Part 18: Chapter 2, Part 6: Sea III

Time for something of a gimmick battle here, only a single opponent awaits us.



Pretty straightforward, a single chokepoint to hold off the single enemy.



That enemy is not as intimidating as advertised - quality is actually only 33, not 133. We saw a wizard with Dora at the end of the first chapter, but the Messiah spell is a new one. Will demonstrate it when we see it. The shaman class is an enemy-only mage class.


Turn 1



Moving up and guarding the bridge in case the shaman rushes us. It doesn't.


Turn 2



Still something of a cautious advance here, but the enemy phase holds a surprise:



The Messiah spell actually summons a random number of monsters to fight for the caster. In this case the shaman can summon zombies at a cost of just 1 HP. Since the shaman is sitting on a healing tile, he can basically summon zombies every turn. The zombies are just level 1 - the same as what Celica fought in the graveyard in her first battle - so not really much of a threat. That makes this battle something of a good grinding opportunity, even though zombies don't give much XP.


Turn 3



Celica only takes 1 damage from the zombies and I need to get her a couple of levels here so I put her out in front.



The shaman starts off the enemy phase by summoning six more zombies, though they can't actually move or attack on the same turn.



The first zombie to approach immediately eats a critical from Celica.



Two others reach Celica and suffer the consequences.


Turn 4



At this point, the battle is really just about setting up a line across the ship and keeping an eye on HP. The zombies can't double-attack anyone and can't do more than 1 damage to anyone but May and Jenny - who will stay out of the way. Really this battle is more of a tutorial on summons than a real challenge.



The rest of the army moves up to form the line, with Jenny and May taking long-range shots from the back.



May also gets a strange level out of the action.


Turn 5



The zombies attacked with no real effect but the shaman chose not to summon any more for some reason. So this turn everyone just attacked their favorite target to thin the herd a bit and creep the line forward. Two of the remaining zombies suicide against Celica and Kamui on the enemy phase, and the shaman again chooses not to summon any more for some reason.


Turn 6



Leo and Jenny take out one zombie, while Celica finishes off the other.



That leaves a clear path to the shaman, but I'm going to spend a few turns getting Celica to level 5 instead.


Turn 7



Jenny patches up Celica and we wait. At this point I'm starting to wonder if the enemy shaman was programmed to only summon a couple times before giving up, but this turn he finally summons another batch of six XP-feeders.


Turn 8



A few more attacks from Saber and the mages, but nothing too exciting. At this point I realize that the extra Power from the Steel Sword that Celica's been holding isn't actually helping the power of her Fire spells at all - the internet lied to me!

On the enemy phase, the shaman takes the turn off again, while the zombies ineffectively rush Celica.



She grows stronger from all the attention, though.


Turn 9



Some more long-range attacks wipe out the rest of the zombie wave.



A bad roll from the shaman gives him only one summoned zombie this turn.


Turn 10



May and Leo soften up the one zombie so that Jenny can actually get a kill for once.


Turn 11



Five new zombies for us to play with. Two of them go down immediately, while another falls to Celica on the enemy phase.


Turn 12



May finishes off one zombie, Leo and Jenny take out the other.



Celica gets bored and tosses a fireball at the shaman, landing a lucky critical. She got as much XP from that as from killing four zombies. Unfortunately it also put the shaman into 'retreat' mode so it didn't summon any more zombies for us to play with.


Turn 13



I actually patch up Celica and let the shaman heal up on the healing tile, and am rewarded with another six zombies to slaughter.


Turn 14



Jenny tops off May's magic tank as everyone else gets some action on the zombies.


Turn 15



The rest of the zombies are wiped out.



So not worth the wait.


Turn 16



We're about ready to go after the shaman directly, so Jenny heals up Celica first.



Celica's close to another level. Another turn should do it, as no more zombies are summoned.


Turn 17



Celica moves onto the healing tile for another shot at the shaman.



The level sucks, but the important part is the new spell - Angel. It has 8 Might, a 90% Hit Rate and 4 Weight for a 4 HP cost. The best part, though, is that it's effective against monsters - for 24 Might.



Jenny doesn't actually land her attack, but the shaman's two attacks cost a couple of its HP and Jenny has enough Magic Defense to only take 2 damage in return. May is a bit more successful, hitting for 3 damage.



Saber lands one attack and misses the other, while Leo misses his one attack. Guess the shaman lives another turn.


Turn 18



The shaman actually did 9 damage to Saber last turn, so Jenny heals up him a bit just in case he misses again.



May and Leo both miss.



Saber comes through with two hits, gaining a massive amount of XP.



He's turning into a wall. Not a bad way to end the battle, really.


Current Roster



(Since the Steel Sword wasn't actually helping Celica's spells, I handed it off to Saber and gave her back the Leather Shield.)


Next time:



Another single-unit battle against a Dragon Zombie.