The dragon's harem

Chapter 1167: One Step Ahead

Arad was trying his best to dodge the storm of violence Nina was throwing at him. Each of her strikes, moves, and charges had significantly changed by now. She had even started throwing feints and setting traps for him to open his guard.

He had never expected a heavy battleaxe to be that nimble or versatile. Nina used the blade to slash, the back end of the shaft to pierce, and the flat to smash. And unlike most fighters, she wasnʼt shy of using all of her limbs in combat. She used both her hands and feet to grapple and shift her weight. Arad counted countless times when she stepped on his foot to hold him down or grabbed him into a tight hold to stab him with the shaft or try to bite his nose off.

But… luckily for Arad, he didnʼt need to worry about the axeʼs enchantments because as long as she doesnʼt hit him, he wonʼt bleed. The axe she is swinging is just a weapon after all. And a weapon designed for slaughter, it works better against large numbers of enemies.

If there is something he is glad for, itʼll be that their fight no longer causes mass destruction to the desert. But with how fast the two of them move, they had already caused enough chaos for several kilometers.

Before long, Nina had started mixing [Earth Glide] with her harrowing speed and strength, swimming through the ground at super-sonic speed and emerging like a hungry shark, swinging a massive battleaxe straight at Aradʼs torso.

But now it was Ninaʼs time to start feeling that something was off. This… man, thing, that she is fighting, something was utterly wrong with him. No matter how fast she moved, no matter how strange her attacks were, he just kept dodging them. Sometimes, even sparing the time for a friendly smile or to pat her on the head.

While attacking, she shifted her footwork. Now she started to only keep her weight on one foot while allowing the other to just barely touch the ground. That was for a smiple reason, tremor sense. With the base of her sole on the ground and barely letting her toes touch the ground, she could sense the faint vibrations in the ground and their direction based on which toe sensed the vibrations first.

For a human, the skill was nothing short of impossible to learn, but for a monster like her, it made her seem like she did have eyes everywhere. In the same way elephants can detect vibration in the ground for miles, she can now do the same. No matter how far Arad ran away, she could still hear him land on the ground and chase after him.

One jump after another, she wasnʼt losing sight of him and always made sure to be on his trail. But that wasnʼt enough. When the two of them clashed, he always looked to be one step ahead of her.

Ninaʼs senses were growing sharper the calmer she got. The faint hair on her body, too small to see, was now a vital weapon for her. Those tiny hairs would dance at the faintest disturbance, and if that disturbance wasnʼt caused by Nina herself or the general wind direction… It was Arad. No matter how he moved, he always disturbed the air around him, and she started picking up on that.

Her moves grew sharper, and quickly she started predicting Aradʼs moves, slashing at where he would void step and dodging before he could attack. For a while, she seemed to have gained the upper hand, and Arad was shocked by the level she was able to fight at without Nina fully regaining control.

Arad couldnʼt have that, she was supposed to see him as safe. That needs two things: him not harming her, and him being strong enough to protect her. And with that, he started doing the same as her. She had taught him both skills when he first appeared in Alina.

And just like that, Ninaʼs sudden advantage disappeared. No matter how fast she moved, how much power she used, or how much cunning she managed to come up with, Arad was always one step ahead. He felt so close to her, yet infinitely far away.

After a while, she stopped attacking and just stood there, staring at him. Arad didnʼt drop his guard, of course, rampaging or not, Nina was still a power he couldnʼt underestimate. It was then that she clenched a fist and punched herself in the face.

With blood streaming down her nose, she looked at him, rubbed her eyes, and punched herself again and again. She was still a bit away from regaining control, and this wasnʼt her trying to regain it either. As mad and drowned in primordial rage she was, what she was doing now is a sign of primal intellect.

Since she wasnʼt able to hurt Arad, and he didnʼt hurt, even though they fought for a while, she now started suspecting that he was but an illusion. Now, she was trying to break out of it.

^A male tarrasque shouldnʼt exist, and even if she can see you, she canʼt hit you. She thinks that she is hallucinating.^ Ninaʼs words came to his head as a surprise. He didnʼt expect her to be able to think that far in this state. But that was her true nature, while Ninaʼs brain is still hers, the collective consciousness that was born through all of her nerves is the one controlling the body now. Arad didnʼt have any reason to suspect that it was inferior to a human intellect.

****

Back at the castle, words about Nina calling her axe across the world spread like wildfire. Some were happy thinking that she regained her mind, while others were afraid that she mightʼve become something else.

Around the villageʼs cemetery, a group of people gathered. A hunter had died in the forest, killed by a wild monster. The poor man had left both his wife and two kids alone, and now they stood in front of his grave, crying.

Standing behind the grave was a beautiful elf with pale skin, long brown hair, and glowing red eyes. She didnʼt pray, but stood there silently. She had just finished cremating the man, and they buried his ashes. What killed him was a rot worm; he wouldʼve turned into a zombie if they hadnʼt burned him.

Strangely unfitting, a pink-haired little girl was standing beside the kids with a happy face, patting them on the shoulder. The mother ignored her. What could a little girl like her know? But strangely, Lady Eris, who stood behind the grave, seemed to keep an eye on the little girl.

The little girlʼs gaze shifted, and she quickly rushed back to Eris. ”Leave them to me.”

Eris was taken aback by the girlʼs words. She looked at the woman with a stoic face, ”Head to the castle. Tell the guards your name and your husbandʼs name, and make sure to tell them that I sent you. Theyʼll get you to my office.” She then grabbed the pink-haired girl by the ear and dragged her away.

”What are you doing?” Eris growled at Kali when they were out of sight. The little girl looked at her with a passive face. ”You donʼt want to know.”

Eris sighed, ”I want to know. What is it?”

After a moment of silence, Kali replied. ”That woman doesnʼt have much time left either. Sheʼll be dead in a couple of months. We canʼt help her. Thatʼs why I want her to work at the orphan, her children would have to live there in the future anyway.” She tapped Eris on the thigh, since she was too short to reach her shoulder, and walked away.

”You arenʼt a full god yet, so donʼt try to be one. It is not fun to be one.” Kali suddenly stopped. ”By the way… Who do you think would win?”

Eris sighed, ”Youʼre a bit weird. But Arad would win.”

”I wasnʼt talking about him. I was talking about who would win, the Nina you know, or the blood in her veins.” Kaliʼs face suddenly looked grim.