The dragon's harem

Chapter 989: The Sky Belongs To The Dragon

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Arthur hadn't reached his position out of luck. He had worked tirelessly for years to become a city lord. He had started from nothing, a mere kid hunting birds in the wild to sell. From those days he discovered his talent in training animals and started teaching the birds tricks, and he then transitioned to training cats and dogs, until life brought him to the point of training wild drakes for the army to use in battle.

Using his talent he rapidly climbed the military ranks, quickly graduating from a mere drake trainer into the officer responsible for training warhorses and scout eagles. One year pushing another, he found himself in the middle of an elite group working under the kingdom to experiment with the possibility of training griffins and wyverns so they could compete with the other nations in areal combat.

Despite his lack of success in training wyverns, Arthur discovered a way to train griffins that had pushed him higher and higher through the ranks. He wasn't a talented fighter; so he couldn't get the rank of a general, but his power and influence far surpassed other officers.

Arad swung his wooden pole at Arthur, and Arthur deflected it with his sword, an angry growl burned on his face. "You!"

The two clashed, Arad's swings made his wooden pole look like a violent fan, and Arthur's blade sparked under the sunlight, shining brightly. With one powerful slash, Arthur managed to cut Arad's wooden pole in half.

Wood was no match for his enchanted blade, Arthur had the upper hand...if he wasn't facing Arad. For a fraction of a second, Arthur could feel it, a cold shiver tingling across his back as he looked at Arad lifting the two halves of the pole. Something about those moves, they didn't belong to a seasoned fighter, they belonged to someone who had gone far past mere skills.

Arad swung the two halves together, catching Arthur's blade between them, shattering it. Alcott's fighting style is that of a weapon master, he had trained to use anything that came into his hand as a weapon and had taught Arad the same, it didn't matter what they held, it was a deadly weapon between their hands.

Arthur immediately realized that a close fight wasn't something that he could win, he even started to doubt that even the most powerful of generals could keep up with Arad's rough and extreme fighting style. This was the first time he saw someone that doesn't flinch when their weapon was destroyed.

^This is bad...usually destroying someone's weapon would give them a severe disadvantage, but destroying this man's weapon only made him change his style. That's bad, I shouldn't have slashed his quarterstaff.^ Arthur had seen Arad holding the pole and prepared to face someone with a quarterstaff, but now found himself fighting an opponent using two clubs. [Lightning ThuderDome] A powerful thunder boom exploded from Arthur followed by a lightning spark, blasting Arad away in the blink of an eye. He rolled on the ground, crashing back into the tool shed.

"To the skies!" Arthur pulled on the griffin's leash and she flew with him into the heavens with thunderous flaps. He looked at Arad with a raging face, "Let's see you reach me here! I'll blast you into nothing!" He started charging a massive spell.

Arad jumped out of the tool shed, holding a shovel in his hands, he likes them a lot.

^That chicken... she's finally flying.^ Arad remembers Yog's words well. She said to finish the fight in the dragon's most favorite way. Even if he's stuck inside a human's body, he's a dragon after all, and doesn't a dragon live dropping things off the sky?

[Knock it down!] Yog's voice boomed inside Arad's head and his draconic nature started to arise. Blood rushed into his head and sweat rushed down his palms, the large smile on his face quickly faded behind the blinding flash of fire. From beneath his feet, a massive fire explosion erupted like a volcano, sending him flying into the sky.

The women inside the mansion cried, protecting their faces from the shockwave. "Explosion magic?" Mesharra gasped and Echidna immediately growled at her, "No, that's fire magic." "What is he attacking!" Mary cried, looking at the charred ground with a shocked face.

"No, he's flying!" Plum pointed at the sky and they saw Arad's body smoking toward the flying griffin. As he lost momentum, he propelled himself further with another explosion, reaching the flying beast in a second.

Through all ages, dragons lived high peaks and gravity, they'll look down upon their lands from the tallest perch, and drop their prey from the clouds, watching as it cries in terror, awaiting its inevitable death. Even Arad himself had found beauty in gravity, learning its magic and constantly using it whenever he had the chance.

Pushing people and creatures off ledges and cliffs, dropping large monsters from the clouds, and knocking birds out of the sky. That was the dragon's way, for they alone shall rule the skies. Arad lifted the shovel up, glaring at the griffin with a large grin on his face.

^Get down, the sky isn't big enough for both of us. ^ Arad thought, and at that moment, the griffin could see the massive draconic shadow behind him, the royal predators of the sky. She wanted to escape, but it was already far too late she had trespassed on the sky of a dragon. Arad swung the shovel down, accelerating its spade with a third explosion, smacking the griffin's head as hard as he could. The shovel exploded on the griffin's head, and the beast fell to the ground, smoking.

Arad could endure falls thanks to Alcott's techniques, so he wasn't harmed, using a tree to slow his fall. While the griffin hit the ground as hard as it could, ripping a massive crack across the mansion's side. Arthur who rode her coughed blood, barely surviving thanks to the soft feathers of the griffin taking the hit for him.

Arthur looked through the dust and smoke, seeing Arad approaching them with a large smile on his face and fire leaking from his mouth. "Now, are you open to listening?"

Arthur growled, taking a stance. He looked back, the griffin was standing up, injured but still could fight. It wasn't uncommon for griffins or wyverns to get knocked out of the sky with a cannonball, so taking falls was a part of their training. "He should be hurt as well, let's..." As Arthur spoke, the griffin pinned him to the ground with her claw. He gasped, coughing blood.

"What...are you doing..." He cried.

The griffin dragged Arthur with her, slowly backing away from Arad while keeping her head down and her wings dragging on the ground. Arthur immediately noticed she was terrified of

something.

She had once taken on five fire-breathing wyverns alone and won a few explosions, and flames couldn't scare her... it was something else.

"She's scared." Arthur's wife gasped, noticing that the griffin's behavior was a natural one, albeit they only did it when young and facing a larger predator. Trying to look submissive while slowly backing away, making sure to look as small and non-threatening as possible.

Monsters shouldn't understand intricate stuff like Arad being sent by the goddess Yog, so the griffin's reaction was purely natural; in her eyes, Arad was a larger predator than her, enough to make her submit even when she had been trained for decades.

[The fight is over; you won.] Yog's voice boomed inside Arad's head. [Don't ever forget. Dragons' main advantage is the skies. When fighting, try to seize that for yourself no matter

what.]

If Arad could already dominate the skies in his humanoid self, dominating aerial combat with his draconic body would be far simpler, no matter his condition. The reason he used explosions instead of a fire jet is because a fire jet would consume more mana than a few powerful explosions. Efficiency and domination are the keys to mastering magic. Arad must first grasp the reality of the area he's fighting in and choose what spells and what form to use

them in.

[Your first three lessons have ended. The personality one is to never let your family get out of hand like Arthur; it'll be a mess to deal with later on. The magic one is that the strongest spells aren't the ones that deal a lot of damage; they are the ones that give you an advantage in battles. The dragon lesson is to always take your fights into the sky; that's where dragons are comfortable and where your enemies struggle.]

The fight ended in Arad's victory, and he dragged the defeated Arthur back into the mansion

to be treated for his wounds. As the maids patched him, he listened to Arad's lecture. "You'll go out. Make sure that you give each of your wives and children their rights. Spend the rest of your years making sure your children won't kill each other after you."