Raising A Few Wives in a Beast Apocalypse

"Hehe. Sorry, and thank you for stepping in" The dragon's jovial voice rang in his head again. He could tell that it wasn't anywhere near as sorry as it was saying.

What was amazing was how it could still be so happy when it's battered and bruised. Its scales are mostly gone, drained of all its power. If it was only that, one could maybe still understand that it was happy about the victory, but...

"Why the hell are you happy when the beasts that survived are slowly approaching us?!" Muku exclaimed hysterically. He couldn't help but wonder if its brain had been turned to mush by all the attacks it took.

{Oh, that's simple actually...} The dragon replied, then trailed off at the end.

What happened after made Muku almost curse out loud. The dragon's humongous body turned into a black light, and before he could react, it had drilled into his forehead.

The scene was eerily similar to when Iris drilled into Freya's head. The only difference was that Iris didn't need to first bond with Freya before gaining access while the dragon did. Then again, the act of entering someone's mindscape for a fairy is also their way of bonding so the situation really wasn't too different.

"OMG! You snake! Was this the real reason you wanted to form a Soul Link with me?! How sinister! I want out! I want out I say!" Muku immediately shouted out complaints while wishing he could recover as quickly as possible.

His mana was almost completely drained from the ordeal. He couldn't even float. He had consciously left a little bit of mana to support his body function. Otherwise, he would have been paralysed on the ground at that moment.

{Hehe. No, no, no. I'm not being a snake as you put it. I'm just letting you handle it like you wanted to. Now if you'll excuse me. I have to rest now. Please survive this. If you die now I'll also die. Which I'd rather not...} The dragon's voice sounded in Muku's head.

While it still sounded as jovial as before. He could tell that it was very tired and drowsy. It trailed off at the end, likely having fallen into a deep sleep to recover.

"Sigh, me and my big mouth" Muku complained to himself. Unlike Freya, he didn't have access to his mindscape. So he couldn't go bother the dragon even if he wanted to. Though he wouldn't have done so even if he could. He had seen what it went through and could sense how tired it was. So, while it was a pain, he really had to deal with the situation without it.

"Here" A voice suddenly popped up beside Muku.

"Ah! Oh. Don't just randomly appear next to people like that. Also, what do you mean "here"... Layla, I love you!" Muku was obviously spooked by the sudden voice in such a tense situation.

He had long forgotten that Layla could travel through shadows since she seldom did it. The current situation where dark clouds covered the sky turned out to be the best situation for her. She could easily bypass the beasts that were inching closer and get to Muku's side.

As for why Muku suddenly confessed while giving her a hug? No, it wasn't because he suddenly realised his love for her. It was because she had come to give him what he needed most at that time. A beast core he could use to recover his mana. She gave him the purple beast core from the Three-tailed fox.

"O...oh" Layla only managed to say that as she stood frozen in place. Her face was red from embarrassment. She was not expecting the sudden confession.

Her mind was instantly overloaded with all kinds of thoughts. When they will have their wedding. Who will be her maid of honour? Where they will have their honeymoon and how many children they will have. Along with the names of the children and a lot more. Her face getting hotter and hotter the more she thought.

BOOOOM!

"WHAT?!" Jade, who had been eavesdropping, instantly lost it, and her aura exploded out. She wasn't expecting the sudden confession either.

"Rooooooar!" And so, like the Beast Empress, she was. She unleashed her anger through violence.

She immediately launched her breath attack at the unsuspecting beasts that were still focused on Muku.

Unfortunately for the beasts. The stronger ones were the ones in front, while the weaker ones were in the back. So, taking Jade's beyond PR2 attack(even though she wasn't PR2 yet) as a LR2, MR2 or PR2 from the back wasn't easy.

"BOOOOOOM!

The breath attack exploded out on impact. More than twenty unsuspecting beasts were killed, most being MR2s since most LR2s had already been killed off in the carnage. There were a few PR2s that died as well.

BOOOM!

Another explosion ensued. This time, it wasn't an attack, though. It was Jade breaking through into Rank Three!

All the beasts immediately froze. The Wolf that had been observing from a distance about to strike immediately turned tail and ran. Its whole body shook in fear. Horror practically oozing out of its eyes. One thought in its mind: "Impossible!".

"What are you all waiting for? Kill them, they won't dare fight back. If they do, I will kill them myself," Jade, who seemed to have lost it, suddenly spoke.

That's when the confused bunch who didn't know what was wrong with her finally moved. Their confusion was understandable since they didn't hear what she did. All they saw was Jade randomly exploding out in a fit of rage.

However, an opportunity for easy kills had presented itself. There was no way they would let it go. Everyone immediately jumped into action.

Even Layla put her chaotic thoughts aside and started a mad slaughter. However, she didn't go too far away from Muku, who seemed to have entered a trance. It was clear to see that something more than recovering mana was happening. Which was obvious from the dragon aura he was emitting.

Comically enough, even Freya, who had gotten her body back, and Elsa had gotten into the mix. They were targeting the gravely injured beasts that were close to dying already.

Of course, it wasn't for fun. Well, at first it was. Until they both got a prompt that said that the kill points would be saved and come into effect when they reached R2. So, if anything they were reducing the work they will have to do in the future. Even if it was only by a little bit...

Interestingly enough, true to Jade's words. None of the beasts fought back as they were getting killed. They would show savagery and anger in their eyes but wouldn't dare move.

Such was the capabilities of the Beast Empress. She was finally starting to bud after ditching mana. Gaining the ability to completely suppress lower-ranked beasts. Her passive ability even had an effect on same-ranked beasts. It weakened them by a lot of their bloodline wasn't strong enough. Which was the reason the wolf ran away despite being technically a lot stronger than Jade.

She had turned into the name of all beasts. A legend feared by beasts everywhere in the days of old.

Soon all the beasts in the area were killed off. Jade had to weaken the defences of the stronger ones, but she didn't personally kill any.

Some rebelled, choosing to fight for their lives. However, their rebellion was short-lived, as Jade's mere gaze drained them of all their strength. If the beast still showed signs of rebellion after that, she would break all its legs and beat it up. Only leaving it a little bit of its life, which would be snuffed out by one of the others.

Seeing how pointless the struggle was. The rest gave up on trying. Hoping that they get killed off as quickly as possible without having to suffer as much as their comrades...

"So, what are we going to do with all this meat? And I have to say, this whole thing was quite a letdown after the dragon event. I thought we were in for an epic battle or something" Jade immediately asked about what she cared about most...meat. Then expressed her disappointment in how things ended.

"Shut up! You're literally the one who sucked all the fun out of it. Why are you complaining?!" Emily snapped at Jade.

She really wished she could beat Jade up in the moment. However, she wouldn't seek her own demise by attacking a R3 while only being a Peak R2. That's right, she and the other girls still had some distance to go before breaking through. Their mana purity was still in the 60s-70s.

"And I can't store any of the meat in my Shadow Pocket. It's already full. We can, however, take some of it back, and I'll put it on ice. R2 beast meat doesn't rot quickly anyway. So it should be fine for three months or so, even without my ice" Layla spoke after Emily.

She was trying to keep her mind off of certain things by interacting with the others.

"...Okay", Jade replied after a moment of silence, still thinking about Muku's confession every time she looked at Layla. Her eyes immediately trailed off in his direction to express her discontent, however she was puzzled as soon as she looked at him.

"Hhm? What's wrong with him?" Jade exclaimed.

The others instantly looked at Muku. They were shocked to see his body getting thinner and thinner in front of their eyes.

"Give him another core!" Audrey shouted hysterically.