Great resonses, everyone! I really enjoyed reading all of your thoughts.^^ And oh yes -- hahaha -- indeed; if my juvenile site name is any indication, I
am a Rune fan-girl. *Squee!*
Okay, I'm going to throw in two cents now:
Rune vs. Chaz: My verdict is...drumroll... Rune! Dum dum dum!!!
I do think Rune could defeat Chaz at any point in the game. Srijita, my response is the exact same - Rune
can heal! I wonder, though, why he can heal Chaz before Chaz meets Elysedon, but not during the game? Maybe healing magic is a trait that Rune doesn't feel confident about *winks at Srijita*. While Chaz learns Megid, it isn't something that he earns on his own, unlike Rune learning Legeon -- it was given to him by Le Roof and co. -- but only
because of Rune's decision to choose Chaz to take Elysedon. Heck, if Rune wanted to,
he could have chosen himself to take Elsyedon, ehe! I stand by my statement that it is all because of Rune that Chaz was able to develop to the potential he became. But, I digress. Hypothetically though, I think Rune could waste Chaz, and easily, but like I said, I am a biased Rune fangirl so my opinion is probably useless here.
Rika vs. Alys: This one is a toughie. Upon first encountering Rika in the game, however, Alys is by far the stronger woman. Later on, of course, Rika learns techniques and skills that possibly make her stronger than Alys; she learns "deban", "saner", "gires", "sar", "gisar", "doubleslash", etc. However, I do wonder just how strong Alys could have become, had she not passed away in the game.
Chaz vs. Wren: Definitely agreeing with Lucas here. Since Wren can re-energize fully with "recover", and since he can use "barrier", I think Chaz is no match for Wren. There was a time in the game when I fought Dark Force (after getting the aero-prisim in the soldier's temple) that all my party members died except for Wren. I actually got pretty far fighting Dark Force with just Wren.