Chapter 3

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About an hour later, the Acidic Rainfall had finally abided making it safe for Team X-Ray, Leon, and Merizi to safely walk outside. The grey clouds above are loomed threateningly for the travelers however. It was David's best hope that they could cozy up at the Visitor's Center that Tomos mentioned before the next downpour forces them to tuck their tails again. In the event Gozreh decided to weep once again, Tutoria and Isaiah continued to wear their ponchos given to them by their merchant friend for the time being to be safe rather than be sorry.

"Seeing all of this... this city with my own eyes... I feel so... so cold..." Tutoria lamented of how this once beautiful center of commerce, faith and artistry became nothing more but a den for thievish dogs who feasted on Golden Katheer's corpse.

Even the Temple of Dawn's Grace, it's large but cracked dome that towered above the city permeated with a defilement that shook the faith within Tutoria's resolve. It was as if the Gods perished alongside Nethys untimely departure. She could even feel it within her bones just how far away her Goddess is from the young Paladin. All she could really think about to keep her mind from doubt was to pray, for a plea to Sarenrae that her pilgrimage comes through to revive her and her brother's broken canon now that they witness the broken world before them with their own eyes. It was much more staggering to witness it first-hand rather than hear it all from stories of passersby.

In stark contrast was David who looked at the scenery stoically, it was nothing that the old Ranger and even Isaiah had not seen before. City Ruins just like back from Colorado.

They approached the city from the North, being greeted by the solaric walls of Katheer, or at least what remained of them as they passed before the bastion's ruined gate. The city's interior had seen much better days with broken furniture that was half-built into barricades, battle-ridden houses and the occasional skeleton littering the sandy stoned streets. Signs of its riotous aftermath post-Cataclysm as the Twins described. The streets, at least the ones of lower elevations were half-flooded with murky green water that reeked of blood and dirt.

"If memory serves me right, the Visitor Center should be just over ----" Tomos hung out his finger around the labyrinthian streets of Katheer until he felt a swift gush of air suddenly pass by him.

"Gah!" Isaiah yelled as an arrow pierced the left side of his chest. "Mama-Mama! It fuckin' 'urts!" he gritted his teeth.

"Ambush!" David yelled as he leaped onto his feet his rifle at hand. He helped pull Isaiah from the driver's seat into the cover of their wagon whilst carefully not aggregating the gaping arrow on his shoulder that sank nearly straight through his body with biting lethality.

"Quit yer yapping!" Tutoria hushed Isaiah to calm down as she observed his grievous wound.

"Heal'em up!" David ordered.

"I am trying! But my powers... they aren't working!" the Paladin attempted to lay her hands on the injured Ranger but every attempt to conjure that same healing power she had with Merizi earlier simply fizzled out into unhelpful flickers around her palms.

"They are shooting at us from above!" Tomos leaped out of the Driver's Seat and dashed for the cover of a nearby wall while dodging a peppering arrow fire aimed at him.

"We're surrounded!" Leon radioed from the Walkie-Talkie as his Trailer that followed behind him began to receive a barrage of arrow fire. "My ride can't take these hits!" The broad-headed arrows struck from above, however rained with such great weight, that they struck more like rocks that bludgeon his trailer rather than ordinary arrows. Every strike threatened to ram asunder Leon's Trailer upside down.

"Stay there!" David ordered Merizi who hid below their cart. "Don't do anything!"

"But I can help!" Merizi protested.

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