The dragon's harem

One punch after another, Nina kept trying to drive away the illusion; the man standing in front of her wasn’t real. If he were, she would’ve already killed him. But no matter what she did, he didn’t disappear.

It was then that her hands got caught. Taken aback, she noticed him already standing by her side, both of her hands locked in his palms. “Enough. There is no need to hurt yourself, I’m real.”

She halted for a second, staring at him with a confused face. And then, without a second of hesitation, she grabbed the shaft of her battle axe with her toes and swung it at his neck. Such a move didn’t even look human, and no fighter could’ve ever predicted it.

Arad didn’t move. He stood there, looking at her with glowing purple eyes. The axe stopped just an inch away from his neck, trembling. Nina didn’t stop her attack; she was even pushing with enough force to make her toes bleed, but the axe never managed to reach his skin.

He was an illusion, that’s it. But he wasn’t. Gravity magic was at play here. Even if affecting her was hard, affecting the axe itself was possible. It was indeed only her skin that reflected magic.

All of this time that Arad dodged her attacks, he didn’t really need to do it unless she was attacking directly with her body.

Arad put her hands together and grabbed them with one hand. He then threw his other hand to grab her foot from the ankle and sat down, putting her on his lap.

She tried to get her hands free, but his fingers refused to budge, locking both of her hands like they were welded together. She tried to kick him in the face with her free leg, and he didn’t try to stop her.

Her foot landed on his face, stopping at his cheek without doing any damage. She stared at him with a terrified and baffled face. That kick should’ve ripped his head to pieces, but it didn’t.

Arad was doing a simple trick. Nina’s leg can generate enough force to propel her a hundred kilometers into the sky, but that was when jumping; she won’t use all of that force when kicking. He had covered his body in a layer of reversed gravity, and anything that approached would face a push with relative strength to its speed. The faster Nina’s foot approached his face, the stronger the gravity was, and the more strength her attack lost before landing on him.

The kick still landed with enough force to make him feel it, and it was more than enough to rip a normal dragon’s head, but he could endure it, thanks to Kayden’s barriers that protect against bludgeoning damage.

Nina lashed out, trying to kick him again and again, but all of her attacks failed to harm him. Now that he had caught her and she was this close to him, she couldn’t produce any momentum.

Arad chuckled, looking at her with a smile. “You’re still this energetic, aren’t you?” He pulled her close to him so she couldn’t move. “But isn’t it time for your nap? I’ve just finished feeding you, we even played for a bit, now it’s time for you to rest.”

After a while of struggle, her movements finally started to grow sluggish. She can’t harm him, and he isn’t harming her; attacking was useless, a waste of energy. It was better for her to rest and wait for him to leave on his own. Like storms, like earthquakes, and the harrowing heat of the burning sun… living beings can’t do anything but wait and bid their time, awaiting the natural disaster to pass.

Soon, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

Arad looked at her with a smile. She finally calmed down, or was given up; either way, it was the best time for Nina to regain control, and he could see that she was doing just that. With the body fast asleep, the brain was now regaining control of it, putting a conscious chain on the beastiality of her blood.

It was the same for all, even for him. The brutality of their violent nature is subdued by a human mind and soul. The ego takes hold over instinct and desires, putting rationality over monstrous behavior… that is what differentiates humans from beasts.

Arad teleported with the sleeping Nina into a nearby cave to shield them from the burning sun and sat her down on a soft silk bed no less. He had a whole furniture shop inside his stomach, all from demonic pieces into the marvelous creations of his lovely wife.

As he put her on the soft bed, he looked around, even though they were hidden in the dark shadows of a cave, the heat of the scorching desert outside still reached them. It won’t do to leave Nina sleeping in such a suffocating heat, would it? The two of them had also hurt the desert so much with their fight, so he had better apologize, and what’s a better apology than a gift?

Arad lifted his hand, and the desert’s blue sky started getting clouded. Mesharra’s weather magic was quite useful, and a bit of rain would do this dried land a lot of good.

As cold rains poured down from the sky, giving the desert a once-in-a-thousand-years blessing, cold breeze flew through the cave’s entrance and into its depths, finally dropping the temperature to an acceptable level. Not too cold, and not too hot, just perfect.

With Nina peacefully asleep, Arad shifted his attention to another matter. He had to cook her something good to eat. His arms sure tasted like shit. And he somewhat didn’t want her to get used to eating him, that would be painful.

Seconds later, a large black scorpion the size of a house crawled into the cave, confused by the sudden rainfall. The creatures of the desert had never seen such a thing, and to them it looked like the end of the world. Especially after those two monsters fought.

It was then that the scorpion looked inside the cave and smelled meat being grilled. He crawled deeper and found himself staring at Arad, who was sitting beside the fire, behind him a woman slept in a strangely expensive-looking bed that had no business being in such a damp and ugly cave.

Arad looked at the monster with a smile. “Metal exoskeleton, deadly poison, powerful muscles, huge size, and enough intellect to not attack immediately. S-rank monster, I guess only the strongest of the strongest survives here.”

He was right, if the scorpion showed anywhere near a city, it could decimate it. The A-rank adventurers won’t stand a chance, and only the best of the best S-rank could stop it. But that monster wasn’t attacking. Looking at Arad, it knew. A bug like it had no right being anywhere in this man’s vision, unless it wanted to be crushed.

Arad extended a piece of meat to the monster. “Want some? You must be hungry.”

The monster reluctantly obliged.