Tier was shocked beyond measure. For a moment that felt like eternity, he stood motionless among the cries and clashing fighters around him. He was beyond dumbfounded as he watched the jaguar’s body fall to the ground. Everything, especially the efforts of his friends, had been nullified. Simply because Tier missed to predict that Mark was supposed to be here as well.

Tier knew that one long ranged hunter had an even more malicious intent than Slicer.

“Pras, watch out! Kyah!”

Manna pushed Tier aside, causing her to suffer Slicer’s brutal slash - which was originally aimed at Tier. The paladin was rolling on the ground due to the impact, forcing Grok, Arkengrad, and Zackhs to fall back in order to cover for her while Renma quickly dispatched a healing spell.

“Lyra! What are you doing?!” Mal’esh protested. He ignored the battle and stormed at Lyra. Momentarily, the ruckus caused the fighting to stop. “I paid you to help me tame it. Why did Mark kill it instead?”

“I can assure you that next week you will get that creature,” Lyra answered lightly. “Half price or no pay is good enough as long as we can destroy them here.” As if knowing Tier’s despair, she pointed at Manna and Tier while grinning mockingly, “Especially those two naive kids? Seeing them being broken down felt nostalgic…”

“What is your issue, Lyra?”

While Mal’esh was still protesting to Lyra, Tier scoffed at himself in his mind. Tier himself pointed out that Lyra had already destroyed him by killing the jaguar. Everything felt pointless now. All efforts faded away just like how the snow jaguar’s body quickly turned ethereal into spirit form before vanishing.

Only those who bear the mark of a noble sacrifice and a wild heart blanketed in valour shall be worthy of the true cunningness of a feral spirit.

A sudden realisation struck Tier’s mind when he saw how the jaguar’s body had turned. “Spirit, huh…,” he mumbled.

Those who do not fear death shall know the true meaning of survival.

The clues, Gray Land's condition in this place, and even how Steven kept hinting that Tier should try taming the snow jaguar had sparked a crazy idea to solve the whole mystery. The thing was, why had nobody ever said anything similar to Tier’s discovery?

What a shame, my friend… for such a worthy soul.

The spirit guide's cynical laughter rang hard in his mind. The way they pointed at the centre of the Nefelein Valley had made Tier wondered if he somehow had accidentally achieved the requirements of taming. He didn’t know what it was, but he knew he had to take action and gamble it all. Since, there is nothing else to lose.

He reached for his cheekbone with his index and middle finger and said, “Hey, let me die, I have an idea… more like a gamble.”

His teammates quickly glanced at him with such confusion, except for Macepaw. Sid was not surprised as well, the spirit fire just flew around them like some sort of drone filming them all.

Tier quickly gave an additional explanation, “Call me crazy, but there is a chance that the jaguar might still exist in Gray Lands.”

[Yeah, that’s all out insane, bro.] Grok answered lightly. [Though metal as hell if it’s apparently right,]

“I’m sorry, I don’t have any other choice left.”

[I trust you.] Said Manna while slightly smiling at Pras. [We’ll hold the line until you give us a sign.]

Manna’s assurance of trust was heartwarming as well as painful to hear especially after their talk earlier today.

[And I will always stand for you, buddy.] Zackhs chimed in with his ever overly positive vibe.

[[Soul Keeper].] Then Esferta waved her hands at Tier, drawing something like a soul from his body. She then explained to him. [In that case, let me store part of your soul so I can resurrect you later. Renma could save his resurrection for others.]

[Okay, before we move. We should have some sort of plan first.] Nubram suggested. [Let’s take down Hilbot first, then after we get a signal from Pras, we do the old trick of Macepaw’s [Smoke Steam] and me making a portal to run.]

[Mark would be a problem for us.] Grok contested the idea. [He might be an ass, but he’s a capable hunter nonetheless.]

[Don’t worry Grok, he’s mine, Though I might not survive the encounter, I just need to know his location and Nubram’s help in teleporting.] Said Esferta calmly, there was an eerie smile painted on her face,

Tier nodded. He silently marked the location of Mark on the map. Right at that moment, there was a sudden ruckus in the location of Lyra’s gang. There, Rushvatte had already snuck and attacked Hilbot.

“Enough talk! Fight me you assholes! [Bjornur]! [Wild Drive]!” Shouted the mystic who quickly pulled Hilbot away from Lyras’s team. He was not alone, nonetheless, Flick was quick to sprint and went after him.

The provocation quickly forced everyone to spring to action and the battle resumed again. Lyra and Mal’esh quickly put aside their debate and started working together again. Tier himself ran eastwards to break from the protection of his teammate. He shot arrows at both Lyra and Mark to provoke them. And his wish came true as the two, with additional involvement from Mal’esh, relentlessly attacked him.

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“You are finished, kid, stop dreaming,” Lyra said as she struck Tier with her axe to deplete his remaining HP. “Even your friends abandoned you.”

In the Gray Lands, Tier ran as fast as he could downhill without even listening to the Spirit Guide’s greeting. He followed the same route that he took in his previous death and quickly finished the labyrinth. He was grateful that the spirit form had enabled him to walk faster as long as it was in the direction of his dead body. Luckily, he actually died near the jaguar.

Unlike how it looked from the outside. The centre of Nefelein Valley was eerily silent. It was almost the exact copy of its form in real life except the arch and the portal. Yes, everything else was the same that he himself couldn’t believe his eyes. Including the snow jaguar - who was half visible - that sleeps in the exact same position as it would when it was alive. In this world, that spot was apparently right in front of the arch.

The spirit beast opened its eyes as Tier walked towards it. Acting like the guardian of the boundary between life and death, it walked cautiously before the arch while its eyes stared suspiciously at Tier. Even greater than its living form, the jaguar walked without leaving any mark on the ground as it seemingly flowed a few centimetres above the ground.

Tier crouched, as he passed his own body. He ignored the loud drummings and the spirit animal around him. His eyes were staring at the snow jaguar. He stretched his hands forward to lock the target on the jaguar. Then, as the word ‘tameable’ appeared, he let out a long sigh. His guesses about the clues were correct. The reason why people didn’t unlock the jaguar’s true power was because it apparently lived in two worlds. It even made more sense on its apparently nonsensical respawn time. It was never being killed properly thus it took longer to respawn.

The snow jaguar growled threateningly. Tier lowered his body even more though his eyes stared right at the jaguar’s. There was a fierceful yet wild aura emanating from the beast, even more than its living form.

Tier braved himself to slowly approach the jaguar and whispered, “Command: on, start taming process, target: snow jaguar, type: feline. Use item: reindeer meat.”

Can’t use an item in death.

Tier stopped his steps as the announcer's voice was heard. On the other hand, the snow jaguar seemed ready to pounce at him. His excitement had made him totally forgot that he couldn’t just use items from his living body in spirit form. Spirits are free and brought no material burden here, yet the problem was he didn’t know what could he offer to the beast in order to tame it.

“Wait, mark of noble sacrifice…”

Tier whispered and looked at the two sacrifice counters that he had. He could barely guess what condition had given him that, but now he started to suspect this item was the one that triggered Steven to direct him to tame the jaguar.

The specific condition that he had fulfilled, was it luck? Or was it the fruit of his actions? He did not know which was the truth. However, he knew he must take advantage of the situation.

Tier closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and tried to calm himself. Once more, he whispered a command, “Command: on, start taming process, target: snow jaguar, type: feline. Use item: sacrifice counter.”

A wild heart….

The one who knows true survival….

Those words rang in Tier’s head. It warmed his heart, as it gave the acknowledgement of the path he took and the actions he had decided. He had chosen to tread the path that focuses on the survival of himself as the hunter and his teammates while trying to pry open weak spots on their opponents by taking advantage of the situation and surroundings. The path that is less walked on, risky, yet felt at heart to him. The path of Predator’s Tactics. The way of survival.

A circle appeared around the jaguar along with the jaguar’s stopped preparing a pounce. There was a circular progress bar along with the percentage number that appeared next to the circle. As of current, the progress bar was colored green and rose rapidly along the contour of the circle.

When approaching 50 percent, the jaguar started walking slowly towards Tier. Along with it, the progress bar turned yellow and the taming speed slowed down.

This was the sign of the second process of taming, ‘trust’. Tier had to change his mimic to help with the taming process before it stopped at 50 percent. He needed an aura that gave the sign of teamwork. Since all hunters could pass this stage easily, the mimic that can be used should be a basic one. There was one animal among the mimic option that symbolises teamwork, though might be in a more sinister manner.

“[Mimic set: Hornets].”

The taming progress turned green along with the rapid increase of the number percentage. Tier now steadily walked while crouching towards the snow jaguar.

Right after the progress bar passed 50 percent, Tier entered the third phase which was named as ‘knowledge’. This phase was important to determine the stat growth and power of the tamed beast by changing his mimic. Since every mimic would give different stat growth, a hunter needs to know which type would be suitable with the beast they’re taming. Putting the right mimic would give significantly better stat growth and fighting power. It also enables the hunter to use custom abilities on the companion beast later.

Tier had risked his slot and now he has to guess it correctly. Nevertheless, he had watched how the jaguar fights and all the discussion surrounding it. The image of the jaguar disappeared then struck with a powerful pounce in highspeed had reminded him of the way certain predators kill its prey.

“[Mimic set: Crocodile].”

Along with the sound of the crocodile, the taming bar turned bluish green. The jaguar’s pace had lightened as it started to show a bit of trust towards Tier.

Tier sighed a relief with the progress. Now he just needed to wait for the taming to turn 100% and finalise the taming process with the final step, ‘primal bond’. In that upcoming phase, he would need to change his mimic to determine the type of teamwork he would have with his companion beast. This choice might also affect stat change, though none would be favoured by the beast like the second stage. Also, this would enable certain command and stance to be ordered best.

Coordination and intelligent strike was the main aim that Tier had envisioned if he could tame the beast. He wanted to work with the jaguar the way of one of the deadliest predators in the sea who took down their prey with intelligence, coordination, agility, and brutal effectiveness. The mimic specialised for Predator’s Tactics’ path. Orca.

“Eh? What?”

Tier was taken aback by how the taming process stopped at 99 percent.

The snow jaguar approached Tier’s head then rubbed its head to Tier’s neck. Then the beast gradually dispersed into luminous dust that entered Tier’s body.

Nervously, the hunter looked around only to see the jaguar was nowhere to be found. He still could see the taming progress in his sight wherever he looked. There was not even an announcement that told him the taming process had failed nor finished. It was as if he was stuck in an unending process.

As his heart sank, he questioned whether he made a mistake or perhaps it was an untimely glitch?

He sighed desperately as hope turned to despair, “What now… they are fighting their best, and I just… damnit!”