The dragon's harem

“But if I win… I’ll have my fun playing with you. A big kitty is still a kitty.” Mira lifted both of her hands, and extended them forward.

Matilda smiled, scratched the back of her head, and then cracked her neck. “Like I would let Merlin toy with me like that again. I won’t be turning into a tiger again.”

A moment of silence hung between the two for a few seconds, and then, Mira lunged forward first. She was fast, too fast for any human. Her divine body far surpassed mortal limits, and it showed clearly when her entire being turned into a blur.

Matilda took a simple step to the side and pushed Mira’s punch aside. While both of them were weak and nowhere near the rest of Arad’s wives, in terms of skill alone, Matilda was on a whole other level above Mira.

Matilda had spent several years hunting monsters in the wild, fighting humans, and had come closer to death more than a few times. She was already a veteran fighter who danced with death, unlike Mira, who only had her powerful divine body.

That was how the two of them reached a balance. Superior skills against a superior body. Who shall win? The one who is stronger and faster, or the more martially versed?

Mira’s foot dug into the ground, and she came to a sudden halt, pressed down with all of her might, and changed the direction of her punch. Matilda might’ve tried to push her attack away, but that only worked if Mira didn’t violently resist the push.

The once deflected punch turned into an uppercut flying toward Matilda’s chin, and the tigress smiled as she stepped on Mira’s foot, kicked her in the knee, and finally smacked her aside with an elbow to the temples.

The hits hurt, they hurt a lot, and even made her eyes tear up, but that wasn’t enough to stop or even slow her divine body. In combat, Mira now has simple advantages due to her portfolio of greed. As she had discovered before, greed wasn’t only about money, it was a trait, a quirk that people have and it made them seek more than they need or deserve.

When Matilda smacked Mira with an elbow to the temple, she immediately swung a kick to knock her out. Mira could see the foot rushing toward her face and smiled. This was a greedy attack. She swung her face down to meet the kick even faster and blocked it with her forehead.

The moment Matilda flinched, feeling her bones almost cracking, Mira jumped forward and tackled her with all of her might, sending her rolling on the ground.

If Mira’s opponent made a greedy move and pushed more than they should have, she would be able to sense that greed early and counter far more easily. It was foolish to be greedy in a fight against the goddess of greed. Matilda should have been more cautious.

The moment Matilda stopped rolling, Mira’s foot came flying and kicked her once more in the guts, sending her rolling for several more meters. The second advantage was that Mira herself could be as greedy as she wanted.

Getting rewarded for being reckless and greedy while her opponents are punished for it, this trait of Mira had even confused Arad Orion when she trained with him.

ZON! Matilda disappeared right before she fully stopped rolling on the ground, and appeared right behind Mira with a clenched fist. “Sorry! But I’m not the smart kind.”

Mira immediately turned around and swung her fist, clashing directly with Matilda’s roaring punch. A fist that surpassed the void, and a palm that sparked with divinity, the clash between the two burned the air and bloomed into a deafening plume of sparks and fire.

[Void Fist] [Divine Smite]

Camilla protected her face with her hands, and the two maids behind her were thrown to the ground by the blast.

“What was that?!” Alicia cried as her ears were still ringing, and Roana replied. “A divine smite unleased by a goddess.”

Left then right, followed by an upper hook, just the way Arad taught her. Mira’s hands moved with terrifying speed, yet they lacked the trained precision and mastery. But that didn’t matter; her fists were already burning with divine magic and ready to explode into a smite.

Matilda was indeed slower than Mira; she was a mortal after all, facing a divine being. But… she was still able to keep up and even directly counter Mira’s barrage. Thanks to her [Void Fist], Matilda’s arms didn’t need to move for her attacks to find their target, and so, in practice, she was faster than Mira.

The ground cracked as countless divine smites clashed with Matilda’s void, ripping the air apart and unleashing a multitude of shockwaves that made even getting close to them nearly impossible for the maids watching.

Selina waved her wand and formed a massive barrier to protect herself and the three maids from the shockwaves of the clash. She had seen those two fight before, but this was the first fight that Matilda could directly face Mira’s divine smites.

But just after a few seconds, Matilda teleported back with [Void Step] and growled, shaking her smoking hands. “It hurts!”

Even to her, blocking so many divine smites was still a lot, and now, her forearms burned as if they were battered with a bat.

“Even with your new moves, you still won’t be able to face me directly. I know I didn’t earn this power, but… that still doesn’t mean you can defeat a demigoddess.” She extended one hand to the side and ignited her palm with divine flames. “But you can try.”

Matilda stood with a grin, and her eyes burned purple. “Yeah, it seems I still need to use my claws.” Her fingernails extended out like claws, and her toenails burst out of her shoes to give her more traction. “It’s time to ramp things up a notch.”

Matilda squatted down and took a deep breath. Her thigh muscles contracted and bulged until her pants tore open, prompting Mira to smile.

“Merida is going to be pissed.”

When Matilda released the pressure accumulated in her legs, she burst forward in a powerful leap. Tigers are known to kill with a single leap, and Matilda was no exception. Due to her powerful legs, sharp claws, wild instincts, and draconic blood, not many could survive a leap attack from her.

But today she had to come up with a new trick besides being too fast.

ZON!

With a void step, she teleported mid-leap behind Mira and swung her claws down using her void fist, resulting in an attack that was almost three times faster than her fastest attack in their previous fights. It didn’t matter how fast or durable Mira was; she shouldn’t have been able to react to such an unexpected attack.

But she did.

Mira was already facing Matilda; she predicted that she would teleport behind her and got ready beforehand.

Matilda’s claws still found their mark and slashed Mira across the chest, leaving four gaping wounds that extended from her shoulder to her lower chest. Matilda’s eyes opened wide as she didn’t expect Mira to take her attack directly without even trying to defend herself.

As Matilda tried to make sense of what just happened, she quickly noticed why Mira abandoned all defense, and she was already too late to defend herself. Just a fraction of a second after Matilda’s claws cut Mira’s chest open, Mira’s right hand was already kissing her liver.

[Divine Cleaver]

With a blinding thunder clap, Matilda was blasted away with a splash of blood gushing out of her mouth, and Mira smiled for a second. This was a trade, one hit for another.

As Matilda hit the ground, Mira coughed a mouthful of blood. “Damn… Arad loved those.” She held the gaping wound on her chest, pondering whether she should heal it or not.