Disengage did not necessarily require leaping into the air, nor did it have to carry the user backward. It could propel them in any direction, or move them a short distance in an instant while barely leaving the ground. Disengage was a ranger's most basic skill, but also one of the most important. For a ranger, it mattered more than any other skill and was a key measure of combat ability and rank.
This was fundamentally different from the game. Yu Lin Bloodhawk had always leaped upward and backward largely because of the game's skill mechanics. Those preconceived notions had led him to misunderstand how the skill worked. The game's restriction to backward jumps had made him assume that was simply how it had to be, and he had never considered any other possibilities.
Disengage was classified as an intermediate skill because it required considerable practice before it became truly effective. It did have some effect at the beginner level, but it did not greatly improve combat ability, which was why it fell into the intermediate category.
Strictly speaking, most ranger recruits had not yet trained their Disengage to the intermediate level. They therefore could not be considered true rangers, only archers.
Ranger was a broad term. It was generally used as a loose designation, but not every soldier was a ranger. True rangers were soldiers whose Disengage had reached the intermediate level or higher.
Disengage was not merely a means of escape. Its true purpose was to use a sudden burst of movement to create distance from an opponent, allowing rangers to exploit their strengths and attack with their bows. In other words, recruits used Disengage to break out of combat and flee, while true rangers used it as a powerful offensive tool.
Yu Lin Bloodhawk had always considered