Soul Warfare is often described as a game that deepens the more you explore it.
Of course, if you were to post something like this in the community, you’d likely be met with a barrage of jeers and scoffs.
And for good reason—at lower tiers, it’s common to see players mindlessly spamming combat skills until they’re exhausted or swinging their weapons wildly like windmills only to self-destruct.
Narrow vision leaves them exposed to archers, turning them into pincushions, or worse, they get surrounded by foot soldiers and beaten senseless like a dusty rug on a rainy day.
Sometimes, they even waste time battling objectives in an utterly futile contest.
But at the so-called “heavenly tier,” the game takes on a completely different aspect.
Reading the map and managing distance during face-offs is a given.
Since every part of the body counts as a hitbox, physical ability plays an even greater role than stats or weapons—more so than in other games.
For example…
“Like now!”
The gleaming, half-broken blade of my greatsword parried an overhead slash with finesse.
For a moment, I thought the enemy knight in iron armor would stagger, but without missing a beat, he pulled his sword back and lunged forward, shoving with his shoulder.
“Ugh!”
I leaped back, narrowly evading him.
But his predatory glare, like that of a beast refusing to lose its prey, was followed by a raging storm of greatsword swings.
It was as if a person had uprooted a telephone pole and was now using it as a weapon.
Hesitating even for a second would mean being caught in the whirlwind of that massive blade, leaving my body shredded to pieces.
Dodging with minimal movement, I avoided the cutting trajectories of his sword.
No matter how fierce the wind, even the strongest storm can’t uproot deeply rooted reeds.
“Te-Shat!”
The enemy shouted a thunderous battle cry, akin to the roar of a beast.
A lesser player might have been startled, their wits scattered by such an earth-shaking sound.
In this virtual reality game, such creative attempts to unsettle an opponent were amusing in their own way.
But that wasn’t his main attack.
-CRASH!
The greatsword scraped across the smooth castle floor, reversing its arc in a rising slash meant to cleave me from below.
It was an attack designed to yank me out of my evasive movements entirely.
“Haah!”
Releasing the tension in my coiled muscles, I sprang back with a tumbling roll, evading the sword’s path.
My tumble took me about three steps back, leaving the greatsword to slice through empty air.
Seeing his attack fail, the iron knight charged at me again, aiming to finish me off as I landed unsteadily.
‘So much stamina left, even after all this?’
‘Had he dumped his stats entirely into strength, ignoring even the smallest bit of recovery?’
I was at a disadvantage, landing clumsily and unable to dodge in time.
‘If that’s the case…’
Gripping the broken blade of my greatsword firmly, I awaited his oncoming strike.
In that split-second moment, when time seemed to stretch on endlessly, the broken blade reflected a glimmer of light.
-Thud!
The fractured greatsword pierced the surface of the knight’s colossal weapon, disrupting its monstrous momentum.
No matter how strong he was, his weapon recoiled, leaving him briefly staggered.
Seizing the moment, I slid my broken blade along his deflected sword, driving it straight into his chest.
“Damn!”
A surprised curse erupted from within the iron armor just before the blade struck home.
He was surprisingly honest in his reactions.
The fractured blade pierced through his torso.
A critical hit from such a vital strike resulted in an instant kill, as if it were a perfect parry.
His body slumped lifelessly to the ground.
“Phew!”
What a tough opponent.
This iron knight was the ace of the opposing team—the same one that had wiped out my team in the labyrinth on the opposite side.
Just barely, the tide of the battle had shifted in our favor, allowing us to push through the center.
I, along with two teammates, had intercepted him and his squad of three.
Had I slipped up even slightly, I might have been the one lying here instead.
His skill was truly exceptional.
The range disadvantage with my broken greatsword had made it nearly impossible to counterattack.
He even seemed to anticipate my parries, carefully positioning his strikes at the edge of his blade.
This was no lower-tier player; this was someone from the mid-tier heavenly league.
Perhaps I’d only faced the weakest of the heavenly league’s “Four Kings” before now.
‘This is fun.’
[Friede Season #200 Highlights on!]
[Wow, taking down someone like him in the heavenly league? That’s crazy.]
[LOL, how many tumbling rolls did they just pull off in a row?]
[Are you secretly a gymnast IRL?]
[Didn’t they say Lotus was a gymnast before gaming?]
[Apparently, flexibility and agility make a big difference. Heard some master swordsman in the league is a fencing club veteran.]
I was once a hero too.
But there was no need to reveal that, so I just smiled.
This is the essence of the game.
Stats influence what gear you can equip, and they determine system-applied effects like stagger, groggy states, or bleeding. But that’s about it.
All defense, evasion, attacks, and movements beyond the basic combat skills are entirely up to the player.
In other words, this game demands physical skill more than anything else.
How exactly does physical ability in reality affect a virtual game?
Apparently, the avatar creation process scans your body with remarkable precision.
I’m not a specialist in that field, so I’ll skip the technical details.
Now, I have five matches left to win.
Five victories will secure my place in the legendary Challenger tier.
And that’s the story so far.
I was currently grinding hard to enter the Challenger tier—a relentless grind known as “To the King Once Started.”
It might feel long or short, depending on perspective, but for me, it was the end of a one-day break, marked by the start of another streaming session.
As always, I was pushing forward to climb the Challenger ladder.
***
[Sensei, have you analyzed the level of streamers participating this time? They’re no joke!]
[You idiots, Friede destroyed even Sujo. Do you think she’d care about the rest? LOL.]
[Viewers… giving advice?]
[But this brawl really is brutal. Even Sujo wouldn’t stand a chance. It’s like the Tenkaichi Budokai on steroids.]
[Last year was okay, but this year’s lineup is insane.]
[Friede fans, don’t cry when your girl gets wrecked, LOL.]
[Kick this troll out of the chat!]
[Looks like STK put their full effort into hosting this.]
[Yeah, just to groom rookies and sell them off to other teams in the end.]
[You noobs still don’t get it? The tradition of this “legendary showdown” has been the same since forever. It’s always been about Friede smashing heads.]
[At this rate, they’ll keep worshipping STK even with broken skulls.]
[LET’S GO!!!!!]
The viewers were clamoring for an analysis of the participating streamers and players, but what could I say?
I had my pride as a man—no, as a person.
If I kept winning, my profile would inevitably be exposed during the finals.
Wouldn’t it be underwhelming to be labeled a Grandmaster instead of a Challenger in such a situation?
I simply didn’t have time to waste on analysis.
I had to hit Challenger tier as quickly as possible.
The nickname “Friede” and the title “Challenger” weren’t just ordinary keywords—they carried weight.
In the end, it was all about this:
‘I just wanted to look cool.’
Even heroes have money, and a sense of pride.
***
“Ugh.”
Lotus—let out a heavy sigh as she logged out.
As the only female gamer in the Soul Warfare league, she drew significant attention.
Though her raw skill wasn’t quite on par with Warden, she was still capable of competing with the top-tier players.
But even for someone like her, the skill she had just witnessed left a heavy impression.
“Damn, this is tough.”
What she saw in Friede’s stream was unbelievable.
Using a broken greatsword—a weapon no one else would even consider picking—Friede had defeated an opponent clad in iron armor wielding a proper greatsword.
The seamless dodges and continuous tumbling to evade the giant weapon’s onslaught were nothing short of astonishing.
“I should practice that too.”
In a dry voice tinged with exhaustion, Cha Eunha saved the moves she’d just observed.
Her days had become monotonous.
She would wake up, stretch, and then review Friede’s streams.
She meticulously analyzed the super plays Friede showcased.
It wasn’t difficult to select which moments to analyze—countless highlight clips from every broadcast season were readily available.
She would then incorporate those moves, plays, and instincts into her own ranked games.
As a top-tier player herself, ranked in the top 20 of the Challenger league, Cha Eunha often faced opponents equally skilled.
She anticipated receiving valuable feedback on her Friede-inspired gameplay.
Of course, it wasn’t easy at first.
The moves were complex, requiring precise control, and mistakes piled up frequently.
Impatient or hot-tempered teammates didn’t hesitate to scold her openly.
But the fear of being obliterated by Friede drove her to relentless practice.
She endured the grueling process, sharpening her skills without giving up.
And then…
‘I’ve caught up, somewhat.’
Cha Eunha recalled her performance in yesterday’s ranked game, where she had carried her team.
Her movements and controls had started to resemble Friede’s .
Though it had been only a few days of practice, she had sacrificed sleep and dedicated all her time to Soul Warfare, yielding noticeable results.
Friede’s style was characterized by fluid, acrobatic movements that consistently caught opponents off guard.
For Cha Eunha, who had once dreamed of becoming a gymnast, these moves felt achievable with intense practice.
However, as she continued following in Friede’s footsteps, one question lingered in her mind like a persistent shadow.
It was about one thing:
‘The broken greatsword.’
Cha Eunha, who always picked the best weapons, couldn’t understand Friede’s deliberate choice of the worst.
It didn’t sit right with her.
As a professional gamer affiliated with a team, using a broken greatsword was a risky move for Cha Eunha.
If someone reported her for trolling, it could tarnish not only her reputation but also her team’s image.
‘Still, I want to face her on equal footing.’
‘But how?’
‘The answer was simple.’
‘If she couldn’t use that weapon…’
‘Then I’ll make her use one of equal caliber.’
Cha Eunha’s gaze turned cold, her eyes sharper than ever.
A chilling breeze seemed to pass through her room.
It was the calm before the storm.