The dragon's harem

The hydra roared, trying to bite Arad's arm off but to no avail.

Arad growled at him, and punched him in the guts, "What was that breath?"

Upon taking the hit, the hydra moved his red and blue heads to face Arad's face and tried to blast him with breaths from those two, but Arad immediately bit those two heads off like they were nothing.

Almost as if giving up, the hydra opened his orange mouth and tried to blast Arad with another breath. Arad opened his mouth and sucked all of the sodium safely into his stomach to experiment on later.

The hydra stared at Arad confused, his sodium breath always exploded, upon contact with water; Arad was still wet so why didn't it work? He didn't want to use it at first as he had feared he would die caught in its blast, but now those feelings turned into pure confusion.

Now that Arad didn't need the hydra anymore, he plunged his arm into his torso and pulled the core out.

The female hydra started slowly backing away as she realized those males she called couldn't stand a chance against Arad. They aren't even able to put on a decent fight.

Arad did notice her trying to make a run for it, and he threw the hydra's core at her, knocking her down.

"Where are you running?" He extended his claw forward and pulled her closer with Gravity magic. "None of you is getting out of here alive." He engulfed the drakaina in a barrier spell and lunged at the male hydras that had orange heads and killed them first, their breath seemed to be the only thing powerful enough to break his barrier.

Once he started actively hunting them, they found themselves helpless and unable to match either his speed or raw strength, albeit he had to hold back a lot, avoiding large attacks like his breath as that might harm the drakaina and could cause earthquakes on the surface.

As the males died quickly, Arad approached the limping female who was still trying to escape.

"Wait! Wait!" She cried. Arad could understand her in the same way he understands animals, her thoughts get quickly translated into a language in his head.

"Wait for what? The only interesting thing you had is those orange heads." Arad replied, ready to dispatch her.

"I said wait!" She gasped, shaking her butt and trying to seduce him. "You have beaten them all, don't you want your prize?"

They might be lesser dragons, but it wasn't that uncommon for dragons to end up mating with hydras or drakes, even ryuus[serpentine dragons] and wyverns. It was more common for chromatic dragons to end up with those than it is for them to end up with humanoids due to size constraints.

[Myths said Hydras have a strong blood linked to the chromatic goddess Tiamat as they share her trait of many heads, if that was passed down with true dragon blood, it could give birth to another dragon goddess or a god.] Mom explained in his head.

Arad stared at the hydra, trying to make a conscious decision. A dragon would never pass the chance, some chromatic dragons even seek hydras and hunt them to use as slaves and concubines to their true dragon mates.

The hydra smiled as she saw Arad pause for a second. She started approaching him slowly, watching his every move.

CRACK! But out of nowhere, he swung his tail and pierced her core. "I'm married, and you called them not me." He pointed at the seven dead male hydras with his head, pulling his tail from the hydra's chest and she fell down.

"You…why…"

"I just told you…and I like people more like her, brave, arrogant, and prideful." He pointed at the black drakaina. "You're just a coward, for not trying to fight me. Narcissistic for thinking those males should throw their lives for your sake, and a shameless fighter for not taking her on alone." Arad said, watching her die.

After her life ended, he swallowed her with all the males and approached the black drakaina.

Arad walked toward the drakaina and looked at her for a second, her front claws were crushed, and she had several broken ribs and lacerations across her whole body in addition to a severe malfunction in her magic circuits, he could see that with his void eyes.

When I got injured after Rita's events, the metallic dragons said they could sniff injuries from afar, could I do something like that? He started sniffing the drakaina's neck and back, and there was a strange scent indeed, something that wasn't draconic lumped in her chest.

He laid his claw on her chest and closed his eyes. The strange lump was right beside her heart, sticking on the organ that had the most mana in her whole body, the draconic fundamentum.

Arad looked inside his stomach for anything that could help, but he had nothing but stacks over stacks of healing potions. He filled a barrel and lifted the drakaina's neck, pouring the content down her throat.

As her wounds started to heal, Arad got ready to try something. He lifted his right hand and extended his index claw forward. He flipped the drakaina on her chest and started gently tapping her back, using his powerful ears to listen to the echoes of her heart and his tapes.

Too deep, this won't do. He pulled his claw back and instead, extended a thin void saber out of the tip of his large draconic finger. "Dragons are resilient. Just think of it as getting stabbed while casually hunting." He stabbed her from the back and straight into the strange lump he smelled, but that didn't seem to do anything at first.

Arad smiled as he pulled the saber sword out and made the drakaina drink another barrel of healing potion, tanking his reserves by a lot. His goal wasn't to cure her, but to find out what that thing was, he did take a part of it by using the void saber and sucked it into his stomach.

It'll take me a while, but I might be able to fully heal you soon. He remembered how he dealt with the elder wood fungus before, controlling his void to erase one thing. Arad now started trying to use the same he took to tune his void and erase what was in her chest later, but that would take a lot of time.

Before, he didn't need to worry about much as he could erase the elder fungus alongside some dirt and air, it wasn't a problem, but doing that to a living being like a dragon could be fatal, he needed to be far more precise than before.

After setting his mind on how to act, he went back to sniffing the drakaina but now with a different thing in mind. He tried to memorize her smell, so he could follow and trace it back to her lair.

Arad smiled as he did that and lifted the still unconscious drakaina on his shoulder and held her in place with his wings as he started walking through the caves, aiming for her layer that was hidden underground beneath the swamps.

[=w=] "Arad, where are you?"

"Betty, It was a bunch of hydras trying to come out and the drakaina that owns this land was fighting to stop them." He replied.

"If that's the case then let nature do itself, come back, we're waiting for you."

"No, the drakaina was really sick and weakened. She ended in a tie with the female, and when a bunch of stronger males showed up, I had to jump in and help…" As Arad was explaining, Betty cut him again.

"Drakaina, was she a black drakaina?"

"Yeah. The ones with two horns pointing forward." He replied.

"Yeah… I don't trust them, I've faced seventeen in my life, and sixteen of them were pure evil." Betty sighed, "Don't trust her."

"I'm a dragon, not a human to trust her. We understand strength. As long as I can beat her down she won't cause trouble." He replied.

"Come on! Don't tell me that she came after me and is getting it first, you must be joking." Betty growled.

"I'm not, calm down. I'm trying to live as a human, not a dragon. I'm married so I don't care about getting any other mate. Unless the girls up approve of you or her, I'm not doing anything with any of you." He sighed, "Well, except one. I've made it clear that even they can't push me away from her."

"Who?" Betty gasped, "Me?!"

"Not you, someone else. Bring them here. I want Eris to look at the drakaina's wounds and disease. Having her die or stay inactive for a long time could damage the area. Grandpa Croc was really anxious about monsters last night."

"Who's this Grandpa Croc?!" Betty gasped, finding it hard to follow Arad's thoughts.

"The elder of the local alligators. They live beside this drakaina's swamp." Arad smiled, "He's wise and old, been living there for over a century."

"Wise alligator you say?" Betty sighed.

"The wisdom I've heard from him so far surpasses any teacher you have at the university. You better hire him to teach." Arad said with a smile, remembering one of his conversations with Grandpa Corc.

-How come you have so many mates?- Arad asked. Seeing that despite his age, Grandpa Croc has several Grandma Crocs at his side, even some young ones as well, he's too popular.

-Loyalty born from a single event is fake… Love those who stayed and ate grass at your side.-

"Betty, he knows his words."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I should stay with those who are willing to live with me through hardship and avoid those who fall for me after seeing a single deed."

"That might be right, but make sure to ask Master for clarification before taking things to heart from strangers."

"Betty…" Arad said, his voice shifting a bit. "This isn't from Doma, Mom, or anyone else. It's from me."

"What?"

"I can't trust you. You've been sticking too close to me without a reason, you're strong, but why me, if strength was the only reason you would've gone for brother or Tempo. I find it suspicious for you to start going for me out of nowhere. Same for Matilda, I'm not that oblivious."

"What…"

"Aella has been with me since the start, I know her inside out. Mira as well, Eris tried to kill and is still trying to do that, it's what I find adorable about her, Merida as well, she isn't trying to hide her motivations from me. Same for Isdis, she told me that she wants to use my power to fight for the throne, and I'm in with her. As long as I don't understand your motivations, I can't make a decision on you, and neither would everyone else."

"I see…" Betty mumbled.

"Teleport them to me when I stop moving at the drakaina's lair, we'll talk in person later."

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