Manhwa / Dark Air

Dark Air (다크에어) is a fantasy/adventure manhwa written by Park Min-seo. It follows the adventures of a young boy mage named Melrose Silvringtinker and his companions, a musician/buffer named Mustain, a swordswoman named Shenandoah and a forest being named Forest Freelander.

One day, all of the Blue Air in the world disappeared, consumed and replaced by a pillar of Dark Air. It sapped mages worldwide of mana, draining them of their powers. All of them but one man: Vincent Zapa, the hero of Peynia, the "Master Lord." Except he isn't the only mage remaining, for Melrose is also still a mage. Though he won't be much longer, not if Zapa and the many, many teams he's sending after him have any say in it. Meanwhile, Mustain wonders where all of the Blue Air went in the first place...

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Tropes associated with Dark Air:

• Advancing Boss of Doom: Sonic Boom in the early chapters, mostly because of Steve Vai.
• All-Encompassing Mantle: Shenandoah wears one. Forest wears one when in human settlements.
• Almost Dead Guy: Shenandoah after her fight with Steve Vai in 27. She's rescued before she croaks.

• Amplifier Artifact: Jewels. Melrose is notable in that he has no need for such things.
• Animal Motifs: Melrose puts one in the mind of a bunny.

• Badass Adorable: Melrose, when his magic works correctly. Forest also has some elements of this.

• Badass Crew: Everyone in our heroes team is a Grand Master in his/her respective field even Melrose

• Berserker: Shaenando is supposed to belong to this class but apparently it isn't true. At least not until someone kidnaps or hurt Melrose in front of her

• Big Damn Heroes: In chapter 28, Shenandoah is rescued from Sonic Boom by a pair of royal assassins sent to find and return her to Feynia.
  • Later, Forest aids Shenandoah in fighting off the Thieves' Guild when on his way to retrieve her.

• Through His Stomach: Mustain bribes her to join him and Melrose with food and info on her sister.

• Big Brother Mentor: Mustain for Melrose, Jack for Shenandoah.

• Cat Folk: Misty Bell and Forest Freelander, a pair of "Beings of the Forest." We get to see Forest's tribe, all of whose members look like him.
• Cheshire Cat Grin: Mustain's default expression.
• Chick Magnet: Melrose, when he's dressed as a guy.
  • This seems to amaze (and annoy) both Mustain and Forest.

• The Chosen One: Melrose, of course. His family is assumed to be descended from an ancient god worshipped by the Blau, Silvringtinker, if not the Blau themselves.
• The Comically Serious: Forest, especially when hanging around Mustain and Melrose. A good example is anytime he shows up in chapter 30.
• Constantly Curious: Whenever any of the humans do something unusual, Forest tends to wonder out loud if it's normal for them to do so. Justified, as the scouts sent by the Forest Tribes have the purpose of gathering information about humans.
  • Intrigued by Humanity
• Cool Big Sis: Shenandoah quickly takes this role for Melrose, becoming very protective of him when he's in danger.
• Cool Old Guy: Mustain, as far as Melrose is concerned, though he's probably not that old. Shenandoah's friend, Jack.
• Cool Shades/Sunglasses at Night: Mustain and Steve Vai.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The alliance of 11 kingdoms vs the kingdom of Faynia and Vincent Jaffar. Faynia wins.
  • Or more precisely Jaffar wins. With a single spell.
• Cute Little Fangs: Actually, Forest's teeth aren't particularly cute and definitely look like they can deal some real damage.
• Dark Action Girl: Viveke Stin of Team Norman and Misty Bell of Sonic Boom.
  • Julia Volkova and Pixy Star of Nightwish.
  • Mariel, Zappa's disciple and a master of water.
• Deflector Shields: Buffers can do this. It's difficult to do this and offensive buffs at the same time. But Mustain CAN.
• Do Not Call Me "Paul": Shenandoah's real name is Rania, 2nd princess of Feynia.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Melrose. Mustain takes advantage of this and has him dress like a girl sometimes to throw off their enemies. Forest beings aren't fooled though.
• Elegant Classical Musician: Vanessa Mae of Nightwish (violin) and Choryun of Musa (flute).
• Elemental Powers: So far, Melrose can cast Fireball, Aquaball, Windy and Plantae.
• Eye Scream: One-Eyed Jack. Tore it out to leave the Feinian Thief Guild and be with Katie.
• Flash Step: Holy crap, Forest is fast.
  • He occasionally does it to intimidate people as seen here.
• For Science!: The arch-priest of Feinia proposes dissecting Melrose to figure out why he can still cast spells. Shenandoah proposes stabbing the arch-priest.
  • A surprising amount of people want to do this to Melrose.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melrose is Sanguine, Mustain is Choleric, Shenandoah is Melancholic and Forest is Phlegmatic.
  • Power Trio: Melrose is The McCoy, Mustain is The Kirk and Forest is The Spock while Shenandoah is MIA.
• Friend to All Living Things: Melrose, since it's said that while Forest Beings are curious of humans, they still tend to avoid them.
• Friendly Enemy: Jack and Katie are also after Melrose.
  • Team Sonic Boom as well, being a trio of Affably Evil Punch Clock Villains.

• God Save Us from the Queen!: Implied of the Queen of Feinia. She is a huge jerkass at least.

• Handicapped Badass: The appropriately named "One-Eyed Jack."
• Handsome Lech: Mustain. Enough that most people are shocked that Melrose and Shenandoah are still hanging around with him.

• In the Hood: Forest, being a catboy, usually wears a hood when out around humans.
• Innocent Bystander: The poor city people in chapter 45 drowned by the Black Magician Girl Mariel.
• I Will Only Slow You Down: Shenandoah signals to Mustain that if she's defeated by Vai, he is to flee with Melrose, Forest is to cover their escape and she is to be left behind. Melrose disagrees and tries to attack Vai so she can escape as well. The gambit fails but Vai acquiesces to Shenandoah's original plan, allowing the three men to escape and possibly sacrificing his chance to fight her when she's stronger.

• Kill It with Fire: The fate of Melrose's parents.

• Made of Iron: Most characters, but Forest especially. When he steps on one of Pixy's traps, she warns him that raising his foot would blow it away. He does so anyways, because "his legs are sturdy." She's obviously unnerved by that.
• The Magic Goes Away: And the plot is to figure out where it went.

• Magnetic Hero: Melrose. Mustain finds him one day and decides to take care of him and Shenandoah and Forest both decide to hang around for his sake.

• Mama Bear: Look at Melrose wrong and Shenandoah will hurt you.
  • Considering some of her reactions (like stuttering) to him getting close and the fact that she took the job of being his guardian the instant she saw him as a male while earlier she wasn't even interested in listening to the offer it is quite likely that her feelings for him, while strong, aren't exactly those of a mother protecting her child.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Shenandoah and Melrose, especially when Melrose dolls up.
• Master Swordsman: Steven Siro Vai. He schools Shenandoah.

• Moment Killer: Shenandoah and Melrose have a heartfelt reunion hug… then Melrose checks her for wounds and scars, of which are under her boobs. Even Forest is surprised.
• More than Mind Control: Tarja's specialty besides chemistry.

• Mr. Fanservice: Mustain is quite good-looking under those sunglasses. Vai as well.
• Ms. Fanservice: Women don't like loose clothes in this world, do they?
  • Pixy wears a witch's hat.
• Ninja: Forest is technically a scout but when not using his bow and arrows, his methods quite resemble a ninja.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Shenandoah against Steve Vai. She loses. And nearly dies.
• No One Gets Left Behind: Melrose is a strong advocate of this. His teammates who realize that doing so may endanger Melrose, not so much.
• Oh, Crap!: The True Companions have this when Team Sonic Boom catches up with them.
• One-Man Army: Jack takes down several members of the Thief Guild with minimal help from Katie and Forest.
• Our Giants Are Bigger: Slaughters, who do pretty much what one thinks they do.
• Panthera Awesome: Forest is a leopard type of forest being called 'Baobab.'
• Poison Is Evil: Keikan and Nicki Lee of the Thief Guild both use poison.

• Really Gets Around: Mustain is implied to be this and if chapter 24 is anything to judge by then this reputation is spot on.
• Really 700 Years Old: Vincent Jaffa, the last of a long line of mages called the Lau.
• Rebellious Princess: The second princess of Faynia. A.K.A Shenandoah.
  • Tomboy Princess
• Red Baron: 'Sword Master' Shenandoah. Mustain probably has one too.
  • At some point the True Companions picked up the name "Blue Nova."
• Rhino Rampage: Team Choppers' Rider has a Rhino as a mount. Tricked out like a Harley. Named Harley.
• Rule of Cool: Why does Team Chopper have a Rhino for a mount? Why does Mustain act and play like a rock musician in a High Fantasy setting? Because it's cool!

• Scarily Competent Tracker: The rangers' job. Forest beings are well known for being good at this.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: The second princess of Faynia didn't want to be queen and took off like a thief in the night before the coronation.
• Shipper on Deck: Emika for Melrose/Shenandoah.
• Shoot the Dog: Shenandoah is left behind after the fight with Sonic Boom so that Mustain and Forest can save Melrose. This was her decision though.
  • Forest admits that he and Emika have no other choice besides this in 45.
• Spell My Name With An S: Feynia, Faynia, Fania, Shenandoah, Shaenando, Mustaine, Mustain...
• Squishy Wizard: When it does work, Melrose's magic tends to leave him very tired and he's rarely aware of how long it will leave him knocked out.
• Status Buff: Mustain's main job on the team. He's strong enough to be a grandmaster.
• The Magic Comes Back: Zappa uses the power of the Lau bloodline combined with an array of Blue Gate and Blue Road crystals to end the three-year Age of Dark Air. There's a catch, however - something that both Master Vidditch and Melrose can sense via 'something' in the Blue Air now present in the world again.
• The Stoic: Forest. Mustain is of the Perpetual Smiler variety of Stoic.

• Stripperiffic: Nearly every lady. You reading the series? Good, count 'em on your own time.
• Super-Power Meltdown: This is how Zappa plans to create the true Age of Dark Air; by forcibly infusing every Magician on the planet with such an immense amount of Blue Air released from his Blue Gate: Triangle Release that they essentially VIOLENTLY HEMORRHAGE to death from all orifices due to being unable to contain that much inside their body. This includes such casualties as Master Vidditch, Melody Barnes, and even the two murderous Magicians from Chapter 1.
• Supporting Leader: Melrose is the protagonist but Mustain leads the team and decides their next move.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Mustaine. Also Vai when he's not wearing his sunglasses.
• Theme Naming: The Big Bad is named after Frank Vincent Zappa, the leader of the main characters is named after Dave Mustaine and the local cat boy is named after a Range Rover.
• Too Much Information: though not voiced it was pretty much Shaenando reaction to Melrose telling her that while wearing a dress he can pee without anyone noticing, the fact that she most likely has a crush on him made this revelation so much more difficult on her.
• True Companions: Melrose names the other three as his in chapter 19. Shenandoah calls him "baselessly optimistic."
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Melrose from time to time.
  • More like half the time. and it seems that he mastered this art so far that even the forest beings can no longer sniff out that he is a cross-dressing guy and not a girl.
• Worthy Opponent: Viveke finds Shenandoah to be this, enough to be annoyed when her teammate tries to taunt her.
  • Steve Vai and Shenandoah, Misty Bell and Forest.
• You Killed My Father: Melrose wants to take out Zappa for killing his parents, specifically burning them alive.