Raising A Few Wives in a Beast Apocalypse

"Oh? Aren't you going to say anything? Weren't you so chatty behind your barrier? Where has all the confidence gone? Come on! You're taking all the fun out of this. At least scream or strug..." The fishman began taunting the girls. However, before it could finish....

Whoosh!

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!...

Multiple attacks flew its way and they all hit it dead centre. It was immediately buried underneath the chaotic energy from the attacks.

For a moment, it seemed like the world went silent. Even the thunderous rain was tuned out. Then...

BOOOOOOOM!

The chaotic energy surrounding the fishman was blown away. This left its body exposed to the world again.

And to the girls' horror, their surprise attack didn't damage it at all. Its body still looked as pristine as it was when the beast got there. It was like the devastating attack which could threaten Pseudo-R5s didn't happen at all.

Though honestly, they expected the result. They had been holding to some baseless hope that they would be lucky. Unfortunately, the world wasn't so kind.

That's right, the shaking from before was an act. They were scared but not to that point. They only did that to lower the R5s guard for a surprise attack.

They couldn't create a union spell, but they could attack together. Sadly that wasn't anywhere close to the strength of a union spell. And even if they could cast one, its usefulness was questionable as mentioned before...

Anyway, the fishman didn't immediately kill them off. In fact, it didn't look angry at all. It was smiling instead.

Of course, the smile looked horrific because of its teeth and large mouth, but it was a smile nonetheless.

"Hehe. That's what I like to see. Give me your all. Fall into despair due to your powerlessness. Then I'll throw you into an even deeper pit of despair when I start killing you all off one by one. Hahahaha. What fun!" The fishman spoke those horrible and cruel words with a smile.

As if playing along, lightning struck behind it as it laughed at the end. This made it look even more sinister and evil.

Seeing this, the girls finally gave up hope. There was nothing they could do. Hope has tried to use her Whisperless Death but it got instantly erased by the rain.

Even if it wasn't erased, it probably wouldn't hurt the R5 which could expel it from its body with its mana before it could do anything.

And so, they all held hands and closed their eyes as they waited for death. They each hoped that they would be the first to get killed so that they didn't have to see the others getting killed in front of them. They felt that such a thing would be worse than dying...

"Well, this got boring very quickly. So that was all you had in store for me? And I was starting to expect something from my new toys. Well whatever, since you won't play along. I guess we can only move on to the next step. Now... Who should I kill first?. Hmm, decisions, decisions... I think I'll go with you" The Fishman spoke out loud.

The girls had their eyes closed so they didn't know who was going to die first. So, after hearing that it had made its choice, they all tensed up getting ready to lose a limb or two.

Emily subtly pulled Elsa behind her as they waited for the fishman. She couldn't bear the thought of her sister dying before her eyes.

The other girls tried to do the same but unfortunately, none accepted being pulled back. Elsa was only pulled back because she was weaker than Emily.

Whoosh!

The fishman moved at speeds none of the girls could perceive. It headed for its first target with a cruel smile on its face ready to bite off a hand as a starter...

It reached them in no time at all. Just when it was about to bite off the hand of its target, something happened...

A faint blue line appeared in the space in front of the girl he was about to bite. The girl happened to be Hope...

The fishman faintly sensed danger and immediately backed off. It went back into the sky and looked down warily.

Reaching R5 didn't just require strength and talent. It required brains too. And that's why the fishman chose to back up from an unexplained situation.

It even readied its strongest quick-to-conjure attack, ready to throw down if the situation developed in that direction.

The girls didn't know what was happening and continued to keep their eyes closed. They thought that the fishman was messing with them and would attack the very moment they opened their eyes so that they would see what it was doing.

Considering its behaviour since it showed up, such a thing wasn't beyond its methods. And they weren't falling for it.

However, for whatever reason, they felt their necks heat up a little bit. They didn't pay attention to it in the chaos though...

Anyway, the line began expanding outward slowly until...

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a grey light lit up which blinded the fishman for a second.

By the time its vision was restored, which was only a second or so. The crack in space was gone. And there didn't seem to be anything which had changed because of it.

The girls were still standing there cluelessly with their eyes closed. From their body language, it was clear to the fishman that they didn't know what was happening and had nothing to do with it.

"Weird... Is this an anomaly caused by the pending evolution? Yeah, that has to be it. Well, whatever, it only delayed their deaths by a few seconds. Now where was I? Ah! Right. I was about to bite off an a..." The fishman relaxed again after rationalising the situation.

It was about to continue with what it was doing when something forced it to stop talking. Just when it was about to move. It caught something from the corner of its eyes.

It caught a figure in black floating just a few centimetres behind it looking to the side.

A chill went down its spine instantly. It didn't sense the figure at all! Which meant that if the figure had wanted to attack it. It wouldn't have known until the attack landed if it was a purely physical attack.

Just when it was about to make a proper reaction. Which was getting the hell away from there. The figure turned to look at it which was now looking back. Then...

Whoosh!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A blow it couldn't follow landed on its back and it was tossed into the distance.

Blood sprayed out of its mouth as it flew across the sky. It was horrified by how the blow caused so much damage even when it had its domain armour fully deployed.

Not to mention its thick scales which could tank MR5 attacks with little to no damage. Which meant that if it didn't have its domain armour up... It probably would have gotten punched into two!

The weird part was how the blow didn't cause any shockwaves despite the devastating strength behind it.

Which was a good thing for the girls as they would have gotten killed if there were any shockwaves. Even their strongest combined defence wouldn't have been able to save them. Not to mention that they currently don't have any kind of defence at all.

Even though they wanted to keep their eyes shut. It was hard to do after hearing such a loud sound which was making their ears ring.

And so, all their eyes snapped open at the same time. And the sight which met them was unexpected to say the very least.

The fishman they thought was stalking them was actually wiping off blood a few kilometres away looking like it had just survived the greatest threat to its life it had ever faced. And honestly, that might be true.

In the spot where the fishman was before stood a pitch black fiend. That's right, there was no other way to describe the being they were looking at.

"Big brother?..." Hope spoke softly in a choked voice.

She might have said those words, but she wasn't sure. The creature in front of her might have the same proportions as her brother. But that was it.

The armour vaguely looked like the one her brother had before, but the similarities were minute at best.

His armour looked creepy. But the thing in front of them looked like it had crawled out of a nightmare if not hell itself. And there was no aura, mana or any sort of energy radiating off it. It was almost like it didn't exist at all and their eyes were playing a trick on them...

"No, that's not him. If it were him I would sense it through my blood. He still feels as far away from us as he was before..." Audrey who was standing beside Hope replied to her.

With a distraught look on her face, Hope spoke...

"Then what is that thing?"

"I have no idea..." Audrey replied with her gaze focused on the black creature.

She was wondering why she didn't feel threatened by it or scared despite how it looked.

Could it really be Muku?... No, it can't be. Her blood would have reacted the moment he arrived back on the Blue Planet.

Then what was that thing?...