The dragon's harem

Arad kept his eyes on Nina, the faint purple glimmer in them remained strong as he inspected her soul. But that wasn’t all, like he could inspect mundane materials, even the bodies of living beings weren’t that hard for him to see through.

A part of his powerful vision was thanks to his Pricolici curse, and the other was thanks to being a void dragon. Even cells had atoms, and those were filled with void.

What he saw in Nina’s body wasn’t good. He grimaced, “Not enough.”

It didn’t matter how rich that arm of his was; all of its energy had been absorbed by Nina’s body in seconds. ^Run.^ He could hear Nina growling at him in her thoughts, and he smiled with a giggle.

“Run? You’re a bigger threat to the whole world than to me.” He lifted one arm, extending it toward Nina. “I might be overestimating my strength and underestimating yours.”

Nina stood, pushed one foot forward, and stood on her toes. The muscles beneath her tanned skin rolled and twisted like steel wires. Arad could even hear her bones groaning under the stress.

The soft stand shouldn’t be able to provide enough support for her to use her full power and accelerate. But the tarrasque was an innate earth magic user, if not a caster. The ground obeys her will.

In the same way Nina and the Tarrasque could swim through the ground unhindered, they could make the earth an absolute barrier for them to use as leverage. The sand beneath Nina’s toes solidified to become harder than any metal, and she burst forward at a harrowing speed that burned the air around her.

Nina’s fist flew at Arad’s face, not even giving the air a chance to explode into a sonic boom. This inhumane speed was nothing short of terrifying, but Arad could already see her moving and even had time to inspect how her muscles were performing to reach such a level of power.

The answer was simple, but complicated. She wasn’t this powerful when Arad freed her from the chains. Her body had used the energy she got from eating his arm to rebuild her muscles to resemble those of the Tarrasque.

Looking at Nina’s soul, Arad was certain that she could never reach the Tarrasque’s power. But getting close enough wasn’t impossible. He suspects that she’ll keep eating to provide her body with enough power to reach that stage.

Just like him before evolving, she needs sustenance to grow. But she doesn’t have access to something as energy-dense as the cursed ores and therefore needs to eat a lot.

Arad took a step to the side and punched Nina’s fist aside. At the same time, he engulfed it in a small expansion to absorb the shock of the impact and keep her from blowing the sand into the sky. He had already harmed the poor desert too much, and she deserved to be treated better.

Seeing that her punch failed, Nina immediately spun around and threw a round kick at Arad’s chest; he was too tall for her to reach his neck with a kick while still keeping contact with the ground.

Arad side-stepped her attack. He then threw his arm at her face as if trying to knock her to the ground. As he expected, her mouth opened far wider than any human mouth has the right to and ripped his arm off with a single bite.

Arad, who seemed unfazed, kept an eye on her face. What he saw was painful; all of her teeth were shattered when trying to bite through his hard scales and bones, but she still managed to do it. Arad wasn’t trying to resist her bite, so he was a bit surprised by that.

Nina’s teeth regenerated before she could land, and she started chewing on the arm, her eyes still fixed on Arad. Since he wasn’t making the initiative to attack, she kept eating.

His arm regenerated in an instant.

While Nina could chew metal and stone with ease, his arm was surprisingly tough on her teeth, so it took her a few seconds to eat it, especially with her teeth shattering and regenerating with each bite.

Arad used that time to inspect her soul even more. Nina showed a sign of discomfort, like everyone did, but it was more like a recognition than her caring about what he was doing.

Arad was able to confirm one thing. Nina’s soul was still bound to her body with a silver thread. She shouldn’t be immune to death like the real Tarrasque is. Even her skin, which could reflect magic, didn’t seem as powerful as the legends of the Tarrasque spoke.

“You’re immune, no, you reflect magic from the sixth tier and below. Anything above that has enough mana concentration to bypass your reflective skin.” Arad approached Nina, who was still eating his arm.

She spared him a glance and kept eating. He crouched beside her and looked at her back, arms, and stomach. Even if he was this close, she didn’t seem to mind, focusing on her food unless he attacked.

The reflective skin was quite amazing; Arad had never seen such a thing before. A marvel of what living beings can achieve. But to Arad’s poor luck, Nina was already about to finish her meal. He sighed, chopped his arm with a single swing of his claw, and put it in front of her.

As Nina finished the arm, she picked up the new one and kept eating. Her teeth weren’t shattering anymore. Arad didn’t miss that her bones had already grown stronger and denser. The more he fed her, the stronger she became.

^Arad… your nose is an inch away from my back.^ Her voice rang in his head. ^Get away, what if I attacked you again?^

“I’m checking your skin, don’t worry about me. But, how does this even work? Your body is doing one thing while your mind is calm.”

^I don’t know. It is moving on its own.^

“Then it’s probably because all of your nerves can think. Merlin should be able to explain it when we return.”

Arad lifted one finger, extended a black claw out, and reached to Nina’s back. He poked her, and she didn’t react. He expected her to attack immediately, but she didn’t.

“Does it hurt?”

^Yes, but no. I can feel it, the pain. But it is not a bothersome feeling anymore. It is more like hearing someone speak.^ She remained silent for a moment. ^It’s knowing that someone is touching me. I know it’s there and that’s it.^

Arad cut a small piece of skin from her back, and she didn’t react. It seems that as long as he doesn’t interrupt her meal, then she won’t attack back. And as expected, the wound closed almost instantly.

Arad, however, was able to see beneath the skin for a moment and learned a lot. He also inspected the small piece he cut and was surprised.

“Your skin is like a mirror for magic. I never saw something like this before, not that I lived long enough.” He ate the small piece of skin, and his face twisted into a grimace, “But… let’s just say it doesn’t taste good.”