Rise of the Strongest War God

Chapter 62  Overprotective

"When I saw this beast almost bite your neck, I-I was so worried." Tears welled up in her eyes as she said this.

Luke felt bad when he saw this and gently hugged her again, "I'm sorry for worrying you."

Professor Nina pushed him back and said with a serious expression on her face, "Luke, I know you are strong. But please, try not to risk your life like that."

"Um, but if I hadn't done that, this beast might have killed us all." Luke awkwardly said, hoping she would understand him but what she said next made him question himself if this beautiful lady in front of him was really professor Nina or his overprotective mother.

"I'm sure you would've handled it even without taking such a big risk. So, promise me you won't do it again."

Seeing how unreasonable she was being, Luke could only surrender, "Alright. I promise!"

Hearing him, Professor Nina finally relaxed.

Seeing they were done, Lori spoke up, "Luke, we should leave this place now. This blood stench would surely attract other beasts."

"Yeah. We should leave, but first..." Luke nodded and stood up. He then glanced at the dead panther, grabbed his sword and started hacking at one of its hind, meaty legs.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

"What are you doing?" Julia asked, frowning at the sight of the blood and flesh flying around.

"Collecting food." Luke answered as he continued to hack at the leg.

"Food?" Julia frowned before she realised they had left their supplies behind when they escaped.

"Let me help you." She grabbed a sword and went to the other side and started hacking at the second hind leg.

Lori and Professor Nina exchanged glances before they walked over to Julia and started helping her.

Luke looked at them and sighed in his heart. He was sure, before the apocalypse, these ladies haven't even killed a chicken or did anything crude like this, but now, they were forced to fight and kill those disgusting zombies and do all kinds of crude things to survive. A few minutes later, they were finished chopping off its hind legs, but then a slight complication arose. Each leg weighed over 20 kilograms and, since Luke had to carry Ben, the ladies needed to carry the legs—a rather difficult task for the trio since their strength stats were below average compared to a normal person.

Looking at them struggling to carry the panther legs, Luke could only shake his head and mutter to himself, "And then you want equal rights..." (A/N: It is a pun/Joke. Lol!)

"Huh? Did you say something?" Professor Nina asked, while Lori and Julia looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"Nah, nothing." Luke hurriedly shook his head and then extending his hand. "Give me one, I'll carry it."

"No. You are already carrying Ben... Don't worry, we will manage." Professor shook her head.

"It's alright." Luke said and grabbed the leg she was 'carrying' while Lori and Julia carried the other one.

They then walked away from the place, moving in the east direction.

After walking for an hour, the group found an abandoned cave. After confirming that it was really abandoned, they entered it and covered the entrance with tree branches and bushes.

Thud!

Lori and Julia dropped the panther leg in the corner and fell on their butts, panting. Professor Nina also sat down, heaving deep breaths. She also helped them carry the leg on their way here.

Luke chuckled at them, dropped the panther leg before gently laying Ben down. After which, he also sat down.

After resting for a while, Julia looked at the meaty panther leg in front of her and said, "Why don't we cook and eat it? I'm feeling a little hungry."

Lori glanced at professor Nina and Luke and asked, "Should we?"

"Yeah. I'm also a little hungry." Professor Nina nodded.

"Alright, I'll go out and bring some dry wood, then." Luke said, standing up.

Swoosh!

Julia jumped to her feet and said, "I'll come along."

"Alright." Luke nodded and walked out.

Lori frowned as she watched Julia run after him, but didn't say anything.

Professor Nina noticed this and after they had left, she said, "I see Julia is attracted to Luke but you don't like it. Why is that?"

Lori stiffened for a moment but chose not to reply. Instead, she picked her sword and started to prepare to the meat for cooking.

Professor Nina narrowed her eyes and said, "So, you want him all for yourself?"

Lori froze when she heard this, and stuttered, "Y-You knew?"

The corner of professor Nina's lips curled up as she laughed. "Of course. Don't you know how loud you were last night? If I'm not wrong, only Julia and little Kean don't know." n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Lori blushed in embarrassment when she heard this but also sighed in relief after hearing that her daughter doesn't know about it. She then tentatively asked, "Are you sure Julia doesn't know?" Although Shadow had also told her Julia didn't know, she was still worried.

"Yeah. She doesn't. But if she does, I can only say she is just too good an actor." Professor Nina said nonchalantly, but depths of her eyes were flickering with complicated emotions.

After a while, when she saw Lori had calmed down, she asked, "Can I ask something?"

"Mm." Lori nodded.

"Who was the first to make a move? Was it you or him?" Professor Nina asked, unconsciously clenching her fists.

Lori frowned, not understanding why she was asking this. She then noticed her clenched fists and the expression in her eyes and immediately understood.

'So, she also likes him.' She thought and suddenly felt her heart constrict because she knew Luke also liked her.

'Well, I never expected to keep him for myself.' She smiled bitterly and exhaled deeply. She then said, "You don't worry. I was the one who made the first move. I wanted him to save my daughter and didn't know if he would risk his life for her, so I offered myself to him."

Hearing this, Professor Lori breathed out, "I understand."

...

Shadow and the group were resting in a small clearing, well hidden by trees. Alice was lying beside Lisa, her eyes closed.

Kean tugged at his mother and muttered, "Mom, I'm hungry."

"We'll find something to eat, sweety. Just bear it for a while," Lisa said, hugging him.

She then glanced at Rio. "Honey, why don't we go back and bring that boar back? We can grill it and eat it."

Rio shook his head. "Didn't you hear what Sir Luke told us? We should avoid recklessly eating anything mutated, be it fruits or animals."

"But we can't stay hungry and we don't know long many days it would take us to leave this forest and go to town Rosewood." Lisa argued.

Rio didn't say anything. He knew what she said was true. They needed to figure out what they could eat or what not. But the problem was—how? They couldn't risk their lives becoming genie pigs, right?

Just then,

"Mm…" Alice's eyes fluttered open. She looked around and furrowed her brows when she didn't see Luke and others.

"What happened? Where are Luke and others?"