The dragon's harem

The ground quaked and shattered as Gojo and the chieftain clashed, sending shards of ice and debris flying everywhere. Each shockwave released by those two was powerful enough to rip the Qallupilluits apart and flung the Yetis away like dolls.

The chieftain opened his massive maw, unleashing a cone of frigid wind, a breath of ice that could be mistaken for the roar of a white dragon, powerful enough to freeze the ground solid and kill anything that was stupid enough to stand in front of him.

Gojo was the stupid one who stood in front of him, and for some reason, he didn’t die. Gojo found the chieftain’s breath a bit too simple. He could easily deflect it with his barriers, so he did just that and tanked it, taking the opening created by that as a chance to rush in and deliver some damage.

He was swift, nimble, and skillful. Compared to Arad, Gojo was far less martially competent, but compared to anyone else, and especially a Yeti, he was on a whole other level.

Even at close range, Gojo easily dodged the chieftain’s arms, slipped beneath his bites, and coordinated attacks with his clone to slowly chip away at the beast’s life.

The chieftain swung his arm, but Gojo jumped on top of it, used it as a stepping stone, and kicked him in the face. Taking the hit, the chieftain wanted to bite Gojo’s knee away, only to bite air and get hit in the back of his head with a fireball, then a shockwave that sent him rolling, only to land at the feet of the clone, who tried to stomp his skull, then stabbed him in the shoulder.

The chieftain should’ve been getting angry at how nimble and slippery Gojo was, but that wasn’t the case. He was getting calmer the longer the fight went, explaining why he survived for so long.

Monsters who could stay calm and analyze fights were rare, but all of them were too dangerous and cunning to underestimate. Gojo knew that, and so, he started playing dirty as well.

Swinging two fingers, a large smile covered his face.

“I never thought I’d need to use this ever again, but here I am.” Gojo’s eyes flashed, and a streak of sparking white light followed his fingers.

[Shadow of fear]

Then, as the light faded away, nothing happened. Gojo looked confused, and the chieftain jumped in, smacking him so hard that he sent him flying back to one of the nests with a splash of blood.

He had finally managed to get a solid hit in, and to finish the fight, he just needed one more. Poisoned by hope, he rushed into the dust to finish Gojo off, only to see something he never expected. It was something that immediately snapped several strings in his mind and made him lose a few screws.

There, Gojo was pounding his mate.

The chieftain screamed his lungs out and jumped in, tearing Gojo and his mate in a mad rage, blinded by fury, despair, wrath, bloodlust, and Gojo’s magic.

Beside the shore, Gojo stood there with a smile, watching the chieftain tear his mate with ruthless malevolence.

“I wonder what he saw to get so mad? You gotta love illusion magic, it’s quite effective at getting dumb monsters riled up.” He pointed a finger at the chieftain with a chuckle, then flicked it. “What, little ape, are you angry?”

“Just wait, you’ll get even angrier.”

The illusion shattered, and the chieftain’s eyes suddenly lit up, looking at the guts of his shredded mate. He remained frozen for a second, the dark cruelty of the illusion slowly seeping into his mind.

The shock of what he saw damaged his mind, and what came next, the realization that it was all fake, and that he killed his mate for nothing, quickly overloaded his primal brain and sent him into a mad frenzy.

Boiling with rage, the chieftain turned around and flew at Gojo as a racing truck engulfed in a raging storm of ice. His arms flew, and ripped Gojo in half.

As the chieftain screamed, Gojo was standing behind him with a smile, swinging his sword down. “The illusion isn’t over yet.”

Gojo slashed the chieftain across the back, and his clone jumped in from the side, and then each of them started swinging left and right, from above to below, engulfing the confused chieftain in a storm of blades, riddling his tough hide with wounds.

The chieftain still tried to grapple with reality and illusion, pushing through the wounds and pain to find the real Gojo and kill him. He turned around, opened his maw and unleashed a devastating ice breath that completely missed Gojo and went on to wipe several of his Yetis.

His struggle, pain, and efforts were all in vain, for he didn’t face another Yeti or a human; he was facing a dragon, one more harrowing and cunning than Arad, who robbed the Qallupilluits’ queen from him.

Gojo’s arms and legs got covered by ice and stones, and his entire body crackled with gravity magic. In the blink of an eye, he was upon the raging chieftain and punched him in the guts hard enough to make him gasp and push him back a bit, then in the blink of an eye, Gojo threw another punch, then a kick, then another punch, turning his attacks into an endless barrage too fast for anyone to ever see.

Then, the clone joined in the beatdown, and it too started smacking the chieftain with a barrage of kicks and punches that sounded like a whole battalion of cannons was firing, which shook the entire cavern.

But even with all of those attacks, the chieftain still stubbornly stuck to life, hanging by a thread, and yet still willing to fight. He was much like Arad, too prideful, too angry, and too physically blessed to be taken down with ease.

It seems that without one big attack, Gojo won’t be able to put this monster down. He could eventually kill him with a prolonged fight, but would that cost him less mana than one massive attack? Probably not.

Several Yetis tried to help their chieftain, but all of them ended up getting killed by the shockwaves of the fight, unable to get close. What was worse for them was that Arad had stood up once more and taken up arms.

He was too tired and injured to face the chieftain, so he left that one to his brother, but he wasn’t going to just sit and watch, so he started ripping and tearing the Yetis apart and helping their side win.

The Yetis kept fighting; they won’t give up as long as their chieftain lives, and so the war didn’t become any easier, but it kept escalating rapidly, turning into a blood bath that painted the black river red.

Then suddenly, something flashed in the middle of the titanic battle between Gojo and the chieftain. There, Gojo’s body was glowing, and his eyes flashed bright blue.

He had hit a jackpot.