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We're hurtling ever closer to the endgame. This is the point of no return, which means a shopping spree is in order.



The customary selling off of useless and/or nearly-broken things leaves me with nearly 40 grand to blow through on outfitting the endgame party. This is a pretty good amount, but my kingdom for the Silver Card.



Damn, the game's been holding out on me! Where have these been this whole run? I haven't even seen any silver weapons on enemies...



They can't all be winners, though. All together, I bought 3 Silver Swords, 1 Lancereaver, 1 Silver Lance, 2 Killer Lances, 2 Axereavers, and 2 Silver Bows from the Armory (plus 2 Javelins from the one back in Port Kiris)...



...and 3 Thunders, 1 Shine, and 1 Restore staff from the vendor. And while we're setting up, I might as well go ahead and use up all the rest of my stat boosting items, given I don't have many.

The Energy Ring goes to Eirika.
Both Saleh and Kyle get Speedwings.
Joshua gets the Goddess Icon.
The last 2 Dragonshields go to Neimi (again) and Lute.
Eirika, Neimi, and Ross all get Body Rings.
And finally, Eirika gets the Swiftsole so she can keep up better with the likes of Tana and Ephraim.



And now, to the main event.



I like Morva. It's a shame we don't see more of him in the game proper, really.



Especially given how happy Myrrh is to see him...



Again, too many deployment slots, not enough competent people to fill the slots. I'm paring this down just a little, dropping Dozla and Moulder from the lineup, but Seth, Duessel, Rennac, and L'Arachel get one more chapter to shine. A shame I didn't end up using Seth more, but Vanessa was just... better out of the gate, thanks to Hawkeye.



Now, let's take a quick survey of the map. This first group of enemies is rather unimpressive, other than the Great Knights having Countermagic.



These guys up top are quite a bit scarier, as the Berserkers also have Countermagic, and Devil's Whim to boot! The Deathgoyle also has Dazzle, which is never fun to deal with.



One of the Berserkers has a new toy, but it's pretty bad!



The group to the south is pretty unremarkable, though the Falcoknight's positioned in such a way that it can reach and attack Seth on the first turn.



As for the group just before the boss, the highlighted Great Knight is (fortunately) the only one with Life and Death. There's not much else notable that I haven't touched on yet, except...



...the Wyvern Knights have Bane and Warding Blow, giving them +20 Resistance when they start a battle. I'll get to Riev and Morva once we close in on them.



The first enemies go for Ephraim, who gladly breaks out the Silver Lance.





And for hitting level 5 he gets Intimidate, which is a pretty decent reward.



Another good level for Ephraim off of a Great Knight! He's one away from capping Strength now.



Artur gets to S in swords off of this beautiful overkill. Now he can wield Audhulma!



Speaking of "beautiful overkill"... I'm so happy Neimi turned out this amazing.



Tana laughs at your silly effective damage.



I didn't realize it, but Artur had capped Strength last chapter, so levels like this are about as good as it's gonna get for him from now on.







This is kind of overextending myself, but what's the worst that could happen?



The Brave Axe is still bad.



Eirika then trips on her sword or something fighting the other one, but levels up and gets Lifetaker out of it.



There's only room for one Devil here, pal.



Eirika recoups some of her health lost to Devil nonsense, and then Kyle heals her the rest of the way with Physic.



Dazzle sucks, please leave.



Tana's stats are still ridiculous and I love them.



Eirika, I know you have a 70% Speed growth, but please get some more relevant stats!







The skill she gets is only marginally better than the one Ephraim got, and only then it's more because she really doesn't need any skills that boost accuracy.



Duessel getting a kill? It's more likely than you think.



We've officially busted out the big guns as Neimi splatters this poor Mauthe Doog.



Some Rangers try to attack Artur, but the Light Brand makes quick work of them.



This is a pretty big blind spot, none of these guys can reach anyone in this spot due to the terrain. So Ewan is free to pick off this Knight with absolutely no repercussions.



A pair of Wyvern Knights try to attack Eirika, who Lethality-s them away to get a very assassin.txt level.



The usual suspects continue to be unstoppable.



Neimi still has low defenses, but who cares about that when she's probably not going to be taking a hit any time in the next year?



Yeah, I'm sure I'll find a use for a 2-might weapon this late in the game.



Enemyrikas make a triumphant return, and so does Wary Fighter. These guys at least have low enough HP that it doesn't matter whether or not they can be doubled.



This motherfucker actually managed to pull off Bane! It's a very good thing this was the only enemy in range of him, otherwise I very well could have lost Joshua.



Lute is a pretty good pick for dealing with Wary Fighter, and more defensive stats are always nice. This Enemyrika also finally drops a Brave Sword of our own, which while not a very good reward all things considered, is a new weapon nonetheless.



The last of the Dazzlers falls to Vanessa.



The unpromoted enemies this late in the game super suck.



I'm okay with this, though.



Then a whole parade of Great Knights try to bring Tana down, but it just makes her stronger.



These guys sure are getting desperate, huh?



Again, low health enemies means Counter skills are nothing to worry about.







Ephraim is also really good at dealing with Wary Fighter, especially with his B support with the real Eirika.



Given her 10% Defense growth, this may as well be a perfect level.



Light prevails against darkness! ...or something.



Vanessa pumps a Great Knight full of arrows and gets a pretty good level for it!



Neimi's crit rate is so astronomically high that it's more surprising when she doesn't crit.







God, it feels good to have a ranged axe that actually has usable stats.



And then more enemies die, I guess.



For a dude with a skill named "Lucky 7", his levels haven't been very lucky lately...



Having to deal with so many enemies with Wary Fighter does basically slow this to a crawl. Other than these reinforcements, we're pretty much to the bosses already, but I can't really focus on them with all these jackasses constantly spawning.



First of all, how the fuck did this guy hit? Second of all, Luna hurts, but at least he went for someone with inherently low defense.



Ephraim gets an alright level from the like 15th Enemyrika, I've already lost count.



And Ewan gets the usual. I really should have given him one of my stat boosters, but oh well.



Artur finally takes out the last of the Enemyrikas for some more of that coveted Defense.



The other enemies are pretty much done for, so let's look at the bosses.



Morva may be the one guarding the Gate, but Riev is the real boss here. The switch from Rogue to Assassin makes him much more dangerous, and his nearly capped Skill gives him an uncomfortably high chance to proc Lethality and just straight-up murder someone - I lost my first run of this chapter to me not paying close enough attention to his range, and then he ganked Tana. It also gives him a 29% chance to just ignore attacks from a good 80% of my units, which is always fun. Bowbreaker would make things more annoying, but fortunately, Hawkeye takes precedent over -breaker skills.

Morva, on the other hand, is actually weaker than he originally was. His HP has been cut nearly in half, and he now has less Strength and Skill. Not to mention he only has Shove as far as skills go, for some reason, so he has none of the additional hurdles that Riev can potentially offer.



Wretched Air is 1.5x stronger than it used to be, but also has about half the accuracy. Even though it still ignores defense, once Riev is down, Morva is pretty much free.



And so it begins.



The Swordreaver doesn't help much when Riev is also in a forest (with Duelist's Blow, too), sadly.



While I ponder how best to deal with Riev, this Wyvern Lord never moved for whatever reason, so Vanessa takes it out.



Some Rallybotting from Duessel makes Riev's high speed a little easier to deal with.



Will this work...?



Yes! Honestly, I have no qualms about just critting things to death if it means not having to deal with a max-skill Assassin boss legitimately.



Especially if it means levels like this!



And with that, this is all that's left of the map.



Damn, that's more than double this dude's max HP. Poor guy...



Oops, I forgot to switch out from the Swordreaver.



Too little, too late, reinforcements.



Saleh doesn't crit here, but it lets Seth finish the Summoner off.



This poor knight has been stuck in this lake for the entire chapter, so Joshua comes and puts them out of their misery.



And then I get Artur down here to deal with the Berserker, because I have 0 patience for Devil's Whim.



Kyle Physics away the damage from Joshua's poisoning and profits off it.



Too little...



...too late.







Look at this, Neimi is capable of one-rounding, if not one-shotting, Morva. How did he get screwed over so hard in comparison to Riev? (I don't actually do this.)

You know who else can one-shot him?



Seth.



Welcome back to the endgame team, buddy.



Oh, now this is just getting silly.



Experience is experience, though!



I'm honestly surprised Duessel got any kills at all this chapter. It's just a shame his relatively high level means he gets so little EXP off of them.



...







Now we're done with the chapter.

NEXT TIME:


It ends.