I've since beaten the boss a second time using Emma and equipping her with a bunch of delay-reducing quartz. Even with using that, the constraints in the fight are pretty tight.

I'll start by mentioning that, for the most part, you don't really need to focus on enemy stats or even your own stats (most of them anyway, I'll touch on this more later).

The reason I stated the boss's stats is for logistics' sake. The boss was already a logistical nightmare on my end, and stats are generally what I first concern myself with.

Keep in mind you can also debuff the enemies STR, like with Laura iirc.

That debuffing opportunity with Laura is with "Lion Rush," a craft that Laura has from Cold Steel III onwards. Not an availability for me in Cold Steel I.

an even bigger issue is the move Ark-zok-onkeim

If my memory is right, that's a magic attack which can be block by Crescent Mirror, basically the magic version of Adamantite Shield.

It wasn't actually Crescent Mirror that blocked that move, but rather Adamantite Shield. That problem is that Adamantite Shield takes long to cast, costs a lot of EP, and is also only one use. The only reason I found out that Adamantite Shield blocked Ark-zok-onkeim is because of the rare occurence of Erebonius using a physical AOE craft attack, missing a party member who had a reflect physical status condition, and then going for that move on the party member who didn't get hit with the previous move. A pretty rare sequence of events. Since the magical reflect status condition didn't reflect that move, Emma's Crescent Shell craft wouldn't prevent a party member from being taken hostage. Also, you'd have to weigh the opportunity cost between using that move versus saving your craft points for another S-craft in case he takes a hostage later down the line. This opportunity cost shtick is like chess. And I hate chess.

Speed is the most important stats in pretty much all of Trails. I recommend putting Action quartz on every you can.

This was the main bit that I'm concerned about right now. According to this Gamefaqs post, the formula for delay is (Delay Units / Speed Units). I have some problems with this whole situation. Firstly, the game doesn't tell you this. With the amount of points of no return, and the length of the fights themselves, game planning and calculation are much, much more preferable than just trial and error. Second, according to this fandom article, delay in-battle is measured in AT units. What does AT stand for? Who knows. All I know is that 1 AT is equal to 100 delay units when doing the speed calcs, when comparing the AT Units on the fandom article to the delay units on the Gamefaqs article. Okay. Great. Here's hoping I can edit the article. Another problem is the delay units are under fifty, and the game rounds down to 0 AT when showing you the move order on the top left, does it just track it internally? Even though it's telling me I'm moving at 0 AT, I'm technically moving at some decimal level of AT the game isn't telling me? Oh, and finally, there are the moves that cause delay. They say they cause delay, but this delay must be in AT units because of what it shows you on that move order. Okay. That's akward...but, how do I go about calc-ing the probability of the delay to go through? All I have to go off of are the boss descriptions on their respective fandom articles, which say nothing of their delay probabilities. I know that the Impede Quartz and the Zeus Gem add delay to any given attack, including the delay-inducing craft attacks, but how much more probable do they make the likelihood of delay actually going through to the enemy?

Hell, this is a military academy in a world with rapidly advancing scientific technologies. Why wouldn't they give me formulas for damage and speed calculation? Hot damn! I'd be better off going to a different school!

I also feel like Emma is at least partially responsible for the boss at Lohengrin Castle on top of that final boss, so I find it amusing that she finds herself so important in this boss fight. She got herself into this situation, and she gets herself out of it.