No problem! And it's cool if you don't find the time to replay, I know life can get crazy.
Oh, now I see how the fight got more difficult. Unfortunately, it seems like the randomizer messed with you. All normal fights & F.O.E waves have randomized enemy sets, so you may have gotten lucky picks for enemies first time around, but not the second time. In future versions, I'll be making the F.O.E. waves have the same enemies (except for maybe 1 enemy per wave) to make it more fair.
As for the mouse chase event, whether you stop at the first or second part doesn't change anything. You either get into the fight after choosing to chase it twice, or leave the mouse at either chance you get.