The dragon's harem

Arad finally reached the Rainbow Mountain, and to his surprise, the first thing that awaited him there was a human-sized stone path. He looked down from the sky, his massive neck slowly moved, lowering his head to the ground.

Eris and Alcott jumped down, landing on the ground and finding Betty already waiting for them. She had run down from Arad’s head the moment he landed, so she arrived before them.

Arad shifted back to his humanoid form and landed beside Eris, looking back to see the others doing the same. The only one who didn’t was Ignis, who looked at Arad, “This is as far as I go. The queen is awaiting you, but I’ve got work to do.”

“IGNIS!” Alcott shouted and waved his hand, throwing a bottle into the sky. Ignis caught it with magic and took a closer look. “What is this?”

The tiny glass bottle was filled with a strange, thick red liquid.

“My blood, if the dragons started a rebellion, just tell them that I’m here waiting to skin them alive.”

Ignis sighed. Alcott knew the dragons too well. The reason Ignis was going down was to prepare, because he saw how the dragons were acting; they were waiting for Arad to fight the queen, so they could steal the throne from the winner.

Alcott would indeed make a great scarecrow to keep them at bay. “I’ll do just that.” He smiled, “But, do you really think you can take down a hundred thousand dragon?”

Alcott laughed, “I don’t, but I’ll send at least half of them to the grave.” Arad lifted his arm and flexed it, “No, now that I’m thinking about it.” His eyes flashed red, and the fine hair on his forearms grew a bit bigger.

Ignis could sense them: vampirism, lycanthropy, undead, spirit, divine, many powers all surging through Alcott’s veins, “I’ll kill them all.”

Alcott was a human in the past. He was a human when the dragons started to fear him; it was a man, a pure man, who stopped the draconic war.

But now, Alcott was something else, stronger, faster, denser, smarter, and more durable. He could do more, achieve more, and endure harsher fights and last longer than his mortal body could.

In the past, Alcott’s weakness was his human body. His flesh took too long to heal, it couldn’t endure fatal wounds, and it lacked stamina.

To Alcott, the hardest part wasn’t fighting or killing dragons; it was coming up with a plan that he could execute with his limited stamina. He needed to take the dragon down before running out of stamina and having to recuperate, because that was a large enough opening to get killed.

Ignis nodded, “I got it, I have no doubt that you’ll leave a trail of corpses. But know one thing, you’ll be dead at the end of it all.” He flew away, leaving them at the start of the stone path.

Alcott turned back and approached Arad, “Let’s go. And if you didn’t get what Ignis talked about, if you fought the queen, the dragons below would fly up to take the chance and kill the winner when they are weakened.”

Arad nodded.

^You won’t fight Lola, the last thing we want is to start a war here.^ He growled at Luminous.

She laughed, ^Don’t worry about it. I’ll deal with mother.^

Arad couldn’t help but worry. But alas, all he could do was keep going. He started walking, and everyone followed him.

The trail was long, ancient, and stretched across the green hills to the horizon. At first, Arad thought they would find something behind the hills, but as they got over them, they found nothing but a sea of green grass and flowers.

“This feels weird.” Gamond approached Arad, “There is magic at play here. I don’t know what kind, but I’m sure someone is doing something.”

Arad lifted an eyebrow. He couldn’t sense any magic, but that could be because he is just an adult. He looked back. “Does anyone feel anything?”

They all shook their heads; even Alcott didn’t know what was going on.

“Ask grandma,” Betty smacked him on the knee, and Arad did just that.

^An Elder dragon, one that surpassed their twilight, is using magic to shield Mother’s inner palace. Gamond and I could sense them since we’re in the same class. That’s one of the keys they used to hide their magic.^

“She says an Elder dragon is guarding the place with magic. To reach Lola’s palace, we must get through them first.” He took a step forward, “Close your ears.”

Everyone immediately did that as they saw Arad take a deep breath. They all knew that Arad wasn’t just strong, but loud as hell. His stomach can act as a buffer, amplifying his voice and roar.

“COME OUT!” Arad shouted so loudly that the ground in front of him ripped apart, the shockwave spread forward with enough force to rattle the whole place, and Betty cried behind him, feeling his voice rattle her bones.

“You can kill a man shouting like that.” She growled, and Arad smiled, looking forward with his fists resting on his hips, “He is awake.”

The ground trembled and cracked; from it, a massive brown head emerged from the dirt with a yawn.

“Hmmm… guests of the queen…” The elder dragon was brown, an earth dragon, wingless, and too old to care about life. He looked down at Arad and everyone else with a passive face, still sleepy.

GRrrrrr! He grumbled, “Only… one shall pass. Other, shall not…” His eyes passed Balina for a second, and then closed as he was about to fall asleep again.

“WAIT!” Balina shouted, “What are you saying? They are going in with me! That’s my husband, and the other wives!”

The massive, old dragon froze solid. “Hmmmmm… wasn’t… informed.” He lowered his head and looked Arad in the eyes.

“Void, adult, weird… I don’t know you.” His pupils then pulsed, “AH, I see. Great old one, how fortunate. I’ll open the path at once.”

Arad lifted an eyebrow, “Great old one?”

The dragon stopped.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Hmmm… not you… her, the old one you hide inside your stomach.” He turned around and started casting some strange magic.

Luminous smiled inside Arad’s stomach. ^He is the guardian of Mother’s backyard. I remember him from the days I lived here. When I was about to leave, he tried to stop me, so I ripped his wings off so he wouldn’t follow me.^

By that time, the endless barrier that the brown dragon was using to cover the place faded away, and Arad could see the massive mountain emerging over the horizon.

The brown dragon growled, “This… is stronger, you shall pass. But, shall never get out, old one.”

Luminous had run from home once, and he wasn’t able to stop her. Now that she returned, he was determined to keep her in.

Luminous smiled inside Arad. ^How fun, we’ll see about that. Even if the space he creates here is infinite, it won’t be able to keep me locked.^

Arad looked at the massive dragon for a second. Can he take him down? The answer was simple. He can win with ease, as this dragon is weaker than Gamond.