The dragon's harem

"Sir Alphonse!" A paladin shouted as he saw the general running across the street, crackling with holy magic, "I sense a wave of necrotic magic. This isn't a drill, right?"

The paladin general Alphonse stopped, staring at the paladin. "I pray to the gods each second this was a dream, but it isn't." He looked into the sky, "There are thousands of them. An undead overlord must be around."

CRACK! A bone burst through the ground behind Alphonse. Necrotic magic washed over the place as the paladin roared, swinging his sword at the bone.

[Divine Smite]

CLANG! The paladin's strike stopped, his blade shattering upon contact as the bone pulsed, flesh covering it.

"Get back!" Alphonse shouted at the top of his lungs, "You can't handle that!"

CRACKLE! A burst of necrotic flame emerged from the bone, and veins and blood expanded as it formed a lump of flesh dripping with magic in the blink of an eye.

The paladin lifted his arms to block, but he was late. The bone shard and flesh lunged at him, burrowing into his stomach.

GRWAAAAAAAA! The paladin screamed as the necrotic lump ate him from the inside out, replacing his organs as he growled in agony. In a few seconds, he went silent as green necrotic flames emerged from his eyes, "A well-trained body, it will do," The corpse said with a deep growl.

Alphonse pulled his greatsword, "A flesh eater, who sent you?"

"Find that for yourself. If you can." The flesh eater opened his arms with a smile. Shards of bones fell from the sky across the whole city, and Alphonse could hear people screaming as the undead ate them alive.

"Damn it," Alphonse growled, lifting his greatsword in a wrath stance.

****

Back in the castle, Mira was asleep in her room, exhausted after a hard day. A maid sat on the couch, half asleep half awake. Her job was to guard.

Swosh! A gust of wind came through the windows, pushing the drapes away. The maid opened her eyes, hearing the flapping of the drapes.

DING! She could see something twinkling in the night sky. PEW! A sharp bone flew through the window, piercing her throat.

GA! GAH! GAH! The maid struggled, but couldn't utter a sound as the undead took her place, eating her from the inside out.

Now standing over Mira's head, the undead maid conjured a bone in her palm, "My lord wants your life to be snuffed, to death your return," She lifted her hand and swung down at Mira's chest.

BAM! The wall shattered as Kin rushed in with a claw swinging, blasting the undead maid outside the castle with one strike.

"What?" Mira woke up terrified, "What's happening?" She cried.

"Stay close to me. We're under attack," Kin growled, fire crackling from her teeth as she glared out of the hole the maid left in the wall.

The whole capital boiled, people running all over the place like ants, flames bursting in tens of houses as screams filled the sky, "Flesh eaters, a type of parasitic undead that controls eat a person from the inside to take control of their corpse. It's over if one of them stabbed you with a bone,"

"Wait a moment," Mira rushed toward her closet.

"You care about clothes now? I need to get you to safety first," Kin stared at her, but Mira smiled. She threw off her nightgown and pulled a leather armor dotted with steel plates.

Mira strapped the prototype backpack and pulled her massive explosive sledgehammer from the wardrobe, "I will fight as well," She put on the goggles she had bought that evening, "This isn't the first time I faced zombies or skeletons," She smiled.

"Those aren't mere zombies..." Kin said, but suddenly an undead servant shattered the door, lunging into the room and trying to stab Mira whom he felt was the weakest.

"Mira!" Kin shouted, about to swing her claw at the undead.

With a smile on her face, Mira swung in place with the sledgehammer in hand, hitting the undead servant in the head.

CRACKLE! BOOM! Lightning flashed through her right arm as an explosion burst from the hammerhead, sending a nail straight through the undead and burning its brain.

SPLAT! As blood splashed on the wall, Kin stared in shock at Mira, "I'm still a low level, so please protect me till I reach Eris or Arad. Aella would be flying around, so she can't protect me."

Mira thought of heading toward Lydia but could guess a paladin like her would be focusing on taking the undead down rather than protecting a sole person. It will be more effective to let her fight freely.

****

VOOM! Eris jumped from the wall, throwing her spear at a group of flesh eaters, burning them to ash. "You're already dead, so get cremated already!"

CRACK! As she shouted, a bone stabbed her back. "You should die. We don't need you," The undead growled, pushing the bone deeper into her back.

"That hurt, idiot," Eris growled, and the undead started feeling something off. The bone in his hand was getting hot, smoking even.

"What?" He gasped, pulling the bone back to find it had gotten shorter. The end has turned to ask as plasma gleaned from Eris's wounds.

Void dragons like Arad have their organs protected by the void. Green dragons' organs swim in poison, while black dragons' organs reside in acid.

With Eris being a half-purple dragon, that's slowly forcing her body to utilize more of her draconic power, her organs float in a thick goo of plasma, making her body uninhabitable to most diseases, parasites, and even melt weapons that stab her.

SWOSH! Eris spun around, crushing the undead's head with her claw. She smiled as the undead surrounded her. "I don't even feel like embalming you before cremation. Time to work," 

****

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! Lydia jumped from the castle wall, slowing her fall by clawing with her gauntlet at the wall. BAM! As she landed in the city, she saw two women jump at her, growling.

"More flesh eaters?" She growled, [Divine smite]. Her blade sliced through them like butter, sending a splash of blood as she stared forward.

BAM! Alphonse flew across the sky, landing beside her with his body covered in blood.

"Are you injured?" She cried.

"Not my blood," Alphonse replied, "It's his," He looked forward as the ground started shaking.

"Mommy...Blood...The lord...we kill!" A gigantic lump of flesh with a hundred faces crawled across the streets, growling and burbling with blood as it focused on Alphonse.

"Glutton flesh eater. I already killed five of them, but they keep coming back using the civilians," Alphonse growled, "Leave the city to me. Head to the fort. That scream came from there,"

"That was Gojo, Arad's brother." Lydia growled, "Do you know anything else?"

"You aren't the first I send there. I already asked the A-rank adventurers to head there. Go support them. I will handle the city here with the paladins." Alphonse said, and Lydia lunged forth, straight toward the Glutton flesh eater.

"Don't! Leave him to me!" Alphonse shouted as he saw Lydia about to swing her blade at the undead monster.

[Divine Cleaver]

CLAP! Lydia's sword burned with holy light, illuminating the whole street as she cleaved the monster in half with one swing, rushing between his two halves without slowing down.

Alphonse smiled. ^Those monsters are resistant to holy magic. Whoever unleashed wasn't oblivious to the paladin's existence in the capital. But, she cleaved right through that glutton with one swing,^ He giggled, "How long has it been," He lifted his blade, pointing at the sky.

"In Amaterasu's name! In Jemima's name! In the name of Mother Earth and everything that's holy," He shouted at the top of his lungs, "I Alphonse Dir Gromwell decalers a holy crusade. Bring the light of the sun to the depth of night!" As his voice boomed across the city, paladins could be heard shouting as blasts of divine magic flashed across the whole capital.

***

FLAP! FLAP! Aella flew into the sky, hiding Zephyr beneath her cloak. "Are you all right?" She cried.

"I'm fine," Zephyr grunted, her skin burning and her wings rotting, "Whoever is behind this attack, he knows us well." She glared into the sky, seeing seven undead pixies glaring at them with ships of necrotic flames. "Someone set us up," She growled.

Aella pointed her arrow and was about to fire a shot, but then rotten vultures rushed at her. "Damn it!" She dodged the attack in the neck of time, "Where are they coming from?" She growled.

BAM! From the ground, a flash of golden light flew to the sky, slicing one of the vultures in half. Aella gasped, "That's paladin!"

Alphonse stepped on one of the vultures, his eyes focused on the undead pixies. He took a deep breath, the muscles on his arms expanding, [Action surge] [Divine Cleaver]

In the blink of an eye, he sliced the vulture he stood on, jumped forward, and sliced the remaining seven vultures. His blade flashed as he swung it at the pixies, ripping them to shreds in holy flames before they could even react. And then used the last hit of his sixteen-attack action surge to propel himself back to the ground.

Aella stared at him, stunned, "A fighter-paladin. Like one divine cleaver wasn't enough, someone had to learn how to fire sixteen at the same time."

"That's the paladin general, Alphonse, he can take care of himself. Let's focus on finding Isdis first. We can then search for Arad, he's also capable of taking care of himself." Zephyr growled, "I will heal quickly now that those bastards have died, give me a few minutes and I will blast all the undead out of this city."