The dragon's harem

Lexi alone was enough to deal with the horde of goblins and small hydras. Unless she runs out of mana, those monsters won’t be able to break through her barrier or surpass her in martial skill and spellcraft.

In this world, while classes and roles existed, no one was actually dedicated to a single one. Fighters, rogues, wizards, barbarians, clerics, paladins, and more, some are damage dealers, some casters, and some specialize in healing or scouting. Still, it was generally known that it was bad to focus on only one thing.

Many monsters are intelligent and capable of picking targets, so in fights, a dragon would prefer to kill the healer first, then the wizard, and lastly deal with the damage dealers. A healer or wizard who can’t run, fight, and hold their own won’t survive for long in this world, and neither will the damage dealers who can’t heal or support themselves with their own spells or items.

Lexi’s main class and specialization were those of a wizard, a scholar of the arcane arts who learns, masters, and casts deadly spells. But she didn’t stop at that, she had trained as a ranger under her father since she was young.

How to camouflage through the woods, how hunt, how to fight with her bare hands or knives, how to break a man even if they were physically stronger than her, and how tame wild animals and monsters to do her bidding. She might not match a fighter’s prowess or a rogue’s skill with daggers, but she’ll rip someone’s throat with her barehands.

Lexi killed the goblins either using the knife she stole and her wand, and dealt with the small hydras with her spells, leaving a trail of bodies in the now dusty and blood-drenched lands.

But there was one problem, and she knew it well. She was still a burden. Aella can’t go all out against the Hydra with her running around the monster’s feet and killing its minions.

Aella flew around the Hydra, carefully avoiding its bites and trying to lead it away from where Lexi was fighting, but the nasty monster seemed to be well aware of that. It targeted Lexi with its stomps, not caring a bit if it killed its minions.

She couldn’t use large wind spells because Lexi would get caught in them, and she couldn’t directly attack the Hydra because that could cause it to explode.

“What are you going to do? Arrows aren’t helping.” Zephyr was clinging to Aella’s hair, watching the fight with a curious smile. She was the insurance. If Aella somehow fails to kill the Hydra, she would take it down.

“How about this?”

While dodging the Hydra’s relentless attacks, Aella conjured a massive bow of compressed wind, an arrow, and then took aim. For a few seconds, she charged the arrow with as much wind magic as she could. Until now, all regular arrows bounced off the Hydra’s scales without as much as scratching, so Aella wanted to know what it would take to pierce it.

When Aella released the arrow, it flew at blinding speed, flashing past the Hydra’s chest, entering through the front, and escaping out of its side beside the tail base. The arrow had pierced the Hydra’s heart, lungs, and liver.

“Triple vital hit, good shot. But…” Zephyr stared at the Hydra with a smile. “That lizard is still alive.”

Due to the Hydra’s size and powerful regeneration, even vital hits like that did nothing. To it, Aella’s arrow was the same as a surgical needle, too thin to do any real damage, and what little it did healed in a fraction of a second.

“If I remember correctly, it even regenerated from the burns caused by cannon fire.” Aella frowned. “Can we really kill this thing? It isn’t immortal, is it?” She then threw a glance at Zephyr. “And no, I’m not going to summon a tornado or fire an oxygen destroyer near the city.”

“When you face a monster with such stupid regeneration, and when holy magic isn’t the solution, like with undead, there is only one option left. It is to obliterate it whole with a single powerful attack before it could regenerate.” Zephyr then froze, scratched the back of her head, “Sorry, two options. You can try exhausting it, but that might take days or weeks.”

The Hydra opened its six maws, and Aella could hear a hiss. Immediately, and before the monster could blast her with flames, she swung her arms upward, generating a powerful hurricane of wind that swept all of the flammable gas into the clouds.

When the Hydra ignited the gas, the entire sky got painted red, the head was powerful enough to set anything unprotected ablaze, and everyone were far too lucky. The people inside the capital were protected by Merlin’s barrier, and Zephyr was there to keep everyone outside safe.

“Isn’t that more firepower than a red dragon?” Aella gasped, and Zephyr shrugged.

“Yeah, that is the same firepower as a red wyrm. The catch is that the dragon uses its magic directly, and this Hydra charges flammable gas inside its glands before letting it all out in a single burst.” She smiled. “Sustainability is the key here; one can sustain that output, and one can’t.”

Can you match the output of a red wyrm’s fire breath by exploding a hundred industrial tanks of flammable gas? Yes. Is it the same? No.

“Lexi! Get away, I’m going to do it!” Aella shouted, and Lexi gasped.

Lexi looked up, and the goblin growling beneath her foot froze. She was about to crush his skull, but now, she turned around and ran. The little goblin growled, shouted at her in disappointment and rage. He was already maimed, broken, and on the verge of dying. If she just stomped his head, he didn’t want to die burned by the Hydra’s raging flames.

When she got fairly away, Lexi called on her broom, flew even further, then teleported back to the city’s walls. She had thinned the Hydra’s minions enough that they shouldn’t pose a threat; her job was done, and it was time to watch her Lady work.

“Good Job.” As she looked at the Hydra, a voice called from behind, and she instantly turned around. “Who’s that?” There was no one behind her, just the massive stone wall. She had to look down to see him, a fat, black, and chunky rat.

The rat stood on its hind legs, stared at her with glowing purple eyes, and spoke in a deep voice. “I can see why Aella vouched for you to become her mistress.”

Lexi reached down, grabbed the rat from its back, and lifted it up. “A talking rat? What in the…” She froze, sensing Arad’s magic through the animal’s eyes.

“Your Majesty?!” As she gasped, the rat flashed with magic, and in the next moment, her nose was rubbing against Arad’s belt as he towered over her.

“I guess you never saw me as a rat.” Arad tapped the shocked Lexi on the shoulder and then looked at Aella and the Hydra. “Look, she is about to use it. You must learn it as well.”