The dragon's harem

?The drakaina’s tilted head slowly glared up, spotting Arad’s torso as he glared down at them menacingly. She couldn’t sense his magic, as if he was a mere ghost. She could remember his words; he did say she could call him for help if she wanted. He had clearly stated that won’t stay on her land as a freeloader and would help defend it. But dragons are proud; she would rather die than get another dragon to help her. But even so, the result of such interactions between dragons is obvious. He’s either after her or her hoard, and getting him involved would only cost her pride.

“Be gone ghost. I rather die than bear the burn and shame of calling upon your help.” She mumbled.

As Arad’s eyes shifted away from the male toward her, she started to feel a slither of his magic. Her mind came to realize, that she never saw him in a half-dragon form, so her draconic brain showing her his image as a last suggestion to survive didn’t make sense.

CRACK! Arad fell from the ceiling and his body expanded into his draconic form, landing right over the drakaina with her frail body sitting right between his legs.

“You’re here?!”

Arad’s magic started rising, and she could feel it. His eyes flashed purple as he roared at the male hydra. It was a deep and loud growl, crackling as if it had been infused with an electric crackle. Like a lion standing over a cheetah, Arad’s arms were far thicker than her torso even though she was supposed to be an adult black drakaina. One part was because Arad himself had a larger build than normal due to Alcott’s blood, the other was that void dragons are naturally a large type of dragons, and the last part was that males were typically larger than females, with Claug being a rare exception.

Due to her weak body and extreme injuries, the drakaina passed out before Arad’s fight even started. To her, that was the end, she’d die there, and Arad would take over her lair and claim her hoard.

The female hydra stood, her back almost fully healed. She roared in a distinct sound, and the male at the other side of the cavern roared back, his eyes shifting away from Arad and toward the walls.

“So you normally call one male, but if the prey seemed too large to deal with, like a dragon, you send a stronger call, and we end up with this.” The walls cracked, and several more males started showing up. “I did sense you closing by, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise.” He turned toward the female and saw her backing away. She’ll let the males handle the fight with Arad and the drakaina first, and then they can kill each other for the right to mate with her.

Counting the males, there are seven of them, each hydra with four to nine heads. Those with a large amount of heads looked to be slower but stronger. While the ones with a lesser amount were more agile but weaker.

“You might be weaker, but that only means you lack elements due to the lack of heads.” Arad stared at them. To him, this was more about seeing a new monster than defeating them.

The males roared, charging toward Arad and the drakaina in rage. He was standing between them and mating.

As the female watched, the first male reached Arad and extended his five heads to bite Arad’s lower back and tail, trying to drag him away from the injured drakaina. But Arad didn’t budge. His weight and the raw strength of his claws holding to the ground make it as solid as a mountain. Even though the male’s fangs pierced Arad’s scales, it was merely scales deep.

Two more males lunged at him. One had four heads, and the other had seven. Those two decided to swing their large front claws at Arad’s front shoulders, trying to knock him aside.

The claws made a loud thud sound as the hydras unleashed one strike after another, failing to move Arad. Like a man trying to punch a bull down, they lacked the weight and strength to do it.

As those three hydras unloaded their attacks at Arad; the remaining four started charging several elemental breaths. But even with all that, Arad’s mind was still swimming in his dreams. He thought that it was interesting how Nina’s punches were heavier than those hydras. The answer to that was simple, those beasts fail to understand a single thing. Leverage and muscles operate differently.

Muscles normally have a single output of energy, and energy is how much weight you can move and how fast. When swinging a fist or a claw, the muscle doesn’t have enough time to get up to full strength, resulting in a fast but weak strike. Imagine it like throwing a small steel ball. It might not deal that much damage even if it’s fast. But then exchange the small steel ball with a larger and heavier one. The damage would be far greater even with the same arm throwing it.

When Nina throws a punch, she tightens the triceps when her arm is extended then uses the biceps to force it to close, which makes her triceps act like a tight spring that would release all the power generated by the biceps like a rat trap, a bow, or the legs of a grasshopper. And she does this with all the muscles of her body when throwing punches and kicks. This allows the biceps enough time to put more energy into the triceps.

Of course, this damages muscles a lot, but with Nina and Arad’s regeneration. It’s something they can afford to do. It’s also the reason why vampires and werewolves can exhibit an unnatural level of power.

Arad stared at the hydras with a disappointed face. He really wanted to see how creatures with naturally high regeneration would fight, but they seemed too dumb to utilize the full extent of their bodies.

Arad coiled his tail to the side, his eyes flashing purple as he glared at the three hydras surrounding him. “Let me show you something.”

In the blink of an eye, his tail burst like a loaded spring. The tip accelerated several times faster than sound as he ripped through the hydras like they were made of jelly.

Arad looked at the drakaina beneath him. “You’re far too thin and frail. To think you didn’t even manage to kill her.” He stared at the female hydra with the side of his eyes.

Two of the hydras that Arad smashed started regenerating, while one remained dead. He looked at them with a curious gaze. “I see, the core is generally beneath the spine in the abdominal cavity, but the exact location changes from one hydra to another. It could be right beneath the neck or all the way down beside the tailbone.”

Giving the hydras ample time to regenerate, Arad looked at the unconscious drakaina once again, “So that’s why you were trying to claw down at her back. You didn’t know where exactly the core was and needed to find it first.”

The other four males unleashed their breaths as Arad was talking with the unconscious drakaina. Two fire breaths, three lightning breaths, a toxic gas breath, two sodium ones, and lastly a water breath. Some of the hydra did manage to shoot more than a single breath.

Arad bent his knees and sat over the drakaina, covering her body with his wings and a large barrier spell.

The barrier blocked most of the breaths except the sodium ones that ended up covering it with a thick layer of pure sodium, and when that got exposed to the water breath, it exploded in a massive burst that even knocked the hydras back.

Arad’s barrier shattered, and a shockwave hit his back and wings; It felt like a heavy firecracker exploding on a man’s back. Extremely painful.

His eyes quickly shifted toward the hydras. Which one was it of that that breathed that silvery white thing? What was it? I don’t know, but it hurts badly. Arad’s mind started racing, noting all of the strange colors on the hydra’s necks.

Hydras are lesser dragons. Their colors mean something. I must find it out. I know what red means, what blue, green, yellow, and white, but which ones of them I don’t know…that’s head over there.

Arad’s eyes stopped at the cyan head. That one is strange! It’s a light blue, akin to the sky’s color. What’s dripping from its lips? That isn’t spit, it’s water. “Water doesn’t explode. Who of you did it?” Arad growled, scanning through the other hydras’ heads as they stood after taking the shockwave.

A pink one, akin to flames, was that it’s, not he’s foaming like he’s choking, I doubt it the one responsible. No, it smells nice. It’s like soap, but more gross.

Arad’s eyes spotted a brown neck that wasn’t doing much except emitting faint earth magic. That’s the head they use to travel underground. All of them have at least one.

He then spotted an orange head that looked dryer than everything else, glaring at him with a strange glare as if shocked.

That’s him. I bet it’s that bastard! He’s the one spitting that strange thing. Arad finally lifted his right front claw, opening it toward the hydra with the orange head.

Arad’s claws flashed purple as he growled. “Come here.”

A powerful gravitational field started pulling the hydra toward Arad’s claw. Even though he tried to hold to the ground with his claws, everything failed.

CLANK! Arad caught the hydra by the neck, staring down his eyes. “That breath, what was it?”