The dragon's harem

The whole castle trembled and its walls vibrated violently as a battle raged beneath it. The clash between Arad and Tyal grew more violent each second, her wind stormed with lightning and rage while Arad’s blood mist resisted like an eternal mist.

Tyal would try to contain Arad and jolt him with lightning, but he’ll slip away from her grasp and seep into the torrents of her winds, separating them and breaking her stormy body. Each roaring thunderclap shook the castle, and Arad’s attacks almost ripped the ground.

The fight looked like two powerful, elemental forces were clashing, thunderclouds fighting blood mist to the death.

But the fight didn’t last that long after both of them transformed. A minute later, Tyal got forced back into her Titan form. She rolled on the ground and coughed blood, her head throbbing as if she had been smacked with a bat.

Arad’s blood mist flew through the fading clouds. He stepped onto the ground, his eyes burned red with blood magic. “You’ve done well, but this is as far as your mana pool allows you.”

“Never expected that I would be able to beat you.” Tyal chuckled as she rolled on her back, “I won’t be a concubine if I could do that, would I?”

“Well, at least you’ve learned a few things.” Arad sat beside her and pointed at the Dragon Slayer’s blade.

“When you turn into a thunder cloud, your clothes, armors, and weapons also turn with you. Their enchantments aren’t lost; they still apply to you.” Arad smiled, “You can turn into a whole storm, and each gust of wind will carry the sharpness and magic of your weapon, your whole misty body would be protected by the powerful enchantments of your armor. You get more use of equipment than anyone else at your level.”

Tyal looked at her hands. What Arad said was true. She had been strong for decades, and the only thing that prevented her from accessing her beast form was herself. She never tried to fight outside of her well-trained moves, which made it extremely hard for her to incorporate magic directly into her fighting style.

Arad stood and helped Tyal stand. “Go rest, eat well, and get healed. You’ll need all the energy you can have in the fight.”

He looked at the terrified Zeus and Gale in the back. The two of them didn’t expect Arad and Tyal to go that hard in a mere training fight.

Gale had been with Tyal since she was born; he saw her grow and train, and in the past years, she was never able to achieve a beast form no matter how hard she tried.

Tyal had trained hard, many hours each day swinging her blade, trying to become the best version of herself. But she always ended up failing at the last step, she was never able to assume a beast form. And she had to just achieve that power right now before fighting him. He didn’t even know if that was a stroke of bad or good luck. Should he be happy that his daughter had achieved something so important, or worried that she would be stronger when fighting him for the throne?

Gale knew that one day he would lose the throne to one of his children, but he expected that at the time, he would be quite old and frail.

He thought that his eldest son would’ve grown into a powerful fighter who achieved many great things, and that the fight would look more like a formality than an actual challenge.

But now, he was still young, and his daughter is even younger, in her prime days. It would be a huge embarrassment for him if she were to actually win and overthrow him. His loss might even call into question the legitimacy of his victory against Zeus.

Zeus, on the other hand, was thinking about something else.

Arad wasn’t just a brute. All his moves were well thought and trained, but his style was quite maliable. Zeus could bet that Arad didn’t even use a quarter of his martial skills against Tyal.

What was more scary than a massive and powerful monster? It was an even bigger monster that learned how to wield a blade.

Zeus approached Arad and looked at him, “Did Alcott train you?”

“Father? Yes, he did train me on how to use weapons. I also did train with Dalla and learned a few things here and there from the opponents I faced.” Arad replied with a smile and looked at Alice and Tyal, who were heading back inside.

Zeus remained silent for a few seconds and sighed, “What is your favorite weapon?”

“My fists and claws,” Arad replied, and then contemplated his answer. “No, you said weapon. I want to say the sword, but I think that’s it, even though I fight with a sword a lot.”

Arad scratched his head. “My best weapon is a knife, but I would have to say that my favorite weapon is a stick.” He extended his hand forward, and a wizard’s staff appeared in his palm.

A long and brown quarterstaff with a large glass sphere on its top. The wood looked mundane, but Zeus could smell the vibrant, citrus scent of the world tree. If something about the staff was actually mundane, it was the glass sphere, which was supposed to be the magical part.

The staff’s whole design was backward, and the glass sphere was empty, filled with nothing.

“My wife Mira made this staff for me. I rarely need to use it, but it’s quite the powerful weapon.”

Arad then quickly stuffed the staff back into his stomach and sighed. “I wish there were more strong monsters that I would need to use against.

Zeus laughed, “I don’t think the world would survive such a fight.”

Gale looked at the two, confused. He still can’t understand the nature of the relationship between his father and Arad. At the start, he could swear those two were ready to rip each other apart, but then they recognized each other and were in a good mood. His father was even willing to set Tyal against him to make her one of Arad’s wives, instead of complaining directly to him.

Gale couldn’t really argue with Arad’s personal power, but he did question if his grandfather had planned something from the very start. Even with how little knowledge he has about divinity and demigods, Gale is almost certain that someone can’t just become a god out of nowhere like his father did.

He has to find out what those two are planning before the fight with Tyal. If possible.

It was time for him to start doing something.