Breath of Fire III/Hostage at the Contest

The Contest of Champions
You have returned to the starting point and this time Balio and Sunder will make sure you can't escape. Meanwhile, the Contest of Champions has started. Nina will then propose to the two scoundrels to let you enter the Contest, so that if you win, you can claim your freedom as a reward. After some arguing, Balio and Sunder let your team enter the Contest, figuring they can clean up by gambling on your performance. However, you will have to choose a member of your party, between Momo and Peco, who will remain hostage. Choose Peco.

At this point, you will be free to wander around the Arena, to familiarize yourself with the place. You can rest and buy items in shops, upgrading your equipment. You can also exit the city and engage in combat to raise your level, but all streets will now be guarded by Balio and Sunder's men, to prevent you from escaping. By talking to the various people, you will learn that your first fight is in the Hall of Fire, against Patrio’s team. When you are ready then, go to the locker room of this hall.

The Hall of Fire vs. Patrio's Team
The soubrette will explain you the rules of combat in this hall. The fights are one-on-one and take place above a lava pool, on platforms supported by beings called Dodai. There are two ways to win this challenge: by defeating all three members of the opposing team or by taking down the opponents' Dodai. The fights are in succession and you will not be able to heal yourself between battles. You will have to choose in what order to make your team members fight. It's best to put Ryu first on the list and try to win the challenge just with him. When you are ready, you can start fighting. If you choose to defeat all members of the enemy team, you will face the following battles:

Sub-Boss Fight - Claw
HP: 220

Claw shouldn't bother you. Her attacks are quite weak and her HP value isn't high at all. The only precaution is to equip yourself with the Bat Amulet to prevent the status blind. For the rest, physical attacks, possibly alternated with skills such as Jump or Double Blow will be enough to knock her down.

Sub-Boss Fight - Cawer
HP: 200

Cawer is a wizard and will attack you with some spells that do moderate damage, occasionally casting support spells on himself. Use the same strategy, healing yourself whenever your HP drops below half and, given his low HP value, you should have no problem defeating him.

Sub-Boss Fight - Patrio
HP: 350

Patrio is a more formidable opponent than the first two. His physical attacks hurt quite a bit and he will often get a Lucky Strike, damaging you heavily. Also, he can make you sleep with his Frost Strike attack. Luckily, Patrio’s HP value isn't particularly high either. If you have kept your AP, the best thing to do is transform yourself into a dragon using the Flame and Thorn genes. If you use Flame Claw, you may be able to take it down before returning to human.

Taking down the opponents' Dodai is a much longer strategy, but also more profitable. The best time to do this is probably during the second battle, against Cawer, so defeat Claw as described above. At the begin of the fight, transform into a dragon using the Flame and Reverse genes, then hit the Dodai repeatedly with Frost Claw. You will notice that if you attack your opponent's Dodai, Cawer will turn his moves against yours. However, this way Cawer could also cast healing or support spells on your Dodai instead of himself giving us an advantage. By the way, after a while Cawer will run out of AP, becoming completely harmless. You can also cure your Dodai, if needed. The Dodai has 2000 HP, so it will take you a long time to take them all off, but if you succeed, you will gain 3000 Experience Points, avoiding facing the fearsome Patrio.

Null Magic Hall vs. Team Emitai
Emitai will approach you before you start the battle begging you to intentionally lose so he can save his daughter. A likely story.

In the Null Magic Hall, every character in the battle is silenced. Emitai turns his two 'boys' into Golem characters.

The two Golems will use either a normal attack or a stronger Spirit Blast attack.

The best tactic in this fight is to focus your attacks on Emitai. When you defeat him, the two Golems will get confused and attack one another.

Upon defeating Emitai, you learn that the sick daughter thing was just a facade. You quickly get over it, and on to the final battle.

Hall of Kings vs. Garr
Garr can do Lucky Strike and Flame. It is extremely difficult to beat Garr, and you will probably lose this fight. Either way, the storyline is the same. Garr will then tell you to go to Angel Town.

Leave the contest and rest, then save.

Maekyss Bridge
There are two fights coming up. If you haven't saved, it is a good idea to do so at this opportunity.

Walk across the bridge, and you will be confronted by Balio and Sunder along with a small army of goons. After some dialogue, you will have to fight with three of Balio and Sunder's goons - three "Bully" characters.

After this, Garr will join you, and you can then fight against:

Stallion
Balio and Sunder combine to become a stallion form. They can perform "Jolt" and "Utmost Attack (the same with Vortex Wave)". He's quite difficult.

Make sure you go down to the house under the bridge and collect the 400 zenny from the cabinet, and, more importantly, the Frost dragon gene.

Wyndia
Enter the castle by talking to the guard on the door as Nina. The scene will cut to a banquet with the King and Queen of Wyndia, then you will wake up in control of Nina.

Go downstairs and talk to the maid on the left with the broken plates. She explains that she tripped and dropped the broken plates by something small but a bit bigger than a rat. Honey!?

Honey appears but runs off to the left of the screen. You need to go to the right, and then go down the stairs. You enter the servant's area - go down the left staircase.

You are now in the kitchens. Poke around and collect the items in here, but then go down the stairs.

You enter a cellar filled with barrels of alcohol. Go down the planks of wood, and you will find Honey at the end of the two 'aisles', between the area with the mouse and the area with the guard. Use your shoulder button(s) to rotate the camera.

After you have finished this, go back up to your room and out on to the balcony. A cutscene will take place, and Nina ends up in the camp with the party members.

Checkpoint
Proceed to the Checkpoint in East Wyndia. An amusing altercation takes place, but you then proceed to the Rhapala Region.