The dragon's harem

Chapter 1523: One Thousand and One

”By the way...” Claug looked at Arad, ”What was that divine magic? My plague got wiped out in minutes.”

Arad lifted an eyebrow. He did feel the divine magic flowing through his veins, but all of that had already faded away when he recovered enough to think straight. If it was divine, it was probably something related to either Eris, Mira, or Kali.

”Wasn’t it Kali’s destruction divine magic? No, she won’t interfere in the fight between us.” He scratched the back of his head.

”I’m sure it wasn’t her, and it wasn’t Eris or Mira either.” Claug looked closer at him, ”If it were any of them, my plague would’ve won.”

Arad immediately called Kali to ask her, since out of everyone he knows, she probably knew the most about divine magic. When Kali heard his explanation, she immediately understood what had happened.

But she couldn’t tell him that he almost made divine beings out of his blood, so she spun a nice story for him.

”That is a divine source, a part of my destruction, but not one that many see or have.” She sighed, ”I’m the goddess of demons, so I almost never use divine magic that isn’t demonic in nature. I even protect the orphans by sending demons.”

Arad lifted an eyebrow, ”What do you mean?”

”Lydia told you that those powerful paladins can gain favor with their gods and turn into angels upon death. In fact, I bet she will become one sooner or later. When Claug’s plague pushed you to death, my divine magic changed and started taking hold of you, trying to turn you into an angel if you died, but that seems to have wiped Claug’s plague, and since you survived, you didn’t become an angel.”

Arad sighed, ”So Claug technically won.” He looked at Claug, quickly explaining what Kali told him.

”Won? Me? No way.” Claug shook her head, ”Do you know what in the living hell she was meaning? Even if I killed you, you would’ve risen back as a destruction angel to keep fighting. Forget the gods, my plague can’t even deal with an angel.” She stood, shook her head, and sighed, ”Now, I’ve got a mountain of work waiting for me.”

”So? Who won?” Arad stood, and she stared at him, ”Of course, you. It doesn’t matter how; what matters is that you won, and I lost.”

They returned outside, only to see a strange scene. The seats of the colosseum that were empty were now filled to the brim; over a thousand drakainas were seated there, waiting.

”What is going on?” Arad looked around, and Lola called to him and Claug from her seat. ”So how did it end? Should we keep the ceremony going, or should I cut Balina apart for Claug to feast on?”

”Arad won, and even if he didn’t, I’m not eating anyone. No, I’ll eat you if you want. The Chromatic might need a new queen.” Claug glared at Lola, and Lola laughed.

”They want a new queen, but they don’t need a new one.” She then looked at Balina, ”I’ll sit on my throne until roots grow out of my crusty old ass.”

She laughed louder and louder. Soon, she fell silent and looked around. Claug disappeared from Arad’s side, and Lola stood, ”One thousand and one drakainas, young adults and older, some here willingly, some I kidnapped out of their lairs, some begged to be placed here.” She waved her hand, and all of them stood, all glaring at Arad.

”I’ll give a quarter of my hoard to whoever brings me his head. Those who lose are his for the rest of their lives, those who die are corpses, and those who flee I’ll not hunt down.” She swung her hand, ”At him!”

At that moment, Arad growled, ”SHIT!”

In the blink of an eye, a thousand drakains in their human forms were at him, many of them were wyrms, and there were even a few great wyrms mixed in, making Arad’s life even harder than he had ever expected. What kind of stupid execution did Lola throw at him?

Lola watched with a smile, ”So? Still confident?” She looked back at Eris.

Eris smiled, ”You don’t understand one thing about Arad. He doesn’t care...”

At that moment, a red great wyrm reached Arad, swinging her burning pale white claws with enough heat to melt mountains.

But Arad’s fist flew like a strike of thunder, shattering her claws and smacking her square in the face so hard that he plunged her straight to the ground, generating a powerful enough shock that all of the young adult drakainas nearby were blasted away.

When the dust cleared, neither the red drakaina nor the young adult drakainas were anywhere to be seen, erased from reality itself. The moment the fight started, Arad had already sucked a great wyrm and two hundred young adult drakainas into his stomach.

”His fight with Balina lasted a while...” Lola blinked several times, and Balina burst out laughing. ”You call how he humiliated me a fight? Arad didn’t use magic against me; he just stood there and fought with his bare hands.” She stood and approached her, ”So, care to tell me why you brought all of those drakains here?”

Lola sighed, ”I can’t send you with him without servants, so I thought I’d play a bit of a prank on him.” She looked at the arena, ”I picked those great wyrms to give him a scare and keep him safe from the others, but...”

At that time, Arad was holding a great wyrm white drakaina by foot, swinging her around like a stick to smash the others.

”Did he kill those young ones?” She asked, and Eris shook her head.

”They are probably shitting themselves while being trapped inside his stomach.” She pointed at Arad, ”Look closely, he is using gravity magic to empower his attacks. He never used that while fighting against us. He won’t even be as aggressive as he is now.”

Gamond nodded, ”If you want to take Arad down, quality matters more than quantity or age. I bet Claug will do a far better job than any of those great wyrms can, unless one of them has something special.”

****

The ground of the arena shattered, and Arad flew past one of the great wyrms, dodged her lightning breath, and smacked her back to the ground with enough force to knock her out. Another tried to stab him in the back with an ice spear, only for the spear to hit air as he teleported behind her using void step.

While Arad fought the wyrms and great wyrms, his gravity magic was swinging the rest of the drakainas around, crushing them into each other.

After the fifth great wyrm fell down, the drakainas started to understand one thing: they can’t defeat Arad. He was just as much of a monster as his father.

The weaker drakainas wanted to give up, but they couldn’t, not while far outnumbering him. And Arad should’ve been exhausted from his fight with Claug and Balina, so where is he getting all of this power?

Many questions, but not a single answer. Of course, none of them knew that Arad had two incarnations and that the one that fought Claug and Balina was resting while they were fighting a fresh one.

****

”See?” Eris smiled, ”He never goes all out against us, he isn’t even going all out against them. Probably because you said that you kidnapped some to force them to fight him.”

She looked at Lola, ”If they all had come here willingly, then he would’ve wiped them all out with a single breath.”

Gamond laughed, ”Look at them all scared. Arad is a void dragon; they must’ve expected many things, but not gravity magic and pure physical violence.”

”Of course,” Claug pointed at one of the fallen great wyrms before Arad’s void consumed her. ”His punches aren’t normal.”

”What do you mean?” Lola asked, and Claug smiled, ”Look closely at the drakainas, those aren’t just bruises.”

It was only then that Lola noticed the tiny holes on the drakainas’ bodies where Arad punched them.

”Upon impact, he sends his blood into their bodies like spikes to damage them from the inside out. It immediately cut circulation to their brains and tore their organs apart, knocking them out no matter how powerful they were.” She stood, ”None of them had realised that, so they aren’t prepared for that sneak attack. That’s why they are falling like flies.”

”ARAD! Don’t kill them!”

”I’m not! I’m just sending them into my stomach to get healed.” He flew between the wyrms since all of the powerful great wyrms were already out of the fight. ”They aren’t weak. I’m just not giving them a chance to fight back.”

Behind Arad, one of the wyrms opened her mouth to blast him away with a burst of compressed wind, only for him to throw a stone right into her throat, causing her to choke on it for a moment, which gave him enough time to smack her on the head so hard that he cracked her skull and sent her to sleep.

”If they want to win... they have to know how to fight first.” Arad was a bit disappointed. Most of the drakainas here were just that, dragons that never faced a real threat, thanks to their massive inborn talent. They were nowhere near war veterans like Ignis and Kinryuu, and they were a far cry from his battle-hardened wives.

This was the first time that Arad faced the common dragons without the intent of killing them, and from what he found out, most drakainas are too weak for his taste.

When the fight ended, Arad found himself standing alone in the middle of the arena. ”One thousand done, where is the last one?”

He looked around and then saw her. A young woman was squatting at the edge of the arena, watching a few ants crawl into their burrow. Her long, flowing orange hair moved with the wind as she slowly turned and looked at Arad, her yellow eyes burning with draconic magic.

”How did you survive? Orange drakaina.” She was just an adult Orange drakaina, and Balina gasped on the stairs, ”Little sister! What are you doing there?!”