Part 14: Episode XII: No You Shut Up, Dad!

Music: Royal Host



Welp. We’ve gone and wasted our time rescuing Kir from some vague threat of Lord Avalo’s dealings with the Brain Shibito or some shit. But our actual objective of rescuing Setsuna remains elusive. We can and should rest up in a Tent again on the way up before heading back out onto the deck.



Guy, we’ve been here for like fifteen minutes already. We’ve already killed everyone else on the ship. Where were you? Dropping some lead on another throne?
Setsuna!

The party advances towards Setsuna and Avalo...



Stop, my son... Before it is too late.
Too late?

Avalo stops making Setsuna talk to the hand and turns to his father...



There is no way of knowing if the sacrificial pilgrimage shall succeed or fail... Yet you ask me to place the fate of the people in the hands of such uncertainty? What nonsense! Any responsible lord would find a more reliable method of protecting his people!
And you think that making deals with monsters is a reliable way of protecting your people?
It is a lot more reliable than one measly sacrifice! I refuse to rely on such imprecise methods. It is my duty as a lord!
Do you really understand what you’re doing?
I am protecting my people! My conscience is clear!
So that’s why Tenderville was created...
Not just anyone will make suitable bargaining tools... But today, I have a wonderful selection! As well as all of you, there are a mother and daughter that only just arrived in the village...
! You don’t mean... that woman we saw with a li’l girl!?
You could learn a lot from them... I told them I had a noble duty for them to fulfill, and they came readily! Although, of course, I did not tell them exactly where it was they would be going...
......
But I am very grateful to them... As a result, my people shall be saved.
You’re using humans as bargaining tools... and you’re talkin’ about saving people!?
So you are sacrificing all these people because... you don’t have faith in my sacrifice pilgrimage? Is that correct?
Indeed I am! I have every right to speak in such a way!
Dammit... To hell with this!
Endir, you’ve been unusually quiet. What’s up?
Oh I’m COMPLETELY checked out of this stupidity. Are we kicking the piss out of this guy yet?
Do not fret... You shall all be coming, too!
Yeah, we’re kicking the piss out of this guy.
Finally! Hey, idiot! It’s literally SEVEN against one. We already beat up your entire town’s guard. You’re not walking out of this one.
Akash! It is time to depart! Launch the ship!
*shakes head* You think I’m gonna help the likes of you? No chance!
*shakes head frustrated* Fools! Imbeciles! Simpletons! Why will you not obey my orders!?
Cuz you’re a total dick!
It’s true, son.
What do you know?!
Very well... If you will not pilot the ship, then I shall simply do it myself!



Lord Avalo decides it’s a good idea to just pump some magic into the stone donut that apparently powers the airship. If these peasants can operate it, sure the king can, right?



Hah! I can accomplish any task that can be accomplished by the likes of YOU!



I feel like we should probably stab this guy. Anyone with me?
...Is it wrong I sorta wanna to see it explode in his face due to his own hubris?
Nah. That’s fair.



You cannot tell a lord what to do, peasant!
Avalo, I am you father and I am telling you to stop.
No, you shut up, dad!
*pumps more magic into device*

The shaking suddenly stops...





And of course the device malfunctions within five seconds of Avalo declaring his success, as he is clearly a massive dipshit.



*sweats* The spritnite’s out of control! At this rate it’ll...
It’ll what?
...Explode.
Obviously. Was that a serious question!? Good grief, girl!
Worst case scenario, this whole place’ll be blown to smithereens...
!
What do you mean!? Can’t you stop it?
There’s no time for that! All we can do now is try and reduce the damage as much as possible...
So what should we do?
Kick its ass!
...How would that help, Endir? Think for a minute.
Actually...
Our only option is to destroy the device before the spritnite reaches its limit.
......
...Don’t even say anything.
*smug nod of satisfaction*
NO! I shall not let you! This ship shall fly! I shall save my people!
Hold that thought, moron...
! Something’s heading this way!




Music: The Last Mountain



Oh, Christ... Not this tryhard again. Could you come back another time? We’re trying to have a competitive match and you’re bringing the whole team down with your play.



Oh man... I don’t think I have another sweet sword jump in me. Definitely haven’t thought up a one liner to pull that off. Can you come back later?



Who are you? You’ve come to save me, have you? What luck... G-good! Please eliminate them!
Alright... I want everyone to hold up and see where he goes with this...
Oh yeah. This should be good.
I shall have to rethink my plan... If I at least take the sacrifice with me...
...I’ve already gotten away from you.
Silence!
*approaches Avalo* She is mine...
Wh-what?
Begone...





Rekt.
Ha! Nice.

Dinas runs off after his incredibly owned son...



Why are you attacking us!?
There is no need for you to know that...
Does anyone here really care? Look at this guy. I don’t want to know what his deal is...
H-hey! There’s no time for that now! You need to destroy the spritnite device!
Yeah, we know!
Please get back!



Setsuna has rejoined the party and we’re allowed to shuffle our members. We’re going to bench Aeterna and tag Setsuna back in here.


Music: Dance of Death



For this battle we’ve got two targets: Reaper and the haywire Spritnite Device. Both come sporting 1300 HP. The win condition for this battle is destroying the Spritnite device. As such, we can pretty much entirely ignore Reaper. There’s no extra XP or material drops for beating him first. He’s entirely superfluous to winning since the real problem is the ship exploding, not this rando. Additionally, the Spritnite Device doesn’t fight back. It just sits there and takes its beating as it’s essentially just an engine. How could it fight? That’d be ridiculous.





Between battles, Reaper has done a bit of grinding and acquired some Spritnite to actually pull off Techs besides slashing with his scythe. Dark Mist is Reaper’s primary means of attack (by which I mean only for half the battle.) I’m uncertain of its range, but it only ever seems to hit two party members at a time for 80-100 HP of damage. Which is a bit more worrying than usual.



Having Endir on the line with Aura is a quick fix in a trouble spot to the point it’s not a bad idea to have him just use physical attacks for this fight and save MP for healing.



Though, eh... May as well use a Momentumfied Blowbeat for an easy 200+ HP of damage, and more importantly lowering Reaper’s Attack stats to give us a little more breathing room. It even hit him with a Stun. What kind of reoccurring villain lets himself get stunned? Sad.





The reason we brought Setsuna along for this battle is not for her healing, Endir has that covered. Instead, we want her to build up the SP gauge then pump out Lightning spells. A single cast at 12 MP a pop does between 150-160 HP of damage with increasing values since Momentum buffed Lightning lowers Light resistance. Endir and Nidr are only putting out 70-120 with their normal Techs and physical strikes.



After a while, Reaper will get annoyed that we’re ignoring him for more pressing issues and start using Helix Slash. Which... Well, it does roughly the same amount of damage as Dark Mist, though it can hit the entire party if they’re bunched together. But Setsuna is off doing her own thing blasting lightning bolts all day long like she’s a LARPer in a park. So she’s fine. In fact, despite Reaper’s intent to murder her... he didn’t ever bother attacking her during this run of the battle. That’s not by design. He just happened to suck at his job that much more than usual this go around.





But keeping up with Setsuna’s Lightning and everyone else on Tech or healing duty, the Spritnite Device goes down in short order and Reaper gives up in embarrassment.



I had a pair of Fluxes trigger after battle. One for Combo Power off of Provoke, which I’ll probably never use. And less MP consumption for Lightning, just after the second major battle where spamming Lightning was the order of the day. Figures.

Music: Ends



Why are you fools attacking this devi—







And so the Spritnite Device explodes, killing everyone and razing a third of Floneia Citadel to the ground. Well, that was a short game. Thanks for rea—oh wait? There’s more? Tch. Fine...


New Music: A Hidden Force



Well, there goes that airship ride...
*sigh* Mhm.
It’s unfortunate. But it can’t be helped.
...Hey, where the hell were you for that fight?
I was... making sure His Lordship didn’t try to pull anything.
Yeah I be—
Father... Why did you shield me...?



I... shall atone... for the deaths I have caused... with my life...
F-Father...
Didn’t this jerk get homerun bat smashed off screen?
Quiet. This isn’t our scene.
You... live on... and repent... your sins... A lord... must be strong... He must never... take... the easy path...
B-But it took strong leadership to offer up those immigrants and refugees to secure our borders.
No... you were being... a self-serving prat... my son...
You must stay resolute... You must not succumb... to the monsters...
We do not... negotiate... with monsters... There isn’t even a fancy... name for them... Literally... monsters... C’mon, boy...
The lives of... the people... are most precious... of all... My son...



BARF!
*dies*

The mother and daughter from earlier wander into the airship’s deck...



That old man saved us!
Is he taking a nap?
*loudly evacuates bowels*
Father...
...Setsuna!
!

The party runs over to find Setsuna unconscious and Kir being useless again...



When the spritnite exploded, Setsuna shielded me...
She took the full force of the spritnite at close range... It’s affecting her bodily functions...
...Is she gonna die? Alright... Alright. Let’s get our stories straight here. I did *technically* have the finishing blow to the machine. So if she dies I DID kill her, fulfilling my contract. Are we in agreement that is how it went down?
Are you being serious right now?
Deadly.
......
...I feel like I’m missing some details about this group.
*shakes head* It isn’t life-threatening, but it can’t be cured with magic...
......
...All right. Let’s go.
Go where?
If we go to my village, I’m sure we’ll be able to cure her.
Really!?
I didn’t want to go back there before I reached the Last Lands... But now isn’t the time to be worrying about that.
Aww heck no. I’m not going to no gremlin vill—
Endir, shut up! We’re going with him.
Come on, let’s head to my village.



And with that, we flop Setsuna’s unconscious body into our bag of holding and set off in search of Kir’s village to have her healed by mystic forest elf techniques or... whatever the hell Kir is supposed to be.

Thus concludes Chapter 4 of I am Setsuna.






Video: Reaper Battle 2