[The town's alight, and raging; the fire is very nearly spreading in the trees, or should be, except that the flames slip in the air and never quite reach the southern canopy past the first fifty feet. The dimensional guard is still active, and will be, as long as Chayim fails to take the shrine.
[That's going to be difficult, without Yuan's forces; but Kratos's push on nevertheless. Their attack wasn't the surprise it should be, and Cruxis is pushing back with every step, in Iselia and beyond it -- all the way to the shrine.
[But first they have to take the town. Take the town, cut off Cruxis's source of potential cruxis crystals -- stop them from murdering the townsfolk and starting anew elsewhere.
[So the town is burning, despite Kratos's orders to throw water on the flames; he has everyone with a water or earth affinity controlling the fire, and every healer working on the people, and anyone without clear affinities trying to escort them out. The townsfolk don't trust them; of course they don't. Kratos is in the middle, the only one with mana-wings, shouting, cajoling -- throwing earth on fires when he can.
[He turns and there's a blast of pure mana from the shrine, and a building explodes by him, sending him off his feet; he catches himself, flips himself with a twitch of his wings, and lands on his feet. In the distance he can see the glow of a second cannon charging.]
Damn it!
[They weren't meant to have their mana cannons operational yet. Miniatures, compared to Thor's Hammer; but dangerous nevertheless.
[The second cannon fires and its mana reaches out; Kratos surges toward its blockaded target, his shout lost in the roar, the green glow of his Guardian bathing the building and turning the mana's blue light sickly. The shot sends him flying through the wall in an explosion of splintering timber -- but it's blocked, the shot, the building and anyone still inside still standing.]
REVERSAL; oracle destroyed
[That's going to be difficult, without Yuan's forces; but Kratos's push on nevertheless. Their attack wasn't the surprise it should be, and Cruxis is pushing back with every step, in Iselia and beyond it -- all the way to the shrine.
[But first they have to take the town. Take the town, cut off Cruxis's source of potential cruxis crystals -- stop them from murdering the townsfolk and starting anew elsewhere.
[So the town is burning, despite Kratos's orders to throw water on the flames; he has everyone with a water or earth affinity controlling the fire, and every healer working on the people, and anyone without clear affinities trying to escort them out. The townsfolk don't trust them; of course they don't. Kratos is in the middle, the only one with mana-wings, shouting, cajoling -- throwing earth on fires when he can.
[He turns and there's a blast of pure mana from the shrine, and a building explodes by him, sending him off his feet; he catches himself, flips himself with a twitch of his wings, and lands on his feet. In the distance he can see the glow of a second cannon charging.]
Damn it!
[They weren't meant to have their mana cannons operational yet. Miniatures, compared to Thor's Hammer; but dangerous nevertheless.
[The second cannon fires and its mana reaches out; Kratos surges toward its blockaded target, his shout lost in the roar, the green glow of his Guardian bathing the building and turning the mana's blue light sickly. The shot sends him flying through the wall in an explosion of splintering timber -- but it's blocked, the shot, the building and anyone still inside still standing.]