The dragon's harem

Chapter 536 Earth Glide

The moment Nina raged, the tarrasque blood in her veins boiled. Barbarians are powerful fighters even without that skill, but using it means they are in clear danger and need to end the fight as soon as possible.

The blood picks up on that note, racing to protect the holder by shifting their biology to resemble that of the great mother, the primordial tarrasque.

The change starts with the brain. Having such a weakness that's essential for survival is a danger. The blood eliminates the brain and instead transforms the whole body's neural network into a cognitive system.

That resulted in a decentralized nervous system that stores information in any part of the body while providing sharp reaction time and instincts.

Even if the holder's body were to be blown apart, leaving only one toe, that toe's nerves are the brain, and they would have at least the bare minimum information to regenerate the whole body in a second.

Nina's brain shrunk to nothing, expanding through her nerves causing a sharp drop in her intelligence in exchange for a semi-immortal regeneration.

BA-DUMP! Her heart beat once before stopping. Why does the body need one pump for blood? That's a glaring weakness. If it were damaged, only death awaits.

Nina's heart disappeared, and instead, the muscles outlining her blood vessels started squeezing the blood through like how intestines move food in them. Her whole circulatory system became the pump.

Until now, everything was the same way it was for Nina's rage before. She got the nervous resilience from birth and the vascular resilience from the tarrasque shard she found while young.

In the past when Kayden chopped Nina's head, her body kept fighting not because of iron will alone, but also because the vital organ known as the brain wasn't vital for her survival anymore.

When fighters stabbed her in the heart in battles, she didn't bleed to death since she didn't need her heart to pump blood around her body.

Arad blinked. He could feel a massive shift in Nina's aura. Her usually clean mana due to her never using magic, had now been tainted with the smell of earth.

"Earth magic?" Arad gasped, staring in Nina's direction.

Nina's skin turned red as she raged, and the second tarrasque shard that she just absorbed finally activated. The extreme blood cells recognized that their host held the tarrasque bloodline, and were assured of their survival, so they didn't start messing with her body, but instead, integrated with her cells, sharing their DNA to provide more power.

Nina's cells shifted, locking their cores in a hardened shell of crystalline material and allowing the outer world to flow through their membrane.

The magic worked similarly to the petrifying curses, but the new nature the tarrasque blood provided Nina's cells made them able to mimic anything earth-related and not only stones.

Also due to the protected core, the cells were free to move and carry their biological function even in that state.

Arad could feel Nina's body shoots upward, instead of falling. "What now?" He stopped running down and started rushing upward to catch up with her.

In her rage, Nina finally understood how [Earth Glide] works. Becoming one with the earth is the only way of controlling it.

Inside the ground, she couldn't see or hear anything, but her tremor sense was heightened to the extreme. Instead of just using her feet on the ground to detect vibrations, now it's her whole body on the ground, sensing every slight change.

****

On the surfaces, the barbarians could feel it, Nina's rage rushing toward them from the dept of earth.

Zephyr noticed their distress and moved everyone away with a burst of her wind.

SWOSH! Nina popped out of the ground, flying directly into the sky faster than anyone could see her.

CRACK! The ground beside them shattered as Arad flew out, flapping his wings as he tried to catch Nina, who flew to the clouds.

When using [Earth Glide]. If the caster tried to raise to the surface as fast as possible, their speed would ramp up quickly, and considering that Nina is far lighter than the tarrasque or the dragons that use this skill, she accelerated to an extreme speed.

Arad caught Nina in his claw, "Nina!" As he screamed, her skin turned back to normal, "I'm fine. I won't lose control while raging," She said with a smile.

"Are you sure?" Arad growled, flapping his wings and hovering amongst the clouds.

Nina nodded, "I didn't know. I absorbed that crystal and got [Earth Glide] From it. You don't have to worry about me transforming,"

Arad stared at her, not believing her words. ^Doma, what do you think?^

^[Even if she could control it now, there is no guarantee she won't transform under pressure. I bet the blood would do anything to survive.]^

^So, as long as she isn't pushed to death, the blood won't rampage?^

"What are you thinking about?" Nina asked.

"Don't rage again until we know how this all works," Arad said, glaring at her, "You survive once, but we don't know why or how."

"I'm telling you, I would be fine,"

"Listen to me." Arad sighed, "I don't want to have to kill you like Shi, and I don't want you endangering everyone."

Nina giggled, "You kill me. You're dreaming,"

"I'm not," Arad laughed, "Beating you is beyond me, but killing isn't that hard."

"I would drop you down with two kicks," She said, "Wait, I did that already, didn't I?"

"I didn't suck you into my void," Arad grunted.

"I would drop you before you deploy it," She stared at him with a grin.

"That..." Arad looked away, "I would make it work, somehow,"

"Fine," Nina smiled, "For now, I will listen to you."

Arad soared down with her, landing in front of the confused barbarians. "Is she all right?" Aella asked with a worried face, rushing at them as fast as she could.

"I'm fine, as you see," Nina replied with a smile. "Even I was scared for a moment,"

"What as that?" Zephyr flew toward Arad, "Did she absorb some kind of power from that crystal?"

"Earth Glide," Arad replied, "But, she can control it now, so no need to worry,"

"To think someone could tame the blood of the tarrasque," Eris stared at them, "I heard Nina the berserker was a monster, but nothing measured to this,"

"It's all remours," Nina stared at her, "For now, let's head back to the village," She turned around, and Arad started scratching his chin, "About that..."

Everyone and the barbarians stared, seeing the village nowhere to be found. It was trampled in Arad's fight with the tarrasque.

"How?" Nina cried.

"That isn't the only problem," Arad looked away.

"What?"

"All the monsters and animals have run away from this area, and I don't think they will be returning anytime soon."

"So we have nothing to hunt here?" Nina sighed. This fight has destroyed her homeland. If not, it had at least disabled the place for a few years.

Zephyr floated around and then landed on the ground, "Since Arad sucked all the water from the ground to fire at Shi, the ground's fertility had dropped like crazy. I doubt rain would be enough to save it. Soon the trees in the forest that wasn't charred by his fire would die."

"Are you sure?" Nina stared at her with a stunned face.

Zephyr lifted a thumb up, "Total annihilation. But it's far more tamed than what's known for the fights between S-rank monsters."

"I don't know why, but sorry. I should have fought better," Arad looked sad.

"It's not your fault! We can't expect you to think of the forest while fighting an immortal monster." Aella rushed toward Arad as he shifted back to his human form.

"Even so, he could have..." Zephyr flew toward her, but Aella kicked her away like a ball.

"[That doesn't matter,]" Doma said from Arad's side. As everyone looked at him, she added, "[Forget all that damage. All the land that was caught in his void expansion is dead for good. Nothing short of that could have stopped the tarrasque, so instead of talking about what he destroyed, talk about how much land he saved by finishing the tarrasque before it grew.]"

Everyone looked at Arad in silence.

"[Forget this small village of barbarians. The whole kingdom would have been destroyed if he wasn't here to finish the beast, so keep that in mind.]" Her voice faded inside him.

***

[You seems a bit angry,] Mom stared at Doma.

^[Of course I'm angry,]^ Doma replied, ^[They don't understand what defeating the tarrasque mean,]^

[It means he had become a monster equivalent to a natural disaster.] Mom added. [All void dragons are like that.]

^[Arad is special. I saw it, I saw him. This is only the start,]^ Doma sighed, sitting down. ^[I will cook him several curses to use. Medusa's petrification won't be enough for him.]^

She giggled.