The dragon's harem

Nina was hunting two Mega-sized monsters to bring back to Arad, which was an old tradition of the barbarians. When two are wed, the weaker one who lost must go out and hunt a large monster for their significant other to prove their worth. The bigger, stronger, and rarer the hunt is, the more impressed their partner should be.

To prove her worth to Arad and show her love, Nina had to find a monster that is so massive, unique, powerful, and most importantly, edible for Arad. Since Arad can eat pretty much anything, she didn’t have that much to worry about, besides finding and catching her targets.

Thankfully, while her senses are absolutely overpowered in her human form, they are superior in her Tarrasque form. Merlin couldn’t even study her body in that form due to how large she was.

The Mega-bloop Nina is after was the closest, and it hunts several thousand kilometers away from the shore in the heart of the sea. Even in the water, Nina could sense almost everything, and all of her senses reacted to the titan she is hunting.

Swimming through the raging sea like a titanic frog, Nina’s eyes closed, her nose and mouth were shut, and she started breathing through her skin as she dove beneath the surface, moving with only her dorsal spikes above the water to feel the vibrations in the air.

While many sea creatures relied on several methods like sonar and scent to navigate the sea, Nina’s kit far surpassed all of them. By sensing the planet’s magnetic field like a bird, she could tell north from south and thus could never get lost.

Instead of emitting sounds to listen to the reflections and tell what was deep in the darkness beneath her, Nina simply listened to the sounds other marine creatures produce in the water to navigate and scan the bottom of the sea even while staying near the surface, and thanks to her powerful sense of smell and taste, she had already found the Mega-bloop’s tracks like a bear smelling a rotten carcass from miles away.

Half an hour later, Nina was already just a few kilometers behind the Mega-sized bloop, who had already sensed her and was running away in panic. The Mega-sized bloop was an S-rank monster, a power that terrorized the entire Death Sea, but when faced with a true monster, it was nothing but a tiny fish.

Nina was faster, bigger, stronger, and the far bigger fish. Her jaws closed shut, fitting the entire Mega-sized bloop in her maw. He wasn’t the main course. He was the appetizer.

This was just the start, and she was certain that Arad was watching.

Nina’s massive body stopped moving, her massive head turned to glare right down at the dark depth of the sea, and she could hear it, smell it, and feel it: the endless dark tentacles slithering in the deep.

Rilyeh appeared sitting on her head, right beside her titanic eye. "Nina, can you hear me? That thing isn’t your opponent, but it’s a more troubling thing than many."

Nina’s Tarrasque form couldn’t speak, but Rilyeh could easily read her thoughts here in the sea. "What’s troubling about it? The Primordial Kraken is the most poisonous monster in the entire seas. If as much as a bucket of its venom leaked into the sea, the entire ecosystem for hundreds of kilometers would get destroyed."

She then smiled. "Of course, that would’ve been fine, as I could help with my power, but there is one thing I can’t deal with about its power. It is a psychic monster that uses mind control, causes hallucinations, and even warps the senses of other creatures."

"Also, it works on you." Rilyeh had seen Tarra’s previous emergence, and many of them happened at the depth of the sea. That was right: 7/10 of the original Tarrasque’s feeding bouts happen at the bottom of the sea, where not a single human soul can even sense or know about them.

Nina still couldn’t back away, and as she was about to dive down, she froze, sensing something massive teleporting to her side, and when she looked, it was Arad in his draconic form.

^Are you there?^ He talked directly to Nina’s mind, and she replied immediately. ^You came to watch?^

^Yes and no. I’m here to support you. Hunt it, and I’ll make sure the poison doesn’t leak out and nullify all of its mental magic. We need you at your best for when Gaia’s fairies find where Loci’s newborn would show up.^ He smiled, and she nodded, silently sinking down into the dark depths.

The two started diving faster and faster, going several hundred meters down, but the darkness of the sea just kept getting even more oppressive, until they reached the ocean’s floor at a depth of over 25 kilometers.

That was deep, extremely deep to the point that pressure could crush even rock to dust, and even Nina could feel it. Her body hurt; it felt heavy, and she could barely sense anything with her skin due to the extreme pressure.

But to Arad, this was nothing. He could get bigger; his magic could extend up to 4000 kilometers away from him. He wasn’t here to fight, nor was he here to scare the Primordial Kraken. Arad was here to maintain order, and it was Nina’s job to hunt.

Nina moved, slowly at first, but then started accelerating using her tail as she followed the Kraken’s scent. The beast was close, but it had camouflaged itself with both its biological and magical abilities.

Like an octopus, the Primordial Kraken could change its color and blend into the surroundings with ease, and that was what it was doing now. But on top of that, using its magic to influence the senses of other creatures, it made itself nearly undetectable.

Nina swam around the entire area, looking around, trying to locate it. But Arad who stood still, he could see it. His eyes were looked on the horrified Kraken that stuck close to the ocean’s surface beneath them, doing it’s best to stay hidden.

Arad had seen this thing before when he was out hunting for food around these parts, but he always let it go because it never confronted him. It always chose to hide, and always when he showed up, this Kraken would move away from Arad’s hunting grounds.

Even now, the Primordial Kraken was more horrified by Arad’s presence than by Nina, and it was doing its best to just stay alive. If it were an intelligent creature and could talk, this thing might’ve even begged Arad to save it from Nina.

But sadly, the Primordial Kraken was just as smart as a regular giant squid, unlike the smaller Krakens which specialized more in intelligence than sheer size and magical powers.

And then, it started. Nina looked down, having noticed a faint movement in the ground where one of the Primordial Kraken tentacles was.