Vlain, Vlain Franz Ferdinand

I felt something flung open when I heard the "who, are you?".

I can now feel the sword in my soul calling, radiating, vibrating. Excited... over something.

I look deep into my mind, and as if an instinct, reached my soul. There it laid, the longsword of mine.

The swords name was vailed, but not longer.

It is:

The Longsword of Vlain

It was a hammer that struck me, on my head.

Almost without a cross of mind, I burst out in declarative with much ****: "I! Am Vlain Franz Ferdinand!" So I did keep his name... old Franz.

As I say, a familiar sense dawned on me, it is the sword. Along with it, is a surge of power, but they seem to be halted... by this robe.

The robe. The robe was glowing, its silver edgings are emitting bright blue light, as if about to burst. This caused those men to panic slightly, but the front guy, Harald, caught a signal from the lady, and attacked.

It is foolish to stand around, but attacking me isn't all that useful either.

I now know who I am. I am the Manipulator, the Great Warrior Mage. Even though I don't know what those means, but they sound cool.

Following my instinct, I leap over and draw my sword from my... literal chest.

It is an elegant one, straight, with pale linings as decoration/enchantment, the silver blade, the halt is designed with the flow of water and flow of an eagle in mind, most comfortable, plus, the material is entirely composed of materialised mana, best for conducting mana, as one can imagine.

I all of a sudden has some knowledge on magic. I threw my robe away, I am still wearing something beneath, just not that fancy. A simple tunic.

As the robe gets flung over to the corner, I reached my target, Harald. He is around 6 foot, probably close 7 foot. I want to reach Silvan, I need to reach her. With him in the way, there is no way for me to leap over him, I need to draw agro too, and let her back off, isolate herself.

I now know a few tricks, they are enough for me to hold her hostage. But not enough to kill all of these people. Plus, I have a manipulator title, don't I?

I bolt to him and immediately side steps away as he strikes with his sword. I know warrior cast spells too so his next move wasn't unseen, and I have prepared for as I stepped away with quite some distance.

He slashes his sword up in my general direction and releases a slash of fire, then with the swinging momentum, he let's it carry him to tilt up slightly and step back one step with his shield now facing me.

Fluent, elegant, majestic. But I don't have much time to enjoy. The fire wave is here.

I take a step forward, to the wave, and thrusts my sword forward. My run some mana through it, and it visibly goes cold, turns blueish.

The fire then reaches it and with a 'tsssss' sound, a cloud of vapor bursts out.

Cold, does not turn fire into vapor, water does. The name of the rudimentary enchantment on my sword may help clear things out: "Frozen Flow". It calls the water molecules around onto it, it amasses them, (it also has some water molecules stored with its magical capability) and drains the energy from it to become cold. Which dissipates the heat as there is literally frozen water stuck on my sword.

Of course, Conservation of Energy. So here is another usage of this sword. Remember the energy we drained from the surrounding water?

Well, the soldiers which were surrounding me is now obstructed by the vapor.

They may swing their halberds high, but even though I too cannot see, they can't hit me still. But I may swing to a point I desire, and hit, for they are around me.

The vapor lasts not long, but it was enough.

As the drained energy lands upon an unfortunate man, who has back facing wall, I quickens towards it. Another thought I intend to kill, so he drags him away. But not, twas not my intention. The wall is. For the Duchess is but meters away.

Harald and the co-captain seemed to understand my intention.

They dash towards her, and there are another soldier around her too, with more soldiers pouring in from the door. The room, though large, held only 20 men, for they needed spaces between them to avoid AOE. I heard there's 80 more outside? Fabulous.

Regardless, their efforts are in vain. The Duchess casts a spell, an air wall, but I can sense it. I wonder, how is a Duchess so weak at combat but has the gut to stay?

I step on to the wall, wall jumps higher than I should, but I have to avoid the air wall. And I reach her before any one.

There were warrior spells behind me. The man steps forward and thrusts his halberd. In all honesty, the fighting of these man are strong. As the soldier do so, a bolt of energy is also fired off from the tip of his halberd at me in the air.

Here is the trick I learnt: ****.

The **** propels me side ways, to a clearing. The soldier immediately changes the path of his halberd and slashes towards me. The spells that were after me will hit him, but he doesn't seem to care.

Harald is near. With such a strong dude the only weakness is speed, for dwarven armour is often too heavy even for a great high levels warrior.

Speed was his detriment. He was close, but not enough.

I slashes my sword against the halberdier and they clash.

He is strong, and I immediately withdraw my sword back to my soul upon contact. For his strength is too much I would fall should it lasts a second longer. But the man was hit, by those spells.

All I needed was just that split second his halberd was held for.

I now have a clearing in front. I dash forward, and took the Duchess by the neck with my redrawn sword. With my back facing walls.

The halberdier that was near me, he was blasted by spells. I am glad I didn't fight them, as the spells that would have killed me on impact simply flung him forward a smashed him to the wall.

It doesn't sound good, but trust me, his armour is really sturdy, with such impact, he merely had a bleeding nose. But he lost his chance.

A **** spell was all it took to throw him away.

Now, the closest person near me is Harald, and even him is at least 4 meters away. I know he doesn't has the confidence to reach me before I slit his lady's throat with that armour of his.

"Now listen, cease all action, or I will slit her throat." I declares. I can feel the Duchess tries to mutter something, but the last magic trick I learned had its usage: "Halt Mana". It only works on weaker/same leveled targets, and the effectiveness depends on their mental resolution. But thankfully, it worked, probably because she is so weak of a combat wizard and the situation isn't designed for resolution either.

Now here, I must introduce a concept called Path. This, like what Franz said, is a Zeal ideology that someone holds linked to their souls. Once linked through rituals, the person's power entirely depends on how much of zealot they are to this ideology.

Which often means that a mage (Which is a broad term for both wizards and warriors) can be very determined.

Sadly, this method was lost. Before the catastrophe, rituals to follow a path is strictly controlled. During the catastrophe, with the **** of so many people who knew the knowledge, and with so many risen ones who never even knew of it, many are lost. The majority of the mages after the initial shock of the catastrophe were like these, pathless. Called a half mage.

So, naturally, the Duchess has little Zeal. It is not that she may fear ****. But is simply the unfairness of magic and souls, that not even a nano second of doubt is allowed.

Now with the Duchess in my hand, the soldiers halts.

I know they are trying to find openings to deal with this, they I know unless pressed, I won't slit her throat. So yelling 'Drop your weapons or I'll kill her!' is useless, it'll only intensify the situation.

Which I don't want.

Remember how I said I had the title Manipulator? I don't know how it came about, I have past knowledge not past memory.

But, I do know, that my path, is also called "the Manipulator". And the self realisation, just happened to be the ritual to kick start the path: "Know thyself, what thou want, what thou desires, what thou could die for, thou own, treasured above all, name. Thee as a person, which forever shall be unchanged."