Epic gaming moments

[Sephex]

I was at a friend's house last night, and we decided to bust out the goold old NES. She is a gamer like me, and she introduced me to her friend, who wanted to play NES since it was years since she touched games that old. After she had her fun they wanted me to play Super Mario Bros.

And thus...the epic battle for the Mushroom Kingdom began. It looked like I was going to have a bad game since I died on the first level by stupidly falling into a pit. I got the extra life that everyone knows about before it happened, so I guess I broke even. It was then that I decided that I was going to try to beat the game, instead of messing around like I originally intended. Of course, I warped from 1-2 to 4-1 and then 4-2 to 8-1. I still had my Fire Flower power on when I got to 8-2, so I was pumped up. But that godforsaken cloud nailed me with one of the spineys right at the start! Down but not out, I decided that it was best to move on and I cleared the rest of the level without losing a life.

Then I was on 8-3. Oh boy, how I loathe 8-3. I had three lives remaining. It was on. However, I accidently ran into the first Bullet Bill fired! WHAT A DUMB MISTAKE! Only two lives left now...I began to sweat. This time I got to the first Hammer Bro that is on even ground right by the turtle you can knock into him with good timing. I, however, miserably FAILED and he jumped right over the turtle. In that same instant, I decided to see if I could run right under him, but in a cruel twist of irony he landed on Mario's head!

One life left. This was getting serious. I didn't care if I beat the game. I just wanted the satisfaction of blowing by those damn Hammer Bros. When I got to the Hammer Bro that stomped on Mario's head, I decided to try to take him out with a turtle shell again. I failed again, but I decided to take my time. Hammers were breezing by me like a swarm of angry hornets, but I waited for my opening and brushed right past him!

I wasn't in the clear, though. I knew I had to face TWO Hammer Bros. in the same area! I brushed by the first one, no prob...but this is where it got intense. I got myself surrounded! Hammers to the left of me! Hammers to the right! I had to make my next move fast, but with extreme caution! --THERE! AN OPENING!--And I rushed on through to the end of the level!

So there I was on 8-4 with one life left. I didn't come this far to fail. NOW it was serious. This wasn't just a game anymore. I had to defeat Bowser. This was for the Mushroom Kingdom! This was for the Princess! This was for all those asexual Toad dudes! I felt like Muhammad Ali before a big fight. Like Eminem before a rap battle! Like the President in Independence Day before the last battle with those vicious aliens! Like my father before a management committee meeting! But most importantly of all, I felt like Mario. If Mario and his world were real, this is how it was. He wouldn't have lives or a chance to memorize enemy patterns! He would only have ONE SHOT! And that's when I felt it. I had to win! If not for me...I had to do it for Mario.

Going through the maze that is Bowser's final castle, I found myself dodging flying fish, avoiding those tratorious Goombas, and swimming past Bloopers. I was near the end...but...NO! This can't be! Another Hammer Bro WITH a pit of lava behind him ALONG with a fireball shooting in and out of it?! This was certain death for sure! I shook those feelings off and found my opening, cleared the lava pool, and passed the fireball unscathed!

The second I felt relieved that I made the jump, my heart began to race again. Bowser was just ahead. And boy, was it a pissed off Bowser. Not only was he breathing fire, but he was throwing an impossibly large number of hammers at me! Could I really do this in one try? I cast away all doubt, looked that mother****er right in the eye, and slipped under him. I saw the fear in Bowser's eyes as he turned around right in time to see me cut the bridge! It was over. The Mushroom Kingdom was saved. This wasn't the first time I beat SMB. But this was the first time I made every move count! It was an epic night!

Post your epic gaming moments.

[Tavrobel]

Epic, Sephex, epic.

But those (needless) losses of life are quite sad to think about, especially failing to the Hammer brothers. You wait until one of the hammer brothers throws hammers, run under one, and you jump hit the block under him; this is the fastest way to dispose of the hammer brother. You just run from the other.

I can't remember any of mine in detail, but let's just say that the ending of Xenosaga I and Sophie Peithos are hard to get through if you don't train right. The only other time was when I beat the Arcade version of TMNT with my sister and cousin, and completing Mario Kart 64's 150CC Rainbow Road and getting gold, despite a 3 point deficit to Bowser (who got fifth place thanks to my computer allies).

[edczxcvbnm]

What glitchy mc-glitch should I talk about?

How about the time that I delt the final blow to the first boss in Ocrina of Time? Yep. I swung my sword and he died. Not only did he die but he had this horrible death sequence where he disinegrated to nothing. Then...the heart container. Then the exit. Then I fell over dead because his final attack still landed and thwarted my efforts. But I saw him die but he could not say the same for me.

There was also this one round of Halo 2 online where the other team needed 1 second to win and my team need 2 minutes to win...we won with total skillz and luck.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I've had plenty of epic moments with the Gradius series. The difficulty of the games is generally so well balanced against the Vic Viper's potential for becoming a one-ship armada of lasers and missiles that you're almost constantly faced with situations that are just tense enough to make you doubt yourself and then subsequently feel like goddamn Superman for actually surviving intact.
But those (needless) losses of life are quite sad to think about, especially failing to the Hammer brothers. You wait until one of the hammer brothers throws hammers, run under one, and you jump hit the block under him; this is the fastest way to dispose of the hammer brother. You just run from the other.The Hammer Bros. in 8-3 and 8-4 are on level ground with Mario, not up on blocks, so if you don't have fireballs, it takes much more clever maneuvering than that to get past them.

[Tavrobel]

But those (needless) losses of life are quite sad to think about, especially failing to the Hammer brothers. You wait until one of the hammer brothers throws hammers, run under one, and you jump hit the block under him; this is the fastest way to dispose of the hammer brother. You just run from the other.The Hammer Bros. in 8-3 and 8-4 are on level ground with Mario, not up on blocks, so if you don't have fireballs, it takes much more clever maneuvering than that to get past them.

Really? I seem to remember most of them them being on top of blocks (not all of them). I never said anything about 8-4.

[ValkyrieWing]

...

I beat Super Mario 3 7 times in one day, without whistles.

If you beat the game enough, your inventory fills up with p-wings. :P

Oh, and I beat Bonk's Adventure in less than 2 hours. :)

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

If you beat the game enough, your inventory fills up with p-wings. :PJust once is enough.

[Zeromus_X]

The first time I beat Lenneth in SO3 was epic. Half an hour of Aura-Walling, Fists of Furying, and Stun Bombing. Eventually I ran out of restorative items and all manner of bombs, and only Albel was left alive. Lenneth began running towards him. I knew it was over. Desperate, I did a long major attack. Pow! Right in chibi-Valkyrie's face! I won. The battle trophy, 'Defeat Lenneth' chimed onto the corner of my screen! Now I could show it off to all my friends. xD

Man, tri-Ace sure knows how to make the perfect superbosses for me. :cat: :love:

[Rainecloud]

Completing Sonic & Knuckles combined with Sonic 3 was a big achievement for me. Collecting all the Chaos Emeralds took quite some time, as I wasn't particularly good at finishing those horrible 3D "Collect Blue Spheres!" levels. The Doomsday Zone at the very end of the game was fantastic, and hurtling through space as a bright yellow Super Sonic was simply awesome. Robotnik had no chance.

[ValkyrieWing]

The first time I beat Lenneth in SO3 was epic. Half an hour of Aura-Walling, Fists of Furying, and Stun Bombing. Eventually I ran out of restorative items and all manner of bombs, and only Albel was left alive. Lenneth began running towards him. I knew it was over. Desperate, I did a long major attack. Pow! Right in chibi-Valkyrie's face! I won. The battle trophy, 'Defeat Lenneth' chimed onto the corner of my screen! Now I could show it off to all my friends. xD

Man, tri-Ace sure knows how to make the perfect superbosses for me. :cat: :love:

Wow. Props to you...that's TOUGH.

Were you 255???

[Araciel]

playing whackamole on new supermario bros and beating my highscore was my most recent epic moment

[fantasyjunkie]

When I beat Gannon in the 8bit NES Legend of Zelda. It was at midnight and I was alone. I was jumping up and down and hooping and holloring!

[Avarice-ness]

=O!!!

Here's my bad one.

THE ONE TIME I BOUGHT FF ANTHOLOGY FOR THE FIRST TIME AND THE FFV DISC GLITCHED *Breathes in* and I was in the Floating ruins dealy-o. And I'm fighting the dragon, EVERYTHING IS GOING A-Okay.. UNTIL! The stupid king dude revived the dragon... then the story went like this..

Me: Hey, No fair!
Dragon: *attacks*
Me: OH MITTENS! ATTACK.
FFV gang: *attacks/FAILS*
Me: WHAT IT DIDN'T EVEN HIT DAMAGE!
Dragon: *attacks for like 250 HP*
Me: HEY WOW NOT COOL!
FFV gang: *attacks again/FAILS AGAIN*
Me: WHY AM I NOT DAMAGING! WHY IS THERE NO HP DAMAGE POPPING UP! THERE ISN'T EVEN A 'MISS'!
Dragon: *KILLS EVERYTHING*
Me: *Blank stare* FUCK THIS! *throws controller and gains an undying hatred for FFV*

Then to make it better, I went to my friends house, He was at the same place I was at and just like... BREEZED THROUGH THE DRAGON. Yeah no problems like mine, I ended up being slightly disgrunteled that night.

As for a good thing.

The moment I got to Zozo in FFVI. ^^
Or when I was 9 and realized video games where not to scale. That was some revelation seeing as I'm 9 and trying to figure out why guys taking Martial arts classes arn't 30 times my size. :razz:

[Bunny]

The first post made me laugh and shake my head at the same time. It is made up of equal parts funny and wow.

The only 'epic' gaming moment I can think of is as follows:

I am an RPG player, to the point where I own maybe half a dozen games that are not RPGs. I own somewhere in the realm of 100-120 games. So when I say that I am horrible at saving my game, I think you could understand my situation. I mean, I am horrible at it. Never do it. Always forget to.

So I was playing Suikoden III and I was towards the end so I figured I would go for broke and beat it, skipping the save points beforehand. Somehow "close to beating it" turned into me playing for three or four hours without saving my game. Now, normally if this was just time spending gaining levels, I would not care. But I did a whole lot of stuff in those hours.

So after I finish getting ready for the final dungeon, I enter. I breeze through it because my characters are mid-50s/early 60s and I get to the boss fairly easily. My combination of characters is pretty deadly, to the point where I did not have any problem with anyone before this damnable final boss.

So I fight him. And I do pretty good at the beginning, trading blows, healing when needed, using magic to cause heavy amounts of damage. And then something goes horribly wrong and he manages to kill off most characters, including my main healer. I do my best to recover quickly but on his next turn, he wipes out more characters. So after a few more turns I am down to one character: Chris. She has, literally, five hit points left to her name. I begin to concede. Telling myself how stupid I am for not saving my game and how I am not even going to try and beat this anymore. It will collect dust before I make a second attempt. I start getting angry.

But I input my command of Attack. Chris strikes. The boss is defeated. It takes a minute to process the victory. I am bad at telling stories.

My party was, if I can remember right: Hugo, Geddoe, Chris, Landis, Viki, and Nei.

[ljkkjlcm9]

Completing Sonic & Knuckles combined with Sonic 3 was a big achievement for me. Collecting all the Chaos Emeralds took quite some time, as I wasn't particularly good at finishing those horrible 3D "Collect Blue Spheres!" levels. The Doomsday Zone at the very end of the game was fantastic, and hurtling through space as a bright yellow Super Sonic was simply awesome. Robotnik had no chance.

I had that game on my PC, I got all the chaos emeralds with the sonic/tails team, with sonic alone, with tails alone, and with knuckles. It was fun to go back through after that and completely own levels.

THE JACKEL

[Mo-Nercy]

Tekken 5 at Uni versus a really good player. I had lost a couple of times already but I decided to try my Anna on him. Turned out that he wasn't so familiar with Anna's moveset so I had a slight advantage on his Christie. We got down to the final round and I really put the pressure on him. A lot of quick jabs and short mixups to keep him on the defensive. After a few custom strings, I got him with a uf+1,3,3+4. It knocks down and puts me right on top of him so I charged up my unblockable (d+1+2). It was the perfect tech trap. After that I kept up the poking pressure and won easily.

Beating Nitrous Oxide in the original Crash Team Racing was pretty huge for me too. I hit every turbo pad and was up half a lap when I crossed the finish line. If I had gotten a bit lucky and scored some more speed boosting items, I could've lapped him ^^

[Polaris]

when I passed 'Temple Ruins' I never had passed that level not even once! and once I check one thing on the internet (the only help that I had was an information to remove a cube) and then I started playing and it was amazing... But I'll never play that level again! It's scary :( Specially when I saw the dead dudes!

[Lost Number]

Final Boss in Shadow of the Colossus, at 4am. If you have played the game, you know what I mean.

[Reine]

SoTC is epic the whole way through it..

Completing Sonic 1 the very first time (Which was also the very first time I had ever completed a game) was very epic to me, id seen my brother's future father beat it several times, and I could only just get up to Labyrinth Zone. But one day, I finally got there with about 4 continues and 16 livesand cam out mostly unscathed, losing only 4 lives..Starlight Zone was mostly a breeze, but I did lose three lives along the way..an then the EVIL Scrap Brain Zone, lost so many lives in there, came into Final Zone with two lives, and no continues, I was bloody exhilarated and nervous, and just beat him with the last life..

I was extremely excited and happy, as you might expect from one of that age..(I was 6 at the time)

As for other epic gaming moments, defeating many of the bosses in the Tomb Raider series, namely the Giant Alien Thing for level 15 of TR1 and the Spider Insta-Death Ray Dude of TR3, fighting Baphomet in Doom 2, fighting Indalecio Unlimted in SO2 and so many other occasions

[JKTrix]

Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner (possible spoilers)

The entire climactic ending sequence, particularly the HUGE battle before you get into Aumaan.
It's you (Jehuty), the Vic Viper, and 40 allied LEVs versus about 1000 enemy mechs trying to prevent you from breaking into their base. Not only do you have to fight your way through all of them, but you have to save as many allied mechs as possible. They're pretty useless on their own, and between you and the Vic Viper you'd be taking out most of the enemies. But your ranking on the success of the mission is heavily influenced by how many LEVs survive, and you will get an automatic game over if they are all destroyed.

The whole thing is truly epic in the scale of things: 42 good guys vs 1000 bad guys. Kingdom Hearts 2 tried to emulate the experience of this stage, but it's nowhere near as exhilarating or challenging.

And the final battle vs Anubis, where you are stripped of your armour and all but your most basic of abilities to battle him. This 'Naked Jehuty' is the most powerful in the game, as it is the pure, unbridled power of Metatron allowed to shine through.

ZOE2 is one of my favourite games. If a ZOE3 were to be made for the PS3, that would be the thing that would make me buy a PS3 immediately.

[Dreddz]

I'd only consider my epic gaming moments when I play fighting games. Sometimes Ive had 9 or so friends over all playing Street Fighter for hours.
It can get really tense at times.

My most epic moments were when Street Fighter III - Third Strike was still at my arcade, I used to love stepping up to people twice my age and whooping there asses :p

[ljkkjlcm9]

I think it was pretty epic when I beat megaman 1 through 6 on NES in one day one after another.

THE JACKEL

[Endless]

If you want epic, watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E2VtVStTSM

[ljkkjlcm9]

ha that's not epic, nothing is more epic than this!
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/14/mega-man-x-and-x2-at-the-same-time/

megaman X1 and X2 same time, using a single input

THE JACKEL

[Zeromus_X]

The first time I beat Lenneth in SO3 was epic. Half an hour of Aura-Walling, Fists of Furying, and Stun Bombing. Eventually I ran out of restorative items and all manner of bombs, and only Albel was left alive. Lenneth began running towards him. I knew it was over. Desperate, I did a long major attack. Pow! Right in chibi-Valkyrie's face! I won. The battle trophy, 'Defeat Lenneth' chimed onto the corner of my screen! Now I could show it off to all my friends. xD

Man, tri-Ace sure knows how to make the perfect superbosses for me. :cat: :love:

Wow. Props to you...that's TOUGH.

Were you 255???

Nope, I beat her with levels in the 180-200 range.

That probably explains why it was so scary. xD

Freya is even harder though. -_-; Which, makes sense I guess. Still, at least this superboss inspired me to purchase a certain Norse-themed tri-Ace game...

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

ha that's not epic, nothing is more epic than this!
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/14/mega-man-x-and-x2-at-the-same-time/

megaman X1 and X2 same time, using a single input

THE JACKALTool-assisted speed runs are all about emulation exploits and repetition--no skills required. They're not epic, and they're definitely not even in the same universe as the Daigo Parry.

[Spammerman]

zelda oot giant ganon ram thingy. Greatest gaming epic moment for me(first game i beat.).( are we supposed to make it story like?

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

The topic is gaming moments that are uniquely epic due to your own personal gameplay experience, not epic in a general sense.

[Slicksword45]

Well my first time beating FF7 was epic for me :)

My party: Cloud, Vincient and Cid
Cloud was the healer. Big mastake.

anyway, The fight seems to be going fine. Sephroth was getting his ass handed to him for a wile. then he casted Super Nova. uh-o. I was able to get Cure3 all but as soon as I did cloud got murdered. Ammidley, I know i'm in a tight spot. I make Vin. cast Ultima wile Cid trys to res. Cloud. When I res cloud I get hit by another Super Nova. I don't have anymore Heal3 alls so I cast heal2 all. Then seph cased Trine. Cloud and Vin dies. Cid lives with 1HP! 1 FREAKING HP!

Knowing that i'll lose (And in my anger twords seph) I cast Bolt3. It killed seph.

Also, It was my first time beating FFVII which made it even more epic.

I think I cryed happy tears that night :)

[Shoeberto]

I'm sure I had some from my CS days, or at least during any of the various CS games I've been in since I was active. Basically, my proudest moments are noscoping anyone on any map other than scoutzknivez. There's just something so satisfying and e-peen-boosting about having your scout out, running up to a corner, having some dude with an M4 who could hand your face to you no problem, doing a complete impulse shot and then seeing his head explode in an orgy of old-school blood particle effects. Now, pulling off two or three of these in a round? That's a feeling that's just indescribable.

Of course, getting fisted the next round before you can pop off one shot completely revokes any of the bragging rights you had, so that's a shame.

[ValkyrieWing]

The first post made me laugh and shake my head at the same time. It is made up of equal parts funny and wow.

The only 'epic' gaming moment I can think of is as follows:

I am an RPG player, to the point where I own maybe half a dozen games that are not RPGs. I own somewhere in the realm of 100-120 games. So when I say that I am horrible at saving my game, I think you could understand my situation. I mean, I am horrible at it. Never do it. Always forget to.

So I was playing Suikoden III and I was towards the end so I figured I would go for broke and beat it, skipping the save points beforehand. Somehow "close to beating it" turned into me playing for three or four hours without saving my game. Now, normally if this was just time spending gaining levels, I would not care. But I did a whole lot of stuff in those hours.

So after I finish getting ready for the final dungeon, I enter. I breeze through it because my characters are mid-50s/early 60s and I get to the boss fairly easily. My combination of characters is pretty deadly, to the point where I did not have any problem with anyone before this damnable final boss.

So I fight him. And I do pretty good at the beginning, trading blows, healing when needed, using magic to cause heavy amounts of damage. And then something goes horribly wrong and he manages to kill off most characters, including my main healer. I do my best to recover quickly but on his next turn, he wipes out more characters. So after a few more turns I am down to one character: Chris. She has, literally, five hit points left to her name. I begin to concede. Telling myself how stupid I am for not saving my game and how I am not even going to try and beat this anymore. It will collect dust before I make a second attempt. I start getting angry.

But I input my command of Attack. Chris strikes. The boss is defeated. It takes a minute to process the victory. I am bad at telling stories.

My party was, if I can remember right: Hugo, Geddoe, Chris, Landis, Viki, and Nei.

I almost had the same problem....

I had the three main characters, Nei, Futch and Bright, I think..I dn't really remember, and it's been a LONG time.

[Lionx]

Ehh most of your stories are RPGs or some single player game but most of my epics were in the arcades playing Capcom vs SNK 2...usually its either both me and the other guy with a sliver of life left playing footsies with one another in the zone, or i had a sliver left, somehow either bring the other guy down to the near same life as me or finishing it off with that little margin for error.

I either die or make it, but i remember the mosts was when i did a HP xx Super Tiger Cannon into a high Tiger Shot...which brought the guy same sliver as me..and everyone watching going "OHH OMG THATS NUTS" or something to that effect...like...tension and stuff....then he fazed out and i got him with a lame jump in lol xD; guess he thought he had it until i hit him with a super and made it even. I liked the reaction everyone that was watching did though, it made me felt like i was hella good even though i am probably around average imo.

[pinkmage]

for me it was the first time i beat train on 00 agent on goldeneye 007 on the N64. It was so freaking hard! after that i had lots of fun with control and aztec....:mad2: but after unlocking all of the cheats and getting 007 mode it was fun to play it all over again!!

[Saku]

But I input my command of Attack. Chris strikes. The boss is defeated. It takes a minute to process the victory. I am bad at telling stories.

My party was, if I can remember right: Hugo, Geddoe, Chris, Landis, Viki, and Nei.

I think I seem to have this problem regularly with Suikoden in particular... the first time I go in... it comes down to one person... 5 HP and a miracle that to this day I can't explain.

Other epic moment..... hmmm... I'll go with just this one....

Final Fantasy 7.... The boss in the Sewers (Aps I think its called). I'm there about to throw my controller at a boss that is very much proud of spamming its tidal wave attack.... not that it was killing me... but spamming is not cool... even if it IS a cheap computer boss. Anyways, I take him down... only to have him kill himself. Now... what fun is a battle if the boss kills himself? I think about when I last saved and it was.... a ways back. I said screw it, and reset and went back to Aerith's house and played on. This time I saved when I first got to the wall market. Made quick work there, got to boss... boss killed itself... again. By now... this is getting amazingly unfair. I would repeat this reset ten more times before I could finally say... I gave the death blow.

PS: I would be shown latter on in the game that spamming is real bad.... Super Nova x 5 in the same battle.... yeah... my PSX hates me....

[Elite Lord Sigma]

The most epic was when I got to the Final Chapter of Fire Emblem 7. I felt confident that my team would be indestructible.

Unfortunately for my predictions, the level proved harder than I thought. After failing countless times (due to poor luck), I decided to change around my team a bit. The team I eventually won with was comprised of Eliwood, Nils, Lyndis, Hector, Athos, Raven, Harken, Fiora, Jaffar, Pent, Wil, and Bartre. I failed three times before actually succeeding in killing Nergal.

Attempt 1:

I had killed off all of the morphs, and Nergal was revealed. I felt that nobody could stop me now, when a Druid berserked Jaffar. Jaffar then proceeded to kill Pent in one hit. At that point, I felt an urge to hurl my DS out the window.

Attempt 2:

All the doors had opened, and only Kenneth, Ursula, Jerme, and the Reed brothers were left. I sent Fiora down to kill Ursula with Rex Hasta, thinking that she'd be able to take her out in one strike. Unfortunately, Ursula scored a critical hit with Excalibur, killing Fiora in a single strike. I then proceeded to hurl my DS at my bed and not play for a few hours.

Attempt 3:

Again, nobody was left except for the Reed brothers and Kenneth, who I always take out last. I sent Hector to take out Lloyd with a Swordslayer. Unfortunately, Lloyd attacked twice, and the second strike was a critical, which killed Hector, which resulted in a game over.

Attempt 4:

With a bit of luck, I was able to remember to bring a Restore staff, but I didn't need it for the first half. Using my usual strategy, I took out Uhai and his Snipers with the help of Bartre, Harken, Raven, Athos, and Wil. Moving on, Kenneth appeared, but I ignored him. Sending Harken to take out Brendan, I weakened Brendan with Bolting from Athos, and Harken, all though taking heavy damage from Basilikos, managed to finish Brendan, and not die. After that, Darin appeared. I weakened him with Athos' Bolting, using it up. After that, Hector with Armads finished him. Then, Ursula and Jerme came. Using Fiora, I finished Ursula. Then, I sent Harken and Raven, who were able to take out Jerme with ease. Then came the two hardest people, Linus and Lloyd. Retreating for a couple of turns, I got them where I wanted them. First, I had Wil weaken Lloyd with a Silver Bow. Then, Athos came and finished him off with Forblaze. Nils played for Athos, giving him another turn. Then, Athos got a critical hit, killing Linus in a single spell. I then used Forblaze, and again killed Kenneth in one hit with Forblaze. I then had Athos finish off the remaining mages with Luce, and had my remaining forces take care of the three Generals from the South. Finally, only Nergal was left. I sent Athos with Aureola to take care of him. With the power of Aureola, and a bit of luck dodging Ereshkigal, Athos was able to take down the dark druid. The next half was much simpler, and with Armads and Aureola, despite Athos getting killed by the dragon due to an oversight on my part, the dragon was killed, and the game was won. Not that Athos dying mattered, as he dies anyway even if he's alive after the fight.