Overlord (Episode 12) – The Bloody Valkyrie

Lord Ainz prepares to fight Shaltear. He’s tracked the one responsible, but they are far away and he can’t work out what their game plan is. Either way, he’s not about to step back and watch his guild fight among themselves. This battle is his!
Overlord (Episode 12) – The Bloody Valkyrie
What happened?
Clothed in just some old brown rags, Lord Ainz approached Shaltear. He tested her reactions with a single spell that boosted his abilities. Nothing. It would appear that she will only attack when attacked. This is an opportunity that Ainz is not going to miss. He cast spell after spell, stacking his boosts and protections. He sets traps and distractions for Shaltear. He’s just about thought of everything. Then, he activates a Super-Tier magic spell and attacks. Amazingly, Shaltear survived the attack by equipping full body armour. She has been awakened and is prepared to return the favour.
Shaltear hits him with everything she has. However, Ainz catches her with some magic mines, forcing her to pull back. If he can keep her at a distance, the fight is his. Of course, she has some tricks of her own and her plan is to drain his MP which would leave him defenseless. She attacks with fire and holy spells, looking for a weakness. Fire should do the most damage but he seems to have prepared for that. Shaltear focuses on holy magic and even summons another version of herself. However, while it attacks Ainz, she sacrifices her other summons to recover her HP. Ainz was surprised by that, but it won’t be enough. He’s cast an insane spell that kills everything in its range, turning the ground to sand in the process. However, Shaltear survived.



What did you think?
I’m a huge fan of fights in anime so this episode was a blast. Of course, there are several types of fights, but Overlord has some truly great ones because of Ainz’s power levels. The reason I love this one so much is because of the strategy rather than the exchange of blows. Before the fight began, Ainz cast numerous spells and if you were paying attention, you’d have noticed several that hadn’t been used and are going to turn the fight in Ainz’s favour. I’m not going to say what they are, but they play into the battle plan that Shaltear has enacted.
Normally, I’m not a fan of fights dragging out across multiple episodes, however, given the sheer level of strategic thought that has gone into this fight, I’m quite happy to see it continue, especially as dragging out the fight was both of their plans. The longer Shaltear makes it last, the less MP Ainz will have. Ainz, on the other hand, is dependent on Shaltear making that decision.



What have you learned?
The strategic elements of this fight were incredible. I love how Ainz is constantly bluffing and attempting to make Shaltear fight him the way he wants. He couldn’t possibly counter every type of attack she could use on him so he focused on pushing her towards one that he had prepared a counter for. We saw it with the magic mines and how he tricked her into believing that he would have set traps in the air around him too. He basically bluffed her into not attacking him head-on. That’s some ballsy fighting because if she had he would have been in trouble.
Now, this only worked because of Shaltear’s experience and battle knowledge. Had she been less cautious and more gungho she might have won. Ainz was counting on her acting in a certain way. It reminds me of a game of poker I was playing with friends where I had the best hand possible with the last card to be drawn. I raised the stakes hoping to scare off the other players and ensure my win. It almost worked. One player matched my stake and the final card was drawn. It was a rubbish card. There was no way it could have made his hand any better. Well, it turned out he had nothing until that final card. There was no way an experienced player would have called my bet, but playing against a rookie makes them hard to predict. I feel like that’s something I try to be aware of when I’m writing fight scenes. It’s certainly a factor to consider.



Other posts in the series
- Season One
- Episode 1 – End and Beginning
- Episode 2 – Floor Guardians
- Episode 3 – Battle at Carne Village
- Episode 4 – Ruler of Death
- Episode 5 – Two Venturers
- Episode 6 – Journey
- Episode 7 – Wise King of Forest
- Episode 8 – Twin Swords of Slashing Death
- Episode 9 – The Dark Warrior
- Episode 10 – True Vampire
- Episode 11 – Confusion and Understanding
- Episode 12 – The Bloody Valkyrie
- Episode 13 – Player VS Non Player Character
- Bonus
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