The dragon's harem

The brider rolled back, pushed by Arad’s powerful kick, and blood gushed out of its lower maw. Most of the blood was his, but some of it belonged to Arad.

In the back, Arad stood, looking down at his foot. Kicking the brider in the mouth might’ve been a bad idea, as the countless teeth have scraped the skin from his foot and torn his pants.

Thankfully, Haru was already kneeling there, healing him. She saw the attack and rushed to get herself positioned before it could even happen.

“Five seconds, four, three…” She started counting down, giving Arad an exact measure of when she would fully finish healing his leg. That time wasn’t based just on experience; she informed Arad of when he’ll be healed in the future, and that also worked as a signal for everyone else.

The brider stood, glared at them with malice burning in its eight red eyes. Its lower maw was still bleeding, but that never stopped a monster from moving. It suddenly turned into a blur, racing on the land at speeds far beyond what Arad and Gojo could comprehend, and in the blink of an eye, it was already behind Arad and Haru, going for the devilish healer.

“Two…”

The brider’s sharp fangs hit an invisible wall, leaking acidic poison just a few inches away from Haru. Gojo was already upon the monster, having predicted that it would attack from behind, so he was already rushing toward it with an open palm.

“One…”

[IMPACT] Gojo’s open palm smacked the brider’s massive abdomen, sending the horrid monster flying away with a loud shockwave. The ground cracked, and Haru’s hair flapped like a poor flag on a ship’s mast, unable to remain still.

“GO!” Haru cried, and the veins on Arad’s massive legs bulged. They were in front of her a moment ago, but now, they had disappeared in a burst of dust. He was already moving to assist Gojo.

Haru couldn’t see the dust clouds, and so she took a single breath, causing her to inhale it and start coughing. If the brider could cover such a distance in that short time, then she was already too close and had to back away. But she couldn’t because she was busy reeling back from the dust.

Haru coughed just several times, unable to move. But in the next moment, she cried as Liliana snatched her and ran away. As a half-demon, Liliana’s physical power was far above that of normal humans. Haru gasped in surprise as she felt the powerful wind and heard Liliana’s fast stomps cracking the ground.

“You’re fast…” Haru knew that Liliana was powerful, but she never expected her to be able to move like this. No wonder she knocked Gojo out with a single back slap.

“Yeah, we demons are better than you devils by a lot.” Liliana spun and threw Haru into the soft snow. “Stay there, or call me before you move. I might be fast, but not fast enough to save you again.”

Back in the middle of the fight, Arad reached the brider and thrust his spear, aiming at the creature’s massive abdomen. But as expected of a wild monster, its instincts kicked in, and it moved, dodging the attack at the last moment.

“Hold it!” Arad shouted as he turned to keep his eyes on the brider, getting ready for a sideways swing with his stone spear. Gojo, who was right behind him, pointed three fingers at the ground and turned it into soft mud, trapping the brider’s eight slender legs in before hardening it back to stone.

As the brider couldn’t move, Arad’s spear hit it right in the neck, rocking its head violently from one side to the other. But the sharp edge of the spear wasn’t able to scratch the brider’s hard skin. It was just like with the bison, normal blades, even those created by magic. would find it hard to even scratch this thing.

The density of mana they could create now as humans was just far lower than what’s needed for optimal weapons. It was just that simple.

Of course, if one hit didn’t work, he had to keep hitting it until it died. So the clash started. Arad’s spear flew around like a storm, blocking the brider’s arms and delivering attacks of his own. This monster was far smarter than the bison, but not anywhere near Arad.

The brider was smart enough to understand that it must block Arad’s attacks with its arms while trying to attack, but it wasn’t smart enough to contend with Arad’s martial skills.

Arad could deflect and dodge all of the brider’s attacks, while delivering most of his with relative ease. The monster was far faster than Arad was, but its attacks were much easier to deal with.

But the brider had more problems to deal with. The ground beneath its eight legs was melting into mud, swallowing its feet, and then solidifying into hard stone, making it much harder for it to move. Luckily for it, it was powerful enough to crack the stone open and pull its legs out without much of a problem.

What troubled the brider more was the constant assault of sharp spikes that Gojo kept conjuring from the ground beneath it and shooting them up, aiming at its wounded lower maw and abdomen.

It wasn’t facing Arad alone, but Gojo as well, which proved to be quite the deadly duo. One is massive, strong, and rampages with bestial aggression, nearing the edge of being rabid, while the other was calculated and nasty, aiming at every wound and weakness with deadly spells.

It came here looking for food and something to lay its eggs on, and Arad’s massive body proved alluring. It wanted to eat everyone else, then paralyze Arad with its poison, lay its eggs on him, and let the lava feast on his paralyzed, still conscious self.

But this fight had proved to be a bit too much, not worth the energy. The monster’s mind quickly started shifting, and it now wanted to end the fight and run away.

It opened its lower maw as wide as it could, and splashed a burst of acidic poison, this time, aiming at Arad’s massive torso. He was already too close, and dodging should be impossible. At the same time, it’s massive butt wiggled, and a burst of silk flew toward Gojo, who was a bit far away.

This should give it enough opening to run away. Arad had no way to deal with the poison, and Gojo shouldn’t be able to handle the net.

The poison splashed toward, hitting an invisible wall right before reaching him. Even from a distance, Gojo had cast a barrier to protect Arad. That had left him defenseless against the coming net of spiderweb.

Seeing that its web fell on Gojo and caught him, the brider changed its plan and hardened the threads. If it caught him, it might as well take him away for dinner. He might be a deadly wizard, but one bite of her poison should keep him still.

Arad saw the brider trying to run away and take Gojo with it, and he swore to smash its face into its ugly skull.

Haru could see a vision, one of the brider dragging Gojo away, only to be killed with a massive lightning bolt that Gojo cast on it. But then, in the blink of an eye, that vision turned into a blur and cracked.

Arad was moving, and fast. His legs cracked the ground as he bolted after the brider and Gojo, lifting spear up and throwing it with deadly precision.

The spear hit the rope of thread spanning between Gojo and the brider just a single meter away from Gojo and pinned it to the ground, forcing the brider to a halt.

“Cut it!” Arad shouted and jumped, landing right beside his spear. Gojo’s hands moved quickly, and an invisible barrier cut the threads around him.

“I was about to fry it.” He growled, but Arad was already gone. He grabbed the spear and the tip of the rope it was attached to, and he was now running circles around the brider, tying it with its spiderweb.

The brider was smart enough to release the web from its spinneret, but it was too late because it was already entangled. The more Arad ran around the struggling brider, the shorter the spiderweb rope got until he was once more standing in front of the monster.

He thrust his spear into the ground, pinning the threads and monster in place so they can’t run away anymore, and as a bonus, its arms were now tied to its torso.

Arad’s left arm flew forward and he grabbed the brider by the neck, violently shaking it around as if it killed his brother. Then, his right hand formed a fist and came crashing down at the brider’s humanoid face, hitting it with a barrage of punches that almost looked like a blur.

Liliana could only count seven punches a second, but she was pretty sure Arad’s barrage was even faster than that, and it sounded like ten men were whaling on a wooden wedge with sledgehammers all at once.

“If you’re going to drag someone away!” Arad let go of the brider’s bloodied neck and opened his palm. “Then drag someone of your weight!”

His open palm flew in and slapped the brider across the face with all of his strength and Dalla’s slapping technique, ripping the monster’s iron skin away and causing enough pain to paralyze it for a second.

That second was long enough for Gojo to conjure a massive spike of stone and jammed right into the brider’s lower mouth, piercing its body, ripping its organs out, and killing it.