Alright, the third, and hopefully final part of this chapter, I begin by sending everyone who hasn't already moved back down south, since I just now see that the only way to Agusty is through the Mackily path. Dierdre uses her Return Ring to instantly warp back to the castle, while Ethlin warps a couple non-mounted people, and then waits for Levin and Sylvia who begin visiting the rest of the villages and claiming the money that they offer.
After learning of our seizure of Anphony, the lord of Mackily fears we are trying to subdue all of Agustria (if these damned morons weren't always getting in the way, we'd have only had to go to Agusty so we could get Eltshan, but they always bring this on themselves), and begins preparing ballistas and soldiers to attack our forces. Meanwhile, the pegasus knight who had previously flown into Agusty is now annoyed with Shagaal, who appears to be stalling her for some reason. Shagaal apparently said that he know prince Levin's whereabouts, but has been stalling, since it's patently obvious he doesn't. He then pegs his disappearance on us, claiming we captured him (oh come on! We've only captured one foreign noblemen, and he wanted to join us!), and are executing everyone that we come across. He tells her Levin is being held in Evans, and is about to be executed. The pegasus knight is worried, and decides to fly to Evans immediately, and while she has been ordered not to fight by Queen Rahna of Silesia, she plans to engage any of our troops that she comes across. Shagaal is just glad that she's finally left, and deploys his own troops as her wing of knights flies off.
And deploy troops did they ever, holy crap that's a lot of people. Some douche also put Sylvia to sleep, so that's not good. I have Levin head for Ethlin, so that he can be warped back to the castle and recruit the pegasus knight (who I can now see is named Fury). I then have everyone begin charging south, hopefully to intercept the enemy forces before they can reach Evans, where Ardan is guarding it. I just hope Fury and her squad don't go for Sylvia, or else this is going to get hairy.
Ethlin reaches Levin and returns him to the main castle, and turns around herself, preparing to join the party as they charge down towards Evans. It appears that the Mackily forces are more interested in Sigurd's group, because they turn towards them, rather than Evans. I have Levin leave, so that he can recruit Fury and her group as they fly down towards them, and everyone else leaves to go assist Sigurd's group in fighting off the Agusty and Mackily forces. I notice that all of the Mackily forces save for the fire mages have pursuit, which could make dealing with those myrmidons harder than it would appear. I move everyone down, and have them set up to take the initial brunt of the attack with as little trouble as possible. The party is able to defeat the myrmidons and the archers, but are left with a trio of fire mages ready to blast them where it hurts. And with a platoon of cavalry drawing near, this could get dicey.
Thankfully the mages didn't kill anyone, since they were too stupid to concentrate their fire on anyone. No, that belongs to the balllisticians, who killed Sylvia because she couldn't dodge a pair of 16s. God dammit. Reset counter: 5.
I move Sylvia to a different area in the forest, and then take out the enemies just as I did before.
Goddammit, now the mages concentrate their attacks? Fin is immolated by a pair of fire mages, inconsistent pair of bastards that they are. Reset Counter: 6.
Alright then, successfully set myself up so that those damned mages would go for two higher level targets, since they likely went for Fin since he was such a low level compared to the rest of the party. Once the mages fall, I have everyone step back a bit to let the platoon of cavalry get closer, so that everyone can take care of them with the least amount of danger.
After most of the first platoon of cavalry are dealt with, the second reaches the party, and Fury's wing of pegasi draw near to Levin, hopefully not able to attack their prince before Fury is recruited. The second platoon of cavalry is dealt with as well, but the pegasi seem to be attacking Levin, and very nearly kill him. Only Fury and one of her squadron are left, but she didn't speak to Levin when he was in range, so I'm not sure if she will speak to him of her own accord. Levin takes down the final one of the pegasi, and waits to see what Fury will do.
Dealing with these foes has left everyone in less than stellar condition, and once Aideen catches up, along side the rest of the people sent to Evans, she, Lachesis, and Ethlin begin fixing everyone up for the attack on Mackily. Levin then speaks with Fury, who continued on her way to Evans, and after some explanation, and some indignation from Fury due to Queen Rahna's shaky emotional state being caused by Levin's disappearance two years ago (and they only now sent out a search party?) Fury joins the party. Fury is a level 6 pegasus knight with some decent stats, a slim lance, 8000 gold, and the pursuit skill. I do believe I'll be pairing her with Levin.
I send Levin and Fury to join the rest of the party, and get Levin fixed up and ready to go. With everyone in their best condition, I try to find some way around those ballistas. I don't remember Levin dealing extra damage to pegasi with his wind magic, but I'm not sure how Fury would fare against the bolts, though she seems to be the only person who could deal with them... I hope she can avoid them enough to get close and smash them.
Good, they don't appear to do bonus damage, and she was able to dodge every last bolt. Nice showing there! She then flies over and takes down one of them, putting herself in the safety range between the lot of them.
Forgot about Clement and his damned sleep staff, and he knocks out Fury. Now I'm left with four ballistas left to go, before I can safely attack Mackily (this is a seriously well defended place, I'll give him that). I have Sigurd, Dierdre, Ardan, Levin, Azel, Aideen, Jamka, Lachesis, Dew, Holyn, and Aira (good lord that's about half my units, and it's still about the size, if not a bit bigger, than my usual party) all advance together, waiting just outside the ballistas range. They're all mostly support so that Dierdre can gain some levels, since I was forewarned that this was the last chapter I had her in, and she helps determine the stats of her kid in the next generation.
Patience is the name of this game, as I wait out five turns for Fury to wake up, destroy a ballista, fly out of Clement's sleep staff range. I also have Sigurd enter the ballistas range to try to draw their fire a bit.
OWOWOW BONUS DAMAGE JUST MEANS A CRIT! Scared the hell out of me, since it doesn't show the change in damage. Fury eats one of the ballista shots, and just barely lives. I'll take the sleep and extra turns, so long as she doesn't get impaled by one of those. Finally finish off the ballistas, and have Fury fly off and go hang out with Levin, getting healed by Aideen in the meantime. I then move Dierdre and Sigurd forward, to take out the castle. Dierdre silences Clement, and then blasts the knight guarding the road to the castle.
Once he's out of the way, I have Sigurd and Dierdre move on to Mackily. Sigurd stands by her, hoping to initiate the Power of Love, but sadly, Dierdre only blasts him normally, so his silence wears off. She still best him magically, and he just puts Sigurd to sleep. Dierdre takes him down next turn, and claims his sleep staff as her own.
Once Sigurd is roused, I have him claim the castle, finally putting an end to this slogfest. Sigurd and Oifaye discuss the next step of taking Agusty, Oifaye noting that there is still a large force stationed there.
Now I just need to defeat Shagaal and seize Agusty...
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