Sara looked at the fighter over Arad's head, her eyes glowing red. "DIE!" She said, and the fighter stabbed himself in the chest before his fight with Arad could restart.
"What was that?" Arad gasped.
"I can't fight, but I can charm people for a very short period of time." She replied, "By reducing the control time, I can exert a power similar to mind control."
The fighter puked blood, staring at her with a raging red face. "You devilish bitch…what did you do to me?!"
"I'm indeed a devil…" She smiled, "And I said DIE! Didn't I?"
The fighter pulled the sword down, cutting himself open. "Want to see how far my power goes?" She looked at Arad, patting his head.
"She's using witchcraft! Hit her with an arrow." One of the thugs yelled.
"AT EACH OTHER!" Sara said with a smile, and the arches shot each other down. "It works on everyone that's aware of my presence and can hear my words clearly."
"That's an impressive ability." Arad tried to think of how it could be used.
"It's my curse. All devils are born with a specific curse engraved into them. Mine is called [Dominatrix]. The healing spells are something I learned as I can't even use my own curse effectively." She giggled.
"What do you mean by can't use it effectively." Arad gasped and the thugs had already started charging at them.
"Leave only one, KILL EVERYONE ELSE!" Sara said, and as soon as those words reached Arad's ears, he disappeared from beneath her and she fell on her butt. All the thugs' heads rolled on the ground with the black horse standing in the middle of the blood bath, staring back at Sara.
"What did happen?" Arad asked. It was only for a fraction of a second, less than a hundredth of it. He has lost consciousness.
"Not even a tenth of a hundredth…She said, shaking in place as blood dripped from her nose. Such heavy backlash…I probably shouldn't use it on you…" She fell face first in the dirt and Arad rushed at her as the one thug that went spared rushed into the swamps.
"Are you okay?"
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"I want to say yes…" She looked at him as she panted with a red face, "But I'm not…" She started shaking, trying to dominate Arad was a bad idea, and she couldn't handle his brain.
Arad looked around, they were alone. He shifted back into his humanoid form and carried her. "Don't try it again. You'll only hurt yourself."
"Yeah… that might be a wise idea." She pointed with a shaking finger. "Let's catch him alive…"
*****
The last surviving thug ran through the swamps, occasionally staring back but seeing nothing. "Fuck this! I'm leaving."
"Excuselad…" Abel showed in his devil form in the thug's way, staring at him with a smile. "Why hurry? Going fast doesn't mean you'll die faster."
The thug gasped. "A tiefling? No, this disgusting ominous feeling, you're a devil." He started running in another direction without daring to look back.
He tripped on a balance and rolled in the dirt, stopping at Abel's feet.
"Begging won't help, human. You can't escape a devil." Abel took a step back and tilted his head, lifting a finger up, "But I'll be happy to make you a contract. Do you want power?"
"I know it's a scam, fuck off!" He looked back, and what he saw made him shit himself. A massive black dragon burning with eldritch black flames glaring down at him, all with a deep hunger burning its eyes that made his bones shiver.
Sara barely climbed Arad's head and looked at the thug and her brother. "You caught him?"
"AHH!" The thug screamed and turned toward Abel. The human natural pattern selection started working and the man's mind decided that Arad, who was bigger, was a far more dangerous threat.
"Devil! Kill him!" He cried.
"So you want a contract? Do I assthat piercing his heart is what you seek, mortal?" Abel said with a smile.
"Pierce him! Blow a hole in his chest!" The man cried.
"We need to discuss the details first." Abel pulled a scroll, "I need you to make sure…"
Arad growled, coming in to bite the man in half.
"Just do it! He'll eat me!" The man cried his eyes out.
Abel smiled as the scroll went up in flames. "Done deed, contract signed. Foolish mortal." He walked toward Arad.
Arad shifted back to his humanoid form. "You have to fulfill the contract." He glared at Abel.
"Of course." Abel lifted his arm and pierced Arad's chest, leaving a gaping hole where the heart should be."Dead! He's dead! As expected from a devil." The man cheered.
Abel turned toward the thug and bowed gently. "I take pride in my work."
Arad's wound closed up as his regeneration kicked in before Sara could start healing him.
"What?!" The man gasped. "Devil! Finish him off!"
Abel approached Arad and gave him an even deeper bow. "I thank you for your help and for protecting my sister." His glowing eyes shifted toward the thug. "The contract was to pierce his heart, nothing more. I don't care if he died or survived. You should've listened well to my words." He took a step forward, "Now you're my slave for all of eternity. Stand up, we're going to draw everything we can from your mortal body."
"Abel!" Sara growled. "Why use Arad as a part of the contract?! You should've thought of another way."
"This was the easiest and most sure-fire method." He looked at Arad. "Honestly. Sorry for stabbing you."
"Don't mind it. I'll regenerate with ease and the information we can get from him more valuable." Arad approached the thug and stared at his face. "I hope you have a lot to say."
"I know a lot, but I don't seem to remember most of them."
Arad had already regenerated and he walked toward Sara, "Since we finished, I can take you to the dorms, right?" He shifted back into a horse and she jumped on his back. "We'll leave everything else to you." Arad looked at Abel.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Well of course. Don't worry, what happened here today will never cto light." Abel replied and Arad took Sara back to the dorm.
Arad headed to his room after delivering Sara to the girl's dorm gate and found Jack missing. Knowing him, he usually oversleeps or gets drunk. Not finding him around means one thing, he's out doing something that he considers important.
When Arad closed his eyes to sense magic in radius, he could feel Jack and Lydia fighting at the swamp's edge. "So they are training…Better leave them for now." Arad quickly changed his clothes and headed to the school's canteen for breakfast, he had already eaten at home, but apparently, it was an important thing to do.
As a dragon he goes out and hunts for food which means he doesn't really need to eat like humans, but that would cause him trouble if people noticed he never eats with them. That is why Arad has been doing his best to attend all breakfast, dinner, and lunch gatherings at the university and order food portions that were determined by his wives as he didn't seem to know what was too much food and what was too little.
Upon reaching the canteen, he was called by Matilda who was eating her breakfast. "Aron! It's been a long weekend, where were you hiding?" she was sitting with Selina.
"I'm a married man; I've got wives to tend to." He replied and sat beside them. The canteen's golem approached him, =What is your order?=
"I'll take a whole rotisserie chicken, two bowls of rice, one bowl of salad, and a water jug." Arad replied with what was supposed to be a simple meal, albeit it looked strange for breakfast.
"You really do eat a lot…" Matilda smiled, looking at Selina, "Isn't that right?"
Selina was still a bit sky, but for now, she's at least showing progress around Arad. She smiled. "He's big."
"What about what you're eating? That's raw, isn't it?" he pointed at the lamb's thigh Selina was munching on.
"I'm a tigress after all. I've hunted this deer yesterday." She replied.
^So it's a deer and not a lamb? They look similar.^
"This is how meat should be eaten, raw. Don't you think?" She pointed at him with the bone.
Arad was stunned for a second, he was warned about this several times by his wives, especially Mira. He can't be eating raw food in front of everyone; they'll think something is strange about him.
Everyone knows that Matilda is a tigress and should be treated as such, but they fully think he's a human. He must argue against eating raw meat, but…he loves it raw as well. In fact, the deer she's eating looks far more appetizing to him than what he's getting. It's like comparing burned meat and medium rare.
Matilda noticed Arad staring at the meat with a sad face. "Wait…
you want some?"