The dragon's harem

As life faded away from the Brider’s eyes, three more burst out of the snow around the carriage. It wasn’t just a stray one, but a calculated ambush. In this lifeless snowy desert, a moving carriage with healthy horses was a rare feast, and the biggest predators of the land weren’t going to miss out.

Neil’s face twisted with veins as he saw the Brider die and more come out. He had failed to match Alcott’s speed, but he wasn’t going to be the most useless one around. He immediately shifted his weight to the side and jumped at one of the three Briders that just appeared, and his hand axes flashed through the air.

Even at his old age, he still moved faster than any A-ranker could dream about, and his skills spoke for themselves. The Brider spat a large burst of poisonous acid at him, yet he dodged easily by sliding on the snow, slid beneath the Brider’s massive body, and cut its guts open before jumping into the air and shattering its skull from behind. The way he moved, the effortless attacks, and the calculated precision of every swing of his axes. This wasn’t his first time fighting the briders, and it won’t be the last. Neil could probably kill a dozen of them on his own without much challenge.

But he knew that his skill and power didn’t match Alcott, not even a bit. And he was also aware that the two monsters sitting with them in the carriage were even more terrifying.

Kayden didn’t even move from his seat. He looked at one of the briders, and the monster stopped in its tracks, looking absolutely mortified. When those burning red eyes gazed on it, it felt like everything had gone dark for a second, and one thing got clear to the brider. This man wasn’t human.

”How boring.” Kayden sighed, and the brider’s body got ripped apart. Each joint was surgically sliced, with every piece floating in the air, blood still magically flowing between them. The spider legs were chopped, the head separated from the large abdomen and human torso, as well as every human hand, fingers, neck, and head. ”Can’t even resist my gaze.”

The brider was still alive in that horrid state, but it didn’t last for long as demonic flames burned it, leaving nothing, not even the ashes. His demonic magic wasn’t something that even the gods or demon lords could fathom, let alone a random mortal monster with barely a droplet of intelligence. Even if Nyar himself was around, this would’ve left a scar on that nightmarish Abomination. Neil knew that Kayden was unbelievably powerful, but he couldn’t even begin to imagine the ridiculous level of power this demon had.

But then, the true monster was only moving. Kali looked out of the carriage at the last remaining brider with a large smile on her face. ”A spider! It’s so white!” With a single leap, she jumped out of the carriage, swung on the spider’s human torso, and landed on its back, riding it like a horse.

”Dad! Look, can I take it as a pet!?” She waved her hand to Kayden, and he stared at her with a tired expression. ”No, Lily would kill me if I let you bring it back home. Kill it or let it go.”

Kali looked at the brider with a sad face for a long moment, and then cried. ”NO! Look, it listens well to me!” She tapped the brider on the back. ”Move.” Trying to ride it like a horse. But as expected, the brider was a monster and not a tameable animal, it didn’t understand anything and instead tried to bite Kali’s face off.

Almost immediately, Kali’s hand that was gently tapping the brider’s back now moved with so much force, and her fingers broke through the skin as they grabbed the monster by the spine. ”I said MOVE.” As Kali spoke, demonic worms escaped from beneath her fingernails and attacked them to the brider’s spinal cord, quickly infesting its entire nervous system and forcing it to move and gallop like a horse.

The brider was still alive, awake, but it couldn’t control its own body anymore. What it faced wasn’t a monster, wasn’t a devil, and it wasn’t a regular demon. The little, homeless-looking girl on its back was the Demon Goddess of Destruction, one of the nastiest, most powerful, and horrifying creatures of the entire universe.

After moving just a few meters, the brider froze in place, and its entire body burst into blood and guts as the maggots that infested its nerves matured into demonic worms the size of large snakes. Kali landed on the snow without a single drop of blood on her, and the demonic worms turned toward her, bowed, and then disappeared into a burst of demonic black smoke, returning to the abyss.

”What a waste. It would’ve made a beautiful bet, like that girl Crawler.” She jumped back into the carriage and sat beside Kayden. ”Did you see her?”

Kayden shook his head. ”I didn’t see her, but sensed her presence. She isn’t a regular brider, but an Ice Brood Mother. A higher-ranked monster that is much smarter.” He looked at her. ”Powerful monsters are more dangerous, but smarter and thus easier to take if you can understand them.”

Kali smiled. ”Maybe we will find a Brood Mother here!” She then threw a gaze toward the still horrified and confused Neil. ”Is there one around?”

He gulped, looked around, and then scratched the back of his head. ”If there are briders, there should be a Brood Mother giving birth to them. But I’ll advise against killing or removing it. Even though briders are dangerous, they are easy to avoid when not moving fast. Their presence keeps other active predators away.”

Briders are ambush predators, meaning that if you can spot their trap, you can just take a detour and avoid them completely, which is easy to do even for regular people. But if they were to disappear, other monsters would migrate in and take their place, and those could be anything from the highly aggressive Blood Arctic bears to Snow Bunnies and Arctic Fanged Wolves, all of which will actively change and prey on humans.

Alcott laughed in the back. ”He is right; I won’t want to see a swarm of Snow Bunnies here. Those things don’t play around.” Those bunnies moved in swarms of hundreds and would burrow into the bodies of their prey and consume them from the inside out. Seeing one usually means you’re already surrounded, and it’s over for you.

Neil shivered. ”I’ve seen my young adventurers die to them... Arctic Blood Bears are scary, but nowhere like those accursed rodents.”