Part 45: Chapter 17B Hard Mode

Chapter 17B: Alucard's Arcard's Demise


Well that was a fun little jaunt through causality, but now it's time to return to reality.


...Yep, this is definitely reality.


Percival has pretty much solidified himself as better than Lance, but Alan is still only level 20/2 and has yet to prove himself, so he's still kicking around for now. Also he's going to be a pack mule to sell of some junk.


So, what is there to say about this chapter? 10/11A and 10/11B maps were fairly similar, just with the bullshit all switched around, and while Sacae and Ilia are a bit more unique to one another, this chapter is less so. 17A is a lot like chapter 19B, what with a large for of war map containing a few enemy ballista and plenty of fliers. However unlike 19B it isn't a winding narrow passage that you can easily get ganked in, so this is actually a rare example of Sacae being less annoying than Ilia. Don't get too used to that.


Zeiss and the healers head down to the arena, and Alan will join them shortly.


I drop Miledy and Tate in to the mountains, and move everybody else forward accordingly.


A few mages make themselves known.


Miledy dodges a bolting (note that damage: enemy sages don't fuck around anymore and always have 21 MAG, minimum.)


Zeiss actually gets a non-arena kill.


I forgot just how busy it actually gets down low, so I send in Dieck to help out. He's still kinda middling, but his speed is excellent and he can bust out axes.


Aha! Found y-


Aww.


Wait a minute!


He's a bolting asshole and a physic asshole combined into one. What a satisfying kill this will be.


Tate starts to feel her bruises. She'll be fine... I hope.


Er... well that was lucky. Guess my tendency to forget that I left swords in Lance user hands helped out this time.








Jesus, that was a close one.


Also, I seriously forgot just how many goddamn mounted units pop up down here.


Anyway, Miledy is kinda speeding towards that top right village, but I burn a turn deciding to fuck this bolting guy up.


Stay classy, Miledy.


Percival finally makes his way through the forest to start helping.


The irony.


Right, let's deal with these assholes.


Zeiss javelins a guy to death, and uses his first level to max out strength. At level 8. Fuckin' hard mode bonuses.


Also Clarine gets... a Clarine level.


Good enough, they can't hit Zeiss, and Ellen who's the only one who can't survive two hits is on a mountain.


I'm getting nervous though, so I send Rutger down to help thin the herd.


What the hell is up with all the axereaver guys attacking my sword units?


Anyway, Nomad Troopers. Let's talk about them.


They're dicks, and the main reason why Sacae can be such a pain in the ass. See in Ilia, you get swarmed by Pegs and Falcons who are all equally as fast, and more mobile, but lack the con to wield their weapons effectively. So you don't care about silver lance Falcons, because they're being weighed down so much they are easily slaughtered.

These guys on the other hand have 19 speed minimum, and have the con to wield pretty much any bow, since even steel is only weighs 9. 19 speed might not sound like a lot, but only a handful of our units have the 23 speed to double that, and these Nomads' speed only goes up from here.



Anyway, enough bitching. Back in the game, I notice this thief.


All thieves have 20 speed from this point out.


I realize I should probably get a move on.


Zeiss also pulls back to grab the opposite village, since I have no idea if there are thieves after this one too. _{There aren't.}


Alan and Dieck both stab this guy right in the dick which is apparently painful enough to end his fighting career. I don't blame him.


Er... okay, an empty ballista. Since it happened to Artix too, it must be some strange AI quirk on this map.


At any rate, time for some effective damage.


A second thief runs up from the south, stopping about three spaces short.


For the record, from the moment this chapter began, Miledy has been making a straight beeline towards this village, only stopping once to kill the bolting guy. You have to be fast to save this village.


The Tina Staff is nice since, like all the manga weapons, it has 50 uses It has 30 uses, but that's still something, I guess.


Alan pulls back to finally sell all his junk.


Two more pricks jump out of the darkness, but Dieck dodges in style.


Zeiss gets his arena grind on. This will bear fruit later.


Miledy starts working on the first southern thief:


To reveal a second one. Seriously IS: There's only one village. This is just overkill. And the thieves don't even run around trying to steal your stuff like in FE7 and 8; now that both villages are saved, they just stand around waiting to be killed.


Percival heads down to finish off the lass ballista.


He senses his impending doom, but can do little to stop it.


God Ellen packs a punch.


Speaking of packing a punch: when you're doing 0 damage to Roy, it's time to rethink your life.


Sup.


This guy reverses the weapon triangle on Gonzales, so he breaks out his sword reaver and reverses the weapon triangle again. I'm... not sure that's how it works, IS.


Alan gets attacked from behind for some reason. Now guys are spawning near the starting point? Okay then...


Ellen is pretty hilariously lopsided, with little speed and defense but packing enough Mag, Res and Lck that I'm okay with it.

Also I just noticed how low her bishop robes are cut on her battle sprite. The Elimine Church certainly has an interesting dresscode.


That's it for ballistas on this map.


Shin is fast enough to double these thieves, so I let him loose.


Gonzales smashes another puny flier, and we're very close to the boss now.


So close in fact that we can see him!


Alucard Arcard is actually kind of a dick. 23 STR + a Silver Lance hurts, and a Throne + 18 DEF makes him an annoying wall. His speed is a joke though.

Don't worry, I'll invalidate all this in just a second. But first, a status update:


Alan is out playing grab ass with a lone cav way back near the starting point.


And Shin cleans up the rest of the thieves.


Right, boss! So my plan was to just let Gonzales hang out until he managed to get a lucky hit on this guy with the haliberd, then back off so a weaker unit could finish him off.


Instead, he hit twice in a row with 42% odds and finished the boss in one round.


Gonzales getting any kind of RES is a good level. That extra defense is nice too.


You'll get him eventually, Alan.


Ray gets a level from healing, but I question if it's the level he really needs right now. More magic, I guess.


And that's the second time she's gotten this same level in a row. That's our Clarine!


All these bad levels are leading up to something, believe me.


Despite the boss being dead, a line of nomads come out of nowhere and almost kill Tate this far in. Thanks, IS.


Shin, Rutger and Lou tear them apart.

Now then, did somebody say Zeiss levels?








That certainly was an interesting way for those levels to go. Zeiss actually only has a 25% DEF growth, so I'm glad he pulled those last few points of defense out.


Oh, and another Clarine level. Wonderful.





A side by side comparison. Note that Zeiss is six levels behind, and already faster and tankier than his sister. Even in her best stat, Skill, Miledy is only beating Zeiss by three points. She has more HP, though. Still, hard mode Zeiss is hilariously overpowered, and we're going to be putting that to use. Oh yes we are.


Anyway, I've spent enough time here. Let's call it a chapter.


NEXT TIME: