Part 38: Chapter 3, Part 13: Dragon Temple

A special item load-out for this battle. Celica, Saber, and Valbo all end up with 13 Defense. Palla is up to 20 Power. We only get to take 10 units into the next battle so May, Boey, Est and Atlas will be sitting out since they wouldn't be able to contribute much, anyway.



The temple starts out like any other, with a battle starting as soon as we leave by the top of the screen.



Last chapter, the toughest (or at least most luck-based) battle was against a single dragon zombie. Now we've got three of them to deal with, and no cover whatsoever.



They're just as strong and tough as before, but we're a lot stronger now ourselves.


Turn 1



In particular, Celica, Saber and Valbo will only take 2 damage from these dragon zombies, so they'll make up the front line here. Everyone else we've brought along will either hang back (Leo, Jenny) or is fast enough to not get double-attacked (Sonia, Kamui, Jesse, Catria, Palla). This formation will prevent any unit other than the front three from being attacked twice this turn.



Jesse is just holding the Angel Ring, so can't dish out much damage, but he'll heal up half of his losses at the start of the next turn.



Kamui takes 8 damage but with the Hero Sword is able to deal out 10 damage of his own.



Celica gets a critical scratch against the third dragon zombie.


Turn 2



Saber has the Holy Sword which gives him an effective 20 Attack against the dragon zombie's 12 Defense. With a lucky crit and enough Speed for a second attack, Saber kills it off entirely.



Celica's now fast enough to double-attack the center dragon zombie with the Angel spell for a total of 48 damage, easily eliminating it.



With just one dragon zombie remaining, we have plenty of units left to chip its HP down. Leo gets started with 10 damage, and Palla follows up with another 16 damage.



Sonia follows up with a pair of lightning bolts to get the dragon zombie down to just 2 HP remaining. She could've killed it off with Excalibur instead....



But I wanted to get Jesse the kill so that we didn't go through the whole battle without a single level.



The RNG gods rewarded me for my efforts, for once.



So the battle's over in less than two turns. What do we get for that effort?



Surprise, it's another shrine.



Both of the lion-head statues offer the same thing - the opportunity to revive a unit up to five times. That's over a third of Celica's army. Given how we're playing this run, I'd rather have more stat upgrades.



The angel statue offers more promotions. Celica's group is generally higher level than Alm's, so we actually have a lot of options here:



Saber, Kamui, and Jesse are all at a high enough level to promote to Myrmidon. They'll each gain the following at this point:

Saber: +4 Speed, +1 Moves
Kamui: +1 HP, +1 Skill, +4 Speed, +4 M.Def, +1 Moves
Jesse: +2 Speed, +2 Defense, +1 Moves

Saber is definitely at a high enough level to promote as he's not getting much XP from regular enemies now. Kamui is just a few XP away from another level so would probably benefit from waiting. Jesse doesn't have as much to gain from promoting now, and can still gain a couple more levels before the XP gain gets too low.



Leo can promote into a Sniper. He still has a couple more levels before he hits the XP floor, and doesn't gain much from promoting at this point except HP: +6 HP, +2 Speed, +1 M.Def, +1 Moves.



Finally, we can choose a promotion for Atlas. Like Alm's group back in the first chapter, Atlas can become any of five different classes: Mercenary, Soldier, Archer, Cavalier, or Mage. We already have everything but Cavalier covered in this group, so that's probably the best choice. Also his spell selection as a Mage is absolutely awful. Here are the stat boosts he'll receive from each option:

Mercenary: +5 Skill, +7 Speed
Soldier: Nothing
Archer: Nothing
Cavalier: +2 Speed, +3 Moves
Mage: +1 Speed, +4 M.Def, Fire spell

The current stats for each roster are in the second post, as usual.

Vote for each of the following options:

Promote Saber? VOTE
Promote Kamui? VOTE
Promote Jesse? VOTE
Promote Leo? VOTE
Atlas' next class: VOTE

A short bonus update from an altnernate universe....



Jesse's been possessed by the Dark Sword, and charges wildly into the midst of the dragon zombies!



He double-attacks two of them for 32 damage, surviving with 12 HP remaining. The other one drifts off after Sonia for some reason.



It's no more difficult to win before the end of the second turn here than it was before. But that's not what I'm here to show you.



On the enemy phase of the second turn, Jesse falls. Is that supposed to be a short joke? As his death quote?



Saber quickly avenges his fallen comrade, but it's too late. Jesse is no longer in the roster.



But wait! The shrine promises revival of fallen comrades!



A list of dead allies is shown. Only Jesse is unfortunate enough to be listed here.



Jesse returns! But not entirely whole....



The Dark Sword he was carrying is gone forever. Also any progress he'd made towards the next level is lost, as his XP is reset to zero. Still, a small price for cheating death.



Attempting to use the shrine again with no one to revive is futile....


Next time:



Just one group left between Alm and the water control gate. Everyone in Alm's army gets to participate this time.