The dragon's harem

Chapter 1717: A Crabby Day

Arad had spent the rest of the day practicing and training with his new divine spells, and he was quickly getting used to them. Finally, he could fight with a bit more ease. Even though he could endure pain, he wasn’t a fan of breaking an arm in each fight.

Eris also seemed to have a price for all of that power, and it wasn’t anything that Arad expected. She asked him to build her a sun, a massive [Ho-white Nova] the size of the mortal world.

That was literally hundreds of times bigger than any [Ho-white Nova] that Arad had ever made. He asked why, and she simply said that she needs one, and would maybe need more if she fails in making something.

Arad did ask what she wanted to do with a whole mortal-world-sized [Ho-white Nova], and she just said he shouldn’t be worried about it until he returns, because that would just distract him, and it isn’t something she would need now; it might take her decades to need one, so he can take his time.

She didn’t tell him she needed it to make an egg, since that would be just unnecessary worry for him now. He has to focus on surviving and returning to them safely; then everything else can be sorted out.

She even went out of her way to remind Arad that it is fine for Haru to die. She is a devil and would just resurrect in hell seconds later and walk fine. If he has to pull too much power to survive, he should do it, even if that would end up in Haru being turned into a roasted turkey.

When the day ended, and the next one arrived, Arad and Gojo left on their own once more. They’ll explore the beach first and look for a sewer dump around there. If they don’t find anything, they’ll have to make it back home quickly.

The reason they didn’t take Haru and Liliana with them was simple: those two would slow them down, and with Arad being able to heal now, the two girls’ healing magic wouldn’t be of much help.

That being said, the two left off and moved as fast as they could in the thick snow. Gojo wasn’t worried about his magic anymore since the hot spring in the cave helped him recover faster, and Arad could just power through the cold with Eris’s veil, so the two just ran and slid down the hills.

They had a massive beach to explore, and they wanted to get this done in a day. Considering that days here were short, they didn’t want to waste any time. So it was speed over caution.

Then, suddenly, from beneath the snow and silver gravel, a massive claw burst forth, rushing toward the two brothers at blinding speed. Gojo and Arad were making so much noise that they were bound to attract some monsters, but with their current power, running and fighting might get them to the beach faster than walking and sneaking around like rodents.

Arad himself didn’t mind being a rat; he was used to turning into a chunky, black rat with his druid magic. He was also good at digging holes and crawling through them.

But Gojo wanted to reach the city quickly to see what spells were inside it. He was just too excited, and Arad couldn’t blame him.

”Leave it to me.” Arad rolled past the massive monster,and soon saw that it was a titanic crab, one that was as massive as a small house. Seeing it, Arad smiled.

”Ho! Crab meat, give me some of that.” He lifted his arm and formed a stone halberd. They’ve been eating nothing but fish and tough monster meat, so now he wanted something soft and juicy. Not for himself, but for Haru, he was noticing that she was getting bored and tired from eating the same soup and tough, leathery meat.

The massive crab monster looked at Arad with its massive black eyes, and then swung its claws down, almost crushing Arad to a pulp. But Arad was fast, and he jumped out of the way before the crab could even move.

If that massive and heavy claw hit a brider, it would’ve been squashed like a bug.

”Come on, you have a lot of meat. Don’t be shell-fish!” Arad flew past the crab and swung the halberd, [Divine Smite], and he aimed at the crab’s left legs, shattering them with a thunderous boom and a divine flash of light.

But, since the crab’s outer shell was so tough, the stone halberd ended up shattering into pieces, leaving Arad unarmed beside the falling crab.

”Oh, CRAB!”

He spun around and took a quick step to the side, getting beneath the falling crab, and swung his right arm upward in an uppercut.

Arad’s eyes flashed golden, his body tensed, and all his muscles sparked with golden, divine lightning.

[Divine Cleaver]

Arad’s fist connected with the lower part of the crab, and it roared with a deafening blast louder than thunder, causing a shockwave powerful enough to blast all of the snow around them and send the crab’s organs flying into the sky with a golden flash of divine lightning.

The crab’s remains flew to the sky, and fell down on the snow, twitched one time, and then froze. Arad stood in his place for a second, his arm still extended upward with his eyes closed.

His knuckles have shattered, his muscles torn, and his bones cracked. But by the time he opened his eyes, all of those wounds had already healed in a puff of steam and divine sparks, leaving him as healthy as he was before.

Gojo flew in and landed beside him, looked at the dead crab, then back at Arad. ”That was one powerful blast.”

”Divine cleaver, but even now, I couldn’t unleash it as effectively as Lydia. I wonder why.” Arad looked at his arm. He could pull as much power as Lydia, but something was missing, and it was control.

Gojo smiled. ”What you’re missing is timing. Divine magic is different from a normal spell because the energy of it isn’t coming from your body, but from an outside source, in this case, a god. And in your case, from a god, to Haru, then to you.” Gojo swung his fist, ”You have to keep that delay in mind, so your fist won’t hit the target before the divine spark flashes.”

Arad smiled, ”And how would you know that? You aren’t a paladin.”

Gojo laughed. ”I might not be a paladin, but I’ve been raising one bratty goddess as well. I swapped bodies with her several times to study divinity and how divine magic works. From what I learned, that delay matters a lot.”

Gojo started throwing punches at the air. ”If you miss that moment, you’ll feel a stronger impact and damage yourself even more. Have you ever tried to take a step on the stairs, missed, and then almost fell? It is similar to that.” He shrugged. ”Most paladins have to get used to the delay over several years, but you don’t have that time.”

”So it’s a skill issue? I didn’t feel it as a dragon.” Arad replied, but then, he knew that he could ignore most things like that thanks to his draconic resilience. He probably won’t even feel that he made a mistake. ”But, now, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Then, the two left, leaving the crab meat in the snow. It won’t spoil, not in this frigid cold. They could leave it there and return for it later. They would’ve feared predators, but now that they could fight, nothing could stop them.

It was then that Eris called Arad; she was listening the whole time. ”Really? Shell-fish?” She sounded tired and disappointed.

Arad laughed. ”Why, you didn’t find it funny?”

And she didn’t seem amused, in fact, she might be getting a bit worried. So Arad thought of another one.

”Have you seen the crab? He lost his entire left half.” He smiled, and she growled.

”No...” Of course she couldn’t see it. She can listen to Arad and feel what is going on, but she wasn’t powerful enough to see what he was doing.

”I said he was all right, and Gojo said there wasn’t much left. He must’ve had a crabby day.” Almost immediately, Arad could feel a jolt of divine magic crackling through his spine.

”Stop it.” She growled inside his head.