Kara hummed softly, using the beating of the rain upon her shoulders as the tune to her song. She glanced upward as her leather shoes bounced off the uneven bricks, watching the black cloud spit and cry out barrages of lightning.

She was close enough to feel the vibrations on the ground. She was also close enough to tap into the Energy being carelessly thrown around.

That mage was obviously a novice, otherwise she would not have wasted a great amount of her reserves casting flashy and Energy inefficient spells. Because of that, it was difficult to get a decent picture of the battlefield. Not even she, in her prime, could see through the large amount Life Force and Energy radiating from the city. Everything was muddled, overlapping each other like twenty different bodies mingled together.

Out-witted, by a damn child. 

Kara was not able to find the one that has resisted her Song. She had looked among the living and the dead, but could not find anyone that matched the intensity that she was met with. There were a couple of children present, but none of them were powerful enough to resist her powers-- the top one was level 20, a high amount for a child, but pitifully low the same when compared to her. 

She ignored it for now focusing on the other skills she had. Other than the core skill, The Death Siren’s Song, that impacted large amounts of people with her powers, her profession seemed to be equipped with other utility skills.

She received the skill Death Siren's Web. She was able to weave a web with her musical notes within a 500-meter duration in a circular manner, or if she chose to narrow it down she could get up to range of a thousand. It was bloody useful in these type of situations, where Life Force and Energy were inaccessible. Within this zone of control, Kara was able to use her Notes.

She used Death Siren’s Web. It expanded her senses, giving her an eagle eye view.

A few blocks away, a large battle was ensuing with at least thirty people on each side. Winds, fire, and large chunks of concrete as tossed around like arrows over the lines.

Instead of light, Kara saw things by the shape of the sounds they made, like ripples in water. Instead of seeing their flesh, however, Kara saw the world through a rainbow of colors. Gray and silver for inanimate objects, and red, black, brown for life beings, painting the field in a hectic blind. It was emotion, Kara guessed, though she wasn’t sure.

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

They were quickly put down with the concentrated fire of both faction's aerial and roof forces.

A few pieces of shingles and concrete darted through the air at high speeds, striking them down like birds

Soon enough, the roofs became as bloody as the ground when the two factions met.

From their tight formations and strict movement, one faction was the Anima, the enforcers, and the other was the Animus.

The Animus held the advantage, it seemed. They were being slaughtered at the ground level, but the Animus forces, who Kara assumed was a mercenary army combined with rogues, held roof control, and rained down flame and arrow, but was, in turn, being harassed by the air vehicles hovering above.

As an officer of the army, she had a duty to help the enforcers, as it seemed their loses piled up much faster.

But how would she know that they were in need of assistance? She was only a petty officer. It was truly tragic, but Kara kept walking, bypassing the ordeal. Her Notes, unfortunately, could not traverse through the conflict. Too much was occurring and too many people blocked the way. Making sense of the noises was like attempting to hear a conversation out of a crowd. 

There was no reason to get involved. Her level was too high for her to gain any points fighting against those rabble, and her Energy came at a premium, not to mention the colossal ache that was tearing a hole in her skull.

The numbness of her body did not go both ways. She couldn’t feel warmth, but she could feel the cold at her drenched skin, or the dull pain of her tendons snapping whenever she was distracted.

But this ache was something different. Her throat felt corse, the sharp and low drumming reverberating painfully in her ears. Her tongue, her eyes, and even her nose throbbed and a twinge in different levels of discomfort. They burned like torn muscles bathed in acid.

The price of the Song, maybe.

Kara had missed any sort of feelings, and at some point even took pleasure in what little pain she could feel. It was the only thing this damned body was capable of feeling, but now that all she felt was her body wretching in agony, she quickly changed her mind.

Setting on straight finger against her cheeks, Kara swiped quickly, making a straight cut. Her flesh parted, letting a few drops of blood drip down her chin.

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Nothing. Just a dull sensation, as always. Shaking her head, the blood began to move up and back into the wound as it closed.

It was her Death Siren profession, then. That was interesting by itself. It meant that her Death Siren profession was directly linking her senses with her Spirit. 

While only her hearing and sight worked in this filthy body, her Notes were able to smell and feel more than a dull ache. It wasn't like the real thing, but it was much closer than nothing.

If she could feel pain, though, could she feel the opposite of it?

What was the opposite of physical pain, anyway? Was it petting kittens? It’s been so long that Kara had forgotten.

She turned her attention to the right. A bit further away, her Notes found a group of law enforcers being ambushed, reigning down arrows embedded with Life Force in them. Expensive crystals flew, causing explosions and toxic clouds, knocking out mages and archers.

The Thief Guilds, unsurprisingly, were on the Animus side. The alleyways and roofs were their home territory, and the city could barely hold a candle to their quick pace.

A few assassins were waiting in the corners for any strugglers. It seemed that these law enforcers were heading for the larger battlefield on her left, probably reinforcement. The Thief Guilds were in cahoots with the mercenary group, using them as bait to whittle down the cities forces. She found a few more of these occurrences all over.

It wasn’t just a matter of one side being stronger than the other, but a complete tactical advantage. Whoever was commanding the Animus had placed some deadly people in command.

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 make a ripple, making the colors of their bodies blend in with their surroundings.

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, but neither parties seemed to be aware of each other.

She couldn’t tell which faction they belonged to, either. All she could see was their red bodies, and one combined with pink. 

Above her, a bow was pulled. Kara grimaced. More wasted Energy.

The arrow flew.

Kara ignored it.

The arrow flew way off, the rain and winds throwing it off course.

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

Most of her skills, beyond the core skill of her class, were not feasible to cast.

The two branches of Life Force, Internal and External, normally could not be cast at the same time, but Second Movement, Application fixed that, and allowed her to cast an additional Life Force skill at a reduced penalty. The issue was that Kara was forever stuck casting Flesh Mender, making any use of Life Force uneconomical. 

She could, however, use Energy while using Life Force--that was, after all, the point of her class. The issue came back to this body; it was a corpse, and corpses neither eat nor have hearts that beat. 

In addition, while her class skills used Equanimity and not Life Force or Energy, the regeneration of Equanimity would be reduced for each percentage difference between her Life Force and Energy, for a max of 50%.

Which, again, with her 1 Life Force, meant a 50% decrease in Equanimity.

Until she could invest in some skills that worked around the issue of her body dead, Kara’s resources were very limited. She needed some flat increases, and those barely existed.

For now, all her skills were convoluted.

In this case, as the archer above her prepared for another shot, she began to reach for the Source of the gales. There were many of them, and the rain also helped.

First, she needed to find the Energy source she was going to tap into. Instead of the traditional “spray and pray method,” which involved sending Energy in all directions to find it, Kara reached forward with her notes. When she focused, she could see the vibrations both from high in the air like a bird, and from the ground.

It was slightly dizzying, but Kara’s been through worse.

She used the Third Movement, Deviation. It allowed her to redirect any Source by spending a bit of her Equanimity.

 She nudged the winds slightly. A little push here, a tiny push there, nothing too magnificent. It was difficult and tiresome on her mind, controlling winds without actually using her own Energy, but it got the job done. 

The winds combined, altered direction by a few inches, and swooped down and pushed the surprised archer off their feet, sending them tumbling from the roof and to splash on the ground. She did not want to bother with the other one.

Dealing with low levels was no issue, of course, but it was a waste of time.

The only good news she could take comfort in was her Death Siren abilities. They bypassed her Life Force and Energy deficiencies but at the same time bypassed most of her passive buffs.

The worse thing, however, was that she felt like a pawn. There was just something about being forced into this profession that rubbed her wrong. If she was given the choice, she would have probably picked it anyway-- music was the only thing she could feel, but still.  

Another arrow flew, sending ripples throughout her web.

With a growl Kara snatched the arrow from the air, the friction tearing apart the skin of her palms. One of the many horrendous downsides of constantly using Flesh Mender was that it made every part of her soft as jello.

She pulled her arm back and threw it like a dart. It whizzed faster than it had arrived, and with a little bit of course alteration from Kara, struck the target. It didn’t pierce through--that wouldn’t have guaranteed the kill, but rather took the archer off his feet with it. He tumbled against the side of the building, shattering as he hit the bricks.

Kara’s dislocated shoulder hung limply by her side for a few seconds. The bone would pop back in place once her ripped tendons would stitch themselves together.

There is always a way, huh? Kara thought, chuckling, but not too much, lest she would also break a rib.