Blade Dragon

Blade Dragon is the boss that is encountered at the end of Palom's Challenge Dungeon in Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.

Strategy
To begin with, you should try to fight the Blade Dragon during the Waxing Moon to reduce the damage from his elemental attacks. The Waxing Moon lowers damage from Black Magic, including your Black Magic, but Palom will still be able to deal good damage because the boss takes great damage when you hit it with the element it is weak against. The Blade Dragon changes its elemental weakness with Barrier Shift. He will not do so until he is attacked with elemental magic. If it is attacked with non-elemental magic, it will retaliate by using Vemom Breath, which hits Palom and Leonora for heavy damage and inflicts Sap for a short time. Then he will use Leech and restore up to or more than 4,000 HP. His weakness is either Fire, Ice, or Lightning. In order to discover which one it is, the player must observe which elemental attacks it uses. For example, if the Blade Dragon casts Fira and Thundara, it is vulnerable to Ice. If you happen to hit it with one of the elemental attacks it is not weak against, it will be healed by the damage and counterattack with that same element (hitting it with Fire-based attacks while not weak to Fire will make him counter with Fira, and so on). Victory is ensured if the player examines his attacks and uses the right magic with Palom, while keeping the party alive with Leonora's White Magic. While you are waiting to see what the Blade Dragon's weakness is, it will also be highly beneficial to have Leonora cast Shell on the party to boost your Magic Defense. It is also a good idea to use a Spider's Silk or cast Slow on him. He will counterattack it but it will also make healing much easier because he attacks quickly and slowing him will reduce the his number of attacks as well as make healing easier to maintain.