Asbel Lhant

Asbel Lhant (アスベル・ラント, Asuberu Ranto) is the fictional character and one of the main protagonists of the Tales of RWBY series. He is the very eldest son of Aston Lhant, the Lord of the Lhant territory, located in the border zone between the countries of Windor and Fendel. From an early age, he was taught the skills necessary to inherit the title of Lord by his father and his butler, Frederic Barnes, but secretly aspires to become a knight. He then one day decides to enlist himself in the Knight Training Academy in the capital of Windor and became devoted to his training, eventually growing into a polite and diligent young swordsman.

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 * —Asbel Lhant.

Appearance & Biography

 * Voice Actor: Bryce Papenbrook (English), Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (German), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (French), Not Known (Latin American Spanish)
 * Voice Actor (young): Kate Higgins (English), Yuki Kaida (Japanese), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (German), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (French), Not Known (Latin American Spanish)

Appearance
Asbel has dark brown-red hair and blue eyes, a trait he shares with the rest of his family. As a knight in Barona, he wears a green, long-sleeved shirt, lined with blue accents and gold buttons. Over it, he wears a long-sleeved white coat with gold buttons that keep each sleeve tied together. The coat has gray shoulder areas and is blue on the inside. He has a black scabbard that holds his sword.


 * Hair Color: Dark Brown-Red
 * Skin Color: Not Known
 * Eye Color: Blue
 * Age: 11 (young), 18 (current)
 * Birthday: Not Known
 * Height: 5'9" / 175 cm
 * Weight: 143 lbs. / 65 kg

Personality
Asbel is a spirited young man with a very strong sense of justice, even more so for that of a knight. He fails to turn away from those in need, and once he has decided on a path it is unlikely that anyone would deter him from it. He may be seen as naive and young, as Malik often states, usually stating ideals considered impossible, such as "saving everyone". After losing someone important seven years prior to the main scenario, he becomes a lot more self-aware about his actions and takes responsibility for his own actions; but at a cost, Asbel during his time as a knight ruminates too often about the past, as well as showing initial difficulty in trying to fully accept others' assistance (an issue that Richard himself deals with and relates to) until later in the story.

Friends/Allies

 * Asbel's Faction
 * Sophie
 * Hubert Oswell
 * Cheria Barnes
 * Richard
 * Malik Caesar
 * Pascal

Fighting Style
As a child, Asbel's fighting style relied on fighting with one sword with both hands while slashing and striking enemies. He was also able to use a number of artes that did not continue with his other abilities as he grew older. However, the style he uses is somewhat crude/unrefined, making it so that he clubs away at his targets with wide swings and decisive strikes. Compared to the other protagonists, Asbel also has a larger variety of elemental properties on his artes.

As a late teenage and young adult, Asbel refines his fighting style and instead uses two different fighting ones; first is the Sheathed Blade Artes Style (帯刀技, Taitouwaza; "Sash Blade Arts"), where Asbel's sword is almost always sheathed when active. The second is Drawn Blade Burst Style (抜刀術, Battoujutsu; lit. "Drawing Blade Technique"), with its Japanese name and overall concept being modeled after the actual battoujutsu-style that originated from Japan; as such, Asbel fights more like a oriental-swordsman as opposed to using a Western-based sword style. The only exceptions are certain advanced artes where he will draw his sword to finish his attack, sheathing it again afterward akin to the fictional portrayals of iaidou.

Asbel as a teenager mostly makes use of kicks and striking with the sheath of his blade to attack when using his initial style, as well as occasional battoujutsu-based slashes with some iaidou. His Burst Style makes use of his drawn sword, activated by pressing the "Cancel" button as well as involving a variety of sword techniques such as two-handed slashes. His Burst Style artes often have two different animations which alternate if the same arte is used consecutively within a combo. These Burst Artes also have a few altered arte variations that allow him to activate various Artes Style attacks during a Burst combo, if a specific chain of attacks is used. Asbel's Accelerate Mode is called Spiral Surge (アクセルフォース, Akuseru Fōsu; lit. "Accel Force"), which summons a dark flame to surround his body to deal damage.