The dragon's harem

Chapter 1431: Great Titanoboa Wyrm

Arad had climbed the tree to catch the massive snake that was rapidly slithering downward toward their hideout. But calling that thing a snake was an understatement. It was far larger than the snake Darkness killed in the Storm Titans’ mountain, and it was far more powerful, faster, and had a deadlier venom.

As Arad flew at it, the first thing he saw was the snake’s tail jolting toward him like a whip, crackling past the sound barrier with ease as it accelerated even further, its target his skull.

Arad swung his arm at the tail and swatted it away, feeling the bones in his wrist rattle. If this thing were a bit stronger, it might’ve cracked his bones. As snakes go, this serpent thing must have been feeding on the Terror birds and the other monsters of the world tree to grow this large.

Arad didn’t know what to call it. A snake sounded too belittling, and a serpent sounded as if it’s meant for another creature. A python, no, make it sound bigger. In the elvish book left by the previous kings, they named this thing a Great Titanoboa Wyrm.

Yes, this long bastard had dragon blood flowing in its veins, and it could fly without wings, using powerful wind and lightning magic to give Arad as much trouble as it could.

Usually, Arad would think it’s disrespectful to dragons to attach the name of their ages to snakes or lizards, as no matter how powerful a salamander gets, it’ll never reach the level of a true dragon.

This Great Titanoboa, on the other hand, was anything but weak. Its power surpassed most of the dragons that Arad faced. Thanks to the draconic blood flowing in its veins, it was like a human having draconic blood in them, except it’s a several-kilometers-long muscular python with enough violence and murderous malice that it earned the title of a Wyrm.

The Great Titanoboa coiled its body like a spring, using the powerful muscles of its body to leap at Arad with blinding speed, opening its maw for a bite.

Arad flapped his wings and dodged the attack, hoping the thing would just throw itself to the ground and die. But Arad was surprised to see the snake turn mid-air and coil around him, its whole body roaring with lightning.

“Seriously? Flying with wind magic while coating your whole body with enough lightning to cook anything you touch.” Arad teleported out of the Great Titanoboa’s grasp and swung his claw down, aiming to rip one of its eyes out.

The Great Titanoboa dodged Arad’s claw and swung its tail at him, forcing him to block. The tail moved so fast that it could’ve even caught Gamond off-guard, which was horrifying, even to Arad. Thankfully, he was used to dealing with things faster than he was. Not to brag, but he had dealt with something that moves at the speed of light.

As Arad blocked the Titanoboa’s strike, he followed with a swing of his own tail, making sure to use it as a whip and accelerate the tip as fast as he could to match the Titanoboa’s attack speed. For three seconds, the two exchanged brutal strikes, swinging at each other hundreds of times each second, sending deadly shockwaves through the air and rattling the World Tree that they weren’t even touching.

Up until now, it’s just a physical brawl with the Titanoboa infusing its body with lightning to try and jolt Arad to death, and failing miserably at that. Arad had covered his whole body with a layer of the void, through which electricity couldn’t move.

This Titanoboa acted more like an electric eel and was now getting mad that its deadly trick seemed ineffective against Arad. In its whole life, probably all of its enemies fell dead or paralyzed after one touch, but Arad was taking hit after hit, and punching back.

“You’re one annoying snake, aren’t you?” Arad dodged one of the Titanoboa’s attacks and grabbed it by the tip of its tail, swinging it around and throwing it toward the tree. “It’s time we fought on my terms.”

The moment the Titanoboa hit the World Tree trunk, Arad was already crashing down on its head with a stomp, putting enough weight to shatter the World Tree’s outer bark and shake the legendary tree down to its roots.

The Titanoboa tanked the hit and slithered away, running at a harrowing speed that even caught Arad off guard. The Titanoboa was already fast, so Arad didn’t expect that it could move faster.

“You were holding back? Aren’t you a slithering.” Arad started running after the Titanoboa on the vertical bark using his claws to latch on. He tucked his wings closer to his body to become a bit more aerodynamic and accelerate further without getting slowed by the air friction. Of course, he could just suck the air from around him with his void, but that would cause him a problem.

The Titanoboa was leaking poisonous gas since the start of the fight, and the air around them had become so toxic that Arad didn’t want to throw any of it into his stomach, where many people might be living.

Especially since Aisha hasn’t returned yet.

As the two massive monsters ran all over the tree trunk, clashing every few seconds with enough force to cause countless shockwaves that ripple across the whole tree, something strange started happening.

The Titanoboa was growing faster and stronger, which seemed weird. Arad could still keep up, but he fears that this thing might be able to grow continuously stronger as long as it fights.

At that moment, he realised that he was missing the whole point. The Titanoaboa didn’t get stronger or faster; in fact, it got slower and weaker. It was getting tired. The catch was that he was getting slower and weaker faster than it.

“Your poison is working; that thing must be quite deadly.” Arad took a deep breath, lunged forward, and flapped his wings, running past the Titanoboa with ease.

“I’m a Blood Lord, as long as I’m aware of the poison, I can eliminate it.” At first, Arad didn’t think the poison worked on him, since its effect was too weak and too slow to notice, but now, he won’t lower his guard.

As the two flew past two grown Terror Birds, the poor little birdies ended up torn apart without even knowing what happened.

Arad and the Titanoboa were on a whole different level of power, far surpassing most of the monsters of the tree that the group had met so far. But this was only when Arad was holding back most of his harrowing power.

If Arad wasn’t worried about burning the tree down, he could’ve just spat a nuclear breath down the Titanoboa’s throat and blown it to pieces long ago.