This is the toughest boss in the toughest game at the moment. Malenia, alias the Sword of Miquella, the demigoddess, the most powerful of the Empyreans, is a formidable enemy that gives cold sweats to all players ofElden Ringreleased on February 25 on PC, Xbox and PlayStation.
Extremely fast, extremely punishing, able to heal itself with each hit while preventing the player from doing the same, it’s a walking nightmare that Toto, the name we decided to give to our valiant hero, almost begins to consider giving up slaying, in the light of its 138e unsuccessful attempt.
So Toto, certainly proud but exhausted and broken, resolves to ask for a little help. That’s good, Elden Ring allows this kind of call for help. In front of the game’s most devious passages, “summon marks” appear, indecipherable golden messages left by other players. It is enough to touch one of these marks to call its author to the rescue.
The hero is naked
Toto, resigned, tremblingly brushes once morest one of the summoning marks that await him in front of Malenia’s lair. A few seconds pass while the bottle in the virtual sea soars on the ocean of the Internet… and then, suddenly, an almost naked man materializes in a luminous halo.
One knee on the ground, he slowly unfolds, rises as one would raise an army, while his gnarled muscles play under his skin scratched by a thousand fights. We think a little of Schwarzy in Terminator, with one difference: our hero has a soup tureen on his head. The soupocephalic nudist looks down at Toto, executes a small bow. His name: Let Me Solo Her (“let me fight for you”, in good French). He said nothing and yet everything is said: here he is throwing himself into the arena.
It’s a duel to the death that begins. On one side, Malenia chains the blows of her oversized blade, which Let Me Solo Her invariably dodges. The Empyrean jumps, hovers, spins, missing each of her attacks, while, under Toto’s flabbergasted gaze, Let Me Solo Her twirls around like a hornet coveting an enormous baklava, darting her fine blades at the helpless demi-goddess.
When Malenia collapses with a cry, gathering her last strength, Let Me Solo Her, pooch, turns to Toto and sends him a playful hello. But he knows it, the fight is not over. Already, Malenia is rising, spreading wings of rot, now flying over the arena which she sprinkles with a carpet of bombs exploding in as many sheaves of deadly petals. But Let Me Solo Her doesn’t let that fool him: he regains his seriousness and goes on the attack, avoiding the ghostly doubles that the Empyrean, whose thrusts rain down on the soup-headed man. Still without the slightest apparent effort, he rolls to the side, takes a step back, leaps forward and drives his blade through Malenia’s heart one last time.
This time, she is dead. The game still lasted ten minutes. While the carnal envelope of the demi-goddess vanishes, Let Me Solo Her turns to Toto, makes a final bow and disappears in turn. His mission here is accomplished. Malenia is no more, and Toto, if he has done little, is victorious.
Jesus and the Ninja Turtles
Like Toto, hundreds of players have called on Let Me Solo Her in recent days, a real player who, following more than 200 hours of play, has decided to dedicate himself to helping others. The rumor of his exploits began to run April 12 on the American forum Reddit. We learned more regarding him a few days later, in the columns of the American specialized media IGN. Like a superhero, the prodigy player does not reveal his true identity, and like a superhero, he has a origin story : we thus discover that it was following having lost almost 250 times once morest Malenia himself that he decided to learn by heart each of his techniques, each of his attacks and, above all, to allow other players to benefit from his knowledge. As for his incongruous appearance, he explains it simply: “Why wear armor if you’re not going to get hit at all?” »
Having become a star on social networks and, in particular, on Reddit, he has since been the subject of various tributes, drawings, comics, pixel art, memes, parodies or even figurines.
The Summon Mark SystemElden Ring not only allows you to call players to the rescue, but also to provoke others in single combat. In recent weeks, other characters embodied by ordinary gamers have become the stars of duels in Elden Ring. Like the player called “Will Smith”, who is content to walk calmly towards his opponent and slap him, before turning around just as calmly.
It has also been possible for weeks to come across Shrek et Fionafrom the Dreamworks animated film, Ninja Turtlesor even a ragged bearded man named Jesus, who invades the other players’ game… to take them in his arms. As for the nascent cult around Let Me Solo Her, it has already caused the emergence of a new one of these figures: Let Her Solo Me, for “let her beat me”. A player, also in her underwear, decked out in the same soup tureen as her heroic alter ego. She also offers her help to players wishing to defeat Malenia. The difference : she deliberately kills herselfwithout having struck the slightest blow, in twelve seconds flat.
