Manifest War: The Weapons Within

After a few moments, Carmen located the two on the opposite side of the cave.

“Hey, Sarah! Rivell! Wake up.” She loudly whispered, trying to get their attention. They slowly opened their eyes while sitting up, wondering what had happened to them.

“Where are we? Why did those bastards cage us up like animals??” Sarah furiously asked, looking down at the peculiar shackles on her wrists.

“I think they were wanting to sell us off or something. Worry about it later though, we’ve gotta get out of here.” Carmen replied, not wanting to delay their escape any further.

She helped them out of their cages and undid the shackles, causing them to loudly drop onto the floor. Just as they were about to leave the cave, Logan and Wilson walked over and blocked their exit. The trio skidded to a stop and braced themselves for a fight.

“Hmph, I knew those idiots would have issues with you all.” Logan said with a dark expression, not pleased at all to see them out of their confines. Carmen and Sarah glared back at him, annoyed that he had them captured against their will.

Logan suddenly aimed his palm upwards and a silver dagger materialized from it. The blade was short, wavy, and a light blue color. When he gripped the silver handle, Logan assumed a battle stance, shifting his weight and pointing the dagger directly at the group. He had an evil stare on his face and with the amount of Core Energy he exerted, it was clear he wanted to bring a swift end to this quickly approaching battle.

The dagger started to glow and the temperature of the air dropped dramatically, causing them to see their breath. Carmen reached towards her hip to unsheath the rapier that Zalthia gave her, but she noticed that it was missing.

“You go look for your weapon. We’ll hold him off.” Sarah said, realizing that Carmen was unarmed in that situation. She nodded and quickly sprinted to the other side of the cave. Wilson took notice and dashed after her, not wanting Carmen to join this battle.

“Ah, hey!!!” Sarah yelled at Wilson as she quickly took out her Manifest, aiming it at him. Before she could fire a wind arrow, Logan was suddenly in front of her with his dagger aimed directly at her face. Sarah’s eyes went wide, fully expecting it to stab her, but the attack was blocked by a bright green shield. It surrounded her like a bubble and completely absorbed Logan’s stab, putting a surprised expression on the man’s face.

“I’ve got you, Sarah!” Rivell yelled back, his Manifest glowing brightly in his hands as the pages slowly turned.

Thanks to the training from Jorah, he was able to discover a new function that his Manifest, Rose’s Testament, was capable of. Rivell could now create shields around people that fully absorbed all damage and converted that damage into energy for the individual inside. Although this ability couldn’t be used in rapid succession, needing to charge for several minutes between uses, it was an incredibly effective way to mitigate incoming attacks and damage.

“Nice Job!” Sarah then aimed her bow at Logan, who was still incredibly close, and fired off a single arrow. It raced towards his face and just before connecting, Logan swiftly dodged out of the way. However, unbeknownst to him, the arrow caught the cold wind and changed its trajectory. It circled around and struck him directly on the back, causing a fair amount of damage as it pushed Logan forward.

Before he could gather himself, Sarah was already on the assault; firing off more arrows in his direction. They whistled throughout the air, whizzing by their target with great speed. Logan leapt back and sliced his dagger in front of him, creating a thin sheet of ice with the swift motion.

Despite its appearance, the ice successfully blocked the arrows, giving Logan a moment to collect himself from Sarah’s relentless rain of attacks.

While the three continued their battle, Carmen was frantically looking around for her rapier. However, her search was quickly halted by Wilson’s speedy approach. He summoned forth his Manifest, a wooden club fashioned from dark brown vines, and smacked it into the ground. A vine burst through the earth below and took aim at Carmen, snaking quickly towards her legs. She darted to the left and rolled out of the way, causing the vine to just barely miss its target.

“Were you really a Vesta? Where is your Manifest little girl??” Wilson loudly asked with a crazed smile, commanding the vine to go in for another attack.

Carmen quickly stood and glared at him, trying to come up with a way to win this one-sided fight. However, just as she was about to run for it, a glint of light caught her eye. It was her rapier, sitting next to a few other weapons in an old wooden box.

Wilson aimed his club at Carmen and the tightly wound vines separated, now appearing as a bundle of brown snakes attached to a handle. The vines flew towards her with great quickness, growing incredibly sharp and long with each passing moment.

Carmen dipped and sidestepped the attack, dancing around with graceful elegance. She made it look effortless with how easily she moved, as though she could sense their attack pattern before they made the attempt.

“Just what is this girl!?!” Wilson thought to himself, unable to understand her movement just now. He was attacking completely randomly, but his efforts were entirely pointless.

“This is nothing compared to Jorah’s Manifest. I actually struggled to dodge the speed of her metal cables. These are moving in slow motion in comparison.”

Carmen continued her skillful dashing and eventually got to her weapon, taking hold of the champagne-colored hilt as she ripped it out of the box. Carmen glanced at the other weapons and an idea suddenly came to her mind. She turned around and waited for Wilson to make his next move, glaring at him with her fiery red eyes.

“Tch. So what, you’ve got a weapon now. It’s no match for a Manifest though!!” He yelled while aiming his club at her, causing it to unravel and attack once again.

Carmen smirked and leapt into the air, dodging the incoming vines just as swiftly as before. She then aimed her hand at the weapon-filled box to manipulate it, sending all of its contents hurtling towards Wilson.

Swords, knives, axes, and various other sharp objects flew towards him in rapid succession. It caught him completely off guard and since his weapon was in the middle of an attack, he couldn’t counter them in time. A knife sliced across his face, cutting him deep in the right eye and causing blood to streak out of his face with a forceful squirt.

“GAHHH!” He yelled out, screaming out in pain while covering his right eye. He unsummoned his Manifest while stumbling back, struggling to get over the amount of pain he felt.

Carmen quickly used this opportunity and aimed her rapier at him, charging her Core Energy before exerting it the best she could. She thrusted it forward and sent out a sharp burst of gravitational energy from the tip of her blade.

It barreled towards Wilson almost instantly, sending him off his feet and knocking his head into the top of the large cave. He crashed down to the ground with a loud thud, shaking the gravel filled terrain violently in the process.

As Wilson squirmed on the ground in pain, Logan was also sent flying backwards from a powerful force. Carmen looked over her shoulder and saw Sarah lowering her bow and nodding, motioning for Carmen to join them. She quickly bolted over and asked if they were okay.

“Yeah, this guy is strong, but we can definitely take him.” Sarah replied with a confident smirk, enjoying this fight way more than she should. Logan stood and scowled at the group, ready to unleash his next flurry of attacks.

“I SWEAR, YOU CHILDREN NEED TO BE TAUGHT A LESSON!!!” He yelled out in an absolute rage, blood trickling down his forehead.

“Oh shut up, old man! Go find another group of kids to cry at, you geriatric bitch!” Sarah screamed back with an annoyed expression, feeling fed up with her opponent at this point. She then aimed her bow at the ceiling and started charging Marabel, building a tremendous amount of wind energy around the tip of the arrow.

“Uh… What are you about to do???” Rivell questioned, growing more concerned as he noticed the crazed smile on Sarah’s face.

“Doing what I should’ve done ages ago. Get ready to leave guys!!” She finished her preparations and was moments away from doing something incredibly reckless. Carmen and Rivell looked at each other with wide eyes, wondering if Sarah was about to do what they thought she would.

The two realized what was coming and they began to sprint for the exit, not wanting to be present when everything blew. Logan dashed forward, trying his best to reach her before she let go, but he was unfortunately too slow.

Sarah released her bow and the arrow exploded outward, firing off towards the cave’s ceiling with impossible speed and power. It crashed into the rocky ceiling with violent force, collapsing it instantly and sending debris everywhere.

The explosion was massive and Sarah exited at the knick of time, leaping out right when the entire cave crushed in on itself. Logan and Wilson were completely locked inside with no way out.

“Are you insane?!?!?!” Rivell yelled, frustrated that his friend could have easily gotten them killed just now.

“Maybe a little!” Sarah's laugh bellowed as she was absolutely thrilled that her idea worked so well. Just as they began to stand up, they heard the other individuals from earlier rushing up the hillside to check out what the explosion was.

“Come on, let’s get out of here before the others show up!” Carmen said as they sprinted in the opposite direction, getting completely hidden in the thick treeline. They headed back to their original camp and gathered their things, quickly leaving the area and continuing their journey towards Rivell’s Aunt.