Chapter 25: Territory Dispute

Taiyang Xiaolong motioned us inside with a wave of his hand, never once bothering to check us for weapons or ascertain any hidden objectives. From Ruby's stories of him, he was a fantastic Huntsman, so I supposed if he wanted to he could have done so with a glance, but it was still strange. Who lets a bunch of strangers into their house just because they were seen walking down the street with his daughter?

Ruby immediately relaxed in the homely place, and if I were more of a fan of Western architecture, I probably would have too. The sitting room's furniture was made entirely out of mahogany, or so my Structural Analysis told me. It was decorated sparsely, with just a coffee table, recliner, a pair of sofas, and a cabinet holding up a television- the real kind, not the holographic ones that tinted everything blue. The walls were painted a sandy brown that bounced the light filtering through a pair of stained-glass windows in the back of the house, lighting up the sitting room in ways that conventional light would never be able to.

In a flash, there were steaming beverages in front of was no distinction between the manipulation of matter and sheer speed there, so I didn't bother trying to ask if it was his Semblance. Instead, I raised my mug to my lips and, after confirming and checking with Archer that there weren't any poisons in the drink, took a tentative sip. The bitter taste of kelp tea hit the back of my throat like a refreshing gulp of air. I quickly took a second and third sip before setting it down, as was customary.

Taiyang looked over all of us with searching eyes. His gaze caught Ruby's, whose eyes flicked to mine in confirmation. I gave her the smallest of twitches that meant no; it wouldn't be worth the risk to get her father involved in the Grail War. It would not only put the Church after us, but also his life at risk. Jaune's parents and Ozpin could certainly hold off a Servant, maybe even beat them, but the just-greying Taiyang wasn't at that level yet. You could see it in his posture, the creeping signs of early-onset aging and arthritis, probably caused by the gauntlet he was used to wielding. The kind of force it expelled was comparable to a strike from a Servant with B rank Strength, definitely enough to start tearing tendons in a person's hand after enough use.

"So, what brings you kids out to Patch?" he asked. "I don't think I've seen you older ones; are you some of the fifth years? I never knew that Ozpin had fallen to letting the older students chaperone the younger. Honestly, that man is so lazy sometimes..."

Despite his admonishment of Ozpin's behavior, I could see the calculative gleam in his eyes. He wasn't going to hesitate to take action if we gave him an answer that he didn't like, and it was painfully obvious that he didn't believe that Archer and Lancer were fifth year students. Besides, that wouldn't explain Tabitha's presence, and it certainly wouldn't explain Ozpin's...

"Hold on a minute," I said, stopping everyone in his or her tracks. "Where did Ozpin go?"

We all blinked, then stared incredulously at one another. Archer and Lancer seemed to be the most shocked at the man's abilities. Granted, they hadn't seen his power themselves, so it was somewhat understandable that they'd underestimate him, but it was incredible that he had slipped right out of our noses while we were distracted. It had to have been before Taiyang had met us, or he wouldn't have commented on the premier Huntsman's apparent laziness. While we were running to the main road, maybe? Had he really just stayed behind in the manse's guest room?

"Wait, the old goat is with you?"Taiyang asked incredulously.

Lancer nodded. It appeared that his legend didn't do his intelligence justice, judging by the excuse he gave Taiyang. "Yeah, he said he had a bit off business to conduct with some guy named Mr. Dawn," said the Irish warrior. "I thought he'd stick with us for a couple more hours, but it seems like he's finally gotten off his rocker and done something."

"I like you already, brat." Lancer nearly bristled at the backhanded compliment, but managed to rein in his anger, courtesy of Tabitha's warning hand on his arm. "So what now? Are there any special rules to your survival test?"

"Get as few outside influences involved as possible, be the last one standing, and win before the week is up," I listed, falsifying most of the Grail War's facts. "There are six other teams involved, and we have to defeat them to win. Would it be possible to stay here while the test is going on?"

"I thought you said there weren't to be any outside influences involved," Taiyang said, grinning. "I see what you mean, though. You can stay here as long as you don't wreck my house with your fighting. There are a bunch of guest rooms upstairs you can use; Ruby will show you to them."

Ruby nodded and motioned to lead us up the dark-wood stairs. The upper floor was styled just like the lower floor, with the sole exception of three portraits lining the walls. One was of Ruby and Yang, probably ten and eight, fighting over something or other. The second was of a woman with long, feathery black hair and red eyes. She was almost a carbon copy of Yang, with the sole exception of her high cheekbones. She stared straight at the camera with a beaming smile on her face, holding a suspiciously baby-shaped bundle in her arms. The third was another baby-carrying woman. This one was shorter, and her clear blue eyes and red-tinted black hair marked her as Ruby's mother. She was just as short as my teammate was, Ruby's signature cape wrapped around her shoulders. Her clothing was almost exactly like Ruby's as well. They were literally almost exactly alike. Did the Xiaolong siblings inherit nothing from their father?

I shook my head and focused on the rooms that Ruby opened up for us. They were simple and sparse, like the rooms below us. I immediately tossed down my few belongings next to Blake's and checked around the room for any bugs, magical or otherwise. For all I knew, Caster could have already been there and set up an island-wide chain of communication. Thankfully, I found nothing, but I did catch something at the very edge of my prana sense, a mere quarter of a kilometer away. The thundering power of a Servant pervaded my senses for an instant, completely independent of Archer's and Lancer's own scents. This one smelled like gold and incense and horses. Probably Rider, although if the incense was any indication, it could have been Caster.

"Now that we have a base of operations, let's get down to business," I said after we'd all settled down. Taiyang stayed downstairs doing who-knows-what while we planned. I pulled out one of the maps I'd nabbed from off of Taiyang's table and spread it out. After taking a moment to look over the map, Lancer and Archer immediately went into strategy mode.

While I expected my Servant double to know something about strategy, I completely forgot that Lancer had once been a famed strategist in Celtic Ireland as well, trained by the Warrior of Shadows herself. The demigod quickly laid out a few contingency plans in case something went wrong, and then got down to immediate business. "Alright, so if Caster wants to build a Territory, he'd going to have to find a place that can't be regularly visited by humans. It's probable that he's going to want to have a building and some form of technology to use; he reminds me far too much of the Greco-Roman alchemists for my liking, and they always had a knack for manipulating the elements with tools. That narrows their possible options down to here," he scraped a circle on a nearby building block, "here," another apartment block, this one near the outskirts of the city, "and here." He finished by scrawling over a clearly abandoned shopping mall. "If we're going for safety, then the mall is most assuredly the best assumption."

"I hate to ask, but what's a Territory?" Tabitha asked, raising her hand. My team nodded beside me, obviously just as confused. I looked to Archer.

"A Caster is able to use a class-exclusive ability called Territory Creation," he explained. "Within the Territories they create, they are allowed to change certain laws of the physical world regardless of outside influence. For example, a Territory barrier can be configured to decrease a Saber's stats by two ranks while keeping everyone else's up, or keeping Servants out but allowing Masters to enter. If the Caster isn't too malicious in their intentions, they can be used as good mediators and peace treators. Territory Creation, while it takes some creativity to use to its full effect and time to activate, is a devastating ability to have at one's disposal. It's the sole reason why Casters are usually targeted first in Wars, followed immediately by Assassins and Archers. We have a tenuous alliance with everyone but Caster and Saber out of principle right now, but that could change very quickly, so I suggest that Shirou, one of you and I go to talk alliances with the other Servants."

"But aren't the Servants the villains?" Ruby asked. I shook my head,

"Not always," I told her, causing her to furrow her brow in confusion. "Look at it this way. Each of the Servants have their own dream to fulfill, even Archer and Lancer. It's the reason that they were options for Servants in this War in the first place. To the other Servants, we're just obstacles that are getting in the way of their goal. Getting them on our side could be vital for realizing even one of their dreams."

"Oh, I get it!" She didn't quite get it, but I let it slide with a fond smile and a ruffle of her silky hair. I wasn't going to be the one explaining the greys of a world to a child that only saw in black and white.

Maybe Archer could do that, or Ren if I ever needed a favor.

Archer and I both sought out Ren's knowing gaze. He sighed and lifted himself off of the floor, already grinning begrudgedly. "I'll get ready," he said, turning around to pack his weapons in his sleeves. "You two start looking for the Assassin while I finish up here."

We nodded in tandem. "Lancer, you're in charge of finding and eliminating Caster. Take Ruby and Blake with you. Tabitha, I know you want to join the fight, but try to stay here with Taiyang for the time being. If he's going to get involved, and he will get involved at one point of another, then it better be for protecting you."

Tabitha pouted, but nodded. I smiled warmly at her; Martin would have said yes and then immediately tried to sneak out after us to face off in combat against a Servant. At least Tabitha showed more self-consciousness than her brother.

When Ren was ready, we all broke. Tabitha stayed behind, fading from my vision as I leapt after Archer out a window, Kanshou and Bakuya drawn. Since Archer and I were both experts on the weapons, he'd be able to do his class justice and attack from afar while I could use the Married Blades to corral any enemies into position. Kanshou and Bakuya were the perfect weapons to support someone of the Archer class, but that support would only work if there were two fighters or if the Archer had reflexes and speed so incredible that they could use both simultaneous.

Ren trailed behind us, managing to keep up a pace even with Archer and I cranking the speed up to D rank. I could see a liberal application of magenta Aura coating the small bits of exposed skin on his legs, and he was sweating like crazy not five minutes into our trek, but he stayed right at my tail regardless. His hands were always extended, ready to catch and shoot StormFlower at any moment.

Archer's senses were better than my own, but they were still only about average for Magus. It was tough finding Assassin in the midst of the overwhelming blanket of prana that the Grail War's preparation had released. Cutting through it was the smaller, yet no less noticeable prana signature of a Caster that suffused the air in particular spots. Often, these residual prana traces were accompanied by burning trees or chunks of stone that had been unceremoniously ripped out of the earth. Forest green gradually fell to a sick, convulsive purple as we headed deeper into the forest. White, bony plates covered several of the trees and flowers. Had the flora become Grimm-like as well as the fauna? Was this the work of a Caster, or the Apostle I'd spent the past few months investigating with Ozpin?

"Get ready," Archer warned as we came up on... something up ahead. "I can feel Assassin's presence, and that means that she's either a really shitty Assassin or she's looking for a fight. Ren, I'll look to you for cover fire while Shirou and I take on Assassin. Can you handle her Master?"

Ren contemplated the prospect for a minute. "Maybe," he finally decided. "He looked old enough to have graduated from a Hunting academy by now, and he seemed to be experienced with Dust from the little I could talk out of him. I'll try my best, but if I can't I'll let you know."

The three of us nodded in confirmation before bursting through a canopy of trees. A stream ran directly through the glade we'd slammed into, its clear water carrying prana scents from all over the forests. A small trickle ran off into the Grimm-infested parts of the forest. It gradually changed to an amethyst-like purple colour as it approached the tainted trees.

In the middle of the glade, sitting on a boulder that jutted out of the center of the stream, was Assassin. Her pale, petite body was covered in cuts shallow and deep. A drop of red bled into the stream, staining the water a grotesquely beautiful ruby. Her Master stood over he, frantically bandaging her wounds. Before I even thought about it, I'd brushed past Archer and stepped forward.

"Shirou, what are you doing?" he hissed, ripping my arm cleanly out of its socket as he whirled me around to face him. The pain wasn't all that noticeable, and as I snapped it back into place, I could feel the soothing threads of Avalon's prana fixing whatever damage I'd sustained. "She's an Assassin! Even when she's injured, she can take you on with her eyes closed, and I am not disappearing before I'm done with my work."

"She's a child," I snapped back, just as vehemently. If Archer was so worried about not having a host, he was really an idiot. Honestly, he had Independent Action at B rank, for fuck's sake! "Stay out of my way while I'm healing her."

Ren nodded at the order, and while Archer looked for all the world like he wanted to strangle me, I simply raised a hand and gestured to my Command Seals. He grudgingly stood back, allowing me to pass once again. I Traced Avalon as I walked. The sheath's glowing light caught the attention of the enemy Master, who tensed in preparation for a fight.

"What do you want?" he asked warily. I had to give him credit, his voice didn't even waver at the idea of facing three armed warriors, two of which were veterans of the last Grail War and one of which had lived through two. "If you're here to finish off Assassin, you'll have to get through me."

He palmed a Dust crystal that thrummed with electric power. I shook my head and stepped closer. He took this as a threat, lobbing the gem, but before it got within five meters of me it was pierced by a black-shafted arrow and released an eruption of raw lightning.

"Calm down," I told him, although that also applied to Archer. He had too much of a hair-trigger temper around me to be healthy. I hefted Avalon, showing him the inscriptions before dropping it back down to my side. "I've got a thing or two that should be able to heal her."

"And why would you want to do that?"

I frowned. "She a kid, man. Even if she's a Servant, she's still nine years old. I'm not letting any kid die on my watch."

With that, I pushed myself past the man who offered no resistance. He had done a decent job of bandaging her wounds, but there were too many to be covered by what little bandaging he appeared to have. I tapped her chest with Avalon, right between her collarbones, and whispered the Everdistant Utopia's activation keyword: "Utopia".

Prana flushed from my system when Avalon activated. Its gilded light gathered around Assassin's tiny frame, coating her wounds and wrapping her in warmth. Assassin's eyes snapped open in an instant, and while she frowned, she didn't stop the foreign prana from doing its work. Her tiny fists clenched over her blood-spattered knives.

Avalon's golden light rippled and faded after a moment, like the sun passing behind a dark thunderhead. Assassin bounced to her feet and set herself in a combat stance. While Ren twitched in the corner of my vision and Archer audibly nocked an arrow behind me, I stayed stock-still. The sound of shattering glass and the smell of a fresh spring breeze signalled Avalon's de-Tracing. The rocks held the glowing light for just a moment before they too became dark, and then all was still.

"What do you want with Master?" Assassin asked in a sharp voice that belied her childish appearance. The word Master was distorted, like she was trying to say something else at the same time. The word was indistinguishable, a harsh noise in her throat. She didn't sound the least bit perturbed that her injuries were suddenly a few days old, like they'd been there beforehand. The only sign that she'd even been injured was the pair of dark stains encircling her shoulder where blood once flowed.

"Stand down, Assassin," her Master said after a moment. The girl immediately relaxed, but her emerald eyes never left mine. "If he wanted us dead we'd have been dead a long time ago. We should at least give them the courtesy of hearing out whatever proposal they have."

I nodded in thanks. "My name's Shirou Emiya, Master of Archer. I've been searching for you guys for a while now; what happened to get her this messed up?"

The man scowled. "Caster happened," he spat. "That sonuvabitch and his psycho twins jumped us when we were looking for a place to camp out for the night. He's a scary person, but at least he didn't get away unscathed. Assassin got him pretty good on one of his hands."

Assassin twirled her knife proudly, beaming at her Master. "And what do you mean, you were searching for us?" he asked.

"The first thing anyone worth their salt does in a Grail War is get into an alliance," I explained, sitting down myself. Ren followed my example immediately, eliciting a small smile that I didn't entirely have control of, but Archer stayed where he was. The arrow he had gripped in his fingers glinted with dark light. "I already have Lancer on my side, and since Saber has a grudge with me, he's out. I thought I'd get to the second-strongest Servant in the War before anyone else and offer their Master a deal.""

"What's in it for us?" the man asked.

"Safety from Rider and Berserker, for one," I offered. "At least, if they don't want to side with us. You'll also have increased manpower to take out Caster, while I'll get an extra Servant and Master on my side to deal with Saber. What do you say?"

I never said I was Rin when it came to talking to people, after all. That was more Archer's territory. I didn't force or trick people into agreeing with me, I put the offer out there and gave them the time to accept or decline. Rin's way was more effective, true, but my efforts put more emphasis on the actual alliance, and I didn't use blackmail to continue it after our goals were both accomplished.

The man seemed to contemplate my offer for a few minutes, then snapped his gaze back up to me. "I'll think about it," he said. Assassin nodded beside him, and a stray splash of blood flew from her hair to the ground. Ren blanched behind me.

Without taking their eyes off me, Assassin and her Master darted away, hiding within the treeline until the only way I knew that they were still in the forest was Assassin's overwhelming prana leakage. She packed some serious punch behind that diminutive body. Archer finally let up on his arrow, but the bow didn't dissolve. Rather, it glowed with crackling prana, Reinforced to its very limit by Archer's and my combined prana.

The snap of twigs came with the blast of fire, and I suddenly realized why Archer hadn't de-Traced his bow. I threw myself to the side, coming back up with a shimmering rapier in my hand and a single goal on my mind- protect Ren. He wasn't as strong, fast or skilled as either of us, and even though he had some impressive agility for a Huntsman-in-training, he was still nothing compared to even a Caster class.

I flipped away from a second gout of hot flames and came back around to look my opponent in the eyes. He was the Caster, and the finger pointed at my head told me that if I didn't move right now I would become rotisserie human.

So, instead of diving to the side like any sane person, I brought Myrtenaster to bear and thundered towards him, my feet kicking up dust, grass and loose pebbles. Caster was surprised for a split-second, barely enough to anything.

It was still enough to do something.

I shattered his defenses with an lunging strike for long enough that Archer could loose a quarrel of bolts at him. They were effortlessly batted away by a crimson, faceted shield that gleamed in the light. He had me trapped within its breadth within seconds, but I wasn't quite out for the count. He raised his other hand, a gold ring gleaming on his stretched pointer finger, but pulled it back before Myrtenaster speared it off. He simply snapped his fingers, which appeared to be enough.

Rock flowed up from the ground like water, racing towards me and encasing my feet. I tossed Myrtenaster in the air, Traced Gram, and stabbed it into the liquid rock. Gram's ability was to burn away elemental Thaumaturgy, although it took different amounts of prana from its wielder to do so. I could feel my energy sapping out of me as the unholy sword struggled to combat the aggressively sloshing stone. It dipped into my prana pools again and again to fight against the Caster's spell while I took a fleeting two seconds to analyze the attack.

Casters were all Magi, no matter who was summoned. They also had to abide by conventional Thaumaturgy, no matter what they did. So how had he used something akin to a three-line spell without even opening his mouth? Did he have artifacts, or was he like the Einzberns, just channeling ridiculous amounts of power with a single intent in mind? Both were viable. He had a ton of gold and silver jewelry on his fingers, wrists and neck, and his prana levels were surging high enough that I could feel it even through the clearing's recently-Avalon-saturated presence.

"Caladbolg!" Archer's roared, and I felt The Light's Forbear shooting towards the barrier that kept us separated. I smirked. Pushing Gram into the ground to keep the stone at bay, I pushed up to land in a handstand, one hand on either side of my blade's crossguard, and shoved myself high into the air. Caladbolg shattered the grounding of the barrier without even slowing down and very nearly nailed Caster in the face. Even as my feet touched the top of the slowly-disintegrating barrier, I watched Caster smoothly twirl out of the way, the only damage to him being a ripped sleeve from Caladbolg's vortex-like slipstream. He looked up at me, no longer smiling. I caught Myrtenaster when it rose to meet me, and put as much strength into my legs as possible.

With the combination of Reinforcement, gravity and my own natural Strength, I reached perhaps a tenth of the speed of sound. The forty meters that encompassed the distance between Caster and I was gone in just over a second, leaving him with barely any time to defend. Just as my hyper-enhanced reflexes and sight told me to extend Shisui, I heard a barely-audible voice cant, "Petras tis Fotias."

The blast of flames that erupted from Caster's form was incredible, and it was only my speed, as well as Gram still being tied to my prana, that saved my life. Even with those two going for me, I easily retained second-degree burns on the unclothed bits of my skin. Gilgamesh's Altered armor glowed with a faint red color when I exited the inferno. I hadn't been able to strike Caster, but I'd managed to catch him off guard enough for Archer to slam a second volley of arrows into his position.

"Damn," Archer cursed. I could feel it too; Caster had literally vanished. None of us could see it in the blaze of fire that slowly encroached on the forest, but he threw power around like a fountain and then... nothing. Had he teleported? Had he brought his speed up to the point that he could leave without being noticed? Had he simply suppressed his prana to the point where Archer and I, arguably the worst at sensing energy in the War, just couldn't feel him anymore?

"Where'd he go?" Archer and I asked at the same time, looking towards each other for confirmation. I felt a scowl on my face as his own grew in size.

"If you two would stop arguing for a minute..." Ren said, his deadpan voice bringing me back to reality. Like I told him to, he'd stayed out of the fight, but that didn't mean he'd come out unscathed. Caster's fire attack must have been designed to get the both of us, because his sleeve was charred black, and his right hand hung limply by his side. Black ash fell off it in chunks, exposing smooth bone underneath. It was probably only the cauterizing effect that fire usually had on flesh that was keeping him from bleeding, and thankfully it seemed the attack had severed the nerves in his hands, since he wasn't writhing on the ground in pain. Avalon was in my hand in an instant, and after another liberal coating of healing prana, stitching the Traced sheath onto his clothing in just the right way, and several more of Archer's complaints he was on a steady mend. I told him to shut down most of his Aura just in case it would interfere with Avalon's prana.

The trees flickered by as flashes of green and brown, becoming little more than a blur as I pushed my Reinforcement to go even faster. There was always the possibility that Lancer could be in danger, and it wasn't even a stretch to assume that Caster had managed to set up his Territory by then. That was the thing about Territories: unlike a Workshop, which would usually take years at the least to become fortified to the point where it could withstand an Enforcer's assault, Territories were Single Action spells capable of being written over a plot of land in a scant few minutes. If he had already managed one, then our chance of getting him out of the game for good would drop by a good thirty percent. Once Casters set up their Territories, they seldom left them.

I managed to pinpoint Lancer's prana signal at the same time as Archer, and we both shot forwards, leaving just enough room for Ren to catch up with Avalon hampering his speed. Trees gave way to the asphalt jungle. I nearly tripped over an exposed piece of concrete.

Gae Bolg was trained on us the moment we entered Lancer's sensory range. His prana was a bit higher than it usually was, but nothing looked amiss and both he and Tabitha were safe. Lancer's red eyes trained on me, and Tabitha shot up with worry on her face.

"What'd ya find out?" he asked. "Got any new allies for the War?"

I shook my head. The sun was high in the sky at that point, morning and noon long since past. If anything, it was just the beginning of evening, the faintest of orange rays glimmering and cresting over the tops of the waves in the distance and reflecting off the glass windows around us. In that kind of light, it would be hard to recognize the sunny-robed Caster by anything other than his prana signal. "No, but we have a possibility in Assassin and one definite enemy. Caster has formed his own side."

Lancer's eyes widened, and with a muttered, "Shit," he went back to his thinking pose. "So Saber and Caster have their own sides and Berserker and Rider are complete unknowns. Assassin is a maybe, and as for the Church..." Lancer frowned. "This War isn't going well for us. It's only day one and we already have two definite enemies. Do you have any idea what's next?"

"Shirou, is that you?" Blake poked her head out from the front door before I could answer Lancer's questions. "What happened?"

I was ready to start explaining what had happened, but then something in the air changed. Humans naturally have some innate sense of danger, much like when a person feels a sense of foreboding when a loved one dies or a fire breaks out at their home. I moved to intercept the attack (because it could only be an attack), and in a split-second, Archer and Lancer had hauled Ren and Tabitha out of my way. I visualized, prepared, and Traced.

"Rho Aias!"