Everyone seemed to have relaxed watching the giant sea serpent hanging in the sky helplessly and being chopped down like sushi; all it could do was roar in anger and pain. The humans were ruthless and witful creatures who took advantage and had no sense of pride; they got the job done one way or another, and that was simply how the world worked even before the apocalypse started. People always did whatever they had to to get shit done; pride was never a thing that humans in modern times cared about.
Even if it was helpless and in the air, it was still a great-grade creature. The serpent roared before it opened its mouth as a blue ball of energy began forming at its mouth…The giants noticed it and immediately began turning the ship around to fall back. Commands were issued, and people moved at maximum speed…yet they were not fast enough. As the giant serpent roared again, the giant blue energy orb in front of its mouth brightened more with every passing second until the ball was bigger than the giant serpent's head.
Everyone's pupil shrunk in fear as the boat, even Ikami, who hardly showed any fear generally, was shook. The only person who wasn't as scared was Hyeon, who stood there with open arms, embracing the incoming death as a blessing to himself. He was the happiest person on that boat at that moment while all the giants who were full of pride stumbled down to despair. The humans tried to use their skills to somehow survive, but it was too late. The serpent's eyes focused on the people as it clenched its jaw, and the giant energy beam launched forward directly in the direction of the boat at a speed the boat just simply couldn't avoid. By all means, it would have been a dead end for all the humans and the giants as well within that moment.
Loss... it was a feeling he was very much familiar with. He had grown up in a rather strict household; his family owned a small dojo back in his home country. Kendo was something their family took pride in, and why wouldn't they? His father had won multiple gold medals throughout his school years; in fact, that's how he met his mother. Kendo was something that was important to their family, and so when he grew up watching his mother and father run the dojo, it was only natural he would also grow an interest in the sport.
They even had a katana, which was their family heirloom… As a kid, he always wanted to touch it, but his parents never allowed it. Growing up, that did make him frustrated, but he understood their reasoning; he was a literal child. But as a kid, he only thought they didn't trust him at all; a kind of resentment grew in his heart. Though one day something else took place; the same resentment changed. It was the day he found Tomi; she was a small white kitten all alone in a box near the park he used to play in.
He looked at her, and she looked so alone he couldn't help but feel bad, so the child did all he could, hiding the kitten inside his small jacket and carrying her back home. For a while he was actually able to deceive his parents and keep them from finding out about his little friend, but the cover was eventually blown away. He was yelled at a lot, not for keeping the kitten but for hiding it from his parents; eventually they agreed to let him keep Tomi, who became his best friend… He played with her every day and grew much brighter, even getting chances to learn kendo in his parents' dojo.
He naturally had talent in the subject; it was literally in his blood, inherited from both his parents. This did make the other kids a bit jealous due to them having to work harder; some even thought his parents simply favored him; however, his parents were simply extra hard on him as compared to others. Everything seemed to be going well until that day; it was raining... He remembers he was on his way back home from high school… just across the road from his home.
He suddenly noticed Tomi waiting in front of the doorstep for him, sitting under the protection of the door frame to avoid the rain, but as soon as she saw him, she jumped and ran in his direction; the kitty didn't care about the rain. He chuckled as he waited here, getting on his knees to grab his friend running at him… But just at that moment, the rain…slowed.
Everything seemed to have slowed down, and within a moment he heard the rumbling of an engine, and everything was so bright… There were lights and sounds, and his brain simply stopped processing things properly… The next thing he remembered was seeing a bloodstain on the road… On the other side, not much farther from him, was the corpse of his best friend…he couldn't process it. She was just there…why…why…
That memory was burned within Tumo's subconscious so deeply he still had nightmares; he couldn't erase it if he wanted to. It was not simply about the death of his best friend but the fact his brain simply switched off; it stopped processing everything… He froze and let his friend die. The current situation was rather the same, wasn't it? His friends were on the brink of death, and he had frozen up yet again… his brain shut off…That wasn't okay… He can't let it happen… no…not again The young boy's mind was in turmoil at that moment; it was so hard to process anything, but he had to do something… HE FUCKING HAD TO.
In that moment his body refused to move; he forced it to move… his hands refused to work, so he forced them to work; his vision blurred, but he forced his eyes to see… This time he won't freeze up and lose again… He was flying on one of his swords as he grabbed the other two in each of his arms as he flew straight towards the ship and in between the giant beam heading towards it; he didn't care if he died at this moment; he must do something. His two blades held in front of him as screens appeared in front of him continuously…
[Gene skill Sword Dance has advanced to intermediate V.]
[Personal Trait "Tomi" is heavily active]
His two blades turned into four as two extra blades formed around him, holding back the great grade monster's beam attack; his blades were coated in mana, causing them to not get instantly incinerated by the beam. His trait was also active for the first time; the reason he did not like talking about his trait was because it was named after his dead friend, which made him rather uncomfortable… What it did was rather simple; he would never freeze.
His mind, no matter how scared or feeble, or his body, was paralyzed, frozen, or burning; he simply couldn't be stopped. It was much similar to Jack's will of greed skill, but simply better because it allowed him to do things he should in no way be able to do at his current level, for example, stopping an attack from a great-grade monster…. He felt his body burning…He felt his hands losing strength; his skin began burning off; every passing second he burned more; his fingers began turning to ashes.
But he didn't care; he just simply wasn't stopping at this point; his throat refused to speak, so he forced it to scream as he put everything into his one effort and swung all four of his swords together, splitting the great grade beam apart in four parts, each flying in a different direction, avoiding the ship completely…
The sea serpent had lost its life by now due to running out of breath; meanwhile, everyone on the ship watched in absolute horror as a burnt body fell down… Ikami flew straight towards him, catching the unrecognizable Tumo midair… She looked at his face. For the first time in her life, she looked grateful.