The dragon's harem

While Kayden and Han were dealing with their thing, the final battle of the tournament was about to start, and instead of the referee who was now with her husband, Liana herself, Blood Rose, was going to watch over the match.

This fight is going to be one of a kind, one that rarely ever is seen. A master, famous, well established, and generally viewed by the public as one of the pillars of their society. The Mother of Spider’s Miani, she was one unit even among her peers.

The patriarch, the Mother of the Spiders, she ruled over a woman-only, cult-like sect that adopts young girls and takes in abandoned babies to raise and turn into powerful masters of the current era. All of her daughters have been raised well, but humbly. She didn’t feed them luxury, but didn’t show them the darkest sides of the world either. Miani had made sure that those girls knew the struggle of the common folk as well as they understood the lives of the middle class. Their mother cares for them when they are young, and when they grow older, they care for their younger sisters.

Then there was the ruthless, but practical training. Those girls were taught two things by Miani: that nothing comes free, and that most blessings of life come from their own work, not charity. She gave them education, martial training, and even supported them until they grew old and left the sect.

There was a certain spark in the eyes of the daughters of the mother of spiders, a boyish, stubborn attitude. It was rare to find a woman toiling the fields or laying bricks at the great walls, but when you see one, it is mostly one of the spiders. They were hardy, enduring, yet charming in their own way.

But among them, there were a rare few, girls whose the Mother of Spiders picked by her own hands, and chose to inherit the sect’s secret martial art, the Dance of the Black Spider. While everyone in the sect saw Miani as their mother, those few girls were the only ones who were called as such, and would eventually carry the legacy of the entire sect.

So, because of that, when Arad stood face to face with Miani, he was a bit surprised when an old lady walked down from the seats and jumped into the arena.

Everyone fell silent, and even Miani herself started sweating as the old lady dragged her feet across the arena, leaning on her wand as she approached Arad and gently touched his leg.

“What a massive young man, those legs… they are thicker than tree trunks.” She rubbed his knee and then looked up at his face with one eye closed. “What… do you intend to do with my daughter?”

Arad leaned down to look the old lady right in the face. “Nothing beyond what a match would entail. I’ll fight, give her a beating, and she should make a full recovery after.”

That old lady was the former head of the Spiders’ sect, and the woman Miani called as her mother. “Mother… what are you doing?!”

“Can’t you see… my little girl.” She touched Arad’s face. “This young man… he is far, far, far above what we understand. Trying to snare him with your net is like a tiny spider trying to trap a massive alligator.”

She then sighed. “If he were to harm you, then we’ll have no choice but to fight.” She then smiled, “It seems I was wrong. Very few people wield that power and don’t abuse it.” She then turned around to head toward the seats, and that is when Arad stopped her.

“You reek of poison. Is that why you’re growing old?” As he asked, Miani’s old mother stopped. “That is right, while everyone seeks immortality, our art fundamentally goes against it. We might live for a few centuries, but eventually, our very poison is what takes us down.”

She smiled. “But that is a blessing. It is why our sect remains clean, and why not a single rotten old head ever stays at the top for too long.” Then with a single leap, she landed back on her chair.

Miani gave her mother one last look and then turned back toward Arad with sweat dripping across her cheeks. Her eyes remained fixated on him, and her fingers slowly moved, releasing her threads across the arena even before the gong could ring.

This reminded her of the past, being a homeless little girl running from monsters in the forest, doing her best to survive against the worst odds, facing titans with nothing but a stick and some stones. This was an utterly alien feeling to her, who was now an all-powerful elder.

She genuinely believed that her chances wouldn’t change a bit even if she were to turn back into a weak little girl. The gap in power was far too obvious that merely thinking of trying to attack Arad felt like punching a mountain, a useless and foolish endeavor at best.

The gong rang, and Miani gasped, clenching her fists and pulling her net tight around Arad. She had no moment to doubt herself or think again; she would throw all of her power at him and hope that something could stick.

The threads tightened, wrapping themselves around Arad’s massive body and trying to both tie and slice him apart. They were far harder than steel wire, sharper than razor blades, and carried enough poison to kill millions of men, yet he didn’t even budge.

This was what her mother talked about, what she meant by a little spider can’t trap an alligator in its net. Arad was just too massive, too heavy, and far too dense for her threads to matter. Just his breathing, just his chest going up and down, was enough to tear her tight threads apart.

Miani didn’t need anything else to realise that the gap between her and Arad was far wider than she had ever thought. She wasn’t someone who should be even able to approach him; it was obviously clear that he was holding the majority of his power back, and she could swear that she used a bigger percentage of her power when breathing that he’ll ever use in this fight.

“Not even 1% of your power… I’m disappointed in myself.” She sighed, and Arad crossed his arms, making hundreds of her threats that tied him snaps. He counted his stages: human, half-dragon, dragon, going all out, the vampire, lycanthropic, and lastly the merging of all that, then his void form and all of his incarnations, followed by the Nymph on top.

“Not even close.” He took a step forward, and a loud ripping sound echoed through the entire arena as Miani’s threads couldn’t keep him in place. “But I don’t care how powerful you are. If I did, many of my wives would be in the grave now.”

“Get serious, otherwise you’ll end up crying.” Two more pairs of arms burst from Arad’s back, ripping his shirt off, and when Miani saw that, she immediately pulled her extra arms and started weaving her threads. She didn’t try to reason how he could grow extra pairs of arms, since she fully understood that her mind would not be able to fathom his entire power.

She is going to lose, and her best outcome is not to embarrass herself. “Very well!”

At that moment, Miani disappeared for a second, and when she reappeared above Arad, she had grown her extra arms, and her skin had turned back as a large red mark burned brightly on her belly that could be seen through her clothes.

Arad spun and threw a fist at her face, but she barely dodged it thanks to her threads and swung a fist at Arad’s elbow, trying to inject her poison directly into his veins. But the moment her sharpened nails hit his skin, they shattered into a million pieces, and she was forced to jump back with bleeding fingers.

“You’re not just hard, you’re weird.” She smiled, and Arad flexed his arm as he looked closer at his elbow. “Hard, yes, weird, problem not. I would have told you why, but I won’t.” He then pointed at her mother. “If she can figure it out, then so should you.”

He gave her mother a smile, and the old lady blushed. “Oh, boy. I’m too old for you. But, I still appreciate the compliment.” Arad laughed. “Old or not, you’re still stronger than her. I can see it in your eyes. I do prefer strong women after all.”

Miani flew at his face with a clenched fist. “Stop flirting with her! She is my mom, and an old hag!” Her fist landed right on his face, and he didn’t even budge. “So, the problem?” He then threw a fist at her guts, sending her flying back with a loud shockwave.

“Instead of getting angry at me for going after your mother, couldn’t you start considering why I see her as better than you, when you’re all young and pretty?” He shrugged, and Miani stood with a raging face. “You there!” She pointed at the VIP room where Eris and Kali were, “You’ll just let him be?”

Eris stood, leaned on the window, and then smiled. “Arad, let’s invite her mother later. She is better than her anyway.” Arad and Eris’s intentions were clear, but Miani couldn’t see them. At first, Arad was just stating facts, but since Miani herself opened the door, he was now trying to rage bait her.

Usually, it would be against the rules for Eris to help Arad like this, but since Miani addressed her first, Liana didn’t call a foul.

But instead of letting rage consume her, Miani quickly calmed herself down. She was an Elder and sect leader after all, she shouldn’t let her emotions rule her life, and especially not in a fight.

“You know what?” She tore her clothes off, leaving herself only wearing a tight, black spandex suit. “Let’s see who’s more durable, you, or the threads of fate.” At that moment, Miani’s fingers touched the thread of her own fate, and that was going to be her weapon.

[Secret Art: Orb Weaver of Fate]