The world bent into itself as time and space was momentarily disrupted. In a flash of ethereal light a humanoid masked figure remained, a dark cloak draped about its body, standing atop a large stone. Tablurath took in his new alien surroundings with a slow 360 degree turn. Taking in every detail of this new and bizarre battlefield. He noticed immediately that this place was indeed different, as a shifting wave of power seemed to resonate in this place. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end-- proof enough of some strange magic at work here. His cape opened up as he raised his arms before him. Looking over his arms carefully as if studying them for some change.
Tablurath at this point had only a little fear of the transportation through time and space would affect him negatively. Only a madman would feel absolutely assured of coming out unscathed when another eldritch being was throwing you through different dimensions. He was not really looking for any evidence of such changes, but instead taking note of the strange threads of violet energy that had attached themselves to his form. He cast his gaze about the strange tunnel once more, feeling remarkably calm.
He neither looked forward to his match nor dreaded it. He could not quite put a finger on the feeling, but he at least hoped his new opponent would be more interesting than the last. He gripped a sword, Mercy, and pulled it free from its sheath. The cold metal hardly making more than a whisper as it was brought into the light. There was no much else to do, but wait for his opponent. He closed his eyes for a moment as he thought of the reasons that had brought him at least this far. So much rode on this, more than Tablurath himself was aware of perhaps. He decided to promise himself one thing after this little game; he would seek out Mirra when all was said and done.
He could hardly expect the Angar-Rylla to keep their word after all.
Energies manifested in the space across from Tablurath, warping within one another, twisting about, until they shifted outwards and Raelis was deposited near the entrance to his second battlefield. Glancing about with his eyes, rather than move his head, he noted the intriguing energies in the ceiling, and the slime, which seemed to cover the whole of the ground in a thin layer. "Mmm..." he muttered before his eyes locked onto his opponent.
The being was shorter than he and not terribly unfamiliar in appearance. The man had a sword drawn already, likely to be ready for his arrival. His vision adjusting so as to observe the man more clearly, Raelis' parascopic vision allowed him to note what appeared to be an advanced form of defensive armor and...strange particles around the blades. He could sense something vaguely magical as well, but alas his senses in that area were not above those of the average Asaran warrior. He had also noted the second blade, which the man had, for some reason, not yet drawn. Perhaps he would in time, or perhaps he would rend his life from his body before he was allowed the opportunity. Given the alleged skill of the combatants based on their fights, he doubted it.
He remembered the grey mist and the strange blades this one had conjured. He'd need to be careful of that, especially considering the fact that he was disadvantaged due to the confined space.
Readying himself, Raelis drew his own blade and as he did the thrumming energies of the place notified him of something. He felt the light and warmth which passively emanated from his form, waver. He didn't like this place, he decided.
His blade rose to 80 degrees and his surroundings rose to 100 degrees almost immediately before he pulled the energies into his blade. The area around him became colder as a result.
The knight partially folded his wings.
"Greetings," he called out over the distance, voice echoing through the cave, "I am Raelis Vaerkturian, what be your name?" He continued approaching, but there was a good distance between the two, so the man was unlikely to see his actions as hostile...at least not until he got closer.
Raelis, like the man, hoped this battle would be more of a challenge than his last.
Tablurath watched as his opponent appeared in a similar flash of light as he had. So it had begun then, he decided. He recalled what information had been gleamed of the winged warrior from his previous bout. He was a Rider type warrior, relying on mobility and speed to whittle away at his opponents with the power of his light aura. The power of which rapidly increased the temperature around him. He would be a difficult foe Tablurath decided.
What struck the Cardinal as odd once this Raelis had appeared was that numerous strings of violate suddenly clung to his form. Seeming to glow more brilliantly than it had when he himself had entered this place. The possibility that this place was slowly feeding off of their collect energies could pose quite the problem- especially so for his opponent.
As the winged warrior began to walk toward him Tablurath raised one leg and gently tapped his sword against side of one foot. Then repeated it for his next foot while he simultaneously swept his cap behind him. Unbeknownst to his opponent, the bottom of each foot was now liberally coated with mibs. While his shifting of his cape had been to disguise a quick slight of hand- a simple thumbing of one of his belt attached grenades. He estimated the exact amount of time it had in his mind's eye.
All this in a few breaths as his opponent began walking toward him. Tablurath had not expected the man to want to close the distance so soon, but he would not stop him. The low ceiling of this place limited his foes aerial abilities. While the rocky ground would prove a bother to be sure. Tabluraths mibs would at least manage to push aside any slime he walked upon granting him a greater degree of traction. An advantage his opponent would not be aware of immediately.
"Greetings," he called out over the distance, voice echoing through the cave, "I am Raelis Vaerkturian, what be your name?"
Tablurath’s smile was hidden beneath his mask. “And a grand welcome to you,” he began easily. “You may call me Lord Cardinal Tablurath.” He walked forward himself, guessing the distance between them no more than 8 meters. “It would seem the wheels of fate have transpired to place our paths in conflict.”
A cloud of mist had begun to take shape around the swordsmen as he moved forward carefully. The stones at his feet knocking together as his misplaced them. “Wheels within Wheels as it were.”
Noting his opponent's actions, Raelis felt the slimy substance beneath his armored feet and immediately allowed his armor to open slightly, his talons extending to allow him his own form of traction. In the same moment he began gathering heat energy in his leg armor, though it did not accumulate initially--he would instead wait to unleash it. In the same moment the heat around him rose to 100 degrees and then pulled into his blade as it had before, sitting it at a toasty 200 degrees.
With eight meters between them and both of them moving, Raelis' glowing eyes calculated how fast the man could accelerate verses his own reaction time and speed. He'd need to be wary of any sudden movements. The man was already within his sphere of influence, but he decided to withhold that trick for later. Instead, he directed some of his nanites to form a layer over the surface of his armor and exposed talons. In addition to this, a small portion of nanites clustered around four pieces of Maelstrom, charging them with more electromagnetic energy.
"It seems so," he replied before he pushed off, accelerating somewhat in a single bound to help close the distance. He wouldn't let this man build up the shroud like he'd seen him do before.
As the Cardinal had expected- the winged warrior wasted little time in quickly trying to close the distance between them. The black mist swirled about, with Tablurath at its very center. In the blink of an eye Tablurath weaved his sword in a tight series of controlled spins on either side of him that sent the blades tip through four different corners of the mist around him. The mibs within instantly went to work as they were designed. All this just as his winged adversary had reached the 7 meter mark. Tablurath sped up then stopped in place suddenly landing on his right foot; motion blur lining his frame as the mibs coating the soles of his feet began their prime directive of eating through the slime underneath him granting his purchase. Effectively anchoring him in place for a brief moment.
The mibs in the air partly into their construction, however, did not stop. Speeding forward in fact to compensate after sensing a sudden burst of speed. Not realizing Tablurath had in fact stopped moving forward. Wondrous as they may be, the little constructs could not do two things at once. The moving forward had only been one silent command, the second had been the materialization of four rotating swords of the same shape and design as Mercy.
This combination meant his opponent now had four deadly spinning swords flying in his direction. One threatened the upper right of his opponent, its forward momentum enough to rend through his shoulder pauldron or maim his right wing. The second aimed for the left side with a similar goal. The third heading straight for his opponents lower left abdomen in a horizontal cutting spin, the fourth possibly striking the man's right knee. A flashing wall of mundane blades might have been nothing more than a bother, but given the raw cutting power within these swords it would be enough to be dangerous if not fatal. His opponents saving grace would be the lack of sustained power behind each sword, thus they would at best pierce or cut part way then stop before they reached anything vital.
Given his opponents sudden sprint forward Tablurath estimated the chance of him avoiding all of them less than likely given his present momentum. Tablurath awaited in a simple stance that kept his legs shoulder width apart and slightly crouched as his free right hand was kept to his side and ready. His left hand sword held at the ready before him as he counted the moments away for his earlier grenade. The timing would need to be perfect.
Having predicted the man reacting as he moved, the Asaran had not dedicated his full speed to the movement forwards so as not to limit his mobility. As such, when the blades flew towards him, he had already used his wings, and legs, to alter his position several feet to the left, thus allowing him to totally dodge the projectile 'blades,' before they had even reached him. However, as he moved to the side he left behind a small amount of his nanites, allowing them to make contact with the mibs. Due to the nature of his nanites they would be undamaged as they made contact, and would instead hitch a ride on the tiny constructs. Heat continued to build in the outer portions of his leg armor even as he pulled 100 degrees of heat into his blade. It had reached 300 degrees within the blade already. As he finished his dodge he let his wings fold partially over his back once more, making them hidden behind his body, and making himself a small target.
He continued forwards, his eyes somewhat cutting through the hazy shroud around the man and thus allowing him to note that he wasn't moved, but had initially. It seemed the shroud responded to his movements and perhaps, to an extent, his commands. Taking this in mind he advanced, beginning to condense air around his body as he did so. Raelis kept a steady pace, but not his top speed, perhaps only going at a human's run speed. With his avian perception and reaction time being much higher than a human's this meant he could easily predict and evade most attacks until he fully closed the gap.
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; For want of a shoe, the horse was lost; For want of a horse, the rider was lost; For want of a rider, the message was lost; For want of the message, the battle was lost; For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
There were countless paths to one's future one could take. Often the smallest miniscule decision could have incredible and unforeseen effects on the future. A small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system could - in theory - result in large differences in a later state on a much grander scale. The myriad of possibilities that could transpire, however, could often times be manipulated when just the right push of the right wheel was given.
Tablurath had already began spinning those wheels of fate in which his opponent must dance; for this was only the opening act. Strength and power only went so far after all. Khazna was a man quiet accustomed to solving his problems through more than sheer brute force. His ability to read an individual was simply unrivaled. As far as he was concerned at least. Many called him arrogant, but he thought himself as merely pragmatic. He had foreseen nearly every move his opponent would, or could, make before the winged warrior had ever conceived them. Still this was no great feat for the Cardinal- nothing worthy of even boasting. It was simply fact.
So when the already perceived moment his adversary began to jerk his body to the left Tablurath of course knew what the Asaran was attempting and judged the direction and trajectory faster than any normal man could hope to comprehend. The reason for his earlier arming of his grenade was born for this precise circumstance. Along with that the need for one of his hands to remain free and near his belt to capitalize on this possibility; now made real. He had judged it right down to the very nanosecond all based on his previous information he had been given on his opponent.
His free right hand flashed in a blur of motion, flinging the grenade attached to his belt forward harder than any fastball thrown by a mundane individual could manage. Not toward his opponent or even in the direction he had committed to. Instead it flew into the ring of swords just as the detonator armed itself just a little more than a couple feet to his opponents left. The moment he had let the explosive device go he had followed with a quick snap of his fingers.
This combination of events caused two things to happen. One was the quick breaking down of the four swords as they prepared to return to their previous configuration of countless mibs, not a slow process but not an instant one either, just as the mib grenade exploded. The device was non-lethal normally, producing a powerful bang and enough explosive strength to cover a large area in nanomachines.
With the sudden break down of the sword clones, however, the normally mostly harmless grenade sent those still breaking down fragments of each sword clone in every direction. Effectively turning the super sharp blades into deadly shrapnel. The fragments would now be flying with enough force to tear through tissue, iron, and even puncture the very rocks at their feet with frightening effectiveness. They existed for only a few seconds, more than enough time to tear up his opponent considering the near point blank range. On top of that it blanketed the area of roughly 30 feet in a thick black cloud of ash that would render all normal sight useless. Coating the Asaran warrior in more than deadly fragmentation. His saving grace might be that those fragments would return to individual mibs before his wounds had even began to bleed.
Tablurath for his part remained where he was, several pieces of his own pseudo fragmentation grenade dissipating just short of reaching him. Though one did manage to reach him in time to be a real threat, forcing him to intercept with Mercy. The spark of starlhrim metal on starlhrim ignited on his sword's edge. He berated himself for his own carelessness, he realized he had stopped 3.3 inches to close. Normally starlhrim swords, even clones, would be highly resistant to such an explosion and would have come out unscathed. Since they had been breaking apart to return to mibs their weakened resilience had allowed him to spring a trap on his opponent. The nanites left behind by his opponent soon encountering nanomachines to small to hitch any ride on sadly.
He crouched low then retrieved a handful of stones even while the ringing of the explosion was fresh in his opponent's ears, even as he focused on the vocals points of his opponents magical network. He was now within the radius of his own smoke screen, but he had memorized the exact positions of every rock from the moment he had arrived. As for his opponent, well they were currently lit up as bright as a Christmas tree to his aura sensitive eyesight. He doubted his opponent could see in such conditions but only time would tell. The wheels were spinning to Tabluraths tune for now, but it was early enough in this bout for his opponent to change the course to his own favor.
So, as he was in a position to predict and prevent, he did. His opponent's movements were easily tracked by the sound they made and the air they displayed. Thus, upon him releasing the grenade, it would suddenly slam downwards and into the ground as air stopped its advance and then altered its trajectory in a split second. His opponent's perception was clearly greater than the average, but a human could only move and react so fast. It was clear that the man was capable of doing what he was not because he had greater synapse speed, but because he was predicting his movements preemptively. That coupled with the man's ability to move at much greater speeds than a human allowed for a deceptive combination. It was too bad that Raelis' synapse speed was far faster than a human's by a long shot, not to mention the fact that the way his senses worked was greatly heightened.
After all, his smaller avian ancestors had had to make decisions and discern details at breakneck flight speeds and as their abilities increased, so did their perceptual capabilities. Now the Asarae used these abilities for more practical modern purposes, some of which included combat. This was what, in part, allowed the Asaran knight his rather impressive abilities.
A small smile quirking the corner of one of his lips, his mouth hidden within the shadows of his hood and behind the metal of his helm, Raelis continued forwards, making sure not to veer back into the path of the mibs that were being pulled back to their master.
He ordered all of his nanobots to continue replicating even as more air pressurized around him. He noted that his blade's temperature had reached 400 degrees and that his leg armor was still gathering heat. He began focusing small amounts of unmanifested magic within the cavern as he closed to 4 meters.
All of this within the space of only a few seconds. It seemed both he and his combatant were capable of acting at speeds far exceeding the average. This, in tangent with the intriguing capabilities of his adversary, had caused the Asaran's smile. After all, a worthy opponent was hard to come by.
Should the grenade go off the mibs that might have otherwise struck Raelis would veer around him and then to the sides instead, being directed away from his person with air currents. Should Khazna's actions require it, Raelis would react accordingly.
Tablurath was wondering when his opponent would begin to start manifesting his other sources of magical manipulation aside from heat and light. Prior analysis of his opponent revealed his excessive weight would make it impossible for him to obtain flight without some other unseen addition to aid in allowing him to leave the ground. This either meant polarization, thus giving cause for his excessive use of metal along his body and wings, or his opponent was also an aeromancer of some skill.
The world froze as Tablurath superhuman thought processing began to perceive the world around him at speeds impossible for nearly any other biological creature. First, he had to find the thread of wind. To the naked eye the weaving of magic would be invisible to the average mortal. The Cardinal, however, could see the pale grey weaving of magic as it shifted the very air currents around him as easily as a hound heard a dog whistle.
As Tablurath released the grenade the shifting of air pressure instantly reacted, and so did Tablurath. It only required a simple flick his sword hand to have the very tip of his blade intercept the web of magic that had weaved itself before him, its power attracted to the starlhrim metal pulling the threads of air magic to itself like a magnet. Feeding off of it and allowing Tablurath to pull it away as easily as passing his hand to the left. He had readied his sword earlier just for such an occasion for when, not if, his opponent would rely on such tricky. Magic users tended to quite predictable and thankfully the Asaran had manipulated the wind very near to the Cardinal.
Sadly the winged warrior had not known that his opponent had a sword woven of the stuff of an arcanist worst nightmare. So without the magic influencing the wind itself, there was no wall of air to prevent his grenade from its planned trajectory. Further manipulation of wind would merely follow the thread of energy into the Cardinals sword as it acted as a temporary drain. There was simply not enough time, less than half a second, to end the one effect and create a new one before his pseudo missile was where it needed to be – thus a hail of fragmentation threatened to rip his opponents left side to pieces. The prior actions before unchanged.
When it came to a war of deductions and tactical analysis, the General was simply on a whole other level than his flying friend. He was after all a Dream Hunter.
His blade's temperature rising to 500 degrees, his leg armor's heat rising aswell, even as more air pressurized around Raelis, unaffected by Khazna's blades due to the process being facilitated by the technological portions of his armor, the avian's eyes narrowed, though his smile only grew. As such, he instituted change in a different manner, sapping heat from one area and drawing it to another. Immediately a powerful gust of wind erupted from near his form, as created by the change in heat and pressure. The magic he had used was not close enough to the general to be in reach of his blade and the action happened in an instant. Following it up he let his wings partially unfurl and slam air down and backwards, though the pressurized air they were storing was not released. This caused him to push forwards, his feet still just barely touching the ground.
His nanites continued to replicate, drawing resources from the go at his feet most prominently to do so making it thin out and eventually disappear around him. More of his wing armor became magnetically charged beyond its normal degree as he approached Khazna his blade at the ready.
It was truly a magnificent feeling to face an adversary such as this.
Raelis' actions could still change given the circumstances.
The fierce gust of air from his opponents had sent the handheld grenade tumbling off course. Striking a stone just eight feet further ahead to Tabluraths right. Bouncing off the rock before bursting apart in midair. The effect was sudden and potent; causing the immediate area to suddenly become cloaked in a dense cloud of opaque ash. Line of sight was abruptly lost -at least for his opponent- as a radius of roughly thirty feet was blanketed in mibs.
The thick cloud was densest closes to the floor as it swept across the uneven ground. This turn of events didn't faze the general as he simply adjusted to his secondary plan having gained a plethora of new information from his opponent. Given what he had observed thus far he concluded that his opponent controlled three sources of energy. Light. Heat. Air.
In an instant he digested this information. ‘He can control the air around him to a yet undefined range, but not control wind itself with any great precision. He unsurprisingly feared my grenade despite not knowing its payload, enough to redirect its planned path, but not move out of its possible range--In fact he moved toward me in what could only be the perceived blast radius had it been a lethal explosion. Possible foresight into the immediate future? Unlikely, such behavior would have been detected during his first match. The same goes for reading minds I would have perceived such psionic intrusions. Blind luck? Perhaps.’ Still Tablurath had yet to use his grenades in any fashion previously, so it was impossible to know what had sparked that initial reaction. The Cardinal would be more than a little interested in learning the reason behind his opponent’s actions. This thought pattern all happening in the instant his opponent began speeding forward.
Still the why was surely unimportant at this juncture was it not? He finished his observations by the time his opponent was surrounded in his ash storm which was enough for now. The energy expanded in the wind had been gathered only in piecemeal by Mercy. Which offered Tablurath a rare opportunity.
He smiled. “Twenty percent potential.”
He flicked and swung his blade upward in a tight arch. Bringing the sword into a natural high guard with his left hand as his left foot was drawn back behind his right- Mercy’s tip pointed at an angle down to the ground and across his chest. His right hand currently resting on Serenity’s handle. The sharp movement had activated the mibs in the air around him, causing them to quickly replicate a sword clone which followed the momentum upward. That clones spin began the creation of two more brothers just like it that followed now a small group of blades in quick spinning rings. Their construction complete as they ended their upward momentum as their tips met resistance at the ceiling of moving aurora like energy above.
The starlhrim now within the cloned swords both absorbed and rejected this new form of energy and were repelled violently. Very violently. They accelerated over 1,500 miles an hour and flew earthward again impaling the stones around Tablurath in a tight circle with him at the center. In the end leaving more than two dozen blades sticking out of the ground like a crude field of trophies. Each sword now a deep ocean blue to Tabluraths energy sensitive eyes. A stark contrast to his opponent who was a brilliant orange gold in a sea of blackness. All this within a second and a half time thanks to the fact the ceiling was so low.
Tablurath doubted this would catch his opponent unless he was truly foolish enough to continue charging headlong while momentarily blinded by a sea of ash. Khazna dipped then flicked his sword up again in a silent command. The cloud of ash spun outward as the space between himself and his opponent suddenly became clear once more. The cloud swirling around them without sound like a storm of black rose petals.
He judged that Raelis would be only a little more than 3 meters away at this point. Tabluraths eyes zeroing in on the strings of power emanating from their body. The count now at two threads in all collected around his sword and legs.
“Well, I think we’re due to finish our warm up, don’t you?”
Attempting to shift the course of the wind once more he found his efforts redirected towards Khazna. However, the Asaran decided to use this to his advantage. Even as he felt the nanite blades form and begin to ricochet downwards, Raelis stopped his forwards approach, unfurled his wings and slammed them forwards, releasing the pressurized air he built up simply from moving (4 preps build up). The gale would have been strong enough to throw the man from his feet, but instead it all condensed into several conical blades, with spiraling drill-like presurized blades on the "Edges" of the eighteen cones of pressurized air. Raelis then allowed Khazna's pulling of the energy to activate on the cones, causing them to track the man as they followed the path to him. Were this not grave enough, the blades were much like small pressurized tornadoes and as such pulled the air from 4 feet around Khazna into themselves--they would form a vacuum until they struck, depriving their target of air. Simultaneously, the flapping of his wings stalled his forwards momentum, allowing the blades to come down without striking him in the least. It seemed that the haze of nanites effected him not at all, in fact, they were a boon to his stratagems as this entire time his nanites had been replicating and latching onto the many enemy nanites.
Directing these nanites before Khazna dispersed his own, he let them be pulled into the conical wind drills, amplifying their cutting power. The rest he directed onto the man from all directions. Moving would be unlikely allow him escape from the measure as he would be forced to run into the airborne nanites as he did so. Meanwhile, Raelis' blade had reached a piping 600 degrees faherenheit and his leg armor continued to charge energy.
Raelis was protected from inhaling any harmful substance by his hood and helm, but was the man so fortunate?
The ambient temperature in the tunnel remained at roughly 65 degrees.
All of the Champion's wing armor was now electromagnetically charged and he quickly furled his wings, allowing them to move slightly against his back, gathering more air to themselves with each tiny movement.
The nanites over the surface of his armor had replicated enough to darken the armor's shade as they created an overlay to protect Asara's greatest the warrior.
While Raelis could field the energy field draining him, it was not doing so to any great degree. Reason being that his sword was an largely an isolated system designed to nigh perfectly contain the energy of his world's star, Rhay. As such, while the field was draining a small amount of his magical energy, it would not be getting the full extent, especially considering that his control of wind was due to an enchantment not his own magical abilities, meaning that while it could be drained, it would never run out.
The Asaran waited, ready to press the attack, or defend himself, as needed. He made no response to the man's words other than his own strikes.
However, it indeed was time for him to stop playing around.
As the short battle thus far had progressed Tablurath had kept track of every subtle movement his opponent had made large or small. He had almost missed the tell the first time the winged warrior had manipulated the very air around him. By now, however, he realized that this Raelis always made a great gesture with his wings before tapping into the pressurized air gathered around him. Yes he saw now; the Asaraen pulled in the wind through a simple system built into his wing’s armor, but controlled it through some enchantment. The electrical spectrum further revealed a strong degree of magnetism surrounding his wings. One might think a warrior wearing so much armor would have obfuscated such fine details from the Cardinal, but his telescopic vision had turned the his avian foe into an open book.
In the sea of black rose petals the Cardinal watched as his enemy made their move. The much anticipated attack he had been preparing for as they unfurled their wings. The end result was as expected, though the form had varied at least.
The intricate threads of power now woven throughout the area were much like a complicated pulsing web, sundered here and there from his falling blades as they had passed through them. He released the air energy from Mercy that parted the sea of mibs, dissipating it as a result. Just as the Asaran launched his twisting cyclones of wind. The cogs of fate had begun to turn once more. But, Tablurath was still very much the one spinning the wheels.
In Tabluraths eyes his ocular abilities allowed him to see a great deal. To his vision the spears of wind had been set upon the strand once connected to Mercy. A tactically sound option by his opponent. It would allow Raelis’s attack to track him regardless of where he went or how fast. If not for Tabluraths own inhuman perception he would have been none the wiser. Still, even so the Cardinal had already foreseen and anticipated this manoeuvre. The moment the battle had begun Tablurath had considered every possible outcome and had made plans for each one of them. This outcome had been calculated at a strong 64% chance while his opponent closing the distance and engaging in hand to hand combat had only been a 32% probability. He sighed inwardly, bored from the outcome of the battle thus far. Even as his opponent found challenge in it; he simply did not.
His earlier actions had copied Mercy and in turn had created numerous swords now impaling the ground around Tablurath. While having taken his swords form almost perfectly, they had also inherited its last command. Each sword now drawing in the energy now vested into the spinning cones of wind. This in turn caused them to veer off course, dramatically. The pull of one sword might have only altered their course slightly, but with twenty five blades the effect was multiplied tenfold.
Every time a cone of wind was caught upon a strand leading to one of his sword clones, it suddenly was pulled in that direction. Raelis could always try arresting control of them, but due to his control coming from an enchantment, those new threads of magic would be pulled off course as well. In essence the storming of winds had effectively been severed from their leashes.
The combination of a field of starlhrim and the strange nature of this place had also taken allot of the kick out of the cones of air. Though deadly they did remain if unwieldy- it seemed attacks relying solely on energy were a poor choice in this location. Several of the cyclones veered off suddenly smashing into the stones around both opponents. To his opponent it would seem as if Tablurath had suddenly gained control over them. However, the truth was Tablurath had simply planned well for this exact eventuality.
As for the nano-machines of his opponent, they had long since been deemed a non-threat. Simply due to the fact his own mibs had already begun assimilating them upon contact. They held the ability to reconstruct matter itself in three of its forms, rendering these little trouble makers into dust in which they possessed no defense against. In fact, they willingly embraced their demise each time they made contact with a mib. Something now unavoidable. The Khazna’s own cloud of mibs acted as a prefect shield in catching them and scattering their substance to the winds raging around him. Already his own armor, mask, and cape had taken on a much darker tint to them, as a layer of his own mibs began forming over his body having since spread from his feet. Soon Tabluraths own nanomachines would be the only ones still floating about in the dome of black ash that now surrounded them both.
Divine and arcane. A powerful combination one did not often see. A shame power in any form was a terrible choice against the Cardinal. More so in this strange environment. Such time and power wasted. Still now was the time for the reprisal. He crouched low, the cones of wind still spreading before him like a blooming flower as they struck out at the clones of Mercy. His world then slowed to a crawl as he plotted the perfect course through the maelstrom.
At this point Tablurath noticed the sudden ease that he could move, as well as the utter lack of sound. It seemed those cones of wind had been a double threat. Creating a vacuum of sorts around him and attempting to deprive him of oxygen. A most noble effort indeed on the part of his opponent. The Cardinal would allow himself to be a tad impressed, even if this inevitability had also been foreseen before the battle had even been called forth. The sensors in his blacked masked helm activating and drawing on its own internal air supply.
The area would suddenly become much colder his opponent would find - for as the energy of the winds were consumed, the earlier energy they had absorbed from the ‘Cold Light’ was being released at a slow crawl into the space around them. Starlhrim could only hold one source of energy at a time after all. Effectively driving the bird man’s attack of course while granting the Cardinal with a ready supply of Cold Light energy to tap into when he required it.
He burst forward then, moving at a leisurely pace of only a third of his true speed. His own training weights keeping him from using his true potential for now. He had avoided moving much due to the draining nature of this place. Airing on the side of caution. Now however, was the time to move in for the attack, least boredom take hold and drive him mad.
Tablurath swung his body to the left then forward avoiding one pressurized blade of wind that now seemed to be moving through water. Anticipating their paths as easily as one might a river. Skillfully side stepping another and ducking a piece of debris. All the while never stopping his forward momentum. The cones of wind could no longer lock onto him and had for the most part been thrown of course entirely, but they had not exactly vanished. His opponent had furled their wings by the time Tablurath had entered within seven feet of them. Passing a large boulder to his right hand side as he watched his opponent the entire time for even the most subtle of movements. His eyes a blur as they absorbed the changing surroundings -- finding another focal point.
As he got within range his sword swung up from his right side and down again at an angle from the upper left aiming to cleave into his opponents right shoulder. At least it appeared so, possessing all the tenacity and power of a real blow. While the swords path had brought it through a cloud of mibs at the Cardinals right side. The time between Raelis’s own attack and Tabluraths response being within the realm of roughly two seconds.
Blade reaching 700 degrees, with his leg armor having charged for quite awhile (6 preps)--wing armor for just as long, Raelis' only moved as his opponent neared him. With the trails of energy no longer altogether locked to the man's form, the Asaran waited till the man attempted to plant his foot down to execute his planned maneuver. The air pressure behind the man would suddenly become a wall of air and 500 degree heat/light energy. The blinding flash would be at least distracting as the man saw it in his peripheral vision. However, that was hardly his attack for all the heat within the area, aside from his own blade, suddenly dropped below zero, particularly the heat of the ground around him. Raelis had lifted himself slightly as he preformed the maneuver, the nanites on his feet likely dissolving a space of the slime so as to afford him traction Raelis, at the exact moment that his feet touched down properly, froze all of the slime within an 8 meter radius of himself. He used the heat around his body to allow himself to not freeze the ice that would have inconvenienced him.
Any traction the man would have had would be disrupted and should his nanites bore down into the ice, it would freeze as fast as it was thawed. The actions would happen swiftly enough that Raelis wouldn't have been able to keep up if he hadn't executed them himself, and considering that his opponent's ability to follow the course of the battle appeared to work at around the same speed as his own, well it was unlikely that Khazna would be able to do anything about it. Especially since he had waited till he was committed to his swing.
Of course, Raelis was hardly done, in fact, he made a point of extending the tip of his wing towards the slash as it came down. However, milliseconds before they would have made contact, the armor on his other wing ejected off, moving faster even than Khazna's blade swing, where they would create layers of deflective shielding from various locations around Raelis' right side, which was where Khazna was attacking. The plates would continue their movement, not attempting to block the attack, but instead striking it from multiple angles and destroying its momentum outright.
Meanwhile several of the armor pieces, not a full millisecond after the positioning of the first set of armor plates, fired off, some curving outwards to Khazna's left and right, while four others aimed at both of his arms. Raelis made a point not to extend his now unarmored left wing, which was furthest from Khazna's form.
Since none of Raelis' attacks, aside from the wall of air, were magical in nature, the stalhrim would be entirely ineffective against them. Meanwhile, Raelis armor had hardened to its highest durability due to the automatic function of his nanites. THe layer of nanites on top of Raelis' continued to become denser throughout.
It was too bad for Khazna that this wasn't the end of his tactics.
The Cardinal of the Angar-Rylla’s Ninth Fleet began the execution of his first real offensive. He had to admit he was faced with a rather powerful adversary. A true test for his analytical skills to be sure. His opponent held the advantage of mobility thanks to his wings. Along with a great degree of strength if the weight of their armor alone was any indication. Add that to their raw magical power and they were easily among the most deadly in this tournament.
Tablurath did not possess the strength, or power of his opponents, but unlike them he did not fight alone.
The capital class warship swept through the timeless void of space on solar winds. Flanked by a dozen escorts ships as the Ninth Fleet returned from yet another successful campaign. It had, however, not come without its sacrifices. Deep within the lower holds of the massive ship a ceremony to honor those comrades who had fallen was taking place. Banners of white lined a parade of Angar-Rylla imperial troops in full battledress. Locked step in salute as an honor guard marched between two column formations of men.
The honor guard walking down each held a vessel in their hands. Each holding the cremated remains of those who had paid the ultimate price. Once they reached the end of their march they stopped before several larger torpedo pods. Standing before these was the Supreme commander of the fleet. Cardinal Tablurath cloaked in black fur lined cape waited alongside his most trusted lieutenants.
On his right was Baltu, an aquamancer of no small talent, and often his active second in command. He wore a lighter design of power armor then most of his peers. Gavrick stood to his left, a being of large and powerful stature. As a Mulntuun, Gavrick was one of little humor and less patience with a determined nature though prone to an often slightly pessimistic attitude. Baltu on the other hand was an even-tempered individual, possessed of a seemingly inexhaustible kind of energy mixed with unrefined enthusiasm. Their personalities tended to class, so both Gavrick and Baltu had been known to come at odds on more than one occasion.
As the honor guard neared Tablurath stepped forward and called a halt with a raising gesture of his gauntleted hand. The leading man carrying a vessel looked confused at first, but walked forward and handed his Cardinal the vessel over as prompted.
Tablurath then turned and walked to the large view screen that revealed the blackness of space beyond. In a rare occasion he did not now wear his iconic black mask. There being no requirement for it here. He opened the vessel carefully. Staring into it with an unreadable expression, before dipping one hand into it and carefully smearing the ashes over his face. A symbolic gesture and a rare show of compassion his men were not used to seeing often.
Baltu stepped forward then, a question on his lips. “We’re not bearing them out into space?..So what then?”
“No, we’ll make starlhrim M.I.B’s from their ashes. Take them into battle with us.”
Gavrick stepped forward. “A beacon of light in the darkness to our brothers in arms. Even in death.”
Tablurath nodded. “Even the brightest rose blackens in time.”
His eyes looked down at the vessel in his hands; as he made a vow. ‘I won't scatter your sorrows to the heartless cold void of space. I will always be with you.’
No, the Cardinal of the ninth fleet never fought alone. Many might believe his intelligence or skills were Tabluraths most potent weapon. In truth, it was his indomitable will as a warrior. His was much like a father to his men and while it had been over two years since he had seen Mirra. She was still a daughter to him-- he would not lose here. He could not afford to. The souls of his comrades would see his will become reality.
His winged opponent landed with grace, a simple act in and of itself. In that same instance a flash of light blazed about Khanza. The intent clear, an attempt to immobilize him but for a moment. A moment was all a skilled warrior needed to end a battle such as this. A moment was something Tablurath however, was not going to be giving. As the flash came the visors of his mask dulled to compensate for the increase in brightness. Serving the exact purpose the mask was designed for.
At that moment his opponent’s feet touched down and sought to freeze the slime at their very feet. A move even Tablurath had not considered. Such loss of traction could spell trouble… yet there was none.
The manoeuvre had been a well thought out approach, but one too little too late. The ravenous hunger of his nanomachines activated earlier had sought out closes substance within the black mist of which to assimilate. Cold light at each side and above, there had been only one place left for the mibs. They had since eaten away at the stones at their feet. In fact the desnes formation of the nano machines had been near the ground at the first moment the grenade had gone off.
In truth Tablurath had originally sought to flatten the playing field and allow himself as much range of motion as possible. The layer of slime had been the first thing to be devoured, even he had to admit this added benefit had been a stroke of luck. Though should he learn it later he would deny it of course. This only covered the 30 feet of his grenade, but both had been well within the cloud for some time now.
Raelis would find flat stone eaten away at to become level ground. At least for him there was no longer and need for his talons. So in the end Tablurath had been left with only responding to what his opponent was doing above. As Khazna’s sword moved in for a cut, he saw the liquid like motion of armor peeling off his opponents other wing. Moving rather quickly even to his perception. Though he was not yet moving at anywhere to half his full speed. Yet.
“30% potential,”
First came the plates moving toward Mercy seeking to come at it from several angles at once. His response was swift and immediate, he simply released his hand from the swords grip all together. The result was Mercy suspended by the strange plating’s of armor. His now free left hand went to the handle of one of the two clones made earlier from Mercy’s swing. Assembling themselves from the mist around them.
His flash-point allowing him to reach it instantly as the world seemed to move at a sudden sluggish pace. He could not travel long distances while weighed down by his training weights. However, this didn’t affect his reflexes in close range, as he directed his ki to one of his starlhrim blades. The first sword strike had been a simple faint to test his enemies’ defences. Now the real fun would begin. Given the speed of his opponent’s defenses, there was no use in holding back any longer. It had been a long time since he had needed five blade dance.
He directed his first sword clone to his right, the force of the movement visibly moving the air around his arm, creating a small sonic boom. Cutting through the plating there, while also releasing the cold light energy in the air into them, the arch of the swing constructing two more clones above him. He released that cloned sword allowing it to spin through the armor plating and fly off. Even as his right hand sought out the second clone before cleaving the plating at his right side down the middle. He let that one continuing spinning away to his right as well, its momentum carrying it far outside the cloud of black ash around them much like its twin. In turn that arch had passed through more mibs thus creating two more blades which began to form to his right. One spinning off past Raelis’s right side. Each twirl creating another sword in its wake at his opponents right flank.
The four last armor pieces aimed for his arms missing by mere inches after the sudden burst of speed each arm had obtained through flash-point, each shedding that kinetic energy into the cloned swords to allow them to suddenly stop in place. The pieces crisscrossed, his left hand then seemed to suddenly appear around the sword forming to his upper left, a swift diagonal cut cleaving through them as he swung his right leg behind him and he shifted to the left of his opponent. The armor might not be magic, but that didn't mean the shear cutting power of starhilm would not sunder through them head one.
Tablurath eyes noted the man’s body moved little as more threads were found, meaning he was not in fact in control of these defenses directly. They were automated. Well then that just meant he would need to keep cutting until an opening, no matter how small, presented itself. His enemy had foolishly entered the sea of mibs of their own accord. They were in the heart of the storm now. Escape was almost impossible.
As more blades built themselves around the pair, Khazna counted a total of four thus far air borne. Not counting Mercy momentarily halted in the plating of armor before him. To an observer the second that had transpired would have looked like nothing but blurs of motion as petals of black danced around them. Leaving pieces of plating flying away. Best of all, now that the plating was no longer attached to a living organism, his mibs were free to assimilate the armor pieces before they even the the ground. His opponent was more than free to strip himself of defenses slowly if he so wished. The Cardinal had now edge back some eight feet to his opponents 2 o'clock, seemingly waiting for his opponents response. Or something else entirely.
Blade reaching 800 degrees, leg armor having been charging for awhile, air pressure recharged plenty, Raelis noted his opponent's increase in speed. As the man created blades and swiped repeatedly, Raelis' armor plates managed to dodge, or when cut, rejoin and melt back together and reform to go in to deflect or assault once more. Those that were deflected acted similarly, and those that had flown around the man used the cameras on the nanobots, which coated them to absorb information far faster than any brain could, bobbing, weaving, and nearing their assailant.
However, Raelis knew full well that he was not safe and so, with his opponent busy, he released the pressurized air, disrupting any forming blades within 8 meters of his person, and partially destroying, or sending away any of them, which had been near. From there he did not wait to strike.
The heat in his leg armor, the heat that had been behind Khazna, and the natural conductivity of the metals became his greatest weapon.
Heat energy channeled deeper into the ground from his leg armor, heating the floor within 8 meters of Khazna, except wherever Raelis moved to, to a piping 1300 degrees. The effects were immediate, the ground becoming lava and emanating even more heat energy. The wall of air had expanded around Khazna in milliseconds, the heat energy disrupted slightly each time a blade passed through it, but not enough so to break down totally. It was then that Raelis transferred the ambient heat of the entire cavern, and the heat from his blade directly into existence around Khazna, heating the air to 2200 degrees Fahrenheit. The air was hotter than the ground, which was already hot enough to melt through any of Khazna's light armor and begin to damage the metal plates if they had not been redirecting heat from their forms by letting it conduct into nanites, which were replaced, the nanites being thrown off around Khazna to anchor the heat energy.
It had taken the knight some time to channel the necessary heat, but he hoped it would be worth it.
The additional side effect was that the air around Khazna was either forced inwards, slamming into him repeatedly, or slammed outwards, dispersing all of his mibs elsewhere due to wind forming and moving, from hot areas to cool ones--also known as high pressure to low pressure.
The heat was enough to roast practically anyone alive almost instantly.
It had been the Asaran's plan for his last fight, a plan which the vampire had quite literally pissed on.
Howling winds forced black ash in every direction. In turn blowing the forming sword clones in different directions around Raelis. In flight however, they continued to form. The rigors of combat were little hindrance to the machines work thanks to their ability to form matter from the stored sources thus far within themselves, and they now had plenty. Then the winged warrior played his gambit. Finally releasing the energy stored in his legs as he channeled it into another object. That object of course being the very ground at their feet. A similar situation occurred in the very air around them as the temperature raised once more to a dangerous degree.
A deadly trap that would have spelled the end of even the most powerful of opponents. As the heat transferred into the ground at his feet Khanza’s eyes witnessed the streams of magic forming as threads expanded out into the areas affected. The heat energy required itself to emit ahead of the effect naturally. A process that was almost instant. Tablurath response however, was swift, decisive, and deliberate.
He swept the sword in his left hand down and around to swing up again, shearing through a thread built by the energy channeling the effect near his feet. Essentially cutting away the very act of the channeling, in turn the heat suddenly transferring into the floor simply vanished. It did not dim, nor was it absorbed. Having cut the effect that had allowed such power to appear here, it thus could never arrive. That cleanly handled the ground, but the air around Tablurath rose suddenly as heat energy transferred that power into the wind around them itself.
Swinging the momentum of his first cut around he sheared another string that had been transferring heat into the air around him. That effect thus began to collapse on itself, effectively starting the entire process to channel that heat back to step one for both air and ground respectively. The heat and light itself might not be magic, but they had been brought here through that very power, thus cutting it from existence destroyed the effect. The effect being the transferring of all that heat into another medium.
Tablurath had reacted to the casting as he had done to any such magic before, regardless of the method, without the catalyst of magic to start the process, the effect it created be it fire, ice or wind, would cease to be. This was Tablurath’s fighting art drilled into him as a child, all for the purpose of defeating Dreamers and god-like beings of similar energy manipulation.
The angel at the gate was no more than a momentary obstacle. The path of both cuts had cut away the bindings to Tabluraths training weights attached to each side of his legs, shearing through some of his cape in the process. The earlier pressure of wind had cast his swords adrift around them, just a little over 8 meters away. The Cardinal had measured the distance perfectly, having seen earlier that the winged knight’s air control seemed to stretch at range of 8 meters. He had goaded the man into blowing each sword to the edge of that border.
Outside his effective range, but not beyond Tabluraths Flash-point. As they now assembled just 26 feet away. The ground was a shadow of the warmth the Asaran had intended, but with the mibs gone now it was revealed that the floor had been eaten away to a flat platform by the cloud of nanomachines. They had served their purpose, leaving only the sword blades imbedded into the ground earlier.
In one blur of movement Tablurath was suddenly gone. Moving faster than even his avian blooded friend would be able to follow. Appearing 27 feet away to the wing warriors far left side. His momentum stopped in place as he gripped one of the earlier cloned blades before it had even hit the ground.
There at the Asaran’s feet was Mercy, dropped earlier by Tablurath in his faint moments ago. Energy poured through Khazna’s form, but so too did the realization he would need to act quickly. The effects of this place would wear on him quicker than normal now that he had begun using his full potential.
No more planning only action would follow.
He blazed forward appearing at his opponents left side swinging for his midsection. Before the blade ever met resistance however he was gone again. Appearing ten feet in front of Raelis before moving again to another sword spinning to his far left side. He repeated his earlier action and used the anchor that was Mercy and its copy to zero in on his opponents location. The world a great blur now even to Tablurath’s preternatural sight-- and if Khazna could scarcely see anything, his opponent was even worse off trying to follow him with his eyes.
Appearing at the Asaran's right side now all this in little more than a second’s time, as Tablurath swung from left to right, aiming for the Asaran’s right wing. If his guess had been right before, the wing warrior’s defenses were automated, meaning he would sacrifice defenses for one area to defend the other. There was no reason it would not do so again.
As for his opponents heat gathered into his sword and leg armor; those were untouched as channeling had started earlier for them. But should his opponent attempt to channel into the air around him or the ground at his feet again, the results would not change. The Cardinal was qutie ready for either of those moves now. His eyes zeroing in on further threads of power.
Now it was time to see how long his opponent would last being attacked from multiple locations almost simultaneously. It had now become a game of attrition.
Raelis had waited and known that Khazna would attempt to cut the strands of his magic, for while he could not see them himself, he could feel them and could tell that the man had done it more than once already. So in the last moment he nullified his own control. If he was too late, the energy would revert to its state before he had moved it, entering his blade and if that secondary strand was cut, then the following thing would happen just as it would if the energy entered his blade.
In short, no matter what Khazna did one of two things would happen. The first was that the inferno would be undeterred whatsoever, roasting him alive; whereas the second was that he and everything outside of a 2 meter radius of Raelis would suddenly drop to absolute zero. That was to say, 0 kelvin, or -273 degrees Celsius. So cold that the very atoms in the space would instantaneously cease all movement, freezing even the elements in the air into ice. Additionally, due to the heat surrounding Khazna's body directly being outside of Raelis' control, the temperature difference would immediately cause an explosion. Raelis restrained the explosive reaction around himself so he would not also be damaged. Even if Khazna could survive the explosion, he would be unable to transfer any heat energy to his surroundings and due to his being unable to retain his body heat, unlike Raelis who passively utilized Devene energy to do so, he would die within a matter of seconds.
Why exactly would this intense cold occur? Well, to put it simply, Raelis had predicted Khazna for the second time and baited him with what appeared to be an all out attack. The problem was he had arrested control of all heat energy within the cavern. So when Khazna cut the thread he effectively demanifested all of that heat energy back to Rhay. Enter the deep freeze.
Should his blade retain heat, it would hit 3600 degrees Fahrenheit. The armor on his form was electromagnetically charged further. His nanite armor had become so dense that his armor was black. Even should Khazna manage his dance of blades, none of his nanite weapons would pierce more than 1/3rd through his armor. His normal blades would cut close, but each time he would shift his body slightly out of the way, allowing the blade to pass through armor, but never strike flesh. His nanites would replicate back to normal and his armor would meld back together after any strike, never being fully destroyed, or even phased at the end of the encounter, if it occurred at all.
Should Khazna miraculously manage to counter both possibility and close the distance, Raelis' once departed wing armor would be there three milliseconds afterwards where it would begin to strike away, block, and otherwise inconvenience the Asaran's opponent.
