Tier rolled his body to lie on his back. The flow of time was vague. He was not sure if everything was going as normal or was it slower despite the fact that he was not using [Cobra’s Manoeuvre].

As he kept lying helpless, his mind wandered off. His eyes were gazing at the sky, though somehow his vision was blurry. He began to realise that the clouds, the peak of the trees, steps, wind, and all things seemed to flow slower.

Off yourself, TRASH!

The hunter can’t do anything anymore. If he was not mistaken, Manna’s HP was very low. She would definitely die if Lyra managed to reach her. Then, Manna would lose her position as division leader because of the likes of Slicer. Just like what happened to Tier in the past.

Tier felt it was totally unfair for Manna.

He might have deserved being thrown away in the past because he was also being childish and didn’t behave any better than his team. But Manna was different. She was more calm and collected. She even offered Arkengrad to return to Clashing Realms. Even Lyra was considered. Tier doubted he himself would be able to forgive such people that hurt him even years ago.

He is still a selfish person.

If he managed to help Manna, would the bindings and sins of his past be cleansed off even a little?

Fight on, live on.

Tier tried to stand but fell to his knee. In his mind, Tier laughed at himself. There was no point in asking if his sins would be cleared off. It will never be. Also, wouldn’t it be too selfish if he did all of this because he wanted salvation? That meant he had not changed at all from all these years.

Then why did he fight? Why did he struggle so much just to help his friends? Was it to make them accept him? Was it to make Manna fall for him?

“It’s for yourself, your own self, damnit.”

Tier whispered and let out a long sigh to let off the burdens of his mind and heart. Along with that, the rhino silhouette above him let out a totally different expression. The rhino roared with primal fury, as if challenging all those who were threatening his very own being.

“Command on: hide headgear.”

Tier whispered again as the shape of his helmet disappeared. He knew exactly there was nothing else he could do. But, he would still fight for his promise and for himself, even if he has to solely rely on his instincts.

His sight was still a bit blurry and somehow everything still moved a lot slower than normal. However, it was a different sensation from [Cobra’s Manoeuvre]. This feeling was similar to the first time he chose a class or when he was almost killed by a minotauros. Every intention, every movement, and every breath from every being in this hillside was very clear to him.

Tier drew a long deep breath, trying to gauge the whole situation around him, especially his distance to Manna and the opposing parties, including the mysterious sniper. However, he couldn’t properly think as information kept flowing freely to his mind. Then, he decided to not bother anymore.

Tier exhaled slowly. The air flowing out from his chest somehow brought the burdens away from his brain. Still kneeling, He prepared his bow. He thought that there was no more point in thinking, the most important thing was to act accordingly with haste based on the information that kept flowing into his mind.

Slicer struck from the front. His movement was so vivid to Tier. Even with all the killing intent emanating from the rogue, Tier felt clearly that he would strike from Tier’s left side.

Warning….

Tier shot quickly right as Slicer twisted aside, hitting the rogue square on the chest and pushed him back.

Missile alert….

In a half squatting stance, Tier twisted and moved quickly to hide behind a tree right when a shot was heard from afar. The bullet missed and struck the tree. Tier then shot twice at Xildur who was trying to turn westward in pursuit of Manna. The mystic was able to avoid the first shot, but the second shot hit him hard. And since svannire was clearly lightweight, the effect of [Mimic: Rhino] was even more severe.

Tier put a [Claw Trap] before running downhill. He went for a semi-squatting or kneeling position and shot alternately between Lyra and Slicer. Not all of his shots hit the target, some were aimed to herd them towards a certain position. It was successful to make Lyra unawarely step on the [Claw Trap] while Slicer tumbled down due to a very accurate strike on his ankle without [Ankle Break].

While slowly moving down the hill, Tier kept unleashing attacks to drive away his adversaries. Once in a while he shot an arrow to the mysterious sniper in hopes that [Slither Drag] would make enough hindrance. As for the three that were closer to him, Tier also randomly shot [Insularis’ Assault] to slow all of them.

Tier didn’t care much about which abilities he needed to use. He was not even bothered with his instincts anymore. Somehow, he felt like he was always aware of his instincts, thus he knew when to take a breath and slow his attacks down.

Though he barely ever shot with such a stance, Tier felt rather at home with the generally crouching stance even when he moved or avoided attacks. The stance gave him a rather level position for his aim. But that was not all, the movement felt familiar to his heart. Like something he left long ago that came back abruptly.

Everything felt so natural, flowing like water that kept on moving and adapting through stream, place, and space. Yet, bursting with held back emotions. Tier didn’t always manage to evade. Once in a while, some shots landed on him, but at least not ones that caused any disabling effects. So far, no [Ankle Break] ever landed on him since after he crashed into a tree.

This was because he felt a different intention whenever a shot with nasty effects was being used. A more gripping and thick killing intent was emanating from the mysterious hunter before a shot with bigger damage or disabling effect was launched.

Changes in the air were also felt whenever Lyra and Xildur were about to use their magic. There was a friction of static electricity in the air before a lightning strike happened, a friction like something burning was felt before a fire attack, and a sudden chill in the air was clearly the sign when an ice magic was about to be used. There was also a weird buzzing sound heard whenever Xildur was about to use pure energy type attacks or when Slicer was using some tricks to move faster.

Tier had put aside his thoughts from his gradually depleting HP, his burning hot muscles, and his breaths that were getting short. He started moving from tree to tree to avoid furter long range damage while throwing whatever he could at his opponents. He didn't push too hard nor gave up. He just acted and reacted based on what he felt and his instincts.

However, slowly but surely, Tier started to lose awareness of his surroundings. Pain started to bother him. Even his body started to fail following his brain reaction speed.

“Die you tr..askhkh!”

Tier smacked his staff right at Slicer, throwing the rogue to the nearest tree. He also rolled to avoid Xildur’s energy ball, which hit Slicer instead. This caused the two to bicker and throw insults at each other.

The problem was, rolling aside had caused Tier to have a bit of a hard time to stand up properly nor was he perfectly aware of his surroundings. Lyra lunged forward at the opportunity. Her blazing axes struck hard at the hunter.

“Ukh!’

Tier groaned as his body burned by Lyra’s magic. His body rolled down the hill as his consciousness returned to normal. His eyes could see clearly. However, he didn’t have any more strength to stand up. There was a strong pain in his head. He was dizzy beyond what he could comprehend and that made him nauseous.

There was nothing more that he could do to avoid Lyra’s attack. But at least, Manna managed to avoid the chase. While waiting for the killing blow, he wondered if he had done enough.

Suddenly, there was a loud clang reverberated in the air as a claymore parried Lyra’s axe. Now, between Tier and his attacker, stood a green bald orc clad in plate armour with a heavy metal feel to him. The orc’s name was Grok N00bSt0mper.

“Weird stance, but cool. You got guts, bro,” said Grok with a very assuring smile. He then roared so loud that Lyra’s gang was pushed back significantly.

Then, Grok mocked them, “You all, are totally uncool.”