As death loomed over the island, Fiora excitedly awaited to become the only thing standing between the villagers and the incoming tide of carnage.

For years, Fiora’s talents had been discounted because of her being so pretty. No one had even wanted to recognize the actual effort she had put into her training every day, instead they only commented on how much time she spent swatting boys away and eventually giving up, and letting them give her gifts and waste her time. She had tolerated it for far too long.

With the island facing a critical situation, she realized it was her chance to prove her worth and earn respect.

Especially now that monsters were overwhelming Solara.

After the first light of dawn, screams had erupted around the island. The entire village had awoken as one as guards that would lazily patrol the safe sandy island roads found dozens of Abyssal Scuttlers emerging from the surrounding vegetation. Immediately, all the population had been evacuated to higher ground, following the same plan that had been put into place when the Kraken had invaded.

Thanks to the relatively low danger posed by Abyssal Scuttlers, they had made it to the summit safely.

However, the situation was growing dire.

Abyssal Scuttlers were not dangerous when taken individually. In fact, they were at the bottom of the food chain as far as Abyssal Creatures were concerned – a routine meal for most predators of the Deep. But Abyssal Scuttlers, because of their nature as prey, were used to hunting and migrating in packs.

And even though even the Uninitiated were capable of fending them off, their overwhelming numbers were slowly chipping at the guards' stamina. More importantly, in such prolonged battles, it was easy for the Uninitiated to have their concentration falter, even for a second, ending up in someone possibly losing their life.

It was extremely dangerous to fight any Abyssal Creature without Attributes.

So, Fiora obviously expected that soon, the villagers would be begging her to help.

The guards were taking turns around the tight perimeter that had been established close to the summit, using the higher ground and spears and taking turns to their advantage to fend off the crab-like monsters. But Fiora had seen more than one man get their spear caught in a claw and release it almost one second too late. The monsters were predictable, sure, but they were also dangerous.

And with tiredness starting to crawl up the guards' bodies, Fiora knew that the next obvious step would be to ask the Initiated – yes, even the pretty girl – for help.

Fiora walked up to a warrior who had almost been killed a moment ago and was still breathing hard, anticipating the begging, planning to play a little difficult to get before caving into the would-be supplicants.

But as she waited with an arrogant smirk on her face, standing patiently next to the sturdy guard, she saw the man turn to her with a confused expression.

“Go back—it’s dangerous here,” he panted, his eyes shooting at the carcass of the Abyssal Scuttler that his friends had just impaled.

Fiora raised an eyebrow, “Dangerous? I’m Initiated. You should be asking for my help, clearly.”

The guard, someone Fiora didn’t know, but who was stationed in the thickest part of the perimeter, looked amused. She could see in his eyes that he didn’t take her seriously at all – something that she had been used to. But she had always expected people to radically change their attitude toward her after her test with the Water Riders and especially after they found out she Initiated herself.

That was clearly a sign she was extremely capable.

Being Initiated, but not by the Water Riders, was essentially unheard of. Even though Talia had done the greater part of the heavy lifting against the Abyssal Cuda, Fiora’s contribution had still been registered—otherwise, she wouldn’t have gotten any experience to unlock her Akashic Record. That made her special.

Especially considering the kind of power she had unlocked.

Fiora had awakened Sunwater – a skill only slightly weaker, if at all, than Starwater – and had impressed all the Elders.

Noelo had been speechless when Fiora had explained that Takai, Talia, and she would need to get on the same ship as the other young promises. When the Elder had asked for further explanations, Fiora had given him a brief rundown of what had happened and then showed him a glimpse of her powers. That had been enough to make the usually overbearing man cower.

And now, she expected the same reaction from the guard in front of her.

But the guard laughed at Fiora.

“Stay back, pretty face. This is actually dangerous, but if you need a shoulder to cry on, just wait for the end of my shift, and I’ll be right there to comfort you.” The man added smooching sounds to his statement.

The blonde looked back with a stunned expression.

Out of nowhere, Fiora’s mother, Hali, materialized behind her daughter as if instinctively knowing that the pretty blonde might have been moments from murdering the cocky young man.

Hali knew her daughter too well not to imagine what she was about to say. The thin blonde had always been so different from her mother, who had often advised her to give up on becoming a Water Rider, given how dangerous the profession was. Now that she had somehow Initiated herself, she could only prevent her from risking her life against this unexpected tide of monsters.

She had always wished her daughter would just focus on finding a good man and settling down, especially considering how beautiful she was – something that, deep down, she envied.

For now, Hali just tried to calm her daughter down.

She gently placed a hand on Fiora's shoulder, feeling the tension in her muscles. Hali knew that her daughter's pride had been wounded, and she feared that Fiora might do something rash to prove herself. The situation was already precarious enough without adding her daughter's impulsiveness to the mix.

“Fiora, darling, let's step back and give the guards some space,” Hali said softly.

But Fiora, who had always despised the way her mother thought, just got angrier.

How could she not understand that she had been waiting for this her entire life; that even though they didn't share the same values, this really mattered to her. Couldn't she see that this could be her moment?

Fiora could read her mother's mind like an open book—a collection of familiar narratives that had been voiced over and over throughout her upbringing. Girls could have it much easier than boys if they just knew how to use their unique gifts. Girls were smarter and, therefore, didn't need to work as hard as men because they could just get a nice boy to take care of them. Sadly, that had not worked for her mother. She saw her husband run away from her, even though she had put so much effort into having a perfect little marriage.

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All of this meant Fiora would never get on board with her mother. Fiora had just gotten the power she’d always craved, so how could she stay still now? Now, everything she had wished for was at her fingertips.

And so, she decided she had to do something.

Fiora used her newly-found strength to free her arm. She ignored her mother's pleading to go where the rest of the women and children were kept safe, and decided to walk toward the part of the perimeter with the least men manning the line.

This is where she was going to leave her mark, ignoring all the stares and the meaningless remarks she received from the other guards.

She briefly surveyed her Akashic Record while waiting for more monsters to appear.

[Name: Fiora]

[Age: 16]

[Class: Sunburst Hydromancer Lv. 2]

[Rank: Novice]

[Primary Mana Channel (Water): Level 8 {Surging}]

[Secondary Mana Channel (Sunwater): Level 6 {Flowing}]

[Core Skill #1: Zenith Lv. 1]

[Core Skill #2: Sunwater Manipulation Lv. 3]

[Core Skill #3: Solar Constitution Lv. 1]

[Auxiliary Skill #1: Solar Glyph Mastery Lv. 1]

[Strength: 0]

[Agility: 0]

[Constitution: 0]

[Intelligence: 3]

[Wisdom: 2]

[Charisma: 0]

[Free Attributes: 0]

[Talent Trees:

* Sunforged Champion

* Plasma Surfer

* Solar Fortitude

* Rā Mage (1)

* Solarian Sage

* Sun Herald

]

[Free Talent Points: 0]

Fiora had already distributed her Free Attributes and the one Talent Point because she already knew what she wanted to be.

Unlike that brute, Talia, Fiora had always dreamt of being a caster. That was why she had chosen Wisdom and Intelligence as the main Attributes to raise, choosing the Intelligence-based Talent Tree instead of any other – something she had not hesitated one second on doing. Being a caster was, in her opinion, the superior solution in battle, more so considering the kind of monsters one would usually face in battle. In fact, at low levels, Strength, Agility, and Constitution were subpar options because the monsters would always be physically stronger than their human counterparts. So, Fiora had made what she considered the obvious choice.

From the get-go, she was gearing up to be a tremendously powerful caster.

As she saw an Abyssal Scuttler come towards her, she smiled, knowing that the opportunity to prove her skills had finally appeared.

[Abyssal Scuttler Lv. 3]

While the guards were readying their spears and getting into formation to face the monster, Fiora simply raised a hand, summoning a golden-tinged globe of Sunwater.

Before anyone could even understand what happened, the globe shot from her hand in an arched trajectory, hitting the monster right on top of its shell. Those who didn’t know how Sunwater worked gave a quick frown and turned to Fiora, but the terrifying shriek the monster belched made everyone’s head snap back in its direction. The Abyssal Scuttler was rapidly dying, boiled alive.

That was the Sunwater’s doing, the golden-tinged magic that burned hotter than fire itself.

[You have slain Abyssal Scuttler Level 3!]

She looked smugly around, expecting stunned eyes and cheers, but she only saw contempt and discontent in the men’s faces.

The guards looked at her and her skill, which she had stayed up all night to train in an excited, manic state as if she had just betrayed them. No one looked happy that she had avoided potential fatalities by taking swift care of the monster. No, despite how ridiculous their behavior was, they all seemed rather displeased that the girl had taken their job away from them.

And they weren’t hiding it.

“Good job,” a guard said dismissively.

“Yeah,” another chimed, tightening his grip on his spear, “for a girl.”

Fiora looked at them from head to toe with her lips curled in disgust and then focused again on the tree line in front of them.

She tried to ignore the little snide remarks that came not-exactly-in-whispers and balled her fists, thinking herself superior to such ridiculous idiocy.

But soon, she started to feel her blood boil. She had been waiting to have real powers at her fingertips for too long to accept a bunch of incapable guards making fun of her after she killed an Abyssal Scuttler without breaking a sweat. In fact, she was growing more and more agitated the longer they waited.

And when the next monster finally came, she was like a pressurized container on the verge of exploding.

So, as the next Abyssal Scuttler emerged with an entire group of seven more monsters behind it, she ignored all the shouts that had been coming from the guards about strategy, plans, and whatnot.

She was going to show these idiots what real power looked like.

Using [Sunwater Manipulation], Fiora summoned the first orb of Sunwater and killed the Abyssal Scuttler at the front in the same way she had killed the one before – boiling it alive. Then, she quickly summoned two more orbs and killed the two behind it. In a matter of seconds, the group of monsters had lost almost half of its numbers.

Fiora was putting on a real show of power.

The only problem was that the monsters had already closed almost all the distance and so when Fiora saw that her next target had gotten close to a guard, she shouted to the man, “Get back!”

When she saw the man not listening to her – the only person capable of killing more than one of these monsters in one engagement – she saw red.

She didn’t listen to the rational part of her mind, the one telling her to simply change position, get behind the guards, and wait for her opportunity. No, she just summoned a slightly smaller globe of Sunwater and attacked the monster. The attack did hit the Abyssal Scuttler, making it shriek in immense pain moments before its demise, but it also grazed the guard. Golden droplets splashed onto him, immediately creating blisters over his exposed arms.

In the madness, Fiora just ignored him.

“Move back!” She shouted again to another guard engaged with an Abyssal Scuttler.

Once again, she was ignored.

And then again, and then twice, and once more, she repeated what she had done with the first guard. Her magic boiled alive all the Abyssal Scuttlers that had appeared, but she had also caused great pain – if not actual injuries – to the men that had been stationed on this side of the perimeter. And even though she had killed all the monsters, the guards were looking at her with abject fury in their eyes.

A burly guard closed in on her, shouting in her face.

This time, unlike the previous scowls, the disapproval came in a much more corporeal form.

“Have you lost your damn mind?! What was that?! Do you want to kill us too?!”

The man shouted in her face, grabbing one of her arms and shaking her.

Fiora actually considered backing down for a moment, but then she saw everything she didn’t want to be reflected as a hesitant, pretty girl in the angry man’s eyes.

She knew she had just lost her composure, that she had given in to her rage. She had left wounds on the men, and they were partially right to be angry at her. However, for all their rage was justified as far as the wounds went, they had not listened to the one person who could actually make a difference on this battlefield, since Talia was nowhere to be seen, and Takai had been injured at the very beginning of the fight. More importantly, she knew the reason they treated her like this was that they didn’t see her as anything more than what her own mother saw her as a pretty girl. It didn’t matter that she had talent in spades and a fearful ability—she was just a girl in their eyes.

For all Fiora would have loved to see admiration and recognition in the eyes of these men, which would have perhaps made someone else back down to avoid antagonizing them more, she decided to stand her ground.

Looking straight into the guard’s eyes, she relinquished any expectation that she would get the recognition that was rightfully hers – she just barked an order.

“Let go,” she said icily.

“Have you heard me, girl?! I said—”

Fiora activated [Solar Constitution], increasing her strength beyond that of an average Uninitiated, making her skin burn as hot as her Sunwater.

The man who had just been grabbing her screamed in pain, falling backward onto his ass, holding his hand, and looking at the rapidly forming blisters.

“There are more monsters coming. If you can’t listen to your betters, just go back and tell the Elders a pretty girl just took over this side of the battlefield—and to send me someone who’s not a complete imbecile if they want to hold the island.”