Darius

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**Darius** a red bull priest of Virah that Volga met during his quest to protect the church. Coincidentally he is also Volga's opponent in his fifth tournament match, which takes place after the 'Sea Duty' main quest. Darius is confirmed to be a romanceable companion.

## Bio

Darius is a soft-spoken priest of Virah, who runs a shelter for orphans at the church. His main reason to join the tournament is to bolster visibility of the plight of these children and to spread the word of his deity. Due to (story-related) reasons, Darius had to leave the orphans for a period, which is why he hired Volga to keep watch over the church. As thanks, he helped out Volga by providing shelter to the Winterlight children when they came to visit Volga at the capital.

Darius is a compassionate person, caring about the well-beings of people who are hurt or abandoned. He has a complex about his sexual urges, as he deems them unvirtuous thoughts. However, he cannot help that his beefcake physique is being sexualized by many. To make matters worse, his body is oversensitive to touch for being neglected for so long.

## Strategy

Darius has 3 full HP bars, each with its own unique armour bonuses. As a priest, his skill set revolves around Light magic. In his first and second phase, he relies mostly on magic skills. Holy Ray is his only source of [Blessing] in the first 2 phases, which will keep being reinforced once created. Invest in Mind Zap and a Magic Jammer to trivialize this fight with [Magic Bind]. Otherwise, focus on denying him purple gems. The armour bonuses do little to stop Volga, as we don’t have many sources of mental debuffs (and those that we do have, are rather unwieldy to use).

In his final phase, he changes his skills to deal more physical damage. If [Magic Bind] is still active, no problem. If not, due to Avenging Wrath, he will start out having all his skills charged and will probably use Monolith of Vengeance. In that case, make sure to take him out within 3 turns before the damage can be returned, in which case it will likely deplete your current HP bar. It is possible to skip this phase completely with Glacial Strike and enough friendly [Freeze] gems.

### Armour Bonus

 Inner Armour
If there's a friendly [Blessing] gem, reinforce it on turn start.
 Body
Increase Rage by 2 when receiving damage higher than 10% of your current maximum HP.
When matching an enemy enchanted gem, charge a random skill by 3.

### Skills

First and second phase

 Monolith of Light
[Monolith of Light]
Deal  *x 2.25* Light damage on turn start.
 Divine Protection
Create a [Magic Resist] and a [Physical Resist] gem with *INT x 1.5* base strength plus *INT* strength per converted gem.
 Holy Smite
Heal for half of the damage.
 Blinding Moonlight
Create a friendly 1-turn [Darkness] gem.
If there's a friendly [Blessing] gem, create a friendly 3-turn [Darkness] gem.

Third phase

Destroy 8 - 16 random gems.
 Forward Dash
 Monolith of Vengeance
Create a friendly 3-turn reinforced [Blessing] gem.
[Monolith of Vengeance]
While this gem is active, keep track of all incoming damage.
On expiration, deal unguardable Light damage equal to the total damage received so far.
 Holy Smite
Heal for half of the damage.
 Blinding Moonlight
Create a friendly 1-turn [Darkness] gem.
If there's a friendly [Blessing] gem, create a friendly 3-turn [Darkness] gem.