Chapter 455: Big Group’s Months Of Suffering.
Big Group was experiencing the most difficult period of his life.
Like most beasts of the Green Mist Sea, he was part of the unlucky bunch who were caught at the very heart of the ravaging Orca Revolution and was swept by the deadly storm that it brought.
When the Orca Revolution started, the Orcan higher-ups had specific plans in mind as they sent their batches of armies to invade the 3 Great Seas.
Regions like where Leroy established his previously thriving clan were part of the prime target regions included in the plans of the Orcan higher-ups.
This was the reason why after the Orca Revolution started, Leroy and his clan got no news of it as they were swept by it immediately after it started.
They were part of the very first unlucky beasts who encountered the unrestrained rampage of the Killer Whales.
These powerful predators were ruthless and relentless, they slaughtered without giving a damn about their enemies. They had no qualms eliminating entire families and bringing the extinction of entire beast races.
All these from the Killer Whale Empire were a show of force to pass their message to the rest of the world. The Killer Whale Empire was fed up with their current status, they wanted to climb a step higher in the upper tier of Oceania.
They wanted to be respected, revered and feared the same way the overlord Atlantis Empire was feared. If the variant humans could do it, they could too.
Pushing beast species to extinction, and invading 3 Great Seas at once, were all significant feats that drew the attention of all of Oceania.
This was their plan, and it was all to increase the hype of the ultimate showdown between the Killer Whale Empire and the Soul Empire of the Necromancy King that would take place in the Dungeon of Souls.
Nobody knew when the preparations of the Killer Whales would be complete, nobody knew the reaction of the notorious Necromancy King to all that was happening, but one thing was certain this clash would be epic.
All these talks of a clash between empires were high-end stuff though, the small-time players that were affected by the Orca Revolution didn’t know of it nor did they care about it since they were so busy saving their asses.
Big Group was one of these small-time players in the grand scheme of things who was completely fixated on safeguarding the remaining life that he had.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
"Big Group, cover me!"
A Grouper fish that was almost 2 times bigger than Big Group yelled as he bravely dived into the center of the raging battlefield to stop the advance of the needle snakes attacking them.
On seeing the actions of this massive Grouper fish, Big Group already knew what was about to happen next. Once again, he felt his heart being torn apart.
For the past 1 to 2 months, he had been experiencing this heart-wrenching scene which never failed to continue tearing his fragile heart apart.
It all started that fateful morning after the Killer Whales suddenly descended on the region where Leroy’s clan was located.
Just about 2 months prior, the Leroy clan experienced a similar encounter as a group of Blue Sharks migrating swam through their region of water.
While swimming through, these Blue Sharks were ruthless as they simply fed on all the beasts that they met on the way. Due to the expansion of the Leroy clan, they suffered from this shark migration as they lost a lot of brothers.
Despite the loss, the Leroy clan alongside a lot of other small-time beast groups in the region put up a good fight to push the sharks away.
After this encounter, Leroy became a lot more cautious about matters like this as he made new policies to increase the defense of the clan against migrating predator groups like the Blue Sharks.
When the policy was implemented, all of them were content, feeling that it was full proof enough to safeguard their lives.
With such reassurance, the casual life returned to the Leroy clan as every brother in the clan did random things, enjoying life to its fullest.
This all stopped though like a pause button was pressed on a remote control after the Orca Revolution swept through the region like a plague.
Till today, Big Group was haunted by the traumatizing encounter.
He was still sleeping in his quarters in the Leroy clan army when he heard screams and roars of pain reverberating through the clan.
As the leader of the clan army, he immediately woke up on hearing the screams, thinking that an enemy clan attacked as he mobilized his soldiers to go out and retaliate against the attackers.
It was ongoing outside the cave that Big Group experienced this traumatizing encounter. Due to the trauma, he didn’t remember all that happened, all he remembered was hearing screams, seeing blood, and seeing his brothers dying.
To his shock, this was not a clan war like he expected, this was a massacre that these powerful beasts that he was seeing for the first-time wrath across all the beast clans in this region, no one was exempted from the rampage.
He could remember seeing familiar faces dying before his eyes, fading like smoke from this reality of life, he remembered the traumatizing scene as the deadly teeth of the beasts called Orcas sunk into Leroy’s sturdy war gear.
Leroy was a powerful turtle, but against the Killer Whales, he stood no chance. Big Group saw his clan head being obliterated before his very eyes.
Of all these traumatizing encounters, the one that really killed half of his mind the most was when the beautiful female Grouper fish that he finally found the courage to propose to after years of being timid was crushed to death.
Once this Grouper fish died before his watching eyes, Big Group felt a part of him dying, he didn’t join the fight yet but he already lost all will to fight.
Everything else that happened was a blur, the only scene he remembered was a powerful tooth of these beasts shooting toward him like a bullet.
Once the tooth pierced his head, a nearby rock collapsed as he was buried.
At that moment, Big Group thought he died and he was relieved. He was relieved because he felt that there was nothing worth living for anymore.
After what felt like 2 days though, he saw himself awake again. Surprisingly, life had more suffering in store for him, he was rescued by a small family of Grouper fish who mostly suffered the same terrible encounters that he did.
On waking up and told how he was rescued, Big Group felt grateful but on remembering everything that happened, he felt like this was a curse rather than a blessing. He wanted to commit suicide on the spot.
As if reading his thoughts, Canana, the biggest and strongest Grouper fish who was the leader of the survivors encouraged him.
Big Group still remembered his words. "Life always has a way to move on even in trying times, the fact that you are alive means that life has more in store for you, and if you’re lucky, it is mostly good things".
"Remember this, yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, that is why they call it the present, do well to cherish it".
The words sounded annoying to Big Group at first, but later on, in his private time, he finally caught on to the wisdom inside it.
Big Group was still depressed, he still wanted to die, his personality was already twisted, but he still managed to live on those words.
"Today is a present, who knows what it has in store for me?" This newfound curiosity toward the present was what kept him going despite the suffering.
Together, he survived daily with his new friends.
2 weeks after he joined them, life gave all the Grouper fish a terrible present as they lost their spiritual guardian and protector, Canana.
Once this fish died, Big Group felt even more lost than when he lost his fiancée. Once again, he lost his curiosity for the present, he hated life to the core.
The only reason why he continued living was to accompany his new friends.
If he would die, he didn’t want to commit suicide and do it himself, that was the mutual respect that they shared among themselves since one of them dying would endanger the others.
After Canana died, Dime became the new leader and he died a week after. After Dime’s death, Trol became the new leader and he died just 3 days later.
The next leader, Beef became the longest leader that Big Group served under since joining the group. Now though, against the needle snakes, to safeguard the lives of the others, Beef had no choice but to sacrifice himself.
Big Group was already numb to it. On seeing Beef’s actions, his body reacted instinctively as he turned to escape with his remaining friends.
From the corner of his eyes, he saw Beef die. Once again, Big Group felt like another part of his heart was ruthlessly cut off, he never got used to this feeling.
Numbly, he escaped with his new brothers to a new region to hide. Before they could settle down, mourn the loss of Beef and decide on their new leader, they were ambushed by a group of Devouring Worms.
This time, instinctively, Big Group stood up to the challenge.
"Escape, I’ll hold them back!"
To his surprise though, none of his friends escaped this time, he turned to look at them and the look in their eyes told him all that he needed to know.
"I’m tired of running, if we’re going to die, let’s all die together!"
