Part 35: (Part Three, Chapter 7) The inevitable Daein, the inevitable war

The Daein army takes to the field and deals a heavy blow to the army of the Laguz Alliance.



With their only avenue of retreat blocked, the forces of the Laguz Alliance begin to despair.







It's been certain to happen eventually. I'm just surprised it only took a chapter to happen, is all.





You said it.

Why would Daein join the war? I thought all their resources would be tied up in reconstruction.

Yeah, that bothers me too. There's something weird about all of this. Didn't Daein resent Begnion's occupation? Why would they be so quick to help out their former enemy?



I don't believe it. Skrimir is almost sounding wise. Almost.

General Skrimir! Have you recovered from your wounds already?

Yes. Do not underestimate the healing power of the beast tribe.

All right, everyone's here. Let's begin the meeting.

---



Maybe we can find another spot to cross?

No, we can't afford it. If we waste any more time, the Central Army will catch up to us. If that happens, we're dead.

Ranulf, tell me your impression of the Daein army. Anything special?

...Well, there weren't very many of them, but their morale was really up there. Their commander seemed very clever, as well.

It must be the Maiden of Dawn.



It seems somewhat incredulous that Micaiah's existence is so thinly known outside of Daein. For one, you'd have thought it would have come up when Rafiel and Nailah were delivering their message to Gallia. For another, we know that news of the liberation reached Crimea - it practically caused Part 2 of the game. Begnion will of course know all about her. It seems particularly unlikely that Ike would not at least know the name, what with Elincia specifically telling him about her.

She was the hero of the recent Daein uprising. Micaiah is her name, if I recall correctly. Supposedly she has performed miracles and turned many losing battles into victories. An interesting figure.

Miracles? I'm finding that a bit hard to swallow. Are you sure about that?



Soren, as ever, is the only one who looks past the circumstances and sees the problem.



Sothe looks completely deranged in that rendering. Just saying.

In other words, her followers are fanatics who see her as a goddess. She will make a formidable enemy.

If we attack them head-on, the fighting won't stop until one side is decimated. There's got to be a way to avoid that, right?

What about a decoy force, like we've used in the past?



Not necessarily. The empire assumes superiority over all other countries. Begnion is only using the Daein army as a pawn to stop us, and likely won't care if it is destroyed in the process. As such, the Daein army is most likely uninformed about our past tactics.

You might have a point there. I went scouting after the fog cleared, and their forces looked really unprepared to fight us. They had no ballistae, and they hadn't fielded many fire mages. It felt like they didn't know a thing about fighting laguz.

Plot mechanic-awareness!

Then we should definitely have a decoy force hit them head-on, while the bulk of the army crosses the river in the meantime.

I'll head up the decoy force, then. The armies of Gallia and Phoenicis can cross the river while we fight.

I'll go with you, Ike. Daein would get suspicious if they didn't see any laguz in the enemy force.

Sounds like a plan to me. Take some of my men as well, if you want. I don't want their talons getting dull.

The Laguz Alliance may have lost the war of might. But we haven't lost the war to save the lives of our brothers! This fight will be ours!



And with that, we head to the Base.



Oh! I know! It's neither of them, because they're both terrible fighters!

Ooo, me! Me! I want it!

No, Captain! You should give it to me! After all, I'm your faithful servant.

What!? No way! That stuffy know-it-all doesn't need it! Look at me! I'm so tiny and helpless, I need all the help I can get. You wouldn't want me to get hurt, would you?



A stuffy know-it-all?! Oh, I say! How dare you, madam!? Captain Ranulf! You know that rewarding her behavior will only encourage her to act up in front of others! Have I not always followed your orders without question, both quickly and effectively?



You hold it right there, Kysha! I think you just called me a brat!

Pfft. I'm only stating the obvious. If you don't like it, don't act so childish.

Hmph! You stuck-up old alley cat!

Stuck up?! Your mother would be ashamed at your lack of manners!

Argh! Stop already! I'm sorry I asked. Obviously I have to make the decision for you. All right, Kysha! This is yours. Take it.

Oh, thank you! Thank you! You've made me the happiest person in the army, Captain! Hah!

What!? Why!? Why did you give it to him!?

He's your commanding officer.



Now which do you think is a less fucked up explanation for the cat tribe wearing collars as fashion accessories? That the character designers were desperately trying to draw parallels between cat laguz and cats IRL in an attempt to make players like them more, or that the writers justified it by dictating that it's just a habit that was formed when the laguz were slaves?

Forget it, Lyre. The captain knows who slaves day and night to keep the army running smoothly!

No, no, no! The captain's love is mine! All mine! Give it to me!

If you want it, you'll have to take it!

Oh, you're dead!

What is it with you two?



[Received a Howl!]

Great. That's going right in the pile. Maybe we'll actually use it some day. Maybe.

Time for admin!





Supports grow!



Here's the bargain list for today. Aimee's somehow managed to find another Rolf's Bow, which... doesn't really make sense, but whatever. We have no interest in that because he has the Goddamn Silencer™ and a load of other awesome bows right now. There's also some Olivi Grass and another Quickclaw skill, which are also of no interest to us.

Now, we've been steadily hoarding Bonus EXP for the last several chapters, and many of our characters have now reached several stat caps. Know what that means? That means it's time for some ridiculous levels.

Nephenee: Lv +5

HP +5
Str +2
Lck +5
Def +3

Damn Nephenee's luck growth. It's leeching points off her strength and defence! At least it'll help her evasion. She's also capped HP, so the next BEXP levels she gets will probably be even more profitable (since they'll almost certainly be strength, luck, defence).

Soren: Lv +4

HP +4
Spd +4
Lck +3
Def +1

Well, that's Soren's speed troubles over. He's now a perfect storm of magical fury (and he might even be able to dodge the odd weapon, too). Oh, and he's also capped speed now, so that's something.

Mia: Lv +4

Str +1
Mag +1
Lck +4
Def +4
Res +2

Yes, yes, yes! Mia has now capped strength and defence in addition to speed and skill. Mia is amazing.

And, just because...

Heather: Lv +1

HP +1
Str +1
Lck +1

Yes! More strength! I guess that's nice, although she's going to need some more before the next tier in expenditure-reduction re: her destiny.

Haar: Lv +1

HP +1
Lck +1
Res +1

The fact that he got a level at all is more important than the stats, really.

Finally, we have a special treat for Gatrie.



Gatrie has capped strength and speed and is dangerously close to capping defence. Since speed is Gatrie's biggest selling point, there's basically no point to levelling him further, since he'll easily cap strength, speed and defence post promotion anyway. So he gets to promote now.









Third tier promotion stat gains are fricking insane. Expect at least +2 in everything that can go up at all.



Besides all these insane stat gains, promoting to third tier automatically grants you an additional 30 SP and provides you with your class's mastery skill (which more often than not will use all 30 SP, though some use 25 so that's nice). Luna, the Marshall's mastery skill, is basically a lite version of the Black Knight's Eclipse skill; it multiplies the user's strength by three and negates enemy defence. It's still complete overkill, though, and you won't see an enemy survive it. Even if Gatrie never got a strength gain for the whole game and somehow was attacking unarmed, it would still do a minimum of 81 damage. So, yeah.

You'll notice "overkill" being the general theme of mastery skills.



So we make sure everyone has a weapon (and we even bought Ike a Wind Edge) and move out.





Man. How come we never got to use all of these generics when we were playing as Daein?



Micaiah is the boss.



Laughing aside, she's going to be annoying despite not being a threat. Why?

Because every Dawn Brigadier you see here is exactly as we left them in the previous chapter. They have the same stats, all their supports etc are intact, and, most importantly, they have the same equipment. I will spend most of this mission sorely regretting that I let Micaiah carry a Physic staff, because she's going to spam the shit out of it every chance she gets. Expect to also see any killer, brave or unique weapons used without care for preservation. Basically, once again, the AI is more of a threat to you, the player, than it is to your army.

She's also joined by two priests, each with their own Physic staves, and a whole lot of generics.

Oh, right, and there's the small matter of the Black Motherfucking Knight.

The laguz failed to cross the river. This is their last chance to try. This time, they'll attack with beorc as well.

Sothe, you know what that means. If we end up fighting beorc...

I know. We'll probably be fighting the Greil Mercenaries. I'm aware. It's not going to be pretty.

Sothe. Tell me more about Commander Ike.

Why? You used to hate it when I said anything about him.

I want to know more about the man I'll be fighting against. What kind of a person is he?

Well, let's see... He's generous. He doesn't care about petty things. He holds no prejudice against laguz, nor does he care about the opinions of the nobles. He's a master swordsman. He accomplishes everything he sets out to do. He's a true hero.

I see. He sounds...quite different from King Pelleas.

Micaiah, they don't even compare. King Pelleas lacks any leadership or decision-making skills.

...That may be, but I believe in King Pelleas. His heart is in the right place. I believe in his virtuous nature and his commitment to being a good king...

Even though he would set you out on a war that doesn't involve Daein at all? A war of bigotry and hate, fighting on the same side as our real enemies? You're smarter than this, Micaiah.

Sothe, we've been through this. I know we're about to fight Ike and the Greil Mercenaries, but I...

Whoops, no time for eavesdropping, the real main character is talking.



Sigh... Those two are still here. So much for friendly advice, I guess. Now it's friends against friends... Things are getting crazy around here.



We're not given a lot of space in this mission. Ike and Ranulf are mandatory and you get to pick 8 others. However, when you consider that paladins are at a massive disadvantage in this map due to being basically unable to access anything other than the starting area, and that there's little point in bringing Heather (unless you've gone to great lengths to set up a scheme to pilfer specific items from the Dawn Brigade, which would be silly given the more... reliable... options which we'll mention offhand later), then it becomes a bit easier to choose.



We are going to charge the shit out of the only route available to us. Ike, Gatrie, Mia, and Ranulf are going to blast right into the enemy, backed up by Rolf, Soren and Mist. Haar will run distraction and pester the enemy behind their lines, so that the main force can charge through less dense packs of dudes. Haar will also be a big help with... well, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Our actual objective is simply to survive for 12 turns. There's no other way of ending the battle, and no option to continue fighting - remember, we're acting as a decoy to buy the rest of the troops time to cross the river. We have some things to do in that time, however, so we can't afford to just wait for the enemy to come to us.



One more thing; keep your units out of the pictured area unless you really want them to die.



Let's do this thing.