Living Armor (Chapter 6-7)
As the group navigates the abandoned Golden Castle, they find themselves in a large hall with hollow knights who attack them on sight. Curious as to who or what is controlling the creepy chevaliers, the party plans on stalling the group while Laios sneaks into the room across the hall to solve the mystery. And not only does he get his answer, he also makes a new friend along the way.
Living Armor contains the following tropes:
Grilled living armor Not pictured:
- Animated Armor: Surprisingly deconstructed, as the mystery that the party must solve involves how an army of hollow armor is able to move and attack. They soon learn that the reason for this is because the armor are all being piloted by a colony of mollusks rather than possessed by spirits.
- Art Shift: Laios' Happy Flashback uses a more chibi and sloppy art style.
- Comically Missing the Point: Due to how questionable and risky eating the mollusks is, the party members have Laios be the one to eat them first.Laios (teary eyed): Such an honor.
Chilchuck: We leave his corpse if he dies, okay?
Marcille: Okay. - Crippling Overspecialization: Laios tried to get Chilchuck to be the one to sneak past the armor since his whole schtick is stealth. But Chilchuck chill chucks that idea by explaining that his stealth skills won't work on Living Armor as they can detect him no matter how stealthy he is.
- Death Is Cheap: Laios casually explains how his first death played out at the hands of the Living Armor.
- Didn't Think This Through: Excited over how tasty the mollusks turned out, Laios turns his attention to the Steamed Helmet. But he's dismayed to find that they taste like mold; Senshi would bring up that the helmet's natural smells blended in with the mollusks too.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Tying with Happy Flashback, Laios discovers how the armor army is able to move when he sees an egg sac attached to the boss' shield.
- Everyone Has Standards: Senshi may be as much of a food lover as Laios but even he is hesitant to eat unknown food, unless someone tries it out first.
- Extreme Omnivore: Defied. Laios is more than eager to try eating Living Armor but his friends crush his dreams by reminding him of how impossible it is.
- Flashback: Laios thinks back to his first adventure with his sister Falin and how their group was attacked by Living Armor. It even resulted in his first death.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In the anime, there's a single frame where Marcille hits herself in the face with her staff.
- Happy Flashback: While fighting the Living Armor Boss, Laios thinks back to his childhood where he and his sister played with an egg sac.
- Hermaphrodite: Laios theorizes that the mollusks are hermaphrodites which explains how they're able to lay eggs on their own.
- Hypocritical Humor: At first Marcille orders Chilchuck to hush up after he calls Laios creepy. But then she rudely refuses to play along with his interests of eating the mollusks.
- Living Weapon: Laios' new sword comes equipped with a mollusk that he decides to bring along in his quest.
- Monster Is a Mommy: Laios finds out the reason the living armors were acting hostile was because they were protecting their offspring.
- Off with His Head!: A variant of this occurs when Laios takes the helmet of the main living armor causing it to be unable to see its surroundings.
- Secret-Keeper: Only Laios knows that his new sword comes with a mollusk but he keeps this a secret from his friends so as not to alarm them.
- Tactical Withdrawal: After the first attempt to run through the Hall of Living Armor fails, the group decides to go back to the safe zone.
- Treasure Hunter: Laios mentions that he and his sister first joined a party of gold strippers who hunted the gold that covered the underground castle.
- We Need a Distraction: While Marcille, Chilchuck and Senshi distract the army of Living Armor in the main hall, Laios goes around them to reach the room they're guarding in order to figure out what is controlling them.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Marcille lightly chides Chillchuck for breaking the decoration of Laios' sword when he used it to find the secret entrance.
- The Worm That Walks: The Living Armor are actually a colony of mollusks that form together to build a body that allows movement.
"So with a new sword in hand, their journey continues. And as they descend into the dungeon, the other three have no idea their party gained a new member."
