Rydia: Let's help him!
"Mom" Bomb? Doesn't look any different to me. But after several turns of beating on it...
GWORRGH
Yang is a monk, of course, much like the ones from the first Final Fantasy game... but with the abilities they started to develop in their reappearance in the third game. His Kick ability splits his physical attack power across the whole enemy party, and isn't all that useful unless he's sweeping a bunch of extremely weak monsters away. Power lets Yang concentrate for a while and deal a single hit for double damage -- although unless the enemy has particularly high defense, it's more time-efficient to simply hit it twice. Gird is a defensive stance that has Yang take only 25% damage from attacks.
On Yang himself, they're moderately useful abilities. But in the DS version's augment system, you can get these abilities to strap onto another character. Giving Gird to Cecil is key to one of the game's optimal builds, along with Counter and Draw Attacks. All the monsters target Cecil, who wears the best armor and has the best HP growth, who Girds for very little damage and counterattacks each hit. You can even give Cecil Kick so he counters each hit with a counterattack against every enemy on the field, or Long Range so that he can do that kind of attack from the back row and take even less damage from enemy attacks.
Edward quite wisely takes that under advisement and gets the fuck out of there.
Double-digit damage to the whole party is nothing to sneeze at this early in the game.
The Mom Bomb explodes into smaller bomblets that I have to mop up.
The red Bombs aren't any more powerful than they were in random encounters, but the Gray Bombs take some dedicated work from Cecil and Rydia to wipe out.
Yang: I came here to train with my men, but all were killed by a swarm of beasts... They were Fabul's finest monks...
Cecil: My name is Cecil. We bring urgent news to Fabul.
Rosa: A villain named Golbez is abusing Baron's authority to seize the world's Crystals.
Yang: Then he covets our Wind Crystal as well.
Edward: There is no doubt. He easily seized the Crystal of Damcyan a few days ago.
Yang: Then the odds are against us. The only monks left in the castle are students. They stand little chance against Baron's forces.
Rosa: I'd assume Golbez was behind the monster attacks that killed your men... And almost killed you.
Yang: ...Then the attack is imminent. I must go.
Cecil: We will follow you to Fabul. We would like to help.
Yang: I am grateful. However, this matter does not concern you.
Cecil: But it does.
Edward: ...For I am the prince of Damcyan.
Cecil: Rosa and I are citizens of Baron, and this girl is one of many victims of our kingdom's attacks... which I have personally led.
Yang: I see... then I humbly accept your assistance.
Cecil: Let's go. We haven't much time.
Yang: Fabul lies to the east of these mountains.