Manifest War: The Weapons Within

Trevor slowly began to walk towards the trio with a smirk on his strong jawed face, eager to teach these kids a lesson for meddling in their affairs. He brushed back his short brown hair as he towered over his young opponents, glaring at them with piercing green eyes.

“I guess I’ll have to entertain some children for a bit. I don’t expect this to take long at all.” Trevor said as he continued his menacing approach. Carmen, Caleb, and Sarah braced themselves as Trevor summoned forth his Manifest, a teal colored spear with a crescent blade named Tempest’s Glaive.

The air pressure built around him as a dense burst of wind energy gathered at the tip of his weapon. The trio noticed that it was getting more difficult to breathe the closer he got, as though all the surrounding oxygen was being sucked away.

“I pray to the Core that your souls will move on to the next world.” He whispered as he twirled his Manifest around and exerted an immense amount of Core energy. Sarah fired a quick volley of wind arrows at the Saint and Caleb, along with Carmen, dashed in opposite directions towards their foe.

“Oh my, I didn’t even get to introduce myself. Pfft, such rude kids!” Trevor swung his spear in their direction and the force from that simple action blew them back, sending Carmen and Caleb flying off their feet.

They recovered midair and after doing a flip, they landed next to Sarah, making no progress. The trio glared at him and in that same moment, he bolted towards them with incredible speed, moving perfectly with the wind.

The trio looked absolutely shocked as Trevor was now directly in front of them, having covered multiple meters in impossible time. He reared his fist back as wind energy violently gathered around it. Trevor then punched Caleb directly in the face, sending him flying way off into the distance with unfathomable force.

The attack happened so suddenly that Caleb had no chance to react to it. He crashed into the side of some large boulders in spectacular fashion, knocking him completely unconscious and out of the battle.

“CALEB!” Carmen screamed out with great concern, looking over to where he got sent flying. Seconds later, she sensed that her opponent was preparing another attack. Carmen quickly aimed her Manifest at Trevor and to his surprise, pushed him back just enough to miss his spear stab. Carmen and Sarah dashed away to create some distance, keeping their eyes on him the entire time.

“Oh ho, you actually pushed me. Bravo little girl.” Trevor gave Carmen a brief applause while he chuckled, clearly mocking her ability.

He stopped his hearty claps before taking hold of his Manifest again, swinging it around vigorously and sending out sharp bursts of wind energy in every direction. Carmen and Sarah dip and side stepped the best they could, trying to avoid the clearly fatal attacks. Even though they were able to survive the majority of the onslaught, they didn’t come out unscathed.

They both had multiple lacerations on their bodies and bruising from the hits they couldn't avoid. However, the worst part of it all was the feeling of not having enough air to breathe.

“Man, this guy is nuts. We haven’t even gotten a chance to attack back, there’s no opening!” Sarah said, struggling to catch her breath.

“Yeah, and is it just me or is it really hard to breathe?? I’m starting to get light headed..” Carmen replied, her vision now seeing double of Trevor in the distance.

“Are you kids done already? Heh heh, like, seriously? For such a dramatic entrance, you all didn’t put up much of a fight.” Trevor remarked, trying his best to control his laughter. Carmen glared at him with her vivid red eyes, highly annoyed that he was mocking them again. Sarah glanced over at Carmen as she got her attention.

“Hey Carmen, you think you can hold him for me? It’ll take me some time to gather enough of a breath but, I’m gonna blow this bastard off the map...” She asked while building her Core Energy up internally. Carmen nodded and proceeded to aim Graviton’s Eclipse at the sky, preparing to activate its ability. The sky grew darker as an eclipse started occurring over the bright sun.

“Ah finally! I’ve been waiting to see you do some-” Trevor’s comment was cut short as a massive amount of gravitational force crushed him. Trevor immediately buckled under the immense weight and was forced down to one knee.

“What is this force!? Feels like my whole body weight has increased by a hundred times!” He thought to himself, unable to lift his body from that spot. Trevor grimaced and glared back at Carmen, noticing that her Manifest was the reasoning for his current predicament. Just as he finished that thought, hundreds of little black needles formed around him and took aim.

“What? Does she have two abilities!? Impossible!” The needles rained down onto him, causing multiple explosions in a relentless manner. As the assault continued on Trevor’s static position, Sarah had him in her sights. She was crouched down on one knee with her bow pulled all the way back, generating an enormous amount of wind energy at the tip of her arrow. She was fully focused on charging her Manifest’s ability as Carmen kept Trevor busy.

“Argh, this annoying little brat!!” He said as he began to glow a light green color. Carmen dashed in closer to unleash a volley of rapier pierce attacks, stabbing into his incredibly hard armor and dense wind shielding.

Trevor’s patience was wearing thin as he finally started to break free from Carmen’s gravitational field. He continued to glow as he slowly stood up, forcing his body upwards from the immense weight. Then with a burst of wind energy, he pushed Carmen backwards. She went flying and gracefully landed near Sarah who was almost finished with her prep.

With a single deep breath, Sarah let go and sent the arrow flying towards Trevor. Sarah put every ounce of energy she had into this one attack, not holding back an inch. The wind arrow was massive and cut through the air with searing hot tenacity, making a loud whistling noise as it raced towards its target.

As it got closer, the terrain ripped upwards and divided from the incredible power emanating from the arrow. It quickly collided with Trevor and a massive teal colored explosion ensued.

The blast was nothing short of extraordinary, being seen from miles away as it glowed and warped in violent fashion. The very wind currents in the area were manipulated and concentrated so tightly, creating a physical and visible form. The other fights occurring nearby briefly paused as they were surprised to see such destruction.

“Holy wow, Sarah! I think you did it!” Carmen said with a shocked smile, not sensing Trevor’s presence anymore.

“You think? That serves him right! Annoying bastard.” Sarah replied, catching her breath as she de-summoned her Manifest. The smoke and dust was thick, completely obscuring their vision from the outcome of the blast.

However, Carmen noticed something quickly approaching their location. A spear flew out from the smoke and struck Sarah directly in the stomach, lodging itself firmly.

The scene went still and the world looked as though it were moving in slow motion. Carmen’s heart sunk to the floor as she witnessed Sarah stumble backward, coughing up blood and collapsing to the ground. Carmen sprinted over to Sarah and quickly lifted her head upwards, trying to make her more comfortable.

“Sarah!! Sarah, are you okay!! Hey! Tell me you’re okay!” She screamed out in desperation, tears starting to quickly well up. Sarah struggled to speak as she spit up blood with every breath.

“Ahg.. I-I guess.. T-That bastard got m-me..” Sarah said with a slight, bloodied smirk.

“Don’t talk too much! Save your energy!!” Carmen held Sarah’s hand tightly as she rocked her back and forth. She then noticed a teal colored whirl of wind energy flutter out of Sarah’s wound.

“I-I think I redirected it, b-but I’m losing t-too much.. Blood…” Sarah began to go in and out of consciousness until she ultimately passed out cold from the injury. Carmen desperately tried to shake Sarah awake, but despite a slight pulse, she was completely unresponsive.

“S-Sarah.. SARAH!! Wake up!! P-Please..” In that same moment the smoke cleared and there stood Trevor, with barely a scratch on him.

“Man, I didn’t think I threw my Manifest that hard. Heh, sometimes I even impress myself. Maybe I should compete in the Azure Trials next time, with an aim like that, surely I would win at least Bronze!” He said with a snicker, patting himself on the back for his accomplishment.

He called back his weapon, causing it to force itself out of Sarah’s lifeless body as it fired backwards towards Trevor. Carmen had no response to his words. She sat there completely still, staring down at Sarah’s bleeding body.

“Well, looks like you're up kid. Hopefully you're next attack is actually decent.” Trevor quipped as he slowly approached Carmen from behind. Carmen looked over her shoulder at him and her red eyes met with his. However, this time, something was incredibly off about her glare. Trevor felt an incomprehensible amount of pressure welling up in his chest, as though he were staring death itself in the eyes. He paused his approach as he began to feel nervous out of nowhere.

“What is this!? Why am I hesitating?” He thought to himself, confused as to why every ounce of his body wanted to run away at this moment.

Carmen slowly stood up, still staring at Trevor with the most evil looking glare he had ever witnessed. She pointed her rapier at him and started to draw a strange symbol in the air, tracing black ink on an invisible canvas. The sky shifted to a dark purple as the eclipse in the sky began to drip a black substance onto the ground. The whole area grew dark and colder as Carmen’s Core Energy exploded to unfathomable levels, greatly overshadowing Trevor’s and everyone else present on the battlefield.