We sail as far as we can, and...
This is Aerial, the strongest mermaid, and she's not happy to see us here. Trying to talk her out of fighting us is unsuccessful. Strangely, she knows about Minerva, the mermaid we saved earlier, but it seems she doesn't know enough.
So, we're up against four mermaids, two fairies and two octopi. The latter are beasts, but they're very slow and mostly useless since they're purely melee fighters. As such, we'll just go on and try to defeat everyone.
We start on a nice island where we can hold our ground easily. Also, I finally put up a proper formation.
Mermaids use spears. One thing about that weapon is that not only it can hit two squares away in a line, but also it always hits both squares, so it's possible to hit two people at once with it, even though the farther target gets less damage regardless.
The mermaid that rushed to us first gets everyone's attention and falls quickly. ...Since the battle is just a misunderstanding, let's say we only knock them out.
Aerial decides to attack head-on. During this attack, she even jumps out of the water before striking. Quite acrobatic for a mermaid, isn't it?
Here, enemies are lv.10, and that's when non-humans get their first abilities. Mermaids have Lullaby, which can put the target to sleep. The chance is low, but it's there. Here they successfully land one on Tenshi. Except she woke up on our turn. It wouldn't make any difference, anyway, since people at the front are there mostly for defense.
One of the fairies gets careless and is brought down by Reimu. Their low defense really starts to show by now.
Next, Reimu is hit by Lullaby. One way to remove Sleep effect is to hit the person. Here Tenshi attacked her with a shield. It deals little damage, but always pushes the target back. That's actually how critical strikes in this game work, each physical attack has a low chance of it, but shields get it always. If you push someone into a wall or into someone else, the target gets a little bit of bonus damage (single digits). If the pushback results in someone falling from a height, the bonus damage can be significant, depending on the height.
And yes, octopi, despite being purely melee units, were just moving left and right far away from us.
After Patchouli gains a level in the battle, she finally has enough INT to turn AOE spells into TRULY AOE spells.
Crag Crush still is a "boulder from above", but there's one for each square, and there's an animation before it of rocks lifting up. Too bad it only finishes one mermaid, the other one was still at full health.
The other fairy gets reckless as well, but what's cool is that Tenshi finished her off despite having a very low (under 20%) chance to hit. Fairies have low defense, but their agility is awesome.
Octopi finally come close, and even use their special attack - Strangling Tentacles. It hits like a spear - two spaces in a direction, it's strong and can cause Confusion status. Thankfully, it didn't this time. The animation it makes is a whirlwind around a character (and the character spins as well).
One of the octopi is finished by Iku's rapier. Also, the water level has risen, but we're fine.
This mermaid was... Well, she was casting Lullaby on Patchy all the time. You know, wizard, the high-INT unit with best magic defense in my team. Actually, I'm not sure whether status effects have constant chances or are affected by the target's stats, but she wasn't successful even once.
Tenshi finishes the last octopus. It's only Aerial now.
I decided to try attacking with a spear through an ally. First Alphonse counterattacked, then Aerial counterattacked through him. Bad idea, but hitting two people at once gave Reimu the Lancer emblem, which she'll need.
On her turn after that, Aerial suicided on Alphonse's axe. Seriously, she had low health, but instead pulling back and healing (which she already did during the battle) or staying in the same spot and hitting Alphonse in the back, she moved where he could counter her. Also, for the last few turns, she attacked Alphonse exclusively, even though she had better alternatives like going behind our lines. But no, she decided to channel a certain other "strongest".
After being defeated, she keeps showing off her toughness, even berating Alphonse when he tries to persuade her he wants to resolve things peacefully.
Except her fighting was pointless anyway. She even freaks out at hearing it (seriously, her sprite's quite expressive during this scene).
Aww, just look at her hanging her head...
This is the mermaid leader. She explains the Sacred Spear's history. 400 years ago, humans came to the islands, and a war between them and mermaids started. Mermaids weren't winning.
(Wow, that's a gruesome scene.)
But their leader at the time... well, she just disappeared, and the Sacred Spear was found where she used to be. Using it, the mermaids renewed their battle.
But one day, the spear was stolen by a mermaid that fell in love with a human. The mermaids gave up and retreated to the hard-to-reach Rana Sea. Now they no longer want to fight and regret the needless casualties the continued fighting resulted in, so they're fine if we keep the spear. They don't know where it is, but the mermaid that stole it had golden scales. Well, it's a clue.
Anyway, time for some upgrades.
This place has a shop, and shops are usually run by the same-looking woman, but this one is run by a mermaid. A nice touch.
Reimu finally changes class, and Lancer emblem was one of the requirements. Besides using two attack spells, Valkyries passively give a performance boost to male allies nearby (please ignore the fact there's only one male in the group, okay? ^^;) and have good movement on snow. Yes, we'll have snowy maps later.
: I'm back! ...Huh? Reimu got a cool new outfit?
: Yeah, the mermaids were impressed with our fighting, so, because we went easy on their friends, they taught me a few tips for using a spear and gave me some clothes that better fit that fighting style.
: Wow. That's nice of them.
: But you know, I've been wondering... Why the spear, Reimu?
: Well, I couldn't use my magic here and that was the closest possible thing to poking with gohei. Not like I regret the choice. Also, I did figure out how to use my magic.
: Look, I already explained you. It doesn't matter if you shout
Fantasy Seal and
Evil-Sealing Circle, those are still normal elemental spells that you're using.
: Whatever. But you know, I still can't figure out one thing.
: What is it?
: WHY THE HELL AM I SUDDENLY BLONDE?!
: You're not the only one, you know. It'll be back to normal when we return home. ...I hope.
: So, anything else happened while I had my history lesson?
: I noticed the purple-haired mermaid we fought earlier giving us strange looks from afar. I couldn't tell what exactly was on her mind, but it's troubling.
: I don't think there's anything to worry. By the way, check out my new weapon.
Each class has a preferred weapon type. Using a preferred weapon gives a small damage bonus, but in this game every small bit counts. For a beast tamer it's a whip, and it's quite a formidable weapon. Actually, it's a bit stronger than a longsword, an axe, a hammer or a spear. Also, it can hit two squares away in one direction as well, but unlike spear it hits only the nearest target.
: ...You ...don't mean...
: A... whip? Really?
: Make no mistake, it's a serious weapon in skilled hands.
: Hey, can you put out a candle with it?
: Dunno, let's try sometime.
: It's probably a bad idea if you say that.
With things here done, we start our return, but at Arena we meet totally-not-Ariel again.
She learned the history behind the spear as well. She can't comprehend how someone could do such a thing for love, but also thanks us for helping Minerva, so she wants us to show her that there are humans that mermaids can trust.
But you know what? I have a different suspicion. Her obsession with Alphonse during battle, her tirade to him afterwards, a pretty flimsy reason to join us...
I think she's head over fins for Alphonse.
: Are you sure that's the actual reason you want to join? And not a personal interest in me?
: Wha... Sh-shut up, human! Or I'll stab you in the back! With my spear! ...Really! ...I-I will!
: Okay, okay, but I meant more like an interest to see how I'll use the Sacred Spear and make sure it's not for something evil that will harm mermaids as well.
: Oh... W-well... Yes. Yes, that as well.
: Alright, but do you really want to go? I mean, we'll be traveling on rough terrain, with little water along the way...
: Look, human, you probably somehow missed that, but our sanctuary is made of stone. We can move on ground just fine. And while we
can live in water, it doesn't mean we
have to. We don't
need any more water than you humans.
: Oh, that's good, I wouldn't want you to go through needless trouble for us. Well, I felt your strength first-hand, and we could use your aid, so welcome, Ariel!
: Stupid human! My name is Aeri--
: Yes, I know. But why don't you pick up an alias while you're with us? That way, you can deny taking part in our journey if you're disappointed with it.
: That sounds shady... but... I guess you do have a point...
: Great! And if something troubles you, don't hesitate to speak up, okay?
: ...All right.
We get her just as she was when we fought her as a boss. Mermaids quite obviously have an advantage in water, but also move better on snow. That might be quite useful later. Since her INT is so high, her Lullaby is AOE. One thing to note is that non-humans have SP instead of MP. It's functionally the same, except it only regenerates naturally, no magic leaves. Now, for equipment. Trident is a bit stronger than pike, but she can keep it for now. Thunder Chain is a chainmail made for air-element characters - it gives a bit of earth resistance, so she can keep it as well. Amulet adds INT and prevents Petrification status. This one goes to Patchy since she could make better use of it.
A few characters reached lv.10 by this point, so with Aerial's help I bring everyone else to that level as well.
Now we need to report to Cybil, then we can decide what to do next.