The dragon's harem

As Arad landed among the frozen corpses left in the water of Isdis’s blizzard, he splattered into a wave of darkness that sank into the ground and disappeared in a second. By the time the orcs’ next wave came, there was no trace of him ever being there.

As the orcs rushed in waves like a surging sea, the endless darkness beneath the corpses licked at their boots, sniffing and sorting them into groups. Those who were pure orcs, those who looked strange, the sick, the famished, the strong, the weak, and the scared. None of them had any divine link, and as far as Arad could tell, they were godless.

Have they been abandoned by the gods? No, they abandoned the divines. Arad was almost certain that they once had a god, as he could see movements and hear words that might’ve been prayers, especially coming from the fearful as they froze into statues of ice.

Inside Arad’s blood, thousands of vampires all worked in unison, writing and scribbling words as they tried to decode the orc’s tongue. That was the main reason Arad wanted to hide beneath the battlefield, and it seems that his vampires were already making progress, having decoded numbers and some common words.

The first wave was quickly wiped out, and the one after didn’t last either. Compared to Isdis’s unyielding blizzard, the orc simply didn’t have enough resilience to survive the harsh cold.

Why weren’t they trying to build a base, a shelter to protect them from the cold? As far as they know, Isdis didn’t swoop down to attack them directly in a while... But just as Arad thought of that, something horrifying and massive emerged from the burning rift.

It was a massive, metallic claw, followed by the crackling of lightning and the roar of engines. No, it wasn’t a claw it was a massive metallic talon several meters wide, and when the entire thing emerged, Arad had to smile and laugh.

It was a giant bird of steel that was over a hundred meters tall, fortified by thick adamantine scales, and looked more like a hawk.

”What... the hell is that?” He emerged from the ground and look at the titanic hunk of steel, and one of his vampires translated the words the orcs were all shouting now.

”It’s the Thunder Bird!”

The Thunder Bird’s jets roared, puking an endless torrent of bright blue flames as it started flying, and in the blink of an eye, it accelerated to several times the speed of sound, heading straight toward Kory.

”Dodge!” Arad sent a quick message to Kory, and she avoided the Thunder Bird’s charge with a graceful flap of her wings and gave the thing a sharp glare. Inside the Bird’s eyes, she could see several orcs piloting it. This wasn’t a living being, but a machine.

”What is this thing?” Kory growled, and Isdis pulled her lute out. A blade isn’t going to reach this thing. ”I don’t care; we’re taking it down.” She flicked the strings, causing a loud ringing sound to explode outward as a shockwave.

The Thunder Bird changed its direction in the blink of an eye and kept following the retreating Kory, and it pierced all of Isdis’s sonic shockwave with its sharp beak.

”I can’t freeze it, and my bard skills are too weak to take it down.” Isdis looked back, finally sweating a bit. This was a completely novel thing to fight, and for a moment there, she wished Kory had the durability and raw strength to wrestle this thing down.

”Kory, can you smack it down?” As Isdis asked, Kory smiled. ”I was just thinking about that.” She flapped her wings and instantly changed direction. Compared to the Thunder Bird, Kory was far more agile in her flight, and she could change direction with ease while the machine had to take huge turns.

The Thunder Bird changed direction right after her as well, and it seemed to refuse letting her get close. It was a strange thing, as seconds ago, the Thunder Bird was chasing her. But that was understandable. Kory is made of flesh and bones, so at the start, the orcs must’ve believed that they could just pierce through her with the Thunder Bird’s sharp beak, but seeing her turn around to fight in melee must’ve got them worried, thinking that she can actually take a hit.

As Arad watched, Kory and the Thunder Bird roared across the vast blue sky, dodging each other like dancing birds, each one trying to get the first strike in, and since the storm had stopped, the orcs on the ground were already advancing.

The orcs cheered, shouted, and sank as they marched forward in millions, all looking up at the Thunder Bird with awe and pride in their eyes. This was probably one of their civilisation’s greatest weapons, and Arad only knew that because the orcs referred to it as Thunder Bird Three. He didn’t know if that was the number of a prototype or the count of how many of those birds they have, but he wanted one.

Without a second thought, Arad who was hiding behind the Orc’s army, masking by his void presence summoned Mira to his side. ”Say, can you make one?”

Mira blinked several times as she saw the endless orc army, the roaring Thunder Bird, and the sea of frozen corpses they were standing on, and then almost threw up. ”What... is this?!” She gave Arad a glare, and he pointed up. ”The Northern frontlines. I wanted to ask if you can make something like that.”

She looked at the Thunder Bird again and then sighed, rubbing her temples. ”I can tell you it won’t fit in my forge. I’ve got no idea if it’s alive or not, or how it works.” She rested her fists on her hips and took several deep breaths to calm herself down. Seeing all of the corpses did rattle her for a second, ”So no... I can’t make it, at least for now.”

At that moment, Kory managed to grab one of the Thunder Bird’s wings with her claws, and for a second there, it looked as if she was about to tear it apart. Who was stronger? A dragon’s mighty flesh, bones, and sharp claws or the forged metal of the Thunder Bird? That question was about to be answered in a fraction of a second as both horrifying existences were flying five times faster than sound across the sky, about to have a fatal crash.

CRACKLE! As Kory’s claws sank into the bird’s wings, a spark of lightning ignited, and all Arad could see from the ground was a blinding flash of light, then Kory’s charred body falling down, followed by an earth-shattering thunder clap.

”Isdis! Kory!” Mira shouted, and Arad covered her with his black cloak to protect her from the shockwave of the thunder clap. ”They are fine. That won’t put either of them down.”

As Kory fell, a second red neck burst from her chest, and she roared, loud enough to cause the orc’s army to stop marching and look toward her in horror. They’ve angered her, and were about to face the true wrath of a temperature drakaina.