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Update X: Hungry like a Wolf
Today's battle is against a monster group. They're like the clan fights, except there's only monsters on the battlefield.
Today's law forbids back attacks. That's not really a pain, since side attacks will deal plenty of damage. In general, monster clans aren't particularly formidable. But don't let your guard down, monsters pack some nasty status conditions and powerful attacks.
You can see some of our enemies. We're up against a handful of Wolves and Werewolves, including a purple Hellhound.
Here's our starting position. This map is all cliffs and ridges, making it hard for most melee characters to get anything done. To compensate, I've picked Adelle (still as a Hunter), our Red Mage Alice, Fidona the Raptor and Garret the Illusionist, giving us plenty of ranged damage options. Monsters will bring the fight to you, so I've got Luso and Cid in the front to hold the lines.
As usual, Bonus AP 3 is our clan privilege for this fight.
And we're off!
The Hellhound and a Wolf move first, advancing down the only path close to us. We're still too far away for them to do anything.
Alice starts us off strong by dropping a Thunder on the Werewolf on the hill above us. He's not much of a threat, but it's better to start dealing damage, right?
More wolves move towards us, and Fidona moves up the hill a few tiles away from the Werewolf who just got Thundered.
Adelle takes advantage of the grouped-up enemies to drop a Sonic Boom on them. You can see how tight that little pass is, forcing the enemies to come one-by-one into the Clan Gully Meatgrinder.
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Luso moves forward and drops an Aurablast on the same group. He's a little closer, so he hits both Wolves and the Hellhound. Then he taunts them by turning his back to them. This will definitely pay off.
Yup. A confused Ninja was definitely worth it.
We really don't want to have a ninja we can't control. Our best hope now is that one of the enemies will hit Luso and knock him out of it. Since his back is still to them, they should be able to hit him pretty easily.
Even better, Fidona gets immobilized by the Werewolf near her. She'll hopefully be fine.
Cid moves forward a bit and Air Renders the Werewolf who confused Luso. The last Werewolf up on the ridge tries to move forward, then buffs himself with Counter. It'll only last one use, and he's too far away for us to actually trigger it.
The Hellhound moves in and answers my prayers by attacking Luso. Even better, Luso has Counter, so we'll get some free damage on top of breaking Confusion!
Welp. So much for that. At least Counter still activates.
It's up to Alice to make a difference. Luso's turn is coming up fast.
This is a great example of the weird height mechanics in this game. Thunder hits a 2x2 square, but due to the slopes and the slight hill Luso is standing on, it won't hit the Hellhound. Fortunately, it also won't hit Adelle.
Turns out it won't hit Luso either. Ninjas! That's two 78% accuracy attacks dodged so far.
A red wolf moves forward and attacks Cid, who counters it with a pole to the face.
Garret got a turn earlier, but he couldn't do anything with only 10 MP. Since he didn't move or make an action, his turn comes around much faster.
The Hellhound is weak to Water and Holy, the Wolves are weak to Water, and the Werewolves are weak to Wind. Deluge is our best bet, hitting the wolves for 100+ damage.
The flood kills one and leaves the other wolf and the hellhound at critical health.
The werewolf who immobilized Fidona was kind enough to stay in place, so she gets a free hit on it. Power Crush drops his defense, though Magick Crush may have been a better choice.
Luso's turn is right after Adelle's, so I'm getting a bit desperate. Thankfully, she lands the shot.
Here's a good example of why conditions are worth using. Normally, Fidona would easily dodge the werewolf's attack with Reflex. Unfortunately, being Immobilized stops Reflex from working. I think Counter would still have worked, but I'm not sure.
We're nearing the end of the fight. Cid kills the Hellhound with an Air Render, the last Werewolf finally gets down off the mountain to attack Cid, Alice thunders it and the weakened Wolf. Fidona has enough MP hit the Werewolf that attacked her with Cyclone, even though it ran away from her. Garret drops another Deluge, which kills the weakened Wolf and Werewolf that were near Cid. Adelle finishes off the Werewolf in the mountains with Sonic Boom, while Luso and Cid take out the last remaining one on the ground.
Some good levels and loot here. As easy as they tend to be, monster clans will usually give a full 60 EXP. No MVPs this time, though personally I'd say Garret did really well with his 3 turns.
Thanks to Bonus AP 3, we got a nice 90 AP from that fight. Overall, this was a really good haul.
(I'd end the update by looking at what new abilities were learned and what that means for the clan's development. I'd add in a bit about new weapons that are available, if we got any. If this was a story mission, I'd also do the next cutscene. If it was a side quest, I'd probably do a couple more side quests to get a nice full update, though I'd have gone into less detail for this fight.)