This page contains unmarked spoilers. You Have Been Warned!
The moment mankind finally struck a God.
Shuumatsu no Valkyrie is a manga about humankind fighting for survival against its creators, the gods. As such, the series doesn't pulls any punches and gives the readers plenty of blood pumping moments through its run, with each fight showing the awesomeness and best struggle of both humans and divinities in all its glory:
1st Match: Lu Bu vs Thor
- Brunhilde revealing her plans on giving mortals a chance to defeat the deities who plan to exterminate them. By turning the Valkyries, her fellow sisters, into divine weapons through a system called Volund for the mortals to wield, allowing them to injure gods.
- Lu Bu managing to take on Thor's attacks without being turned into a bloody paste like every other being that found itself struck by Thor's hammer. Lu Bu even survived Thor's strongest attack. While it did wreck his arms and legs, he was still alive by the end.
- Lü Bu injuring Thor for the first time after he used his Thor's Hammer move marks the first step into humans coming close to defeat their creators. After the big impact the attack generates, everyone in the audience believes the Chinese general has been obliterated by the power of the strike, except Brunhilde, who tells a hopeless Göll to keep watching the fight. Then, against all odds, Lü Bu not only emerges from the smoke screen unharmed and with a huge grin on his face, complimenting Thor's power, but it's revealed he landed a big slash on the chest to the Norse god, to the complete surprise of all the spectators. For the first time in millennia, humans finally managed to injure a god.
2nd Match: Adam vs Zeus
- Adam's grand entrance. Does he simply walk out? Nope. A trap door opens up and out rises a tower with the first man lounging on top. And out of the gate comes a stampede of wild creatures who all stop before the tower and down descends Adam, ready to fight. Backed up by a most badass introduction by the M.C and in the anime, an equally tense soundtrack.
- Zeus is stronger than he looks despite being a frail, perverted old man; not only had he defeated his own father (a great warrior himself) in the Titanomachy, he manages to intimidate Shiva into letting him take the Destroyer God's place with three simple words.
- Adam easily dodging Zeus’ punches and countering with his own, even twisting Zeus’ head around after he countered a punch that was so fast it warped the concept of time.
- Adam interrupting the sham trial where the gods were about to banish his wife Eve. He basically gives a big “eff you” to the gods present as he eats a basket full of apples, spitting them out onto the floor, and kills the Serpent when he attacks Adam. He then takes his wife and leaves the courtroom with none of the gods willing to follow after him.
- Adam revealing to Zeus why he's fighting the gods.Adam: ...Oh, pops. Don't go pushing yourself.
Zeus: You don't gotta tell me twice... Now I see that your casual speech wasn't just for show. But you've piqued my interest now... This old man has got one thing he'd like to ask you. I can't feel the flames of hatred towards us gods within those two eyes of yours. So tell me, what's the real reason you're here to fight?
Adam: (sigh) You thought the same too, huh? They all say the same thing. "Hatred"? "Revenge"? I don't need any of that. There is no reason why. Is there any man that needs a reason to protect his own children? - How does Zeus defeat Adam? Does he overpower the first man? Adam can see and dodge his attacks. Does he hit Adam so fast, he cannot possibly dodge his punches? Adam is faster than Zeus and counters his punch first. The only way Zeus could beat Adam was by enduring his attacks until Adam’s eyes burst from overstraining them. And even then, Adam continued to fight, forcing the two into a pummel duel. Adam died midway through the pummeling but his body kept moving until Zeus fell. Zeus only won because Adam’s body gave out first. In true Whitebeard fashion, even in death, Adam stayed standing, and despite winning the bout Zeus ended the match flat on his ass.
- Despite having lost their greatest champion, the story points out that not one human despaired: the match was so close, that win or lose Adam proved that humans could match, or even outfight the gods, and that Ragnarok could very well end with them as the victors.
3rd Match: Sasaki Kojiro vs Poseidon
- Sasaki’s life. He could have easily beat any of his opponents if he fought them a second time but chose not to, instead finding even stronger masters of the sword to fight so he can become even stronger. Despite a life full of losses, every one of Sasaki’s previous opponents respected Sasaki and cried tears upon seeing his fighting stance, declaring him to be enlightened in the way of the sword.
- Sasaki cuts off Poseidon's arm, the one holding his trident. Poseidon simply grabs his amputated arm and swings it and the trident it's still holding down towards Sasaki. Sasaki then slices off Poseidon's remaining arm. What does Poseidon do when he no longer has any arms? He snatches his trident with his teeth and continues his attempt to pierce Sasaki with it. And even this attempt is quickly shut down as Sasaki kills Poseidon in the same way Sasaki was killed by Musashi.
- Sasaki Kojiro, once called the Greatest Loser, defeats Poseidon and proves that humanity actually has a chance of beating the gods.
4th Match: Jack The Ripper vs Heracles
- Jack shows one aspect humans have the gods beat. Sheer pragmatism. He tricks Heracles several times throughout their fight, lying about how his Volund works and taking advantage of the terrain that was tailored to his talents, and is always thinking ahead about his next ploy. Loki is outright impressed by how a mortal like Jack can trick even the god of deception himself.
- Heracles' tattoos are said to inflict an amount of pain that would make any god's skin crawl with just an inch of coverage. Not once does Heracles show even the slightest amount of pain or discomfort, even when the tattoo has spread throughout most of body. He isn't called the God of Fortitude for nothing.
- After ascending to godhood, Heracles easily takes out Ares' whole army and was ready to take on the God of War himself before Zeus intervened. Ares is relieved by Zeus' intervention since he wasn't sure if he would have survived a match with Heracles.
5th Match: Raiden Tameemon vs Shiva
- Raiden, a sumo wrestler, wastes no time when the match starts and dropkicks Shiva's face.
- Raiden grabs one of Shiva's arms and just grips it tightly. Shiva's arm is crushed like paper from the sheer strength of Raiden's grip. If Shiva hadn't jumped away, Raiden would have torn his arm off his body.
- Raiden blows off two more of Shiva's arms with his Yatagarasu, a simple palm thrust that is one of sumo's most basic attacks. The attack is so strong that had Shiva not blocked the attack with two of his arms, his head would have been blown clean off and the match would have ended.
- It's during this match that Buddha is introduced; when Zeus and Odin break up the near-fight between him and Loki (with Kojiro, Okita and Kondō backing up Buddha and the 7 Lucky Gods backing Loki), Zeus warns Buddha not to start any fights, Buddha's response tells you everything you need to know about him:Buddha: [Laughs... then crushes his lollipop between his teeth.] "The only one that can move me, on Heaven or Earth... is me."
6th Match: Buddha vs Bishamonten/Zerofuku
- Buddha walking over to humanity's side of the arena and revealing he's humanity's representative for this round.
- Zerofuku, a god, finds himself jealous of Buddha back when he was a human. Unlike Zerofuku's attempts to make humans happy by taking away all their misfortune, Buddha had successfully made his own group of followers happy despite their misfortune.
- Tired of hearing Zerofuku ramble on about how much he hates him, Buddha simply kicks Zerofuku in the gut and reveals he doesn't remember Zerofuku.
- As the fight begins Zerofuku keeps trying to hit Buddha with his axe but Buddha dodges every attack thanks to his ability to see the future. This causes Zerofuku's weapon to grow bigger as he gets more and more miserable until it gets too big to dodge... so Buddha just blocks it.
- Hajun impales Buddha’s gut and it seems like Buddha has lost the match... but Buddha takes a step forward and reaffirms to Hajun his desire to protect humanity against any god that wants to harm them.
- After losing an eye, having been impaled, losing his staff, and being unable to use his power against Hajun, Buddha finally gets help from the most unexpected place possible. Zerofuku's spirit which inhabited the "Misery Cleaver" comes back to help Buddha and they both unleash a Volund to release what is quite possibly the strongest combination weapon in the series yet. And the next line from Buddha sells it:Buddha: This is...Divine Retribution.
- After using Volund with Zerofuku, Buddha is finally able to see in the future against Hajun, who has begun to fear that Buddha is right about him being weaker than Zerofuku. And after landing the slash to end all sword slashes, Buddha finally gives humanity hope again as he defeats Hajun. This with Zerofuku finally achieving peace, makes anyone who reads it grin from ear to ear.
7th Match: Qin Shi Huang vs Hades
- Qin Shi Huang’s introduction. Not only does he easily break through walls looking for his waiting room, he decides to make Hades’ chair his and throws an angry Ares when he demanded he leave, drawing blood from the God of War. Then Qin Shi Huang demands Hermes and Ares humble themselves before him, as they should before an emperor like him.
- As it turns out, Qin Shi Huang wasn’t using his Volund when he injured Ares, making him the second human since Adam to actually be able to harm a god without the help of a Volund.
- His proper entrance has him descending a long, wooden walkway extending from the gods' VIP section down to the arena that is held up by the arms by every single emperor of China that came after him.
- It's revealed that, prior to Qin Shi Huang, every king in China got the title by grovelling before the god of war Chi You for his blessing. Even offering up thousands of their citizens to be eaten as tribute. Qin literally told him to eat dirt and, after Chi You took offense, fought and killed him over the course of six days. Mastering all five styles of warfare the god had invented in the process and giving him the honor of being the first character to kill a god without any divine power of his own.Narrator: "At that moment, the history of China... passed into the hands of Man."
- While Zeus and the other Greek gods fought Gaia and her Giants above, Hades went down to Helheim by himself to stop the Titans’ attempted escape. After the war was won, Poseidon went down to Helheim and found his elder brother whistling whilst sitting amongst a field full of Titan corpses. And when asked what his reason for taking care of the Titans by himself? Hades simply says it’s his duty as the eldest brother to take care of his siblings.
- After a hard-fought battle and losing an arm, Qin Shi Huang prevails over the King of the Netherworld, placing humanity, for the first time in the tournament, in the lead.
8th Match: Nikola Tesla vs Beelzebub
- When Brunhilde and Göll enter Tesla’s room, Göll is shocked to see the floor littered with the bodies of humanity’s geniuses like Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton, each collapsed from exhaustion while Tesla is writing away on his board. Even among other geniuses, Tesla is in a class of his own.
- Nikola Tesla revealing his Volund, the Super Automaton β! A Powered Armor suit much like Iron Man’s! The sight of it wows the geniuses of humanity’s history, making them acknowledge Tesla’s genius surpasses theirs.
- Beelzebub has such high combat instinct that an ability will only catch him off guard once. How does Tesla try to get around this? Using his Tesla warp on his own arm to create an attack outright called unavoidable! While this maneuver doesn't work it's only because Beelzebub grew to respect Tesla to the point he expected him to find a way around his instincts.
9th Match: King Leonidas vs Apollo
- Leonidas has one hell of an introduction. He blows off Brunhilde like it's nothing, only to immediately switch gears when he hears that he was going to fight Apollo. Why? Because he wants nothing more than to lunch the shit out of an uppity "shithead" god. And when he gets to actually fight, he starts attacking before Heimdall can even finish the word "Fight".
- How did Leonidas become " History's Greatest Rebel?" Well, the elder of Sparta weren't willing to fight against Persia until after the Carneia Festival, dedicated to Apollo, was over. Leonidas' response? Punch a statue of Apollo to dust, take up his arms, and then go face the Persian army on his own. The famous 300 Spartans? They were the soldiers that were so inspired by this that they followed him, knowing full well that they will probably die.
- Apollo makes the mistake of asking Leonidas to kneel. The latter responds by launching a bladed wheel out of his shield, connected by a chain. And when Apollo blocks it, Leonidas swings up and hits Apollo square in the chin.
- A little known fact about Apollo is that he's also the God of Boxing. And this is shown in this fight, with Apollo laying the absolute smackdown on Leonidas with absolutely perfect footwork.
- Apollo has Leonidas on the ropes, he's about to knock him down, all while smugly demanding that he once again kneel. Leonidas instead rears back and then delivers the mother of all headbutts straight to Apollo's dome. As Hagis says, the gods better watch what they're doing, because This Is Sparta!
- Leonidas then follows it up with a blow that forces Apollo into the kowtow position, while ordering the god to kneel.
- The next chapter shows us the audience reaction. The blow was so utterly savage that even some of the gods in the audience thought the round was over right then and there.
- Of course, Apollo isn't finished yet. He gets up, looks at Leonidas... and then declares that at that moment, he's more beautiful than he's ever been. And his backstory shows why he thinks so. Apollo started out with nothing, being just a mediocre God. He gained the title of God of archery, music, philosophy and boxing through sheer hard work and dedication, literally working until his hands ran bloody. To Apollo, beauty is the ability to grow and improve. Which is why he sees Leonidas as beautiful.
10th Match: Okita Souji vs Susano'o no Mikoto
- The battle between these two master swordsmen starts off strong with Souji immediately going on the offensive, pressuring Susano'o with enough speed to render him practically invisible to the naked eye and enough power to potentially end the fight in a single slash. While Susano'o may not be going all in, as he has yet to unsheathe his sword, it's clear that he's on the backfoot and is only just managing to stop Souji's assault. When the former captain uses his signature Sandanzuki, Susano'o is only able to stop it at the last moment at the cost of Ame-no-Murakumo's sheath.
- Of course, the above leads to Susano'o's own moment of awesome. With the Ame-no-Murakumo, or rather the Onigiri-Ame-no-Murakumo, finally revealed, Susano'o takes his first proper fighting stance. And as befitting the "God of Swords", Susano'o is able to whip all of the swordsmen in attendance into a frenzy as all of them come to realize that his simple stance is actually embodying principles of swordsmanship from all cultures, not just kenjutsu.
