The dragon's harem - Chapter 1703: Waking Up In Pain
Chapter 1703: Waking Up In Pain
Gojo looked at the hot water around him for a moment, then turned his gaze up, seeing Liliana standing beside the pool with Arad and Haru. They were trying to get the worried Yetis in line, but failing miserably.
The Yetis saw Arad and Gojo dominate the fight. Arad had gone into the deadly black waters of the river and defeated the queen there; he even made that river boil. And Gojo, whatever that dark thing he did, it was scary.
But, for some reason, the chieftain seems to have survived that attack. When Gojo returned from the dark thing wounded, the chieftain was just as confused and terrified as everyone else.
Gojo never aimed for the chieftain. When he shifted his attention to Entropy, the old Yeti became nothing more than a pebble in Gojo’s path.
So, when the chieftain tried to finish Gojo off, Arad leapt in and got the kill, stabbing the horror down the throat with his spear. Right now, the chieftain’s corpse was impaled on Arad’s spear upside down and propped at the side of the river like a fish.
To the Yetis, Arad was their strongest now. He might be bald, unable to speak, and a bit too weird-looking for them, but he is one of them.
Gojo, too, he might not have shown the same power that Arad did, but he was quite flashy, and he did fight alongside the Yetis on both sides of the river, helped them cross safely, and even toyed with their chieftain for a while.
“What did happen?” Gojo stood and asked, staring at them with dazed eyes, then growled, feeling a sharp headache hitting his skull from deep within.
Overexertion, he had taxed his mind over its limit and was now suffering the backlash. All of his spells were made to lower such side effects as much as possible, so his body being in pain was a surprise.
He either overestimated the durability of his human body, underestimated the backlash of his magic… or… A certain woman knocked him out cold. Yeah, she did smack him again.
The slap from Entropy, then Liliana’s beating, no wonder he was in such pain. Not that he minds, her getting so angry and even beating him up for acting recklessly made her look even better in his eyes; it showed that she actually cares.
“The chieftain survived the blast of your magic, so I finished him off. Haru and Liliana came here and healed us, and now the two tribes have united back into one clan.” Arad approached him, “Take it slow, casting that magic can’t be that good for your body.”
Arad quickly explained the situation, and he did leave asking about much until Gojo was ready to talk. Arad didn’t know the extent of damage, pain, or exhaustion his brother felt, and so, he didn’t want to pressure him into speaking immediately.
Arad had even gone as far as to warn Liliana and Haru. If Gojo is tired and needs rest, they’ll let him rest and ask later, and if any of them try to get answers, and he glared at Liliana specifically, he’ll be mad.
Liliana had seen him beat the living hell out of that brider, and she didn’t want to be anywhere near him when he gets angry.
Gojo sat back in the warm water and smiled. “Of course it isn’t. I’d probably die if I cast it again; this human body and mind are too weak to handle such a high level of magic.” He leaned back. “And… I don’t know if I’m completely fine yet.”
Death protected them, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t feel pain, suffer, or even get stuck living in a dead body.
“You’d better rest for now.” Arad sat beside him, and Gojo waved his hand.
“You know about wild magic, right? All the magic that I could use now beside it is too weak to pierce the chieftain’s hide; he just has too much mana in his skin.” Gojo waved his hands, then lifted four fingers in one, and one in the other.
He seems to be about to explain things even without being asked.
“So, I estimated that it’ll be more cost-efficient to gamble on wild magic and hope for a spell deadly enough to take him down than to keep burning mana on slowly killing him. It was almost four times to one in terms of cost.”
While Arad could achieve unhuman feats of strength, speed, and martial skills, Gojo was the same way when it come to magic, and he loved to talk and think about it.
He clapped his hands with a smile. “So I decided to play a bit, and would you look at it? I got a jackpot of infinite mana.”
Wild magic had countless random effects that would happen upon invoking it. Most of them relied on countless factors that couldn’t be accounted for, and so, it was impossible to figure out what would come. But, there will always be a good effect or two in there, and those are what Gojo calls Jackpots… in fact, they were called resonance by the mages, but Lucy couldn’t pronounce it correctly, so she started calling them Jackpots, and Gojo used the term.
So, Lucy is the one who came up with the term Jackpots for wild magic.
“I knew that Entropy would strike me down in a second if I tried to use that infinite mana to harm her, so I instead ripped the very fabric of mana, akin to taking a bite of Yog’s flesh, and got enough mana to play with.”
With how obnoxious and annoying Yog was around him, she had to endure him spitting on her face once or twice if she wanted to be fair. So he was pretty confident that he wouldn’t be facing two angry goddesses.
Arad frowned, “Your body would burn if you tried to store that much mana in it.”
Gojo nodded. “You know your magic, right. And you’re right, that amount of mana would’ve killed me if I tried to store it inside my body, so I turned half of it immediately into a sword-shaped barrier, and infused that blade with space magic.”
He smiled. “Then, all I needed to do was feel where Yog’s gaze is coming from and cut space to teleport there and face them.” He lifted one finger with a grin. “Of course, I went there expecting to be killed, so I made it so the sword would teleport the black and white holes I had in my stomach when shattered.”
Gojo made two fists and smacked them together. “The two holes would collide, erase each other, and turn all that stored power into pure energy, a ball of violent void that wants to expand and destroy anything it comes into contact with.” He chuckled. “I’m certain it exploded right in her face.”
“Since when could you do such a thing?” Arad sighed, and Gojo tapped him on the shoulder.
“Since when? I was preparing such a thing ever since I fought Karon, that god of greed, who got me real good. Then we faced Nyar and the god of war, Alexander, after him. I needed some tricks to face them.”
Gojo had his share of beatdowns and facing opponents who were much stronger, so he knew what he needed.
Gojo knew well that from now on, they’ll never be stronger than their opponents, and that each important fight would be a losing one, a deadly battle where they have to put everything on the line to just be able to survive.
What if Nyar showed up and he could rob them of all of their power as Entropy did? Would Gojo just sit and die? No, he won’t, and he would spend every second that he has his true power to plan for that day and prepare spells beforehand.
“Last time, I almost died and was a dead weight on Kayden and the Overgod. Next time Nyar shows up, and even if he showed now, I won’t die before at least making him cry.”
Arad stared at him. “If that happens. You’d better run, or you’ll die.”
Gojo smiled, staring at him.
“Nah I’d win.”
“What are you two doing? Hurry up, we have to go back.” Liliana approached them and pointed back. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to deal with Yetis.”
“We’ll need their help to take the city’s steel golems down. Now we have another approach besides just sneaking in.” He looked at the Yetis and stood, waving his hands around and drawing several circles in the air.
[Speak with Monsters]
“We dealt with him.” He pointed at the chieftain’s corpse. “So next, how about we invade and conquer the scary city outside. That strange place with hot monsters.”
All of the Yetis stared at him for a second, then roared. Arad and Gojo had just proved their power; they fought the old chieftain and won, so if they were to go take on that city, the other Yetis would follow to win with them.
As the Yetis roared, Arad looked at Gojo. “You said that you made half the mana into that sword. What did you do with the other half? Summon those two holes?”
Gojo approached Arad and whispered in his ear. “I made a copy of that sword and sent it through my stomach to Lucy. It has our location, so if all fails, they can pull us out.”
