What I usually do when I pick my units is choose the ones that need leveling. In this case, however, that might not be a good idea. So instead, I’m going to bring in some of my higher level characters. I can always balance it out later with map battles.
With that decided, I go through the scenes again and get back to the preparation screen. Besides Alph and Lucia, I bring in Cecille, Mel, Claire, Kai, Mavi, and Nicolai. It’s a decent mix of levels, so I think I’ll do better this time. Let’s get started!
Kai moves forward, and Mavi buffs Mel, Claire, Nicolai, and Cecille for defense. Alph uses his shield thing on Lucia and moves back. When Claire’s turn comes around, I check her spells. She has two attack spells and three debuffs (for magic, attack, and resistance). Could be helpful. I move her forward and attack one of the knights.
Aaand then Lucia dies. I see a pattern here. I start over again. This time maybe I’ll try and use Alph as a meat shield for Iris’s attack. After a few turns, things go well. Alph is the only one attacked, and he survives, leaving Lucia in the clear.
One of the two knights that start near me goes down, and I’m working on the other one. Lucia is safe for now, and all my guys are alive. This is going smoothly, but I still have to be careful.
First casualty is Alph, but I can bring him back fairly easily. Second starting knight goes down. Now I just have the cleric and all the guys near Iris to deal with. I have Lucia bring back Alph, and have Claire heal him to full health with a Vi Tonic.
One cleric down. There’s still the other one to deal with, but I think I’ll be OK. Mel dies, but she can be brought back as well. Mavi does so immediately, and she’s quickly healed to full health.
Three out of four knights are still dead. Unfortunately, Iris isn’t. I’ll have to take her out as quickly as possible. As if in response to this, she kills Kai with a flash drive. I’ll bring him back later. Right now I have to focus on Iris. Cecille’s turn comes around fairly quickly, and she uses her Revive spell to bring back Kai. Right now, the only ones left are iris, a knight, a magician, and a cleric. The cleric might be trouble, so I’ll take her out if I have the chance. Aw, HELL. Iris has a charm attack? She uses it on some of my guys, and it works on Alph. I’ll have to cure him of that as soon as possible. In fact, I’ll do that now.
Good thing I did, because he gets a turn right after I cure him. And the magician soon goes down. Iris is almost dead, so I have Alph finish her. Or almost finish her, anyway. Claire soon comes in to finish the job.
After taking the knight out, the cleric is the only one standing. Mavi dies, but there’s no point bringing her back when I’m this close. Nicolai deals the final blow, and wins me the battle.
My spoils are 5600 Rico and four Vitae. I decide to intermission with Lucia. Everyone remarks on how Lucia and Alph are formally bonded. After a bit of that, Claire tells Alph about what his and Theo’s stones made. It’s the Light Lapistier. Alph offers it to Lucia, but she tells him to hold onto it. Claire says that if they stay here, the Church will eventually find them. So she suggests that we return to the Witch village. Well, that’ll give me a chance to appraise all those Vitae I’ve been finding. Sounds good. Mel asks if Mother Lapis is still there, and Claire says that she’s still being protected by the barrier. They do decide to move her to the village, because it’s too dangerous to leave her out in the forest.
The scene switches to Kingston, who’s surprised that Iris was defeated. Iris is still alive, though, and it sounds like she'll stay that way as long as she still has the Thunder Lapistier.
My intermission starts. Lucia says Alph looks proud of himself. He doesn’t think he’s actually good, does he? My options are “Eh, I can improve,” “Think!? I KNOW I’m good!” and “You really helped, Lucia.” I pick the top one. She says she was sure I’d be overconfident after this victory. She tells me to keep training, because I still have a ways to go.
Kopin woke up and found himself on a cutting board. NOES! D: Don’t worry, he’ll live to be weird another day.
Well, my next destination is the Witch village. It’s a ways to go to get back there, but it’ll give me a chance to train a bit. If I remember correctly, there’s a few twists awaiting us when we get there. Keep an eye on this liveblog, because things are about to get interesting.