Yeah, I was really surprised what a dick this game is at that point.
I weirdly enjoyed it, though, because I was kinda running on autopilot up to this point.
But those two definitely gave me Shin Megami Tensei flashbacks! You should be able to do it without them, though, sometimes you just have bad luck with what moves they do.
Oh, and also - remember that you can DEFEND at any point, especially when a character gets critically low! I guess that's an option we barely use in RPGs anyone, but it saved my ass a couple of times.
Biggest issue is getting through the dungeon again. Since the corridors are too tight you end up fighting things every two steps. I just died halfway down.
Probably time to grind lol