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Welcome back. Let's see what horrors the RNG has in store today, shall we? 
Oh hey, this line actually mostly makes sense, as most of the enemy lineup is monsters. Just... different monsters.
Artur's a Myrmidon, it seems. Eirika's got competition! And I was wondering when we'd run into our first enemy Lord.
I thought the game would hang again here, but the game just went to map animations and it all worked out. 
Anyway, Artur forces himself into our party, so let's see what we're working with.
That Strength! At Level 3! He's like the red cavalier myrmidon to Eirika's green.
Damn. Eirika really does have competition. His skills are Provoke, Shove and Duelist's Blow, all of which I've covered before. I'm not sure how I feel about him of all people having Provoke, but I guess we'll see how things work out. The steel sword is pretty decent, but I'll also give him one of Eirika's iron swords for variety's sake. He also has a bag of 50 gold...
...that sells for 25. 
Whoa. I sent Gilliam to the battle prep armory to get another heal staff for him as his first is closer to breaking than I'd like, when I noticed that the randomizer adds all the stat boosting items and Master Seals to the shop list. That's... really generous, actually, and a nice out to if you get unlucky with promotion items, even if they are more expensive than normal. Good thing I got two of them in chapter 2, then.
I'm pointing out the boss early because this is... kind of scary considering how much of a joke the original Chapter 4 boss is! It might not seem so bad at first, but the skill he's packing is Death Blow. Not the red attack-boosting one Eirika has, this one is orange! What's important is it gives him +20% Crit when he initiates battle. I'll have to be really careful fighting him, or just blitz him down.
Here's the party I'm going with. I want to give Neimi and Colm a little more time to shine, given how little attention they got last time, plus with Franz's fantastic growths I don't really want him stealing much EXP that could go to others who could use it better.
Enough chit-chat; let's get down to work.
Artur starts by visiting the village to get a tome I can't use, as Ross is only at E anima.
Not that it's much better than the basic Fire tome. Man, this run is not kind to magic users.
Ross takes it off his hands regardless, and gives him a second wind. Another nice palette!
God, Duelist's Blow is so good.
Red Death Blow I'll refer to them by their icon colors to differentiate them + Duelist's Blow is even better, though!
Artur's attack magnetism is doing wonders for him. He can't even kill the guy in response.
Another Myrmidon goes for him and fares less well.
What kind of world is this where the axe user has more accuracy than the two sword users that attacked Artur?
At least the enemies aren't the only ones getting lucky.
Here's not-Eirika attacking us. I almost have a heart attack as she attacks twice, but fortunately Neimi dodges the second strike.
Vanessa and Neimi make a pretty good team.
Ross and Garcia start their support, because let's face it, Ross needs all the help he can get.
I try to see if I'll get lucky again, but nope.
Seriously, Garcia has weapon triangle disadvantage but he's way more likely to hit with an axe than most of these enemies are with a sword.
Wait, why do these guys have range...?
Between Aura last chapter and this, I'm really glad I have random stats on. This also would be kind of scary to run into so early on.
Eirika gets over here to distract the enemies from Artur...
...but I also don't want the Runesword enemies anywhere near Artur while he's injured and I have no vulneraries to give him, so he goes after these guys instead.
Very nice.
Eirika's encounter with her doppelgangers end up being kind of scary, as another one goes in on her with an iron sword, leaving her with very low HP.
The one by Lute's village fares less well.
Huh. I really need to be more thorough on enemy inventories, I didn't even notice she could drop this.
I then didn't get a chance to look at it until after the chapter, but this is actually pretty decent other than the hit rate.
Oh hey, it's L'arachel and her posse! It's obscured by her text box, but she's a Knight... for now, anyway. Also Dozla went from being a Berserker to... a Berserker 
Moulder goes to pick up Lute and yeah, that'd be my reaction to a floating eye coming into my town, too.
Lute is a gargoyle! And oh my god she has more than 4 Defense it's a miracle
...or not. 
Her Strength growth is really good. And so is her personal skill! Spectrum Stance gives her +2 Strength, Speed, Defense, and Resistance in fights she initiates.
These are the kinds of numbers I like to see.
These ones, too!
Ross lets her knock out the other one, too.
I'm sure this will be nice once I get someone to hit A swords.
Not the prettiest palette, but we've seen worse.
This Tarvos picks a fight with Moulder, and it ends poorly.
Why is everyone so compelled to attack Moulder when Lute is right there, too? Hell, the Tarvos probably would have had better odds against her because of the weapon triangle.
This Mauthe Doog spawned with 0 move, for some reason. 
Hey, Ross finally got a kill! It took Neimi softening it down to 2 HP, but there you go. This is part of the reason Dancers being forced to have Wary Fighter is kind of annoying - sure, it prevents them from being doubled (and also prevents the game from crashing), but not being able to double attack really hurts Ross's chances of killing things.
Moulder misses a shot here, but Vanessa is just strong enough to finish the job. Then Artur shoves Colm out of the way so Garcia can get the other Doog.
There's a joke in here about a "dog-eat-dog world" but it's just not coming to me.
Either way, he gets the best level I've seen yet in this run
I attack this merc with Moulder to see if I can finally demonstrate Barricade+ properly...
...but then Moulder gets really lucky and I don't. He wouldn't have been able to, anyway, if "struck last" means "last in the round". Oh, well.
OH GOD I WASN'T CAREFUL but thankfully this was just a regular hit and not a crit. Either way, we're almost done here, all that remains is this guy and the dog that can't move.
Colm finishes off the dog...
...and the boss gives me another scare, this time with Garcia.
Ross to the rescue...!
And that's a wrap. Hey, he actually gained magic this time!
This line is...a lot more horrifying when most of the enemies are humans.
I am, too. I could use a knight...
NEXT TIME:
He's almost correct, actually.