Part 28: The Binding Blade or, Literally All The Wyverns

Chapter 21: The Binding Blade or, Literally All The Wyverns

Okay, so the last few maps haven't been the most exciting things in the world, but! Things are looking up. You'll see why in a bit... as soon as we're through the customary .








The sun rises as the bloodiest day in the history of Elibe dawns...

Shit's getting serious!



I finally realized that there's a store in the prep menu and sell off a couple of my valuable but useless items, since I've packed Merlinus' tent pretty full. I don't think we'll need any more promotion items at this point, do you?



We can bring 18 characters. That is a lot of characters! But there's a lot of enemies, and a lot of map awaiting us. This is a properly epic battle we have ahead of us.



There's even room for Elphin who hasn't really been getting to do much since he joined and is still level 2. With 17 other characters, it shouldn't be too hard to keep him from getting attacked, right...?



Now that's an arena worthy of a boss fight.



Good. Thank you.



Yes, sire. My men are ready.

Your squad will be the key to victory in this battle. Do you understand?

Of course, sire. I won't disappoint.

I expect not. The enemy are but insects next to the might of Bern's army.
Even so... that Lycian general has made it far.

General Roy?

Yes. Roy. I hope to be able to duel him one on one... in a fair fight.

Murdoch is so full of shit you won't even believe, facing us with throne advantage and literally all the wyverns.



And now over to Roy's corner.

Father Yoder! What brings you all the way from Eturia? Is something amiss?

I did some additional research after reading your letter. I reached the same conclusion. Bern has resurrected the demon dragon.

You think so, too?
...Hartmut defeated the demon dragon in the Scouring. How could Bern have brought it back to life?

Apparently after defeating it, Hartmut chose to spare its life.

What?!

Instead of killing it, he sealed it away in the mountains of Bern. The sword he used to seal it was...

The Binding Blade?

Oh, you know of it?

I learned a little bit of it in my studies...

The demon dragon's seal may have been broken, but with the Binding Blade, we may be able to seal it away once more or kill it for good.

Do you know where the demon dragon might be?

Yes, I believe so. We know dragons change into human form, and the demon dragon is most likely in such a form as well. I have a suspect already. The "Dark Priestess" that is always at King Zephiel's side.

The Dark Priestess...

There is no solid evidence that she is the demon dragon, but she appeared shortly before the other dragons did.

......

The dragons seal away their power in gems called dragonstones. Remaining in their dragon form uses too much energy otherwise. The same is likely true for the demon dragon as well.

We must see her in person and find the truth.

Allow me to go with you.

You will fight alongside us? By all means!

I have also been instructed to give you these. They are the legendary weapons that the church located.

Legendary weapons?! These will be invaluable!

If the demon dragon has been released, then this is the greatest crisis mankind has faced since the Scouring.

We must rise like the Eight Legends of yore to save humanity once again.

Can you feel the epic? Can you taste the epic?!



This map is freakin' huge, and it will have a freakin' huge number of enemies on it too. These are just the tip of the iceberg - there will be more. A lot more.



On to less epic things, however.


A bishop of the St. Elimine Church who supports Roy's cause.

Such as Yoder. He's comparable to Niime, except he's a little less punchy and a little more tanky and his magic is faith-type instead of science-type. He comes with A-rank light magic and S-rank staves,



...the bow Murgleis (it's Murglas in my translation, and also a sword, but let's not sweat the small stuff)...



...and this kinda ridiculously great staff.



He can also speak with Saul.

Saul, it is good to see you well. And thank you. You and Dorothy have done a great service to the church.

...There is no greater pleasure than to know I have been of use.

Oh? I've never known you to be so serious...

Father Yoder, despite all appearances, I am a priest. The common good is my greatest concern.

I am sorry I doubted you. From this point on, we fight together.

Saul can't really complain about his image, it's all his own fault.



Then I was going to have Dorothy borrow that neat new toy he brought and noticed that she could talk to him as well.

Very much so. It is good to see you, Father Yoder.

You are always so cheery and full of energy. I'm sure Saint Elimine adores that about you.

Do you think so...?

Just being around you cleanses the heart and makes one feel pure. I'm sure that's true even for Saul. You have much to be proud of.

Thank you, Father Yoder!

Now personally, I'd have to say there are other things about Dorothy that impress me more, but I'll let them have their fun.



There are a couple of stores right next to where we begin, and I'm sad to say they don't have much of interest, just some normal high-tier weapons and some effective ones I mostly don't care about. What I could really have done with is another store with killer lances in it, because, believe it or not, I'm actually starting to run out. We're still doing fine as far as swords and bows are concerned, but the lances I have distributed are about all there's left. I could do with a couple of axes as well, since I'm actually using an axe fighter now, but, oh well.



I've thought of a brilliant plan. You two go this way. The rest of us go the other way.



With a little help from the support class.



Nothing particularly noteworthy on the first turn.



Let's clear out the annoying ones first.



And done.



This guy's not so bad though,



...and drops a really good level for Bartre, too!



Team Most and Least Disappointing, sadly, can't make it to the enemy this round.



Why did you attack Roy? That was really stupid.



...You can't let that level go, can you? Well, fine. You're still pretty good.



Fae melts the mage up top,



...and Shanna breaks out Maltet. By the way, did I mention that all the legendary weapons are super effective against dragons and dragon-related enemies? Because all the legendary weapons are super effective against dragons and dragon-related enemies. Even Shanna can't fuck this up.



A downright ludicrous number of enemies spawn in the next turn.



It doesn't affect Shanna much, this time.



Hee hee hee...



The legendary weapons aren't the only ones that are effective against lizards. Roy brought a Wyrmslayer on this map after a look at the opposition. It will serve him well.



There are quite a lot of things that are effective against wyverns, come to think of it...



Once a prepromote, always a prepromote.


There are no soldiers here. Take this. Just leave us in peace!

Schwarth gets a knight crest from the village. And here I just said I wouldn't be needing any more of those for the rest of the game...



This is a lot of enemies. A lot of a lot of enemies.



They seriously spawn in like 20 dudes this one round, and that isn't even close to being the end of it!



Holy shit that's a lot of wyverns.



But it means Bartre gets that axe S-rank I was looking for, so now he can use Armads!



Also, I'm taking this as an excuse to break out the legendary bow because we have to use it at some point. All that's really different is the white... whatever it is playing before the attack; with very specific exceptions the legendary weapons don't get any unique graphics.



A lot of wyverns.



We'll get started on thinning their ranks.



Chad caps speed! He won't cap anything else, but speed is good and his strength is respectable. Chad is still rad.



Seriously?



Seriously, seriously?



So many wyverns, so many experience points, so few mag gains.



I'll miss those speed gains, but as long as you keep getting other stats, I won't be too depressed.



Hmm.



Levels. Levels. So many levels.



Shanna does take a beating in the process, but she has an unopened elixir, so she'll be fine.



Magic!



Tragic!



Classic! ...Well fine, that's stretching it a bit. Good to see Ogier get something done though. The fact that he has only gained one level between promotion and now is not impressive at all.



Okay, this is getting pretty old.



You can run out of wyverns any time you feel like it.



Even if they do drop nice experience points.



Hey, it's speed, I'll take it!



You know what Shanna if you had just one more lousy point of strength you wouldn't have to waste two uses of my awesome legendary spear on



wh

What the shit just happened?



Hugh is in a bit of trouble because he just kills everything that runs up to him and makes room for more things to run up to him, but he dodges surprisingly well for a nerd.



Can you imagine how awful Cecilia would be if I had let her keep her vanilla stats...?



Olé!



Speed.



Fae is seriously in no danger whatsoever. I could have sent her to clear the right side of the map all by herself.



I'd be upset if this level happened to someone who actually needs stats...



WHAT!

We strike now! Leave none alive! Don't even leave them time to scream in fear!

How the fuck did you get there?! I was expecting you from the edge of the map!



shit shit shit shit shit shit shit



But it turns out Elphin has moves. I am very impressed!



In less heart-stopping news, the reinforcements from the south also catch up - and Saul gets a kill!

...well okay that probably comes as something of a shock as well.



Way to waste it, Saul.


A wyvern rider of Bern. Schwarth's lover and Zeiss's mentor.

Once it's finally our turn again, let's see what Gale can do. It's... honestly not a lot, for an 18th level promoted unit. Schwarth and Zeiss both outperform him significantly at lower levels.



And of course he is still a wyvern lord.


Zeiss... Schwarth...

You are...



...already EXP.

(Strength capping in 3... 2...)



For those of you wondering why Percy had to die, he was actually an artificial being created to hold back Marcus' true power. With Percy gone, there is nothing stopping him.



Anyway, we're getting close to the boss (well, the wyverns are) so let's have a look. The two knights are entirely pointless as they are knights; both have horseslayers. The sage has Bolting and is the biggest annoyance of the lot.


The head of Bern's Wyvern Generals. Led the attack on Ilia.

Unlike Gale, Murdock himself is actually quite impressive! Capped strength, nearly capped defence, a boatload of hit points, and of course he has a really good 1-2 range weapon because what else would he have. I mean, he's still beatable, but it wouldn't be much of a game otherwise.



Then there are the manaketes.



Sorry, makte that manakete.



For whatever reason, though, Bolting guy doesn't Bolting.



...thank you Cecilia.



Not a lot of enemies left now...



Fae will cap luck. And since it's clear skies, Shanna picks her up and flies off towards a specific tile in the mountains because I am a cheating asshole who cheats and know there's a secret shop there.



Let's take care of the generics so Roy can have his honourable one on one duel with the boss.



oh goddammit



Wolt has actually been taking damage on this map, I forget the last time that happened.



Now you Bolting?!



Well okay given you're weighed down by Fae I can kind of understand wanting more speed but you can get other stats too damn it.



Shanna continues to disappoint... the enemies, by not dying.



She's surrounded because she wasn't wielding Maltet when they showed up and thus couldn't one-shot them all.



The knights mistake Zeiss for a horse and pay dearly for it.



Seriously, stop it with the wyverns!



And the HP only levels!



Still hanging in there! ...I knew I should have brought the rescue staff...



Still, some of the lizards break off and attack people who can kill them.



And Fir kills a dragon while she waits.



153 points of damage.



153 wyverns.



Saul levels up again, fucks it up again.



Shanna is still under a lot of pressure.



And Roy finally caps his level. It's not a very good one, but it has beard, so we shouldn't complain.



Zeiss is cutting it a little close here... he has one HP left.



Conclusion: Shanna is a lazy fuck who only works hard when she absolutely has to.

Next map, I'm going to throw her at all the archers until that strength caps.



And with that, the wyverns are gone!


But you are here. It seems we have no choice. Come!

Schwarth gets to chipping down Murdock because fuck his honourable one on one duel after all these fucking wyverns.


I congratulate you. But can you defeat me?

She even gets two different lines out of him (because he attacks her back on his turn).



Meanwhile, Fae...



...visits the...















I'll take this and this and that and these and all of these, this, this, this and this, to go, please.



One more level for Schwarth from chipping away.


I have been waiting to match blades with you!

And finally, Roy gets to step in.



That rapier has lasted a long ass time.


Zephiel... My king... I cannot protect you... any further... Forgive me...!

And that's the map! It was great (aside from the minor heart attack I had when five fucking wyverns popped out of fucking nowhere and attacked my fucking bard... well actually only two of them attacked him, but you know what I mean.) It really gives a sense of having come far and grown strong. Roy leads an absolutely terrifying group of superhumans. Many of them are probably a match for the legendary heroes at this point. Mistakes can still cost you, but this is the kind of fight you look back at and go Huh. We kick ass.



Is the Binding Blade down that way?

I cannot say... But a captive tells us that there are two weapons in this shrine.

Wait, is that right? Does it mean that there is another legendary weapon?

Possibly... Perhaps we should ask those in our army who hail from Bern.

Yes, I'll see if they know anything.

But that...



...will have to wait until next time. I'll see you then!