“She did not change.”

Tier heard Manna sigh. The paladin took something that looked like the necklace of an ambassador of peace and destroyed it. Then started to brave the dust cloud.

“Mana, wait!”

The paladin didn't heed Tier's warning. She spun her spear above her and prepared to throw it.

“[Stardust Lancer].”

Manna threw her sparkling spear towards the dust cloud. The weapon left a trail of stardust on its path as if directing its user towards the target it fell upon. It also left a light spear on Manna’s hand.

There was a big thump and shockwave shortly afterward, clearing away the dust covering Lyra and the other two. The orc herself was impaled to the ground by Manna’s spear. Giving Tier a good view to unleash his arrows.

“You shouldn’t be here, little girl!” Lyra thrashed as she tried to release herself.

“Neither should you,” Manna retorted calmly as she struck her light spear at Lyra. “You cannot go back to Clashing Realms if you keep doing this, Lyra.”

“Nonsense, you’re all betrayer! [Lightning Howl]!”

Lyra’s roar thundered across the Savannah, unleashing electrifying shockwaves to all directions.

Manna managed to hold her ground with a firm stance. She gave a signal for Zackhs and Flick to stand their ground. “Betrayed or not, that is not a reason to do something like this to people who are not related.”

Manna lunged again as if forgetting the difference between her and Lyra. While helping with ranged shots, Tier wondered how long the impaling effect of Manna’s ability would last.

It was answered soon after Manna slashed twice. The spear on Lyra’s body disappears and returns to Manna’s hand.

Lyra then jumped, pulling her axe high - one was infused with fire and the other was lightning infused.

“[Sanctity Edge].”

The sky shook whe Manna swung her spear to let it’s tip meet with Lyra’s attacking axes. The petite paladin pressed forward and swiftly parried all of Lyra’s attacks with the tip of her spear. Each parry caused her spear’s tip to glow brighter. And each parry she performed seemed to drive Lyra angrier.

“[Lightning bolt]!”

Thunder crackled and the sky shook as Lyra summoned lightning from the sky. However, another shocking thing happened. Manna casually parried the lightning with her spear’s top by performing a surprisingly fast and precise swing of her spear.

The whole field fell silent for a moment. Such a feat was not something a class with low agility stats like paladin could commonly perform. Not to mention how casually she did that.

“You are better than this.”

Manna sighed. As the cumulated light seemed about to explode from the tip of her spear, she spun her spear twice to trace the ground.

“Release!”

Continuing the circular motion of her spear, Manna slammed the tip to Lyra. Following the strike almost instantly, a giant light spear fell from the sky to stab Lyra. Every other player in the area was completely stunned by sight of the sheer force of the ability for it dealt almost 4000 points of damage. Such damage being done to Lyra by a player half her level definitely spread fear among its witnesses.

“Portal’s ready!”

The thing that they had been waiting for had been announced by Nubram.

“Fall back!’ Tier commanded while aiming another shot at Lyra.

“I won’t let you! [Lightning Cage]!”

Lyra threw her axe to land right before Manna, creating a lightning net between the two. The act clearly suggests that Lyra had changed her attack target to the petite paladin. She quickly overpowered Manna by choking her and tried to slam her to the lightning net.

“[Ankle Break]!”

“[Sleek Strike]! Over here!”

“[Phantasmal Charge]!”

Lyra lost her balance as Tier managed to hit her ankle, followed by Flick who kicked behind her knee instead of slashing his axe. Zackhs finished the whole combo by fusing with shadows, enabling him to phase through the net then tackled the already staggered Lyra. The combination was finally able to break Manna free.

But they were not safe yet.

“[Cataclysmic Inferno]”

By releasing Manna, Lyra managed to twist her stance and cancelled her fall. She stomped the ground angrily, channeling her fiery rage to the land. The ground shook and random flame pillars stormed randomly from below.

Except Manna, none of them expected such a strike and was engulfed by the flames. The paladin didn’t try to step back, she launched herself at Lyra with her spear high above.

“[Justice Wrath].”

Manna smacked Lyra right in the head, stunning her despite not making much damage. She then took the chance to run away while both Nubram and Tier unleashed everything in their arsenal to slow down the shaman. [Winterblade], Nubram’s main hope of hampering Lyra was rendered ineffective due to the heat from the ground quickly diminishing the slow effect.

Meanwhile, Tier could only put his hope in [Ankle Break], [Mimic: Rhino], and the slowing effect of [Insularis’ Assault]. The burning ground apparently depleted Lyra’s HP as well, though in very miniscule amounts. However, no matter how small the damage, it would be enough to cancel such total disabling effect like Tier’s [Insularis’ Assault] at full stack.

This was the moment Tier felt a strike of regret for changing his path to get [Eagle Aim] easier. If he hadn’t, he might have the bonus ability to throw traps and also reach venomous armaments which would give him [Slither Drag].

The problem was, even without her being able to catch up with them, Lyra’s random flaming pillar and heat emanated from the ground kept on damaging them.

Slowly but surely, they reached a dangerously low amount of HP. Tier tried his best to find the best solution, but he failed to think of any. He wondered if they all would perish here since he was incompetent despite each of them playing their hands very well.

Yet, in the midst of Tier's already confused mind, there was someone who called to him with confidence.

“Pras, do or die, now, racial active [Warcry]!”

Flick didn’t show the slightest of worry. He was grinning with passion.

A red button painted with the symbol of the rakhs race’s tribal mask appeared on the right side of Tier's vision. The hunter didn’t know what the rogue aimed to do, but he decided to follow his instincts to trust his friend by smashing the button.

The two rakhs howled maddeningly in unison. Tier felt a zeal of savagery explode from within, heating up his whole body and blurring the feeling of pain and also remorse.

“Manna, Zackhs, fall back!” Flick roared. He spun backwards and slashed Lyra’s feet with brutal speed.

Lyra ignored the attack and kept moving towards Manna, but Tier hampered her once more with [Ankle Break] followed by Flick’s brutal slash to her knee.

The savage assault didn’t stop there, they forced Lyra to engage them. The two rakhs were intent to unleash everything they had to give a chance for their allies to be saved. With a maddening speed, Flick managed to finally put himself technically on par against Lyra.

Axes clashed against axes in the midst of burning lands, lightning strikes, and a storm of arrows. None of Lyra’s direct attack touched Flick, not the thunder strikes nor the flaming pillar.

Despite the clearly tranced state, the rogue fought in such high effectiveness as if being driven by pure instinct alone. He avoided strikes with such agility, circled his adversary, then unleashed quick slashes. When forced to a frontal confrontation, Flick would parry almost all the attacks and didn’t hesitate to simply use the brute force of his body to strike. It was not a rare sight to see him used his ivory bones to attack.

As for Tier, he completely dismissed the whole balance of instinct and bloodlust. He just kept striking.

“[Stardust Lancer]!”

The short brutal fight finally being broken by Manna’s spear impaling Lyra. Tier and Flick stopped their attack and tried to get away from Lyra. As their sanity returned, they realised that the effect of [Cataclysmic Inferno] was long gone. Zackh quickly pulled Flick away while Tier speeded up by changing his [Mimic] to cheetah.

“You won’t! [Pyroclasmic Impact]!”

Lyra shouted as she struggled to break away. Yet, she decided to strike from range. Both of her axes were covered in fireballs.

The first axe was thrown, Manna quickly blocked it with both [Sanctity Edge] - for the axe itself- and [Soul-saving Arc] for the fire explosion. However, the explosion itself was enough to shatter the light wall.

Yet, Lyra still had another axe with her.

Both Manna and Zackhs prepared to intercept the next strike, leaving Nubram and Flick to go for the portal. Tier dared to imagine the explosion would definitely kill the two fighters.

On the spur of the moment, Tier remembered how Zackhs was very eager to join Clashing Realms that he even took the chance to remade his character just to be a better tank. As for Manna, her actions seemed to imply that she might know more and also aim towards it.

Aside from him, the others had their own intention to join Clashing Realms. He knew that he was the only one with nothing to lose dying here.

Realising there are others with priorities, Tier turned his path and ran as fast as he could even before Lyra threw her remaining axe. Then there, the hunter offered himself to certain doom to block Lyra’s flaming axe.

***

“I’m not sure if I heard you guys clearly. Come again, TRASH?!”

Slicer pressed Renma to the ground using his knee. He raised his hand, clenched his fist, and punched the helpless priest.

“You, piece of thrash like you? Becoming like Tsalazar? I told you to hang yourself didn’t I?”

“Oy, shithead, your opponent is right here,” Rushvatte the white tiger growled. He flexed his claw to challenge the rogue that randomly attacked them.

Slicer snorted, “Ain’t your problem, pal. Also, isn’t it time to give up? You still can fight in that condition? For real?”

What Slicer meant was the blood gushing out from Rushvatte’s wounds due to Slicer’s attacks. The mystic knew he himself had less than half HP left. He can’t win this fight, especially at how his body and movement felt so sluggish.

“Tch, poison.”

Rushvatte hissed angrily. As he started walking sideways into tall grasses, he taunted, “Suits a coward like you.”

“Aren’t you the coward for hiding behind the bushes? Don’t try to get on my nerves before you regret it.”

“Aw, come on, this is just the character’s mechanic, phanternal needs to go to tall grasses and behind trees to commence stealth. Don’t tell me you don’t know, noob. Did you buy that account? Can we buy accounts here?”

“What did you call me?” Slicer’s words turned into a rather deadly tone.

“Noob that bought his account, that’s what you are. Only a pathetic noob like you would be proud of bullying people half your level, especially a useless priest like that.”

“You want to die, noob?”

“Get a mirror.”

Slicer was clearly fuming. His condescending smile had disappeared. He drew both of his weapons and stared at the tall grasses where Rushvatte went. There was a slifer of poison seen at the blades.

Rushvatte could guess that the cocky rogue took Assasination path.

“Just run!”

“Shut up!"

Slicer punched Renma’s face once more. He then carefully looked around in all directions as if trying to guess Rushvatte’s location.

As expected, Slicer was clearly baited by Rushvatte’s taunting. He didn’t use [Prowl] to enter stealth, but was just waiting for an opportunity.

Which was now.

“[Lightning Grip].”

Rushvatte dashed zig-zag with a blinding speed, relying on his camouflage in the tall grasses. However, Slicer's cockiness was not baseless. When Rushvatte jumped forward to pounce, Slicer had the time to turn and prepared a slash.

“[Guarding Radiance].”

A disk-shaped light barrier appeared, blocking Slicer’s attack.

“That’s my man!”

Rushvatte twisted midair to avoid clashing with Slicer then hooked his claw to Slicer's left shoulder. Taking advantage of his momentum, he dragged the undead and slammed him to the ground.

Slicer struggled to break free, his body rolled on the ground fighting the tiger’s firm grip. They slashed and bit each other like real beasts trying to murder one another.

Renma tried to heal Rushvatte, but he was powerless as Slicer’s poison had rendered his healing less effective. He was also unable to use his shields effectively in this situation.

This was the moment when Rushvatte wished he had another form that is more immune to such petty tricks like poison.

“[Shadow Slice]!”

Slicer finally managed to position himself on top and slashed Rushvatte's chest. The rogue somersaulted backwards then stabbed his dagger. Luckily, Renma managed to block it with [Guarding Radiance].

Unfortunately, Rushvatte's body was too heavy to move. He tried to struggle to no avail as Slicer struck once more with his daggers and words.

“Just die already, TRASH!”