Part 45: Sidetracked (XVII) - Ninjas Spell Trouble

We're back to Haruna again for the first and last time.



Fortunately this is a level scaling encounter. Enemies in plot fights have set levels, which is why they were so pathetic last time.



As you can see, I opted to leave Flare and Karl behind, because Flare has seen a lot of action lately and Karl is still kind of shit.



I may have said the enemies were pathetic last time, but to be honest I don't expect these to be much more of a threat.



They will drop more experience when killed, though, which is exactly what we need.



I don't know what you did to piss off all these dudes, but it must have been pretty impressive.



Kate will spend most of her time running away, so I guess we can file her away under "competent NPCs" as well. At least, she's highly unlikely to get killed before you can get to her.



Oh hello there, Seneca. I missed you.



Of course, that was worth EXP in the four digit range.



A couple of enemies are in range to hit Kate, but they're not going to do much damage.



I brought Maxine mostly because she has a support with Jeane.

Uh... Yeah.

She doesn't seem overly enthusiastic about it, though.

Tee hee! Nice to meet you.

Umm, nice to meet you, too.



I think that's a fairly understandable reaction to Jeane.



Speaking of whom, she's still behind on levels, but that means anything she does will be worth a ton of EXP.



Kate continues running away and regenerates all the damage she took.



And Champo ensures she won't be taking any more.



Just like last time, the enemies are spread out and we'll be needing to get through this chokepoint to get to some of them. Well, that or long-ranged options.



Speaking of which!



Corselia is slow, so I'm using the cast-and-cancel trick to get her up next to Maxine. Cheating? Eh.



oh for



WIND OF SLEEP

Not only is Mitsuba out of commission for the rest of the fight, but now my cat is on wind terrain, too! This is awful, just awful.



Jeane doesn't have Thunder Runner, but the spell taking its place is pretty good too.



Not bad. Not great, but not bad.



No more Winds of Sleep out of you, dickbag. Ever.



He's far from the only dickbag on the enemy side, though.



This guy is like I'M GOING TO SHOOT LIGHTNING AT YOU



Lazlo is like NO.



Turns out the reward for one-shotting a dude eight levels higher than you is 1480 EXP.



I have no complatints.



I have some about this, though.



And this.



Not so much this, though.



Mitsuba sleeps away another turn.



And Lazlo explodes the last guy because fuck the last guy.



That's how it's done.



And the ninja survived, too.

Kate...

Mizuki... and Akaghi, of course... Up to some risky business again, are you?

I wouldn't call it risky exactly

I'm only fulfilling the duty given to me.

Yeah, that's how it goes.

Hmm...
Okay, how about teaming up with me? After all, you did defeat the Kooluk soldiers, right? We're on the same side.

Actually no, how about you team up with me.

Kyril... Kate's from the same village as us. I believe we can trust her.
But, I'll leave the final decision to you.

Bah.

Kyril, be careful about this one.

You all know how this goes by now.

Hm, let me think...

No, you can't. There's nothing to think about.



There is no dialogue either way. The first choice results in



this happening and the other one doesn't. That's all.

Kate is our second user of thrown weapons, and unlike Sigurd she's not so far behind on levels as to be nearly impossible to use at this point. She's pretty good, with high speed, skill and evade, 5 natural MOV, Godspeed, Extra Move - you know, all the good stuff.

And for those of you wondering why I made such a big deal of that S-rank last time we were here...



...well, that's the reason right there.



Now, break time.

Yeah...

Oh joy, it's my favourite sword people.

But you leave your island and come all the way here? Is that wise?

no one ever accused axel of being wise

I'm not worried. Besides, if the Kooluk invade again, peace on the island won't mean a thing.
It'll be fine. I left things in the hands of my father back in Na-Nal.

So chief douche is still alive? That's the worst news I've had all week.

I see...

Now I've seen everything. An elf interested in the affairs of us humans...

They were pretty interested last time, too. We all know what happened then.

Well, it's not as if we are at odds with you humans because we enjoy it.

Yes, they are. You're like the only one who doesn't know about it. You're pretty bad at being an elf.

Believe it or not, we feel the same way!

Really?

Yeah. I may like to fight, but only with the monsters that deserve it...

You're looking at one!

I see...
Then maybe, upon our return to Na-Nal Island, we should hold talks between the humans and the elves once again.

Hey, that would be great! Count me in!

Do you promise?





anyway

We're going to have to get back to that whole plot business soon. I think we'll need six characters for it, so let's go with that.