Manifest War: The Weapons Within

Mid afternoon rolled in at LaVeda as Carmen walked the hall, her stomach grumbling something fierce. She had her sights on the cafeteria and nothing was going to get in her way.

Once she arrived and ordered some food, Carmen quickly began to look for a place to sit. Curiously, Carmen saw Elise eating alone. Every table around her was filled with students, but for some reason no one sat near her. Carmen was about to head over until she heard some familiar voices calling her name.

“Carmen! Carmen! Come eat with us, we saved you a seat!”

Sandra and Vida yelled with smiles on their faces, surrounded by a few other girls at their table. Carmen hesitated slightly before nodding and choosing to sit with them instead. The group ate and talked for a bit until Vida noticed that Carmen seemed a little troubled by something.

“What’s wrong Carmen?” She asked softly.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I just thought it was a little weird that Elise is always alone.”

Sandra and Vida looked around, wondering who she was referring to.

“Who?”

Carmen pointed in Elise’s direction and the girls immediately looked annoyed.

“Ohh, that girl. Yeahhh, she’s really weird. Rumor is that she’ll have these random freakouts and meltdowns out of nowhere. No one knows why she’s so unstable in the head, so people just avoid her completely. ” Vida replied with a laugh.

“Really? She’s never mentioned anything about that before.”

Carmen began to look concerned after hearing this realization. Vida cocked her head to the side with a perplexed expression.

“Wait, why would she mention it to you? Do you know her or something?” Vida asked with great curiosity.

“Well yeah, she’s my roommate…”

As soon as these words left Carmen’s mouth, the table went completely silent. Seconds later, everyone burst into great laughter.

“No waaaay!! Carmen, you’ve got to be the most unlucky girl at this school! I can’t believe you got paired with her.” Sandra exclaimed with tears in her eyes, struggling to get through her deep chuckles.

“Yeah that definitely sucks for you. Especially since the Burton family is kind of a big joke. Her father is a compulsive gambler and swindler, having pissed away their entire fortune. Now he’s indebted to countless nobles and constantly begs for loans. You should probably stay away from her as best as you can, otherwise she might leech your money away.”

Vida gripped her stomach as she let out a hearty laugh, getting a kick out of this conversation.

“Oh, I see…”

Carmen began feeling incredibly uncomfortable with the way her so called “friends” were talking poorly about another’s unfortunate situation. This moment didn’t sit right with her at all, and so she quietly finished her food and excused herself from the table.

‘Now that I think about it, I really don’t know anything about Elise. She never talks to me in the dorms and seems annoyed whenever I ask her questions. Maybe there’s something else going on?’

Carmen pondered many thoughts as she exited the cafeteria, wondering if there was anything she could do to help her out.

Hours later, Carmen headed into her last class of the day, combat training. She took a seat toward the back of the room and waited patiently. Just before the class began, Carmen saw Elise walk in and sit off to the side, isolating herself once again.

Shortly after, the instructor entered the room with some other unfamiliar students, however after clear inspection, Carmen recognized the red headed girl leading the group. It was Rosemarie Lofton, the No. 1 ranked student at the University. The instructor quieted down the class and began to speak.

“Alright everyone, today we’re going to do some mock duels and I enlisted the help of some third year students to aid me in today’s lesson. Please welcome Vale Reddick, Corey Thompson, and Rosemarie Lofton.” The instructor said, clapping his hands together as they bowed their heads to the class.

“Please come to the arena and choose a partner. We’ll begin the lesson in five minutes.”

He motioned for the students to follow him. Everyone made their way down to the open arena, filling the room with loud chatter.

Carmen saw everyone partnering up and in the distance she noticed Elise standing on the field alone. Elise sighed and looked down at the ground, clearly feeling down that she had to do something by herself again.

“Hey Carmen! Be my partner!” Vida asked.

“Oh, uhh, maybe next time, sorry!” Carmen responded with a smile. She walked over to Elise and grabbed her hand.

“Let’s party up, Elise!”

Elise looked incredibly stunned and confused by Carmen’s sudden request, wondering why this girl seemed so happy to be her teammate.

“Uhh, yeah, o-okay.” She replied, still in shock that someone actually acknowledged her presence in class.

Carmen pulled her along towards the rest of the students and they awaited further instructions.

“Now, like I said before, we’ll be doing mock battles. However, this time around they’ll be tag matches. One person in your group will fight and when they are unable to continue, they’ll tag in their partner to finish up. First team to get two knockouts wins. Understand?”

The quietly students nodded and were eager to get started.

“Alright, do we have any volunteers to kick things off against the third years?”

He scanned his eyes across the group of students for candidates. To his surprise, no one stepped up or said anything.

“Ooookay, hmm let’s see.. How about, Elise and Carmen? Hop on up here!”

They looked at each other and seemed surprised they were called on first. They gathered themselves and went onto the arena platform, being watched closely by all the students present.

“Now remember, duels cannot be interrupted once they start. Nothing stops until your partner tags you in or until I call the fight off. Got it?”

The girls nodded at the teacher’s instructions as Vale Reddick went onto the arena.

She had long purple hair, purple eyes, and black lipstick that accented against her fairly pale skin. Vale’s overall aesthetic and energy was very gothic, her uniform shirt being untucked while her jacket was tied around her waist. Before Carmen could step towards her opponent, Elise held her arm out and blocked Carmen’s path.

“I’ll go first..” Elise said with a look of great confidence.

“Uhh, okay. Go for it.”

Carmen nodded and Elise stepped forward, exerting her Core Energy in the process.

“Raijin’s Fangs, come forth.”

Elise’s soft voice echoed as two black daggers with dark green blades appeared in her hands. Neon green electricity popped and skated across them as she assumed her battle stance.

“That’s cute…” Vale said with a smirk, finding Elise’s weapons to be adorably small. As she approached the opposite side of the arena, a timer began to countdown above them.

3…. 2…. 1…. GO!

Right on cue, Vale raised her hands upwards. Large roots and vines fired out of the ground and took aim at Elise. She quickly dodged and sent electrified shockwave slashes to break up the vines. The hits connected, causing the vines to spread and disperse as voltage streaked along them.

Elise landed on the ground and immediately dashed towards her opponent. As she closed the gap, Elise unleashed a volley of electrified slashes at her. Vale dipped and ducked the fast approaching blows, not feeling even remotely tested by this exchange of attacks.

Just as she dodged the last slash, Elise took her speed to another level and quickly appeared behind the girl. She swiped with her dagger, but Vale was able to effortlessly shift her weight to the side and cause Elise to miss. Within that same move, vines emerged from the ground and took aim at Elise. She quickly dashed backwards to create space between them, coming to a stop on the opposite side of the field.

Vale smirked until she noticed that her cheek felt a bit wet. She gently pressed her finger against it, staining the tip with crimson colored blood. Her eyes went wide, surprised that this first year student actually landed a hit on her.

‘I could’ve sworn I dodged that hit. Hmm, she’s fast, I’ll give her that…’

The fight continued for a few more minutes until Vale began to take things a bit more seriously, especially since she wasn’t making any progress. She held out her hand and exerted a massive amount of Core Energy.

Seconds later, a dark green whip appeared from the ether. Along the spine of the weapon were multiple thorns of varying lengths and green runic symbols decorated the handle. Blackthorn’s Lariat was the name of her Manifest and as Vale cracked it on the floor, the dark red tip of the whip menacingly glowed.

“Alright kid, time for you to pack it up.” She said while swinging the whip above her.

As she swung it around, little thorny vines started to envelop the floor in large quantities. Once the transformation was complete, the field looked as though vegetation had completely taken over.

Elise looked down and was stunned by the sheer number of vines littering the ground. Vale cracked the ground with her whip, causing the vines to raise up and tighten. Within seconds, an intricate web of razor sharp vines surrounded Elise. The students gawked at the skillful display of Vale’s Manifest, looking highly impressed by this impossibly dense obstacle course she created.

While Elise stood there with no route of escape, Vale took aim at her. She started to crack her whip at Elise, sending the long vine-like weapon towards her. Elise quickly dodged, but tripped on a stray vine in the process.

She barely got out of the way, the tip of Vale’s Manifest crushing the tiles that were just underneath her seconds prior. Elise rolled over and got to her feet, but once again, she was caught on the little vines that were scattered everywhere.

‘Gah, this is so annoying. There’s nowhere to go in this mess!’

Elise grew increasingly more frustrated, feeling annoyed by this tactic of keep away from Vale. The onslaught briefly stopped and Elise slowly got to her feet, still surrounded by vines. She was cut up and bleeding in various places, running out of time in this fight.

“How’s it feel, first year? Tired yet?”

As Vale playfully snickered, Elise glared at her and began exerting her Core Energy. Static electricity built around her body, gathering in large quantities while making loud zapping noises. Elise’s hair slightly lifted as streaks of lightning danced along her chest and arms, causing her to glow a hue of light green.

Elise assumed a position with her daggers in hand, gripping them tightly as her stance got lower and lower. Then, in an absolute electrified flash, she vanished. The force of her sudden, visceral movement caused the ground underneath her feet to shatter and crumble.

In an instant she was behind Vale and with great force, she slashed at her back. The hit landed, causing Vale to scream out as though she had been hit by hundreds of thousands of volts. She flew forward and landed on her knees, panting loudly and grimacing from the pain radiating throughout her body. The students watching were wide eyed and shook as Vale’s back was now fully exposed, smoking from the extravagant hit.

“Oh wow, I didn’t even see her move. That speed is incredible!” Carmen said to herself, super impressed by what she saw.

Vale slowly stood up while wearing the biggest scowl on her face. She was absolutely pissed at this moment, especially after noticing her uniform shirt and jacket were burned to shreds.

“You’re dead!!” She screamed out while exploding with power.

Elise tried to create space between them, however the moment she moved, Elise tripped and fell over. Her legs were exhausted from her previous attack, feeling incredibly numb and needing to recharge. She made an attempt to get to her feet, but suddenly multiple vines tangled around her ankles.

Elise tried to pull the sharp vines off, but within that same moment, a long shadow draped over her. She looked up and was quickly grabbed by a large green root. It wrapped around her body tightly, squeezing tighter and tighter with each passing second. Elise cried out as the incredible pressure continued, causing her to feel as though she were being crushed.

“Tag me in Elise! What are you doing!?” She exclaimed, wondering why this fight was still going.

Elise gasped for air and was clearly about to lose consciousness from the tight grip around her.

Carmen couldn’t take it anymore and made the decision to hop onto the arena. She used her gravity manipulation to freeze the root in place, stopping it from squeezing any further. Vale looked over with great irritation and confusion, wondering why someone was interfering with their duel.

“Hey! Why’re you up here? Don’t interrupt a duel you idiot! I’ll take you down to-.”

“That’s enough Vale. The fight is done.” A soft voice said from the other side, interrupting Vale. It was Rosemarie, hopping onto the arena as well.

“Oh, ok... Sorry.”

Vale now had a surprisingly timid tone, as though she were afraid of the consequences for defying the top ranked student’s orders. The vines retreated and Elise dropped to the floor, coughing and trying her best to catch her breath.

Carmen helped Elise up and started to walk off of the field, wanting to take her to the infirmary as quickly as possible. However, to her surprise, Rosemarie spoke up with a soft yet hostile tone.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Rosemarie asked, looking over her shoulder at Carmen.

“Huh? I’m taking her to the nurses off-”

“No you’re not... You can leave her right there, she’ll be fine. I think you should stick around and fight instead, since you’re so eager to interrupt duels.”

Rosemarie’s voice was incredibly stern as her light green eyes pierced Carmen’s soul.

Carmen looked back and stared at Rosemarie, contemplating the request. She sighed and sat Elise down before approaching the opposite side of the arena. Tensions began to rise to unsavory levels as a battle against the no.1 ranked student was imminent.