Part 41: Chapter 3, Part 16: Floodgate

The wizard Tatara and a small army stand between Alm and the floodgate. They don't appear to be very strong, though. Let's head in.



Decent set of fortifications here, just not very well manned.



No speech from Alm, but Tatara has some taunts for us. Dyute, remember, is Ryuto's sister and being mind-controlled by Tatara. It's rather obvious, but you don't want to kill Dyute since you'll be able to recruit her once Tatara is defeated. Anyway, back to the battlefield survey.



The three paladins don't add very much, and will be out of the way early. The wizards aren't anything we haven't seen before, either.



Dyute, much like Sonia, starts off as a witch as an enemy unit. Her Aura spell gives her a 24 Magic Attack to unleash on us, but fortunately she's not very fast.



Tatara is one ugly dude. Fortify we've seen before - it heals everyone on the map, but won't come much into play here since the enemies are pretty spread out and easy to triple-team. The Death spell, though...it's not a low-chance instant-death spell, like you might expect from the Final Fantasy series. Instead it's basically a souped-up Slime spell, capable of just outright killing units with sheer power. It has 15 Might with a 70% Hit Rate, a 9 Weight, and a 5 HP cost. So Tatara will either hit you really hard once (27 Magic Attack), or miss entirely. Our most magic-resistant units have been 8 and 11 Magic Defense so we don't really have anyone that can survive two hits from this guy. (Luka would get one-shotted.)

Our best candidates for taking out Tatara are Claire, Cliff, and Matilda, who between them have the best combination of Speed and Luck (for Magical Evasion) and Magic Defense. But how to get to Tatara when Dyute is in the way? Well, remember how I said it was really important for Silk to get that Warp spell?


Turn 1



Alm's group learned its lesson from the last battle - don't try to charge over a bridge held by a bunch of ranged units. Instead they're going to draw out the paladins while the wizards slowly make their way forward. Silk is staying close by to the anti-boss crew. The plan is to start warping people up to Tatara if Dyute (as a witch, remember) teleports down to us.



Two of the paladins hang back since they can't reach anyone, but the third makes it to Cleive, who's waiting with the Knight Killer.



Up north, Dyute and the other wizards start the slow march out of the fort.


Turn 2



Claire flies over to handle this eastern group, and a lucky crit takes out a wizard. She can fly up to Tatara on her own so doesn't really need to stay close by here.



These wizards are about the only enemies slow enough for Python to get in two attacks, and he takes full advantage.



Meanwhile Cleive finishes off the paladin in front of him, clearing the bridge.



Silk heals up Cleive, and we're ready for another round.



More slow spiraling out of the fort to the north.



Two wizards take shots at Claire, but she dodges one and takes only 3 damage from the other.



One of the paladins can also reach Claire but can't actually hit her.



The other paladin decides it'd be a good idea to go up against the Knight Killer again.


Turn 3



Cleive finishes off the paladin to start the turn and clear the bridge again.



Claire stays clear of the paladin and gets another lucky critical to take out another wizard. I didn't show this, but she's got the Holy Lance so she's already healed up all the damage done to her last turn.



Python turns a wizard into a pincushion.



Ryuto gets Excalibur warmed up.



And Cliff calls down some more lightning to finish off the wizard.



Silk heals up Ryuto this time, and Alm moves up to block the remaining paladin.



Dyute is now a few turns away from Tatara so we can probably start sending units in there. Not sure why she hasn't teleported yet.



Alm dodges both the wizard and the paladin, and wrecks the paladin on the counterattack. When did he suddenly become awesome? (Hint: It's the Regal Sword.)


Turn 4



Only one wizard left from the southern group, though another one has just about reached us from the north.



Claire flies north since she isn't really needed here anymore. Ryuto moves up to soften up the wizard on the bridge, and Cliff again finishes it off.



Python weakens the remaining wizard and Alm grabs the easy kill afterward.



Silk heals up Ryuto, who's been hurt mostly by fueling his spells. However I wasn't paying attention and now Silk doesn't have enough HP to cast Warp twice.



The way ahead is clear, but I don't really have a plan for dealing with Tatara beyond "hope he misses a lot".



Just two wizards and the boss remaining. Plus a witch that we don't want to actually fight.


Turn 5



Ryuto is wrecking people so I let him go out over the bridge, thinking I'd send Matilda over to the boss area this turn and then Ryuto next turn. He ends up getting a crit to take out the wizard anyway.



Meh.



Time to make use of Warp. Silk walks up to Matilda, selects the Warp spell, and can now choose anywhere on the map to send her.



It's an expensive spell, but strategically well worth it.



Claire and Matilda both poised to strike next turn. They can't do a ton of damage (22 if they each land both attacks) so will be relying on dodges and maybe a crit.



Dyute heads back towards Tatara now that we have units in place there.



And the last generic wizard scratches up Cliff a bit on the enemy phase.


Turn 6



It's right here where I realize that Silk doesn't have enough HP to also warp over Ryuto, and that Matilda is caught between Tatara and Dyute with no way to retreat. No other way but forward, then! (For the actual player, a good strategy here is to kill off that last wizard and then use the "Retreat" function on the following turn. Upon returning, the map will still contain only Tatara and Dyute.)



The healing tile won't actually help Claire's evasion but it makes me feel better at least.



A lucky dodge of the creepy floating laser fire skull, followed by a lucky crit, all but ends the battle here. Claire: MVP.



Matilda gets a free shot here, since after the first hit Tatara doesn't have enough HP to cast anything anymore. She would've gotten the kill on the second hit anyway, but decided to finish things in style.



Her first level isn't a good one but I'm not about to complain about my luck now. If you notice her Power still at its base level, that's because I wasn't actually expecting to use her at the start of the battle and completely forgot to give her the Steel Lance before warping her over. Ah well, guess it all worked out anyway.



Dyute comes to her senses and gets a less murder-y portrait. She teleports out of the battle and will be waiting for us later.



There's just the one wizard remaining, so Alm ends the battle himself.



A bit more luck-reliant than I would like, but other than Tatara this battle is a piece of cake, particularly for a chapter finale.

Next time:



We open the floodgates, and somehow that empties the water from the gorge.