Two Chemists, two Blue Dragons, and...
Look, a piggy! A piggy! Oink oink!
Pigs are slow, fragile, and weak. They're kind of a joke character, since they're outclassed even by goblins and piscodaemons. Later lines get some good status-inflicting abilities (like Swine, which fart at foes to confuse them or put them to sleep), but given that everything they do is short-range and they're so blessedly fragile, they're useless in combat.
Their Beastmaster skills are okay, but not fantastic. Pigs get Squeak, which revives an adjacent ally, and is the only monster skill capable of resurrecting. So there's that. Swine get the ability naturally possessed by Wild Boars that can Charm a target. And Wild Boars -- which are ironically named, since they're only available by breeding in captivity -- get Bequeath Bacon. The Wild Boar dies and crystalizes instantly, and an adjacent ally gains a level. It's described in-game as the ultimate act of porcine altruism.
Good poaching, though. You can get some perfumes and the best handbag in the game from the Pig line, but since our only human is male, we're not going to bother.
That'll do, Colonel.
That's the Pig's only attack. He's not underleveled.
Beowulf tries.
Well, that was easy.
I drop the Runeblade for Ice Brand, knowing what's coming next.
It's a complicated level, and no one understands it but its woman.
Two Ochu -- next up from Malboro -- three Plague Horror, and an Archaeodemon surround a purple dragon with green eyes.
Plague Horrors and Ochu are all vulnerable to ice. Hence Ice Brand, allowing me to easily oneshot the little bastards.
Reis knows it, too.
This is the single most useful thing Beowulf has done yet.
The dragons, while possessing powerful Ice attacks, are too slow to really make it into the battle.
The Archaeodemon revs up a powerful spell...
Well, not that powerful.
Beowulf: A companion more dear to me than life itself. Mere words can be no fitting thanks.
"At least long enough for you to return the equipment I lent you when I took your Runeblade earlier."
Meet Reis, the Holy Dragon, the first special monster to join the party. She has Counter and Cannot Enter Water, although they're not listed. Her "Breath" command includes Fire Breath, Ice Breath, and Thunder Breath -- she doesn't lay eggs like other dragons, but that's okay, since she singlehandedly obsoletes the rest of them. Unlike blue and red dragons, she has no elemental weakness.
In pursuing their sidequest further we'd lose Reis, so I'm gonna have to let you go, buddy. Maybe you two can hook back up once I'm done ending this war.
If I'd thought this through better I'd have kept him for the chance to Poach the best polearm in the game out of his corpse. Oh well.
With that, I learn the last skill from R2's Squire class. But I don't get the "Mastered" symbol on the job list. There's one more to learn, the hard way.
The lineup.
One of those Plague Horrors poached into a Zwill Straightblade, the best Knife in the game.