill in holding of all three members of Celestial Sphere and using tactics and the environment to his advantage. However, his disadvantage is the high performance level of the Crossbone Gundam, which requires Plavsky particle transfers from his roommates. This has never been a problem before, so on the surface it looks like handicap created to ensure that Lucas loses. I don’t know why he’d use a suit like this and have it be a liability, because surely someone as skilled as he is could use another Gunpla that isn’t a particle guzzler. He also makes a huge tactical mistake in merely disabling Shia rather than destroying her unit, because she’s able to deploy Haro repair bots and help turn the battle around. It’s definitely a testament to her skills that she could create multiple repair bots and house them inside the body of a 1/144 scale kit. At the end of the day, while Lucas fought well, he both handicapped himself with his kit choice and made some tactical blunders, so his reputation is a bit over hyped. Despite that, I’m glad he offers a connection to the original series and took to heart a random throwaway comment from Aila.
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