Surviving the Apocalypse While Being Tempted by an Elf and a Dark Elf

"Until when do you plan to keep hugging my wife?" Mark asked.

"Can't you not speak nonsense for five minutes?" Luke asked. "She is my mother… stupid old man."

"No wonder Amanda refused your confession," Mark said. "Right guys, a guy this big and he still is a momma's boy… pretty pathetic, don't you think?"

"Well…" Amanda said without knowing what to do.

"Hahaha," Celia laughed a little. "You two are pretty close, huh."

"I thought a Colonel would be a bit more…" Chloe whispered. "I can see how you two are good friends, and I can see where Luke's goofiness comes from."

"Anyway, you have done well in surviving until now, Luke," Mark said. "I taught well, indeed."

"... What did you teach me?" Luke frowned.

"There is no need to act tough just because some girls are around you," Mark crossed his arms and then shook his head. "You may be too young to understand, but someday you will realize that you owe me for your survival ability… Regardless, I am happy that you are fine, son."

          Luke sighed… his father was a fine example of a real pain in the ass that takes everything at his own pace. He was already used to it, but it still was hard to interact with him since he could change his pace while doing everything at an insane speed. One minute was saying nonsense, and in the other, he was being serious since he had an important position. Putting that aside, he used Appraisal on his parents, and he confirmed that they had been fighting a lot… they were at level twenty-five. While it was lower than his group, it was pretty high considering that they didn't try to escape. The reason for that was the fact that they had some wounded civilians with them… there was a man and woman who lost a leg and an arm, respectively, and apparently, they were ambassadors of other countries.

"Updates of the situation, Billy," Mark said.

"Thanks to Luke's fast thinking, we destroyed another crystal while not damaging the colosseum," Billy replied. "We ended up killing a few thousand goblins on the way, but we were forced to run since their numbers are almost endless."

"Hmm… I can see that they come every day to pick a fight with us," Mark nodded.

"Luke's friends warned us that the boss was approaching, but we managed to escape on time, but a confrontation will be unavoidable once we secure the airport," Billy explained.

"His friends… I heard about you two," Mark said with a serious expression on his face. "My name is Mark Kennedy, his father. I would like to hear from your own mouth what your goal is here."

"It is world domination, satisfied?" Luke asked. "Onto the next issue… when are we going to the airport? That airplane can't keep flying forever."

"I suppose you are right… we can worry about that later," Mark said. "We are already ready to move. We finished our preparations when we heard about the operation."

          While Luke felt that he could trust his father despite everything, he thought that it would be better to keep certain things as a secret. Who knows what might happen if they discover that Rina and Shalia are looking for allies. Luke could imagine that Rina would accept everyone while her eyes were glistening, full of excitement and naivety. Still, the same couldn't be said about Shalia.

          Fortunately, the airport was in the south of the area. It was twenty kilometers away, so there was the chance that they could escape dealing with the goblin champion. Few people had seen him fighting, but those who saw it said that he was like a storm. Wherever the monster goes, a blood storm is bound to happen. If the beast was that strong, the reward upon defeating it would be pretty nice, but Luke wouldn't let the creature find them. If it happens, he will fight and hope for an awesome reward, but if he doesn't, he will just move on and work to go home as soon as possible. Still, for the first time in that week, Luke wondered. Go home, and then what? What would be his next goal? Keep slaying zombies and destroying the crystals? The task of stopping the zombies might end one day, but it will take a while to slay more than a billion zombies… As for the crystals, that was supposed to be a task that all the human race had to do. Still, that would be essentially a never-ending job…

          While Luke was thinking about that, the group picked their things and began to move. Their pace was a bit slow since they had some injured people among the group, but that was within expectations.

"What is wrong, Luke?" Julia asked. "I never saw you looking so troubled before… Was it because Amanda is here?"

          Luke laughed a little since his mother whispered the last part. Why can't they just forget that? He knew that he didn't have many remarkable moments in his life, but sticking with that one was a bit bothersome… Nevertheless, Luke wondered if he should share his worries with his mother. He was more or less a grown-up man, so talking about the future with his mother seemed a bit… In the end, he understood that he was thinking like a kid again…

"What is going to happen now?" Luke asked.

"... That is indeed a difficult question. No wonder you look so troubled," Julia said and, for the first time, began to think about that.

          Until now, everyone only had to worry about surviving, but now that they were working with a big group, they had to consider other things. Truth to be told, Luke didn't want to stay close to Frank, but until the very end, the command chain remains, so his father probably won't leave his position. Luke had to consider his options carefully in order not to regret it later...