The dragon's harem

Camilla still hated the vampires, and the horrors she saw on the night of Vlad’s attacks weren’t going anywhere anytime soon. That bloody knight still burned vividly in her mind, and so she couldn’t sit still and watch. She had approached Arad and asked for power, and besides being a paladin, the only source of power he could grant her, besides vampirism, was lycanthropy.

Right now, Camilla stood on the stairs leading to where Arad and Mira sat. She stood there, a sword in one hand and a heavy shield in the other, clad in full-plate heavy armor. Only her now glowing golden eyes could be seen burning inside the visor of ashen armor.

Camilla had never expected to be granted so much power just by asking. Arad didn’t just turn her into a powerful werewolf, but even led her into his near-endless horde of wealth and let her pick and choose all the weapons and items she wanted. Charms, artifacts, swords, and even legendary scrolls. She almost threw up just from setting a foot inside the titanic cavern of gold and gems, and that place was so bright and glittered that it almost burned her eyes.

“Camilla.” Alicia approached her with a carafe of water. “It’s hot outside, and I don’t think its nice inside that suit of armor. Drink up.”

Camilla slowly moved her head, looked at the carafe, and smiled beneath her helmet. “Indeed, I’m getting roasted here.” She sheathed her sword and removed her helmet, letting her long, now dark brown hair drop across her back.

“You’re drenched in sweat.” Alicia handed her a towel to dry her face first, and then let her drink greedily from that carafe. The day felt strangely long, and the heat was probably the reason. It was as if they were in the middle of the summer.

Alicia looked back at Arad and Mira, then shifted her gaze to Camilla. “Say, you were close. Why did he take his shirt off?”

Camilla stared at her and then smiled. “Amaterasu tried to embarrass him. The golden bottle she gave him was unbreakable and made from Kali’s gold; the cap was also welded shut. She expected him to struggle, then let her open the bottle for him.”

“I see… but why strip?” Alicia tilted her head as she didn’t get an answer, and Camilla looked at her with a wry smile. “Well, to expose more of his scales and conjure a powerful slashing magic similar to what he learned from Lord Kayden.”

Alicia threw a glance at Arad, who was now only wearing a simple and tight t-shirt, “I see… do they need water?”

“Probably not, but get them some anyway.” Camila shrugged as she returned to her post and put her helmet on. Since an hour ago, she had been smelling blood with each breath. It might be from her recent lycanthropy, so she needs to get used to her powerful senses.

After becoming a werewolf, she had realized just how strange it was. Unlike vampires whose powers were clear and obvious all surrounding their blood magic, werewolves were more subtle.

First, her strength and durability had far surpassed that of humans, and the armor she now wore felt nothing more than thin clothes. Her skin had become hard enough to easily shrug off blades, and if she is going to give an example, her skin had become a fair bit harder than chainmail, her muscles as tough as shoe leather, and her bones had surpassed tempered steel.

If the sword in her hand wasn’t crafted by Mira, she probably would be better off fighting barehanded.

But strength was just the start of her power. She now boasted an agility, dexterity, and a reaction speed that far surpassed more regular beings. Everything looked awfully slow to her now, and that was probably one of the reasons today felt longer than usual for her.

She could smell those who had a cold, she could smell those with a bad tooth, and could even tell which of the women in the hall were in their period, which felt far weirder to her than anything else. Her nose had now opened a whole new view of the world that she had never experienced before.

It was like going from near blindness to perfect vision in a single go, but with her nose. She could even tell the strength difference between herself and everyone else with relative accuracy, which was why she was horrified when she realized just how powerful Arad was. She felt like a tiny shrew standing in front of a full-grown dragon, utterly weak compared to him. But, she was certain a part of that fear was because he was now her progenitor, the entity akin to a Blood Lord if she were a vampire.

Then, at the end, was her regeneration. As a human werewolf, she could regenerate as well as a vampire, if she had plentiful access to human flesh as food. Just as vampires drank blood, werewolves fed on the flesh. For now, though, she had gotten a feast last night that would keep her satiated for more than a month, which was Mira’s arm.

As a Demigoddess, Mira was now quite used to pain, and it wasn’t that hard for her to cut an arm for Camilla to eat and then regenerate with divine magic. It felt more like… cutting a pimple open, just a sharp sting, then nothing more. At the start, Camilla was against eating Mira’s flesh, but when Mira insisted, she gave up.

What neither of them expected was that Camilla got a violent boost of power when she feasted on the flesh of her goddess, since she was also Mira’s paladin, which elevated her power even more. She got elevated from a regular werewolf that happened to become a paladin, to a holy werewolf with divine magic naturally flowing through her body.

So, what did becoming a holy werewolf make her able to do? Well, nothing extra. Usually, casting divine magic like smites puts an enormous stress on the body, and that was the reason many paladins die young, and even Lydia had suffered a lot of wounds in her life from that. But now that Camilla became a holy werewolf, her already durable body became resistant to the damage of divine magic, allowing her to effectively function for several times longer than other paladins.

Due to the combined durability of her werewolf body and divine resistance, she can now use almost six times more divine magic than other paladins of her class of power. And since she can use divine magic to heal, even her regeneration now costs her far less, allowing her to regenerate twice as much as other werewolves.

In short, Camilla had become a super paladin and werewolf at the same time.