The dragon's harem

Aella flew through the air, and the Hydra turned its six heads, glaring at her with malevolent red eyes. A roar followed shortly after, and it was so loud that the small goblins around the Hydra dropped to the ground, crying in agony as their ears bled.

Aella swung her arm like a sword and fired a spell, a wind slash wide enough to cleave one of the Hydra’s heads. The attack itself was simple, but powerful. Sadly, the moment the slash hit the Hydra’s thick neck, it shattered, and the scales were barely scratched.

“You’ll need at least five times the power of that spell to hurt it, and ten times the power to cut its head clean off.” Zephyr whispered with a smile into her ear. “I’m sure you can do it without my help.”

Lexi flew past Aella on her broom, and swung her tiny wand.

[Fireball]

As the fireball exploded at one of the Hydra’s faces, the great monster turned to glare at Lexi, who looked back with a smile. “Discount bin dragon, say cheese!”

[FLASH]

From the tip of Lexi’s wand, suddenly flashed with blinding light. It was the same simple spell [Light] which wizards use to illuminate their surroundings, but here, she overcharged it, and then released all the light at once.

The Hydra growled as her eyes burned from the light, and it reeled back. This wild monster was used to living underground, and it was just getting acclimated to the surface and sunlight. The flash hit it especially hard.

Aella didn’t waste a second and fired twelve arrows as fast as she could, hitting all of the Hydra’s heads at once. The arrows weren’t aimed carelessly, but carefully targeted all of the Hydra’s eyes. While wounding its eyes won’t blind it for long, since it regenerates, leaving an arrow lodged there would work better. Lexi’s flash had given Aella the perfect opportunity to aim.

But this was a Hydra, a draconic monster, and any monster with draconic in its name is bound to be a pain. True dragons were powerful, arrogant, and as close to walking disasters as any living creature could get. This Hydra was the same.

One of the heads moved, and its jaws opened wide enough to swallow a house. Lexi, who was flying, suddenly found herself about to be swallowed whole. Even while blinded, this Hydra could still perfectly sense and understand its surroundings.

“It’s that snout, right?” Arad watched from afar and Alcott nodded.

“Yep, see that hair… whiskers like around its nose? Those are sensors that detect movement in the air and mana flow. It can even sense flies flapping their wings.” Alcott pointed at the Hydra. “Aella and that maid are disturbing too much air, and releasing a lot of mana, so the Hydra can perfectly sense them.”

Arad titled his head. “Didn’t have that problem last time I fought a Hydra.”

Hearing him, Alcott laughed. “Can you see ripples on the surface of the sea if a storm is raging?” He stretched. “That Hydra, I’m sure it’ll… he’ll…not too sure until it turns around… anyway, I’m sure it’ll submit if you were as much as to glare at it. The only reason it got bold enough to attack is that it doesn’t understand what you can do.”

Before the Hydra could bite Lexi whole, Aella flew in and snatched her away. “Don’t space out. That thing is dangerous even when blind.”

“Sorry! I never fought such a thing before!” Lexi gasped and saw another of the Hydra’s heads rushing at them with a bite. It almost got her once, but it’ll never catch her lacking twice.

[Hole]

The ground beneath one of the Hydra’s legs crumbled, causing it to stumble and miss the bite. But in that moment, the Hydra’s other legs firmly planted themselves in the ground, and it spun, swinging its tail like a whip at Aella and Lexi. It moved so quickly that the trees around them were ripped from their roots by the sheer air pressure, and the move was so fast that a shockwave burst forth and roared louder than thunder.

Looking at its tail, the Hydra didn’t smell any blood. Its eyes were still blind, and so, it started scratching them and trying to remove the arrows.

“Hoo! It’s a guy! That’s bad for Aella; male Hydras are nasty creatures. They regenerate so fast you’ll sometimes think you never hurt them.” He sighed and Arad looked at him. “They are strong.”

“No, they need that regeneration when mating. The female usually bites and chews at the male while they’re doing it. If he dies, then he wasn’t worth her time; if he lives, then he gets to leave his spawns.” He took a sip of his rum. “By the way, they are numb to pain. Which makes them even harder to deal with.”

Back at the Hydra, Aella and Lexi were flying low and close to the ground. When the Hydra swung his tail, Aella used the wind currents generated by that attack to move away from it. The only problem is that Lexi wasn’t ready for such acceleration, and now, she lost her lunch, and probably breakfast as well.

“Are you okay?” Aella asked as she looked at Lexi with a worried face. The poor maid was pale, then got yellow, and then turned blue before she spat yesterday’s dinner out. “I feel like I’m going to shit out of my mouth…”

Lexi growled, then pointed her want at the Hydra. “I’ll try something.”

“Gigooo! GagaAAAAAAAAA!” But before she could do anything, a goblin riding on a small hydra rushed at them and jumped. The small hydra aimed its many jaws at Aella, while the goblin’s blade aimed for Lexi’s neck.

The small hydra was torn to shreds the moment it approached Aella, and Lexi caught the goblin by the face. “Damn, you’re ugly.”

[FREEZE]

With a single spell, she turned the goblin into a frozen goblin.

“Can you deal with them?” Aella asked, and Lexi nodded, “Leave them to me, deal with the big one.”

Immediately, Aella flew to fight the Hydra, and Lexi found herself alone and surrounded by a horde of thirsty goblins and hungry small hydras.

“I’m somewhat of a minion myself. So I won’t be underestimating you.” And that was the time Lexi started dancing among a horde of monsters.

Lexi had grown up in a noble house in an isolated town in the middle of nowhere. While they were rich and owned a lot of land, monsters were plentiful in that wilderness. Her family’s main job was to collect rare herbs and medical plants that only grow in the wild, and so, they had to fight those monsters daily.

Lexi herself rarely participated in those missions since she chose to master magic instead of becoming a ranger. But even though her father still taught her as much as he could. In his eyes, any amount of strength was bound to be useful.

Now, Lexi found herself needing all of those teachings once more. As the goblins charged at her, some of them riding Hydras, she finally felt at home.

With one swift move, she slid beneath a small hydra, grabbed a goblin by the ankle, dropped him to the ground, and stabbed him in the eye with her wand.

The small hydra turned around and was about to bite her, and it wasn’t alone; five more hydras were attacking simultaneously. Anyone else would’ve died right there and then, but Lexi was calm. Her want was still lodged in the goblin’s eyes, pointing at the ground, and so, she cast a spell.

[Earth Wall] Six times in a row.

The walls spawned right beneath the small hydras and sent them flying into the air. Lexi pushed her wand deeper into the goblin’s eye and twisted it.

[Earth Spike]

As those hydras fell down, the walls that sent them flying in the first place had turned into sharp spikes, impaling them.

As the small hydras cried in agony, they realized what Lexi had done. She carefully arranged the spikes to miss all vital organs. She only aimed at their limbs and necks so they won’t die and explode.

But of course, the goblins weren’t going to sit still and watch. By that time, over twenty of them already surrounded her from all directions, and they were charging with knives and primal malice.

Lexi grabbed one by the face, kicked another, twisted the first goblin’s arm before breaking it and blasting him with a point-blank [Firebolt].

In one motion, she dodged the stab of two goblins, stole the knife of one of them, and stabbed the other in the throat before, slashing one in the back, stabbing one in the eye, and shocking another with lightning.

She was moving like a storm among them, too fast for the goblins to keep up with, and even Alcott, who watched from afar, was impressed.

A hobgoblin, standing at almost seven feet tall, suddenly emerged from the crowd. It seems that those goblins weren’t completely stupid. Once they understood the small ones can’t deal with her, they sent the big one.

That monster swung a giant machete at her and was grinning with a hungry smile. She could somewhat understand what he was thinking about, and she wasn’t pleased at all. In fact, that smirk had just turned this into a personal issue.

She weaved beneath the slash and stabbed him in the stomach with the knife she stole earlier, then followed it with a stab with her sharp wand, immediately shocking him with [Shocking Touch]. The hobgoblin growled, endured the pain, and immediately swung at her neck.

His machete reached her skin, and then it was deflected. It clashed with a thin and invisible barrier. Lexi is a wizard, and she always had a barrier around her body for protection, a mage’s armor.

With a flick of her wrist, Lexi swung the stolen knife and stabbed the hobgoblin in the liver, followed by a shocking stab in the guts with the wand, then at the lungs, neck, chest again, then shocked the liver and kicked his knee, shattering it.

As he fell on his butt, she hammered on his face with punches until she backed him into a boulder, and kept pummeling him down with a fury of blows. Each punch roared with a thunderous crackle since the barrier engulfed Lexi’s entire body, even her arms, and it dealt damage to the hobgoblin upon each hit.

A goblin tried to sneak up on her from the back, but his blade just bounced off her barrier, so she grabbed him by the neck and started smacking the hobgoblin with his head until he died.

When the hobgoblin died, she pointed her staff down and blew his lower half with a fireball. “Now, who’s next?” She looked at them with a smile, blood droplets covering her face and maid’s robe.