The dragon's harem - C.918: A Failed Attempt..

Arad gasped as he woke up, he instantly sat up with a surprised face and looked around. He was naked in his bed with Isdis sleeping at his side. The only two things he could feel were the pain coursing through his bones and her cold feet touching his.

"Finally woke up?" Mira said, she was sitting at the other side of the robe polishing what looked like a twisted glass bottle, looking at it with a disappointed face. She put the glass bottle away and turned back toward Arad, "Isbert blasted you with her magic. It's been almost an hour since she brought you here."

Arad looked at his hands, "That was no ice. Pure and white flames," He looked at Mira, "That woman could use fire."

Mira looked at him with a lifted eyebrow and a tilted head. "Hati said that Isbert's serious attack was so potent that it penetrated your defenses, flesh, and bones; it directly damaged your brain and spinal cord." She stood, "You must have gotten confused thanks to that damage. You better rest."

She looked at Isdis who was sleeping by his side, "Thanks to Isbert's training, her body's natural temperature had dropped a lot. I don't know what that woman did, but it seems that Isdis can now survive in much colder environments than before."

She grabbed the bedsheet and covered her while pushing Arad down to sleep. "That doesn't mean she doesn't need some warmth, and you waking up doesn't mean you don't require rest. I'll bring you some food, stay put down."

Mira had been worried sick about him for the whole last hour, her heart almost stopped when one of Hati's daughters informed her that he got blasted to near death by Isbert. He was already healed by Hati when she arrived, yet for someone to push him to that point without even allowing him the chance to fully transform... the hit he took must've been too dangerous. Arad was powerful, but his being in such a constant death struggle was already eating up at Mira's head. She couldn't withstand seeing him nearly becoming a corpse once every month.

She walked out of the room to inform the cooks of Arad's awakening. They were ready with a feast, which sadly only amounted to a snack to Arad, but she was hoping that even a single bite would give him enough energy to get a bit better. Unlike the other wives, she can't fight, if Eris or Merida were here, they would've already gone into the jungle to hunt something massive for him to eat, but alas, she could only sit in the back and focus on her craft.

But as she could only remember the pathetic shape that bottle was in, her skills were still nowhere near the level needed to make a reliable weapon for Arad. Wallowing in her own worries, Mira made her way to the kitchen.

As lay in the bed, Arad ran his fingers through Isdis's silky blond hair, his mind still thinking about that magic cast by Isbert. He was certain it wasn't ice or cold magic, but something else. He got burned, and no matter what anyone else did, he was certain that wasn't just a hallucination due to his brain getting damaged. He was burned to near death by an ice wizard, a statement that seemed to defy reason.

But...to Arad it felt awfully strange, seeming to make sense in his mind. Ice could burn, ice comes from cold and water magic, a combination...what is the cold magic doing in it? Cooling the water to create ice.

What is cooling, how did Isbert manage to burn him? He ran his hand across Isdis's cold face and lips, as she seemed to sleep peacefully, her body was terrifyingly as cold as a corpse.

Upon feeling Isdis's cold touch, it naturally came to his mind that she needed warmth, so he pulled her close to him, covering her with the blanket. As he could feel her cold body resting at his side, Arad's mind started thinking.

Why did he pull her close? Why is it that she lacks warmth, couldn't he be the one to lack cold? How do you know how hot something should be, is hot even a word, what is heat, and what is cold? A cup of water is hot so you blow on it to cool it down, but when your hands are cold you also blow on them to heat them up. How could the same action lead to heating and cooling, something doesn't seem to add up.

The room's door opened up and Astrid walked in, pushing a cart full of food. "Mira sent me. I brought some snacks." Even though she called it a snack, a whole roasted sheep was on the try, enough food to feed ten people laid before Arad's eyes.

"It's hot, be careful not to drop any on Isdis, it'll burn her." Astrid warned him. Due to his sudden awakening, they rapidly heated the food for him so it was still burning hot, fresh out of the oven.

As Arad sat up, the sheet dropped to his waist and revealed his jacked upper torso. Astrid looked at him for a few seconds without saying a word, "You're getting leaner by the day." She commented. While his body was already large and muscular before, he still had a soft look to him, as if his skin still held some fat beneath it. But now, that wasn't the cast. His skin held tightly into his steel-hard muscles, giving a painfully matriculate shredded look where every muscle was clearly visible with veins everywhere.

By just that look, Astrid was sure that he could squeeze some necks off. He looked like nothing she had ever seen before in her life. There are many people that you can't tell their strength from their looks in this world, but Arad was different. She didn't have a single shred of doubt that he can hit fucking hard. And had an itch to test it out.

Astrid sat beside Arad and reached toward the roasted sheep, pulling a whole leg off. "I can feed you if you can't eat on your own." She waved it before his face with a smug smile.

She slowly pushed her butt against his legs, creeping closer and closer to him. Arad smiled with a laugh, "Sorry, but know what you want." He waved his hand and took the leg from her hand, "But I have to say no."

"She won't wake up..." Astrid got even closer.

Arad looked at her with a smile, "I don't like women who waste their time trying to seduce me, it doesn't work. If you want it, come take it with force, that's the dragon way. The only other way is for you to wait for me to make a move." He started at her with a smug smile, "So what is it, want to fight it off?"

"Yeah, fight it off." Isdis said as she was sitting beside Astrid. Astrid didn't even notice her waking up, "You're quite shameless trying this with me here." Isdis glared at her with more of an annoyed face than an angry one. "But fine, give it your best shot. I promised your mother that I would support you..." She sighed.

Astrid looked at Isdis with a shocked face for a second and then smiled, "With the wife's permission." Her red fingernails extended into claws as her eyes turned silverly white, resembling those of cats. The tails on her lower back started faintly glowing with magic as she started at Arad with a slightly pinkish face. "Thanks for the meal."

She swung at Arad's neck with all of her might, dreaming about what was to come next. But in the blink of an eye, she found herself getting caught in a chokehold beneath his massive right arm. She struggled as she couldn't breathe, her neck was right beneath Arad's armpit as he squeezed his arm, suffocating her.

Astrid did her best, but her vision slowly faded out as she lost consciousness just seconds after getting caught. She was powerful, but nowhere near Arad.

Later, Mira walked in and froze in place she saw something strange. Astrid was in her underwear tied to the ceiling with a rope while Arad and Isdis ate their meal. She looked at it,

"What did happen?"

"She got a bit too excited so I asked Arad to cool her down a bit." Isdis replied.

"What do you even mean?" Mira sighed and approached them, sitting beside the bed.

"She wanted to make a move on me." Arad spoke, "So I stripped her down and tied her to the ceiling so she can cool her head off a bit, like laundry." He looked at Astrid hanging from the ceiling. "As you can see, she wasn't strong enough."

"Nowhere near Nina." Mira said with a smug smile.

"Nina is a whole different person." Arad waved the roasted sheep shoulder he was eating, "Did you see her kick?" He pointed at Astrid, "She's not even a novice when compared to

Nina."