Leo's heart almost pounced out of his chest when he saw what he had just done. He had not expected the beast to fall into the storage room; he attacked on impulse, fearing the worst for his comrades, and thus was not thinking straight.
"WHAT HAVE I DONE... THEY MUST HAVE SURVIVED?!... THEY MUST HAVE SURVIVED?!... THEY MUST HAVE?!!" He cried out, his voice quivering with fear and panic.
With a panicked expression, he rushed towards the flaming bird; its heat and orange lights served as his source of direction as the crash had picked up dust.
His heart kept pounding, the vibration shaking the very clothes he wore.
Leo had control over his emotions; having seen death and felt pain and agony at a very young age, he found it easy to manage his emotions as he grew. After spending time with his new family, he let his guard down, not to the extent of showing constant emotions, but to the degree that something he deemed important could trigger his emotions.
At this moment, that something was Anne and Mark, whom he had developed an attachment to.
Leo continued to dash forward, his vision tunneled by his desire to save his friends. As he ran, he stumbled and fell on one of the many rubble that lay in his path.
His fall was great, as he had accumulated a significant amount of momentum from the speed with which he ran.
His nose broke, and his face and elbows scraped, reddened as blood threatened to come out. For his fractured nose, blood gushed out relentlessly like an opened dam as he fell face first, instinctively savoring the fall with his arms. However, he failed, as his nose was broken, and the hands he tried to use were also scraped.
He got up almost immediately and continued to move forward, ignoring the stinging sensation on his face and elbows, and the warm blood dripping down his nose, painting his lips crimson. He almost looked like a vampire who had just had its meal, if not for the blood coming from his nostrils.
SCREECH!!!
As he neared the beast he heard a loud screech.
The flaming bird let out a heart-wrenching scream, a scream of a dying beast. The scream barely lasted half a minute before the hall fell silent, and its flames died down.
Leo stopped in his tracks, startled by the turn of events.
"That should not have been enough to kill it... Then..."
"LEO!!! LEO!!!" a voice he knew very well echoed from the direction of the large monster bird.
"Mark!! Thank goodness," Leo muttered to himself, his muscles and tensed nerves finally relaxing.
"MARK!!! I'm here," Leo shouted in response to Mark's call.
"Man, what happened to your face, were you eating another monster raw," Mark said as he walked towards Leo. Leo's face became visible as the dust settled and the rays of twilight bathed him.
Leo was speechless as he looked at his best friend. He was a bulky guy but not as ripped as he looked now. His brown eyes now had a tinge of silver, with several silver strands of hair in his perfectly short brown hair.
He didn't look like your average teen; there was an air of strength around him, his natural aura screaming, 'I am strong, want a piece of me.'
"Hey, stop ogling. I am not Anne," Mark said, feeling uncomfortable as Leo stared intently at him, his bright red eyes attempting to peer into all of his secrets.
"Did you call me?" Anne's voice reverberated from behind Mark starting the two.
"Anne... Yeah... I... Leo... Yeah... Leo was asking about you," Mark stammered but managed to pull himself together.
"Nice save, Mark," Leo thought to himself, giving Mark an inner thumbs up.
"Leo, you Cal... Were your irises always this red?" Anne inquired, not having seen Leo since his metamorphosis.
"Red... I don't think so. It's reddish-brown as far as I know."
"No, that is definitely red, bright red in fact. Mark, take a look... Whoa, Mark, what happened to your hair... Wait, your eyes are also different," Anne couldn't contain her curiosity, feeling like she had just witnessed a makeover.
"What are you talking about... Ah," Mark winced in pain as Anne pulled a strand of silver hair without prior notice to prove her point.
"Man, it seems you'll be dying before I do, as you've started to grow grey hair," Leo teased.
Mark looked at the strand of hair. "Grey hair, how...when?"
"It was not like this when we were fighting those ants," Anne interjected.
"Then how..."
"I think I might know why, check your status... That will make it easier," Leo spoke, believing for a fact that this had something to do with what they went through—bones breaking, blood spewing, writhing in pain, and all.
Anne and Mark nodded as they willed their status screen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
24yrs 9mnths 4wks 4days 20hrs 59mins
NAME: Mark Evans
RACE: Human
Evolution: Fetus
AGE: 17/100
Soul energy: 500/50
Vitality: 500/500
Strength: 70
Agility: 54
Endurance: 95
Intelligence:33
Mana: 50
Skills:
Steel body 100%
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
24yrs 9mnths 4wks 4days 20hrs 59mins
NAME: Anne Walton
RACE: Human
Evolution: Fetus
AGE: 17/100
Soul energy: 100/50
Vitality: 490/500
Strength: 35
Agility: 54
Endurance: 52.1
Intelligence: 50
Mana: 100
Skills:
Fire control 13%
Fire resistance 50%
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
" ... "
Leo fell silent, surprised at their stats.
" We're they always this strong " he thought to himself, as their growth was abrupt.
" I guess they went through a lot...or their evolution made their stats this way " Leo continued to muse
He could also see their stats as they had permitted him.
"Whoo... When did it change this much," Anne said, surprised by the significant change in her stats.
Mark, on the other hand, was not surprised, as there was not much change. His skill went up, but apart from that, the rest did not change by much.
"Man, this does not explain the grey hair. It does not look much different from my previous stats," Mark said begrudgingly.
"Let me see yours," Mark said, wanting to compare his stats with Leo, who supposedly believed his change had something to do with his stats.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
24yrs 9mnths 4wks 4days 20hrs 59mins
NAME: Leo Allen
RACE: Human
Evolution: Fetus
AGE: 17/100
Soul energy: 2.1/50
Vitality: 400/500
Strength:47
Agility: 47
Endurance: 84
Intelligence: 71
Mana: 50
Skills:
Poison immunity: 0%
Motion sense: 85%
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Man, you are weak, I might be able to beat you with one hand tied behind my back," Mark teased as he noticed he was slightly stronger than Leo, considering his unconverted soul energy.
"Wanna go... You have always been physically stronger than me but have never beaten me," Leo challenged.
Mark and Leo stared at each other intently, a knowing smile blossoming on their faces.
Anne, who knew what they wanted to do, interrupted, "You can test your strength later... By the way, what's this 'Feotus' on the evolution stats... Better yet, what's evolution?"
"You're right... Let's get inside... There could be another monster out here... Wait, who killed the bird?" Leo inquired.
"I did," Anne answered.
"No wonder you gained those fire skills... Let's head inside."
"Inside where?! That big bird crashed into it," Anne stated the obvious as the storage room had been completely wrecked.
"Then what about our old base?" Leo inquired.
"Also wrecked and infested with ants," Mark said, clenching his fist in anger.
He wanted a rematch with those silver ants; he had only left because of Anne, worried she could get hurt or worse die due to his stubbornness.
Leo noticed Mark's clenched fist, immediately understanding that the ants were, in fact, monsters they had faced.
"Let's look for another base then," Leo stated.
Anne and Mark nodded, agreeing to search for another base. Mark led the way, mentioning that he had noticed empty and intact rooms as he ran from the monster ants.
"Wait, are we leaving the corpse behind?" Leo inquired, feeling it was a waste to leave such a beast here. They could gain skills or increase a stat if they were to eat it.
"Don't let greed blind your judgment; we would be a walking beacon if we were to take this huge thing along," Mark stated.
Anne nodded, giving Leo the 'Are you stupid' look.
"Your gaze stings more than my broken nose and scraped elbows... I get it... I was being stupid," Leo could feel her judging him with her bright blue eyes. Surprisingly, nothing about her physical appearance changed.
"I guess she is too perfect to upgrade," Leo thought to himself, noticing that no physical changes had occurred in Anne.
They walked over the giant bird's corpse and headed towards a room after the storage room, one that did not suffer the aftermath of the blast.
"Good, the reception room seems intact... The sofa is a bit dumped, but the wooden chairs seem okay... Now, Leo, tell us your hypothesis," Anne stated. The two followed closely behind him and made themselves comfortable on the wooden chairs of the reception room.