Yeah, I don't have Elixirs yet and I only just got the recipe for Unlimited POW not too long ago. I kinda figured Healing Tonics would be useless after a while once I got past 1000 HP and realized that even normal enemies were dealing enough blows to make them less useful than they had been.
But yeah, I don't quite know why Odette gave me so much trouble before. I ended up only using Overload, one swig of a Painkiller and Healing Tonic (the latter as a just in case measure I probably didn't need), two Phozon Blasts and just general comboing. I guess the extra levels I gained backtracking and better equipment did the job. Now I'm in Cornelius' book and, despite being a Pooka, it's not as lame playing as him as I had expected. His spin attack is pretty fun to use too.