Part 36: Chapter 3, Part 11: Mila Valley

It's another Celica run today as she confronts the nasty pre-promote guarding the path to the shrine on one side and the temple on the other. But first it's another quick run through the Mountain Graveyard.



Careful, Celica. There's more monsters here, and they're stronger than last time.

So are we.

Last time, there were two gargoyles, five skeletons, and three zombies. This time it's seven gargoyles and three skeletons - still all Level 1. Not sure if the added difficulty is based on our army's quality or number or just because of plot progression, but they're still barely a speed bump.


Turn 1



It's been awhile since we fought them, but gargoyles still have the same high (7) movement with good Speed and not a whole lot else. Best strategy is to wait in the trees for them to get close, and then attack en masse.



Two gargoyles reach Celica. With the Steel Shield in hand, she's barely scratched.



Est starts out fast enough to double the gargoyles, and despite a low Defense doesn't take much damage. She's got the Steel Lance to help out her own Power.



Sonia's first action wrecks the skeleton that dared attack her.

Turn 2



The gargoyles are pretty strong against magic (7 Magic Defense) but that doesn't help against Sonia's critical whirlwind.



With the gargoyle in front of her taken care of, Est returns the favor by finishing off Sonia's skeleton.



Angel is still instant death here.



Damn lightning won't shoot straight, how am I supposed to hit anything!



Let the girls handle this one, Boey.



Gargoyle's too fast, I can't get in a good shot.



Palla is strong enough now that she doesn't need to carry a weapon around, and by forgoing the Speed penalty of one she's able to double-attack and finish off the gargoyle. Five attacks to wipe out one gargoyle isn't really a great ratio, though....



I forgot Catria had the Hand Lance and had her attack the gargoyle from directly below it, but it worked out anyway.



Jenny falls back, and Saber takes cover behind a headstone.



Est is swarmed on the enemy phase but survives (with 4 HP) while weakening each gargoyle.



The nearby skeleton skips past Saber and goes for Catria instead.


Turn 3



Jenny gets far away from the gargoyles and heals up Est from a safe distance. Infinite range healing is so much easier.



Saber pulls a crit out of the Hero Sword to take out a gargoyle. May then turns a skeleton into ash.



Except the skeleton dodged the second attack.



Catria tries to take over, but can't see the skeleton through the trees.



Kamui cleans it up.



Palla and Est clear out another gargoyle.



The last gargoyle falls to more Angel magic.



Another crit from Sonia's Excalibur ends the battle.



That's not really why we're here, though. Bly has a small force waiting for us in Mila Valley, so let's not keep him waiting any longer.



Well, that map looks familiar. Mila Valley shares a remarkable similarity to Ram Valley. Celica takes a much larger group through the map instead of Alm, and is facing only a handful of enemies.



Bly is the latest pre-promoted unit to harass us. The Dark Sword may not look familiar at first, but most people would probably know it better by its other name - the Devil Sword. It has an astounding 13 Might, with a heavy cost - in addition to a 5 Weight and only 70% Hit Rate, it has a (21 - Luck) percent change of damaging its wielder instead. Of course, the enemy AI is immune to that possibility, so it's all upside for Bly. The good news is that despite all that Power, the sword will slow his attack speed down to just 4 so our better units only have to survive a single attack.



The other enemies include three mercs and a witch, more potential than actual danger. As with the Ram Valley battle, we'll want to clear out the main group before Bly reaches us.


Turn 1



Catria is specially positioned here....



As Bly is drawn directly towards her rather than pursuing everyone else by circling around the mountain.



The other enemies rush us in a predictable fashion.


Turn 2



Catria can now strike at Bly from the safety of the mountain, getting in 9 damage on her first attack but missing the second.



The rest of the army takes up a defensive position, with the fliers waiting in the mountain and Saber ready to fight off a fellow mercenary.





So, this mountain terrain. Not entirely unpassable! It's comparable to the lesser mountains/hills in the first game, where some units (horse-riders and armor-wearers) can't enter at all but others can at a heavily reduced movement rate.

At least Catria's gotten Bly down to 12 of 30 HP. Much less dangerous now, and we can deal with him at leisure.



The one merc that was able to reach Saber immediately wishes he hadn't.



The witch nails Palla with a fireball for 8 damage.


Turn 3



First, healing up Catria. She stays just out of Bly's range, but hopefully close enough to keep drawing him further into the mountain terrain.



Celica weakens the witch, and after multiple handoffs of the Angel Ring, Est gets the kill.



Not really worth the effort.



Saber closes off the corner, though he only gets in one attack on the faster merc. Sonia then slashes it into retreat mode.



As that merc retreats, the other one takes his place with a futile attack on Saber.


Turn 4



Sonia and Celica make short work of this merc.



Bit of an odd level for Celica but she was hurting for Defense so I'll take it. She actually gains experience much faster after promotion, which I was not expecting.



Palla chases down the last merc. All that's left is Bly.



Catria's back to full health. Two hits here will end it.



One hit, one miss. Drawing Bly into the mountain terrain backfires a bit, since it helped out his evasion.



Bly attempts to run away on the enemy phase, but he has nowhere to go.


Turns 5-6



I actually spend an extra turn to get Est into position for the final kill, trying to get her caught up in levels. She lands the first attack, and the battle ends.



Est gets a lot more experience at a lower level. Killing the witch alone gave her 54 XP.



Oh, and we also get the Dark Sword. Feeling lucky, anyone?



There's a cave nearby. Let's take shelter there for the night and head to Mila's Temple in the morning. Our journey is almost over!

Uhh...I'm from around here, and I wouldn't recommend it. They call it 'Dragon Temple'. On account of the dragons that people say live there.

No problem, Jesse, we've taken on dragons before! Well, a dragon, anyway.

Let's check it out. A lot of these shrines have treasures and strange statues that grant magical strength. We can't pass up that opportunitiy....


Next time:



Alm makes a similar detour into the Forest Temple.