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, sending out a heavy force of wind that knocked Carmen and Caleb off their feet. They recovered midair and after doing a flip, they landed next to Sarah, making no progress. The trio glared at him until he bolted towards them with incredible speed, moving perfectly with the wind. He covered multiple meters in impossible time.

  They were astonished by his movement, shocked to see Trevor now standing directly in front of them. He quickly reared his fist back as wind energy violently gathered around it. Then with a swift thrust of his fist, he punched Caleb directly in the face. The blow was enough to send him flying off into the distance. Caleb 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 eventually stopped his hearty claps and took hold of his Manifest again, swinging it around vigorously as it blew out sharp bursts of wind energy in every direction. Carmen and Sarah dipped and side stepped the best they could, trying to avoid the razor sharp wind currents.

  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 him yet, 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 tried his best to control his laughter, but a few snickers eventually escaped. 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.

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  'What is this force!? Feels like my whole body weight has increased by a hundred times!'

  He was completely unable to lift his body from the ground. Trevor grimaced and glared back at Carmen, noticing that her Manifest was the reasoning for his current predicament. Then without warning, 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 while 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. She had 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 a violent fashion. The very wind currents in the area were manipulated and tightly concentrated, 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, her tears quickly welling 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 went 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 eject 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 until 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 and he began to feel nervous out of nowhere.

  'What is this!? Why am I hesitating?'

  Trevor couldn't figure out 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 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.