The dragon's harem

"AW! You're supposed to be defending me, right?" Arad cried as Mira pulled him by the ear, "Forget it. We'll talk later." She let go of him and turned to Gamond, "I've tried to work with the scale you gave me earlier but I ended up damaging it. It won't create a perfect weapon but I'll still make sure it'll turn into a brilliant sword."

"If you want a new one just say so. I've already got too many." With a single weave of her finger on her arm she plucked another scale. As the scale returned to its true size it was almost a meter and a half{5 feet} in diameter and almost ten centimeters thick{4 inches}, this was the reason Gamond only gave her one scale, they are just too big to use more than one at a time.

"Sorry, I heated it up a bit too much and ended up cracking it." Mira giggled as Arad grabbed the scale and stored it in his stomach. "If scales is what you want I can give you some."

"I'm trying to make you a weapon so it might not be right…" She looked between him and Matilda, she couldn't tell them he was a dragon, could she?

"I shaved a lot of her scales when we fought." Arad pulled ten scales stacked on each other, "I've got hundreds of them. Hers as well." He pointed at Kory.

"You kept that?" Gamond glared at him with a weird and disappointed face. Imagine a woman getting into an argument with a guy, they fought a bit but no one was hurt…then later she find him holding onto her hair.

"Of course, it might not be of use to me but not for them. Such rare scales shouldn't be wasted. Given the right craftsman, they can turn into deadly weapons and armor that'll save lives." He stored the scales once more.

Arad himself was a powerful dragon, but his wives weren't anywhere near his power. Making a set of armor for Isdis with Gamond's scales, maybe a sword would massively spike her power to a whole other level.

"Always thinking about your wives first…I guess that's why they stick around you even with…this…" She looked back at the countless women with them in the bath.

Eris giggled, "We'll, you can give Arad the chance to become a god and he'll throw it to us."

Selina laughed, "I'm sure you jest, I've never seen someone reject godhood. People die to get it. Arad, no offense, but I find it hard to believe you wouldn't give anything for power, looking at how strong you are."

"Arad might not take offense…" Eris swam toward Selina and grabbed her in a chokehold, "But I do…" She giggled and Selina tried to get away, jolting Eris with weak magic to get her away.

What Selina didn't know was that Arad already rejected godhood, when he got Jordan's greedy portfolio he instead gave it to Mira.

Matilda had seen Arad facing their goddess Maharaja, which how skillful he was, and the fact she didn't kill him, Matilda was sure that Maharaja must've tried to recruit him to her divine hunt, him being here meant he must've refused that offer.

Matilda was of course, wrong, such a thing never happened, but those were the legends told around Maharaja. If you're a really powerful hunter, the queen of the hunt would come and offer you a chance to join her divine tribe that hunts in the heavens.

Unlike Selina who didn't believe Eris's claim about Arad, Matilda completely believed it.

"By the way…" Merlin flew toward Arad and sat at the water's edge by his side, leaning her legs down into his lap, "Your magic had changed a lot, it feels sharper, denser and faster. Are you trying to make sure I never win?"

"Not really, I don't decide what my training is." Arad shook his head, "It just happened on its own."

Doma flew and sat beside her, "Are you afraid now? Don't worry, it won't matter if you win or lose. All that matters is that you prove that you're skilled enough to control the magic." All Arad needed of her was to control the magic while he dived to free Zephyr.

"But to be honest? Just feeling your magic now I'm sure you can keep the magic standing, neither I nor Zephyr would end up dead." Arad looked at her with a smile.

"You trying to free that spirit queen, right?" Undine flew toward Arad, "Where is she sealed, can I see her?"

Arad pulled the cube that Zephyr was sealed in and Altair gasped in the back, "It's like mine!" She pulled another cube, "But I got out of it easily…"

"We can, no one else could," Arad replied as he handed the cube to Undine to check it… "Something is off, I can smell her magic from here. It's feint, but she's still keeping an eye on the outside world through something…" It was then that Undine figured it out, "This magic filling the air, was it hers?"

Arad nodded, "Indeed, the air we breathe is her magic."

Undine flew to Aella, "Drink me!" She turned into a floating ball of water. Aella hesitated for a second and only when Arad nodded to her, she drank Undine.

Undine checked Aella's body from the inside and quickly came out with a conclusion, "Yes, Zephyr is keeping an eye on you." She looked at Aella, "If you were to die she'd probably snap, rip the cube and the world apart. I've never felt a spirit with as much raw power as her."

Salamander looked at Undine, "But at what cost? She can't achieve that like it's nothing."

"She'll end up burning her life away as a result." Undine took a wisp of magic and gave it to Doma, "What do you think?"

"I see…I never looked at it like this." Doma's eyes opened wide, "This isn't a curse, at least not with Aella still alive." She giggled, "When Aella dies, Zephyr will die as well. But that would trigger Zephyr's expansion to condense, which would leave the whole world without air for a start, but then that condensed air would form a moving and vengeful spirit that'll hunt whoever killed Aella."

"Such a powerful magic…" Arad took back the cube, "We'll ask her about it when we free her in a day or two." He looked up, they'd already been in the hot bath for half an hour but Hati still kept the place locked up.

^I wonder what is happening outside…^

****

Hati sat in her backyard, her daughter poured her clear wine onto a small palm-sized plate which she sipped from. "Since you're here, I bet they are going to catch them as well. Right, Alva?" The one floating before her was a tiny fairy called Alva.

The fairy shook her head, "Sorry, but sadly they only sent me here to confirm if Zephyr is still safe. You know how her divinity, the holy spirit goddess Mei thinks of her granddaughter."

"I know…but if she isn't the one going to stop that abomination, then who? Arad's mother is moving the world out of their search path." Hati looked at her with a smile and Alva giggled.

"Don't worry, those nasty critters are in for an even nastier surprise." An evil grin crossed her face, "Tarra had finished training the girl called Nina and went to kill the abomination."

****

Back in Alina Nina was left bloodied in front of Arad's house where Sebas had to call healers to patch her up. The woman she was training with had suddenly disappeared without a warning.

****

On the other side of the world, in the middle of the now-dead desert where Arad had once gone into hiding, a large green, orc-like humanoid that was over five meters tall appeared out of nowhere. "I made it in…but where is he?" He looked around. He could sense Arad's magic around, he was here not long ago, but he wasn't now.

"Did he leave just before I arrived?" He tried to sense the magic around him and immediately froze in place. "Shit, she is here?!" He turned around, and saw this muscular tanned woman standing alone in the snow, glaring at him with two golden wide-open eyes.

The tanned skin, the countless golden jewelry on her body, the one-piece beige tunic she wears, the strange cultic black tattoos covering her whole body, and especially that animalistic dead stare in her eyes.

He started slowly backing away while keeping his eyes on her. He, an abomination who could probably beat two of Gamond at once was now waving his arms, screaming and trying to look bigger than he was, acting like a human that came face-to-face with a wild animal.

At that moment he felt a shift of space, "They got me…I should've jumped away." He and Tarra were already teleported into a dead world where they could fight without killing anyone. If he had run away immediately he might've triggered Tarra to chase him, but at least he could've used the mortals as hostages.

"Tarrasque, The progenitor of the barbarians…how the fuck am I gonna escape from this animal." The creature which shares her blood with Nina had finally appeared.