The dragon's harem

Gojo sat on a large boulder, eating lunch with Tempo as they watched the new dungeon grow. "Do you think we should help? There are over seventy students stuck there!" Tempo asked with a large smile as he munched on his grilled chicken thigh.

Gojo lifted a finger, conjuring a tiny ball of energy. "I don't know. I would love to leave this to brother to take care of."

"He might not be able to save everyone! I can't have people die here. It'll be bad if they die while I'm here trying to make peace!" Tempo stared at Gojo. "Innocent people shouldn't die!"

"Innocent people die all the time. You can't save everyone." Gojo smiled. "But, this isn't that far from brother's abilities to solve."

"Do you think they can beat the boss?" Tempo looked at the dungeon, still munching.

"Taking brother out of the picture, I can see them winning, but not without deaths. As long as Aella doesn't get harmed, I don't care how many else die." Gojo replied.

*****

Aella, Matilda, Ganta, and Selina managed to drive away the large spiders and started heading deeper into the dungeon.

"It's been a while, and not a single monster showed up." Ganta looked around. "But I still feel them slithering around."

"Even monsters can understand it when a fight is unwinnable." Aella replied to her. "They are avoiding us."

After a while, they reached a dead end as a massive boulder blocked their path. Selina walked toward the boulder with a tiny flame on her finger for light and inspected it. "Look, those scratches are new. It just fell down." She looked at the ceiling, seeing the spot where the boulder was before.

"Is this why those large demon spiders are reinforcing the tunnels with their webs?" Ganta approached the wall and looked at it, only seeing dirt and stones.

"Are you stupid?" Matilda approached the wall that Ganta looked at and pierced it with her claw. "Look." She pulled her claw and the deeper dirt looked to be mixed with the spider's webbing.

"They already reinforced this tunnel. They dropped that stone here." Matilda said with a proud face, puffing her chest as her tail spiked. "I'm smart, aren't I?" She looked at Aella, her ears wiggling.

"Matilda is right." Aella approached the stone. "But why would they do that? Are they trying to lock us away from the rest of the dungeon?"

"That's possible." Selina replied, "But I doubt it. I've read before that different dungeons would have different architectures, and this might be how doors are made here."

"So this is either a door to a level that isn't built yet or..." Aella looked at the other girls.

Thud! Ganta smacked her fist together, "The boss room." She smiled.

"Don't jump in." Aella glared at her.

"I won't." TAP! Ganta sat down crosslegged and scratched her head. "I can't move that boulder on my own." The boulder was massive, almost three meters wide and four meters tall.

All the girls sat down with Ganta as they started thinking about how to move the boulder and what might the boss be. This wasn't a game, even though the boss usually doesn't wander around the dungeon, there is no rule stating they can't attack those standing right outside the door.

"We aren't going to win without a plan." Aella looked at them. "I'm an archer, I can fire either normal arrows or wind element arrows. I can cast basic wind spells like wind blade, and wind slash, but I don't have any big moves." She won't even mention the fire arrow, and even if she were to use it, she'd kill the three of them.

"I can cast spells up to the fifth tier." Selina mumbled, "But, having people around me makes me nervous. Please, don't expect much of me." She looked away, not willing to disclose her [Marionette Dance], even though it'd be useful to turn the boss's minions on it...she couldn't help but remember the past.

^You accursed necromancer, get away from us!^ Selina shook her head, remembering when she was still a child and first created the spell to play with her dolls, the other children thought she was a necromancer, which led to a constant stream of bullying, isolation, and abuse. Even the adults got on it, not even willing to see or understand how the spell worked, labeling her as a necromancer and demanding her head. ^Those who play with the dead should join them.^

Her locked room was the only safe place in the world, and she didn't want to leave...Her eyes slowly turned toward Matilda...remembering the entrance exam, she heard her talk with other girls about whether this school teaches necromancy, and Matilda was more excited to see her meal move than care about what necromancy is, which led her to think Matilda might not criticize her as much.

"I can fight with my claws and fangs, run on walls but not the ceiling, and have decent night vision and hearing. You can count on my strength, but I tend to focus on one thing, so I usually lose sight of what's around me and end up getting hit in the back." Matilda explained what she could do, her tail wiggling around. She had no idea of the bloodline Arad sensed in her.

"So you're just a brute, kitten." Ganta laughed at her, and Matilda hissed back.

THUD! THUD! Ganta bounded her chest, causing those two massive breasts of hers to giggle left and right.

"I'm gorilla beast woman...as you can see, I'm quite strong." She looked at them with a large grin.

"By the way…I always wanted to ask." Aella stared at her.

"What?" Ganta looked at her, puzzled.

"What's up with those horns?"

SMACK! Ganta grabbed Aella by the neck and pushed her all the way to the wall. "You as well? What's wrong with my horns!!!" She was pissed.

The other two girls stared between them, unable to figure out what to do. Selina couldn't get herself to speak in such a situation, and Matilda was too confused to figure out what to do.

Aella struggled to breathe with her neck in Ganta's palm. But she knew that with Ganta's strength, she could've snapped her neck. "It just reminds me of someone I know. He also had horns and a tail…He could also power up by eating dragons." Even though Sebas usually looks like a normal human without horns, she is trying to get Ganta to calm down.

Ganta let go of Aella. "Sorry, I was impulsive."

Aella stood there, coughing. "No, it was my fault to ask."

Ganta stared at her. "I'm a bastard child. My father, albeit being married, and quite the strong gorilla, he had an affair with a monster. I'm that monster's child." She sat down. "My stepmom wasn't that happy, and neither was the village. In the end, I got kicked out."

She looked up. "Just imagine, what would happen if a human male came to his wife with a baby, and said it was born to a pig that he railed? The wife would laugh it off until she found the child has a pig's nose."

"That…" Aella tried to think of her words carefully… Albeit she couldn't help but think. ^Who am I to say anything while getting on with a dragon? No, wait, dragon's offspring are "That…" Aella tried to think of her words carefully… Albeit she common and accepted due to how much power they could get.^

"Isn't that like a half-dragon?" Aella looked at her.

"Blame the bards for that." Ganta growled, "Until now, I've never seen a woman that doesn't want to spread them for a dragon, or a man that doesn't want to marry a drakaina. Only because dragons made a name for themselves as a symbol of power."

"You're right. A dragon would be strong. But it has to be a metallic one, they need to be able to take a humanoid form." Matilda joined in.

Aella and Ganta stared at her for a second and then sighed. "See?" Ganta pointed at her. "But, the only power I have is being able to change my magic based on what I eat. That change only lasts for a few seconds. You saw it earlier when I ate those spiders, albeit I should apologize for how gross that might've looked, it's one of the reasons people hated and drove me out of the village."

^I'm sure Sebas can only get power from dragons, but she seems to be able to get it from anything. But the catch is that she can only keep the power for a short period of time, unlike him who keeps it for weeks.^

As the three kept talking, Selina was swimming in her own thoughts, imagining herself living alone with a dragon inside a cave away from the cruel outer world.

The girls stared at her daydreaming. "Selina, what are you thinking about?" Matilda asked.

"No! No! Nothing!" She gasped with a red face.

As they talked, Aella kept thinking, ^If only they knew I was already married to a dragon.^

"Say, Selina." Ganta approached her. "How do you think it'll be? Being a dragon's bride?"

"How would I know." Selina gasped.

"Who knows?" Aella looked at them. "He might fly you over the clouds, be a bit rough, but caring. Money won't be an issue and neither safety…but you'll probably need to be in peace with the idea you're not the only wife." She looked up. "Even if you wanted him all for yourself, he'll end up with other wives, and you'll most likely live under the same roof."

"More wives? I don't mind that, but I rather live with fewer people around me." Selina mumbled.

"More wives isn't a problem." Ganta stared at Aella with a large smile. "We gorillas live in large families of one dominant male, a silverback, and usually he has multiple wives, the more the better." She sighed. "That's why my father's cheating wasn't that big of a problem, and rather with whom he did it."

"We aren't like lions, we only have families of a mother and her cubs." Matilda replied. "We don't have a marriage like the other races, but instead the father usually goes on his own way after mating."

"Is it like that with tigers?" Aella looked at her.

"The beast queen has been nagging our heads about it for decades. She managed to get us to register the cubs with their father but wasn't able to get it any further." Matilda sighed. "She said it's problematic, but that's our tradition and she can't take it away."

"But you can't fight and hunt alone. You can't be a lone mother." Ganta glared at her.

"Shut up! That's why I came here, either to find a husband and settle by this place's rules, or get strong enough to return and live my life." Matilda growled.

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