Chapter 456: The Present..., Life Or Death?
"I’m tired of running, if we’re going to die, let’s all die together!"
On hearing this, Big Group was stunned for a time.
After joining the group, Canana, the first leader drilled the need to survive to see the present of today into their heads so much that each time any of their leaders decided to sacrifice his life for them, they simply escaped.
This was what Canana taught them, and they did so every single time because there was always a leader to sacrifice for them.
Unknowingly to them, subconsciously, these subtle sacrifices have built a trust in them that was stronger than that between twins from the same mother’s womb.
They trusted each other to the core, and they trusted their leaders even more. They would escape to see the present of today if there was someone to sacrifice for them, but it did not mean that they were afraid to die.
Now that there was no leader to sacrifice for them did they really understand how much trust they had in each other.
Since there was no leader, they all now saw themselves as leaders and the responsibility to sacrifice fell to all of them. None of them even thought of safeguarding his life first as soon as the Devouring Worms appeared.
All of them at some point since the Orca Revolution started already grew tired of living, they lived only to see the present that today had to offer.
If the present was death, they accepted it calmly, if it was more suffering in this life, they equally accepted it calmly without any complaints.
Adversities in life had a way of drawing out the full potential of people, this also applied to mutated beasts in Oceania.
During all his time in the Leroy Clan, Big Group was stuck in the white tier realm since his bloodline limited him so much from evolving into a higher tier.
In normal circumstances, it was too hard for a normal Grouper Fish to evolve, the case of Canana and others was an exception rather than the rule.
This was not normal circumstances though.
As Big Group basked in the pressure that living every day at the edge brought, not caring about life or death, and as his personality became more warped due to the things that he experienced and saw every day, he grew stronger from them.
Big Group came close to breaking a lot of times, but remembering the words of Canana, though out of context always gave him the strength to keep on fighting.
His willpower grew stronger from all the hardship of the past 2 months, and it was during this time that he finally broke the shackles of his bloodline.
Big Group broke the great divide and evolved to the orange tier realm. At this moment, in the group, he and another Grouper fish, Jobe were the only ones who were in the orange tier realm.
Their daily survival in the treacherous waters of the Green Mist Sea was a miracle, they didn’t know how it happened, it just happened.
Originally, after Beef’s death, either Big Group or Jobe were to become the new leaders but the ambush from the Devouring Worms did not let this happen.
The Grouper Fish had to react immediately to the looming danger.
On seeing the actions of their brothers, neither Big Group nor Jobe interjected, they were not the leaders yet, they were casual Grouper Fish like all the others and they knew how the others felt.
This was why they didn’t tell the others to escape, rather, they let all of them stand their ground and fight the Devouring Worms.
"Let’s die as a family!" Big Group announced before pouncing at the nearest Devouring Worm recklessly.
Devouring Worms were a special mutated beast that adapted to become extremely big and was capable of ejecting sticky poison from their body.
They were a powerful beast species when looking from the perspective of orange tier and white tier predators, and were therefore a powerful opponent that could spell the extinction of this small group of Grouper fish.
Big Group and his brothers didn’t care though, life and death were already no more than mere words to them, all they cared about was the present.
Perhaps, the present of today was death and they were ready to welcome it with a neutral face, they already got tired of cursing at the world.
Unlike most mutated beasts who get a magic domain after evolving to the orange tier realm, due to the limitation of their bloodline, neither Big Group nor Jobe got a magic domain but they still put up a good fight.
Using magic in its base form could still be powerful against worms.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
The group of Grouper fish gave their all, retaliating with all their might as the organized group of assassin-like Devouring Worms ejected sticky poison consistently to slowly whittle them to death.
It took no time before the first Group Fish finally died, and once the first died, the others started following as they took their present which was death.
Seeing his brothers falling dead consistently, Big Group did not have much of a reaction as his mind was also already prepared to take his present of death.
A short time later, immediately after Jones died, 5 Devouring Worms attacked Big Group at the same time as sticky poison stuck to his body from all sides as they ate away at his health and his consciousness.
Feeling his lifeforce draining away, Big Group finally smiled after 2 months.
Ptui!
Once one of the Devouring Worms bit into his head, which was supposed to bring his end but before his consciousness could leave this dimension, Big Group’s body was suddenly enveloped by a bright white light.
The next moment, he felt like he was back in time when he was still a baby Grouper fish and he basked in the warmth of his mom.
The warmth felt familiar, it was like he was being caressed gently.
The strange thing was that as he experienced this warmth while wondering if this was how the process of death felt, he strangely felt his body receiving vitality.
"Big Group..."
He faintly heard his name being called but all he heard were echoes, these echoes seemed to do it as they finally made his weary consciousness fall asleep.
The last thought that Big Group had before his consciousness went asleep was. "If this is how the process of death is, I’ve really missed a lot".
