Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

'Isn't this way too easy?' Mathew asked himself as he observed how a part of his will coated in mana continued to cut down the zombies around him.

This time, rather than a simple bolt or a wave, Mathew's mana took the form of a half-circle, making it appear like some sort of a boomerang. And just like a boomerang, it continued to spin on its own while sliding through the air and zombie's necks alike.

'It stays active as long as it's within a certain distance from me,' Mathew observed, kicking down at the zombie's head that rolled towards his legs. He then wasted a moment grabbing the core from the zombie's brains.

'Then what would happen if I were to embed the intent on a core instead?'

Mathew's reasoning was sound. Since he was the source of both the mana for the spell and the intent that shaped it, then embedding his will on a core would eliminate both the possible reasons that restricted the range of his spells.

Yet, as the young man looked at the core in his palm, he couldn't stop a wave of doubt from filling his soul.

'I saw what I can do with just a single one of these,' he thought, only to end up closing his fingers over the core only to then drop it on the ground and move on.

By that time, Mathew's flying blade already ceased to exist, either by flying out of his range or by using up all the energy that created it.

"I really need to study how to use those abilities more," Mathew muttered to himself, bringing his saber forward, perfectly in line with his straight arm.

Mathew focused for a little, even going as far as to close his eyes for a second. He then gathered the mana on his right hand like usual... Yet, rather than shooting it out, he then infused the mana into his saber instead.

"So it does work," Mathew muttered, staring at the faint glow that now surrounded his weapon. He could sense the presence of some sort of energy within the blade's metal... Yet it wasn't on the level that would make him wary if it was his opponent wielding an enchanted weapon like that.

"Yosh," Mathew moaned a little, shaking off his interest and focusing his attention back on the battlefield...

Right to see Daria's shadowy form fly right by him, turning the three zombies that were about to attack into a cloud of purple mist.

'Huh?' Mathew thought, startled by the sight as he took a step back and watched the bloody mist fall down to the ground.

He just happened to see the moment when Daria's attack disintegrated the zombies. It was nothing more but a chance... yet there was one thing that Mathew found weird.

The mist that came from the zombie's flesh fell down to the ground... But not a single stone did so too.

'Did she consume them?' Mathew thought, turning his eyes to the rampaging girl. And then, he took a quick glance at her system stats.

'Woah,' Mathew swallowed the air in his mouth.

Just like with her Mind statistics, now all her stats grew to have an additional set of numbers in brackets that likely depicted the strength of the girl's current, shadowy form. And Mathew could see with his own eyes how those numbers slowly continued to grow!

'I guess I was right,' the young man thought, peeling his eyes off Daria's system and focusing on the fight yet again.

The entire battle started less than ten minutes ago, yet Mathew's group managed to clear more than half of the zombies already. And from the look of things, it was Daria that was the greatest contributor to this result.

'We should be able to clear them out before the night turns really dark,' Mathew thought, slashing yet another opponent as he pushed in deeper into the zombie's formation.

'Especially with how eager that lass is to keep going,' Mathew thought, sparing yet another second to send a glance towards the girl's system.

Her shadowy form initially boosted her stats by around half of their value. In other words, it gave her a flat increase of roughly fifty percent to her base stats. Yet, as the fight went on and the girl continued to slaughter the zombies only to consume their cores in the process, the multiplicator of her stats already approached the threshold of doubling them!

"We might really turn into a group more suited to fighting in the dark," Mathew summed up in a relaxed voice as he continued to cut down the zombies that were stupid enough to get within his range.

In five more minutes, the army of the zombies fully collapsed, leaving only a few pockets of resistance that just happened to be in places inconvenient for Mathew's group to reach.

'The question is, where the heck is that leader of theirs?' Mathew thought, cutting his saber to left and right as he tore through a pocket of zombies left in a stray corner of the courtyard.

Yet, right as he was about to move to the next pocket and continue clearing the courtyard... Mathew's saber struck the zombie... and stopped.

'Huh?' Mathew shook a little, turning his eyes to his target that was already dead within his perception of the battle.

But the reality couldn't be any further from what Mathew thought. And as he raised his eyes on the opponent, he saw the zombie staring him down with its extremely, sickeningly blue eyes.

Mathew's saber was stuck on the zombie's side. It penetrated just deep enough to cut through the skin and press against the bones, yet it was too shallow to do any real damage. What was the worst, though, was that Mathew couldn't really pull it back!

'Is it...?' he thought, only to send two mana blades right at the zombie's wound, cutting its flesh away and finally freeing his blade.

At that point, Mathew would have to be an idiot not to realize what was going on. Yet, rather than retreating and showing his back to the zombie's leader, he took a step back and stood in a passive stance, ready for the zombie's attack.

'Bring it on!' he thought... Only to end up in the contest of stares with the strange monster.

"He is mine!" Daria suddenly shouted, her shadowy form flashing past Mathew's side. The young man could make out Daria's shadowy hand reaching out for the zombie's throat... Only for the zombie to simply fall to its back, avoiding the attack by a mere inch.

'There is no doubt,' Mathew thought, gritting his teeth and tensing up his hands as he readied himself for the troubling part of the battle. 'This is the leader!'