Part 60: Bonus 7 - Chapter 20A: The Liberation of Ilia
Bonus 7 - Chapter 20A: The Liberation of Ilia
...located in the southeast of Ilia. Castle Edessa once served as the headquarters of the Pegasus Knight and Ilian mercenary squads, but with Zealot gone, Bern saw its chance and attacked the castle, seizing it and forcing the mercenaries and Pegasus Knights into submission.
Castle Edessa was Murdock's headquarters, but when Murdock returned to Bern, Roartz was put in charge. Alarmed by the Etrurian Army's speed in advancing on to Edessa, Roartz hurriedly contacted the various Ilian knight groups asking them for aid. However, their replies were not promising.
Well... We are requesting aid from Ilia's knights, but all of them except those that have been given direct orders from Lord Murdock are hesitant to help us.
Damn! How could this happen... ...Ah, we did capture Zealot's wife and his family. How about Zealot's group? Have they responded? No... They have been traveling all over the continent as mercenary knights, so we don’t even know their exact location. Damn... Ever since Sigune's group was defeated, all of Ilia's militia have been reluctant to fight the Etrurian Army. Blast! Everyone, everyone is such a coward! They would have me, top advisor to the Etrurian Court, die in a place like this!?
N-No, then you would be cold...
It's all right, I'm used to the cold. It's far better than flying through the blizzards on a pegasus. ...Thank you. *cough*
...I don't know. But we must have hope. Perhaps the enemy might leave, or perhaps Zealot might return. We must not give up hope.
...Where is Lord Zealot now? In his last letter he said that he was joining the Lycia Alliance Army, but after that... Well, he could be closer than we think he is. I hope you're right.
Rescue mission time. The first couple turns are pretty rough, but once we get past the inital rush of dudes, the mission is basically a joke. We can pick up an Angelic Robe from having every civilian escape - easier than it sounds given that their exit point is on the north edge. You do need to check what's going on with each enemy, though - all kinds of special weaponry are scattered around, including anti-armor, anti-cavalry, longbows, Killer and Reaver weapons, and a Light Brand or two along with the standard Sleep/Berserk/Purge assholes. Thankfully the reinforcements are nothing to write home about and come in far too late to accomplish much of anything.
If you pick up a GBA-era Fire Emblem having just come off of FE9 or 10, the first thing you will immediately wonder how anyone ever lived without is the ability to check the enemies’ equipped weapon simply by pointing the cursor at them.
Lugh, Bartre, Lance, and Elphin are tasked with cleaning out the right group of enemies, with Dieck, Clarine, Rutger, Lilina, and Geese taking the left group. Thany will help out the right group, but she's mainly in charge of flying ahead to the ballistae/southern enemies.
Yuno is our third and final peg knight, and she's pretty useless. She's completely unarmed for this mission, so if you do plan on using her, you're going to need to lend her some weapons. She can be brought around by either of her sisters or Zealot after popping the cell open.
Rutger, Clarine, and Dieck take point on the left side. Clarine mocks me for the effort.
Oh yeah, and Zealot's here. Come on, we're retaking his castle, he can have a little glory. I mean, not like this, but it's the idea that counts.
And I need someone to recruit Yuno since Thany is off murdering ballisticians on the east side.
Bringing characters along because of plot connections? Pah.
After the first-turn casualties, I'm actually in a bit of a difficult spot here. I have Roy, Lilina, Clarine, Rutger, and Dieck available: Roy and Clarine are reliant on crits to actually kill something, Dieck isn't always fast enough to guarantee a double, and the druids are using Nosferatu so whatever you're sending after them better be able to crit or kill them in one go.
We start with this druid, giving us a straight shot to the Sleep druid in the back.
Wait no fuck bad Rutger put the Light Brand down
...Welp. On to Plan B!
That was silly.
Clarine has to heal Rutger, meaning I lose another chance to attack. Time for something drastic.
Aw yeah son, that's what I want to see.
That’s some good work there, Roy.
Well it leaves the Sleep druid alive, but I'll take this for now.
Lugh kills off the sniper rather than attack the east side. This proves to be a poor decision later in the turn.
I can imagine how that might work, yes.
Begone, foul demon!
Lance advances forward at half health. This will not bite me in the ass at all, no sir.
Lance dodges a bullet when this merc doesn't crit.
FFFFFFFF--
Well, now my healer is out so Lance isn't getting any healthier. Now we need to get to this fucking druid with only two attackers.
Come to me, my wings of death!
Fucking sleep assholes.
Lance kills the hero and finishes cleaning up on the right side. He and Bartre (and Lugh, after waking up) head back to the other side, while Thany heads south around the building.
Jackass. At least both Sleep druids are down.
Lilina also picks off the Purge asshole, meaning we're basically in the clear aside from the Berserk druid by the boss.
ALWAYS CHECK WEAPONS AND RANGES
Sound advice.
Right, get your lazy ass up, we have work to do.
Roy, if nothing else, proves incredibly useful in baiting ballistae.
I am going to miss you. That's max skill, and one point away from max speed.
And with that much avoid, everyone else will miss her too!
Thany cleans up down here and waits for the rest of the group to catch up.
Meanwhile, Chad pops open the door and the civilians start to escape.
While Zealot gets up to Yuno, we get to work on the wall here.
Zealot!
Are you all right? You're not hurt? They didn't do anything terrible to you? Oh, Zealot, I am no child. I am the ex-flightleader of the Pegasus Knight Fleet, you know. That's true, but... I'm all right. I'm not hurt or anything. Good... Why are you in the Etrurian Army? I thought you were with the Lycia Alliance. Well, it's a long story... Anyway, this is the Etrurian Army only by name. It is actually made up of troops from the Lycia Alliance Army. Oh... I see. I'm sorry. I couldn't be at the castle when I was needed the most... There's no point in dwelling on the past. But you had to go out and fight...
Of course I do! But... Then there's no problem. You'll be seeing a lot of it from now on. What! Do you mean... Yes. I will fight alongside you as well. No! No no no. You retired long ago. So just leave the fighting to us... Even after I retired, I had to fight anyway. Zealot, there is no safe place in the world any more. Well... So I will fight, so I can help bring a time of peace all the more quickly.Zealot, you sly dog. I bet you do like that flightleader's outfit, considering what the rest of the peg knights wear.
Lilina moves out to bait our Berserk friend.
The first room's treasure also includes a Sleep Staff, Nosferatu, and Wyrmslayer.
A pair of thieves are the first reinforcements, but Clarine, Dieck and Zealot are standing between them and the treasure room.
Now that's terrifying. Let's have Clarine fix that.
Sweet christ Elphin, why do you even have a strength growth?
I’m amazed it took IntSys as long as it diid to think up unarmed counterattacks.
For the next two or three turns, a bunch of fighters spawn in from the northeast. None of them are particularly threatening, but you do end up with a line of something like 9 or 10 fighters coming from behind, which would be more threatening if Dieck wasn't waiting for them.
He's helping, okay?
This sniper is kind of a dick. He has a Killer Bow, so I tried to give him as many targets as possible in the hope that he would ignore Lilina to go after someone else instead.
Well he does crit, but he picks...Bartre? I was actually worried here, because I didn't check the sniper's AS and if he could double Bartre, this would have killed him.
Geese offs the sniper for us. This is why you use Gonzales, kids.
As usual, Roartz is nothing special. Hits kinda hard, lots of HP.
Mercenaries also start coming in from the south like the figthers.
A little Aircalibur goes a long way to combating thrones.
At least Generals can be relied upon to be slow enough as to not be total assholes when on thrones.
Mostly.
Huh. Well fuck.
Rutger, you're up.
The remaining treasures are a Long Bow, Axereaver, and a Speedwing.
Disappointingly, most of the fighters go after Dieck instead of Zealot. So much for his last stand.
Master Roy! Part of Bern's army is hiding in the ruins on the outskirts of Edessa!
Ruins? Yes. Apparently, in them lies a spear that was used during the Scouring. What? That spear... It is most probably a Divine Weapon. We must hurry to the ruins!
Yes...? Are you the one who saved us? No, I am... Thank you! Thanks to you, we can now stand here safely. Please accept this token of our gratitude. Thank you! *they leave* ...I shall hand this to Roy... [Got Angelic Robe]-----
Level 9 Falcoknight
Lances - A, Swords - E, Affinity - Light
HP: 33 (50%)
Strength: 11 (20%)
Skill: 14 (35%)
Speed: 16 (30%)
Luck: 14 (45%)
Defense: 8 (10%)
Resistance: 12 (20%)
Con: 7
Let's not mince words here: Yuno is awful. She has marginally better growths than Dayan and the benefits that come with being a flyer, but her base stats are completely awful and her growths are still objectively bad. Her lone bright spot is the 7 Con - two more than a promoted Thany and one more than Tate's. Unfortunately, this tiny advantage is dwarfed by Thany and Tate's huge speed advantage at an equivalent level - 10 and 8 points respectively. I guess if you really want to do the Pegasus Triangle Attack you can, but come on, don't use Yuno.
Thany Recruiting Yuno
Big Sister Yuno! Thany? Why are you here? I've been in the Etrurian Army. I was surprised when I heard that Edessa got taken by Bern, but I knew you'd be okay! Oh? Why do you say that? You were captain of the Fleet! There's no way Bern could defeat you. Thank you. Well, you'll be sorry to hear that I was captured. Well, that's... But I won't stay defeated by Bern for long. On my own, all I could do was rescue the people in the castle, but if I joined you, I could fight against Bern as well. Then are you going to fight with us? Yes. Really? Yes! Does that make you so excited? Yes! I became a Pegasus Knight because I wanted to be like you. Fighting alongside you is like a dream. My, my... Well, you always did tend to go overboard with things...Tate Recruiting Yuno
Yuno! Tate... What are you doing here? It's a long story... But anyway, I'm with the Etrurian Army now. I heard Edessa had fallen to Bern, and I was worried, but... I'm glad to see you're all right. ...I thought you were originally fighting for the people who were fighting against the Etrurian Army. You didn't... No! I didn't go against the Ilian Mercenary Code. I fulfilled my duties as a mercenary and then joined the Etrurian Army. Of course... You're a good and diligent girl. You wouldn't do something like that. I'm sorry. No, it's all right... And, um... What are you wearing? This? Why, this is my military outfit, as you very well know. Well, what do you think? Don't you think I can still go on as flightleader? But... I thought you retired. I can't be saying that in this time of emergency! On my own, all I could do was rescue the people in the castle, but if I joined you, I could fight against Bern as well. So you're going to fight alongside us? Yes. Yes! I never thought I could fight alongside you again. Don't get cocky now. I haven't gotten too rusty yet either!