RGR009 - The Master Archfiend

The bottommost level of Zoma's castle consisted only of a small chamber leading to a narrow corridor with an altar at the end. Beyond the altar, everything was completely dark. But when I set foot on the altar, large torches began to light up the room, until we could finally see. And when we could finally see, we were startled by a giant figure walking toward us, bigger than any of us, indeed, as big as his castle seemed from the outside.

Zoma approached us and immediately launched into a speech that I can only assume was meant to unnerve us. Then he called upon his "servants" to destroy us. As if the trip down here wasn't rough enough, now we had to fight henchmen before we actually got to face Zoma himself.

The game won't let us run away.

We have to fight minibosses?

Our first opponent was King Hydra, who had just killed my father, and was apparently still in a fighting mood. His powerful attacks and flaming breath nearly overwhelmed us, but we were able to keep our HP high enough to withstand his offense and counter long enough to defeat him thanks to Theron's BiKill spell.

My name is Ryan. You killed my father.
Prepare to die.

That didn't make me feel any better.

After healing, we took a few steps, only to fall into a battle with the next of Zoma's henchmen, Baramos Bomus. I can only imagine this is the reanimated corpse of Baramos, and he fought in a very similar manner. He had the Blazemost spell, which I don't remember Baramos having, and it did a devastating amount of damage to Brindar, though he survived long enough to be fully healed. The same strategy applied here, with BiKill and healing spells leading us to victory.

Is this his reanimated corpse?

Or maybe his deanimated corpse?

Just a few steps short of Zoma, we ran into the last of Zoma's henchmen, Baramos Gonus. He appeared to be a purple winged lizard skeleton, a palette swap of earlier enemies like Scalgon and Putregon. His attack power was a good deal greater than the other henchmen's, but he didn't appear to have any special abilities at all. We were able to defeat him pretty easily, though Viron ran out of magic keeping us healed up.

Tell me there are no more of them.

Oops, killed that one too quickly.

With two steps to go before confronting Zoma, we gauged our confidence in victory, and decided to use our Wizard's Rings to replenish our magic. It was either that or just walk straight to our deaths. Each use of a ring restores around 15 MP, and risks destroying the ring. As luck would have it, we were able to completely restore all of our magic with one ring left, so we took the final steps toward Zoma, and began the final battle.

We should probably use those
Wizard's Rings now.

Would you shut up and fight already?

All right, guys, let's get him!

...guys? GUYS?!

By the time we were able to use the Sphere of Light, it was too late. I managed to stay alive for a few turns once he was weakened by the sphere, but then luck turned in Zoma's favor, and I fell too.

If we could use the sphere more quickly, we'd be able to commence a proper battle plan. And then, you know, maybe we wouldn't die so quickly.