The dragon's harem

Matilde crawled across the forest’s floor, moving on all four with uncanny silence and measured moves. All beast people looked somewhat humanoid, but that didn’t take away from their animalistic nature.

While Matilde usually looked like a sweet, gentle, and somewhat free-spirited cat girl most of the time, a bloody hunter lived under her skin. Now that was prowling the woods, looking for her prey, that animalistic nature started showing.

Her arms, which used to look thin, were now as thick as her thighs, and the muscles on them turned as hard as steel. The muscles on her chest tensed, her back arched, and her nails grew as long as claws, and retracted back as she walked silently on her palms and toes.

But the scariest of them all was her jaw, which looked to have shifted a bit, supporting an illegal dental work, four inches long fangs, large maulers, and cheek muscles powerful enough to crack bones and shatter skulls.

Where was all of that hiding? No one knew. But now, Matilde was no less than a massive, intelligent, wild black tiger.

The Tallneck was an arrogant animal; it wouldn’t think of the tiny Matilde as a threat. The only things that the beast saw as danger were the Deathjaws and larger predators capable of toppling it down. The beast people did hunt Tallnecks, but that was rare, and to do so, they usually moved in large groups.

So, Matilde was a bit lucky and unlucky today. First, she had to hunt this thing all on her own, which should be impossible, but also, since she was alone, sneaking closer to it wouldn’t be a problem, as it isn’t taking her as a serious threat.

If anyone else had asked her to hunt this thing, she would’ve laughed and taken it as a joke, but since it was Arad, she had to do it. Not because he was her husband, but because she couldn’t lose to the other wives.

She had seen how powerful Arad’s other wives are, and honestly, she felt very weak compared to them. Even Mira, who never fights, is a demigoddess and can probably shatter one of the Tallneck’s legs with a single punch.

Matilde could just imagine Arad in his draconic form glaring down at the Tallneck, and that image in her head looked more like a lion glaring down at a turkey. Since he was around, she didn’t need to fear anything and could focus on hunting this massive turkey down.

Yes, that was true. She, too, has void draconic blood flowing through her veins, so if Arad were a massive lion, she is a tiger. Just as Eris and Betty could evolve their blood and eventually become true dragons, she too can reach Arad’s level of power. She, too, one day would be as massive as Arad, a beastial void drakaina hunting titanic horrors, and she’ll start doing that from this day.

After several minutes of silent stalking and prowling, she was finally just a few meters behind the Tallneck’s hind legs. She had to keep an eye on the massive tail, since one hit would flatten her like a pancake.

She determined where the tendons were, how the Tallneck’s thick skin was shaped, and how its steel scales protected its massive limbs. The beast has four legs, and hopefully, maiming just one of them would drop it down. Matilde could probably pull a single sneak attack cleanly, but a second one might prove impossible, so she had to settle this down with a single hit.

Now, she had to determine which leg to attack, and that was clear as well. Three out of the Tallneck’s legs were scarred, probably left from previous battles with Deathjaws and large monsters. Matilde wasn’t certain, but she hoped that if she cut the healthy leg, the other injured three wouldn’t be able to carry the Tallneck’s weight.

She took a deep breath, pulled her sword out, and squatted down, straining her legs like a spring. Her thighs got swollen so much that her pants ripped open, and her toe claws ripped through her boots and held to the ground to create traction.

One hit, she only got one chance. She must aim between the scales with her sword and get a wound deep enough to cut the tendon holding the Tallneck’s large thigh muscles. To get such a powerful hit on, she lifted her right arm with the sword in her palm, and tensed her muscles so much that her skirt ripped open, and the veins on her shoulders moved like worms.

When the Tallneck lifted its head, Matilda exploded into action. Her legs extended like a spring, shattering the ground beneath her and sending her flying forward at blinding speed. She is a tiger, and must end all of her fights with a single leap.

By the time the Tallneck noticed the burst, she was already at his leftmost hind leg. Her arm moved, and her sword roared across the air, flashing as it cut right through the Tallneck’s flesh with a burst of sparks as it scraped against the steel scales.

Blood splashed everywhere, and the Tallneck roared in pain as it lumbered and shook, stomping the ground in agony. Matilda, who was between its massive legs, found herself right beneath a falling one, and if she doesn’t move quickly, she’ll get flattened to the ground.

She had burned out her muscles in that one powerful leap, so now she couldn’t run at her top speed for a few seconds, but that didn’t matter. As the massive leg was just an inch away from her head, Matilde’s body was engulfed in darkness.

ZON!

A single void step was enough to carry her into safety and away from the legs, but that wasn’t all that helpful. She could only teleport as far as ten meters, around thirty feet. She still had to run and avoid the Tallneck’s tantrum, and its body falling to the ground.

The plan has gone as well as possible. All that Matilde had to do now was hide and wait. When the Tallneck falls and shatters its ribs, she’ll either let it die on its own or finish it off by cutting its throat open, but she was hoping she won’t need to do the latter.

But the moment she landed and looked up to see if the Tallneck was falling, what she saw was terrifying, its massive tail crashing down upon her. She wasn’t fast enough to dodge, and her void step was on cooldown, leaving her completely on her own.

The Tallneck wasn’t supposed to fall so fast, so the tail coming toward her at this speed meant one thing: it wasn’t falling, and instead attacking back. Matilde’s attack had failed to bring the beast down, and now she has to injure another look to drop it, but… can she even survive this tail attack?

She didn’t have time to think, and so started moving as fast as she could, jumped aside and rolled away, barely surviving a direct hit, but the debris and shockwave still smacked her away like a fly.

As she landed back on her legs and looked, the tail was now flying directly toward her once more. The Tallneck was indeed going after her and not just randomly flailing its tail. It had spotted her and was now going on the offensive.

She lifted her shield and jumped at the last moment before the tail could hit her so that momentum would throw her backward instead of crushing her bones, but the impact still rattled her entire being and sent her flying through the trees like a cannonball, or more like a golf ball getting smacked with a bat.

When she finally landed on the ground, she couldn’t even move or breathe properly. The shockwave had left her entire body paralyzed, and she might’ve been bleeding internally. She could see the Tallneck’s head coming down to chomp her away, and she could also see its bleeding leg lifted from the ground. This thing could stand only three injured legs. That is why she failed to take him down.

They’ve picked the wrong Tallneck to mess with.

Chomp! The Tallneck took a huge bite, swallowing Matilde whole alongside a large chunk of the ground and trees.

Arad, who was cutting trees, stopped, and sniffed the air. His ears twitched, and he looked toward the Tallneck, who just gulped. He could see them from here, Matilde’s burning purple eyes.

“Fool.”