Path of Fire Revisited - Fire Samurai Level III

I had some serious issues with this quest last summer, but now I've got much better cards to handle this.  In this quest, all of the enemies have decent defense, around 1000-2000, so small chains will barely dent them, save for one exception - the boss himself, who has zero defense, but a lot of HP.

The left pic shows the dreaded trio you are guaranteed to fight in stage 5.  Of course with my luck, I ran into the exact trio in stage 4 as well.  Scott has his incredible 75000 defense that he shares with whatever allies accompany him.  Fortunately, defensive ruin + thunder breath instantly clears the stage.

Preferably, you'd want to stall so the defensive ruin + thunder breath combo is available for the start of any round.  Having other skills ready to go in case you get situations like what I ran into - facing scott and shirley enemy teams in successive stages.

I went with a defensive ally, since with my Erinyes, I can get a lot of free healing while focusing on non-heart combos.  Very safe, especially with Mobel for temporarily doubling my effective HP and RCR.  Carl is also there to provide damage in stages that feature Scott and other "normal" enemies, since the defensive ruin + thunder breath will not kill the normal enemies.

The boss's attack can be seen in the middle pic.  CD3, so there's plenty of time to recover from any attack.  Given that he also has zero defense, he's a cakewalk.  Just don't get complacent about keeping up with hearts and it'll be over soon enough.