Part 19: Caravan Trail
Update 19: Caravan TrailHappy Turkey Day and welcome back! Last time, we listened to Kyrie voice her misgivings over Primuss conduct and get slightly chided by Reiner, and then had Anadine get her mothers armor refurbished. Then she and Reiner had a deep talk about their pasts and letting go, including the revelation of Yatess crime against Reiner. This time, were going to go kill some monsters in the desert.
Also, I forgot to get a screenshot of the world map, so instead well be working with the battle intro.
We pop in and Kyrie starts giving a warning to no one in particular.
They appear to be lumbering and slow, but can charge a great distance across open ground to attack, and pack a mean wallop when they do. Make use of these columns and ruins to deny them a clear path to charge.
And then its time to fight.
For this fight, were dealing with a number of nasty enemies. First up, and the brand new type Kyrie was talking about : the Bzzrks. Looking at their movement stats, they can barely get anywhere, so they shouldnt be too threatening, right? Well, like Kyrie said, they can charge, and by charge I mean hit a unit that is any distance away in a straight, unobstructed line. They also have a passive that boosts the damage they do as a factor of how far they move in a turn, and already hit decently hard without it. Theyre tough to put down and can really do a number on an exposed squishy unit.
Hiding on the sides, we also have 2 earth element pekites, and an Arpia up even higher off screen, all looking forward to harassing us.
Finally, we have the other new enemy type: the Zotzit. These guys are similar to the Bandit Kawas in that theyre essentially bonus enemies, this time for AP. However, theyre much more annoying to kill since they can make themselves totally evade any 1 attack, and have very annoying reaction ability. Whatever type of attack last hit them (basic, attack skill, magic) has a 0% chance to hit them again, so you need to alternate. Additionally, theyre much more aggressive than the Kawas. Theyll charge forward, hit you a bunch, and then use their super-powered final sting to absolutely mess up one of your guys and then escape from the battle. Theyre annoying and tough to kill, but the bonus can be totally worth it since its hundreds of AP. Sadly, I do not get it this time.
On our side, we have Hannah and Anadine providing a solid front line for the Bzzerks to charge into, while Eustace, and Bobby (whos now a druid) provide magical support, Azure for ranged damage, and Selina for general support/healing.
To open the fight, the Arpia flies down off of her perch but cant hit anyone because all units are just out of reach.
So instead, Azure tries to root the Arpia down where shed be out of the way. Sadly, the status doesnt stick.
Two of the Bzzerks charge into Anadine. However, thanks to her armor and new shield Anadine has quite high defense so shes mostly fine.
And the beetles positioning leaves them open for Bobby to exploit their weakness to water.
Anadine and Hannah beat up a beetle, and then the 3rd one comes charging down into Anadine.
Ending up in the perfect spot for Eustace to hit them all, taking 1 out and severely weakening the other 2.
The closing monsters focus on Anadine, including a solidly powerful blast from the Zohlmander that hits her through the Bzzrk.
Azure runs over to heal her with a heavy potion, and Anadine is nearly back to full health.
As the zholmanders/therval close, Bobby hits the bzzrks again, taking out both of them in one cast.
And soon after Hannah totally overkills the arpia with a righteous blade. It was the only way to get her, but I do wish I couldve saved the MP.
Of course, Hannah pays for it by getting blasted by a full powered zohl beam.
And then gets taken out by one of the Pekites. Despite spending time as a knight, it really seems like Hannah could use some time in a more magically defensive class.
The zotzit floats over and nearly 1HKOs Bobby. Instead it just blinds, poisons, and bleeds him while taking out about 90% of his health.
And then it runs like a coward.
Though shes hurting, I have Azure try and root the Pekite and this time it works. Basic magic is relatively short ranged, so its effectively out of the fight for now.
After being weakened by Bobby, one of the zohlmanders falls to a hit from Anadine. Though I do have to smack it into Selinas back with a push attack.
Meanwhile, the other pekite hops down and nearly takes out Azure. Id just healed her, and that only barely kept her up.
But the other ones stuck where it is and has to just heal the both of them.
Azure then roots the other pekite, leaving me much more free to clean things up.
After some more hits, Eustace takes out the last zohlmander.
And Bobby gets the therval with a bleed cast.
The first pekite moves up and hits Anadine, and then promptly gets absolutely obliterated by Eustace.
After I grab the two nearby chests, Eustace then takes out the last Pekite to finish the fight.
He definitely deserves the MVP too. Too bad Hannah went down though.
Overall, this mission went really well this time. I think the move for this fight is to try and draw the beetles in early, to take them out before the others can show up. In a previous try I tried to send Azure up top through the hole in the ground while the others hid from the beetles. This just resulted in everyone getting swarmed and blitzed down by a bunch of attacks in a row, actually causing me to lose the fight entirely.
One of the treasures I got were these jet boots. And youre reading that right, they give an insane 40!! Jump boost to whoever wears them. They will be absolutely crucial to my next fight strategy, which is great because I nearly forgot about them entirely.
Next time, well be heading over to Oldebzar to check out the new town and whatevers beyond it.