Major General Malaise (Shiloh Quest)

[Zennistrad]

I'm doing the Level 13 Shiloh Sanitarium quest as an Elemental, and while I've been able to get through most of the optional bosses, I've yet to figure out how to defeat Major General Malaise in the firing range. While I'm capable of dealing significant amounts of damage to him quickly, the automatic attack he lands every turn always seems to do close to my entire HP in damage and there's no way I can survive more than one round against him.

Most of the other bosses seem to have gimmicks where you're able to use skills from the other bosses to interrupt their special attacks, but I've not been able to find any information about such a technique here. Anyone know if there's a special trick?

[xKiv]

The only thing that comes to mind is levelling up and getting better equipment and effects from skills/items, so that you have higher defenses and more HP.