Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

Blood trickled down Nadia's fingers.

It had a strangely thin consistency, flowing down as if it was water rather than a much denser and more viscous liquid like blood.

She stood tall, her chest pushed out, and her chin pulled high. Her eyes fell gently along the slope of her tiny nose as she cast her sights on Mathew's face.

"I've finally found you!" her lips uttered, trembling gently like butterflies dancing on the winds.

Mathew was stunned.

Save for all the blood and destruction all around, this was the scene that played out more times than necessary in the past.

Mathew slowly gulped down a mouthful of saliva.

'It's hard to be a boyfriend of a girl that's so cool,' he thought.

And exactly the same feelings would fill Mathew in the past, where his greatest worries were limited to bullies and grades.

His muscles relaxed a little; the familiar safety offered by Nadia's protection and oversight dulled the young man's senses and will to fight.

'No, that's wrong,' he thought, unable to tear his gaze away from Nadia's deep eyes. 'She's not my girlfriend,' Mathew realized, about to rise from his lowered position to embrace the girl. 'She is my wife!' he thought triumphantly, finally finding some room to amuse himself with this fact.

And then, Mathew snapped right back to reality.

A shiny stone pulsated waves of light in Nadia's bloodied hand. But the centipede didn't cease to move.

And it was actually rising up.

Mathew saw all of those moves before.

Sure, they were heavier and clumsier now, but that didn't make the evolved monster slow!

"Watch!" Mathew shouted, his body tensing up and then springing out in a single instant.

"OUT!" he finished his warning as he brought his ax down the middle of the monster.

It didn't die after Leila cut its head. It still didn't die after Nadia stole its life core.

'I just need to quarter it!' Mathew decided, slashing down on the turd-like pile of flesh.

"KILL IT!" Daria finally shook off her shock.

For the first time since the centipede took them by surprise by not dying, she could actually catch up to everyone's moves!

Mathew's ax split the entire five meters of the meaty thurd in two... Or it would if only the blade of the ax was about ten times longer.

All that Mathew's downward slash from a leap managed to achieve was a long cut at the monster's belly.

A cut way too shallow to seriously damage it. But a cut that revealed exactly what Mathew guessed already.

There was another shiny core in the bottom part of the centipede's body!

But this time, it wasn't only Mathew or Nadia that rushed to fight it.

Daria approached from the beast's right side, cutting at the blunt side of its legs with her machete. The weapon's blade met the bones of the monster... only to cleave right through.

'Huh?' Mathew gasped in shock as he jumped two steps away. He then brought the weight of his weapon to the bottom back, intending to go for another leap and a wide arc of slash.

"It's there!" Leila added, appearing from the monster's left and following Daria's example. Yet, instead of simply copying the idea, Leila aimed her attack at the legs near the monster's core.

Her blade cut through three of the centipede's legs, opening roughly a meter-long gap in its defenses.

"Get on top of it!" Mathew shouted as he rushed forward. He used the distance he gained by retreating to gain momentum...

But he didn't jump. He pushed both of his feet ahead of his knees, falling down on his ass. The momentum he stacked carried his slide on, bringing him right towards the opening Leila created.

The girls both long retreated from the monster's sides, following Mathew's order.

"Cut to it from above!" Mathew shouted as he fixed his grip over the ax's handle...

And then, by using the remaining momentum of his slide, he threw his shoulder out, spinning the ax in a perfect, nearly complete arc.

His swing could only gain momentum in the free space Leila created. But with Mathew's improved flesh, it was enough.

His ax cut right through all the bony legs of the monster near its remaining core, exposing the bottom part of the centipede to even lousy attacks.

At the same time, Leila and Nadia landed on the monster's back, only to furiously slash at its flesh with their short weapons.

"NADIA!" Mathew shouted, despite the guilt that instantly blossomed in his heart.

He always hated the idea of Nadia standing up for him. Sure, it felt great to be saved from bullies; it felt great to have someone always ready to jump into the fire to help him...

But all of those ideas involved Nadia putting herself in danger. And this was the one aspect of the situation towards which Mathew's hatred knew no bounds.

'There is no other choice,' the young man thought, clenching his teeth as he retreated to make space for the girl.

The time of apocalypse wasn't the time when he could allow such worries to rule over his judgment. Right now, they needed all the help they could. And Nadia's display from a moment earlier was perfect proof of her newfound capabilities.

"Fuck off!" Nadia uttered in a cold voice, appearing in the gap Mathew created out of nowhere.

It was as if she stopped the passage of time, calmly walked to the spot, and then ordered the flow of time to resume.

Or maybe she was just too fast for Mathew's senses for the young man to perceive her movement at all.

And then, Nadia slapped the centipede's bottom.

It was a juicy slap, one that would send sparks of rumors and drama all over the school back in the day.

But now, with Nadia's augmented strength, it disintegrated the flesh of the monster that she slapped, along with the stone that hid underneath.

The centipede's flesh turned into mist, and the shiny stone that powered its movements shattered before turning into a pile of dust. Those two elements created some sort of sticky fog that took a long while to actually fall down.

And once it did, the massive body of the centipede finally fell to the ground before falling apart into a bloody mess of limbs, organs, and bones.

The force that held it together was no more, turned into a mist by Nadia's slap.

"Who is this girl?" Daria's mouth uttered a question, her wide-open eyes showcasing just how awed she was.

The girl's voice seemed to snap Nadia out of her strangely dazed state. She shook her head before refocusing his eyes and looking around the place.

"Huh?" Nadia muttered, raising her hand to her head as if she was in pain... But then she energetically raised her head again, turning her eyes towards Daria's face.

"Mathew?" Leila asked, noticing the strange behavior of the newcomer. "What..."

"Mathew?" Nadia repeated, her eyebrows raising as her voice turned nearly hostile. She then turned her deep eyes towards the young man.

And then, ignoring all the conflict, all the zombies that still threatened them with their presence, all the blood around...

Nadia took a step forward and crossed her hands on her chest. She then raised her chin and looked down at Mathew's face, like a mother who came home after long hours of work only to learn her kid forgot to pull the chicken out of the freezer.

"Who the hell are those bitches?!"