Kara turned her attention upward as a black cloud spat lightning across the sky. The rain caused by that unnatural phenomenon spread around her in a dome, blocked by a shield of Kinetic Mana.

The Tiger’s mana kept distracting her. Electricity Mana was quite a rare spectacular, if not in is sight then in the way its mana moved so breathtakingly quick. Only a lucky few were born with enough talent to use that special mana type.

The rest of the kingdom’s mana presence was even denser. She could make sense of the mana 30 meters around her, but anything beyond that was pure chaos. It was like trying to take separate liquids that already combined—physically possible but realistically impossible. Kara added being sniped from beyond that range to her endlessly growing list of ways to die. Again. She could sense Life Force for up to 60 meters, but that hardly helped. Any decent assassin would hide their Life Force.

Speaking of finding people. Kara was not able to find the one that has resisted her Song. By the time she regained consciousness, in fact, nearly everyone was gone.

And wasn’t there a third abnormality? The old lady made no effort to hide it. That kid was an odd creature but he wasn't an Anomaly, which left only someone that was powerful enough to escape her sight. It wasn’t unlikely, with the things that sought her attention back then.

Without any leads, Kara pushed that issue to another time. Her Life Siren profession needed all her attention. Because a Life Siren is a profession, learning how to use it was the only way to advance and gain skills in it. Points could not be spent on it, which worked just fine for Kara—it’s not like she had any points to spend, anyway.

Other than the core skill, The Life Siren’s Song, which she used to grant buffs to a person, her profession came with the skill Life Notes. It referred to three black spheres that acted as an extension of her senses. Somewhat like bat’s sonar, they would release waves of sounds, and the way those waves interacted with the environment painted a rough black and white picture of it.

The third skill was Life Siren’s Web. A Note had to be within 20 meters of her, but using Siren’s Web she could connect the Notes together. As long as one stayed within her range, and all others were connected, Kara could see up to 80 meters.

The color legend was simple. White and black were for physical objects. Orange for temperature, Life Force yellow, and Mana was blue. While she couldn’t see any specifics, the holistic point of view her senses gave her was a lifesaver. It was incomparably superior to sensing the movement of the fucking air.

A few blocks away, a large battle was ensuing with at least thirty people on each side. Beams, arrows, rays, torrents, and just about every skill type was exchanged over the lines. The Life Force was dense in the air, signifying several Wolfs and some Tigers. This kingdom didn’t seem to have any Dragons yet.

A group of archers was drunk on a killing spree. They fired indiscriminately, striking foe and friend, regardless of faction.

They were quickly put down with the concentrated fire of both factions’ aerial and roof forces.

Pieces of shingles and concrete were exchanged above the heads of the ground forces alongside beams along side Kinetic Bolts and Soul Arrows.

Right. Wasn’t I an officer or something? She’d completely forgotten about it, though she kept walking anyway.

Her level was too high for her to gain any points fighting against…well, most things on this side of the world. Besides, it’s not like fighting was a pleasant activity. She was in a broken shell, after. It could only handle so much mana before blowing into smithereens again.

Mana…that’s right, how could I not notice.

Other than Life Force and Mana, other classes had their own resource bars, such as Rage for berserkers, Balance for Monks, or her own class—Equilibrium. All of them were fuel.

But where did the buffs her Life Siren Song granted come from? It was strange. She had never seen something come from nothing.

Understand the self to understand the world. Discovery began in the inside.

Placing her finger against her cheeks, Kara swiped down, making a straight cut. Her flesh parted, letting a few drops of blood drip down her jaw.

Nothing. Shaking her head, the blood began to move up and back into the wound as it closed. Nothing was physically different about her body. The change was entirely in her Soul. It was an important distinction.

She turned her attention to the right. More battles occurred around her.

Luckily, she was past the line of battle--or at least, she hoped she was. A person that did not make any sound did not cause a ripple in her web. Kara had a lot of learning to do before she could spot those sly bastards using this method. She did have Sixth Sense and Metaphorical Dodge to fall on, at the very least, but both had their limits.

The same could not be said for the thugs around her, raising their bows from the cover of shadows. There were five in total, two on the roofs to her left, and three on the right in an alleyway. Neither parties seemed to be aware of each other. She assumed all of them were Animus.

The arrow was loosened with poor accuracy. The rain and winds threw it off course. It wasn’t even Life Enforced—they couldn’t be higher than Cubs. Did they not see the question marks above her head, or were their eyes just for show? Considering their aim, actually, I wouldn’t be surprised.

The thugs on the ground, seeing a different group having the high ground, scuttled off in pursuit of easier prey.

At least those three aren’t as stupid.

Back to the issue at hand—her predicament, and whether the Life Siren profession offered a solution. First, the problem—she was pretty dead. She was stuck casting Flesh Mender to help her body handle the stress of containing her Soul. Without it channeling Mana would just cause everything to go boom. Mana traveled through bone, while Life Force traveled through her bloodstream. Both needed to be sturdy enough to handle the large stress they are placed under. The sight of a mage exploding when channeling Mana beyond their capabilities was far much too common.

Using Life Force for any other purpose was uneconomical. She needed to maintain the shape of her body above all else.

She used Mana for everything else—movement, senses, defense, and offense. It was not simple, to say the least.

Even dodging an arrow required intense concentration. When the archer fired his arrow again, Kara had to sense its Kinetic Mana and calculate its speed and trajectory. It was like trying to dodge attacks from the vague descriptions of a badly written book. Ironically, that made powerful attacks substantially easier to defend against. It was the weak ones she had trouble tracking.

Her Notes, however, made the process much easier. It was slower than sight, considering she was sensing things through the power of sound rather than light, but anything faster than the speed of sound wasn’t something she could dodge in her current state.

Once she knew what she was sensing, things became just a bit simpler. All that was left is to predict the trajectory of the object in relationship to her own.

Mana could leave the body where bones pushed against the surface of the skin, but some places were better depending on the task. For maximum accuracy, she made 40 points of Kinetic Mana at the tip of her index finger. Blue mist gathered from her skin into a small marble. Now that she created the Kinetic Mana, she could pick the skill that was going to use it.

3rd Rank Kinetic Mana—Ram.

The Kinetic Mana transformed into a ram’s head and flew, leaving blue mist behind it. It smashed the arrow to pieces and struck the archer in one go. The force of the blow sent them flying a couple meters off their feet. They tumbled down the roof and fell to the ground, taking 92 Armor Damage and 51 HP Damage.

Kara The Blind Mage: ??? > Wolf*

40 Mana was certainly an overkill, but she hoped it would deter anyone else who watching. Sometimes Unknowns were just weaklings using Concealment skill to avoid combat. It was easy to tell the moment they used skills, however. The stronger the skill they used, the more likely It was for their Concealment skill to either break or leak.

Dealing with low levels was no issue, of course, but it was a waste of time and effort. They were stupid to attack with no knowledge, but their stupidity was the reason Kara gave them an extra chance. With this they could at least live for a few more da--

The archer fired another arrow, causing ripples to spread throughout her web.

With a growl Kara snatched the arrow from the air, the friction tearing apart the skin of her palms. She placed the arrow in between her index finger and thumb, yanked it back, and then swung forward with enough force to blow the water around her.

It struck the target in the chest. He flew over a couple buildings before he shattered against the bricks. She dealt 110 Armor damage and 230 HP damage.

Kara’s dislocated shoulder hung limply by her side. She popped it back in place as her ripped tendons stitched themselves together. The splinters in her ribs followed it.

Kara The Defier: Wolf* > Tiger*

“I gave you a warning,” she said, shaking her head. They don’t deserve mercy if they were foolish enough to attack even after seeing the obvious difference in power. She wasn’t so nice to let herself get attacked twice without retaliating.

There is always a way, huh? Kara thought, chuckling, but not too much, lest she break another rib. From fighting on-top of the world to…this. Dealing with Cubs and Wolves that don’t know any better. It was just humiliating.

If she was offered to start over, to offer all seven decades of grueling grinding and ceaseless monster hunting, of creating one ineffective body after another, then she would gladly take it. There was more hope in starting as a level 1 than this dead-end state.

But that’s too much to ask for, isn’t it? A fair chance?