YOU DARE LOOK AT ME

"I have evolved?!" Leo pondered as he could not believe his eyes. On his status screen was "Feotus," his first evolution.

"The mana stats had also gained points... Vitality has also... Skill proficiency too..." Leo mused, excited about the changes in his stats.

His eyes wandered to his body as he had felt a bit strange after waking but had not noticed the changes in his body all this while, as his attention was completely on the two.

His muscles had toned, his skin smoother, his black hair glittering with youth—he felt anew. As he looked at his physical changes, he could feel a new type of energy, something foreign coursing through his veins.

With every breath he took, he felt invigorated, energized, as if the very air was a source of nourishment providing his body with something more than just oxygen.

He remained standing in front of the door, silently observing the changes in his body.

A shadow flashed before him, bringing him out of his daze. "Eh, I should be getting food for the two... I will study the changes in my body and stats later."

After making up his mind, he stepped completely out of the room into the hallway, the gentle rays of twilight falling on his eyes and momentarily blinding him.

After his eyes adjusted, he could now clearly see in front of him. Before him were shattered windows and a wall in ruins, rubble covering the hallway floor. The soft twilight rays bathed the hallway and revealed fungi, moss, and spirogyra adorning it, creating an underwater-like beauty.

He wasn't surprised, as the school had been underwater for almost a month; this was to be expected. He shifted his gaze from the hallway, directing it to the outside world.

The once-pristine school grounds, embellished with state-of-the-art amenities—gleaming pools, vibrant football fields, basketball courts, meticulously manicured lawns, and blossoming flowers—now bore the scars of the flood's wrath and mutated creatures, both human and monster alike. Though no creatures were in sight, the school grounds displayed unmistakable signs of unnatural entities, not born from Mother Nature.

The pools, once clear and blue, now mirrored a murky chaos. The sports courts, once alive with the echoes of cheers, stood cracked and broken.

The once beautiful lawns had now tangled and muddied, and the flowers that once added to the grounds' dignity now wilted, overshadowed by the grim aftermath of floods and the continuous rampaging of lurking monsters.

Leo stood there in a daze as he subconsciously remembered what the school grounds used to look like, comparing it to what was left now. It could not even be called "it was once a school," but a ruin whose original state could not be figured out.

A figure swept through the sky, the same figure whose shadow had brought him out of his daze earlier. He got a closer look at it this time—a bird, or at least it looked like one—flew past the window, unaware or uncaring about Leo's gaze.

The bird had the features of a harpy eagle, with crown feathers atop its head, a testament to its might. It would have looked like a regular bird if not for its size, which was three times that of the average harpy eagle, and its crimson-red feathers shimmering as it bathed in the twilight.

An average harpy eagle is about 4 feet with a wingspan of an outstanding 6.5 to 7 feet wide, but this particular bird was three times that size, resembling a small mid-sized Toyota Camry and having the wingspan of a small engine plane.

Its normal black and white crown feathers were now crimson red, and its pitch-black eyes were like a void capable of swallowing the world.

Leo found himself staring at the giant creature. The creature finally noticed Leo, enraged by the audacity of the puny creature staring at it. It screeched, the sound waves pushing Leo back and bursting his eardrums in the process.

It peered its eye through the broken wall; its body was too big to fit into it. Otherwise, it would have torn Leo into bits for staring at it.

"What the heck," Leo said out loud, unable to hear his own words, only feeling the vibration through his throat—a sign that he had spoken. Fearful he wasn't, but instead perplexed, as he had not shown hostility or fear, only admiration.

"Did that creature try to kill me for just looking at it?!... What a proud creature," Leo thought to himself as he backed away.

The creature seemed set on killing him as it pushed its head through the collapsed wall, squeezing through the ruined window.

"It's quite persistent. How did it notice... that's a dumb question. Birds of that caliber have quite the sight, coupled with their size and metamorphic ability; noticing me should have been easy," Leo thought to himself as he leaned on the door to the storeroom, his gaze on the large creature that had its head through the collapsed wall, snapping its beak as it tried to rip Leo in half.

"I guess you have to become the game," Leo said, his resolute eyes locked on the giant creature, a wicked smile playing on his lips.

He checked his surroundings, noticing an iron rod peeking through the rubble. He walked calmly towards it.

SCREECH!! The giant bird screamed at the seemingly fearless creature, feeling more enraged as it couldn't instill fear into the puny creature before it.

The puny creature dared to walk past it, dared to move without fear despite being in its majestic presence—how dare it!?

Leo winced in pain as blood oozed out of his ears; the screech had an impact on him. But he still stood his ground, undeterred by the force of the sound waves.

He reached his destination, a few meters from the creature's head. With his superhuman strength, he pulled the iron rod out.

As a beast, the creature sensed an impending danger from the creature it had deemed puny but decided to ignore it.

So what if it felt dangerous? It was a hunter, a creature that had to kill and escape death many times, and looking at the creature before it, it considered it too small to cause any harm.

It ignored its instincts, something it had learned to do as its intelligence grew to that of a 10-year-old, making it dismiss something that had kept it alive before it evolved.

After removing the iron rod, Leo walked toward the creature. Enraged by its prey's condescending actions, the creature pushed its body through the collapsed window, bringing down the whole wall.

Leo, who had been expecting this, jumped back, compelling the creature to push further into the hole, further collapsing the fragile wall.

"The metamorphosis has made you dumber, and that makes my job easier," Leo said with a smirk as the wall collapsed on the creature's body.

It screeched as it was pinned down by the rubble.

Leo noticed that its feathers served like a hard protective exoskeleton, shielding its body from shards of glass and iron rods. It was only pinned down by the weight and not hurt in any way.

"The creator always gives a weakness for exploitation, and that of every creature is their eyes. You might have feathers, but your eyes are unprotected," Leo said maniacally, communicating with a creature he knew could not understand him.

He was that kind of weirdo.

The creature's instincts kicked in once again, alerting it of an impending death.

Its current situation made it aware that it could die at the hands of this puny creature.

It screeched, this time a distinctive sound different from what it had released earlier.

Leo halted in his tracks as he tried to stab the creature in the eye. Unlike the creature, he trusted his instincts and was not as confident or proud of his skills as the creature before him.

The creature burst into flames just as the strange distinctive screech ended. Orange flames danced on its body, surprisingly not incinerating its feathers. It pushed the rubble off its body and raised its head, attempting to look majestic but hitting its head on the ceiling or at least what remained of it, as the hall was only nine to ten feet tall, but it stood at an outstanding twelve feet.

The momentary distraction of the hit allowed Leo a chance to escape. He knew when to fight and when to fight another day.

"Did not expect that. I guess mana is the magic stuff in games and novels," Leo muttered to himself. "How do I deal... Wait, it's close to where Mark and Anne are."

Leo jumped out from where he hid and, with all his strength, threw the rod he still had in his hand toward the flaming bird.

The rod flew far and true, hitting the creature in one of its eyes. It screeched in pain, trying to pull the rod out of its eye. Standing on one leg, as the other was used to remove the rod, it stumbled and fell onto the Lost and Found storage room, crashing into it.