Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin - Playthrough Part 4

We've made it up to our first Crystal and defeated one of the four Minions of Chaos: Tiamat! We evidently have or had a friend that we just left here to die? Honestly, I have no clue what's going on here. A nice jaunt in the forest leads to an incredibly unwelcome fight with a Great Malboro, and evidently an incredibly unwelcome smell that followed him.