Daiki left the initiation ceremony early. The moment Arrun mentioned Riptide's achievement, he felt sick to his stomach and exited the hall, not caring for the awed gasps of his peers or the murmurs that went through the crowd speculating how they had done it. Daiki could answer that question - by sheer dumb luck. It had cost one of his teammates' arms and his own sword, in the end they barely managed to slay it by using its own horn as a weapon.

He needed a breath of fresh air and Daiki settled down under the shade of a large tree as he dropped the cloth bundle holding what remained of his sword. He supposed he would either have to buy a new one with money he didn't have or forge one with the school's supplies and facilities. He groaned as he leaned against the trunk and the throbbing ache in his dislocated shoulder protested with a vengeance. A small price to pay to prevent the unicorn from taking more than Rygar's arm, though it made the swordsman wonder if they would all be so lucky next time.

Daiki had always been confident in his skills, but it seemed that he needed to sharpen them further or develop a new style of fighting entirely if he wished to be a proper hunter. All the other students had fancy weapons and abilities, and he was trying to keep up with a hand-me-down sword... Not that he'd be any good learning how to fire a gun at this point. He would just need to figure out how his new blade would be improved on. He'd pay a visit to the forge and look up the manuals there later. He might even ask one of his teammates or Grizel to help... since he had no experience whatsoever with making a weapon by himself.

"Barely a day and I feel like I've aged a year..." Daiki muttered to himself as he leaned his head back against the tree and enjoyed the breeze, waiting for the ceremony to end before shuffling off with the crowd.