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Chapter 8: The End of the Beginning



Chapter 8 isn't really much to write home about. Enemies continue to get stronger (see below), there's treasure to be had, and Ephraim and friends rejoin us. However, you may notice that something is a little...different than usual. And if not, we'll get to it soon enough.





First up, enemy numbers. Seriously, these soldiers are insane.



Nino gets us off to a fantastic start.



Josh puts this guy out of his misery. In my first run, I did things such that I killed the other soldier first and Nino got killed in the enemy phase.



Seth is heading west to meet up with Ephraim and friends, but the rest of Eirika's group is going north.



Lyn takes out the second soldier, so the only threat to Nino is a knight who's going to be horribly murdered.



Couldn't even get a dying hit in. Well, nice knowing you, and thanks for the door key.



Ephraim shows up and gets on the move.



Eirika sneaks in a kill and maxes speed, doesn't get strength.



The room full of knights is problematic. Weakening them isn't an issue, but with Seth on the south side, no one can take the hits. Eventually I decide that if all I have is a hammer, I might as well get smashing, so I stick Guy in the door and let them come to him. With Nino and/or Lucius backing him up, I can easily kill them on my turn and heal/pop a vulnerary if necessary.



Meanwhile, Ephraim is still Ephraim.



Forde abuse never gets old.







Lucius fares a little better, but he's going to need a lot more magic with how awful Light magic is until we get ready access to Divine.





Erk does his thing and gets a fantastic level for it. Neimi not so much, and Rath even less.



The first few knights are gone, so Josh takes over for Guy and moves farther in.



Nino takes out the knight and gets in position to bait the longbowman.



Josh eliminates the other and maxes speed.



Lucius is carting around a chest key so I don't have to deal with Colm.



Things don't work out so well for our longbow friend.



Not to be outdone, the south team is making progress up the west side.



The thief that spawns in has max speed, so there's nothing you can do to stop him from stealing. If Colm has been particularly blessed, you might be able to get it back, but you're probably shit out of luck. Just make sure no one on the front line has anything too valuable.



Fortunately, all he swipes is a vulnerary.



The vulnerary may be lost, but we put a stop to his little game pretty quickly.



Well, if you're going to get two stats it's hard to do much better.



Forde does his thing with a redundant crit and gets a shitty level.



Guy kills a mage, but he takes a hit in the process, leading to a problem.



Right now, Guy is in range of the longbowman to the left, and the soldier by the throne. He'll survive the arrow with 1 HP, and the soldier can kill him outright. However, in order to block the soldier from reaching Guy, we have to get in range of the soldier and at least one of the mages. No one will survive both mages and the soldier, and the soldier with one mage is capable of killing basically anyone but Josh (assuming Josh is at full HP).



After patching Josh up, we send him in. We won't be in a very good position afterwards, but no one will be dead at least.



Rath takes the opportunity to put up another completely shit level.



Josh makes our position significantly stronger by dodging the soldier's more powerful blow.



Nino and Lyn take out the mage, giving the other mage in the throne room a nice target, which leaves Josh and Guy to clean house on the soldier and longbowman.



Lyn kills the last mage, and now it's time for Tirado.



...Huh. Well that's not how things are supposed to be. Tirado marks the first occasion of a boss that has been reclassed. Like the general's Big Shield skill, assassins have their own class skill. Formally called "Silencer," "Assassinate" does exactly what it sounds like. To be more precise, assassins have a [Crit/2] chance of just outright killing whatever they're attacking. It doesn't matter how much damage they'd normally be doing, *bam* instant death. Its activation rate is halved against bosses [Crit/4], and the final boss is completely immune to it, but assassins are always scary because you never know when they'll just decide to kill off whoever you sent to attack. Also, I'm pretty sure it's just a holdover from him normally being a general, but Tirado has weapon ranks in swords, axes, and lances. I highly doubt the author bothered to sprite the assassin using axes and lances, but it'd be pretty awesome if it's not a bug.

Fortunately, he's not much to write home about stat-wise, and he has no way of defending himself from range. It might not be the fastest or most accurate way of getting the job done, but it's completely risk free.



Erk picks up one last level before we start on the boss. He really shouldn't have.



Long story short, imagine this image about 7 or 8 times.



And that'll be all for the first act of Sacred Stones. I'll see you in Eirika's route.