[Kratos's run is easy and swift, but not so much that a half-elf wouldn't be able to keep up. There's still some fighting in the village, but most of it has moved to the northern gate -- where they're headed. Where the mana cannons are aiming now, too; one shot hits the north-eastern side, but the second hits a bit nearer, making the ground shake and dust billow, and Kratos's heart clench.

[He answers, but shortly, concentrating on reading his surroundings and listening to Anna, in the back of his head, pushing information about the woods and the shrine at him with more in the sense of images than words.]

We need to get the young men to stop fighting. My angels can't fly to the shrine as long as those cannons are firing -- but they're stalled as long as they have to fight innocents on the ground.

[It had been one of his leading orders: avoid killing the villagers.]