Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

Chapter 168 Bigger doesn't mean better

Daria rushed into the fight first. In her shadowy form, not a single member of Mathew's group could even hope to catch up to her.

It didn't mean they didn't try, though.

Mathew rushed forward as soon as he shook off his shock and calmed down his beating heart a little. Nadia's reaction time appeared to be slightly slower yet her supreme speed allowed her to reach the place of conflict even before the young man.

Out of everyone, it was Leila that surprisingly lagged behind, even despite her stats being far superior to Mathew's.

'Food for thought for later, isn't it?' Mathew released an internal sigh, only to then put all of his attention on the enemies right in his face.

The three zombies didn't appear to be any different than all the others Mathew slaughtered by thousands before. And yet, they were faster, stronger, and harder to cut than their common kin.

If there was any physical difference between them, then it was a weird, alien green that took over most of their remaining skin.

"DIE!" Daria shouted, her shadowy form somehow changing her voice into a slightly darker tone than usual. She then swung her hand, only for her blade to emerge from it the second it could reach the zombie's neck.

The first of the three zombies fell just like that.

"ROAAAR!" the remaining two commented on the progress with a loud scream, only to throw themselves back into the fight.

And for some reason, they became even faster than before.

'Woah,' Mathew thought when he had to bend his spine back, desperate to avoid a sweeping grab of the zombie. Half a second after the zombie's claws passed right by Mathew's hand, Leila attacked from the side, taking the zombie's attack on her blade.

'Is the pool of their strength shared or something?' Mathew thought when he had to use the back of his saber to ward off another attack. He took the zombie's claws on the weapon before allowing them to slide down, towards his wrist.

"We need to kill them both at once!" Mathew shouted once he entered a stalemate with the zombie when the two of them started a contest of raw strength.

"Keep him still!" Leila shouted, leaping to the side. She used her momentum to slide on the side of her leg, only to then slash at the back of the zombie's knees.

It was a wonder how zombie bodies operated. According to all the medical research up to date, zombies shouldn't exist in the first place. And yet, while their existence was undisputable, they still somewhat obeyed the laws of physic.

Leila's blade cut straight through the tough flesh of the zombies, depriving him of the foothold necessary to keep the contest of strength going.

'That's our chance!' he thought, pushing his muscles to their limits and finally overpowering the zombie.

"Cut him into pieces!" Mathew shouted as soon as he managed to break through the zombie's stance, using his own weight to then pin the monster to the ground.

"We are almost there as well!" Nadia shouted from the side, only for the zombie she was fighting with to suddenly go flying through the air.

'Huh?' Mathew shrugged, startled by the sudden movement.

"Huh?" Leila openly released her moan of surprise when her eyes followed the zombie as well.

"Leave him to me!" Daria shouted in an excited voice, her shadowy form leaping right after the zombie that she threw into the air herself.

"Almost there," Leila uttered as she worked her blade to deprive the zombie of its legs before working on its arms. Her eyes, though, were directed towards the other zombie.

'She is trusting me so much to leave keeping it still all to me,' Mathew thought.

It was a relatively small thing, a trust that grew between the two of them strictly from the fact that they shared their interests in battle.

And yet, for Mathew, this complete trust the girl had to have in him to ignore the zombie she was carving out completely was more rewarding than actually sleeping with the girl in question.

"Now!" Daria's shout reached Mathew's ear. He raised his eyes up... Only to see Leila already change her position before placing the sharp side of her saber on the zombie's neck.

"Move away!" she then shouted, as Mathew's hands were in the way of her desired cut.

Tick.

Something in the zombie within Mathew's grasp changed. The change itself was instantaneous, not needing any time to boot up or anything.

The zombie tensed its muscles, ignoring the fact that most of its tendons were cut.

'So above a certain level, they can actually ignore physic,' Mathew acknowledged the reality, squeezing his arms even harder in an attempt to hold the zombie in place.

An attempt... that ended up futile.

Despite all its injuries, the zombie continued to struggle and even slowly start slipping out of Mathew's grasp. Yet, right as the young man's arms were about to give out, Leila's blade finally cut through the zombie's flesh, separating its head from the rest of its corpse.

"It's done..." Mathew muttered, falling back on the ground while ignoring the blood that instantly dirtied his apparel. As his eyes wandered to the side, he could see the zombie's head rolling away.

The zombie's face would appear before Mathew's eyes, only for the head to continue rolling and effectively hiding its face away. And so, the young man could see how the light within the zombie's eyes gradually vanished before its head turned as dead as all zombies should be in the first place.

'Wait, shouldn't its head remain alive?' Mathew suddenly asked himself, realizing just what was so strange about this head to have him so innately puzzled about it.

And yet, the facts were as they were. Contrary to the normal zombies whose heads would remain alive even once cut away from the rest of their bodies, decapitating these stronger zombies apparently was enough to do them in!

"Here," Daria suddenly appeared to Mathew's side, her hands as bloody as they could get while the rest of her clothes remained perfectly clean. She reached out her right hand towards Mathew, only to suddenly pull it away when he attempted to accept her helping hand.

"Look at its core," she explained her intent, once Mathew stood up on his own. "Isn't it bigger?"

The shiny stone in the girl's hand was just like she said, bigger.

'But bigger doesn't mean better,' Mathew grumpily thought, before taking a closer look at the shiny pebble in the girl's palm.