The dragon's harem

Tyal swung the Dragon Slayer upward, deflecting Arad’s thundering punch, and the whole hall shook as a shockwave exploded from the impact.

Tyal winced as she got thrown back, the bones of her arms screaming in pain, almost shattering at the heavy weight of Arad’s fists.

Before Tyal could land on her feet, Arad’s knuckles had already healed, and he was charging at her like a raging boar, both of his fists stretched forward, aiming to shatter her guard.

Tyal used her wind magic to spin her body mid-air, dodged Arad’s fist, and swung the Dragon Slayer at his elbow. She isn’t getting anywhere if he still has his arms. She must sever them first, and then use that opportunity to attack his vitals.

Arad turned his arm to face upward and clenched his elbow like a bear trap. Tyal’s sword got caught in the grip, and she got pulled out of the air toward him by the power of her swing.

Tyal couldn’t believe what happened. She had never seen such a move in her life.

And almost at the same time, Arad’s other fist was already flying toward her head at a blinding speed. She didn’t have enough time to dodge, and her sword was stuck, so that wasn’t even possible in the first place.

Tyal gritted her teeth and forced her body to move, twisting her torso and straining all of the muscles in her core.

The ungodly sharpness of the Dragon Slayer’s blade showed itself as the sword slashed cleanly through Arad’s elbow, severing his arm. And in the same motion, Tyal deflected Arad’s fist a fraction of a second before he could smash her teeth in.

A deafening shockwave rattled the hall as a blinding wave of blue sparks illuminated the walls. There was no fire or lightning magic, just the sheer force of Tyal and Arad’s attacks heating the air and disintegrating it upon contact.

Before Tyal could fall to the ground, and before she could even finish the block that had just saved her face, Arad’s severed arm had already healed into a deadly fist that flew straight to her guts.

Tyal couldn’t guard or dodge, and Arad’s fist smacked into her torso, almost rearranging her organs and knitting a vest out of her intestines. Her armor cracked, and she flew faster than sound, leaving several shockwaves as she smacked into the wall.

Arad was faster than Tyal, stronger, more durable, and what scared her the most, he was far more cunning and devious. All of his attacks were premeditated and planned to kill her.

Tyal couldn’t even imagine fighting him without the Dragon Slayer. Without the deadly blade, she won’t even be able to scratch his scales, let alone block attacks.

This fight is a losing battle. Tyal had no way of getting a hit on his vitals unless he made a mistake, unless Arad let her win. But Arad wasn’t going to make any mistakes; He planned all of his moves a long time ago.

If Tyal wanted to win, she’d have to make the opening herself. Is it possible to defeat an opponent that’s far stronger than herself? She won’t know until she tries it.

Tyal landed on her feet, and Arad was already charging at her, not giving her any time to get into a stance. But that was all right; stances and calculated moves were useless against an unstopable force.

Without even standing straight, Tyal thrust her sword from an awkward position, putting her arms at risk to buy herself time to dodge Arad’s charge.

The Dragon Slayer connected with Arad’s fist, and the two bounced off each other. Tyal used that impact to send herself flying away from him, and then used her wind magic to fly around and get behind Arad.

She had observed Arad’s fighting style and understood the essence behind it. His main skill is to understand his opponent’s fighting style, digest it, and then adapt his own to counter it.

Tyal’s fighting style wasn’t rigid, but it had several hard rules, counters, and feints that she used regularly, of course, with a lot of cunning, traps, and misleading attacks.

Arad had already learned her fighting style and was now targeting her weakness, which means that as long as she fights as she usually does, she’ll lose. All of the skills she had learned before were now being used against her.

She had finally started to understand what Arad meant earlier. She isn’t a rigid fighter, but she also isn’t a flexible one. Tyal wasn’t willing to break the basic rules of her fighting style.

She swung her sword at Arad’s neck, and he turned around like a wild monster, twisting his torso and neck beyond the normal limit to swat her attack aside.

Tyal expected that her attack would fail, but that was fine. Based on her fighting style, she should now reform her stance to recover from her weapons being smacked aside, and then immediately counter with a deadly stab.

Tyal didn’t do that and instead swung her fist straight at Arad’s face. She has to break the mold of her fighting style, adjust it to her opponent, and use that to her advantage.

Arad is too strong for her to overpower, so her only hope of damaging him is to exchange hits. She’ll sacrifice her arm to get a slash at his chest.

This is what Arad wanted her to achieve: the willingness to try something new mid-battle. If it was already a losing battle, then why stick to the basics that didn’t work?

Tyal’s fist got punched aside by Arad, and her blade was already a hair’s breadth away from his chest. This was it, the hit she wanted.

Arad took a sidestep and twisted his torso, making her attack miss at the last fraction of a second. Tyal looked visibly frustrated, but she immediately channeled the next attack.

Arad’s fist dropped at her head like a meteor, and Tyal saw her life flashing before her. She had already committed to the attack, most of her weight was being pulled by the unfamiliar sword, and she couldn’t dodge or counter now.

As Arad’s fist was a fraction of a hair away from her face, he smiled. His knuckles connected with her face, and her skull exploded into a thousand white splinters.

For a moment, it looked like Tyal had just been killed, but it was then that weak sparks of lightning spread across her whole body. It wasn’t blood that splattered from her shattered head, but white mist.

Tyal’s whole body exploded into a massive grey thunder cloud that split into ghostly snakes swirling around Arad like a tornado.

The snakes brushed across Arad’s skin, and his scales got torn apart, filling his massive body with countless wounds. Blood splashed in the air as Tyal roared around him, shaking the whole hall.

Arad recoiled, a smile crossing his face as his blood evaporated, and he turned into a black cloud of bloody mist.

Everyone ran to the edges of the hall to avoid being caught in Arad and Tyal’s clash, but even that wasn’t safe. The grey thunder cloud and Blood mist clashed and mixed together, rattling the whole castle.

Tyal had finally unlocked her beast form, and Arad was now facing her in his Vampire Mist form and still managing to put a lot of pressure on her. She was a raging Typhoon and should fight like it.