Awesome / Aesir: Cross Wars

As a retelling of Norse Mythology, Aesir: Cross Wars isn't without its cool moments even interspersed with all the humour. Though not quite on the scale of its inspiration, it's still impressive in its own right.

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• Oz's first battle against Yuri. Though a sparring match, it establishes their fighting styles impressively, with Oz's Fragile Speedster style with copious Spontaneous Weapon Creation proving to be more than a match for Yuri's slow, strong and graceful sword-and-board. The fight ends in a tie, with both combatants developing a respect for one another.
• As Oz is about to jump out of the Val Gate, his conversation with Thor foreshadows the overarching themes of the story.
  Thor: Just step out of that gate, and your fate is in your hands.
  Oz: Yeah, as long as Odin agrees. We can only hope that my victory is what's preordained.
  Thor: Hope is important, but if you don't try, it is meaningless.
• Oz deducing that, rather than breaking free himself, Fenrir was broken out of Gleipnir by an outsider.
• Oz's battle against the Hel's Angel mages - both for the teamwork displayed by the mages, and Oz showing his knack for tactics even when outnumbered six-for-one.
  • The moment where he gets the upper hand deserves mention. Flying into their ranks, Oz slashes them up with a dagger, dropping multiple Galan grenades into their formation before dropping a Bladesung bomb to detonate all the sound blasters at once. The enemies are left stunned, allowing Oz to beseech Thor to unleash his Sky Hammer spell, knocking all but one of them out at once.
• Thor points out how powerful Fenrir was in his prime by observing the town's current state: where Fenrir has individually damaged many of the houses and killed a large amount of its population:
  Thor: The Fenrir of old would have obliterated this town already and moved on to the next.
• Oz's battle against Fenrir. While Fenrir is de-powered in his current state, he's still powerful enough that Oz has a genuine struggle against him, and there's a clear sentiment that Oz would not have done well at all against a prime Fenrir.
  • Thor notes that Fenrir can devour anything in his jaws. As if to demonstrate, Fenrir eats Oz's grenade, completely no selling it.
  • Fenrir attempts to deconstruct Oz's motives, demanding to know why he puts so much effort into defending Odin. Oz has none of it, defiantly declaring, "Because defend is simply what I do!".
  • Fenrir tears chunks out of a house and fires them at Oz like a machine gun, while Oz finally takes to the skies to finally attack. He finally manages to land a Flan grenade, the one that Fenrir ate beforehand, creating a glowing green reticle that essentially turns his attacks into Critical Hits. He fires with both guns before activating Sanctum Sagitta and going to town on him.
  • The final clash involves Fenrir firing a flaming Kamehame Hadoken. Oz, though terrified, doesn't let up and fires an arrow of light through the beam and into Fenrir's mouth, causing an explosion and defeating Fenrir once and for all.
• Oz successfully redeeming Fenrir by showing him kindness and giving him a chance. Though he is still grateful to the Hel's Angels, he honours Oz as well by leaving the conflict entirely. A bit of Fridge Brilliance makes this more awesome in retrospect - in doing this, Oz may have prevented Ragnarok.
• Oz resolving to stop the Hel's Angels and their plans.
• Svafrlami introducing the concept of seidr to the story, describing it as a divine magic that allows you to "see through reality to observe what lies underneath: destiny."
• Loki spends most of his scene being hilarious, but he does get a moment when he directly calls out Odin for not doing anything about the Hel's Angels before they have the chance to cause chaos, simply because of his belief in destiny.
• Oz finding holes in Svafrlami's story about the witch and calling him out on it, even if he almost gets impaled for his trouble. Given the whole mission later turns out to have been a farce so Svafrlami could get revenge, Oz was retroactively right to smell a rat. He later resolves to make his own judgement on the situation, showing that he's actively planning on potentially double-crossing Svafrlami, completely bypassing any To Be Lawful or Good dilemmas by picking Good before the issue even comes up.
  Oz: As a knight, I'll do what's right.
  Narration: Even if "what's right" didn't line up with "what Svafrlami wants me to do", which was the part Oz wasn't telling him.
• Svafrlami showing that he can act like a genuinely charismatic leader when he wants to, earning what seems to be genuine love from his men and raising their spirits to fight the witch. As later chapters reveal he feels nothing but contempt for them, his act is actually rather convincing.
• Anwin successfully manages to kill off a large percentage of Svafrlami's strike force. Despite this, Svafrlami fends him off with seemingly little effort. Special mention goes to Anwin firing projectiles at him through his Mind over Matter powers, only for Svafrlami to catch them with a wind more powerful than Anwin can push them through.
  Svafrlami: You asked me 'you and what army' earlier, correct? What you failed to understand is that I am an army unto myself!
• Oz deduces that the witch is more trustworthy than Svafrlami, and as such when the latter shows up, he stands up for her, directly challenging Svafrlami and mashing his Berserk Button in the process. Realising he's unable to get Oz to oppose, let alone kill the witch, Svafrlami convinces his hunters that she's brainwashed him, kickstarting the Climax Boss of the arc.
  • Oz fights against eight hunters at once, and while they give him more trouble than the mages from earlier did, he still manages to win. He mentally narrates that eight-on-one isn't fair, before remarking "Thank goodness Svafrlami was there to level the playing field.". His performance in the fight itself shows this wasn't an exaggeration - Svafrlami applying Status Buffs and supportive magic was clearly the only reason the hunters even stood a chance.
    • Oz throws himself in the middle of their melee attacks, dodging them perfectly even as Svafrlami buffs their speed. Then, in a single stroke, he disarms two of them before escaping.
    • Later, he uses electricity to boost his speed, rushing through them and delivering Death of a Thousand Cuts with a pair of sabres, successfully downing three of them in a single burst.
  • As Oz defeats the hunters, Svafrlami himself appears on the battlefield, realising he'll have to take Oz down himself as he notes that due to Oz's treachery, what he's about to do is technically legal.
  • When Svafrlami tells Oz he'll never get the promotion with what he's done, Oz swallows his fear and tells him that it isn't about the promotion anymore - it's about doing the right thing. Svafrlami then proceeds to deconstruct Oz's mindset in a mean-spirited but actually pretty accurate speech:
  Svafrlami: You see yourself as some white knight, some champion in shining armour? Allow me to set things straight: you're no hero, just a fool with a saviour complex! Even now that you're faced with someone far superior to you, you still want to fight, to resist!
  • In response, Oz asserts that Svafrlami isn't wrong, but doesn't back down, showing impressive amounts of determination.
    • The ensuing fight is utterly one-sided in Svafrlami's favour, as Oz is thoroughly outmatched in every aspect except speed - thus creating a villainous example as the archangel shows off how smart he can be. Svafrlami starts by creating a Storm of Blades between them, and simply watches as Oz navigates his way through it. Once he does, they clash, and Svafrlami shows off the might of his Runic Magic - first by turning his greatsword into a Flaming Sword, then by creating a rapid stream of water on the ground, throwing Oz off his balance, and lastly by boosting his own strength, lifting Oz up, and throwing him into the still-present blade-storm. Without any options to defend himself, Oz is cut up and almost passes out from his wounds, and Svafrlami prepares to deal the finishing blow.
    • Oz's performance here is not to be overlooked, however, and through grit, speed and quick thinking, he manages to turn what should have been a Curb-Stomp Battle into a Curb Stomp Cushion. He successfully dodges every sword in the Brand spell, takes Svafrlami by surprise by teleporting in front of him, and manages to hold onto enough willpower that he makes a sword pun as a response to Svafrlami's taunt. Once he reaches Svafrlami, he lands a few hits, and manages to dodge him even while his balance is threatened by the stream. Even after being cut up and on the brink of unconsciousness, he dedicates what he assumes to be his last words to robbing Svafrlami of any satisfaction he would have gotten from the kill, royally pissing him off and stripping away his sadistic demeanour.
  Svafrlami: I've been wanting to do this for a long, long time. You may spend your final moments wallowing in your regrets.
  Oz: I...have none.
• Seeing Svafrlami about to kill Oz, the witch decides enough is enough and protects him with a barrier, sending Svafrlami absolutely raving mad as he desperately tries to stab Oz. Having taken an interest in the angel, she declares that she won't let Svafrlami kill him, and as Svafrlami insists it's none of her business, she all but reveals her identity and one-shots him as he charges at her. The result is an absolutely miserable Svafrlami trudging away from the scene, cursing both her name and Oz's.
  Svafrlami: I'll move onto you next, you meddling pythoness! But this has nothing to do with you! It's none of your business, do you hear me?
  Witch: Have you forgotten already? This became my business the moment you stepped into my temple.
• The witch spends five days brewing a potion to treat the unconscious Oz. When he wakes up and drinks it, it gives him his energy right back. She's certainly talented at her craft, that's for sure.
• Later, she reveals that she isn't any old witch - she is Freya herself, the Love Goddess of the Norse pantheon, and in Oz's words, "the progenitor of the concept of a witch". Though briefly, Oz is clearly humbled to be in her presence.
• Ragnar breaking up the argument between the Hel's Angels just by slamming the table, showing the respect he commands across the group. When Fafnir tries to lambast Anwin over his failure to recruit the witch, Ragnar reminds him that Anwin's role as a diplomat is invaluable, and this is a single setback in a long list of successes. Later, Fafnir listens, albeit begrudgingly, when Ragnar tells him not to attack Midgard just yet. One gets the sense that Ragnar plays the role of Fafnir's Morality Chain - or at least, the Kid with the Leash, which, given the draconic knight speaks of razing villages, is rather impressive.
• Anwin admitting during his Myriad Might trial that he would willingly give his life to save someone he loved, something he truly means with all his heart, much to Sunna's shock.
• In that same trial, he shows an astonishing amount of self-awareness, recognising fully that he's done a lot of bad things, that his noble cause doesn't erase that, and that he hasn't "sacrificed" anything for the greater good because he has yet to give up anything he truly cares about.
  Anwin: Good, bad, it's all relative. Just gotta do what you've gotta do.
• After being decommissioned for five days thanks to Svafrlami's attempt to kill him, Oz enters his office again, fully expecting to be attacked again, just so he can verify if he's still employed. Unfortunately for him, Svafrlami still has plans to deal with him, but the sheer lack of fear he displays is worthy of note.
• Oz fighting Biff and Chip, narrowly dodging their invisible knife strikes before he lets Biff hit him so that he can grab Chip, completely throwing off their combined attack pattern. He pulls him into a waltz before attacking him, and after defeating him, proceeds to make short work of Biff.
  • At the start of the battle, Biff and Chip declared they would be playing a game of "Pin the Knife in the Angel". Oz proceeds to beat them at this by making sure the finishing blow to both clowns is done with a knife, and since they're Hel's Angels, he's played their game in every sense.
• Oz manages to clear eight whole floors of invisible clowns, dealing with their eccentricity, tricky fighting styles and the constant annoyance of bouncy balls flying everywhere, while Freya, acting as Mission Control, warns him of deadlier attacks so he can dodge them in time. They make a rather effective duo even before she unleashes her magic.
• Oz and Anwin's duel. After a heartwarming and then tear-jerking prelude, the two of them get serious and fight one another, each one wowed by the new elements of the other's fighting style. It makes for one hell of a formerly friendly reunion, as the two of them accept that they are on opposite sides.
  • Anwin shows signs of improvement from his earlier bout with Svafrlami, and Myriad Might seems to have granted him Summon Magic. He shows this off by summoning a flaming tiger and siccing it on Oz, allowing it to do the brunt of the work while he supports it from afar.
    • Oz isn't too frightened, though, and takes on the tiger like a champ, throwing a Galan into the air and ducking and rolling from one of its attacks so that it stuns the tiger. Now on its side, he hits it with a Flan, slashes it with a pair of kukris and stabs it in the side with a rapier, finishing it off with a blast of lightning.
  • Anwin's great leonine fireball from his fight with Svafrlami returns - and this time, not only is it alive, but it explodes.
  • Though reeling from the explosion, Oz uses it to his advantage so he can win the fight, throwing multiple Berstan grenades into it before it hits him and creating a crapton of smoke. He uses this to create a Smoke Shield and charge up his power before shooting out of the cloud with greatly enhanced speed, closing the gap between himself and Anwin and slashing him repeatedly with a pair of sacred daggers. This move wears Anwin out enough to surrender.
  Oz: Face the twin blades of truth, and the armaments of lies - their faces equal but opposite. With these blades, I tear the masks we unconsciously wear, and break away from the false self! Sica Scintilla!