The Edge

*"Come on, give me something memorable. Something I can learn from, that will make me better." -The Edge*

**The Edge** is the ninth Guardian, and the eighth fought by The Stranger.

His theme is "Something Memorable" by Kn1ght

## Appearance

Interestingly, the Edge somewhat resembles The Stranger, having glowing armor and wielding glowing curved swords.

The Majority of The Edge's body is covered by a dull red armor that begins to glow during his fourth phase. He wears a tattered blue kimono over this armor, but it is torn to reveal most of the right side of his torso, and he keeps the left sleeve tucked up above his elbow by tying it with a red cloth. He also wears a pair of loose hakama trousers.

The Edge has wild, dirty-blond hair, which he keeps back with his peculiar headgear.

On his left hip, The Edge carries two swords, which he uses during the first two stages of the fight. One is shorter than the other and is only used when he parries one of The Stranger's Attacks and then counter-attacks. These swords are likely based on the Japanese Katana and Wakizashi. The Wakizashi only served as a secondary weapon to its Samurai wielders, much like the short sword's limitation to parries and counter-attacks in-game. During his third and fourth phases, The Edge sheathes his swords and instead fights with a rough-looking handmade oak oar.

## Personality

Unlike some of the other Guardians, The Edge does not appear to dislike The Stranger. He never insults The Stranger directly and doesn't seem to think that he is evil. Instead, The Edge offers encouraging remarks and compliments, both when being beaten and winning. He will occasionally make remarks that seem to be sarcastic and mocking but overall seems to enjoy his fight with The Stranger. He seems to only care about improving his own martial arts skills and sees The Stranger as an opportunity to test himself against a challenging opponent. Throughout the fight, he will encourage The Stranger to hold nothing back and to keep trying even when he gets knocked down. This seems to stem from a desire to gain as much experience from his fight with The Stranger as possible.

## Story

Not much is revealed about The Edge during the course of the game.The Voice only mentions that he spent all of his time training to become better in anticipation of his confrontation with The Stranger. He is likely the best swordsman among the Guardians, and he is noticeably harder to perfect parry or land multiple consecutive hits on than any other Guardian. Additionally, in his third and fourth phase, it is impossible to perfect parry or power-slash The Edge. Both will trigger a quick time event, but upon successful completion of the quick time event by the player, both The Stranger and The Edge will be pushed back with neither of them being damaged.

## Fight

The Edge is unique among the bosses in the game in that he is a nearly entirely melee-based fighter, with only two ranged attacks and that his fight contains the only effectively 2D part of the game, as movement is restricted to right and left when he and The Stranger fight on a narrow dock during his third and fourth phases. He focuses on chains of attacks with varying lengths, which often contain one or more strikes that are either delayed or sped up to break the blocking rhythm of The Stranger. It should be noted that parrying is essential to this fight considering The Edge's normal attacks do 3 bars of damage, with his flame/shock-wave attacks doing 5 bars. If you are not careful, you can die extremely quickly. It should also be noted that a charged boost slash will defeat The Edge's 1st and 2nd phase in 1 hit, but it is very difficult to pull off successfully.

### Phases 1 and 2

During his first and second phase, The Edge uses combinations of similar but slightly different and unpredictable attacks to break through The Stranger's Guard. When fighting The Edge, it is important not to be impulsive with the parry button and attempt to memorize his differing combinations. The Edge sums up the key to beating him when he says, "Excellence is not an art, it's a habit. We are what we repeatedly do."

#### Attacks:

* A chain of 4 rapid slashes
* A chain of 3 rapid slashes
* A chain of 4 slashes, with the second slash being a delayed overhead
* A chain of 3 slashes, with the third attack being a delayed overhead
* A charge slash, very similar to the one used by The Stranger
* An area of effect attack in which he swings his blade around nearly 360 degrees twice, after which he charges up and emits a shock wave

### Phase 3

After being knocked down for the second time, The Edge will grab his oar and jump to a nearby dock. The fight then becomes very odd, as it essentially becomes 2D, since movement is restricted to only right and left. He still makes use of tricky combinations, but this time with his handmade oar.

#### Attacks:

* 2 quick attacks with his oar, after which he blinks backward to shoot a wave of fire from a distance
* 4 quick attacks ending in an overhead
* 4 attacks but the final overhead is delayed
* 3 quick attacks ending in a stab with the back of the oar
* 3 quick attacks but the final stab is delayed
* If the Stranger starts to charge a Power Slash, the Edge will respond by charging in turn. Releasing the attack too early will prompt them to counter, forcing a QTE; too late, and he will attack on his own, either causing a similar QTE clash or landing an unmitigated hit. There is only a brief window before the Edge engages on his own in which he is available to receive the attack - taking damage and causing another opening (though taking advantage of it causes the same QTE).

### Phase 4

After being knocked down for the third time, The Edge will charge up, emitting a red energy until his armor glows red, after which he unleashes his full strength onto The Stranger. He will perform all of the same attacks that he does in the third phase, except the fire-wave attack is replaced by a more lengthy version, in which he performs no melee attacks and retreats to the edge of the dock to shoot more waves of flame. In addition to these attacks, one new one is added, in which he rapidly performs a chain of six attacks with his oar, and then creates a shock wave similar to the one from his first and second phase.

## Quotes

* *"You sure took your time. I was concerned you wouldn't make it this far. This is a big day for me. I've been waiting a long time for this moment. Let me show you."* (intro)
* *"Now I will show you what I've learned."* (subtitles only show "I will show you what I've learned.")
* *"I want nothing but your very best."*
* *"You have it in you. Let it out. I want to see you shine."*
* *"Ah ah! Focus on the task at hand."* (subtitles only show "Focus on the task at hand." only in phase 3/4)
* *"You move well. You're reading me quite quickly. Let's see how predictable you think I am now."* (phase 3 start)
* *"You have more strength than you think. Try and stay with me through this."* (phase 4 start)
* *"Come on, get back up. You can't give up now!"* (player down)
* *"Let it out!"* (player down)
* *"Come on, give me something memorable. Something I can learn from, that will make me better."* (player down)
* *"It seems like we're fighting each other. But we both know that we're fighting against ourselves."* (player down)
* *"Excellence is not an art, it's pure habit. We are what we repeatedly do."* (player down)
* *"Do I look unconquerable to you?"* (player down)