Pause System: Harem In The Apocalypse

"FIRE!!!!" The man yelled out, his veins popping out of his forehead.

*DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDU*

As military vehicles lined up all around the city which was in ruins, the sound of gunshots reverberated throughout it. The soldiers were unleashing all of their ammunitions on the hordes of zombies and the humanoid beings with horns on their heads.

Fires erupted everywhere, filling the air with dark smoke. Despite the portal remaining in the sky, the fleets remained stationary in the air, but more and more of the horned ones were falling,

In the beginning, fighter jets invaded, attacking all the fleets, but they had little effect as most of them had put up defenses.

Although the bullets worked on the zombies, the horned ones had special abilities which rendered the bullets ineffective. They were intelligent, those with abilities more useful in other areas would simply leave the military troops to them to those who specialised in defending agaisnt them.

*BOOM!*

The vehicle ahead of them was struck by lightning, exploding upon collision, causing the disruption in formation. Screams of blood curdling horror echoed through the ranks as the horned creatures counterattacked.

Using explosives and everything they had to offer, they fired and fired and fired, but it wasn't enough.

"T-THOSE DAMN DEVILS!!! AREN'T THEY AFRAID OF THE UNDEAD!?" One of the Sargent's yelled out as he threw a grenade. "CALL IN FOR BACK UP!! REQUEST HELP FROM THE ABILITY USERS FROM THE TRAINING FACILITIES!! CALL OUT THE ONES TRAINING INSIDE THE LABYRINTHS AS WELL!"

​ "BUT SIR! THEY'RE NOT READY YET!! WE CAN'T CALL FOR THEM WITHOUT ORDERS FROM ABOVE!!!"

"THEY SURE AS HELL ARE READIER THAN US!! THE SITUATION HAS GONE OUT OF CONTROL! IF WE DON'T ACT NOW ALL THE PEOPLE WHO ARE HIDING IN THE CITY WILL DIE!! WE MUST PROTECT THEM!!!!! " He shouted, extending his arm towards the horned devil walking towards him with a trail of lightning behind him.

All bullets which were being fired in his direction were cut off, the movement was too fast to be seen by their regular eyes. A beam of light began to manifest in front of the Sargent's hand. Taking the form of a spike, it was pointed at the horned blue haired lightning man.

Right before he could activate the ability however-

*Slash!*

Suddenly, everything went black.

-

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-

Dark clouds were gathering around the city as thunder began to strike all around. During that time, Gray's figure could be seen collapsed on an apartment's hallway floor.

His muscles twitched as he tried to lift himself off the ground. Unfortunately the most movement he could muster up was barely lifting them as they remained on his back.

'Is this what happens when I break past all my stamina or an after effect of the ability?'

.

.

.

[New Ability: Chronos Field]

The clawed feet of the flying horned man could be seen heading straight at Gray at high speeds. Using his ability at Gray, the magnet manipulator propelled himself from the wall. The last of the five that remained hidden was seen on top of the magnet guy.

All of them were headed for Gray, intending to finish it off in the final assault.

The smile on Gray's face became visible in that instant.

"Chronos Field." Gray murmured.

-

Suddenly, unable to move a muscle, they found themselves suspended in the air, inside of a field that had appeared around Gray.

Gray's field covered a radius of five meters and was spherical. All three of them were frozen, the magnet guy, the flying horned guy, and even the purple-haired blindfold. The cloaked man that was hiding had left in time, but he had been the only one.

'What…? What's happening?'

'Why can't I move…?'

'This… What sort of ability is this!? My illusions I can't use them...?'

Unable to speak, the surprise could be seen on their faces as they struggled to comprehend what was happening.

During that moment, Gray walked on top of the air, menacingly towards them. The black sword on his hand swayed left and right as he practised swings a dark and cold look in his eyes.

No words were exchanged between them as he stopped ahead of them. Following that, he thrust the blade into the nearest ones heart as they all watched.

*Pierce*

Gray slowly thrust the sword further into his heart as he leaned in. His hands were trembling as he did so. Now that he wasn't in the evolution state, his emotions had returned to normal.

His heart pounded heaivly as he took their lives from them. He proceeded to repeat this with the other three, they could do nothing but watch as their fates lied in his hands.

After piercing all three of them, Gray looked over to the roof of the building where the giant one had been. To his surprise he was gone. Gray then proceeded to turn to the cloaked one which had remained hidden thus far.

He stood at the edge of the building beside him, watching him. He watched him slay his entire squad. Even after all Gray had done, he hadn't made a single move.

The field had been active for the past ten seconds and was starting to show signs of fading. The same was for Gray, he was slowly growing dizzier as his vision began to fade.

"What the hell? Aren't you mad?! I killed your entire squad! Come after me!" Gray shouted, his voice trembling from the anxiety.

The cloaked one didn't reply and simply continued to watch.

'Shit... I can't handle anymore... I'll come back for you.'

[Unpause]

[Pause Step]

Gray vanished without a trace, following that-

*KAZING!*

Suddenly blood splattered from the three where they had been pierced, before they slowly plunged to the ground. He picked them up, one by one, in the air whilst they plunged to their deaths without bothering to pursue Gray,.

He placed them on the nearest rooftop away from the zombies.

"*Cough* T-Thank you... He pierced our hearts but... We still have two more... *Cough*" Spoke the blindfolded horned man whilst he coughed out blood. "This shouldn't be enough to kill-"

The man was interrupted as he was suddenly pierced by the cloaked man in the heart by a hidden blade. His eyes bulged out as life seeped away from them. He couldn't believe it.

"Looks like the disguise was successful." Said the person as they removed their cloak's hoodie.

Long black hair tied back into a pony tail flowed out, his purple-gem-like eyes as he stared at the other two who were still recovering from having lost a heart. The horns on his head were simply black, they had no colour showing that he was unranked.

The man spoke as he rubbed his head. "Conceaalment off." he said. The horns faded away shortly after. "That big guy ran away... I guess I should go kill him before he reports it to the higher ups. Wouldn't want them to find out."

He proceeded to turn in the direction Gray had ran.

"More importantly that guy... His ability...". A smile grew on his face as he seemed to consider it's potential. "Things are finally starting to get interesting. Maybe leaving the labyrinth was a good idea."

-

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-

[Enemies Defeated]

[Quest Completed]

[Rewards Received]

[XP Received: 100]

When he had come to it, a black mystery box had manifested on top of his hands, but by then he had already collapsed on the floor.

It was quiet, after all that straining he still couldn't move. He decided to shrug it off and leave it as something which was unavoidable. Surely it wouldn't last forever, right?

Above all however, there was something which had been bothering Gray.

'I stabbed them in the heart but only received notification of the quest being completed after I entered the apartment which was almost five minutes after? How did they survive for so long? How comes I didn't get any notifications from slaying them? And lastly...'

"Why was the quest completed when one of them got away?"

Did the system make a mistake? Would the system even make such a mistake? Or the the big guy running away count as his defeat? Not to mention the cloaked guy hadn't ran nor was gray able to kill him.

Gray wasn't sure, but before he had the chance to give it any further thought.

"Grhh..."

His thoughts were interrupted by a groan which could be heard coming from ahead of him. The instant he heard it, he shut his mouth before slowly looking up.

A zombie could be seen ahead of him, it was on all fours, it's arms and legs spread wide as it walked around. He could hear it's groans grow louder as it slowly made it's way to him.

Under normal circumstances, he would have been able to avoid it or kill it himself, but in his current state, he was basically paralysed and helpless.

Gray's eyes dilated as he could do nothing but watch the zombie approach him.

[Would you like to use a mystery box?]