Live A Live Part #30 - The Power of Belief.

Part 30: The Power of Belief.

...This has not been a good day for Oersted, all things considered.

Hasn’t been great for the guy in the next cell, either.

Who is it…?

Oersted…? … Is that really you, Oersted…? This is insane…

Ho ho…

But now I’m starting to see why Hash hated people so much…

Uranus…

But you know, Oersted… You have nothing to gain by hating humans.

There’s that word again.

What Hash and I devoted our lives to protecting… you must continue to protect…

Despite all that’s happened… At least Uranus’ God has not abandoned us.

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You certainly seem to be… VERY strong.

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Father overdid it a little at the feast, admittedly, but he’s happy to have an heir such as you… Of course, I’m happy too.

I’m just me, now. From this day forward, even more than Father… More than anyone…

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(Silence.)

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And with that, Uranus passes away.

Oersted’s escaping!

Despite what other people may think of him, Oersted has a mission now. He needs to save the person who believes in him most.

All the soldiers of Lucretia are against him now.

Perhaps some sense can be knocked into them, but honestly…

Lucretia seems beyond help now.

Please, eheh, please stay to rule over our Lucretia!

Especially since this coward seems to have taken residence on the throne.

Best to deal with this another time. Alicia’s still waiting, after all.

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Everywhere outside of Devil’s Peak is full of royal soldiers still, but nothing remains to be seen out there.

This is where Oersted needs to be.

Devil’s Peak has decided to preempt Silent Hill and repopulate itself with monsters representing various phobias, several of which also resemble scantily clad women. I imagine you don’t need to be told that Entomophobia is the fear of insects.

These ones are kind enough to drop an item we passed up earlier; the Unicorn Horn is an accessory we could have gotten from the castle armory, offering +10 IQ and protection from getting drunk.

Once we approach the door to the next room, someone speaks to us… and we’re thrown into a special encounter.

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...She looks like some kind of bizarre knock-off Troll doll. Claustrophobia is very much a warm-up; she hits Oersted for about 90 damage and typically knocks him back.

Oersted has managed to reach level 9 from fighting his way out of Lucretia and has pockets full of healing items. He’s in no danger. (He’s also started learning some of Hash’s moves.)

The fact that she eats a counter if her knockback fails to proc just makes this laughable. She only has 336 HP.

Hmm… Nah.

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Moving along, we’re attacked by the fear of dogs. This one’s bark is worse than his bite… though neither really hurts Oersted.

That Dragon Flame attack I mentioned last update, however…

Anyway, next door!

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The clinical term for this one is actually nyctophobia; the fear of night or darkness. Scotophobia is even more of a joke than our first mini-boss, because she can be effortlessly spin-locked with Hammer Power.

In fact, she doesn’t even get to attack. She just bumps Oersted up to level 10 and lets him learn Razor Sonic.

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Next speedbump, please!

Hmm… This is probably the real Demon, don’tcha think?

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Oh boy, this fight.

The Acrophobia Container in the back there is controlling the rest; kill it, and the Acrophobias themselves will break down. (They are of course the fear of heights, which I personally have some trouble with.)

The problem here is that this works like Gennai’s fight back in the Ninja chapter. If we actually bother to do this fight the hard way, we might get a good item. I stress the word ‘might’. It took me three tries, each fight taking about six minutes.

Acrophobia is also rather strong. And there’s four of them. About the only thing that makes this manageable (aside from stockpiling Naorigusa) is that the container takes turns too, despite not having any attacks. Add in the Acrophobias taking turns in the wrong order, and oftentimes you can get some free damage in.

Dragon Sword takes off about 130 of their 400 HP, but the knockback of Acrobat makes using it a little risky. Hammer Power will do about half as much.

Ultimately, it’s just a case of patience. Don’t eat two Acrobats in a row, and you’re golden.

The reward is pretty damn nice.

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...These two are probably self-explanatory. The latter encounter is the most lucrative in the dungeon with an EXP value of 14.

Oersted will be ending this chapter at level 12 though; he learns his second-last move here, the last being Death Trail at level 16. (Level 11 was Jump Shot, which would have been handy to have before the Acrophobia fight.

)

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...Okay, that’s kind of a gross way to represent a fear of women. Why is she wrapped up by a slug?

Hexaflange is… well, a rather strange move. It forces Oersted to face away from his target, which means they’ll get a damage bonus if they attack him straight afterwards. EponymousMrYar believes it’s about a 25% bonus for back attacks.

Gynophobia is actually somewhat dangerous, because she combos her two techs together pretty easily. One of the items we’ve passed up together this chapter protects against sleep, but Oersted just has to tough it out.

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Alright… This is it. Time to take on the Demon…

You’re probably going to want to watch this video. Trust me on this one.

Hmm. Hang on, this room was supposed to be caved in.

And what’s more, there’s a secret passage in this statue!

One long passage later…

(Loud rumbling, like thunder.)

Okay, this is kind of creepy.

!!!

The collapsing roof was not an actual trap…

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(Silence.)

All of the emotions I’d kept bottled up exploded! I decided to stay behind…

Thus, I faked my own death!

(Rumbling.)

Let’s get out of here!

This time, we see that Straybow lingered behind Oersted and Uranus.

And used his magic to both create and intensify the quake, faking his deathcry after the others leave the room.

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You fell for it so easily!

But…

You’ve ruined everything! You always have! No matter how much I help you out, you always take more, more, more! Even in the tournament!

But…

Today I make up for the past, when I was just your hapless foil!!

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This is it, ladies and gents. The final boss of Oersted’s chapter… Straybow, his ‘friend’ who succumbed to bitter jealousy.

Straybow acts like a level 16 version of himself, meaning he has access to his entire moveset and a surprising amount of health. (I believe it’s 528 HP.)

He absorbs elemental tiles, so he loves using his level 10 & 14 moves to lay those down.

This is his level 9 tech, which might inflict the Drunk status if Oersted weren’t using that Unicorn Horn he found earlier.

Since there were some people wanting to see the rest of Straybow’s moves, the ones we haven’t seen are:
- Purple Mist (level 5, range 1, lowers level and IQ)
- Red Coat (level 7, hits all around Straybow, can be used as a counter)
- Purple Stray (level 8, literally Purple Swirl but slow and ranged)
- Black Abyss (level 16, counter-only)

_{_{As for other techs, Uranus learns two at levels 8 & 10: Saunctuary and Judgement.}}