Pause System: Harem In The Apocalypse

*Step* *Step* *Step* *Step* *Step*

Countless hasty footsteps echoed throughout the underground subway tunnels.

Gray ran across the tracks with Violet on his back and Aurora followed after. Violet still hadn't woken up as an after effect of over exerting her energy.

Gray too was out of juice, he had drained out quite a lot of his own energy in order to find the two.

The method he used lacked rationality, he stopped time and used X-Ray to search across every nook and cranny of the city.

He ended up collapsing from exhaustion countless times but even in that situation he'd use it as an opportunity to look around with [X-Ray].

Fortunately it ended up working and he ended up finding them.

But now...

They had another bigger problem on their hand.

*Slash!* *Swoosh!*

Gray passed by a mutated zombie swinging his Katana in the process.

The zombie which had leapt at him with it's jaws opened, the upper half of it's head cleanly sliced off in the process.

[You killed an Abnormal Mutated Zombie]

[Earned 10 XP!]

*Fwoosh*

The two suddenly came to a stop in order to observe the path ahead.

Swarms of zombies roamed in the tunnel, they had most likely gotten attracted to the area as a result of all the noise.

Getting past the swarm was going to be an obvious challenge, especially when all it would take was one bite to turn.

Aurora had part of her energy recovered with the healing potion but it was only part of it, her actual stamina was still incredibly low and would remain that way unless she took any more stamina pill or potions.

Gray who could buy stamina potions for them had no money to spare, whilst it would have been a good investment for the moment, he wanted to hold back as long as necessary.

He could simply walk on top of a platform of Paused Air above them, or set up traps and farm XP on their kills.

Or so he initially thought-

Whilst Ignoring the groans of the Zombies charging right at them from the front, he looked down.

'There's something moving... Inside the ground and... Walls?' He questioned himself as he looked towards Aurora.

"Gray!" Aurora called out to him launching an Ice spike at the figure which appeared over his head.

Gray looked up with an unamused look.

Above his head was a giant muscular zombies with blades for it's legs. The amount of bloodlust being released from it was enough to freeze anyone in the spot.

It kicked down at him from above with an axe-kick.

[Fast-Forward.]

Right before the kick connected, Gray's figure vanished, causing it to miss.

At the same instant, it's eyes reflected a blade which passed right through it's neck.

*Sling!*

It's head was detached from it's body even faster than it could react.

*CRASH!*

Gray kicked at the back of it's head like a football, sending it crashing into the tunnel's walls to the side.

[Pause.]

Gray paused it's body which showed signs of freezing after being impaled by Aurora's ice spike up in the air before he kicked off of it in her direction.

Surprised, Aurora's eyes widened as the instant he grabbed her, they changed locations.

[Fast-Forward – Pause Step Chain]

Right after swapping locations, the three vanished once more, appearing in the celling above with their heels parallel to it.

Their heads were pointed down at the ground waiting for gravity to push them to the ground.

But to Aurora's surprise it didn't happen.

[Pause] They were paused to the ceiling.

While up there, they got an open view of the area from the perspective above.

What Aurora saw with the glow of her ice crystals, made her shiver.

The area lit up showed that they were surrounded by zombies, but they weren't just any zombies.

These were mutated zombies with strange fiery red and orange glowing veins.

It was the first time they had seen abnormals of this kind.

The one which had attacked Gray also shared a similar quality, fortunately Gray had finished it off.

[You killed a Mutated Sword Abnormal Zombies]

[You earned 20 XP!]

The scary thing about these Zombies wasn't just the fact that they looked different, but rather something even worst.

They could use abilities.

Gray had caught notice of this earlier after fast-forward Aurora away from her previous spot, the ground her risen up in chains in the location where she had been standing.

One of the Zombies had lunged at her with a glowing aura coating it's body, it moved tremendously fast.

Gray glanced at it from the ceiling above, it was visibly lost and in search of them, sniffing the air as it walked on all fours whilst looking for them.

He was snapped out of his thoughts as the walls around them began to tremble.

Gray quickly unpaused them, tightening his grip over Violet before leaping off the wall, straight down onto a platform of paused air.

Aurora followed after, cleanly landing right behind him.

Their attention was forced to their surroundings as shards of earth were launched from one side of the wall at them.

The two ran forward, Gray repeatedly created more and more platforms with every step whilst disregarding the ones they had stepped out of, allowing them to stay in a free sprint.

The two ran over the large swarm of hordes, trying their best to draw as little attention as they could.

But impossible, many of the abnormals had caught on and began running on all fours across the ceiling and walls in chase of them.

Other abnormals who could use abilities made sure to put them to use as they launched them in their direction, generating more and more sounds.

The aim was completely off point, but the noise they were making, it was more than enough to put all eyes on them.

"SHIT!" Gray cursed with a troubled expression.

'I don't have enough energy to stop time!'

'All we can do right now is to run as fast as we can!'

"Hold onto her, prioritise running, don't look back! Stay right behind me!" He instructed before charging off ahead.

Aurora nodded, completely understanding his intentions.

"Just be careful! All it takes is one bite!"

Gray nodded in response before leaping forward.

Upon leaping ahead of the group, his eyes flashed left and right noticing two zombies from both sides drawing in on him at fast speeds. They had leapt from the wall at him.

Gray closed his right eye, leaving only his artifact left open, his visual acuity with it was unparelled and the vision he wanted to focus on the most right now was...

[Future Sight: Level 1]

Gray could see it, the highlighted figures of the Zombies coliding and biting into him.

With their trajectories in his mind, he instantly rotated his body, spinning around as he swung the swords all in the same motion.

*SLING!*

Their heads were slashed off cleanly in union.

With his future sight activated, one by one, the Zombies began to drop down like flies one after the after whenever they'd get within even a meter of a radius around him.

Along the way, he set up trap after trap, creating paused slashes invisible to the naked eye for the Zombies to jump right into.

His kill count was quickly accumulating as the only thing he focused on was Killing anything and everything which wasn't the two behind him.

Aurora watched with open eyes, following right behind him as Gray began to mutilate one zombie after another as they leapt at him.

She admired his ability from a distance, wondering just how he was reacting to all the attacks so fast.

Her eyes were forced to wander off of him however, as the hand of a Zombie went right at her from beneath.

*Hop*

She leapt right onto the next platform barely avoiding it but upon doing so, she failed to notice it.

The hand of a zombie drawing in to her from behind.

It was in her blind spot and had somehow managed to leap onto the platforms when neither of them were looking.

By the time she had turned around, it's wide opened mouth was already before her.

'Oh cr-'

Her thought was interrupted as in the very same instant, the Zombie's head was caved in from above by an axe kick, instantly taking them off course.

[Pause Step]

It was Gray, he had a strong glare in his eyes before grabbing them and [Pause Stepping] them even further ahead.

[Pause]

They appeared 50 meters ahead on top of a paused platform. Aurora looked around with surprise, wondering why they had suddenly been teleported.

She looked back and once again, was filled with chills. Had he not pause stepped them, they would have ran right into a web of Zombies.

That's right, a web. There were many Zombies interlocked with one another in the path, creating something like a web of them.

They seemed stuck and unable to move but were still biting the air as they waited for them.

*Pant* *Pant*

Aurora proceeded to look over to Gray, he was panting rather heavily but it didn't seem to bother him much.

Upon closer inspection, she could even see the edges of his lips curling up.

"Don't lose focus, let's go."