Ice clogs the entrance. Rosa steps forward and examines it.

Rosa walks over to Rydia.

Rydia steps forward.

And the ice is melted.

In a minor oversight, the EasyType doesn't change this to ファイア１ to match its name for the spell.

Zombie-type monsters return here. Between Rydia's new Fire spell and Rosa's arrows, they shouldn't cause much trouble.

On that note, Projectiles inflict extra damage to many of the creatures on the mountain. Rosa will likely outdamage Cecil here, especially since her Aim command ensures that her attacks always hit as many times as possible (never use her Battle command with a bow and arrows, as Aim utterly outclasses it other than having a slight delay). Just make sure not to run out of arrows. Speaking of Rosa, her Pray command (in applicable versions) comes in handy as a source of free healing when she has nothing better to do. It's both weak and prone to failure, however, so don't rely on it.

Also note that, in the original Japanese version only, the コカトリス (Cockatrice) enemies here (called "Cocktric" in the NA version) have a slight chance to drop the rare コカトリス (Cockatrice) item, which will allow Rydia to learn the Cockatrice summon. You'll encounter an average of 182 Cockatrices per 256 battles on the western side and summit of the mountain, and the drop rate is 15 in 16,384, resulting in an average of 1,536 battles per drop. Although that's frustratingly low, Hobs Mountain is actually tied with the Baron region and the Agart region for the second best rate in the game.

At the summit of the mountain, the party finds a lone man fighting off monsters.

"Achoooo"? Legends of Localization speculates that someone was trying to evoke Bruce Lee's "acho"-like shout (with a long 'o' rather than an 'oo' as in "boot"), but didn't know English well enough to realize that this spelling would come across more as a sneeze than as anything else. Normally that sort of yell ends up as something more like "Hi-yah!" (or "WOH-PAH!") when written in English, and it's not even the kind of yell Yang's doing anyway.

The Monk strikes, killing two of the monsters facing him. Three more approach.

The Monk engages, switching to a battle screen, which displays his name as Yang. He kills off the monsters with a series of punches and kicks, taking some damage in the process.

As with Cecil's battle on the airship in the introduction, the DS remake gives the player control in this battle.

The final and largest monster then approaches.

The party engages, with Yang filling the empty slot in the formation (which will be in the front row if you've arranged everyone else properly).

Yang and especially Cecil, since the Mother Bomb is weak against Dark, will be doing the bulk of the damage in this battle. Rosa ought to cast Slow once or twice, then heal or cast Protect if available, or add more damage with arrows. Rydia can either add to the damage with Chocobo or assist in healing as needed, and Gilbert might as well attack, for what little good it does.

After taking 1,000 total damage, the Mother Bomb enlarges, and the following message soon appears:

Soon after, the Mother Bomb uses Mass Explosion, inflicting Flame magic damage on the group. Gilbert should Hide to avoid it, since everyone takes full damage regardless of the number of targets. After exploding, the Mother Bomb is replaced with three Bombs and three Painy Bombs. Cecil's Darkness and Yang's Kick (to a lesser extent) come in handy here. The bombs may Self-Destruct if not killed quickly, so try to at least weaken them first to reduce the damage.

The DS remake gives all the enemies an Ice weakness for Rydia to take advantage of. More importantly, the explosion damage is now defendable, and hurts severely if not defended against. When Yang warns everyone to brace themselves, listen to him. Kick works wonders for mopping up afterward.

The EasyType replaces てだれの (tedare no, proficient in a skill such as marital arts) with the more commonplace うでをもつ (ude wo motsu, having skill).

The EasyType shifts the emphasis as well as switching to a more common verb here by changing the passive phrase ゴルベーザに　つかわされた (GORUBEEZA ni tsukawasareta, sent forth by Golubaeser) to the active phrase ゴルベーザが　おくりこんだ (GORUBEEZA ga okurikonda, Golubaeser sent).

Aside from tweaking the overall text formatting of this block and moving もうすでに (mou sude ni, already) before ファブールへ (FABUURU e, to Fabul), the EasyType completely removes てうすになった (teusu ni natta, became shorthanded). てうす appears to be a fairly uncommon term, so there's that.

Unlike most other characters to this point, Yang knows how to hit things. Put him in the front row for best results. Also note that he joins nearly naked, so give him any spare equipment you may have. While his special battle commands have their uses, he should probably just attack normally most of the time.

The party continues across the mountain pass without further incident.

In the Fabul region beyond the mountain, the Cockatrice is slightly more common, with an average of 193 Cockatrices per 256 battles, thanks to the formation that has three of them appearing more often than the formation that has two and a Gargoyle. This gives the Fabul region the game's best chance per battle of winning a Cockatrice summon, with an average of "only" 1,449 battles per drop. Remember that it's not available in the NA or ET versions, though.