[The Beginning of The End]

After hearing the mind-numbing, animal-like shrill of a person. I immediately closed the book and left the room to check whatever was in the nine circles of hell was happening.

"What the fuck is this...?"

Monsters. Gruesome looking creatures with deformed bodies were falling out from a giant cross shaped rift in the sky. It was a scene straight out of a movie, but this time it was reality.

The first one to land on the surface was a 2-meter tall, canine-like monster. Its eyes were glowing blood red, and it had several blue spikes protruding out of its back. The monster whimpered a bit as it stabilized and recovers itself from the impact, but after a few seconds, it eventually managed to stand in its four claw-like feet.

Upon seeing a random man, it quickly lunged at it, making him the first prey of the catastrophe. More and more monsters began to arrive inland, and they started to even more havoc in the entire campus.

Chaos, everything was in utter chaos. People were running around trying to escape the supernatural hunters that arrived to devour them. I stand there, frozen from what seemed like a mixture of fear and shock.

"Hey! Why are you just standing there like an idiot? We need to run!"

A hurried and ragged voice broke me out of my torpor. Her name was Angel. She's another classmate of mine, and an extroverted one at that. You could say she was the polar opposite of Samanta.

She didn't even wait for my reply and just straight up took my hand, dragging me with her wherever she wanted to 'run away' to. Still feeling bewildered about the sudden change in the surroundings, I let Angel take me somewhere to hide.

We were now hiding in one of the barely used storage room of the academy. The room was pretty far from the event hall and was pretty much hidden.

"Hey? Are you okay? Say something, will you?" I don't know if she was genuinely concerned about me or she just wanted somebody to talk to. "Yeah, sorry about that." I gave out a flat apology as a reply to her.

"Do you know what those things are?"

"No clue. This is also the first time that I saw creatures like them."

"Well, it was a dumb question. No shit, you don't know anything about them. They literally came out of the sky."

It seems liked Angel saw the entire thing happen with her own two eyes.

"What was that thing up there?"

"How should I know? That thing just suddenly appeared after Professor Mar finished his ending spee-"

*Screech*

Suddenly, the door of the room opened. Angel and I quickly became both vigilant and nervous. Fortunately, though, what came inside was not a human-devouring beast but a person.

"W-who's there?" The person upon seeing us raised what seemed to be a long metal pipe as a weapon. "No, please. We're humans." Angel spoke instantly to placate the supposedly frantic man.

I didn't recognize him. He must be a parent of one of the students. Standing about 5'7 feet tall, he had a hunched back and wrinkled face, about the ranges of mid-thirties to forties.

Recognizing us as his fellow race. The man relaxed for a bit, but then became vigilant again. He closed the door and strolled towards us. Angel subconsciously grabbed the end of my uniform, perhaps out of fear of the monsters or the stranger in front of us.

"What's your name?" The man asked us. "My name is Angel, and this is Ray. We're both tenth graders from this academy." Before I could even utter a word, Angel had already introduced us both.

"I see. My name is Rowan. My daughter was also studying in this academy, although she was in eighth grade." Rowan sat down a few steps beside us. His movement seems to be sluggish, and he was also out of breath. It looked like he ran from the event plaza all the way into here.

"Mr. Rowan. Pardon me for asking, but why are you here without your daughter? Wouldn't you first secure your child before yourself?" I inquired Rowan about the condition of his child. I didn't want to meddle in someone else's life, but I just don't understand why a father would save himself first rather than his child.

"Ray! You know it's rude t-" Angel was about to berate me when Rowan suddenly replied."She's dead. I saw her get eaten in front of me." Rowan looked up at the ceiling and I could see his grip of the metal pipe getting firmer. "I couldn't do anything but just watch as she screamed my name for help."

Just from his words alone, I can understand the gist of his situation. It's not that he did not save his daughter, it's that he couldn't. He wasn't strong enough, just like the rest of us. When faced with adversities, one can realize just how fragile the human spirit really is.

*Boom!*

"An explosion?" Angel and Rowan both spoke at the same time. I spent years in this academy, and I never seen anything that can produce an explosion as loud as that. So, the previous explosion could only mean one thing; the military is here.

As if our minds were linked interconnectedly, the three of us all thought the same thing. Hope begun to seeped through the gaps of feeble and terrified heart. "That must be the military. They're here to eradicate those monsters." Rowan spoke excitably. His words were laced with hope and trust in the might of the army.

'Weird. I don't hear any gunshots... and it's been a few seconds but there's still no following explosion. They can't hope to clear the monsters using just a single ballistic weapon, unless they plan on using atomic warheads.'

"C'mon Ray, let's get up." Angel stood up and beckoned me to do the same. Perhaps, the thought of the army coming to rescue us gave her some sort of energy and bravery that lessened her fear of the otherworldly abominations.

"No, it's still dangerous to outs-"

"We must go to the entrance gate!" I tried to say something but Rowan suddenly interjected. His plan must be to go where the forces of the military would be most powerful and packed; the entrance gate.

'Fools.' I thought. The entrance gate also acts as the academy's exit. In the entire Kleirmont Academy, it is the sole exit, and the room we were currently hiding was on the back of the school. It is the farthest from the entrance.

Still, the military was our only god for the moment. Nobody would save us other than them, so no matter how stupid and suicidal Rowan's plan was, Angel and I still decided to go with him.

"Are you two coming with me?" Rowan asked Angel as he seemed to believe that she's also speaking in my behalf. "O-of course!" She stuttered a bit when saying that, maybe out of fear of the action we were about to do.

"Alright, I'll go first. You two just go behind m-" Rowan was about to explain our wonderfully suicidal game plan when suddenly the wall, the door, along with his head was cut in half.

"Krrrriii!"

A giant mantis, about seven meters tall peeked inside. Its claws were drenched in blood but it still retained its natural green color. I don't know if it's just my imagination but it seems to smiling while it was looking at us. Like some kind of predator toying with its prey.

"H-humans..."

'It can speak?!' It was just now that I realized the severity of the situation our world was currently in. Ever since the creation of the primordial lifeforms, there was one thing a civilization excels the most. That is evolution, and one thing was clear.

'These motherfuckers are definitely evolving.'

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