As the party travels on in the direction of the Mountain Castle, they notice that the elevation is starting to increase. Soon the trail leads them across the side of a substantially steep hill. CHRIS blurts out "Man, this would be a lousy time to be confronted by an enemy..."
As soon as he said that (you guessed it) a tall, tough-looking demon covered in white fur came barreling down the side of the mountain and stopped short in front of the party. AXEM back-hands CHRIS for jinxing the party.
Demon: "Princess Ali! You shall not reach the castle!"
Ali: "Liiche!"
AXEM: "You know this guy?"
Ali: "He is Liiche of the Cold. He's a barbarian who dominated over the people of Mount Sabretooth for centuries until my godfather gained control of the prefecture and banished him to the snowy peaks."
Liiche: "Mount Sabretooth will be mine again! I will not permit you to return to the palace and allow the restoration of that bastard Midus!"
TRITHAL: "You and what army are gonna stop us?
Liiche turns to his left and points to a horde of ice demons behind him. "That one!"
TRITHAL, AXEM and CHRIS: "Oh... FUCK!"
AXEM thought to himself "Why did Thrax have to flake on us? We could use his hell-fire right about now!"
Liiche: "As you can see, I've been preparing for quite some time to oust that fucker! When I heard of his illness I could smell victory.... or maybe it was his rotting flesh. Anyway, I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity than this! All I have to do is defeat you four then the key of Midus's restoration will disappear! What amazing luck I have!"
Ali casts a cold, suspecting glance in TRITHAL's direction. In resopnse, TRITHAL casts a "get serious" glance back at Ali. The party assumes battle postures and awaits the advancing army of ice demons. TRITHAL and AXEM study the approaching horde and then huddle together.
AXEM: "How can we defeat all these demons without hell-fire?"
TRITHAL: "Maybe we can use your earth power and my wind power to create some kind of barrage to wipe out most of them"
AXEM: "Yeah! That's a great idea.... but in order to create something big enough it'll cost alot of SP."
TRITHAL: "Yeah you're right. How much energy potion do you have left?"
AXEM withdraws his bottle of energy potion to discover it almost empty. "Shit! This isn't enough!"
Remembering the concoction he and THRAX made back in Episode 2, TRITHAL withdraws his vile of potion and mixes it with AXEM's energy potion. They both drink it down and immediately feel a hard buzz. They both gain 89 bonus SP.
AXEM boosts his power to where his eyes glow green, and uses 50 SP to cause giant rocks to emerge from the earth.
TRITHAL uses the same sonic-voice trick he and THRAX used back in Episode 4 and uses 10 SP to break the rocks into smaller pieces. He then boosts his power to where his eyes glow blue, then with his katana uses 52 SP to create a hurricane-force wind current that propells the rocks to the speed of missles toward the line of ice demons. About a third of them fall. All party members gain 37 EXP.
TRITHAL (22/22 HP; 39*/16 SP; 144/3000 EXP) (now level 3)
AXEM (29/29 HP; 66*/27 SP; 151/3000 EXP) (now level 3)
CHRIS (23/23 HP; 29/29 SP; 104/3000 EXP) (now level 2)
Ali (12/12 HP; 3/3 SP, 85 EXP) (still level 2)
After that barrage, the ice demon army begins to advance more quickly. TRITHAL and AXEM are slightly dazed from the force of their attack, but soon regain composure and prepare for hand-to-hand combat. Ali withdraws her new dueling sword and boosts her energy to where her eyes glow pink.
AXEM: "Don't burn all your SP, Ali. You want to survive this fight!"
CHRIS: "What am I supposed to do?"
TRITHAL: "Read the instructions that came with your wizard's staff and see if you can generate a demon of fire!"
CHRIS withdraws the half-inch thick instruction manual. "Man, some of these words are too hard to pronounce. Why can't it be in English?"
TRITHAL and AXEM: "Quit bitching and start reading!"
CHRIS stays back and studies his manual. Meanwhile, the remaining three party members engage the ice army. In the course of the melee, TRITHAL loses 8 HP and now has 14/22 remaining, and spends his remaining bonus SP on strategic attacks. AXEM loses 12 HP and has 17/29 remaining, and spends all but 2 of his bonus SP on attacks. Ali has yet to learn any strategic attacks, so she loses no SP. However, she manages to only lose 2 HP with 10/12 remaining thanks to her suprising ability to wield a dueling sword.
CHRIS: "Ok I found it, but I don't have enough SP to use it."
TRITHAL tosses CHRIS the remaining SP mixture and instructs him to drink it all. CHRIS likewise gets a heavy buzz and gains 30 bonus SP. While buzzed, CHRIS manages to stagger through the pronunciaton of a spell which causes his stick to glow red.
TRITHAL, AXEM and Ali: "POINT IT AT THE ENEMY, DUMBASS!!"
CHRIS aims his staff at the remaining enemy army then completes the sutra. His eyes, as well as his skin, begins to glow red, and through the staff a large, flaming dragon flies out and spreads fire across the field. TRITHAL, AXEM and Ali manage to dodge the blast in time before the ice army becomes engulfed in flames. CHRIS, having no stamina built up at all, spends all his SP and loses all but 1 HP from the blast. The last thing he remembers is seeing the scorched field before him and a flash of white fur snatch the screaming princess and head back up the mountain. CHRIS collapses on the field, alive but unconscious.
All members earn 76 EXP for killing the army.
TRITHAL (14/31 HP; 16/22 SP; 220/3000 EXP) (now level 5)
AXEM (17/33 HP; 28*/30 SP; 227/3000 EXP) (now level 5)
CHRIS (1/27 HP; 0/36 SP; 180/3000 EXP) (now level 3)
Ali (12/20 HP; 3/10 SP; 161 EXP) (now level 3, but seperated from party)
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