The dragon's harem

“You weren’t included in that, they were…” she pointed at the pile of unconscious drakainas.

Arad looked at Lola with a passive face, slightly frustrated. “Are you sure about that?”

Lola paused for a second, “Sure, I meant them.”

Then, one of the unconscious drakainas stood like a zombie. She stretched, then approached Arad, hit him with a punch to the back, and he dropped like a sack of potatoes.

The tall, black haired drakaina with blue eyes smiled as she kicked Arad’s body to the side and leaned on the severed head, “I got one head, and one whole body. Can I get two quarters?”

Lola frowned. The drakaina in front of her was Arad himself; the second incarnation had already recovered, and it was the one standing there.

Lola sighed; she probably would never win an argument with Arad if he thought that far ahead. “Fine, but you only get one quarter.” She looked back, “So how do you want it? Money or land?”

Arad smiled, “Thanks to you, now I’ve got over a thousand new mouths to feed. And those aren’t just any mouths, they are massive, gaping, draconic maws.” He pointed at the pile of drakainas with his thumb, “I want it to make that easier.”

Lola looked at him for a while and then smiled. “You can always get them to live inside your stomach. Don’t you have enough space there?”

“Dragons can eat dirt, but I’m sure they won’t be that happy about it.” Arad waved his hand and created a chair to sit facing Lola, “They can set their lairs there, but I need food for them. I can barely find enough food for myself, let alone that many more dragons.”

“I smell spirits on you. How many of them do you have inside your stomach? I’m pretty sure they take it as an insult and a humiliation.” Lola looked at him closely, “I’ll be able to help with food once I know.”

Arad looked inside, “I got Zephyr, Nar… Gaia and Rilyeh are also there, with many of their spirits.” He looked at Lola, “They are working with two of my wives, Astrid and Frida, to expand the small world.”

“You got the four major spirit queens in there? Now that’s a thing.” She pointed at the drakainas, “Dragons can change land merely by existing, so if you allowed them to build lairs in your small world, the area around their lair will form new ecosystems to fit the dragon type.”

Lola waved her hand, and the stone around her shifted in color and began to grow moss. “Black dragons would turn the land into swamps, green dragons would turn it into lush forests, and red dragons would spawn a volcano, if Nar and Gaia help them a bit. Then, using the dragons themselves as anchors, you can bring select species of monsters and animals from this world and throw them there to populate.”

She flicked her finger and pulled one of the Cyan drakainas from the pile, “Water dragons like this one here can act as farmers for whales inside your small world, if you get Rilyeh to make a small sea for them to work in.”

She shrugged, “A thousand dragons do a lot if you put them to work.”

Arad nodded, “That’s good advice, but when will you pay me?”

Lola laughed, “Of course, I’ll pay. But not in gold or land, I’ll pay in resources, food, and building materials until those farms are built.” She leaned on her fist, “I’m sure that will be worth a bit more than a quarter of my hoard.”

Arad nodded and then looked back at Balina, “What do you think?”

Balina approached and looked at Arad, “You know, about that quarter of her hoard? Mother tricked you and everyone.” She glared at her mother.

“She should’ve sent funds to the war effort and the expansion of the Star Mountain a few weeks ago… Her hoard should be all but empty now.”

Lola nodded, “I’m broke.” She flicked her fingers and pulled forty-eight silver coins. “This is everything. A quarter would be twelve silver coins.”

Balina sighed, “She’ll get a mountain of gold and gems in about a month when the taxes are collected from all the dragons… She picked the right time of the year so she won’t pay anything.”

Arad sighed as he stood, “So the resources are better. I’ll take that.” He looked back, and Lola also stood, “I’ll leave then to get a few things ready. In the meantime, your wives should get to killing each other.”

Lola pointed at the arena.

“They should’ve done this a long time ago.” She looked at Arad and smiled, “And you, little girl, care coming back with mom to talk?”

^Arad, I’ll be leaving now. I’ll come back later, so don’t worry about me.^ Arad heard Luminous’s voice inside his head for a second, and then a golden flash of light burst from his chest and disappeared into Lola’s eyes.

“It’s been a while.” Lola smiled and then turned around to leave. “Don’t worry about her, Arad. Luminous and I might not get along, but we aren’t thirsty for each other’s blood.”

As Lola disappeared, Arad approached her chair and pushed it aside, pulling a chair for himself from his stomach. Balina was about to ask why he didn’t just sit on Lola’s chair, but then quickly remembered that Arad was almost twice as massive in his human form as her mother; he wouldn’t fit on her chair.

Gamond stopped siving through the unconscious drakains and approached him and Balina, “So we’re finally fighting?” She had one large smile on her face, “Did you all hear that? Get ready, it’s time.”

The wives would fight, but it was Arad’s duty to make sure the fights were fair. He won’t be pitting poor Denki against Gamond; that’s just meaningless.

“So what do we have?”

Arad counted all of his wives.

Zul is a Mature Adult Black Drakaina; she is an Acid Dragon.

Kory is an Adult White/Red drakaina; she is a Cold and Fire Dragon.

Denki is a Young Adult Blue Drakaina; she is a Lightning Dragon. The youngest of his draconic wives by class.

Claug is an Ancient Green Drakaina; she is a Poison Dragon.

Eris is a Purple Half-drakaina with no age class. She is a Plasma half-dragon half-elf. But at the same time, she is a vampire, a demi-goddess of murder, and a paladin.

Betty is a Light half-drakaina with no age class. She is a half-dragon, half-halfling. But at the same time, a really, really powerful wizard and maybe the fastest thing in the world, alongside all other light dragons.

Balina is a Great Wyrm Pink Drakaina; she is a Soap Dragon.

Lastly, Gamond is an Elder White Drakaina; she is a Cold Dragon.

With the ranks being:

Wyrmling

Very young dragon

Young dragon

Juvenile dragon

Young adult dragon

Adult dragon

Mature adult dragon

Old dragon

Ancient dragon

Wyrm{Wyrm is a dragon in dragons’ language, which is why there is no dragon after it.}

Great Wyrm

Twilight{Some don’t consider a stage, but a deathbed.}

Elder Dragon

Eight wives… He could see Balina staring at him with a strange glare as Ryan skulked behind her.

Arad pointed at everyone else, “Don’t look at me, but them.”

After a while, Eris shrugged, “Fine, I doubt Isdis or the others will mind. We’re already far too deep.”

So now, Ryan was on.

Ryan is an Adult Orange Drakaina; She is a Sodium dragon. At the same time, a powerful witch and a necromancer.

“So… we have Denki as the only young adult. Kory and Ryan are adults. Zul is the only mature adult. Then we have Claug as the only ancient, and Balina as the only great wyrm. Gamond is also the only Elder. Then we have Eris and Betty, who aren’t classified.” He scratched the back of his head, “So? We can’t just make it an all-out fight.”

After thinking for a while, Arad smiled. “Gamond is the final stage. The others will be separated into two groups.”

“Zul, I know you’re sick and we’ve decided that you won’t fight anyone, but I believe Denki, as a young adult, would be a fair fight. The age gap is breached by you being weakened. Of course, we’ll repeat this ranking later when you heal. Any objection?”

“None.” Both Denki and Zul agreed.

With that out of the way, Arad decided on the matches.

The first fight will be Zul against Denki, the battle between the two that everyone agrees that are probably the weakest. Which wasn’t a bad thing. Denki was just too young, and Zul was recovering from a terminal illness. They’ll fight again once they are better, but for now, this was nothing more than a formality.

Zul and Denki jumped into the arena and looked at each other.

“Arad says I’m sick and should rest.” Zul stretched her arms, “But I’ll argue that some exercise would help a lot.”

Denki looked at her with a smile and nodded, “You’d better be careful. I sting.” Her hair crackled with arcs of lightning.

Zul lifted her hand with a grin. Her nails extended into long black claws. She opened her mouth and licked the nails with her two-foot-long forked tongue. As the claws dripped with acid, she swung them at the ground.

As the acid splashed, it melted five gaping cuts. “I might be sick, but I can always smack a kid or two.”

As lightning crackled from Denki’s back, the bolts arced to ground, leaving burned marks of molten stone. “I fought Claug, you won’t be as hard.”