The Rise Of A Porter

Arnold was expecting Tiamut to engage first. However, to his surprise, Tiamut decided to stay back while Talos charged at him. Talos was usually the calm one and tried to gain as much information about the enemy as he could before engaging. That was the reason, Talos rarely ever actively engaged in a battle unless he absolutely had to. 

Maybe they knew Arnold would be expecting something like that, thus they decided to change the script and let Talos attack while Tiamut backed him up. Talos did not waste any time and aimed at Arnold's head. In the following moment, Arnold found himself in the middle of a barrage of bullets. But to everyone's surprise, he didn't even bother to dodge the bullets.

He just stood there, grabbing the bullets using his new Adamantine arm. As for the ones he couldn't catch, they were stopped by his mana shield. Talos was dumbfounded. He had hoped at least one of the bullets would get through Arnold's defence but he was wrong to underestimate his master. After all, he was still a rank above him.. 

"What are you slacking off for?" 

The next second Arnold disappeared from Talos' sight and reappeared behind him. It all happened so quickly the others couldn't even see what was happening. Talos on the other hand could see what happened however, his metallic body wasn't able to react as fast as he had perceived Arnold.

The next moment, Arnold punched Talos with half of the strength of his bionic arm. Because 100% would have been too much to handle, even for Talos.

'Once I'm done with his armour, I just might test the full output of my arm. But for now, let's stick to 50%.'

Talos tried to dodge the incoming fist, he was too late. The next moment he was sent flying to the other side. However, he landed straight back on his feet and dug his fingers deep into the floor to decelerate himself, before charging right back in. Thus began the contest of who could punch whom the fastest. 

They were throwing punches at such an insane rate that both Talos' and Arnold's arms disappeared from sight. Thus, to the summons, it appeared they were standing still. Tiamut was an exception to this because of her ascension to Cosmic SS rank, she was able to perceive things easier than the rest of them. 

'Hold on just for a tad bit longer Talos...' Tiamut thought to herself while she chanted to make her next move succeed.

This was the second and final ability she had learned with the help of the scrolls Arnold had given her. It was also, currently the most dangerous move in her arsenal. However, the only problem was the long chant that needed to be performed before using the destructive spell. 

Talos was well aware of this, and hence took the charge against Arnold. It was to make sure Arnold was distracted for long enough for Tiamut to finish her chant and attack him. But even with that, Talos did not think even for one second they would be able to win against Arnold. The man was too strong and unpredictable. Also, it would have been foolish of him to think Arnold would just stand there and do nothing about the attack.

However, the only thing Talos could do was to make sure Arnold is distracted even if Arnold managed to uncover their plan. In the meantime, Arnold's blows were getting stronger and relentless. The more Talos was able to take his beating, the more Arnold increased the output of the arm. What started at 50% was now at 56% and it seemed that was the breaking point of Talos. 

Arnold was afraid if he increased the power by even 0.1%, Talos might not be able to take his strikes anymore. Talos tried firing his guns at close range, but before he could even pull the trigger, the guns were snatched from his grasp and thrown away.

"You depend too much on your guns." Arnold said while dodging Talos' punch, "We don't know what kind of enemies we would have to face in the duels, so it is better for you to expand your arsenal. Learn a lot of different battle styles and use them to create something new. A battle style only you can truly master."

"Create something new you say," Talos voice was as emotionless as it had ever been, but still Arnold felt a tinge of smugness in his voice, "How about deception?"

"You mean her?" Arnold pointed his thumb towards Tiamut, "You think you're the only ones capable of reading faces? I have known about your plan, even before she started chanting."

"Hm... I thought I had you fooled." Talos replied as all three of Tiamut's mouths started shining simultaneously, "I guess not."

"It is a good move. No gonna lie about that. It can destroy everyone here, maybe even me. The match is over because I'm gonna put my armour on. In the meantime, you should step aside while you can." Arnold smirked at the next second, he had the Adamantine armour wrapped around him, "As for me, it is the precise time for me to test out the armour."

There was no warning, nothing at all as Tiamut fired three beams of concentrated energy right towards Arnold. Arnold steeled his defense and gave system sama one command. If his armour was to break, then immediately activate his defence abilities. He did not want to take any chances with his life at the moment.

The dark domain was illuminated by the golden energy beams as the merged into one and turned red. Arnold was waiting for the beam to collide with him but not everything in life goes according to plan. 

While they were fighting outside, Dina had completed making the weapon Arnold had wanted her to. She was so excited after making it that she couldn't wait to get Arnold's approval. As a result, she rushed right outside the forge and when she saw Arnold in his armour, she couldn't resist and ran over to him.

But unlike the others, she didn't know what was going on there and the moment she realised that... it was already too late. She got hit by the attack that was meant for Arnold and sure enough what followed next was a notification from System sama.

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Your summon <Dani> had been destroyed. 

Time for resurrection: 30 minutes.

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No one knew wether they should laugh right there, or wait till they were alone? Just how unlucky or blind one had to be so that they couldn't see just a bright beam of energy?

"Great. Just great." Arnold shook his head.