The dragon's harem

As Arad hit the snowy ground, he grabbed his stomach tightly. ”This...hurts a bit.” He smiled, and his incarnation -hiding among the orcs who were retreating to their world- groaned, and soon took the form of an orc so they could blend in.

Arad had become a large, three-meter-tall, muscular orc with large cutters, a chiselled square face, and radiant green eyes that illuminated his pale, greenish skin. He looked healthier, fitter, and far bigger than the other orcs with his massive shoulders, thick limbs, and luscious hair.

Holding his stomach as he bent forward, he pretended to force a smile on as he kept walking among the other orcs. But even with his acting, he still drew a lot of attention. When one looked at the endless army of billions, Arad stood out in the middle like a fire on a flag.

But at this current condition, the other soldiers were too cold and hungry to bother looking at him. They had already lost a lot of lives, and those who made it back alive were too shaken to even speak. Eris and Isdis were going inside his stomach, and it felt as painful as if two dogs were fighting inside a human’s belly. Isdis froze his entire stomach to slow time to a halt, and Eris immediately heated it back, causing him immense pain.

But he was used to more agony, and if it was just this much, he could stomach it... pun intended. ”Let them go at it.” He straightened his back and walked among the other soldiers, only making it past the rift after a whole hour.

As they went through the rift, Arad managed to understand one thing about how the orcs managed to pull this off. The rift was a hole in the fabric of space, something that had existed since the fabric itself was created, more like a stress line, or the support pillars of a building. The orcs didn’t create the rift from scratch; they just forced it to manifest, so closing it was impossible, as it had been open since before time itself.

Since the rift, the wormhole had existed before time; it was forced to exist in the past, present, and future, meaning it will never close or disappear. What Arad had to do instead of trying to close it was to attempt to plug it. The same way you can’t suture a sinkhole and expect it to heal, but you can instead plug it.

Without wasting a second, Arad sent what he found out to Merlin, asking her to try plugging the rift instead of sewing it shut, and what he got back was her yelling at him about how Eris and Isdis are beating the life out of each other.

He had to calm her down while still keeping his focus on the orcs. Eris wasn’t going to really kill Isdis; she just wanted to push her to her limit and show her that she is really powerful; otherwise, she might fall into depression.

After a whole fifteen minutes, Merlin finally understood and stopped yelling at him, finally letting him relax a bit and focus on his surroundings. He was seeing several different images at once. One was Eris and Isdis fighting, the second was his Nymph exploring the abyss, the third was Nymph’s twin back at the capital, and then there was his body watching Arlo with Gamond, the one standing outside the rift, and the last one was the one he is now using to sneak into the orcs’ ranks.

Soon, he and the battalion he was hiding in exited the rift into a vast, crowded, desolate piece of land where millions of orcs gathered. For a moment, he was worried that they would be alarmed since he was a stranger, but soon he was relieved to find out that all the orcs got mixed up, and that there was no way to reorganize them into the previous groups.

The first order was boomed to them across the sky by a flying piece of steel similar to the Thunder Bird, but it was smaller. ”Gather into battalions of 100 orcs and march back to the A67 sector.”

It was almost impossible to bookkeep every orc, so as long as you were an orc, the army didn’t care. They made sure that everyone had come through the rift, so they all fought, and those who died are dead. There were no deserters and no strangers, as they were all orcs.

No one asked Arad his name, what his rank was, or where he belonged. All the generals cared about was that he was alive, fit, and able to fight, and would serve as rations if he were to die.

As Arad’s battalion gathered, the oldest orc among them took the lead, and the others could tell he was the oldest because he knew what to do. This wasn’t his first time getting dispatched and surviving, and just by the look on his face, they knew the situation was grim.

Among Arad’s battalion, fifty-one were injured, twenty-five had fatal wounds and frostbite, and the rest had minimal injuries. But... there was no healer in sight, and just by looking around, very few battalions were getting attention from the supervisors.

”So, when will they come to us? The badly injured would die soon.” Arad asked the older orc, and he got a shocked and surprised face. ”You... don’t know? They aren’t coming.” The old man paled, ”We... are nobodies, we’ve got no shoulders among the higher ups, no one would care if we live or die.” The old man shook his head, ”Those poor souls, they’ll sadly die.”

Behind them, the injured ones were already writing their wills and talking with the others, begging them to deliver their words back to their families.

Arad looked back at them, and then back at the old man. He didn’t care much about the orcs themselves, but he understood the value of a family, and the pain that comes with losing it. Those are brave soldiers who fought in an unknown world and survived to come back home. He can’t let them just die.

He looked around and then pointed, ”Those are the commanders’ tents, right?”

”Yeah... wait! What the fuck are you going to do!?” The old man cried as he saw Arad stand up and start walking toward the generals’ tent, and he shouted at him. ”Come back here! They’ll kill you!”

Due to the old man’s cry, the five-meter-tall orcs in Power Armor around the tent all looked toward Arad, and they held their weapons tightly. Trouble was common around here, and they didn’t look so opposed to killing another foolish ork today.

Arad approached, each step feeling heavier than the one before, and every orc around ran away, leaving him alone as he approached the armored guards. The armored guards in power armor looked at each other, exchanging glances for a second before one of them pointed his titanic spear down and stood in Arad’s path.

”Halt it! Fool, another step and I’ll cleave you in half.” As the guard growled, his radiant black armor rumbled as the chains fed bullets into the shaft of his spear, and as smoke gushed out of his back, flames heated the tip of the spear, turning it bright red.

The other armored guard approached as well, standing right behind Arad. ”The tents ahead hold some important people. Go back to your battalion.”

Arad looked at the guard in front of him. ”If you could kill me, you would’ve already swung that spear.” And he then threw a glance at the one behind him, ”I’m not going back without medical support for the battalion. They fought admirably, and it would be a shame to abandon them.”

The guard holding the spear chucked, ”Insulting an imperial wall? You’re either a madorc, or have hit your head.” But his laughter hid something, sweat. He was drenched from head to toe, and he didn’t even know why he was so nervous.

Arad was right; usually, he would’ve cleaved him in half without even asking a question, but for some reason, attacking Arad felt like trying to poke a live mine. One wrong move and it’ll explode and kill them all.

It wasn’t just him. His comrade in arms had also made a move to stand behind Arad so the two could pincer him. It was a clear sign that both of them saw Arad as a deadly threat, even though he looked like a regular orc, just a healthier-looking one.

”You two! Back to your post and stand guard there!” A woman’s voice roared from inside the tent, and the one to come out was the general commander of the army’s supply. She was as tall as Arad, standing at three meters tall, looked healthy, and wore nice clothes. But beneath her suit, Arad could clearly see a heavy and dense skin-tight armor. She was powerful enough to kill both of the guards in power armor.

As the two guards stood back at their post, the woman approached Arad. ”Chose, execution, torture, or public humiliation.”

Arad took a step toward her and glared at her face, ”Medical support for the battalion, now. I’ve heard mine wasn’t going to get any.”

”They aren’t worth our resources.” She replied with a grin and Arad growled at her. ”Then you aren’t worthy of their loyalty, and I’ll let you know. An orc that has nothing to lose is a pain to deal with.”

”Maybe, but that doesn’t change the situation. The army’s resources are better spent on other units.” She crossed her arms, ”Then what are you going to do? Big boy?”

In the blink of an eye, Arad grabbed her by the neck and lifted her up, squeezing. The two guards flinched, but they didn’t move. They had their orders to stand guard, and as long as she didn’t give them a signal to move, they wouldn’t.

”Then what about this? Want me to be squeezing the alien’s necks, or your neck?” As Arad growled, she glared right back at him with a raging, bright red face. She struggled, but couldn’t open his grin even with her raw strength and advanced Power Armor.

After a few seconds, she tapped his forearm, and he let her go. She fell right back to her legs, coughed, and gave him a glare. ”Fine, I’ll get the medical team to move. Happy?”

Arad smiled, ”I knew we’d reach an understanding.” He rested his fists on his hips. ”Glad to be working with you... what was your name?”

She rubbed her neck, ”Know your place.” She cursed back at him, and he wiggled his fingers.

”Want me to choke you again?” She turned around and walked away, ”Karara, now get back to your battalion.”

As Arad left and she walked past the guards, one of them, the spear wielder, asked. ”Shall we kill him?”

”Unarmed and unarmored, he was able to over me, and I’m wearing the MK9PA. You’ll die, and he’ll take countless soldiers down with him.” She then threw a glance at the guards, ”I’ve said his battalion won’t get any resources because it has nothing of worth, but now, that has changed. He is the something of worth his battalion has.”

She walked into the tent, waved her hands at the other generals, and went to her personal tent. They called her, but she just asked them to wait until she writes a full report about the incident. But in reality, when she walked into her tent and closed it, she fell to the ground and puked.

Gasping for air, she was shaking. With her fingers trembling, she reached toward her neck and touched the button on her collarbone, forcing the armor she is wearing beneath her clothes to release, tearing her suit. She had both shat and pissed herself when Arad glared at her down. She saw an end worse than death, true nightmarish doom.

She tried to stand, but her knees refused to move, and while still tearing up, the only thing she could compare this horror to was the day the Orc Queen and King berated her. That orc was a problem, and she knew better than anyone now what would happen if he went berserk.

”With that power... if we use him well, we might win this war.”

An hour later, one of the armored guards, the one with the spear, approached Arad with an official letter to promote him from a foot soldier to the battalion commander.