The dragon's harem

The group could finally rest a bit. The boss wasn’t going to see them inside this crammed space. The room wasn’t that large, just four meters wide, but enough for them to sit and relax a bit.

Arad laid Neige on the floor so she could rest a bit. Ombre stood beside him, and he dropped to the ground and sighed, “The hell was that?” He looked at Ombre, but she just shook her head, confused more than he was.

“I’ve…” Neige gasped, immediately feeling the urge to throw up again. “… Seen its truth…”

Hearing those words, Arad nodded as if he understood. She saw what that nightmare’s true essence or power was, and that had pushed her to this state. Whatever that monster is, it’s not something anyone can mentally handle looking at.

“You rest for a bit. I’ll scout outside.” He said, above to stand up, but Neige grabbed him by the ankle, “Don’t…” She was appalled that he would even consider going out where that ‘Thing’ is.

“I’ll go with you. You should be able to move better with me inside your shadow.” She stepped onto Arad’s shadow and melted into it. “We’ll just go around and find a good place to attack. You stay here and rest for a while, collect yourself.”

“Just… don’t start a fight with it.” Neige sighed, lying on the floor with a tired, pale face of pure disgust and horror. She didn’t want to even remember what she had seen, that thing… how could the goddess create such a thing?

Arad walked to the door and slowly opened it. He looked down at his shadow, finding it staring at Ombre’s shadow with a dissatisfied stance, its arm crossed and its shoulders shrugging.

^Arad, the hell is wrong with your shadow? Why is it so… unfriendly?^ She asked, and the shadow immediately gave her a sharp glare. She growled at him, and he immediately slapped her.

Not losing, Ombre coiled herself around the shadow’s legs, dropped it down, and started throwing punches at its groin. Strangely, Arad could feel a shiver running down his spine and a vague sense of agony.

Having Ombre be a shadow of his made his original shadow come into life, but it looked to be extremely rude and unfriendly. For a moment, he felt disappointed, quite embarrassed by his unruly shadow.

As if responding, the shadow gave him a sharp glare, waving its arms. For some reason, Arad could slightly understand what he wanted to say… It was enraged at Ombre for invading its personal space.

^Get over it, we need her power to be able to sneak around without the nightmare spotting us.^ Arad ignored the angry glares of his shadow and focused on the task at hand, studying this nightmare for a way to defeat it.

Even with how powerful Ombre’s shadow powers were, she was as physically gifted as a woman of her size. She might have the endurance of a demon, but in terms of speed and strength, she’ll probably break her back trying to lift a heavy basket. Arad would need to move at high speed to avoid the small critters of this hellhole, and that’s why he had hidden inside his shadow.

The first thing that Arad noticed was the pattern the small critters used to move, it was random. All they did the whole time was walk or fly around, looking for any of their kind that got old and weak or somewhat injured to eat. He saw them immediately gang up on one of their kind when its speed seemed to slow a bit.

What terrified him more wasn’t that they were cannibals, but the fact that they were crying and moaning while eating their kind. Consumed by pain, grief, and disgust. Some of them even seemed to refuse to eat the flesh of their kind, only for them to grow weaker later on and get consumed by the others.

One thing was clear: those weren’t cannibals by choice, but that all the hellish starvation left them with. There was one easy way to distract them: food. And by food, he means anything that isn’t from this floor, he is certain they would it wood if he threw it at them.

After studying the monsters’ behavior, Arad focused on their powers. Sadly, there wasn’t much reason for them to use their abilities, but Arad could tell that they were at least monster-class, while the majority were monstrosities.

Unless they’ve got some dangerous power, they shouldn’t be able to pose a threat to Neige or himself. Of course, not counting their bite… he had seen them crush bones and eat stone when the chance presented itself, so their bite can’t be weak.

After getting an understanding of the critters, Arad shifted his attention to the real problem, the nightmare towering over his head. That thing…. He didn’t know what kind of creature it was.

The nightmare didn’t move much, only stayed still, latched onto the massive spire. From its lower abdomen, countless pale eggs were born, latching onto the wax-covered walls of the spire. Those eggs soon hatched into larvae that climbed down the nightmare’s legs, reached its massive stomach, and ate their way through its flesh.

This nightmare was feeding its spawn with its flesh, allowing them to crawl inside and eat its organs while it was still alive. When the maggots crawled out, they were fully grown critters. They fell from the countless holes in the nightmare’s stomach, and those who couldn’t fly quickly ended up crashing on the ground, and then being feasted upon by their brother, who could fly and land safely.

Arad tried to find a weak point, but all he found was that organ damage would be useless. This nightmare is already being eaten from the inside by its spawns. If it had any vital organs, it would’ve already died.

But since it was a nightmare, the boss of a floor, that meant it could be defeated somehow. Arad climbed the cursed spire and slowly made his way above the nightmare, grabbing onto the small imperfections of the wax-covered wall with the strength of a vice.

He was now looking at the nightmare from above, his eyes fixated on the thing’s pale wings. Arad couldn’t even imagine this thing flying, but again, even bigger dragons could fly. All he could hope for is that it’s slow… and nowhere as intelligent.

^What do you think?^ Arad asked, and Ombre replied inside his head, ^The wings are indeed an easy target. The problem is that it’s latched onto the spire and won’t fall to its death. We need it to fly first.^