Part 47: Part Forty-Seven: The Dragon King

Part Forty-Seven: The Dragon King


Well, we've got Leviathan on the team now, and our list of summons is only one entry away from being full.


Our next destination is this little mountain cave.


Yeah, we're gonna throw down with Bahamut. You may remember him from way back when we first met Desch, as an untouchable beast we had to run away from.


Not only are we going to kill Bahamut this time, we're also taking his stuff.



He's got some decent stuff.


Of course, he's also got a few new friends for us.


These guys are weak against wind. The 9,999 there, by the way, is just the visible damage cap - with how much HP Kuja's getting back, this attack is well over 14,000.

The other enemies are Grenades, upgraded Bombs and absolutely no threat in the face of summons.


Bahamut's Lair is also the best place in the game to grind with your full party! Other places can give you more EXP in a fight, but it's not guaranteed, and enemies here aren't hard anyway, so it's pretty much the way to go.



I have no clue why the game decides you should get so many attack items at this point, especially when they're sort of outdated (I could just buy third-tier elemental spells at a store by now). Probably because there's not enough equipment to fill many chests.


This is another one of those dungeons with short, simple floors. They're not exciting, but they're better than long, simple floors, especially with a high encounter rate hassling you.



On the second floor there's a long bridge, at least. I love a good long bridge.


Another damn Golem Staff. They're technically the third best staff in the game, but I feel like the game's been just handing them to me forever. Staff users only get 11 or 12 (depending on class) weapons in the game, and 6 of them are elemental rods, so it's a pretty thin list to spread across the whole game.


Anyway, bridges! Bridges are fun! This game loves 'em and I love 'em too.


Bahamut's Lair is just a bunch of platforms connected by bridges.


Here's another new enemy, the Sabertooth Liger. They're cannon fodder.


Another White Musk. These would be really handy if the game was throwing undead enemies at us, but I think the last dungeon where they were standard was the Sealed Cave way back before we even had any jobs.


Haste is never worth casting in this version of the game. I think in the original it just gave you more hits, but here it actually raises your Agility? I'm not sure, but either way, it's never been more than an oddity when I've used it.


Every so often I summon Odin, just to see if he insta-kills everything for me. He rarely does.


This would be better if it were a multi-target Protect, but it's not.


Chocobo's Wrath is the best attack item in the game. It casts Flare, which is the most powerful Black Magic spell, coming in with a power level of 320. In the hands of a Scholar, this item would cast a spell with 640 power, the highest in the game by a wide margin. If for some reason you wanted to run a Scholar, you could just dupe these and it would actually be really effective against one thing at a time.


Just before moving on, there's a bow. This is actually one of the best bows in the game.




This is the last area. It's pretty much just a few final treasures and then a final run at the boss.


Oh, and here's what happens when you summon Odin.


Once we cross this bridge...


I actually like the shadows and light at the end of this cave, I think it's neat.





As soon as the kids are outside, they get attacked.


And here he is. The dragon king, Bahamut.


Bahamut is a punk. He has 34,000 HP and a crippling weakness to Wind. Sephy has an Air Knife on, so he can deal huge damage to Bahamut.



As is standard, Bahamut has a sturdy physical attack that he likes to use on the kids. Honestly, he'd be about as well off if he just sat there and counted down from 5.


Being my most powerful summon right now, I have Golbez summon Leviathan.







Leviathan is pretty good, as far as spells go. Of course, not hitting a weakness, it's not going to shine here.


Sephy whiffs a few here, which is why is damage is lower than it was last time.


Kuja is the MVP in this fight. I have no fucking clue what kind of damage this did, only that it did a huge amount. Dragons take extra damage from Jump, plus Bahamut is weak to wind (so double damage!) and Kuja's got a high job level, so this is something like seven times regular damage, plus a critical hit. I'm pretty sure she hit for something around 40,000 damage. It's more than enough to have killed Bahamut in one hit, this fight wasn't even close.


So, yeah, that's what it looks like when a plan comes together.


Wow, gil. Great, I need that.


Haha, the boss actually gives fewer EXP than the random encounters.


Bahamut has nothing more to say to us, we just gain the spell without anymore fanfare.


We also get healed up! Look at these numbers, they're getting pretty good.


Golbez has a full set of summons. Bahamut is actually the first chance you get to have a copy of a level 8 spell, the rest are only available from one place.


Because we were technically outside, Teleport won't get me back to the Invincible, so I need to run all the way back through the cave. While I'm here, I decided to summon Bahamut on some trash.


Mega Flare is the strongest spell in the game, with 400 power. Regular flare comes in at 320, the third most powerful (Leviathan's 350 is second).






The flaringest!


Also included in today's update: Kuja hitting some poor asshole enemy for almost 30,000 damage.


The rest of my trip is uneventful, and soon I'm back outside the Ancient Ruins to pick up the Nautilus. We're going to need it again!