Raising A Few Wives in a Beast Apocalypse-Chapter 264: Ultimate close-combat fighter!

"It doesn’t matter what it was. We need to find a place to rest for the night. Gnoth, can you scout the area for us?" The captain gave out his orders calmly.

"Sure, Chris. I mean, Captain" Gnoth acknowledged his long-time friend’s order.

He then turned into a lizardman and ran off into the distance. His presence completely vanished after the transformation. Even his teammates who had been looking at him until he went out of sight couldn’t sense him.

He was, without a doubt the deadliest assassin in their base. And what made him even more scary was how he wasn’t a glass cannon like most assassin-types. He was both fast and strong. His lizardman form turned him into the ultimate close-combat fighter.

If he could use long-range attacks. He would be even deadlier. Fortunately, the world wasn’t that biased... To most people anyway.

The others suppressed their presence as much as possible while waiting for his return. They dared not be as arrogant as they were during the daytime.

After all, no matter how much humans evolve, beasts will always be better than them when it comes to acting at night. At the very least, most people couldn’t freely move at night. Such actions would simply be asking for death.

"So, Captain. How did you know the beast was about to attack? We all didn’t sense a thing" James asked curiously. He was also trying to lift everyone’s mood in the bleak situation.

While he was arrogant, petty, narrow-minded and such. He really cared about those close to him. Which prompted his question.

His curiosity was also understandable. After all, Chris told them to jump a few seconds before the beast attacked. A few seconds might seem like a little time to normal people. But to Evolvers, especially R3s like them. A few seconds were plenty of time.

It was even more time if one considered it from the R4’s perspective. That thing could easily cover a kilometre in just half a second. Of course, it wasn’t really trying much when it attacked them. But still, Chris’ reaction speed was still quite impressive.

"A thin transparent barrier around us a kilometre away" Chris explained with the least amount of words as he could.

It was something he did from the to time. Everyone had gotten used to it so they didn’t mind. What mattered was that he got the message across.

They immediately understood that he realised that they were being attacked after his barrier was destroyed.

As for how he knew it was broken by a creature they couldn’t fight off. It was pretty simple actually. The barrier didn’t offer any resistance at all. It simply melted away.

Which was something not even a PR3 could do. After all, his class was a Pseudo-Legendary Barrier Master. That’s right! The girls weren’t the only ones with Pseudo-Legendary classes(obviously).

Yet, despite that, his barrier instantly melted away upon contact. Hell, the beast probably didn’t even come into contact with his barrier. The lingering mana around it was enough to break through his defences.

The reason why he instantly realised what it was after that was because he had fought a Pseudo R4 before. He instantly lost and had to make a quick retreat. But, from that encounter, he learned of Advanced Mana. The next level of mana.

He was only able to escape because the Pseudo R4 was already adopting the mindset of not bothering with weak creatures. Otherwise, he would have definitely been killed off even though the beast’s advanced mana was still not solidified and was still mixed in with normal mana.

Anyway, that short battle made him realise the effect of Advanced Mana on normal mana. The two weren’t comparable at all. It wasn’t even a fair match.

He felt quite fortunate that he had had the experience. Otherwise, who knows what would have happened. Maybe he would have been confused by what happened and before he could make sense of it. He and his crew would be dead. It was a real possibility...

The others who already knew of that encounter managed to piece everything together. They were all smart individuals, after all.

....

A while later...

"Oh, so there aren’t any significantly strong beasts close by? And you even located an abandoned cave close by? Okay, let’s go and rest there for the night" Chris gave his orders after repeating what Gnoth who had come back reported. He was just making sure that they were on the same page.

It was mostly for Scarlett’s sake. The lady, for whatever reason, sometimes tuned out everything the others said. He was the only one she always paid attention to.

So, while he didn’t think she would do something so random. He chose to repeat it just to be on the safe side.

The group acknowledged his order and they began their march towards the cave. Gnoth was obviously the one in front.

"With all this screen time, we can’t possibly get killed off as soon as we meet the MCs, right?" Scarlett spoke to herself in a low voice as the group proceeded forward.

"What?" James who was just behind her asked confusedly.

"Shut up, trash!" Scarlett immediately snapped at James and went silent.

James had completely made her lose her train of thought. She was certain that she had realised some fact of life, yet now she couldn’t remember anything...

Well, whatever. It probably wasn’t anything too important anyway, right?...

....

The next morning at the place the NL Base once stood...

"What the hell is that?. What a creepy-looking lake! And I don’t remember there being a lake here in the Old World. Especially a pitch black one... Well, then again. This is the apocalypse. So anything is possible. I think it’s best to stay away from this place... Hey! Are you even listening to me?!" A random R2 man who had come across the area with his group screamed.

He and his group were what people called Apocalypse Wanderers. People who relied on their weak but good at camouflaging abilities to wander all over the apocalyptic world.

It was actually the only option they had left after the places they once inhabited were overrun by strong beasts. This happens after all the weak beasts are killed off by both them and the stronger beasts leaving only the powerful behind.

So, instead of fighting to the death in battles they are destined to lose. They chose to move away.

Despite the obvious danger, it was actually a viable move in the apocalypse. At the very least, those who chose to stay in the barriers without food would die before the Wanderers do.

And as if people all over the world had somehow told each other to do it. Many Wanderer groups existed everywhere.

In fact, Muku’s group could technically be called a Wanderer group. Although they weren’t weak, easily being amongst the world’s strongest. They did travel all over the place like Wanderers did.

Anyway, the reason the random Wanderer group leader screamed was because a few of his group mates didn’t heed his warning. Instead of listening to him and staying away from the lake, they actually moved closer and were poking a weird-looking black blob with a stick.

"Chill out leader. This thing is clearly a slime. And as we all know. Slimes are the weakest creatures in existence. So what if it’s black instead of blue like we expected? That can easily be explained by the polluted water over here. We haven’t watched television or had any significant entertainment for months. Let us have this little entertainment at least. We just want to see what this thing will do. Will it toss water balls at us or will it attack us with tentacles or something" One arrogant-looking youngest replied.

"Fine. But don’t come crying to me if something bad happens. I’m going to scout for a bit. I’ll see you in thirty minutes or so..." The leader who didn’t want to argue relented. He then took two people who weren’t interested in the slime and went scouting.

While he was the leader, he didn’t hold much sway in the group. Most people in the group only listened to him when it was convenient to them. This was mostly when they were travelling and they needed his "plant whisperer" ability. This allowed him to learn if any strong beasts had passed by that plant recently.

The ability had kept them safe from many possible certain-death scenarios. Yet, most still didn’t appreciate him. He wasn’t too interested in power, so he didn’t bother with them. He just let them do what they wanted.

As long as they pitched in when it was time to look for food. Everything was okay...

.....

Soon after the leader left...

"Tsk. He’s always trying to order us around that arrogant bastard. Does he think we’re his subordinates he can just order around?" The arrogant young man from before spoke after clicking his tongue.

"Yeah. If it wasn’t because of his useful ability. We would have kicked him out of the group long ago. If anything, we’re his boss. While we play around he has to go around scouting for us. Haha. The idiot actually thinks we mean it when we call him leader" Another man spoke.

"Ye... Hhm? When did these things multiply? And are we surrounded?!" The arrogant young man was about to add some more insults when he noticed that more black slimes had appeared and they were surrounded.

His expression immediately turned serious...