Yeah, Karna levels well. She went up 15 levels after two battles for me. Keep in mind you can back track after getting the sky orb and have the Creed characters for battle #35 if you're willing to take a long walk before the Nazca Ship.
Speaking of battle #35, I made it through without problems. I left some EXP on the table, but OHKOing the Bow Knight with Tyrin's Apollo 2 was pretty damn satisfying. Glad I made him a Sorcerer, that damage is too good to pass up. Sadly, the Bow Knights would have their revenge, scoring kills on valuable force members in the next two battles.
In #36, it was Jaha. A Bow Knight ran across the battlefield, and hit him from beyond some water. He had already taken some damage from a Prism flower, so this put him close to death. I had the opportunity to use a heal drop with Gerhalt, but passed it up to attack the Bow Knight, figuring I could let someone who couldn't reach the knight do the healing. Sadly, his second turn seemed to come way faster than his first, and Jaha went down before anyone else could do anything. On the bright side, Karna killing all the Prism Flowers (aside from the one at the end of the stage), and using all of her MP on boosting had her in fighting shape for the next battle. I put Rhode back in the force (he was higher leveled, and less valuable than everyone else, so I was going to keep him on the bench for one battle, then replace Frayja. Instead, he took Jaha's place) for the upcoming battle, which I considered to be the hardest official battle remaining in the game.
In battle #37, the casualty was even worse. I always have trouble dealing with the opening section of the map. Low movement speed, three Bow Knights, and two heavy hitters who can move through forests well tends to mean disaster. Gerhalt went ahead a bit too far to attack a Bow Knight, ended the turn losing his boost, then ate a Cerberus breath attack, an executioner attack, and finally a Bow Knight attack to finish him off. He was my best weapon against bosses, and now he's gone. What a shame. I managed to get out of the situation, and make my way slowly to Red Baron without any further casualties. The fight with the boss, in all honesty, should have been a massacre. I let Red Baron get four turns. First turn, desoul on Rhode, miss. Second turn, desoul on Luke, miss. Third turn, desoul on Tyrin, miss. Fourth turn, desoul on Bowie (!), miss. He didn't get a fifth turn. All of his targets had full, or near full HP, but I'm shocked he didn't hit a single one, or end up just killing someone with his sword (He could have killed Karna for sure, and probably Luke if he wanted to.) I've had some bad luck moments in this run, but I think that makes up for them =). Higins rejoins the force for yet another battle, and will be replaced yet again when Lemon joins. Next, mithril weapons! This was a no reset run, so I figured it would be against the spirit of it to reset to get better weapons. What I got, and who got it.
3 Critical Swords (Merchant)
Battle Sword (Bowie)
Misty Knuckles (Sarah)
2 Buster Shots (Rhode/Elric)
Mystery Staff! (Karna)
Three Valkyries (Jaro/Higins/Merchant)
Halberd (Higins)
Mist Javelin! (Jaro)
Rune Axe! (Gyan. Lemon will get it when he joins)
Ground Axe! (Gyan)
Four excellent weapons, I certainly can't complain. Next up is battle #38 against Geshp.
The Force
Bowie: 19
Sarah: 19
Luke: 19
Rhode: 19
Elric: 19
Karna: 16
Tyrin: 18
Higins: 15
Frayja: 21
Jaro: 19
Gyan: 19
Zynk: 18
Bench
Chester: 11
Eric: 1
Randolf: 1
Janet: 7
Skreech: 11
Sheela: 17
Claude: 14
Dead Book
May: 11
Kazin: 14
Peter: 20/3
Kiwi: 20/3
Slade: 20/10
Taya: ?/13
Rick: 20/14
Jaha: 16
Gerhalt: 18
Out of the first twelve characters to join, only three are still on the force. Bowie, Sarah, and... Luke. How the hell did that happen?
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SuperNiceDog won the Guru contest. Good job.