Part 15: Stinkbugs

Chasing Bein down is important for sure, but I think it's time I did some upgrading.







Two Pristine Waters gets me two good quality water magnus upgrades. Sadly, I have no water/ice weapon for Milly, so she'll have to make do without for now.





Th-Then you should take these with you. I'm sure they'll come in handy! Urrrp! Y-You can ask about it in the next room! D-Don't ask me to explain!





Moche translates to “fly”, as in the annoying little bug. I'm not entirely sure I want to know any more than that.





Hey! We're here on the quaestor's business! Let us through!

No one said anything about it to us. Go on, get lost.

Um...did anyone go through here just now?

Yeah, Bein went in. He's the mine foreman. What's that got to do with you?

They won't listen to talk. Should I eat my way through?

Um...no. Let's think of another way.


I kind of wish this was a Guardian Spirit choice because I'd love to agree with Guillo on this one.





It's me. What's wrong?

We followed the criminal to the Lava Caves entrance, but the soldiers on guard won't let us pass.

I see. The ones by the entrance? I'll take care of it. Stay put. Is there anything else?

An argument broke out with the villagers in the miners' quarters, sir. Some were injured.

Understood. I'll send medical supplies. Hurry up and apprehend the criminal.



Lava Caves guard unit speaking...Huh? Uh...sir! Yes, sir! Of course, right away. Master Sagi. Please, excuse my behavior. Go right on through, sir.



You're gonna be puppet food. Just. You. Wait.





Best nameless NPC in Azha, right here.





Music: Morningless Night

The Lava Caves aren't particularly big or difficult to navigate, and the area's gimmick is simple. It's a nice relief to finally get some combat again.





And I got a nice water/ice weapon for Milly, so now everybody has one! I didn't upgrade it, but even so it's about as good as Sagi and Guillo's.







There are a few points in the caves where steam is spouting out of the wall. By using an Eau do Moche, I can call a bunch of rockflies over, and they'll plug the outlet. Easy enough.





I spend another Eau de Moche to reach this lovely magnus, a second level special for Milly.

Here's the catch, though. There are three places where you need Eau de Moche to progress. Since I just spent one somewhere else, that means a need to get a new Eau do Moche. How do I do that, you ask?





Well, first I collect the rockfly corpses from the outlet they just plugged for me...





Then bring me a rockfly corpse. One of those corpses...Yes, if I only had one of those corpses...! Urp, unngh!


I don't want to know. I don't want to know. I don't want to know. I don't want to know.





Let's talk wildlife. The enemies here are mostly straightforward.





Not to be confused with easy. You can get steamrolled pretty quickly here if you aren't paying attention, which you might not be after Azha.





Ooh, Sedna magnus. I'd almost forgotten about that sidequest!





You may remember the bulls from BKEWLO. They have retained their Fuzzy-Wuzzy Coat ability, which puts them to sleep while offering no apparent benefit.





The big bugs are probably the weakest enemies on their own, but fighting four at once can be tense. They have an HP drain attack that can hurt, though it doesn't recover enough of their HP to really matter.





Middle Potions recover 500 HP and are awesome.

Also, there's another aroma censer here. The rockflies approach it, di, and their corpses float down the lava flow and create a bridge farther down.





Like so.





There are rockflies blocking the chest. They can be drawn away with an Eau de Moche (not pictured: me backtracking to trade the corpses out for a new one)









I have to admit, I'm loving all the water stuff the game's throwing my way. Now that I think about it, I meant to put an Ice Element in my deck when I got here. Oh well, maybe later.







Video: Bein


Just shut up! You saw it yourself! Every, single, day – day after day after DAY, we dig up the flame ice, and what do we have left?! The Empire's pocketful of change and our battered bodies! So many of my friends have died! I can't take it anymore!

Bein...


Sagi approaches Bein, and then -







Wh-What's happening?

This mist!





Ohhhh no no no...Sagi. C'mon, Sagi, we gotta go. Sagi. Sagi, let's go. Let's go, Sagi.





Dammit Sagi this is not the time


I don't understand. There's an umbra there?

Yes, sir, the criminal transformed into one. What's going on?!

I'll explain later. Sagi, the umbras are dangerous. There's only one thing you can do. You've got to kill it.

Kill...it?

Yes. Can you do it?

But...but that's Bein!

If you don't kill it, you'll die. And not just you...Everyone.

All right, sir...I'll try.



Guillo! Milly! Meemai! ...Together...





Music: POACHER


Whelp, I figured the boss would either be Bein or something trying to kill Bein. I guess this is somewhere in between?

Bein os sort of like the last umbra we fought back in Hassaleh. The fight itself is somewhat hard, but the game prepares you so much for it that it ends up being pretty unremarkable. As you can see, Bein knows Mountainmaker, which can do about 300 damage to everyone, but that's about the worst thing it can do.









Like any proper fire monster, Bein has a weakness to frosty attacks, and my Relay Combo kind of devestated him. The GFAQs put his HP at around 2350, so that's nearly half his health gone. Go me.

(too bad I didn't get to save after this fight. I hope I can pull off another combo that long and regain that glorious TP count)





I can't remember if I showed this off or not, but each character has an animation they use for the Will magnus. Guillo's is the best, because Guillo is the best.







Okay, that's starting to get old.





(What's this feeling? Something's telling me not to kill it. Because it's Bein? No, not just that...Hmm, what is it, then?)

Sagi! What are you doing?







Valara!

Step aside. Obviously you need me to do this for you.


Valara starts spamming her tail laser attack all over the room.


Aha ha ha! Look at the power I have!

Unnh...S-Stop! Valara!

























(There was more)

(Our magic doesn't work.)

(-sound of it, they must be family.)

































Music: The Broken Manas and My One and Only



They'll all be turned to magnus if we don't intervene. Just like in Rasalas...

Of course. Wiseman wants it that way.

Marno. What's wrong?

Huh? Oh, uh...

You seem distracted lately. Are you not feeling well?

He's tired. All we do nowadays is move from one village to the next...

I wish we could take a long break.

I know you're all tired, but we're out of time. We're going to Cujam. Petitioning Wiseman directly is the only road left to us. End of discussion. Everyone, rest well.





Well, it looks like we're back in the dream world for now. Perhaps we'll get a chance to have actual conversations with these people. But that will have to wait for next time.