"I'm also familiar with the eagle dive attack, but you need to be more thorough with these unholy shambles, they dont have brains to destroy so you have to wipe out everything!"

"Well, at least you and those undead freaks have plenty in common," Kory muttered, watching Miles as he unleashed his carnage upon the monsters.

"I'm Miles, whats your name, warrior?"

Yep, this dude's head is full of rocks. Who in their right mind would want to politely introduce themselves to someone who just ambushed them? I'm only doing this because he had half a mind to finally say his name properly... she thought despondently, wanting to smack her forehead at the stupidity of it all.

Aloud she replied, "Kory. Now if your business with me is finished, I have to get to the Temple of Martel. If my hunch about those corpses is right, the Chosen could be in serious trouble. I have no time to screw around with every halfwit trying to make a name for himself when I could be busy keeping the Chosen out of danger."

Watching the strangers face she twitches slightly noticing that he's a half-elf meaning he could tell she was one as well. Without moving her hand from her sword she Shrugs and looks at the animal with him, "I wouldn't be able to confirm whether your papers were real or not as I have nothing to do with this temple. I am a simple mercenary hired to protect the Chosen by the Church of Martel and I know nothing about this temple so I'm not sure. You should stop Iselia if you wanna get permission. Though I would be careful. There are a ton of monsters crawling around the area so it would be at your own risk."

Sayuri turns to look past the guy down the road watching carefully for the Chosen, "You could also just wait here with me and wait to sneak in as we do or do one of my previous suggestions. It's up to you."

Avan nodded after the female mercenary replied, relieved that she have not attack him, yet at least, and eyed the hand still resting over the sword. He gulped and then lowered his hands to his sides, glancing back over his shoulder as well to the path behind him. “I think...I’ll stay here and go with sneaking in.” Avan replied with a soft sigh. “I definitely don’t want to run into any more monsters if I have to go back to the village. That and I’m feeling a bit lazy with traveling there.” He hummed and then walked closer to the female mercenary until he moved beside her.

“Don’t worry, I won’t say anything to reveal what you are...as long as you can keep my secret too.” Avan whispered and ascended several steps higher towards the temple. He took a seat on one of the steps and took his grimoire in his hands, looking over towards the canine and tried to figure out what that creature was. His excitement for the temple had to wait for now, so he had to keep his mind occupied with something.

“Hey, uh you mutt! Why don’t you come closer!” Avan called to the canine, but the green and white creature remained at the foot of the stairs, too uneasy to respond to Avan’s beckoning. The researcher sighed. “Ah, really...what the hell should I call you? Doggy? Nah, you look nothing like a dog…” Avan mused to himself, scribbling something in his book and then looked over to the female mercenary.

“So...uh, miss? I didn’t get your name and know you’re looking after for the Chosen, but any idea what that creature is?” He gestured to the canine that sat down in front of the stairs.

Looking around him he noticed two things, 1. the zombies started to flee.
Miles was used to enemies running in fear from him but he also knew a little bit about the undead, the have no will of their own, so they wouldnt run unless something was controlling them, which is when he noticed number 2. There was someone else nearby but their scent was highly confusing, It definitely was a man, but he was covered with the strong stench of female perfume, and the faint hum of dark magic too.

Miles wasn't about to try and figure this out just yet though as he just landed his roundhouse kick on one of the zombies and had to finish it off. He followed up with a straight left punch which cracked the zombie's shoulder with a sickening sound, and then finished the combo with a side kick to the leg and a battering with the hilt of his sword. The zombie reeled from the quick combo and fell to the floor, defeated.

Miles looked around to see Kory, the mercenary lady take off towards the temple, her whole body was making a loud jingling sound as the metal of her greaves was knocking against itself as she was running. She said something about seeing the chosen at the temple as she left, Miles was totally intrigued now.

Hey, wait Kory, I'm coming with you, I want to know more about this chosen and what her connection is to the temple, the Ossa Trail depends on it!

Miles started to jog behind kory at a very average pace, dragging his massive sword behind him, the smell of the necromancer was still strong, but Miles knew he would have to deal with him....or her later.

Baron was getting worked up, and aggressively demanded information. Bad idea, bad idea. Zoey thought, fearful of what was going on. Didn't she just mention the possibility of the wetsuit guy being a celestial? Zoey found it hard to trust the person, but she'd not spied any intention of his to do them any harm. Cas seemed genuine, or a very good actor at the very least. Was that one of a celestial's powers? Zoey'd rather not think about it. The woman on the other hand, was also suspicious at best. However, she and the celestial clearly weren't on the same team. Maybe if both came along, they'd be handicapped by the other if they tried something...

“I'm Zoey, this is Baron. We're heading to the chapel.” Zoey said, hoping she'd not come to regret it. “If this place is as dangerous as you say, I think we should all stick together.”

"I want to know more about this Chosen and what her connection is to the temple. The Ossa Trail depends on it!"

Kory gave Miles a long and bewildered stare. She wanted to make a bunch of rock-related jokes about him, but figured it'd be a waste of her breath. She didn't know if he was familiar with the ways of the world, and she honestly didn't care. She replied, "It's not just the Ossa Trail that will depend on it, but all of Sylvarant. To make a long story short, this world needs mana to survive, but the Desians are using forbidden technology that eats up all of the mana, thus slowly killing Sylvarant. They use this technology in their Human ranches, where Humans like us are used to develop these little things called Exspheres."

She pulled off her right glove and showed Miles a red gem affixed to the top of that hand, with another stone encircling it that had numerous glyphs on it. She continued, "Humans in the ranches are abused and treated like cattle to develop these things. The Chosen's duty is to visit several seals dotting this world and unseal them, and then go to the Tower of Salvation."

Kory pointed way over in the distance towards an impossibly tall tower reaching into the clouds.

"I don't really know the details, but this pilgrimage is supposed to revive the world's mana and stop the Desians, thus saving Sylvarant. That's why the whole thing is called the Journey of Regeneration."

Putting away his sword and releasing the gravity well, Baron said "sorry about that then. Since the oracle just happened, we can't be too careful. I wouldn't be surprised if this place was swarming with desians, trying to take out the Chosen." Looking back at the dead priest, he continued "but still, this is a bad sign. Even without checking him for wounds, I can safely assume that it wasn't a monster that killed him. The monsters around here are pretty weak, and any priest worth their salt could easily take them. So that means that it had to be a person that killed him. Which begs the question; why?"

Chris waved his hand out a bit as he took a small rock into his hand.
"I don't know what killed him. But the wounds are fresh. Blood is still running out. Trauma to the ribs, and the tool used went through his lungs. This is just a confirmed death." Chris sighed, not understanding where there is violence around in such a peaceful area. "What I can assume is... The culprit is nearby. And Baron... You're sword seems to thick; and seeing as you just came from the village... There was no way it could have been any of you two. But the sword play is a bit... one of a novice." Chris spoke as he looked down at the body.

"Well... Sorry for prattling about this fatality and poor swordsmanship... I'm sure you may have known him well Chosen... But death is going to be the least of the concerns you will be going through based on what history presents as trials for the chosen. What history 'says' I mean..." Chris corrected himself before stepping away from the body, his ears arching as if a gust of wind or loud echo just hit him.

"I'll take you to the temple... But I urge you to follow me so we are not swarmed by savage animals." Chris tosses the rock up into the air, but as it went up... there was a small distortion around it. It stayed in place for a moment before Chris nodded briefly, the rock flying away from the trio. A nearby wolf was walloped on the head as it turned on one of it's own, assuming it's own kin gave it a blunt impact. The pack on it's own viciously turned on it's own... blood rushing to their hearts and brains...Blood spilling and oozing from the craves that was part of their muzzles...

Chris walked forward in a slight strafe as he didn't want to generate unneeded attention on the field; which had a very basic grassland with common flowers. The temple was not very far even if the ocean side was close to the west of the path, but still, he tried staying center, yet away from hoards of foes. As a skilled navigator, he knew to stay close to a road if not directly on it. From where he was... The temple was feet away.

"Okay... Rather than run out individually, let us just run to the stairs. Ready?" Chris smirked as he cocked his left hip out, left hand slightly clasping it as he turned on his right heel, breaking into a sprint. He felt this was necessary just due to the fact zombies already moved slow, but had trouble going up surfaces such as steps.

Upon reaching the stairs he heard a whining sound of an animal. "Errmm... We come in peace...?" Chris tilted his head at the strange animal with it's big poofy yet floppy green ears. "Hello..." He held his right arm out to it.

The canine's large ears perked up and turned its head toward the three newcomers, quickly getting to its feet and shied back just slightly when the cat-eared man spoke. It slowly inched forward to sniff the outstretched hand from the feline-like man and whined, but remained where it was standing. Its tail wagged slightly as it eyed the other two approaching as well, first at the girl and then at the boy. It whined again, but this time backed away, padding up the steps to hide behind Avan.

“Hm?” Avan blinked as he too noticed the three and then perked up, closing his grimoire in his hand before finally standing. Is this the group the mercenary was talking about? Avan thought, scanning quickly over to the creature...or person more like it, at the base of the steps. He could not help but stare at the cat-eared and tail male with interest, having to never seen a race like him before. Definitely not Human, so he must be okay? “Whoa, what are you? Are those...some sort of cat ears?” Avan mumbled, once again burying his nose into his book and writing down his observations. Engrossed in his notes and thoughts, he almost forgot about the other two that had accompanied the feline man.

From intimidating them with lip on his power, to challenging them to a race up the stairs, not to mention telekinetic powers... Zoey was a bit taken aback, but slowly becoming intrigued in wetsuit-Chris. She looked at Baron, glimpsing a slight smile as she ran after the celestial. Though she did run, her feet felt heavy. The oracle had been a bad omen by itself, but the death of a priest would mean she would have to show she cared once she'd face the other robes on the top of the stairs.

In sheer contrast to her growing interest in Chris, Zoey felt detached to the priest's death, she'd never been close to death before and the priest's corpse couldn't stick in her mind. It was unreal, and detached, and Zoey could not bring herself to strong feelings regarding a man she barely knew on a personal level...

Baron was surprised; he had assumed that the priest's death was the work of the Desian. He couldn't think of anyone one else off hand who would kill a priest like that. So when they reached the stairs of the temple and found no one there, Baron was confused. 'This makes no sense! Even if the Desians didn't somehow sneak past the village to get here, which I'm pretty sure they did, there should at least be someone here to great Zoey. Something is very wrong here.' He thought as he climbed the stairs, the eerie silence deeply bothering him. 'Are they planing to ambush us inside the temple so that we can't escape? Is that their plan?' He wondered

"Baron. Watch your step. We have company." Chris almost immediately noted the Half elves. Glimpsing the female with a sword, accompanied; or so he thought with another male, a shorter one with a grimoire at that. He noted the different set of clothes that were uncommon in the region. Than again... He himself looked uncommon to the populous. Rather then exchange negative looks, he gave a polite bow. "I come on behalf of escorting the chosen through these troubled lands." Chris had announced.

"Where are the other priest?" Chris asked as he immediately noted the dead silence. Were they silenced...?" he thought to himself. He began to pet the particular animal lightly as he pondered. The whining calmed down and became slight purring. No one could quite see what the connection to the animals that Celestials had, but it was one of indifference when compared to humans and elves, much less half breeds.

Sayuri looks at the approaching group noticing the young girl among them imidiately and recognizing her as the chosen, 'Well at least the sketch of her was done well enoough that I could recognize her, and now my job officially starts.'

Walking down the steps she makes her way over to the chosen ignoring the other two people. She bows to her, "It is a pleasure to meet you Chosen. My name is Sayrui and Elven mercenary hired by the Church to protect you on your journey to the Tower. I will be both your protector til my job is done," straightening up she turns back to the strange man that had addressed them before, "I have no idea where the priests are. I have never been here before and I've been waiting up here on the steps,"

Kory and Miles reached the outskirts of the Temple of Martel, but she stopped him.

"Hold on. This is the temple all right, but we need paperwork, the church's permission, or the Chosen's consent to enter during the oracle," Kory explained. "I don't have any of that, and I doubt you do as well."

The scarred fighter looked around at the raised plains to the south and the vast ocean to the north. It was a very narrow stretch of land from Iselia to the temple. If anyone wanted to invade the small church, they would have to go through this stretch - there was no other way around unless they knew how to fly.

"All right. I don't know what you're planning on doing, but I'm going to volunteer as a lookout until the oracle is done. If the Desians want to try any funny stuff to the Chosen, their options for invading the temple are extremely limited. They have to come this way, and it'll be impossible for any lookouts to miss them. I'll pound them or any other assailants into a worthless pulp before they know what hits them," Kory declared to Miles, sitting in the grass to rest her feet.

Hearing the cat-eared man’s announcement, Avan had nodded absentmindedly, even if the man was not really addressing specifically to him. Though, hearing the word ‘Chosen’ had Avan pause in his notes and he looked up from his book to get a better look at the group. The strange canine looked to be relaxed around them, so the girl must be the real deal. Returning his book to his waist, he hung back and moved to the side of the steps to give the people room to head to the temple when they were ready. He remained quiet for a few moments after the female mercenary, Sayuri, had introduced herself, and then turned to the Chosen and her other companions.

“Er, hello Miss Chosen,” Avan started, “Would I be able to have your permission to enter the temple as well? I’m Avan and a researcher. I’d like to study the temple if I’m able to and perhaps, observe you partaking the Oracle?” he pleaded, bringing his hands together in front of him hopefully. If not, he knew he had to find some other way to enter somehow. Though soon, he spotted another pair at the outskirts from where he stood at the temple steps. Even though he could barely make out their frames, one petite and the other about average height at this distance, they appeared to be fighters of sort. He could not tell if they were Desians or not, but he kept an eye on them and rather let the Chosen's group deal with them if they approach too close.