Update 53: Rea Gets the Shakes



♪ Dark Clouds Gather ♪


Don't give up—we're almost back to Abyss! What a damn mess we've gotten ourselves into...
We should give up. Just throw the chalice at the big one and be done with it. It doesn't seem like they're gonna ease off. If that doesn't work, I guess we're dead.
Ahaha! I think not! I shall never surrender! I shall not die until I have achieved my glorious aim!


Not to mention the enemies that look like phantoms. Further measures to protect the chalice, I'm sure.
Maybe Hapi's right, and this won't stop so long as we have the artifact.
We can't lead them back to Abyss, or the people there will be in danger!
Let's fight them.
Agreed. But first, let's run just a bit farther. I know a good place to keep the enemy at bay.
Oh yeah! The gates! They're so damn sturdy I nearly broke my priceless fist on one once.
You punched one? Like a brute?! Ugh! Why must you always behave in such an infantile manner?
He probably thought that was the best way to test its sturdiness. He doesn't have bad intentions, he's just that dumb.





♪ As Swift as Wind ♪


Welcome to the map that— Well, you've read the title, you know what it did.

It's an escape map! Longtime fans of Fire Emblem probably recognize this type of objective. We need to get all of our units to a specific place on the map before time runs out.

Where's the specific place, you might ask? All the way over on the fucking top right! Even without a bunch of powerful and dangerous enemies nipping at our heels, that'd still be difficult.

Oh, and see that defeat condition? Yep, playing on Casual doesn't mean you're safe—if any of your units are reduced to 0 HP, it's an automatic game over. Functionally no different from how I normally play, but an extremely rude negation of the rules of Casual.

Whatever, maybe we can just defeat the golem that's—

...

Commander: Nullifies instant death effects, status effects, and movement effects, and greatly reduces damage from enemy gambits.
Renewal: Unit recovers up to 20% of max HP at the start of each turn.
Lethality: Chance to instantly kill a foe when dealing damage. Trigger % = 0.25 × Dex.
Quick Riposte: If foe initiates combat while unit's HP is ≥ 50%, unit makes guaranteed follow-up attack.

Meep. Never mind.

Do not try to engage this thing in combat. Do not even think about it. If you somehow manage to deplete its first HP bar, it has a 17% chance of instantly killing whoever you throw at it, if they somehow survived the primary attack. Fun fact, that's the only instance of Lethality on an enemy unit in Three Houses.

So, not only are we on an extremely strict time limit, we've also got this thing breathing down our necks the entire time, and if it catches one of our units, that's game over. Great, fantastic.

So, turns out I lied! You start with 6 pieces of umbral steel, enough to repair the Vajra-Mushti twice. It is expensive, though.

You could also repair the Sword of the Creator, but...don't. Save the umbral steel for the Vajra-Mushti.

Time to rise up.
♪ No music ♪



♪ Wrath Strike ♪


That thing's worse than what we saw at the chasm. Looks strong enough to flatten me. Me, of all people!
Argh, the gate! Even I won't be able to force it open.
Heh heh. This is bad. There's more where that came from too. C'mon, let's go—now!
Yes, Wrath Strike loops throughout the entire level. I don't know why. It was not composed to loop that much.


Can't waste any time, so Constance burns a Bolting charge on weakening that sniper.


Ashe finishes off the sniper with Deadeye.


Dimitri takes out the dark bishop. Thankfully, the Banshee Θ debuff will wear off by the time the player phase rolls around.

Edelgard baits out the wyvern rider.





Both of the assassins stop on Avo tiles. There's nothing I can do to stop that, really.



Dimitri gets a mediocre level from acting as assassin bait.







Claude finishes one of the assassins off.


And Dimitri finishes the other.


I could've had Ashe just kill the dark bishop, but I saw no reason to.






Magic is your best friend when fighting against unfavorable terrain.


It was worth a shot.


Abby finishes one assassin.


Yuri locks the other in place.


And Pneuma Gale, since it's a magic attack, doesn't suffer from the effects of the Avo tile.


Hapi had nothing else to do this turn, which is why Ashe used the mini bow instead of the iron bow for Deadeye.







Constance pulls the lever, opening the gate. Remember, only the Ashen Wolves can pull the lever.

Abby baits out the assassin. The mega golem is close, but I can't approach the two warriors and assassin safely.



And then I screw up my strategy by leaving Dimitri in place.


Claude takes a potshot.







Alright, counterkills cleared up a lot of the difficulty facing us right now.








Yuri acts as enemy bait.

Dimitri draws the assassin's attention.






...Why did I do this? Hapi can one-round these things, there was absolutely no need to burn my last Bolting on a fortress knight.



Hilda and Edelgard can survive one attack from the mega golem, solely because of their massive HP pools.














Burning my last use of Bolting on this fortress knight was such a mistake.








Alright, the initial resistance has been cleared out. Time to advance...



Oh, come on. This is a clone of the mega golem.

After a few turns, I finally get everyone to the destination tiles.

Keep moving. That was just the first of these things.


...Just two of them?

This door can be opened by anyone, either with a door key, or Locktouch (Ashe and Yuri).

Oh, fuck off. Once one of our units gets through the winding corridor, or the door, two swordmasters and two pegasus knights spawn.








These bandits are discussing treasure... How much can they have surmised?
No idea. All I know is they're here, so we're gonna have to fight them.
Shame...
Where the fuck did you come from?!



Aaaaaand great. Every turn until we clear the map, a warlock and an assassin are gonna spawn there.



Our only consolation is that the time limit is extended now that we're past the first checkpoint.






That's one warlock down, at least.




That sniper was going to absolutely kill Linhardt, so he had to die.

Bad level, Balthus.



Wow, the 1x3 hitbox of Mad Melee came in handy there.




Using Assault Troop on the warlock instead of the assassin means:

a) Dimitri can end his turn on the Avo tile above one of the rattled fortress knights
b) The warlock immediately dies; the assassin probably wouldn't have

The grapplers are completely unthreatening to Edelgard.








Mm, should've changed Hilda's equipped weapon there. She could've counterkilled the fortress knight, maybe.








I want to get away from the yellow units as quickly as possible, so Abby burns 3 uses of the Sword of the Creator on Ruptured Heaven to immediately get rid of a grappler.



You might be thinking I've locked Edelgard into a very unfavorable position.


I can't deal with these three right now, so I instead halt their movement.


Anyway, re: Edelgard's unfavorable position. Foul Play is really good for this map.









Again, Pneuma Gale saves me from the evils of Avo tiles.

It was at this point that I burned my first rewind charge of this attempt to check something, and...wow! I actually don't have to do shit to the grapplers, they apparently really hate the phantom soldiers instead of me.

Claude moves up to the checkpoint, and...

Ugh, more baddies? I'm already soaking in sweat. Read the room, lady!
Holst will kill me if anything happens to you. Be careful, yeah?
Oh, come on!

With my altered movement, I was able to take down all of the enemies near us, save for one fortress knight.

One grappler goes for Edelgard, which is absolutely no problem.

Later, jerkwad.

I have no problem with this.





Okay, still got time...


That's all the immediate threats down.

By the way, as always, the pegasus knights are terrifying. Don't let them get near anyone but Edelgard, Dimitri, and Balthus.


Probably not the best usage of Dimitri's last Assault Troop, but whatever.

Aaaaaaaagh! Every time a new unit gets past the final checkpoint, new reinforcements spawn!



Stop it!

Fuck!

I'm in full rip-off-the-bandaid mode now.





help








Edelgard's going to keep yellow units from getting anywhere near us.


Agh! No! A Deadeye would've killed the pegasus knight!








Gods...





Ah, hell.

I do some minor repositioning to let Abby fully heal Dimitri.



This time, Dimitri can't die due to enemies constantly being able to hit him.



Nice crit.





That had to be a mispress.


Use Curved Shot, you fool!



Cripes.

Another full heal for Dimitri.











Damn.













Running out of time, and there's still reinforcements coming. I need to hurry up.










I can't afford any more misses here, so I use Curved Shot.



Damn, Dimitri.












Just one more fortress knight, and the mob of enemies is clear.



And that's that.

Except for the new reinforcements.













Balthus baits out the new reinforcements.

And with everyone beyond the final checkpoint, the yellow units despawn.







nonononononononono




I should've positioned more units to get the gambit's Hit chance up, with how tense things are now.

















That was a big gamble, but it paid off.


Okay, I'm safe, I'm safe, I just need to get everyone in the escape zone.

By the way, units do not leave the map when they're in the escape zone, so for the love of the gods, make sure you can fit everyone in before the time limit runs out!

On the last turn...
♪ No music ♪





Thank the fucking gods I'm done with that. This map gave me legit shakes when I was playing it. I was worried I was going to get stuck on it for hours and hours, potentially fucking up the LP.

That's enough gates to last me a lifetime. I'm overdue for some shuteye...
All is well though! We've safely retrieved the Chalice of Beginnings.



♪ A Gentle Breeze ♪


Ha! With things like that wandering around, you couldn't even if you wanted to.
I was pretty sure we were going to die.
Not sure I believe you. You were pretty calm that whole time.
I'm going to perform the very unusual step of interrupting a cutscene to say NO I FUCKING WASN'T, BALTHUS.
Has Aelfric yet returned? We must present the chalice to the church at once!

♪ A Dark Sign ♪


Did something happen?


Aelfric? No! It cannot be true!


Dammit! How could this happen?!
This was clearly premeditated. I am certain it is connected to the bandits we fended off earlier.
Have you alerted the church?




Now isn't the time to worry about that! We're in no position to cover something like this up. The church has eyes and ears everywhere, so they may already know what's going on. Either way, go and tell them the news. Now.


Also, if anyone was wounded, send them here. We'll patch them up with healing magic.
Wait... Where's Hapi? And Linhardt?


I know. Take a look at this.
What's that? Looks like some kind of fancy letter.
That's because it is. It was lying in the classroom. "We have abducted Cardinal Aelfric. We can guarantee his safety, for now. "If you want to help him, meet us tomorrow evening in the ruins of the old chapel. Bring the chalice. "Know that if you alert the knights, the cardinal's life will be forfeit."
Could it be...
No doubt about it. This letter must have been left by the people who abducted Aelfric.
Then our enemy really is after the chalice. All the while, they were waiting for us to locate it for them. No... No! Something about this does not ring true!
None of it rings true, so which part in particular are you talking about?
How did the enemy know that we were searching for the chalice to begin with? This can only mean that someone in Abyss is—
You smell a rat. Someone who notified the church of our plan. It's no good talking about theoretical rats right now. First we have to deal with the problem at hand.
Too true. For once you are speaking reasonably.


Next time: you'd think the Knights of Seiros would give a lot more of a shit that a cardinal got kidnapped.

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