Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

"How come zombies are not attacking me, huh?" Daria repeated Mathew's question only to shake her head to the sides before shrugging her shoulders. "I have no idea. I was fighting them as usual until a few moments ago, they suddenly lost all interest in me."

'Huh?' Mathew thought, shocked by the revelation. 'I know there had to be some point when the situation suddenly changed... but when?'

Mathew swung his hand to the side, killing a zombie that dared to interrupt his thinking time.

"Was it when Leila killed the evolved one?" Mathew muttered, stopping his hand seconds before he would use it to rub his chin.

On its own, this gesture wasn't anything wrong. But with how much zombie virus Mathew already received, putting zombie blood anywhere near his mouth didn't seem like something smart to do.

"Or was it when I raised your statistics?" Mathew then mumbled under his nose, ready to consider the other option that he could think of.

"Wait, evolved one?" Daria caught on to Mathew's whispers. "And Leila killed it?" she gasped. "On her own?!"

Matthew's lips curled up and formed a small smile.

"I understand why you are so shocked," he said. Yet, rather than explaining, Mathew brought his hands closer to the blade of his ax before lurching into a group of fresh zombies that once again were ready to interrupt the talk.

As there wasn't enough space for Mathew to swing his hammer, he brought his hand all the way to the point when it squeezed against the bottom of the blade before using the weapon more like a knife than a long ax.

'This,' Mathew thought, cutting the throat of a zombie only to turn around, and smash his elbow to knock the head off the head while already cutting another zombie. 'Is,' he kicked a zombie in front of him, opening up just enough space to allow the weapon to almost slip out of his hands. He then tightened his grasp over its handle before making a wide swing and cutting three heads in a single attack. "ANNOYING!"

Mathew couldn't be bothered to keep on fighting with the zombies. Sure, it was something that they would likely need to do, but no one said they had to keep on doing it all the time.

"Daria!" Mathew shouted, already forgetting about the topic they were talking about before. "Run to the rest. You need to gather the cores while the girls will hold the zombies off!"

"Yes sir!" Daria shouted back with amusement only to use the space that Mathew opened up before rushing back towards the rest of the group.

'I guess we won't get to check that building out,' Mathew thought, gritting his teeth as he slowly started to make his way back.

Contrary to Daria, Mathew couldn't just rush into a group of zombies and pass by them. In the short amount of time that he took to first reach Daria, check if it was really her, and then arrive at the conclusion of retreating, the zombies from all over the place already managed to cut off his path of retreat.

'This is going to be tiring,' Mathew thought, cutting himself a path through the refilled crowd of zombies.

'We are leaving so many cores behind,' Mathew thought, gritting his teeth once again. 'I really need to come up with a way that allows people without a system to help us with that,' he decided within the confines of his mind before focusing back on the current task.

'Strategizing can wait, saving the skin of our group not really,' Mathew decided, speeding up the rate at which he continued to cut the zombies down.

Sadly, it wasn't enough.

"Matty!" Nadia shouted from a distance.

'Isn't she even further than before?' Mathew thought, only able to hear the girl but completely unable to see her... even though the spot where he left Nadia and Leila was well within his sights.

"Don't try to get to us! An entire horde struck us from the west!"

'That's...' Mathew hesitated. 'I expected this to happen, but shouldn't they appear from the north?' he thought, looking up towards the residential area that he was already wary of.

"Sure! Return on your own!" Mathew shouted back.

'There is no denying the facts,' the young man thought as he dropped the idea of moving down the street and started to cut his path to the sidewalk. 'And if there is an entire horde on the street already, it's better to just avoid it instead,' Mathew decided.

But even then, reaching the sidestreets wasn't an easy task when tens if not hundreds of zombies all rushed at Mathew, eager to turn him into a meal at all times.

'Fuck, there is no end to them,' he thought, slashing his ax left and right, trying to clean enough of the enemies to give himself an opportunity to flee.

And then, Mathew suddenly stopped.

'Why am I so fucking stupid?' he thought.

In this one second, several zombies managed to close their distance to him. They all reached out with their hands, teeth, and whatever else they could use to grab at him.

Mathew raised his ax... and then turned it around. And by swinging it around like a pole instead of a cutting weapon he managed to achieve the first part of his new, refreshed plan.

The zombies that Mathew didn't kill but simply pushed away blocked the path for the zombies behind them. Sure, it only bought the young man a few seconds at most, before the natural squeeze and push of the horde would simply carry those zombies forward anyway.

But those few seconds were all that Mathew needed.

He slashed the head of the nearest zombie in half. But instead of moving to another target, Mathew lurched forward and pushed his hand into the still hot brain matter of his current target.

"Auch," a voice of complaint raised from the depths of Mathew's guts when this little distraction caused several zombies to finally reach him. 'I know it's risky...' he thought.

Sure, the zombies could no longer penetrate through his skin... But once enough of them would swarm him, Mathew would lose his ability to do anything about it.

And then, it would be only a matter of time before his increased vitality would show its boundaries.

'Got it,' Mathew thought when he felt a strangely tough element with his fingers.

More and more zombies continued to swarm him. There were already seven different ones that caught on to him with at least thirty more ready to do it in the next few seconds.

'I hope it will work,' Mathew thought, pulling his hand out while securing the core within his fist.

Mathew then raised his hand as if he wanted to punch the sky.

'Core detonation,' he thought, bringing his hand down and slamming it into the asphalt below his feet.

BOOM!

A powerful shockwave knocked away all the zombies that attached themselves to Mathew's body. Two zombies grabbed him so hard, that while the shockwave forced the main part of their bodies away, their hands still kept hugging Mathew's body even long after they could no longer move at all.

'That's what I wanted,' Mathew thought with satisfaction. And without any further ado, he turned around and rushed into the smaller side street hidden between the residential buildings.

'But it's not over yet,' Mathew thought when after barely a few seconds the zombies started to stand up and pick the chase.

For a normal person, a shockwave throwing one several meters away would be devastating. Just the shock alone would be enough to keep them in place for several minutes at the very least.

But this kind of logic didn't apply to the zombies at all. Sure, they have all knocked away from Mathew... But they didn't showcase any signs of shock or injury-related trauma.

'They are already here,' Mathew thought when he had no other choice but to raise his ax and push it into action again. 'Or maybe those are the zombies that were kicked away in this direction?'

Whatever was the case, Mathew couldn't really care less. Yet, after experiencing the potency of one of the very few skills that he had, he made a proper point to cut at least one of the zombie's heads open before plucking the core out and keeping it in his hand as he continued his retreat.

Roughly a minute later Mathew finally reached the point where all the zombies in the vincity were behind him, madly entranced in their chase.

'I moved east for three streets. The longer I wait before making the turn...' Mathew thought as he looked around, hesitating about his next moves.

He moved so far away from the original street that his only way to return now lead directly through the horde that was laying siege to the barrier of his fortress.

'I would love to farm them for their cores...' Mathew hesitated. He then shook his head, gritted his teeth, and finally ensured that he still kept a fresh core in his right palm.

And then, he rushed right into the middle of the horde.

"Mathew!" Nadia's shout reached Mathew's ears the moment he emerged from the small street and appeared right before the main entrance of the building.

'How did she know I would approach from this direction?' Mathew thought, surprised by such development.

But just like with Daria's problem, this wasn't the topic that he was in place to discuss.

"Stay away from the wall!" Mathew shouted right as he leaped into the fresh horde of the zombies.

At this particular moment, he had the pursuing horde to his back and the stationary horde to his front. Any attempt at avoiding both would only cause the other group to lock him in place.

So rather than trying to be sneaky, Mathew plunged himself right into the middle of the zombie's crowd only to then raise his hand up...

'Core detonation,' a single thought appeared in his mind before the young man slammed his fist into the ground for the second time.