The dragon's harem

Arad reached the massive barrier preventing him from advancing further. He was now still in the oxygen-less area and should’ve been at his last leg. Having to survive the lightning barrier then, instead of relief, he should’ve been suffocating in the oxygen-less area. By all means, he shouldn’t have enough energy to break the barrier.

Damnation watched him stand in front of the barrier, waiting for him to fall down, despairing at the unpenetrable barrier blocking his path.

But Arad slowly lifted his head. His eyes flashed red, and his long red hair ignited with fire. That fire soon faded away due to the lack of oxygen, but the heat remained, distorting the air around him.

With his body smoking and his fist raised Arad swung at the wall with all of his might, causing a bright flash to illuminate the already bright red surface of the lava pool.

The barrier groaned and contorted as countless small cracks spread through it. And Arad didn’t stop. He just kept swinging at it, over and over again, causing a massive shockwave with each punch.

Seeing the barrier cracking, Damnation knew Arad’s power was going to give her a lot of trouble. Knowing that she decided to retreat deeper into the center of the lava pool, into the palace where Vulkan used to live in the past eons. She’ll wait for the exhausted Arad and Tempo to reach her there.

She needs time to prepare herself. Right now, the biggest threat to her is if that paladin could call upon a divine intervention from Kali. Just one of the goddess’s thousand golden hands would be enough to crush Damnation like a bug, so she must be careful.

Soon, Damnation’s presence disappeared, and Arad shattered the seventh barrier and stepped into the eighth. Soon, he was surrounded by tens of titanic lava Krakens, hungry to feast on his flesh.

Tempo jumped out of Arad and landed on the frozen lava around Arad. He looked at the Krakens and growled, “Brainwashed and starved, kill them all. There is no saving them.”

Arad and Tempo lunged forward to start fighting the Krakens. Arad swung his massive flaming sword and slashed it. Tempo burned them, but both of their fires could do little to harm the monsters used to living in the lava.

Arad found himself relying on a basic property of magic to fight the Krakens, which was something he never realized before.

When casting a weapon spell, like a [Flame Blade], which created a sword of fire.

The magic itself is forcing the flames to take the shape of a sword. It won’t allow them to morph or take another shape, which means that it’ll resist anything that tries to change the sword’s shape, like another blade. That’s why you can block attacks with a sword made of pure fire.

That meant one thing. Even if Arad’s sword was made of pure fire, which those monsters were highly resistant to, the weapon was still hard. Arad could use it like a normal sword to slash the Krakens.

So, what was the difference between a fire sword and a steel sword in this situation? A steel sword would melt. A fire sword won’t.

Right now, it was Tempo’s turn to observe Arad’s swordsmanship, if it can be called that. With one swing, Arad would be holding the sword properly, attacking with it like a master, and barely making any mistakes. But in the next swing, he would be holding it like a stick and just whack the Kraken with it.

Arad’s sword then shifted into a long burning chain with a morning star at the end. He’ll swing the massive morning star with ease and throw it like a meteor, shattering several Kraken heads like fragile eggs.

Arad never used one weapon for long, switching between several ones. His hands for wrestling, a dual-daggers from close combat, a sword, and then a spear. Sometimes, he would even change the flames into a bow or a javelin for a sneaky long-range attack.

Tempo also noticed a large gap in Arad’s fighting style. He seemed to stop several times, and Tempo knew what Arad was supposed to be doing there. Those moments were the moments he was supposed to use a void step to teleport away or cast a spell, but now, he is holding back and only using fire to keep fooling Damnation.

Tempo himself was struggling a bit with the Krakens. Those were supposed to be the guardians of the Kingdom, after all. No matter how trained or armed a soldier is, he won’t be able to defeat a whole pack of military-trained dogs. He might be able to kill several, but a pack would still kill him in no time.

And that was another spot where Arad had an advantage over Tempo in this battle. The reason why a dragon would naturally have an advantage in this fight. Arad was a monster, an apex predator, and those Krakens were sea…? Lava food for him.

Even while holding back, Arad can still trash all of the barriers. If he had decided to destroy the Volcanic Titan’s kingdoms, no one would be able to stop him. Tempo had a faint hope that his Kingdom’s barriers would be able to impress the dragon, and he hoped to at least use that as a bargaining chip to alley with him, but alas, Arad had no need for such a barrier.

What is unpenetrable for humans and titans is nothing for a great dragon. Whether the world likes it or not, it’ll end up relying on Arad’s power to keep balance.

Tempo slashed a massive tentacle in half and watched as Arad grabbed a Kraken by the beak and swung it at another, violently shattering both into a splash of boiling blood.

It was then that something happened. A javelin flew through the air, aiming at Arad’s head with terrifying precision. As the Javalin was just a few meters away from Arad’s eye, he caught it mid-air. The sheer force of the throw sent Arad flying back.

Arad turned around and drove his feet into the lava, freezing it to stop himself. He then opened his eyes and rapidly turned his torso, throwing the javelin back at whoever threw it at him.

At the City’s Walls, a boiling Titanic shape of lava got struck in the head. Its body shattered into a splatter of magma as Arad smiled. “I see, so that thing can use anything that is hot.”