Even The Most Stoic
...are permitted a moment of well deserved satisfaction when they are achieving a moment of trancendental magnificence...
From episode 17 of GATE, where we are reminded that Leili's name can be found in the dictionary next to 'Win', 'Bodacious', and 'Arete'.
That was a thoroughly satisfying battle.
After the defeat of the Fire Dragon, which could not have happened without Leili's moment of awseome, our heroes decamp to rendezvous with Rory, only to find her broken, bloodied and her scythe shattered. A quick assessment of the situation followed by polite inquiries reveal 3 things to our protagonists:
1: This is Giselle, she is the Avatar of Hardy, the god of the underworld much like Emloy, god of war has Rory. Note her pets. She woke up the fire dragon 50 years early so she could train two of its young to help her defeat Rory, because of something to do with the politics of this worlds pernicious pantheon.
2: It turns out that when Rory bit Itami two episodes ago, she gave him 3d6 damage reduction with the effect that the damage is transferred to her.
3: All those close calls and minor scrapes Itami got during the fight with the dragon...weren't. He was getting hit just as hard as all the people around him who died. Rory was absorbing all this colossal dragon inflicted damage at exactly the moment Giselle and her pets sucker punched her.
Although it was a team effort, given Giselles fondness for the dragon, none of the girls seem to think it wise to take credit for its slaying.
He did it.
Given that their mage and their demigod are currently unable to walk, all their ammunition is gone and they are faced with a very ornery demigod who has two baby dragons at her command it is decided that the most productive course of action is to
RUN AWAY!!!
Fortunately there are few problems not of the heart that can't be solved with 155mm artillery and Sidewinder missiles.
I did like the fact that the cavalry, in the form of air support and an artillery battery arrive too late for the main fight, but still are absolutely necessary to save our heroes hides.
With that pesky dragon out of the way, I'm curious as to how the story is going to portray the 'United Fruit' school of economic development...but that does not look like it's going to be addressed next week...which looks like its starting a completely new arc.
1
I haven't seen this yet but I know about this battle from the manga. Itami
ultimately is responsible for the death of the first dragon. Leilei's attack would have killed it eventually if that had been all, because she shredded its wings, and it would have starved or died from lack of water. But it also served as electrodes to conduct Tuka's lightning into the dragon's body, bypassing the insulating scales. All of which caused it much pain. But the lightning also set off the pile of C4 that the dragon was laying on top of, which eviscerated it and was the immediate cause of death. So when they're giving Itami credit for killing the dragon, they aren't really lying. It was a team effort, but he contributed a lot more than anyone else.
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