Go back in, and head upstairs. Speak to the Condorite and he'll reveal how many times the Shinra have attacked since your last visit. Yes, the Shinra attack while you're gone. Cheezy, eh? For more details, look at the bottom of this page. Crap, it appears you got here just before the Shinra did! Looks like it's time to fight another battle. This time, the bad guys have Barbarians on their side, a strong enemy that can snipe off your forces from a distance! Fret not though, I'll have you make this battle easy on yourself: Let the enemy reach the shed. Yeah, you heard me right. Let 'em come! When they get there, all you'll have to do is fight off Commander Grandhorn, a relatively easy boss. Not only is he easy, but even if you lose, it's not game over. While in battle, make sure to STEAL a Vagrysk Claw; it's a rare battle item that paralyzes your enemies.

Once you've saved the day (and your game!), hop back in the buggy and head to the Mythril Mines. You cannot take the buggy further, so get out, and enter the caves.

Lotsa E-SKILL ALERTS!!: If you haven't already, run around and grab the White Wind enemy skill from a Zemzellette by MANIPULATING him. While in the caves, make sure that you get FLAME THROWER from an Ark Dragon for the newer of your two e-skill materia. And now, we go to get BETA...

Now that you've sufficiently leveled up, and have acquired the means to defend yourself from attacks that do 2000 damage, lets take a time out and get ready for the upcoming battle. Of your characters, two should have E-Skill materias; the other character will serve as a disposable damage magnet, AND your primary means of offense.

Note that, our aim here is to GET HIT WITH AN ATTACK AKIN TO AN ATOMIC BOMB, so equip your characters as follows: Give one character an E-skill materia, and the Fire+Elemental combo in their armor. Give the second character the other E-skill materia, plus the FIRE RING. They won't need anything else, because they won't be fighting much. Give the third character (preferably one with high HP like Barret or Cait Sith) a summon or two, EARTH, BIO, and/or whatever your strongest offensive materias are. COVER would be nice, also. It would be great if they had a limit break charged and ready, too. If not, give 'em a HYPER.

Now, you may be asking: "You're acting like only one character is gonna fight... What gives?" My answer to that is, as you'll see in the battle, the Midgar Zolom may be a fierce enemy, but he's also a crybaby who likes to cheat. Specifically, he will REMOVE from the battle whoever is hurting him the MOST. And it won't do you any good to try and get BETA, but keep having your characters with the E-Skill materias KOed or tossed away, so they're gonna just hang back, take what abuse comes their way, and stay protected/healed while Barret gives the monster all he's got.

So once you're ready, charge into the swamp, find the snake, and run into it to initiate combat. Start off by bringing up BIG GUARD. Have Cloud and Aeris (or whoever your second party member is) just defend from there on out while Barret (or whoever your third party member is) pummel the monster with Limits, Summons, and spells, and physical attacks.

The Zolom will grow weary of this abuse, and, after losing about half its life, will stand tall. Have Barret smack him one or two more times, until the M.Z. whips his tail at him.

OUCH! That looks painful... Okay, Barret's gone. So far, so good. NOW it's time to unleash the fury of the E-Skill materia. Get Big Guard back up, and waste the snake with LASER. After one or two attacks, the Snake's life will be whittled down to a manageable size, and he'll COUNTER with BETA. But, with your protection against fire, along with Big Guard, even Beta will nary scratch you, BUT, you'll still learn it! Take a moment to laugh in the snake's face, and FINISH HIM OFF with his own attack before he knocks one of your characters out of battle.

WARNING: Even if you learn Beta, you WON'T KEEP IT IF you're KOed or removed from the battle! So end this fiasco ASAP once you've learned it! Note that a character who was Removed from the battle won't get the EXP or AP, but the Zolom's only worth 100 and 10, respectively, so you're not missing out on much.  The whole point of this battle is to get the enemy skill (and maybe feel good about yourself)

With the Zolom dead, quickly continue heading towards the Chocobo Ranch (The Zolom DOES respawn after a few moments), and acquire L4 SUICIDE for your second E-Skill Materia (or both if you didn't learn it before) from those cute widdle MU's! And now that you know how to fight off the Zolom, you can safely tread back through the swamp without fearing its power.

SO! We've gained a few levels, gotten some KICKASS spells, acquired some items... Lets get back to the storyline!