Valkyrie20 was of what people called the arcade generation.
In truth, he was awkwardly perched right at the tail end of it, but he was at least old enough that, if he insisted on claiming he belonged to the arcade generation, he could make the argument.
He had spent a long time as an Odinson, all the way back from the arcade days.
So much time had passed that, before he knew it, the game title had even changed genders, but trifles like that did not particularly bother him.
The essence of this game had always been the same.
And he was one of the prisoners enthralled by it.
He set his axe in the high guard and raised his shield.
Consciously loosening the tension from his stiffened body, he focused his awareness only on his eyes and fingers.
In the end, a fighting game was a battle of range.
That was true not only of Odindottir, but also of AOS games, FPS games, and 2D fighting games.
But in Odindottir, that meaning carried particular weight.
Because the foundation of this game had begun as a battle of hitboxes.
You placed range on one side of the scale, then piled everything else onto the other side and weighed them against each other.
Damage, attack speed, motion, resource efficiency, and the like.
Back in its crude days, the balance had been a mess… but the developers’ philosophy itself had always been the same since then.
Odinson was a game where you won if you landed the hit, and lost if you dodged.
It had always been that way, ever since the days of crude dot graphics some twenty years ago.
“Whew…”
He listed out the longsword’s patterns in his head.
Then he put the patterns he thought, If it were me, I’d use this, into his options.
He raised his shield in front of those options and adjusted its angle.
He blocked off half the attack route with the shield’s hitbox and watched the remaining half with his weapon.
From the moment they had identified each other’s weapons, the mind game had already been underway for some time.
He input the patterns into his head in advance, leaving his fingers on standby so that the countermeasure would output the instant he saw it.
That was the foundation of Odinson.
The essence of the game that did not change, no matter how people fought over modern or classic.
The grotesquely shaped knight gripped the longsword with both hands.
The monstrosity held its weapon in the middle guard and slowly walked forward.
It was the sort of prank any old player of this game might try at least once, but honestly, that character customization felt like it had gone too far.
From watching, he had learned that his opponent handled clashes and parries freely.
Frankly, if it turned into a dogfight and a stamina trade, he was not confident he could win.
He could pull off clashes too, but it was impossible for him to do it as casually as that monster did, like eating meals.
It was obvious he would be the first one driven into groggy state.
—Gulp.
Valkyrie20 swallowed. In his head, he continued calculating the estimate.
Damn, this is annoyingly tricky.
This was why the longsword was called a hexagon.
When held in the middle guard, its light, medium, and heavy attacks could each perform different roles.
It meant it had a wide range of responses.
As a basic weapon, it lacked damage and efficiency, but like a basic weapon, its motions were faithful.
Its weight class was lacking for that reason, but that monster was using it like a stamina potion by constantly inserting little bits of Zanshin.
On the other hand, the skill attached to the weapon was awkward, making its special attack neither here nor there, but in the hands of someone that skilled, it was frightening with just the fundamentals.
Even so, the [Axe: Legacy of the Young Jotun] he had loaded in the high guard was a representative large hexagon.
His opponent’s longsword was well-balanced, but at best, it was a small hexagon.
There were no surprise bursts of damage or troublesome combo strings to be wary of.
His axe also had a basic range one step above the longsword.
If I can be conscious of exactly this much—the distance where I have the advantage—and force trades…
The basic specs of his weapon were in his favor too, and if he dragged it into a range battle, perhaps he could take a few rounds.
With that calculation, he waited for his opponent to approach.
Just as the distance had nearly closed and he was about to initiate his attack.
The purple freak suddenly stopped.
“?”
It was right before the effective range he had set in his head.
One step behind the distance where, if he dashed in and threw out his setup, it would be difficult for the opponent to respond.
Of course, there would be individual differences for each player, but the maximum range Valkyrie20 had set was exactly around there.
“What is this?”
Was it just a coincidence?
Did he know him from the previous game after all?
There was no way he would fail to remember a pervert like that…?!
“!!”
The purple freak, who had stopped, abruptly began a charge.
The monster lunged without even needing time to accelerate, like an arrow loosed from a bowstring.
That was probably some technique where he canceled a charge skill to pull in acceleration… but this was no time for that.
Apart from being startled by his opponent’s sudden start, the axe he had loaded fired out with frame-perfect timing.
Apart from the stray thoughts that had surfaced, his hands were already outputting the response he had input.
His gaze had been fixed on his opponent’s purple hands the entire time.
Confirming that his opponent’s attack motion had not come out and throwing out his poke were practically simultaneous.
Now. It’s too late for him to clash.
I don’t expect him to just take the hit, but even if I can make him roll, it’s a gain—
“?!”
In an instant, the monster transitioned into a low stance and began a heavy attack.
What was the longsword’s low heavy again? Was it the anti-air where he dragged the sword along the ground before scooping it up with both hands?
No. That would be too late. It was not a timing where he could clash.
He was certain this was a favorable trade for him.
“No, how does that make any sense!!”
If only the opponent’s upper body, twisted to the extreme, had not just barely brushed past the trajectory of his axe.
He moved his aim and pulled his shield toward the opponent’s front.
So that no matter what pattern came out, he would at least be able to block it.
At the same time, he prepared a parry to match the opponent’s heavy attack.
The long-range fight had fallen apart, and a fierce dogfight was now in store, but if he could just land the parry, he would not take a major loss.
The monster thrust his sword into empty air.
…At this rate, the parry he had prepared had become a dog chasing a chicken.
And the opponent?
The opponent canceled his recovery with Zanshin and began running again.
“?!”
He attacked in surprise, but it did not reach.
As if he had known that would happen, the opponent skimmed past him.
—Shhk!!
The purple freak circled around his shield and took his back. His back was wide open, and it was only natural that the lightly armored opponent would turn faster than a heavy armored fighter holding a shield.
A critical grabbed in an instant.
It was a no-lock-on backstab that could not have been cleaner.
***
“Hup…!! That was fun!!”
A laugh mingled with the breath that burst out along with my stretch.
It was a satisfaction like having devoured several years’ worth of first-to-tens in one go.
A fullness incomparable to oil pasta made me smile.
-GG
-GG… No, what the hell are you?
The chat coming up in the private room was not much different in mood.
Quite a bit of time had passed since the first-to-tens began.
-In the end, 10/0 all the way to the last one… Wow, but that was seriously fun
-A first-to-10 of this level isn’t common
-High-tier players are still rare even among streamers
The users still planted in the private room were all high-tier.
It had been such a high-level exchange that every one of those users clicked their tongues. As content, it could not have been better.
-No, you know me, right? Right?
-Valhalla awaits, Valkyrie20…
-No, this is. This makes no sense…
Just looking at the chat was enough to tell how flustered he was.
Well, of course he would be.
This hyung—by the name I originally remembered, Valkyrie23 hyung—had been an axe one-trick user.
I remembered him complaining that, because he was older, it was hard to code in a new weapon.
For saying that, though, he was a skilled player who consistently reached Valhalla.
Before the game began showing signs of dying, he had been such an enthusiastic user that I had even met him a few times at offline gatherings.
The reason Valkyrie23 did not continue on to Valkyrie24 and 25 was not that his affection had faded or his skills were lacking.
He left, saying he was too busy raising children to play games.
No, well. Patriotism deserves respect.
Since this was still version 20, his patterns did feel a little simple, but because it was not version 23, his physicals actually felt better instead.
An opponent I met after so long, and his physicals were fresher?
At that point, it was honestly so fun that from the middle onward, I could not restrain myself.
Still, perhaps because he was shocked by how completely he was being read, his rhythm collapsed partway through.
Honestly, I did feel a bit awkward, but there was a mischievous sort of fun to it, so I could not stop myself from bringing it out.
A backstep build centered around the [Blurred Footsteps] rune.
In a game where you played mind games by calculating hitbox ranges, the hitbox of a shield followed the rule of the bigger, the better.
There was a reason everyone looked for shields with wide hitboxes, even though their greater weight strengthened inertia.
This backstep build was the result of the rock-paper-scissors that followed the large-shield meta. In a word, it was a build ahead of its time.
Wait. Don’t mind the old man who had been carrying around something like a pot lid since the old days. That is not something to take as reference. That’s dirty. Dirty.
Since the shield’s hitbox was large, it was inevitable that turning would become slower, and unavoidable that the back would be left exposed.
With this strategy, I made a name for myself in the world ratings.
Until some mad dwarf brought a scrap of wooden plank, that is.
In any case, what it meant was that this complete defeat was not entirely due to their skill.
That was what it meant, but…
…That’s that, and this is this, right?
[Title: I understand well now. The level of you people.]
: Let me see your back.
It got so boring I wanted to die.
Still, I can see the possibility, so keep going.
Those of you who lost the first-to-10, practice your Zanshin combos. Aim high.
I can’t let teabagging slide.