Gerson(?)

A secret encounter, Gerson will only fight Susie, meaning Kris and Ralsei won't be participating. It's a friendly bout, so there's no risk to losing, but you'll want to persist through Gerson's trial to obtain the Justice Axe, which is the strongest weapon available to Susie, giving her an impressive +12 attack boost (As well as a currently functionless "???" passive stat) making it a must have for the upcoming fight with the Titan. Given the value this weapon has, it's no wonder Gerson won't just hand it over, he wants you to earn it, and while that may not be easy it will certainly be worth it. The objective of the fight is clear: Susie must cut at least a single hair on Gerson's head with her axe, which sounds simple enough, but this old man is hiding a few tricks up his sleeve that make this task easier said than done. Looks can be deceiving, and while you may go into this fight expecting Gerson to be nothing more than a simple old man, you'll soon find that you're sparring against none other than the Hammer of Justice.

The first thing you may notice is that no matter how hard you try, landing a hit on Gerson at all is next to impossible. He's surprisingly agile, moving faster than the eye can perceive and avoiding all of Susie's basic attacks as if they were nothing. Rude Buster would be your next best bet, but you'll soon find that it won't be helping you much easier. Gerson is able to parry Rude Buster, sending it back to Susie and forcing the player to react and parry it themselves, engaging in a short back and forth. Succeed and you'll seen Gerson spinning, and while you may not have succeeded in cutting a hair, he seems proud of your efforts. This is because the actual goal of the fight is irrelevant to Gerson, instead he is testing Susie's (and by extent, the player's) resolve. In relation to this, another way to earn Gerson's favor is to cast Susie's spell OKHeal, which she had briefly been trying to learn before giving up when she wasn't as good as Ralsei. Gerson's encouragement throughout Chapter 4 allows her to cast it again, and doing so during this fight will impress Gerson. Using OKHeal during this fight also has the benefit of making it stronger, each use reduces the spell's TP cost by 1 and increases the total healing it does by 2, so using the spell whenever you have enough TP is a good strategy. As for Gerson's own attacks, they may be familiar to anyone who's played Toby Fox's previous game, UNDERTALE. Gerson will turn the player's SOUL green, locking it in place in the center of the battle box but providing them with a shield, which they can aim in eight different directions. This shield is used to block the incoming arrows Gerson sends your way, timing the shield movements to block an arrow perfectly also generates bonus TP, so waiting until the very last moment to block can be a risky but worthwhile endeavor. Gerson will turn the SOUL red again for some attacks, which typically involve a flurry of fast moving, but easy to dodge projectiles. During the fight, Gerson will talk to Susie about the prophecy and how it relates to his own writing, if he is thoroughly impressed with Susie by the end of this talk he'll drop his guard, allowing Susie to finally succeed and cut a single strand of hair from his eyebrow, winning the fight and earning the Justice Axe.