Romancing Walker Part #38

Part 38: First Contact

First Contact

I had to include this because it's so damn fitting

"Even if we wanted to run, I don't think you would let us."

"He would use innocent people around here as bait in case we got away."

"Sessha won't let that happen!"

"Me too!"

"I'll fight along with everyone!"

"We already have defeated 2 of your buddies! And now it's your turn!!"

When the camera zooms in for the battle, we can see the Mahzok changing his form.

"Now you don't look like Xaktor at all!"

"I'm not Xaktor because I'm just borrowing his body at this moment."

"Borrowing his body!? (That means he must be a...Contact Mahzok!)"

Some time ago, we learned that there are different types of Mahzok. The ones we fought so far, were "lesser" version that projected their self into this dimension. This requires a lot of power, and leaves them weaker in the real world. However, a Contact Mahzok can use an able being as a kind of focus point, and enter the real world through it while preserving more of their own power. At least that's how I recall it atm

"Since you ALL will die here, I'll tell you my name. It's Garudia, and don't worry it'll be swift and painless!"

"He just sounds exactly the same! Crooked and rotten!!"

"Better not get too close to the temple!!"

"A contact Mahzok!! Is he stronger than Graphost?"

"I don't care if you're Contact Mahzok or not! Let me show you my true power!!"

Okay, before we can really fight Garudia, there still is a bit more talking to be had.

"Don't expect you can get out of here alive!"

"You think a bunch of you can defeat me?"

"We're gonna see about that!!"

"Divine Impact-!!"

Fina does her usual thing.

Fina used her holy powers to just lock down Garudia. Now I can spam all my good attacks and this is over before it even began!

Except that this happens

"Eek!? He neutralized the energy field!?"

"Don't you even dare to compare me with a weakling like Raymah!"

"Tsk! So this is the power of Contact Mahzoks!! Way stronger than Raymah!"

"Now it's your turn to see hell!!"

Well, that's not quite right. Garudia can be a pretty tough fight, but tbh, you'll only have problems if you've slacked on leveling your party and didn't really look for good gear. Especially having Caris in her final form is a huge plus here!

She does great damage with her best attack, and even surpasses Fina for the moment. But having Fina still trivializes this fight, because her support skills make my party almost untouchable, and her attack still clocks in around 200 damage. Hayami can't help too much with her attacks, but her buffs and healing further bolsters the group.

Garudia does not have too many skills. The healing spell is the strongest any boss had so far, but his attacks aren't anything special. Honestly, I lied a little bit and went with the tone of the game. Garudia really isn't much tougher than the other Mahzoks we fought so far

All the girls get 2 attraction points, and Caris is the first to go beyond forty.

Well, let's get back to Rollslay.

I'm cutting a few lines here, because all that it boils down to is

More words for the sake of words

"But it took us lot of effort and time to get that~"

"Mom, now the Mahzoks are totally on to us."

"What happened?"

"They attacked us again back in the temple, not only that, this time it was a contact Mahzok."

"Instead of Pure Mahzok, a Contact Mahzok!? Now that's strange..."

"Its power far surpasses Raymah, and even Graphost."

"Maybe they just realized that becoming a Contact Mahzok has more advantages."

It's indeed weird, but will make sense soon enough.

"For some reason, they don't intend to get rid of us, at least for now."

"Their final goal is not terminating Ryle...that's what I'm sure of."

"I know, they never attacked with more than 1 so far..."

"Maybe their real target is Gaiares, and not us."

"Not only that, they always come forth and challenge us instead of ambushes or pulling dirty tricks.."

"Even without being serious, they were quite tough to handle~"

"Yeah~ Especially not knowing when they'll appear again "

And this is the second important thing in this conversation

I'm going to shorten this conversation too, because it's a lot of speculation without anything of real value getting added.

No, because it's still Mahzok country.

Yeah.

And Ryle ponders if they can use Gaiares as bait, but that's really all that happens.

"You seem to successfully finished "Time Dive"..."

"Let me tell you what I've seen without further delay. First of all, you can use Warp to reach the Abyss near the ice wall."

"Warp?"

"I will transfer the image I've seen into your memory, so you can warp with it, ok?."

"Yeah, I can do that!"

How convenient

"With that we can finally go to the Abyss!"

"And one more thing. It's about the Gaiares you are looking for."

"What!? You mean you found the location of the lost city?"

"No, the Warp Device inside the Abyss has been taken or removed by somebody..."

"WHAT!?"

"I'm not sure who did this, but it appears to come from the northern land, Factoria."

DUN DUN DUN

"Factoria!?"

"Soldiers from the castle took it?"

"Ordinary people are not capable of transporting that kind of high-tech device...or maybe it was..."

"Oh no! The Mahzoks!!"

"They found out the location of the floating city!!"

"They found it before us!!"

"Wait, there's still hope!"

"!?"

"The Warp Device is damaged so they can't operate it now, and I don't think the folks in Factoria can fix it soon...that means!"

"If we can steal it before they fix it, there's still hope for us!"

"Hurry to Factoria Castle!"

"Yeah!"

"Wait there! They must've set up hundreds of traps! Better have a plan!"

"!!"

"Think about it, why didn't that Garudia dude destroy this temple?"

"No idea."

"So that he could lure us here?"

"Of course! I remember you said they were trying to delay our progress, right? And why not Factoria as prey this time? Isn't it obvious? For some reason, they wanted to lure us to the Warp Device since they know we're after it!!"

"But we have to get into the castle no matter what!"