Troublesome

Fate's words were met with a telekinetic shove, sending him flying through the air and landing a few hundred feet away. He rolled, springing to his feet and running back to the action. Another beast lunged at Cait, receiving a slam into the ground for its effort.

Cait spread her arms wide, her aura pulsing as she used her Manifest Power. The dog pushed itself off the ground, shaking its head and causing its ears to flop. When it looked at Cait, its eyes dilated and it sat on its haunches, tongues lolling as it panted, licking its face.

Three of the others did likewise, becoming as harmless as a domesticated dog. The fourth one still alive, having finally crawled out from under its dead friend, roared and swiped at Cait with its claws.

Fate made it just in time, deflecting the blow to the side with his Miao Dao and sweeping his sword back to slice the dog's throat. It growled, the wound healing at a rate visible to the naked eye.

It swung for Fate, who skirted around the animal to lead it away from Cait. They exchanged blow after blow in the circle of the beast's friends, Fate always dishing out more than he was dealt.

Within thirty exchanges, he had bested the beats, its head flying off of its body to land with a thud on the ground. Fate grimaced, turning intangible as he limped over to Cait. Blood trailed behind him.

"Gimme some Divine Energy, will you?" he asked. "My leg's got a tendon cut, and my stomach is held closed by a quarter of an inch of skin."

Cait spared a glance at Fate, shifting her eyes back to the dogs as she pursed her lips. Fate felt Divine Energy funnel into him, stopping Cait when he felt she had given enough.

"That's all you need?" she asked skeptically. "That was barely a drop for me."

"Level difference," Fate grunted, his wounds starting to knit themselves together. "Wounds that aren't life-threatening or in complicated areas take barely anything to heal, and with your energy being about twice as strong as mine, I need half as much to fix myself up."

"Why couldn't you just use your own energy?" she responded as she dropped her hands. "These dogs won't try to hurt us again, by the way."

"Yeah, I don't know why this Ythmun character thought five Exemplars would be a match for us. As for that question, I don't know how. I've tried it before, it just doesn't work for some reason.

"My hunch is it has something to do with how my Manifestation turns me intangible. Since I gotta be intangible to heal, I can't use divert Divine Energy to the other function of my Manifestation. At least, that's my guess. Don't know how to go about testing it just yet."

"Hm. Let's head to the palace now."

"Won't these guys turn hostile once they leave your range?"

"If they were the same Level as me, sure. But since they're so much weaker than I am, my influence will last for days, maybe weeks."

Fate didn't question it. He knew the best authority on someone's Manifestation was the owner. He wiped the blood off of his blade as they started for the palace, leaving the hulking dogs behind.

When they made it to the gates, they were met with a rain of arrows, a legion of lightly armored men revealing themselves behind the cover of the wall's parapet and releasing their hold on their taught bowstrings.

Cait sliced her hand to the side, and all of the arrows turned in the air, burying themselves thirty feet to her left. She pushed her hands forward with a "HA," launching the men off the wall to fall on the ground below, which unfortunately for them was over two hundred feet below them.

A cacophony of clangs and snaps resounded as the men fell on top of each other, their armor banging together and their bones breaking.

Fate whistled in appreciation. "Remind me not to get on your bad side," he said, raising his sword as a man came out from the open gates, hands clasped behind him. "Let me take this one. Can't let you have all the fun."

"You are trespassing on the sovereign ground of Emperor Ythmun," the man said loudly. "Turn back now, or you will die."

Fate stepped forward, appraising his opponent. He was a lean man. A black leather trench coat covered his back and sides, open at the front to reveal his dark pants and shirt, the latter of which had a symbol emblazoned on it, that of a crown resting on a planet, with a tree growing out of the center of the band to spread its branches and provide a canopy covering the world.

The man's long black hair was especially stark against his pale skin and pure white pupils. Based on the way his eyes tracked Fate, the man could still see somehow, and his strength was within the Personification Level.

"This is your final warning," he said. "Emperor Ythmun does not kill swiftly. He takes his time with those who go against his wishes. Turn back."

Fate took another step forward, stopping suddenly when the man vanished. He turned intangible on instinct, a knife passing through his stomach from behind. He spun around, moving so the knife was no longer within him and slicing his sword where he felt the man was. He hit nothing but air. He turned to his left to find the man staring at him with distaste.

"A troublesome ability," the man said. "But I shall find a way to kill you."

"Likewise," Fate said, spitting on the ground. "I always knew the first Speed Embodiment I met would be a major pain in the ass. Might as well learn how to kill people with your talents now."

The man vanished, Fate jumping as the man appeared where Fate was previously standing, his distaste turning to mild frustration.

"Troublesome, indeed." The man's frown deepened.