Vityaz-1 (from the Russian витязь, meaning "Knight"), known as the Elite Guard (エリートガード) in Japanese, is an enemy character introduced in the 2014 Strider as the first mini-boss fight in the game.
Referred to as "Meio's Elite Guard", Vityaz-1 are a personal guard unit under Meio's direct control, produced with state-of-the-art technology[1]. Their abilities are far superior to those of the Light Troopers, surpassing them in all aspect such as power, speed, technique, etc[1]. They also have cutting edge teleportation technology, which they use both as a dodge technique as well as a scare tactic, tormenting intruders by appearing and attacking from above them.[1]
These soldiers fight with a personal two-pronged pole weapon honed to atomic sharpness, which glows with blue plasma energy when swung. Called the "embodiment of agility and raw aggression"[2], they are relentless in battle, teleporting around and swiftly attacking intruders from all angles. Also, and much like the Trooper units, they appear to have sentience, threatening Hiryu before and during battle.
Information
Hiryu faces four Elite Guards during his infiltration in the outskirts of Kazakh City. The first one attempts an unsuccessfull sneak attack from above, and then faces him claiming Hiryu's journey ends there. Shortly afterwards, Hiryu faces three more Vityaz-1 in the Inspection Station C, acting together. They are all destroyed.
The Vityaz-1 are fast and aggressive, and have two main attacks: they swing in a circular motion twice whenever Hiryu is in range, or teleport right above him and perform a downward strike with their weapon, which emits waves of plasma when slammed into the ground. In the latter part of the battle, they start teleporting behind Hiryu before attacking, sometimes several times in a row as a way to confuse him.
Several more units are found inside Meio's Tower. These Vityaz-1 display a new attack in the form of a small plasma wave shot forward when they swing their weapons horizontally.
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