The dragon's harem

“Those…” Arad growled, blood rushing to his head, causing the veins on his forehead to bulge and his eyes to burn bright red and fill with pulsing veins. Seeing the severed heads of his wives was enough to send him into a mad frenzy.

^{I’m still alive…that was the clone’s head.}^ Doma’s words pierced his consciousness and forced him back to his senses. ^{This has to be like what happened in the bath. Don’t let her provocation shake you.}^

Arad’s vision cleared and his eyes looked at the crimson drops of blood dripping from the severed heads and hands on Kali’s body. Their smell, look and magic were far too real to be fake. Every cell in his body screamed that those belonged to his wives. It was a strange feeling that Doma was the only voice of reason in his head.

For now, he had to inspect Kali’s body for any weakness. Her azure skin reflected light like a gem, standing out from the mundane stones and desolate background.

Her six arms were arms moved with her body, and the gold bracelets on her wrists rattled like morning chimes, sending a cold shiver through the air.

Her long and thin fingers grew out of her red palms and were decorated with several rings, almost three each, ending in long sharp black nails, dripping with blood from Doma’s head.

She stood barefoot, slowly lifting her foot, her anklets rattling with her fine moves, until she stepped back down, planting her soles into the stone ground. Not even her toes were spared from the countless gold rings and gems.

Arad lifted his arms, trying to figure out how was she about to attack. Earlier he lost his head before even noticing it, which means he isn’t her opponent. Damn it, he died just like how that abomination died to him before.

The two started slowly walking toward each other in silence, only the rattle of Kali’s jewelry could be heard, beckoning Arad to get closer to her. The two stood only ten meters apart and the air between them started to burn from the rushing magic, sparking with bolts of lightning.

“Where did you get those heads?” Arad growled and Kali slowly lifted her hand up, “Your wives.” A large cut burst into Arad’s body, splashing blood out like a flowing river. In the next fraction of a second, a hole burst into his chest, followed by a massive dent in his face, crushing his nose back to his brain and sending him flying back like a bullet.

Arad healed, his wounds closing with a puff of steam. His eyes flashed purple, trying to see what was going on. He couldn’t see her attack, but he was sure she wasn’t just fast. Using his void eyes he could finally see the truth, half of it at least.

A glimmer of light was followed by a large gaping wound that appeared on his chest. He lifted his arms to block the next attack but nothing came for a second, followed by a hole that pierced his left thigh and a heavy hit akin to being smacked with a hammer on the knee.

Slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning are the basic three types of physical damage, and Kali controls them. They emanate from Kali’s body and fly at a third of the speed of light, the maximum speed of mana, and deliver hits directly to her target.

Arad roared as his body burned with mana, this was indeed a test. If this is the whole truth of those attacks then he can deal with them, the defensive barrier magic Kayden taught him. If he covers his body with it then he can deal with those attacks…

Arad managed to block the slash, but the pierce got through his barrier, ripping holes in his chest and turning him into a block of Swiss cheese.

^My barrier can only block one type at a time.^ Arad quickly realized that just using the barrier wouldn’t be enough. He must watch with his void eyes, determine what kind of attack Kali is using then block that.

With that, he tried to divide his barrier into three segments, his right arm, his left arm, and the rest of his body. It took him taking several more hits before he could be able to clearly tell the attacks apart.

Kali’s body faintly glows with magic before she attacks. The slashes look like a long line, the bludgeoning attacks look like a sphere, and the pierces are almost invisible since they are akin to a needle pointed at him.

With enough luck, Arad was able to predict the attacks before they reached him and switch the barriers on his arms, immediately swinging his fists and punching the attacks out of the air. He was as fast as a third of the speed of light, but if he could predict their direction he could then swing his arm beforehand.

But…this was all he could do against Kali’s unreasonable assault. He couldn’t even take a single step without getting shredded to pieces like a fish on a cutting board.

“Is this all you’ve got? You can’t even approach me.” Kali looked at him with a grin and lifted one of her hands up, “I already killed your wives…if you don’t take me down in ten minutes, I’ll shatter this world and burn the whole universe down.”

Arad didn’t believe a single word of what she said, thinking it was a mere boast, trying to rile him up and get him upset so he could no longer focus.

He took a deep breath while still punching the attacks away. He had come up with a plan and it wasn’t more than a minute since the fight started. Instead of casting one barrier around his whole body, he created three layers, each blocking a single damage type. But to make sure those layers were strong enough to withstand Kali’s attack they had to be extremely weak to other types of damage.

The bludgeoning barrier is weak to slashes, the slash barrier is weak to piercing damage, and the piercing barrier is weak to bludgeoning damage. This meant that if Kali times her attacks right she could blast through the tree barriers and wound him…but now he at least has his arms free to attack with.

Kali started floating and Arad’s eyes opened wide, seeing two golden hands the size of boats beneath her feet, lifting her into the sky.

This was the first time in his life that he almost shat himself seeing something…a ten-kilometer-tall golden statue of Kali with over a million arms, each one of those arms being thin and long, resembling spider legs, but with hands at the end.

Kali lifted her hand, and the statue lifted one of his hands. Arad could barely follow her moves with his eyes. He had faced the lesser God Korah before…but this is far above that, like comparing an ant to a greatwyrm.

The massive golden hand of the statue flew at him at a blinding speed and he instinctively fired a [Ho-white Nova] at it to destroy it before it could reach him. He didn’t want to know how it would feel to get slapped by such a thing.

The [Ho-white Nova] flew right through the arm as if was a ghost and Arad was caught off guard, getting slapped like a mosquito taking a slap from a human, and ending up smacked onto the wall.

Those arms are a mere projection of Kali’s power, the same as the invisible attacks from before. They don’t exist until the attack lands, their appearance is merely a trade-off, making them visible beforehand makes controlling them easier and messes with the opponent’s perception.

When Arad saw Kali standing on the statue’s hands he really thought that thing was physical, that it existed, but now, that was a mistake… He is now fully aware that he isn’t facing just anyone, but an actual divine being, a full-blown goddess and one of the strongest ones.

^I see… those arms move based on her will alone and aren’t something I can block or deflect, all I can hope to do is dodge them. But if I got hit, I must make sure I block that damage type with the right barrier or I’ll end up getting killed ten times over.^

Arad flew at Kali, aiming to reach her real body. If that statue was just a manifestation than attacking it is useless. But before he could even get close he was punched back to the ground and stomped on by the statue.

Those arms were faster than him. The distance between where the arms’ striking range started and Kali was long enough that he couldn’t cover it in time before he got slapped.

Arad tried something else immediately, firing a [Ho-white Nova] at Kali’s true body. Those arms aren’t real, they shouldn’t be able to block it.

But…one of the arms slapped the [Ho-white Nova] away like slapping a tiny ball. The [Ho-white Nova] Exploded in the distance, burning several square kilometers of land like a nuclear bomb.

It was then that water drained from Arad’s face, he could feel his bones freeze and his soul nearly leaving his body out of fear. Kali’s magic actually got stronger…when the [Ho-white Nova] destroyed that chunk of land.

This is the goddess of destruction, and Arad just realized that this wasn’t a fight, but a one-sided beatdown.