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Welcome back. Time for the chapter where Eirika gets a bunch of units dumped on her all at once.
But first, Glen and Cormag have a chat. It's funny that for all the times the villains have randomized, at least one of them is a Wight with a bow at all times.
She has a skill called Death Blow, you might come to find you disagree with that claim.
Yes, Valter, your ability to shapeshift is quite impressive.
Then we cut to the regularly scheduled Innes and friends being besieged. Innes hasn't changed class, how boring. Tethys is a Knight, and Gerik is... another healer. Joy.
Yes, yes, I'm sure this will work out just fine for you.
Myrmeirika to the rescue! Now, let's see what we're working with.
As said before, Innes is still a Sniper, and oh boy, vilkacis' run being filled with people dump-statting Luck is starting to rub off on this run! Compared to vanilla Innes, this is +2 levels for -1 HP, -7 Strength, +5 Skill, -6 Speed, +8 Luck, +3 Defense, and +2 Resistance. On one hand, he has by far the best defensive stats of anyone thus far. On the other, all that missing Strength really hurts, given he started with just an Iron Bow.
As for skills, he has Canto+, which lets him spend unused movement points after doing almost anything, including attacking, Poison Strike, which damages an enemy unit for 20% of its max HP after every fight he starts, and Axefaith, a skill he can't use - it multiplies the user's Luck by 1.5 when equipped with an axe, and also axes don't lose durability.
Another healer with next to no Magic? Oh, you are just too kind, game. Well, he really has 8, but his first two skills, Fortress Defense and Fortress Resistance, give him -3 Magic each for +5 Defense and Resistance, respectively. And Fortress Defense is his personal skill, so I can't even get him back to his base magic with Amnesia Scrolls. 
Gerik's last skill, Fiery Blood, gives him +4 damage if he's not at max HP, which I can't even make use of until he promotes. I'll have to see his growths to see whether or not he'd even be worth promoting. However, he comes with a Recover staff, which is still a full heal, so his low magic is pretty much a moot point... for now.
I was so excited to finally get a Knight, but Tethys is... bad. 0 skill means she has a 0% chance of activating Bane, and it also means she's not going to be hitting anything at any point this year, even with the relatively accurate Toxin Lance. Uh, at least she has Demoiselle? Male allies within two squares of her take -2 damage, which helps Innes and Gerik but doesn't do a damn thing for her.
Ah, that's more like it! Marisa actually has stats befitting her class, even if her speed is dangerously low. She has Demoiselle like Tethys, and her personal skill, Intimidate, lowers the Avoid of all enemies within 2 squares of her by 10.
I always thought 12 units going into this chapter was kind of overkill, given you get 4 more, but it might prove necessary for this chapter. The only other setup I do is that, due to none of the enemies dropping a key for the gate to the boss, I buy a Door Key. It's a good thing they're only 75 gold, but it adds up...
First order of business: Clearing out the enemies around Innes' fort. There's not many units that can hit inside it right away, but the fact that there are any at all is reason enough to hit the ground running. Lute also gets to A in lances off of this, which is nice.
Oh boy, another monster boss! The Shadowkiller really couldn't have come at a better time.
The enemy phase starts with a Tarvos suiciding on Tana to make her even stronger. Some more HP would be nice, but oh well.
Then this pegasus knight nearly gives me a heart attack. Neimi's 0 defense really isn't doing her any favors...
This shaman also attempted to attack Tana, but she just ended up as an excuse for Innes to steal my experience. 
Kyle fixes Neimi up and gets a pretty alright level out of it. Speed on a 30% growth is nice.
Neimi gets this off of killing a Priest. This is good, but again, Neimi has not gotten a single point of defense the entire time she's been in the party.
Assuming this pegasus knight doesn't attack Gerik, Tana is in position to talk to Innes and start the recruitment chain next turn. She probably will, but she'll be there either way.
It turns out to be a Mauthe Doog coming from off-screen that attacks him, but he gives no fucks. He, uh, he sure has a color scheme, there.
Joshua gives me another scare, but he hangs on with 1 HP. If he wasn't on a forest, he'd be dead.
Artur and Lute pick off the enemies that nearly killed Joshua. I'm just posting this because look at that crit 
Then with Ross's help, Lute gets to work on cleaning up this mess.
Tana does her part, too, but from a fort because her 14 HP still worries me. She misses the first hit, but procs Adept on the second to leave the gargoyle with 1 HP.
On the enemy phase, Marisa's troops get moving...
...and the monsters decide Seth is a more appealing target and bring him down to 1 HP.
Lute gets swarmed by 3 different enemies, and comes away from it with a meh level.
Seth and Neimi do their best to clean up, here.
Eirika one-shotting mages is a very nice sight to see. Moulder is still able to one-round them, too, despite not getting much in the way of Magic lately.
Kyle patches Joshua up, who then proceeds to re-open his wounds dealing with this Tarvos.
And that's the last of this wave of monsters, at least. We're good to get everyone into our party next turn!
I'd be inclined to call a level like this bad, but he's already capped Strength, and every point of Skill is a 0.5% higher chance to proc Lethality.
Aaand Artur gets poisoned for the second map running.
The only other thing of note that happens is a bunch of thieves coordinating to take my healing items! How rude.
Very nice of you.
...TETHYYYYYYYYYYYS Maybe Ross can get her there?
...GERIIIIIIIIIIIIK Lute can't even Rescue him out of the way because her Con is too low...
This will have to do, I guess. Meanwhile, Joshua chokes a point. I realize this is an astronomically bad idea when there's two Mages coming up and Joshua has effectively -7 Res, so Lute gives him a dose of Rally Speed to help him out.
Hey, Ross got a level out of fighting for a change!
These thieves are actually very annoying. In addition to Cunning, the skill that dictates units can use lockpicks and steal, they have Chivalry and Ready Stance, giving them +4 Speed and +4 Defense when they're attacked, on top of the +2 Def/Res if Chivalry kicks in too.
But with patience, and a little luck, they all go down.
The enemy turn is... dicey. More gargoyles with poison lances descend upon Eirika and Artur who both survive, but Joshua cuts it wayyy too close.
He got an amazing level...
...but got ridiculously lucky to not die, much moreso than Eirika and Artur.
Not that Artur is faring much better... 
Tana kicks off the recruitment chain, and I decide to get all three of them in one turn...
...and I almost wish I didn't bother at all. 
Yes, that's 15% defense on a Knight, and 5% strength and skill. The only good thing about this mess is Gerik's Magic growth, but the rest of his growths are so bad that I really don't feel like investing time in building him up.
To distract from... that... Seth helps clean up this mess.
Lute and Joshua do their part, too, with Lute getting a not particularly great level out of it.
Eirika and Moulder get similarly uninspiring levels from taking care of a thief. Honestly, if it wasn't for Moulder being one of my only two magic users, I'd have benched him by now, because he really hasn't been doing so great lately.
Artur kills the Mauthe Doog standing by the gate (another one that spawned with 0 move 
) and... yeah.
Gerik isn't in a good position to recruit Marisa yet, but there's no danger left here, so everyone else fucks off towards the door.
Before that, though, there's another thief to deal with, as well as one last one that's currently just chilling in the mountains.
The poison actually has been working out in our favor, as Chivalry only activates if the opponent is at full health.
This troubadour manages to annoy me by parking herself right in front of Gerik, forcing Lute to pick her off so Gerik can get Marisa on our side. He talks to her, and...
...her... defense growth is even worse than Tethys'. How does this happen. When I said "four new units, and none of them good" at the end of the last chapter, I said that without knowing their growths, and knowing them doesn't change it.
Nothing happens on the enemy phase, save for reinforcements. How did you get a horse in the mountains?!
Closer to where the party actually is, we have the first Status Asshole of the run. However, he's still not close enough to anyone for this to matter, and he only has 8 Magic, giving his Sleep staff just 4 range.
...So of course I misjudge the range and make him waste a charge.
Yoink!
We're almost to the end, here.
This Thief is proving to be a colossal pain in the ass, and I'd rather not get more of my elixirs stolen.
This leaves him with just enough HP for Seth to get the kill, and his first level! Very nice.
Marisa helps with cleaning up the reinforcements. Your hideous palette isn't doing you any favors, but thanks for being able to one-shot these dudes, I guess.
Tana was close to a level, so she dips into the arena to get over the threshold. She gets Seal Skill, just like Joshua.
Lute deals with the troubadours that are flocking around her.
Pablo is downright pathetic, compared to Binks and especially Tirado. His skills could make him threatening, but Tomebreaker (+50 hit and avoid if the enemy uses magic) means I just can't use Ross or Moulder on him, and his other skill, Frenzy, which gives him +1 damage dealt for every 4 points of damage he takes, could be scary but he has no range.
I mean, look at this shit! Tana could one-round him and be in absolutely no danger.
Well, try to, anyway.
I'm more concerned about the generic Mage Knight, even though he's still miles away from the army, because looking at his skills, I see this. Oh boy, more Devil skills! And every enemy Mage Knight will have it! 
Tana takes Pablo out on the enemy phase. More Skill!
Kyle also gets Solidarity out of doing this.
Moulder is helping, too.
I almost get bored enough waiting for the last two enemies to come to me that I seize and end the chapter, but I hold off and instead have Eirika and Seth start their support.
Artur was lucky enough to not get Deviled. But will Tana?
...Nope. In the immortal words of Mega Man Battle Network 4, we'll just pretend this never happened.
Instead, the Mage Knight hits himself trying to attack Artur, so Lute runs in to get the kill... but hits herself instead 
It's delaying the inevitable, though. That was a good waste of time, let's get out of here.
NEXT TIME:
A thief!!!! 