Part 48: Chapter XLVII: Rhun To The Hills

Before we head to the ruins of Chedo, we still have a couple more things to do. First, doing all that fishing has given us enough unique items to please Stoll (Stole here, to completely abandon the pretense of punnery.)

: "You getting lots of good items? Wow! You've been busy, haven't you? Well then, I guess you're ready to learn my other trick!"





Coward's Way is the game's way of making up for EXP you lose from running from constant combat. It can get surprisingly deadly.

: "Wow.........I didn't think you'd be able to get this much stuff...there ain't nothing more I can show you - you know all my tricks now. You'll make a good thief."

Well, that's Stoll crossed off the list.



Since I noticed my Game Points were close to the next evolutionary level, I went and did some SWEET MOVES on the sandflier courses.



With more than 20,000 Game Points, we can now pick our next dragon evolution.



First is Myrmidon to Knight. Knight's stat bonuses increase across the board, Meta Strike hits more, and it gets some incredibly handy moves.



Behemoth becomes Mammoth. Mammoth actually has more HP and defense than Kaiser, but is absurdly slow and its magic is pretty worthless. All it gets is Blitz and the third level of earth magic.



Lastly, Mutant becomes Punk, getting a free bonus to its Stardrop level, more of a wisdom bonus than Kaiser (while still remaining pitifully frail), and the rest of the major debuffing skills. Handy, but entirely too specialized.

We'll be upgrading to Knight, because in doing so we get one of the best skills in the game ahead of schedule.





Yep. Shadowwalk is actually Shining Blade, and by getting it here we skip Bunyan having to teach us, which puts his final move's requirement at a whopping 12,000 damage in one hit.



Now Ursula, Scias, and Knight can team up and use Shining Blade/Shadowwalk three times in a row. This utterly annihilates everything in the game except bosses.



In addition I actually get Target from this poor Stingfly, which is an attack that always hits but deals a tenth of the usual damage.

The last move we can get from Knight is Cleave.





Cleave is a relatively weak physical attack on all targets that ignores their defense.

Next on my checklist: go back to Mt. Glom and make some armor.



All the useless crap we've been collecting comes in handy, finally.





Read: generates Storm when counterattacking. This is another piece of the Bot EXP exploit.



On the way out of Mt. Glom I actually get Nina a level, and with it Typhoon, the third level of wind magic. She can now lay ruin a mob of enemies.

All this screwing around with sandfliers and fishing has actually advanced the game clock enough to get Momo's next move!





Useless as usual! The next one is at 40 hours of gameplay and is actually really damn powerful.

One little side note while in Wyndia: through the whole game until now, there's been an NPC who has a dove with him. When talked to, he said the dove's name was Elina and he was keeping her in hopes of Elina's return.

If you talk to him during Act IV, he says something else.





Let's get the next move from the Abbess before I kill myself.



: "Very well. I shall teach you Celerity."



This move. Holy shit, this move. I love it so much. Celerity's incredibly powerful on its own, due to doubling all stats in one swoop, but it gets even more amazing when you realize that you can link it in combos for +20% to all stats. Celerity+Vitalize+Vitalize/FaerieBreath gives a +140% boost to the user of Celerity and a +40% boost to rest of the group. It's basically the "Let's Get Dangerous" button.

: "I have done all I can for you. All I can do now is pray for your success."



In Astana, there's a new development in Act IV.



This blue manillo has been here the whole game, but only now has he actually opened shop. His items are of the "crazy powerful" variety but also require lots of rare fish.



I'll admit that I had to use hex editing to get a second sturgeon for this gun. However, considering I caught 40 sweetfish, 37 browntails, 24 trout, 14 salmon, and 6 rainbow trout while looking for it, I think I'm justified in fucking the game back.

As for the Culverin itself, this is the best gun in the game, hands down. Fucking LOOK at that.



Alright. No more errands.

This is the outskirts of Chedo. These are the highest-end shops in the game, which is a bit odd for a ramshackle refugee camp. Going past the orphans and stragglers, we can start navigating through the ruined city itself.



The ruined city also has giant blue tyrannosaurs and ninjas within.









While nothing much happened, Disembowel can actually reduce the target to 1 HP. However, it also lowers the user's max HP by 1/10th temporarily, whether or not it succeeds. This makes it a terrible move.



Here's a showcase of FaerieAttack, by the way.



FAERIE BOMBING RAID



Here's FaerieBreath. War Shout will have to be seen in a video as it's...pretty special.



Here's the third level of Fire+Wind Combo Magic, now that we have Typhoon.







And then everything died.



Ershin continues his mastery of the elements. We now have three party members with Inferno, four if you count Weyr/Kaiser.



After a point, the ruined city gets even more ruined. Walking up the stairs triggers a cutscene.



Oh fuck.



This is going to hurt, isn't it.



Boss Video XX: Daeren Gets His Shit Slapped for Twenty Minutes, Only This Time It's Not Entirely His Fault





: "Ursula!?"

Ursula marches forward with the group.

: "General Rhun! As per orders, I have returned with the dragon!"

: "I see...it's all right, Ursula. So...that's the dragon, eh?"

: "Yes, sir! I am told he is properly called Yorae Dragon, sir."

Rhun stands, and Ryu's stream appears to him.



: "We were right...on behalf of my troops...I offer my apologies for any...trouble they caused you, young dragon. Ursula...have you seen Yuna?"

Ursula pauses, then nods. Rhun looks to the sky.



: "To make a god...and attempt to destroy the ancient gods..."





: "We aided him in his pursuit of power. We helped him in his attempt to kill a god...I suppose it is only fitting that we should suffer the god's anger. Still...argh! We cannot allow the entire world to be destroyed for the sake of one man's ambition..."

: "And that's why you tried to meet with the First Emperor?"

: "Unghh...yes. Still...I thought we were done for...but there is still hope. There is still the Yorae Dragon. Young dragon, you too are a god...oh mighty god...we...we are foolish. We are but simple mortals...we deserve this fate for what we tried to do. Still, oh mighty god...if there be even a sliver of mercy in your soul...punish not our children...for what we have done...let them have a future."

: "General...I don't know how to say this well, but...Ryu..."

: "She says, 'Ryu is under Nina's thumb, so there's nothing to worry about.'"



: "Wh...what do you mean by that!?"

: "Ha ha ha ha! It is well that the Yorae Dragon has you all as friends. Perhaps there is yet hope for us. You've done well, Captain Ursula. I want you to take them...all of them...to the Imperial Castle. The God Emperor waits there."

: "Yes, sir!"



The group heads through the door, but Ursula stays behind.

: "Don't worry about me, Ursula...I'll be fine. More importantly...I'd like to hear you call me what you used to, one more time."

: "Gen..."



D'awwwwwww

: "My dear Ursula...I wasn't able to do as much for you as I wanted to...you deserved so much more than this old soldier could give."

: "Grandfather, I..."

: "Listen to me, Ursula. If there is a tomorrow, I want you to live every day...each moment...to the fullest. Be happy, Ursula...unghh! Go now. What happens next is up to you...you, and the Yorae Dragon."

Ursula hesitantly leaves.







General Rhun, we hardly knew ye, and you were still pretty awesome.

Good night, sweet prince.