The dragon's harem

They had now walked through the thick snow for hours, but the progress they made was almost negligible. Even with snowshoes, treading the uneven terrain was nearly impossible. They could’ve used magic to create footing, but that would’ve been extremely risky.

Under the ice, countless massive horrors lived beside fish, and those are drawn to magic and mana. The horrors usually hunt monsters that wander on the surface, but if a wizard was stupid enough to cast spells here, they’ll end up swallowed by a whale the size of a whole castle.

The only reason they could safely fish in the Blue Wells is that the horrors rarely got close to the Eraena Creek, and that toxins Gojo’s draconic aura kept them away.

At this time, Haru was already exhausted and she couldn’t walk anymore. She had spent most of her life sitting in the Treacherous temple and never fought or moved that much.

Right now, she had walked in the thick snow for hours, her toes were numb, her knees screamed in pain, and her legs wanted to give up. Each breath felt strained, and even her head had started hurting. She had already pushed past her limits, so they had her hitch a ride on the sledge.

To carry everything they had, they brought a massive wooden sledge akin to a small boat and tied it with ropes to Arad, and he was now dragging it. It had their rations, clothes, and a few things that would help them survive in the cold snow.

He was their back horse, bull, or whatever the Arctic people used to draw sledges. When he asked, Gojo told him that they use wolves or large dogs. So Arad looked like a massive Monster Bulldog.

To that, Liliana told Gojo that he looked like a cross between a husky and a samoyed. Which he somehow looked happy about.

As Haru jumped into the sledge, she looked at Arad’s massive back. “You do look as wide as one. But, don’t you get tired at all?” She was already panting and could barely speak. The other two weren’t carrying any load and were battle-tested, so lasting this long was expected, but Arad was dragging several tens of kilograms of their luggage.

She was surprised he wasn’t even panting. Which only made her more glad Arad had many wives, and that she was a concubine and not a main one.

He glanced back at her and smiled. “I do, but it takes much longer than most people, and I’m better at pushing beyond those limits.” He looked forward and started walking, cutting his way through the thick snow and pulling the heavy sledge.

Arad was massive, with huge lungs and a lot of powerful muscles. As expected, these muscles were powerful enough that carrying his body wasn’t a problem, and adding a few tens of kilograms was nothing.

Now, as an adult, Arad weighed over 300 kilograms {660 pounds} so 50 or 70 kilograms was nothing to him.

“I’ll keep moving forward until I either reach my destination or fall down. As long as I tell my legs to move, and they move, I’m fine.”

She had to think about it for a second, and then tilted her head. “You know that isn’t healthy, right?” Arad was certainly overworking himself.

He chuckled. “Of course I know that. But I won’t be a human for long here, and a dragon’s body is better at dealing with such stress.”

Arad had told her that he wrestled a shark in the sea and killed it, which she wouldn’t have believed, but she did since she could tell he wasn’t lying. Now seeing him move like this, she had more questions than answers.

Is he really human? That massive body, terrifying strength, and bottomless endurance. It resembled the human’s ancient description of gods than an actual human being.

As they were talking, Liliana lifted her hand to stop them all. “Wait, something big is ahead of us.” She looked forward and could spot it, a massive red and black dot on the horizon, and it was slowly getting bigger.

Even though she said that, it was almost impossible to tell what it was from this distance. Just the reflected sunlight was enough to make it near impossible, but the wind seems to be picking up and stirring up the snow.

“That’s… we need to get closer so I can tell what it is.” She turned back. “But I’m sure it’s a monster, so we have to change path anyway.”

Her reasoning was simple: nothing that could get that big is normal, so it had to be a monster.

The sea cut into the land like a massive bay, so they were now cutting right through its frozen surface to reach the other side, and they didn’t want to have to circle around and waste time. The only problem was that this path was extremely exposed and risked them getting spotted by a monster from kilometers away, which just happened.

But facing that thing here is risky, and now they have to circle around it, or at least make it back to land where they could fight at ease.

After a minute, the monster got close enough that Liliana could tell what it was. “A Red Bison.” She frowned, “And that looks like a bull. It’s a massive, monstrous bison with four horns and a hide covered with red stripes like a tiger.”

Gojo looked at the monster with her. “That thing is a problem. It’s incredibly tanky, and if I used a spell powerful enough to pierce its hide, we’ll be calling the horrors of the deep to us like a dinner bell.”

Arad finally stopped by their side and looked forward, spotting the giant monster. It was almost as tall as he was at the shoulders. Looked to have a lot of meat, delicious, fatty meat, and a nice warm hide.

“I’m hearing the dinner bell. It’s just a big bison. Is it edible?” He pointed with one finger, and everyone stared at him. Gojo sighed, remembering that Arad wrestled and killed a shark in the sea barehanded.

Then Liliana gasped with a shocked and terrified face. Deep inside her head, she realized Arad wanted to hunt that thing. “Come on! We can defeat it with magic, but here, we can’t even move well in the snow. We’ll either win and get eaten by a sea horror, or lose and get killed.”

“You can’t punch that thing. It can shatter castle walls with its head.” Gojo pointed, “It’s too dangerous to fight it here.” Unlike Liliana, he had realized that Arad wasn’t intending to fight the bison with magic, and instead, just beat it the old way.

He then smiled. “Want a weapon? I can make one without alerting the horrors beneath us.” Liliana looked terrified, but he was a bit excited. Can they hunt that thing without magic? It’ll take a crazy person to attempt it, and an even crazier one to pull it off.

The two remained silent, then paled as Haru didn’t speak up. They both glared at her. “Say something!” Liliana cried, and Haru looked down. She is a Seer who can see the future. Arad won’t go fight that thing if she told him it was impossible… but she wasn’t saying anything.

“Yeah, they were right. Arad is a wild animal.” She could remember some of Arad’s wives describing him as reckless, strong, dumb, and surprising, but the most description they used was that he didn’t act like a human, but like a wild animal in fights.

She never understood what they meant, but now, she knew exactly what they were talking about. Arad is a wild animal, and she would describe him as such.

Arad was already walking toward the monster. “Would you look at that? Dinner came right to us. Now, we can save our rations for later.” He cracked his knuckles. “Come on, roasted bison for dinner.”