The dragon's harem

Arad turned, seeing the tentacles rushing at him, "What?" He gasped, swinging the quarterstaff and deflecting two.

Thud! Thud! The remaining tentacles grabbed and started dragging him to the mud. From there, two eyes flashed, "Come to me!" The monster growled.

"What is this thing?" CRACK! Arad stabbed the ground with his quarterstaff, holding still.

"It's lunch!" Merlin said with a smile, "Catch it!"

"No, we won't!" Amber growled, pointing her staff at the monster.

[Fire Bolt] [Fire Bolt] [Fire Bolt]

As they burned, the tentacles let go of Arad and retreated to the mud.

"Don't let your guard down," Amber shouted, "It will attack again."

SLAP! A tentacle emerged from the ground and snatched her, swinging her in the air before slamming her into the mud.

"AMBER!" Arad shouted, pointing his quarterstaff at the tentacles. [Firebolt] [Fire Bolt] [Fire Bolt]

The tentacles dodged the spell. They won't get him twice.

CLAP! More several more tentacles emerged from the ground, tying Arad in place. "There is a second one?" He growled.

From the mud, a third octopus monster emerged, putting its eight tentacles together. CRACKLE! Lightning flashed between them, charging as the monster pointed at Arad.

"This thing can use magic?" Amber growled, waving her staff to cast a spell. CRACK! Electricity shocked her, causing the spell to fail.

"This bastard!" Arad pulled on the tentacles, trying to escape, but he got electrocuted as well.

The third octopus got ready to kill Arad. The labyrinth knew he was the most dangerous and shouldn't let him live now that he was pushing higher.

Thud! Merlin stood between Arad and the monster, extending her arms, "NO! You won't harm my Arad!" She shouted.

"Get back to the stairs." Arad growled, "You can't fight!"

"I won't!" Merlin screamed, "Shoot me! You monster!"

"You idiot," Arad growled, trying to escape even harder.

CRACK! The monster shot his lightning bolt at her, but at the last moment, Merlin's tearful and worried face shifted into a nasty evil smile.

CLAP! With her hand, she caught the lightning bolt.

The monster froze.

In the blink of an eye, the lightning bolt shattered into three pieces and turned into stone spears. BA-BA-BAM! And Merlin fired them at the monsters, blasting their heads open.

"You dare hit me with my own magic?" Merlin stares at the dead monsters, "You sure don't know who you're messing with,"

Thud! Thud! Arad and Amber were freed and fell down, "What did you do?" Arad stared at Merlin.

"This labyrinth is built by my magic. The monsters use the same mana wavelength as me. That means even if I don't have mana or the ability to cast magic, I can still control my magic back when they throw it at me," She approached Arad with a grin, "Am I impressive?"

"Should have told us before," Arad sighed, "I could have planned to use you as a magic shield."

Thud! Thud! Merlin approached Arad, "It's a secret, but I won't be able to control powerful spells before they kill me. It's better to let the labyrinth think I can control everything and shut its magic arsenal." She whispered.

She stood with a smile, "It's time to eat, isn't it?" She looked at the monster with a smile.

"They aren't disappearing," Amber gasped, "What did you do to them?"

"I shifted the spell to bind them to reality," Merlin giggled, "They won't leave a gem, but they won't disappear which makes them a valuable food source."

Arad sat on the ground, taking a deep breath. ^How she moved earlier, her hands almost matched the spell's speed.^ He looked at her, seeing that her fingers were trembling.

^I guess, her prior physical powers were a result of some spell. But now, forcing her body to reach that speed without the spell is hard.^ He smiled.

"You're capable after all," He looked at her, "I thought you were completely useless without magic,"

"Of course I'm not," Merlins stared at him, "I did beat you once, didn't I?"

"I was far weaker then," He stood, "Now, how do we cook this?"

Amber stood, her legs still shaking from the electric shock, "I can ignite a flame," She pointed at the trees, "You're strong. Can you rip some branches with your hands? Can't you?"

"I'm weaker so I don't know how much I can chop, but I will try," He approached one of the swamp's trees and grabbed the nearest branch to him, pulling it apart.

"Amber. Let's ignite the flame close to the stairs door, so we can retreat if we need to." She pointed.

"I know," Amber smiled, "This isn't my first time in a labyrinth," She looked back, "Albeit, this might be the strangest one I ever saw. Here," She pulled a small knife and handed it to her.

"Oh my," Merlin stared at the knife with a smile, "I'm cutting the monster?"

"Don't pretend you never cut one before, dissection maniac,"

Arad looked at them, "You cut monsters before?"

Merlin stared at him, "Both dead and alive, we did experiment on a lot of them after all,"

"You say that to me?" He stared at her with a worried face.

"As much as I want to see your insides," She smiled, "It's a rule to never cut something that we don't have spare of,"

"Really?" He sighed.

"If we managed to catch a male and a female to breed, we can then experiment on their spawn without disturbing the natural order. We did that a lot with new monsters,"

"Isn't that too cruel?"

"Not when the monsters eat and kill humans every day," She looked at him, "Humanity's only power is knowledge. If we don't take every advantage we have, monsters will keep stomping us to the end of time," She stared at him, "You know that, right?"

Arad remembered how Vlad ate a whole city, and how his fight with Shi trampled the barbarian's land.

"You won't blame us for experimenting on some vampires and dragons to protect ourselves, do you?"

"Do what you like," Arad stared at her, "It's survival of the fittest after all,"

"That's true." She smiled.

"But," Arad said with a passive face, "Do you know what it means?"

"Don't worry, no one will come after you or those close to you. Those we experiment on are mostly monsters caught attacking cities or villages."