Manifest War: The Weapons Within

Varric stepped up as he folded his arms, snickering at her sheer sense of overconfidence.

“I always hated that cocky attitude of yours! You’re strong, I’ll give you that, but you’re delusional if you think you’re beating both of us at the same time. I think it’s time someone at your level took you down a few notches, toots.” Varric grinned with great anticipation, eager to finally fight someone within his class.

Azhane gave him no response and instead held out her right arm. The Grasp of Nihility materialized as its twelve ethereal blades spawned out of the void. The various swords began to rotate around her in a counterclockwise manner, awaiting commands from their master. Varric cheekily smiled as he held up his hands, fingers pointing upwards.

Both of his hands had four rings, one on each finger, however after he exerted his Core Energy, two new rings appeared from the ether. They each took their place on the previously ringless fingers and glowed with great power, giving him ten rings in total. The ring on the left was ruby red with black accents and the ring on the right was pure white with silver accents.

Alicia’s Duality was the name of his Manifest. A pair of rings that complimented his status as a dual type Vesta, with each one housing Core Energy for both of his affinities. Ruby red for his Fire affinity and pure white for his Light affinity.

The trio sized each other up with a short stare off, fully anticipating any sudden movements. The winds blew heavily on this barren battlefield, cutting across their bodies with a chilling bite. Moments later, Azhane made the first move.

Her twelve ethereal swords stopped their orbit and took aim at the two foes ahead of her. They flew off in multiple directions, sending six swords towards Varric and six towards Von.

The blades moved with incredible speed and precision, slicing through the air in an elegant yet brutal fashion. As the assault got underway, Von carefully and swiftly blocked their hits with his spear. Even though his white and gold armor seemed quite heavy, his movements were graceful and light.

Von twirled his spear around and effortlessly parried every blade attack sent his way. All six of the ethereal swords were knocked back, but to his surprise, they immediately collected themselves and continued the assault, as though the swords had a sense of intelligence to them.

He dodged out of the way and forced a few of them back, but one of the blades broke through his defenses as it lunged towards him with great speed. Von noticed this at the last second and he masterfully shifted his weight to the left just enough to dodge. The blade barely missed his face and lightly kissed his cheek, leaving a small cut behind.

However, just as the sword passed him, Von utilized his quick reflexes and reached out. He caught the hilt of the ethereal blade with a white knuckled grip. In one swift motion, Von flung the sword back at Azhane.

The blade careened towards her with an unreal amount of quickness, looking like a purple streak flying through the air. It reached Azhane within seconds and just as it was mere centimeters from her face, the sword sliced into the void and disappeared.

It was as though it flew into a dimensional portal at the last second. Moments later, that same sword rematerialized above Azhane and took aim at Von, rejoining the other blades still attacking him.

“Oh my, what incredible trust she has in her Manifest. She didn’t even flinch from that.” Von thought to himself as he witnessed her lack of fear from that attack. He flipped backwards to create some space between them and his Manifest began to glow brightly. Von twirled it around before stabbing the blade into the ground, lodging it firmly in place.

The earth around them began to shake and suddenly, thin beams of white light shot up from the ground. The beams fired off at the swords with precise motions, streaking through the air as they chased after the blades. The beams looked like shooting stars as they danced around at incredible speeds, tracing themselves in the sky.

The attacks caught up to the swords and in an instant, all six blades were pierced by the white beams, causing them to implode in extravagant fashion. Azhane was stunned to see her weapons get blown away so easily, having never seen anyone do such a thing. Von swiftly pulled his spear out of the ground and after a skillful show of twirls, he pointed the blade at Azhane.

“I’m afraid you'll have to do better than that, Your Majesty!” He said while giving her a cheeky smile, as though daring her to try something else. In that same moment, Varric was dispatching her weapons with relative ease as well.

The mercenary was dipping and sidestepping the blades, not letting a single one touch an inch of his body. He would then shoot off multiple blasts of fire from his left hand, blowing up the swords one by one. The final blade flew towards him and to Azhane’s surprise, Varric caught it with his left hand. With a searing hot grip, the sword melted and shattered as he squeezed it tightly. The flames from his hand reached unfathomable temperatures and made short work of Azhane’s weapons.

Azhane glared as her Manifest was being overpowered so easily. These two were by far the strongest opponents Azhane had faced thus far and she was beginning to feel ever so slightly nervous.

The fight took a brief pause as Von and Varric gave her cheeky grins, eager for more carnage. Then, just as the howls of the wind whistled, Von rushed Azhane with an insane amount of speed. It caught her completely off guard and just before his spear pierced her side, she quickly teleported to create distance between them.

However, she noticed something quite peculiar and concerning. Azhane had wanted to teleport a bit further out, but for some reason she couldn’t.

She looked out in the distance and tried to teleport to a nearby rock formation, just outside of their immediate area. Her body blinked only a short distance once again, as though she were unable to leave this area.

“What's happening? Why can’t I leave this spot?” She thought to herself, beginning to lose her composure for the first time in this fight. Azhane focused her gaze and noticed that there seemed to be something in front of her.

Azhane held out her hand and pressed it up against a thin, yellow tinted wall. It was entirely see through and could only be noticed if you looked hard enough. She glanced up and noticed that this wall was encasing the whole area. They had been fighting inside of a large box this entire time.

“Seems like you finally noticed the little field I put up. Just wanted to make sure you wouldn’t chicken out and leave once things started getting tough for you.” Varric said with a smile, showing her the white ring on his right hand. It glowed with a yellow intensity, as though willingly making it's presence known.

Before she could even process this new information, Von dashed towards her again and unleashed a quick volley of spear attacks. His movement was damn near inhuman, stabbing the air with rapid succession. Azhane ducked and dodged the quick attacks, teleporting whenever something got too close to dodge with normal movement. However, even though she was blinking at a rapid pace, Von had no problem keeping up with her.

As this vicious assault continued, Varric aimed his left hand towards them and little wisps of fire formed in the air. Their numbers increased into the hundreds and with a slight push of his Core Energy, Varric sent them all off towards Azhane.

“Fly, my dancing cinders! Burn her down!” He yelled as he watched hundreds of flaming wisps take aim at Azhane.

She quickly noticed the approaching attack and her ethereal swords rapidly formed again, blocking her blind side in anticipation. Azhane was about to teleport again to create more space, but this time, Von swiftly appeared behind her. Just before she could do so, he punched her directly in the back with tremendous force. Azhane careened into the ground with brutal velocity, destroying the terrain beneath her.

The flaming wisps then rained down from the sky and caused rapid mini explosions, blasting the area Azhane had landed at. The dust settled and suddenly, a massive black hole orb flew upwards from her location and consumed all of the wisps. Azhane emerged from the small crater, looking down at them as she floated into the air.

“Damn.. Seems like they know about the delay on my teleport as well. I couldn’t get out of the way in time..” She thought to herself as she glared at them with her fiery red eyes.

Azhane then aimed her palm at them and began to fire off multiple black hole orbs. Varric and Von bolted out of the way, knowing full well what these orbs could do if they touched their bodies. After Von leapt out of the way, he skidded to a stop and looked up as a shadow covered his face.

Right above him was a massive black hole, nearly impossible to dodge. He smirked as he gripped his Manifest tightly, pouring his Core Energy into it. The golden blade glowed intensely and with one powerful swipe, he cut the orb clean in half, causing it to become unstable.

The two halves exploded and Von stood there unscathed, ready for more. Azhane sucked her teeth and just as she summoned up another attack, Varric aimed his left hand at her. All of the flaming wisps from before rematerialized and filled the air around her. It looked as though she were hovering around thousands of tiny, fiery mines. Varric then closed his hand to make a fist. A single wisp exploded, causing a massive chain reaction of searing hot explosions all around.

Azhane was unable to defend from them all as she was in the middle of doing an attack. This entire sequence of events happened within a few short seconds as Varric’s timing was absolutely impeccable, proving his worth as a fellow Calamity Class Vesta.

As the black smoke filled the sky, Azhane’s swords were doing their best to keep her protected, but the attacks came from every possible direction imaginable. And since her teleports weren’t as effective as before, they did nothing to help her in this situation.

Von and Varric were meticulously fighting with her weaknesses in mind. They knew she couldn’t attack and defend at the same time, they enclosed her in a space that made her teleports useless, and they only attacked during the small window of her teleport delay. These two had done their homework and were doing everything they could to ensure a victory. This fight was entirely one sided at this point and she began to realize that. As the thick smoke permeated in the air, Azhane anticipated the next volley of attacks.