The dragon's harem

Agnar ran through the forest with his eyes closed, not wanting to look back at Yuwaku and the others. Even with how deep the snow was, he never slipped once. Alcott and Arad had trained him well, and he was already a talented kid.

But then, he suddenly opened his eyes. Something felt off. The sound of his footsteps in the snow had shifted slightly, the cold air on his cheek became warmer, and the smell of the forest had changed.

While Alcott’s gut sense was mostly based on instincts because he was a human, Agnar had lived a fair time as a Black Jaguar, as an animal. His understanding of his senses far surpassed any human, and he could tell what changed and why.

His arm moved on its own, drawing his sword and putting it right in front of his chest, deflecting a flash of fire that was aimed at his heart.

As Agnar got blasted back, he hit a tree and stopped, feeling his back almost snapping in half.

“My back!” He cried, coughing blood as his spine jolted in pain.

A few meters away from him, a tall red man with long horns walked. “A human? You’ve got quite the reflexes. But that impact should’ve cracked your spine open. Can you even stand now?”

Agnar leaned on his sword and forced himself to stand on his legs. “Shut up, hell’s worm. I’ve carried heavier things on my back.”

The devil’s eyes flashed red, a hint of horrid magic building in them. “Are you talking about that woman’s heavy ass. Humans are going crazy lately.”

Agnar’s face burned red. “Who! Who are you talking about? I was talking about everyone’s expectations of me! I’ve got some demanding masters!”

The devil laughed. “I can read minds, you little fool. Even now, you’re trying to think about these two hulking muscle monsters, but all that is in your mind is that woman.” He glared at Agnar. “Come on, let me get a deeper look at her. See what she looks like…”

As the devil’s power looked deeper into Agnar’s thoughts, he suddenly came across an image of Yuwaku. He couldn’t see her thought, because his eyes fried themselves before he could even see a finger.

The devil’s eyes exploded into a torrent of black blood, and his head rocked back. He could feel it, every nerve cell inside his brain fighting to process the flood of information he saw, but failing to comprehend it. If he doesn’t do anything, his brain will fry itself in a fraction of a second, and he’ll die.

This would’ve been the end, but the devil knew what this was; he had heard of them before. With a swift strike, he stabbed the back of his head, lobotomizing the back of his brain where vision is processed.

The damage done to his brain was massive, but he had managed to stop it before it became fatal.

The brain is a flexible organ; when one part fails, the other parts can compensate. This miracle of biology that allows people to live with a part of their brain missing was the reason they die when seeing a Nymph. The visual cortex overloads, fries itself, and then the rest of the brain tries to compensate, only to get fried as well.

He could stop the bleeding and close his wounds, but the damage to his eyes and brain would remain for weeks. Nymphs are scary, but something scared the devil more.

At that moment, Agnar’s blade pierced the devil’s chest, going right where the heart should be.

The devil jolted and kicked Agnar in the chest, sending him flying back with several shattered ribs.

“You fucking brat! How?! How did you look upon a Nymph without getting blinded and killed?!” That was unheard of; a human could never survive a Nymph.

The devil stood in place, considering his next move. He could feel Agnar’s bones shattering from his kick, so he was certain the brat wasn’t anything special when it came to power; he was, in fact, weaker than most of the humans that he faced before.

He has to finish Agnar and retreat to heal before the others arrive. That accursed Nymph was with this kid inside a city, not in the dark depths of some forest. The devil was certain their relationship ran deeper than a coincidence; she must be following him around.

He could already feel several other people outside the forest. If not for his curse, they would’ve already started rushing here. He must finish this off quickly and run.

But that was troubling. Agnar’s magic and signal were dropping rapidly; he was dying. The now blinded devil couldn’t locate him clearly, and if he left, the kid’s friends would most likely find and heal him up. He heard that a Nymph’s kiss can even resurrect the dead.

He can’t leave without taking Agnar’s head with him, but finding the brat isn’t that easy.

As the devil was thinking about a way to locate Agnar and kill him, poor Agnar was once again beneath a tree, bleeding his lungs out.

The devil’s kick had shattered many of his ribs, torn his lungs, and even damaged his heart and other organs. He couldn’t breathe, stand, or feel his lower half at all.

He was about to die, bleeding alone in the pale snow.

Agnar lifted his sword, slowly, and brought it forward. The devil heard that movement and looked in his direction. “There you are.”

Agnar looked at his sword, then reached toward it with his fingers. He took a deep breath of air and blood into his dying lungs and screamed at the top of his lungs.

“ROAR! MAHARAJA!”

Black lightning exploded from Agnar’s sword and chest, turning into a massive blast that ripped a hole in the forest, burning several tens of trees and shaking the ground like a massive earthquake. The devil got blasted away, and among the chaos, he caught a glimpse of it.

A titanic black jaguar with paws the size of continents, engulfed in a black lightning storm, glaring down at him with radiant golden eyes. He knew her, and his skin crawled in terror. His eyes were blind, yet he saw her; that was the power of the being that Agnar called upon. Merely feeling a lick of her power was enough to bring her image into his crumbling mind.

In the middle of the dust and snow, Agnar emerged. A three-meter-long muscular black jaguar with glowing golden eyes and massive opal fangs with black lightning cracking from its back.

Agnar lunged forward, moving with his black lightning across the forest at blinding speed and with dreadful silence. The devil had barely regained his footing when the massive jaws closed on his skull, shattering his brain into pieces with a single powerful bite.

The next thing the devil knew, he was back in the ninth layer of hell, alone in the endless wastelands. “Did… I get killed? By that brat?”

“Huh, so you’re the one.” A voice spoke behind him, and the devil wasted no time. He immediately got on his knees to beg for his life. “I didn’t know he was your warlock. I would’ve never laid a finger on him if I had known.”

The one who was behind was the Maharaja, the World Eating Black Jaguar, and the Queen of the Rakshasa. Everyone that Agnar kills gets sent to her as sacrifices. She was Selena, the black cat girl that Arad once raced backward in Hati’s kingdom.

“That isn’t my problem.” She glared at him, and the muscles beneath her scar-filled skin started rolling.

“He could look upon a Nymph without getting blinded! I couldn’t hold back against such a person, I hope you can understand!” The devil cried, and she laughed.

“Of course he can see! He wanted to see how she looked, and I gave him the power to do it.” And with those words, the devil was ripped apart and eaten alive, never to be resurrected ever again.

Back outside, everyone else arrived just as Agnar killed the devil.