Part 28: Not Wanting to Fight You

Lots of stuff happened last time, but mostly it turned out that Princess Mana is actually Shea, Mana's body double. Other than that, Olgar and Vahti defeated a boss for us, but of course, now we will need to defeat them...



Well, they are not here. Let's go shopping... I guess.







All lonsdaleite all the time!



And an opal. Shea already has better stuff, so skipping her equipment.

Olgar and Vahti are not here with Piu-Piu... let's go look at the other side.



Hm, no, not here either. Looks like they must have already gone on to the arena. Well, guess we'll have to follow.













All right, Shea.
And I'm not going to run away.
We've come this far together. If we die, we die together too.
Besides... I know you won't lose.
As long as you don't lose sight of who you are, Olgar will be no match for you.
But, I...
I'm not talking about physical strength. I'm talking about the power of your heart.
The power of faith, which is greater than anyone or anything.
I can tell. Ayuta... believe in yourself. You can do this.
And if you can't believe in yourself, believe in me.
Thank you for everything. I'm sure... I'm sure that we'll be fine.
Shea...















Vahti is feeling quite violent today.

...I'll manage.
Oh, we're not going to break your limbs. What fun would that be?
No, we're going to break hers.
What!
No!!
Think you can still play dumb while your princess is splayed out like a broken toy?
Weren't you listening earlier?
I am just Princess Mana's body double! Ayuta doesn't care what happens to me!
That sounds like fun!
I think I'll help you break her! I've no interest in fighting a man who knows he's beaten.
Ayuta...













What!
Ayuta... You didn't know how I feel? The time I've spent with you... has been the best time of my life.
You mean...
It wasn't Princess Mana you saw practising her archery, or who you rescued after she fell from her horse...
...It was me.
...!
I was so happy when you said you loved me... For someone like me, who has lived their whole life in someone else's shadow...
So... it wasn't Princess Mana that I fell in love with...?
Why didn't you tell me sooner?
...I was scared!
I had been Princess Mana's double for as long as I can remember.
Whenever I was asked a question, I'd think how she would answer it...
When faced with a new situation, I'd deal with it as I imagined she would. I did everything I could to become her...
But, if I were to give that up... if I were to go back to being myself... I... I'm not even sure that...
...that I know what my real self is anymore...
I know... just how you feel...















Looks like we are going to get an intervention from above! Shea will be as good as new just in a second.































Well then. After this nice bit of trolling from Vahti and Olgar, we finally go into the fight.



This is one of the few battles in the game that can be just a bit of a problem. Mind you, it's still not too bad, just need to be a little careful. And by this I mean that you cannot simply spam Pair Attack to win. The reason is that O&V can deal enough damage to swing the morale gauge back to their side pretty quickly and at that point you are pretty much dead when Olgar uses his skill which deals damage by trading his HP for yours. If he does this after you've used pair attack, he can easily kill both Ayuta and Shea in one go!

Also, Olgar has the famous HP regen skill that he obtained from Eluca, so it's kind of pointless to attack him until after Vahti is dead. She also has a trick up her sleeve, but we'll see it in a moment.



I start by firing off a Stressor. You will recall that this item does a % of HP damage to an enemy. The fact that it hits both of them tells me that they will use pair attack. But anyway, this battle will mostly see Ayuta attacking and Shea on support duties. But if there is nothing else to do, she will also attack.



Before I forget, Vahti has some spells that hit both of our characters even when not doing a pair attack. As you can see, this hurts.



We don't get any benefit really when they do a pair attack, because any damage Olgar takes, he will anyway regenerate over the next couple of turns. But it doesn't matter, we'll deal with him after.



Of course, after O&V do a pair attack, then Vahti too can take benefit of HP regen. This is annoying.



I keep spamming Trompe l'œil, to keep the morale gauge from going to far into enemy territory, but Vahti has another annoying spell--she can block our use of magic. Oh well, ordinary attacks it is. It only lasts for 5 turns.



And if you though we're done with Vahti's annoying spells, here is another! She can heal both of them for a non-insignificant amount! Of course we have this spell too, but it costs stupid amount of MP (like 200) so it's not worth using it.



But all that is for naught, since we do defeat Vahti eventually.



Now it's just a matter of pounding on Olgar...



...until he falls down too.















And also there's still a whole lot of game to go through so we can't reveal everything yet.

Ayuta. Whatever you do, don't let down your guard.
This battle is not yet over.
What?
Shea... was it?
Yes.
I want you to do your best to protect Ayuta as well.
But... I'm not...
Don't worry. You too have the power to protect the one you love. I can tell.
You can...? How?
I'm not sure... I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't really want to fight you.
Truth be told, I didn't want to fight anyone here...
After all, you're our--
Vahti...
That's enough... They'll know the truth for themselves soon.
You're right.
The truth...? What do you mean?
It's okay. I'm sure you two will get there.



















Again, nothing new here.



















But, will it turn out, as the saying goes, that you can't go home again?