The dragon's harem

“So, where are we now?” As her mother asked, Malina walked forward and touched their shoulders. “We’re in a stray meteor somewhere around…” She looked up, “I guess we’re pretty far from the world. I can teleport us away… possibly…”

She tried several times, but couldn’t pinpoint the exact location of Arad’s small world to teleport.

Arad has full control of the space inside his stomach, and so he gives his wives several perks. One of them is the ability to teleport around freely. But that ability is still limited by the user’s abilities.

After several tries, Malina gave up and sighed. “I’ll call for help.” She closed her eyes, and in a second, her parents froze in place.

They could sense the beings flying above. Malina’s father never expected to face them until he died, because they aren’t something the living are supposed to see.

Two angels hovered above, slowly floating down toward Malina. “Lady Malina, did you call for help?”

One of the angels asked, while the other looked toward where Arad was fighting. “Should I get rid of that small one?”

“No, leave them alone.” Malina sighed, “That’s my little brother. Those are my parents.”

Hearing Malina, the two angels immediately flew down and gave her parents a bow, “Welcome here. We’re angels of Sol, the goddess residing here.”

“Sol?” Malina looked at them, “You mean Eris?”

“Yes, that’s the name Amaterasu gave her. Eris is her personal name, and Sol is what the common people would know her as. But for her other side, we decided to make a name up, Los.” As the two angels declared Eris’s names proudly, Malina and her parents stared at her.

“That’s just Sol backward!” Malina exclaimed. She couldn’t believe they didn’t find a better name for the goddess of murder.

The two angels nodded, “Exactly, Sol and Los are the same goddess, Los los los!”

The angels chanted their goddess’s name, then one of them shouted, “Angels! What’s our purpose? Extermination, Murder! Not a single enemy spared! Make them suffer!”

Malina rubbed her face, “I get it, now, can you get us to the world first?”

The angels landed and approached them.

Malina’s parents looked at her, their faces somewhat pale, “Wait! There are angels here?”

Malina looked at them and smiled, “Of course. Their goddess is one of Arad’s wives. Truth be told, he has two goddesses and two demigoddesses as wives.”

Before they could process everything, the angels teleported them away, leaving Arad and Arian alone to fight.

At that time, the fight was heating up. Arian headbutted Arad in the face, glaring at his eyes with a bloodied face and eyes burning with draconic magic.

“Don’t you dare go and start giving me lectures in the middle of a fight,” Arian growled, and Arad chuckled with a smile.

“Oh! Scary, I’m shaking.”

In the blink of an eye, Arian’s fist flew upward in an uppercut, his knuckles engulfed in sharp steel. Hitting Arad on the chin, he immediately launched another attack, a sideways right hook.

Even though both of his attacks landed with enough force to knock an adult dragon’s teeth, Arad didn’t even flinch. Before Arian could spin into a kick, Arad’s arm came crashing down, hitting him right on the left shoulder and smacking him to the ground.

Arian hit the ground with his back first, pushed on the ground with both hands, and launched a kick right at Arad’s guts.

Arad took the hit directly and didn’t even flinch, taking that chance to swing his fist down at Arian again. The kid also took the hit, slid past Arad’s fist, and spun to deliver a slash with his blade at Arad’s side.

The fight kept going in melee for a while, and Arian realised something important. Arad only hit him when he made a stupid mistake, like winding a massive attack or telegraphing his moves.

It was similar to what his teacher did in the training ground. But the teacher there would stop the fight and yell at him. That was a more civil way of doing things, but it also allowed Arian to ignore most of the warning.

But here, he couldn’t ignore Arad. If he made an obvious mistake, he was going to get hit, and he didn’t want to get hit. Arad won’t stop the fight and yell at him. He won’t try to tell him where he made a mistake; Arad would punch and kick him around instead.

Arian started quickly changing his moves. Any attack that resulted in him getting hit was thrown and replaced with another move. He never attempted the same failed attack twice; he only focused on not getting pummelled to the ground.

As Arad expected, Malina’s little brother was a quick learner, one who would gain far more from real fights instead of simulated ones.

What most people don’t understand about dragons is that they are always growing stronger. Each passing second and minute makes them more powerful until they reach a tipping point where they are forced to hibernate to evolve into the next age stage, because their body can no longer contain their power.

A steel dragon can take ten years, while another can take eleven years; it all depends on their growth speed. Some dragons, like the magic dragons, can break that rule, but most can’t.

It is the same as how a five-year-old kid is stronger than he was at four years old. Growing then takes them to a breaking point where they hit puberty to reach adulthood and become even bigger and stronger. To dragons, the age classes are like their puberty.

Poor Arian quickly felt something shatter in his chest as Arad kicked him away, sending him rolling on the ground. His ribs, many of them, had just shattered.

He barely stood, coughing blood and barely able to breathe. He tried to growl, but a sharp surge of pain struck him like a lightning bolt. One of his ribs had to have poked a hole through his right lung. This text is hosted at novelꞁire.net

He stood, sweating and shaking, yet the fire burning in his eyes didn’t fade. But then, all of the pain disappeared, his wounds were healed, and he had never felt better.

Arad had healed him using Kali’s divine magic. “So? Still want to fight, or are you done?”

“You can heal like my mother?” Arian growled, and Arad looked at him with a smile.

“I might not look like it, but I’m a paladin.” Arad was indeed Kali’s paladin, and he was also able to draw power from Eris, Mira, and Cerilla. He would never be short on healing magic anytime soon.

“What kind of dragon are you? I never heard of an adult dragon as powerful as you are.” Finally, Arian seemed to be calming down and trying to look at the fight from a different angle.

“Me? I’m a Void Dragon. I’m a part of what’s known as the Magic Dragons.” Arad started walking toward Arian with a smile on his face, “You’re doing well, so do you want to keep fighting?”

Arian laughed, “Me? Give up? You’re dreaming!” Countless blades of steel burst from his back as he glared at Arad, “I’ll keep fighting till I fall down!”

In the next second, he lunged at Arad once more to keep fighting.

****

Far away, Malina and her parents had arrived in the main capital of Arad’s world. The two of them looked around, quickly sensing the countless lairs of the chromatic drakainas around the place. There were at least five nests nearby, which would’ve been concerning if this place weren’t inside Arad’s stomach.

The second thing her parents noticed was how many people already live here. There was far more than any of them could’ve expected. Countless vampires, humans, elves, angels, half-angels, and half-fallen-angels lived in the capital.

“You live here now?” Malina’s father asked, and she shook her head.

“I can. But we live in Alina.” She looked around and turned toward her mother, “This is why you can’t defeat Arad. He is extremely powerful, and most importantly, isn’t alone.”

After they walked for a bit, they found a little girl running across the street. She wore a simple summer dress, her long hair was pink in color, and she was chased by a fit-looking woman with long black hair.

While Malina’s parents felt a deep sense of fear and found the little girl disturbing, Malina herself called out to the little girl.

The little girl, Kali, rushed toward Malina and jumped into her arms, “Save me! She wants to catch me!” The woman chasing her was Diana.

“Malina! Good, she has work to do!” Diana rushed in a second after Kali was caught by Malina.

“Ah,” Malina looked at her parents, “This is one of Arad’s wives.” She pointed at Kali.

“Is she a demon?” Malina’s mother gasped, sensing the demonic magic in Kali and attributing it to the disturbing feeling she got from her.

“This is Kali, the Demon Goddess of Destruction. That’s her Archon, Diana. I’m sure she is here to drag her back to work.”

Malina handed Kali to Diana and turned back to her parents, “We’ve been here for just a few seconds, and as you see… Arad is built differently.”