Part 37: For Obel's Freedom

All right, are you pumped for reclaiming Obel? I'm not. Why?



Ocean.



And ocean battles.

Okay, proceed as planned!

What's the plan, you ask?



Well, first we put Lino in a... uh... actually I'm not sure what the hell he's wearing.



It's very visible, though!



The reason I couldn't recruit those two before was so they could participate in this cutscene.

No other reason.

It was not worth it.

Gary, Ema, you have been a great help. Everyone has come together, thanks to you.

You don't think you and Setsu had anything to do with it?

All right, fine, not so much Setsu, but you know what I mean.

Truly, you two are not even of this kingdom, and yet you have done so much...



Say...



...isn't there a certain resemblance here? Gary and Ema might be distant ancestors.

_{Well okay Maximillian is fairly ancient so not that distant.}

Thank you... Come, my people of Obel! Now is the time for us to stand together as one!

Everyone! Let us have faith that his Majesty will be victorious!



The people of Obel are like "Fuck yeah!"



And the Kooluk soldiers are like "Fuck no!"



Sadly, our angry mob gets interrupted.



One might even say they get ninjaed.



This is a message from the Lady Tactician Elenor. Farewell.



Ninja vanish! Mizuki is not so good with the whole "being social" thing.



Meanwhile, Colton orders his underlings to bring his red shirt.



Also Elenor spouts bullshit like always.



All right... We'll split up in two. Lazlo... Decide who goes with who.

Aren't you supposed to be doing these things?

...

Actually, never mind.



Oh, yeah, that Gaien ship that unexpectedly defected to our side when we took Razril? We actually have that now.

Honestly it's rather more of a bother than anything else. It's not as if I need more than the boat and Grishend, but you still have to deploy the third ship, and that means you have to staff it as well.



Anyway I send it with Kika so she can deal with the dead weight.



Time to drive out the oppressors! And since this is marginally more exciting than the previous ones, you get a video.



...wait, I'm pretty sure they showed us three ships in the previous cutscene...



Colton has a boatload of HP and nothing else of value going for him. The other ship is the same but worse.



We start out with just the boat, but on the second turn, Kika shows up and steals the show.

Th-This is... from two sides?!

yes

you didn't actually think I only had the one boat, did you

...

actually I'll just get on with sinking you



I may have given Warlock some shit for his stat table...



...but damn, does this geezer know his way around a Rune Cannon!



Then Kika somehow immediately gets a second turn, probably due to ambush shenanigans.

It should come as no great surprise that this results in one extremely sunk enemy vessel.



Colton decides to try and board the Grishend. He takes a cannonball to the face for his troubles.



And that's that.



I'm surprised there's anything left of him! That was Jeane on a lightning cannon.



He is terribly embarrassed. I'm guessing he bumbled his way to this position and was at a complete loss when he met an enemy who is not equally incompetent.

I'm not being kind to Colton, but come on, seriously, we outnumbered and ambushed him. As always, war battles are pathetically easy.

See that hole in the wharf over there? The big hole that this ship made when it escaped...

What of it?

You tried to pull a pincer move on us by hiding ships in there, didn't you? But your reinforcements never came.

It wouldn't be much of a "pincer" if nothing's stuck in it! All that would have accomplished is another ship coming in from the east going HEY GUYS WHAT'S GOING ON OVER THERE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MAP and then we'd sink the other two before it could get close enough to fire on.



With a hole that size, there can only be one ship in there. Shall we go see? Our fleet could easily crush it.

No, we need not rush ourselves.



Just like the boat, this ship does not seem to actually need sails.



Now who could that



okay fine I know, no one is surprised.

Lady Flare, please do not be so reckless! It gives me such a fright! Oh, my feeble heart...

Flare just smiles like she was just waiting for an excuse to get rid of him.



Lino finds it hilarious, too.

I apologize for using your daughter, but it seems it worked our well.

Things you don't hear often.

That's no problem. It seems like you know my daughter pretty well.

That was just a lucky guess. Come on.

So, I've run out of tricks... I'm sorry, Sir Troy...

You never had any tricks. Hands up anyone who is actually dumb enough to think that one ship would have changed anything?

...thought so.

All that's left now are the Kooluk troops on land. There shouldn't be that many of them.

Actually, we'll never see another Kooluk trooper on Obel again. I'm just going to assume Flare shot them all off-screen.



That doesn't mean we don't have problems, though.

Hmm?!

But... how?



And there they go with "a lot of ships" again. When we actually fight them, there's going to be two.

Well, it's still manageable.

Ya think?

That's... the Governor's privateer fleet...

It's not a fleet! Two ships! TWO!

Okay, let's go get them!



Screw you Elenor, stop trying to dick me out of stuff.



Because he knew you would mess everything up and needed help.

Colton isn't the interesting thing here, though. Talk to the other guy...

Ship's Crew: Sir Lazlo... This man had this on him...

...and he hands us the Pirate King Bracers.

Again, this is a dickmove with a unique item you can only obtain in this manner.



Now, we can tell Elenor we're ready.



As you can see, these would never be a threat, but even worse, they won't even move.

They're certainly providing us with entertainment, that's for sure... Okay, let's get ready.





Just like clockwork...



Naturally, it was all part of their fiendish plan. Hey, back up a little here - I shot you with water bullets!

That ship! Is it trying to take us down with it?!

No, that was probably that ship's original intent. If they're under Cray's orders...

"JUST RAM THEM YOU FUCKERS I PAY YOU ENOUGH TO BLEED"



Seriously, where does that third ship come from?



The crew is like "OH SHIT RUN" and seem to have conveniently have forgot that we're out on the goddamn ocean and there is no place to run.



Just shoot them again! Those ships are barely holding together as it is.

What did you say?!

No, you can't!

Seriously, Elenor, even the cat has his shit together. You know, we could just evade them. We have a whole ocean with nothing else in it to manoeuvre on!



What if I do have a better idea? What then, huh?! There's like five people on this boat who are better at nuking things than I am! But Elenor has decided that we're fucking well going to plot laser things and we're going to do it now.

...

...



Chiepoo and the knights just stand there.



"The hell you say?"

"You actually think running would help?"

"Is it too late to recruit a strategist who hasn't been marinaded in cheap booze?"



But you know what?



I don't feel like it.



Hurry, or everyone here will perish.

No... I can't use it...

Lazlo! It's all riding on you...!!!

Fuck your superfluous punctuation, Elenor, and fuck you, too.

Lazlo...!

...Lazlo!

It's kind of hilarious how this works. Since they can't actually say Lazlo's name _{(STAR PLAYER OF THE ZANARKAND ABES)} they just sort of grunt. It's pretty bad.



Can't make me!



Fuck that. Fuck everything.



And I'm taking all you assholes with me.