A worthy soul.

“This again, huh?”

Tier mumbled as his corpseless soul continued striding towards the centre of the valley. He didn’t know why, but he felt like he needed to rush as fast as he could to his body. Though part of him knew that Mal’esh would be the one to tame the jaguar. Yet, there was still something that pushed him forward.

Those who do not fear death shall truly survive….

As those words rang again in his mind, Tier saw the countdown to snow jaguar’s respawn had not been started. His heart raced, wondering if something had stopped Mal’esh. Was it another player? Or did they actually try to bait him and kill him again?

Nonetheless, none of those actually mattered. What he knew was that there was still a chance for him.

As he ran, he opened the image he had saved before and drew a route towards the centre. At a glance, the maze might seem complex, but apparently it was rather simple. If he entered from the western entrance, he would just need to stick to the left wall to reach the centre.

There were still no changes with the countdown timer. Tier felt vigour rushed through him above all fears. Tribal drums rang harder as the animal spirits danced on the path beyond him. His steps hastened as he was almost done with the labyrinth.

Then, he heard a voice from his announcer.

Renma wants to resurrect you.

For a moment, he wondered if he was hallucinating when the confirmation window appeared at the centre of his sight. His friends were here? Were they the reason why Mal’esh hasn’t tamed the jaguar? Without being asked, they had come for someone as selfish as him?

The smile from Manna and his friends flashed in his mind. Their enthusiastic spirit and their laughter rang true and loud. Those had guided his hands to click the acceptance button of the resurrection.

Spirit of a black panther appeared before Tier accompanied by the spirit of a black wolf. The two circled around Tier’s spirit and lifted him up. The three bathed in golden lights, accompanied by the thundering tribal drums.

Tier panted as air filled in the lungs of his previously lifeless corpse. Yet, unlike the usual manual resurrection or through the spirit guide, it felt warm despite the coldness of the northern snowstorm.

“Next time, give us a call, don’t try to burden yourself with it,” Renma greeted as he quickly put Tier into the team and appointed him as the leader.

“It will take too long to wait for you lots,” Tier lied as he stood up.

“Really?”

“Joking. Thanks, I mean it,” he said as he strengthened his feelings. He felt rather melancholic and surprised with the incoming help from his friends. Yet, time will not allow him to savour the emotions.

He quickly scanned around and saw Arkengrad as well as Rushvatte seemed to be resurrected as well. His mind quickly wondered if Rushvatte was the one stopping Mal’esh before the others arrived. The mystic’s bear form and constant form shifting definitely had the capability to stall people.

Near Renma and the newly resurrected players, there was only Esferta. She was busy casting spells and controlling Sid. Then, between Lyra’s gang and the snow jaguar, Manna and the others were fighting valiantly. The crew was their usual gang plus Grok.

Most fighters seemed to have around 19 to 25 thousand HP with Nubram being the lower outlier at the lowest around 15 and a half thousand and Manna was the top outlier at 39 thousand followed by Zackhs at 30 thousand.

Each normal attack damage done was around three hundred up to seven hundred points of damage with abilities that could deal up to three or four thousand damage.

Lyra, Nubram, and Slicer were the ones dealing the highest number of damage while Manna and Zakchs dealt the least damage per attack. However, the latter two also received far less damage than the others per hit, allowing them to freely interrupt attacks.

“Hey, Tier, give us command won’t you! You’re the leader now!”

Arkengrad shouting dragged Tier back to his current position. The paladin seemed impatient with the bystanding they were doing.

“Yo, man, I heard someone needed a companion beast?” Rushvatte greeted in his tiger form while pointing at himself jokingly.

“Stop with the jokes already!” Arkengrad roared. “Manna can’t heal that much, they will be bacon soon.”

“Chill down, Arkengrad,” Esferta snickers, “That boy was screening the field for a moment.”

Tier let out a small cackle to prevent his emotions from taking over. What he needed to do was to rendezvous with Mana’s position.

He took a deep breath then said, “How about this, Renma will be Azrael, cleanse them all, and try to fly there once opportunity arises. Arkengrad, I think you should make a mess by attacking Hillbot. Rushavtte should get ready to use [Threatening Roar] to open up a path. For Esferta, try to move from the sides. I will break through from the middle with this bear-tiger. You will follow to join us, Arkengrad.”

Tier then pointed at Hilbot, “[Mark of Prey], have fun.”

Arkengrad grinned, she unsheathed her swords. “Now this is my kind of thing,” she laughed as she ran towards Hilbot. Esferta also nodded her agreement and started to move as directed.

It was then that Renma applied both [Jibril’s Grace] and [Mikhail’s Vow] to himself. Then as a ruckus was made by Arkengrad, the chanting of his ability rang loud, confusing the players from Lyra's side.

From dust to dust,

All dawn ends with dusk,

O’ Bravely Benevolent Guide of Souls,

The One braved infestation of thousand fouls,

Who cradled the soils of our origin,

Who tether our souls through good and sin.

We tread wide and far,

Yet You always know who we truly are.

Guide us in our plight,

Lend me Your might,

And in Your name I shall plead,

O’ Malak al Mawt.

“[Archangel Form: Azrael]! [Mass Purification]!”

The swing of the death angel’s giant scythe had called for a silent wave that cleansed everyone of any buff and debuff. It caused the Lyra’s side to be unable to reach quickly to support Hilbot since Arkengrad reapplied her buffs swiftly.

Their lines were breaking, giving Grok and Flick ample opportunity to break in and wreak further havoc.

“[Mimic set: Cheetah]!” Tier growled, followed by the chirp of a cheetah. He then grinned at Rushvatte, “Gi, let the hunt begin…”

“... by fangs and claws! [Bjornur!]” Rushvatte continued the sentence as he dashed forward, roaring while turning into a bear. With Tier, he smacked right into the middle of the opponent’s line and let out the deafening roar of [Threatening Roar]. That moment, a path was open which Renma didn't waste to fly through to position himself behind Manna.

Before Lyra’s gang managed to react, Zackhs had pulled Tier and Rushvatte to their line of defence with his shadows. Manna dashed right to the middle of the break between Lyra’s line, trying to give Arkengrad the chance to rejoin them.

It almost failed when Lyra threw her lightning net at Arkengrad’s path. Fortunately, Manna managed to parry one of the axes while Arkengrad parried the other axe. Tier took the chance to spread his [Insularis Assault] to slow the closest adversary.

As Arkengrad managed to reach Manna and both female paladins tried to steadily return to the defensive line, some players from Lyra’s gang took the chance to break through.

Xildur, Ikillyou, and Slicer managed to pass through and lunged at Nubram. Rushvatte quickly turned into tiger form and parried Slicer’s attack with his claw, but the other two managed to almost corner the wizard.

“Nubram, use your [Magma Core] at Sid!”

Esferta shouted while Sid appeared right in front of Nubram. Without thinking much, the wizard slashed his fiery sword at the ghastly flame while casting his flame wave spell.

A sizable explosion happened. Throwing every adversary away from him. The movement was followed by Macepaw’s waves of leaves that covered every single opponent.

Seeing the opportunity, Tier and his allies moved further back northwards to create a proper defensive line protecting the jaguar.

At that short moment, Manna glanced awkwardly at Tier. She then made a hand sign while saying, “Ape, together, stronk.”

Tier was rather dumbfounded with her reaction. He laughed a bit and replied, “You can just talk normally to me, you know.”

“I-it is not that easy after….”

Their short conversation was cut short as lightning struck wildly from Lyra who was fuming and hashing the leaves burying her. She and her allied melee fighters lunged forward, clashing with Manna, Akengrad, Grok, and Zackhs.

Meanwhile, Slicer, Ikillyou, Mal’esh, and Xildur kept trying to steal a chance to strike at the spellcasters, especially Nubram. Flick and Rushvatte were wildly busy, moving frantically from side to side, trying to stop them with the help of Tier’s disabling ability and Macepaw’s combination of weird spells. Once in a while Sid flew here and there to interrupt the attackers from reaching Nubram.

None of the two sides were willing to give up. They both relentlessly pushed and fought back any advantage the opposing side had. Tier’s [Mimic: Orca] was unable to give much advantage due to the ability giving bonus damage if the team decided to take on a certain single target. The current condition was the complete opposite. Despite being clustered, they were having problems in focusing into a target and fought rather sporadically.

Therefore, the battle finally fell down to the capabilities of each healer and the MP regeneration of both sides. With the existence of Nubram, Renma, and Esferta, Tier was confident that slowly but surely they would be the one who would come out victorious.

Then a loud bang was heard amidst the slowly dissipating blizzard. There was a clear pained grunting from the snow jaguar. For a moment, Tier ignored the whole fighting and turned at the snow jaguar. There, the creature was clearly hurt by a long distance shot.

Tier’s heart sank as he had forgotten one more member of Lyra’s gang was not present at all. And now, the presence was shown in the worst way possible.

The jaguar roared in pain, its blood painted the snow in red. As it tried to struggle and ran towards the attacker on northwest, more bullets struck its body. In mere moments, the snow furred jaguar fell lifeless on the snowfield where it used to live.