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Welcome to Act 2 (title pending) of I, Elf Member: Arch Detests Nose. Before starting Chapter 9 proper, I decided to see if promotion items work on monsters...
...and it turns out the answer is no, you need to use master seals specifically to promote them. It's a good thing I got the two of them all the way back in Chapter 2, because promotion items have been pretty sparse since then.
I'm not going to bother with the Tower of Valni or any skirmishes, and there isn't really much that needs to be done in terms of setup, so let's get right to it.
That doesn't bode well 
Oh well, I'm sure it's nothing.
Tana is... another Myrmidon. Oh boy, just what I always wanted.
Or... not? I didn't think the class change fuckery would apply to her too.
This is fitting for both L'arachel and me for naming my seed after Ashera 
After L'arachel and her posse go away, Binks the Cyclops shows up out of nowhere to give us a map to fight through.
Holy shit, Tana. Normally I'd be down on anyone for having only 13 HP and 2 Skill, but 9 Strength, 18 Speed and 11 Defense at just level 6 is absurd (especially the defense, given The Trend), and 9 move from Celerity on top of that! Additionally, her class skill is Adept, which gives her a Speed% chance to get a follow-up attack directly after attacking - if she doubles, it can proc twice. Given how fast she is already, this is very good.
Here's today's team. Benching one of my healers probably isn't the wisest decision, but there are a lot of fliers around, and Seth is the only other bow user I have.
There's also, uh, this guy. You okay there, buddy?
Well, you won't be for long! 
Lockpick count: 4
Thief count: 0
Joshua does Joshua things with this Knight...
...who drops a weapon that really lives up to its name.
As tempting as it is to have Tana charge forward right away, that's a Journeyman with an iron axe, which means she will die if she crosses into his range even with a sword equipped.
...not that Joshua fares much better. 
One reset later...
...and we're playing this as safe as possible. The only enemies that can hurt us this turn are the knight and a wyvern rider down by where Lute is, as well as the gargoyle that I decide to bait out with Seth.
This time, the knight attacks with the heavy spear, which means it does the thing that the Brave Sword in chapter 6 did where he just doesn't drop anything. I don't even get the iron lance he had used previously.
It's a damn shame the Shadowkiller has such bad accuracy, otherwise it'd be perfect for taking on monsters, even at a weapon triangle disadvantage. That said, it'll definitely come in handy against the boss.
It was handy in getting this level, at any rate.
Seth picks the gargoyle off, because why not.
Lute also finishes off the aforementioned wyvern rider because I don't want him going after the rest of my party. Everyone else continues to hang back.
I don't know where this gargoyle is going, but it stopping in front of the shop was funny to me. It's a good thing enemies can't go shopping...
Here's a less funny gargoyle. Artur can't even hit him at all in response, I didn't buy a Restore staff, and Ephraim had the only Antitoxin and he's gone now. So that's fun!
And neither Eirika nor Enemyrika get any hits in on each other, either.
Lute continues her flight away from everyone else, because I realize the enemy ranges down on the bottom of the map work out such that they're just out of reach of the open house down here.
Seth and Eirika join forces to take down the mighty Enemyrika.
This guy also happened to be right in range of Vanessa after poisoning Artur, so she politely tells it to 
Artur being a high strength sword user makes him basically perfect for fighting Journeymen. Poor guy has no idea what's about to happen to him.
It then dawns on me that the gargoyle is most likely aiming for that house. If it is, then I can kiss goodbye to whatever's in it, because there's no way I can reach it in time.
I was gonna continue to have Lute go for the house, but one look at how crowded the bottom of the map has gotten is enough to change my mind 
This is only going to get worse, so we need to push forward. Lute flies due west instead.
Tana jumps into the fr- JESUS CHRIST 
I accidentally had Ross dance for Joshua instead of Artur, but I make do.
Vanessa also can't reach the gargoyle, but she can clear the way a bit more by getting this guy out of the way. If he lived, he and Joshua have a 100% chance of doing about 25 damage to each other.
Joshua dispatches a knight that tried to hit him with a poison lance for a really good level. 
And I was right. 
I'm not going to reset for this unless I get into a really bad situation, though.
The random promoted enemy for this chapter went from a Sniper to a Druid. He lands Nosferatu, and Artur misses the second shot that would have killed him.
Oh, there you are! I was wondering when you'd show up.
Another axe user. Her promotion seems pretty clear from her skills, at least - she has Bowfaire, giving her +4 damage with a bow equipped, and Charisma, now on an ally.
Moulder shows this druid how to do this whole dark magic thing.
Thank you, Moulder.
I had hoped for Tana to get this kill, but...
Vanessa gets it instead. At least this time she's getting things besides just Skill, I guess...?
Don't think I don't see you following m-
mmmmm never mind. Lute's still working off the last rider's Seal Speed, otherwise she wouldn't be getting doubled by this guy. Fighting him would bring her right back to the full -6 speed penalty. As it is right now, she has an attack speed of 1, and would get doubled by this guy even with Spectrum Stance.
Tana runs down to (hopefully) distract him from Lute, who then gives her a Rally Speed boost.
With the slim lance equipped, Lute's AS suddenly becomes a lot better, and she doesn't get doubled.
Meanwhile, the gargoyle aims for the other house, so drastic actions are taken.
The final ballista shot goes towards getting this guy off Lute's back. Farewell, Iron Ballista, you've served us well 
One of the Enemyrikas that showed up with Amelia attempts to hit Tana, who gets... this... out of it.
Bringing Seth off the bench has been a good idea for feeding kills to others. Maybe eventually we'll see him level up?
Finally, my very own Killing Edge! It's a shame Lethality doesn't run off crit rate like it does in vanilla FE8, otherwise this would make Artur busted.
Neimi hasn't seen any action all chapter, so Moulder gives her a little push onto the front lines.
A knight with a steel lance goes for Eirika, but fortunately she dodges and puts a good dent in them.
I knew my habit of throwing Joshua at everything would bite me eventually, but this isn't a very big bite.
Lute visits the other house. Don't worry, she's not like that other gargoyle...
This... is good! I can think of a lot of characters that would benefit from getting this.
That little push worked out, because Neimi gets this kill.
Can't make use of Life and Death if you can't hit!
This guy didn't get the memo and tried to hit Tana on the enemy phase, but then Tana misses an 80% hit chance, so he lives another day.
Sorry, did I say day? I meant second.
Neimi and Lute both get levels off of teaming up to take down a Recruit. Both are good, but Lute's is better.
Artur hasn't gotten an opportunity to show off Lethality yet, but hopefully a good chance will arise soon.
Meanwhile, Moulder goes shopping. The only thing new is the Iron Blade, and this would actually be fantastic if not for the prohibitively high weight. Tana might be able to make use of it if she goes Great Knight, though. Regardless, I pick one up, along with a steel sword and a javelin.
Ross does Ross things so that Eirika can get Amelia on her side.
You know, looking at her bases, I was thinking "wow, I guess Garcia's never coming off the bench now", but after looking at her growths, I'm not so sure. This is really bad, but having Charisma will help for the rest of this chapter at least...
...but she will do so out of harm's way.
Oh, isn't that cute.
Moulder hits up the vendor, and wow, this is so much better than both Fire and Elfire. I pick up a copy of this for if Ross ever hits D in anima, as well as a Mend staff for Kyle.
Artur caps strength!
I'm less enthused by this. Come on, Eirika, you gotta assert your dominance as the myrmidon lord!
Tana boldly charges these knights. The other one has a slim lance, so I'm not concerned about her survival.
The other one is even so kind as to let her cap speed as early as level 8
This is all that's left of the map, now. Neimi is in position to bring out the Shaman, and then we can blitz down the rest of them before getting to work on Binks.
This shaman isn't that bad, but any closer and the Journeymen would also have been able to get to Neimi.
But we push ever closer to the end.
Tana gets more free experience off of her.
Since we're so close to the end, I decide to say "fuck it" and just sprint towards Binks, taking out these two clowns.
Cool, Joshua has a net 0 defense now!
It's a good thing Binks doesn't actually move, because 
83 HP is a tall order, and he has Renewal on top of that, meaning he regains 30% HP per turn, and his weapons could be pretty scary if he had a chance of hitting with them. Hopefully I can kill him without getting him to switch weapons, because I want that Tomahawk so that I can (eventually) use a ranged axe that isn't complete dogshit.
After much finagling with party positions, Joshua gets things started. Lute's Rally Speed enables him to double, which helps immensely with draining this massive HP pool.
Ross can't actually reach Joshua, so doing a bit of damage with him will have to do.
It's a damn good thing Artur and Eirika have Duelist's Blow, because Binks is strong enough to one-shot both of them.
A non-Lethality crit speeds things up, plus Eirika will be able to get the killing blow.
Seth helps, too.
I'm inclined to say the Tomahawk is the better reward, here.
NEXT TIME:
Four new units, and none of them good.