One by one, the uniformed swordsmen stood ready to take on the lone spearman. The first came at him blade in hand, only to be quickly dispatched by a flying leap, thrust, spear-to-the-face maneuver. Pirouetting and swinging his handmade halberd from on high, the spearman rained grievous blows on his victim, whose face soon ran red with the stain of his shame.
Call it LARP-gone-wrong or extreme cosplay, but this epic melee to settle a score between hot-blooded Thai nerds found its way to YouTube on Wednesday.
Contacted for comment, one of the people involved said the Cloud Strife, Japanese Visual Rock-looking cosplayer had disrespected members of the Thai swordfighting group. So they met in Lumpini Park to settle the score.
Cosplay kid’s second assailant, a tall thin unwilling-warrior type, evened things up with some defensive gear. He wielded a wooden kite shield, including an extruded metal boss plate, to great effect. Though the spear chipped splinters from his shield, it did not shatter. Winded and wounded, the spearman’s demise comes at the 2:43 mark, when his long-handled weapon gets embedded in his opponent’s shield. He later went to the hospital with a fractured skull.
Visibly diminished, the spearman signals his surrender by planting his cherished polearm into the earth; an ancient sign of submission. Yet the swordgeek won’t even allow that honorific to stand, dealing a final blow of disrespect.
Enjoy the full, wild and dangerous confrontation below.
