Frostfang:

Now's a good time to go around the world and trim down some of the optional dragons that can be dealt with. We'll be starting out with the one high up in the cliffs of Fraust, but on the way there, I ran into a monster that, if you ever played the original Kingdom Hearts, would have gotten quite used to seeing if you were grinding out levels, the Ice Titan. Not really a threat at this point sadly.

What is a threat? The dragon flying around on the cliffs, Frostfang.

If the name didn't clue you in, Frostfang goes all in with ice elemental attacks like Avalanche & Absolute Zero. If you have at least ice resistant gear on everyone, you shouldn't have too much trouble withstanding the damage. If needed, cast Shell on everyone to further bolster your magical defenses.

Frostfang's worst attacks are threefold. First, there's the special move Tail Whip which is absurdly strong. Tifa & Ronan have 190 or more physical defense and still get rocked for 3500-4000 damage in the front row after Protect's been cast on them. Not a move you can ignore, that's for sure.

Then, you have the dragon's two ailment moves. Frozen Tomb can quite literally freeze party members solid. Freezing all four party members is rare, but it is a possibility. Luckily there's an easy way to free any frozen characters and that's to cast any fire spell at them. MT Fireball is the simplest way to go about that. The ailment can wear off on its own too, but it takes an awful long time.

The real danger? Charm. This is a majorly souped up Confuse that, should it hit its target, will cause them to attack their allies indefinitely. It does wear off I believe, but you're much better off killing the afflicted character and reviving him/her rather than waiting it out.

Frostfang has two "lives" you'll have to burn through before you can actually proceed to killing him. Seems like he gets quite counter happy on the final life and can counter with Tail Whip so be careful there. On the plus side though, being weak to fire means Ronan & Tifa absolutely dominate with dual Blazing Claws and a Wrath Band and/or Power Glove relic equipped.

Frostfang has a Crystal Ball to steal and drops a brand new shield, the Sublime Shield. Interesting piece of equipment that's designed only to defend against magic as it has no physical defenses to speak of. Also has resistance to every element except holy & poison. Ronan & Tifa can make surprisingly good use of this shield considering they can hit 190 or more defense dual wielding. Ronan moreso since he doesn't have an armor like the Shaman Dress for his own use.

Hundred Fists & Fellbeast:

One quick thing to get out of the way first and that's to visit a big forest just outside of Seascape Town. There's a bare patch of land in the southwest portion of the forest and you'll have to walk all the way to the northeast part. Make sure Ronan's in your team before you do this though and that you have the Lump of Coal from Avalon's dream.

In the northeast, assuming the local Xenomorphs & T-Rexaurs don't mess you up hard, is a rather familiar looking hut. The winds are howling fierce, but having the Lump of Coal in your inventory will save you from getting blasted back out to the world map. Your reward is meeting a familiar face...at least for Ronan. It's his master Oyama and he's not dead. Turns out Raditz was lying out of his teeth when he said he murdered him. Somehow I knew he wasn't cut out for the job, heh.

Oyama teaches Ronan his final skill, the fabled Hundred Fists. Didn't get a chance to show it off, but there'll be a dragon fight I can have him demonstrate the move in.

With that out of the way, the timeskip takes my party to Mt. Etlich. There was a chest I skipped opening on my first visit here. That's because inside is a rampaging dragon...or would be if it wasn't being ridden by some damn fool Nazgul from the Lord of the Rings universe. The dragon still has to die though.

This dragon is the wind aligned Fellbeast. As such, moves like Air Blast, Whirlwind, Aero, and Cyclonic are on tap here. Cyclonic can be very nasty if it follows up with something else afterwards so hopefully you can pack wind nullifying gear. The Misty Coats are the best option due to wind absorption and having good defense so you may want to stock up on them in Taured for this fight.

Besides that, there's its physical strike, a special skill called Ultrasonic Blast (Just a stronger physical strike), and Primal Rage for inflicting berserk. Painful for sure, but if you're hovering around 160-170+ defense, you can survive an Ultrasonic Blast in the back row with a casting of Protect no problem. It'll do 1500-2000 damage, but there's been far worse to deal with.

Finally, the Fellbeast takes a page from its Dragon's Den of FFVI Advance counterpart and raises its own speed & evasion after a while. The speed difference doesn't seem all that noticeable and the evasion boost can be sidestepped by having a Paladin's Icon on your melee attacker (Arc & Shadow can opt for the Nightvision helmet instead if they so choose).

Magic's also a viable option for dealing damage here, but watch out for Fellbeast's Drain & Osmose counters. The former doesn't do that much, but the latter basically makes siphoning your lost mp back a risky affair. One Osmose counter and Fellbeast can easily get back all the mp you just took and then some. Best to rely on Tinctures to refresh mp as needed.

Steal wise, there's an Uchigatana up for grabs. If you get this early, it can prove to be a solid weapon for Avalon to lean on due to the enemy cleaving chance.

On the drop side of things, there's a Solar Guard. Don't think I talked about this before, but it has good defenses, a nice magic evade boost, and halves five elements (fire, ice, lightning, wind, earth).

Glaurung:

Next up on the dragon-slaying world tour is the Phoenix Cave. Towards the end of it there was a fire dragon who was pacing around a chest. I believe my two major dragon slaying experts need to give it to the dragon and claim that chest, am I right?

Well, there's really going to have to put in the work because this dragon, Glaurung, is one of the hardest optional dragons available. Like Fellbeast, its gimmick is based off its elemental counterpart from FFVI Advance.

Basically, it fuels its incredible power with its own lifeforce. Glaurung can attack multiple times per turn...and not just twice like most previous bosses. It can easily attack 4+ times if it wants with physicals that are roughly on par with Fellbeast or attack with various fire themed spells, two of which bear merit in mentioning.

One of those spells is Meltdown. Without any fire or wind protection, you're looking at 4k damage to the entire party. Not something you're likely to survive unless you have the aformentioned fire or wind resistance gear equipped. With it, a MT Cura spell should be enough to repair the sustained damage or close to it.

The other concerning move is Soulfire. The damage isn't going to amount to much if you're bringing along fire resistance, but the worst part is that it inflicts death sentence too. My Oboro & Shadow have relics on to block that status, but the others are not so lucky. Thankfully, Otis having the Eaglehorn on makes his counter tick down quicker, meaning I just need to off Golbez when the timers are low, res him, then wait for the death sentence to resolve on Otis to bring him back.

Of course, just because there's fire spells in play doesn't mean Glaurung has other methods of dishing out pain. Flare & Rock Slide can do a hefty 3500-4500 damage to a target. Normally that's survivable, but considering how many attacks the dragon puts out, it's very likely one of those attacks is going to hit an already damaged character.

Eventually, Glaurung will do a last gasp kind of combo when its lifeforce runs out. I never see it because, unlike the FFVI Advance counterpart, you can actually do damage to the dragon. This is why I have my Golbez & Otis geared the way they are since they're gonna do 90% of the damage in the fight.

Oboro & Shadow...when neither one is getting lit up by Flare or Rock Slide, they're running support (Oboro gets a chance to steal a Flame Cloak though, which protects against Frozen status). Very very rarely do they attack since there's so much damage incoming that I need them ready to heal when their turns come up.

If you manage to slay the dragon yourself, you'll be rewarded with another Uchigatana and access to the chest behind Glaurung containing a Conformer, a ranged weapon that has some good stat boosts and can randomly kill an enemy.

Only one more thing to do in this cavern!