The dragon's harem

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CRACK! The walls of the labyrinth resisted, their magic jolting back, crackling like lightning as it pushed Arad back.

Arad smiled, “Crack open! I only need one tiny crack.” The void coursing from his body to the barrier drill pulled matter out of the labyrinth’s walls with the mana alongside them, quickly draining the walls of energy to resist.

Even though Ann had all of Merlin’s magic and mana. she didn’t seem to be able to unleash it at a powerful enough stream to sustain the labyrinth while fending Arad’s magic. It barely got there. A small opening appeared.

From the cracks, a black rat poked his head into the labyrinth. The moment its front foot landed inside, the whole place pulsed.

“He got inside! Stop him at all costs!” Ann shouted at the top of her lungs.

****

At the first layer, the deformed Merlin’s monsters stood, staring at the tiny black rat that entered in horror. It looked so small. So tiny and harmless, yet they knew it. That thing was anything but harmless.

The rat’s body started expanding and shifting. It grew wings and a massive tail. Sharp scales emerged from its skin as it burned with a dark purplish magic.

“DIE!” One of the monsters jumped.

Arad opened his jaw, biting the monster whole. As the rest stared, he gave her a chop and swallowed her.

“The void consumes,” Arad growled, opening his jaw. The voice inside his stomach started violently pulling air in like a vacuum, sucking everything around him.

The monsters held onto the stones, trees, and ground for dear life, but it didn’t matter what it was. Anything that got close to Arad’s jaw got eaten.

BAM! The stair guardian, the giant Arad golem rushed toward Arad with a swing.

Arad turned around, smacking him with his tail, shattering him with ease. He then extended his wings and flew up, digging his way to the second layer where he swam through the mud.

“You’re back!” The octopus queen rushed at him. “Sorry, but it’s our job to stop you. We were resurrected just for that,”

Arad opened his jaw and turned toward her. Everything around her went black as a shockwave crushed her boneless body into a mush. Arad’s void breath erased her alongside the other octopuses around in a single hit.

FLAP! FLAP! Arad didn’t even bother to slow down, smacking directly into the ceiling and digging his way to the third layer.

Thud! At that moment, he felt a hand grab him by the tail. As he looked back, he saw a large muscular man looking like him, but this one had fish skin and a long black beard.

“What are you?” Arad asked, snatching his tail from the man’s hand.

The man pointed his trident at Arad, throwing it with a blast of lightning.

“Yeah, I remember,” Arad smiled, biting the trident off. “That devil killed the stair’s guardian before we reached him. That was you, wasn’t it?”

Sparks emerged from between Arad’s teeth, “This is how you use lightning,”

CLAP! A massive bolt of lightning charred the boss in an instant, and Arad kept moving. Now that he regained his powers, most monsters here felt so weak he could barely tell them apart.

The fake Alina city started shaking, the ground beneath it cracking as Arad approached. The fake Merlin and the city lord rushed out, “Set a barricade, will stop him here.” The lord growled.

“You must be dreaming,” The fake Merlin replied, “We could barely stop him as a mere human. We have no chance now that he got his power back,”

“A dragon or a human, they are the same,” The city lord growled, “You won’t know until you try,”

CRACK! Arad emerged from the ground, and the lord pointed at him with his sword, “Fire!”

All the soldier shoot their arrows, cannons, and balisata in an attempt to stop Arad in his tracks.

Everything just bounced off Arad’s scales like droplets of water on a tile roof. A dragon’s scales can’t be pierced with mundane, magicless weapons.

BAM! In the blink of an eye, Arad disappeared, and a line got cut in the middle of the city. The soldiers got blasted as debris rained from the sky like hair.

“What happened?” The city lord growled, looking around with a shocked face.

“He ran,” The fake Merlin replied, “He ran through the city, nothing more.” She looked back at Arad, “Even at that size he’s faster than what the eye can follow.”

“Such a thing can’t be,”

“Look,” She pointed, “Such mass moving at that speed, we won’t even…”

Arad landed on the other of side of the city, and no one remained alive there.

Even the fake Merlin failed to notice something before dying. Arad wasn’t just running across the city. That would be pointless. He was just running around, eating everyone in his way. They died thinking they got rammed, but in fact, they were chewed.

Arad immediately flew up to the desert layer, emerging from the sand like a hungry scorpion looking for foot.

He stared around. Amber lost her arm to kill that massive worm. He could see the boss.

“Why are you still alive?” Arad growled.

Countless small worms bit Arad’s limbs and wings to pin him down as the boss rushed forward, opening its massive jaw to bite.

Thud! Arad took one step forward, the worms holding him down and ripping apart as they couldn’t tie him.

Arad’s scales turned red, fire crackling, “You should be burned to death. Are you telling me losing her arm wasn’t enough to put you down forever?”

Arad opened his jaw, biting the boss’s jaw and swinging him around like a rope, only using his neck muscles. His scales crackled with fire as he unleashed a powerful breath.

The boss’s body flashed red from the inside, inflating like a balloon before exploding in a burst of fire and blood.

^Monster that terrorizes humans,^ Arad thoughts, remembering how he ran with Merlin and Amber on his back.

“To them, to us, at that time, you were a monster, an apex predator of the desert.” Arad looked at the blood, “But now, I’m the monster to you, worm.”

Arad extended his wings, taking into the sky, “I shall never forget. The weakness and fragility of humans. And the terror we monsters hold,” He looked up, flying toward the next layer.

“So one day I won’t end up like you,” Arad started digging his way to the next floor. “I shall keep my own power in check,”