The Rise Of A Porter

Both Arnold's and Shiva's expressions turned grim. Primordial was right. They felt despair like never before. It wasn't as bad for shiva as it was for Arnold as he had fought the thing before.

That being said, neither of them was prepared to fight against three equally powerful primordial when facing off against one itself was proving to be a task they couldn't complete. That would have been the case if they weren't going to use their strengthening abilities. 

'Sorry to ask you this, but would you mind taking a more passive role in the fight?' Arnold asked Shiva through telepathy. 

'The spotlight has always been yours.' Shiva replied and took a step back, 'Just let me know when you need help.'

'Will do.'

Without wasting a moment, Arnold once again charged right towards the primordial and his clones. Even the primordial was a bit surprised by his reckless move. Had he given all hope to live? That was probably the reason. 

"Ah, the pet wants to protect his master? Come right ahead and I'll slice you up before your master." The primordial standing in the middle laughed before parrying Arnold's attack. 

However, his smile disappeared when his punch didn't even make Arnold flinch. As their attacks collide, it let out such a strong shockwave that the domain in its entirety was shaken, with parts of it even falling apart. 

"Kill him!" The primordial yelled at his doppelgangers, and all three of them lunged at Arnold.

All of their moves were faster than lightning, but somehow Ashton was able to parry all of their strikes. The Primordial knew it was only a matter of time before Arnold would get weaker.

As even if the human parried his strikes, there was a high probability slowly the accumulated pain of his attacks would be too much for him to handle. 

  But to his surprise, Arnold was showing no signs of losing his fight against the primordial. If anything, the more the primordial attacked him, the wider his smile got. 

It was the primordial who had started the playing mind games with them, but now it seemed the tables had turned. Now it was his turn to be on the receiving end of Arnold's mind games. 

Although Arnold was smiling, he wasn't aware of the pain his body was going through. All thanks to Devon for destroying his sensory cells all those years ago. But not feeling pain and not being affected by the primordial's attacks were two separate things. 

Arnold's HP was rapidly reducing with each attack he blocked or defended against. He had to keep and on his health and the moment his health went below the 30% mark, he immediately utilised one of his infinite HP potions gathering dust in his inventory. 

But to the Primordial, it appeared as if his health was regenerating back by itself. That made the primordial lose his cool further, giving Arnold ample opportunities to strike back. 

'It's been a long time since I used these,' Arnold thought and kept parrying the attacks. 

Just like the primordial, he too was solely focused on finding a crack in his defence. Only striking when it was the most viable. However, it didn't seem the primordial's HP was going down by much. 

But at the end of the day, Primordial had the advantage over him. Both in numbers and in strength even Arnold couldn't rival him.

All of a sudden, something whizzed past him and one of the Primordials was knocked back. Arnold spared a gaze off of the fight and immediately recognised Shiva had knocked on the doppelgangers with the help of his trident.

"You insolent-"

Before the primordial could even say anything, Arnold wrapped his hands around the creature's head and slammed his knee on his face. The Primordial once again was sent flying, but this time, Arnold didn't stop there. 

[You have activated the Skill Devil's rage. All stats and ability effects have been boosted by 500%.]

[Skill usages remaining: 2]

Suddenly a presence rivalling that of the primordial appeared on the battlefield. But it wasn't enough as Arnold's boost wouldn't last forever nor was it strong enough to completely overpower the primordial. 

'You wanted my support, you have it now.'

Shiva smiled and the following moment another notification appeared in front of Arnold.  A notification that was going to be the game-changer. 

[All restrictions such as cooldown of the skills and any possible backlash after their use have been permanently removed.]

'Now I understand why you were the first one to create a system.' Arnold smiled before going unhinged. 

The system was something Shiva created as a result, he and only he had true control over it. This meant, that even though he didn't have one for himself, Shiva could abuse the system Arnold had to his own benefit. Which in this case was to take care of the Primordial, any means necessary. 

He immediately used the two remaining uses of [Devil's Rage]. At that moment, his strength was unparalleled. But that didn't mean it came without any cost at all. The strain on his body was incredible. 

Not even Shiva would have been able to control such a level of power without the aid of someone. However, before Arnold's ascension, there was no one who could do so. The domain responded to the sudden surge of power from Arnold.

His body began to glow, his eyes, his limbs, his armour... everything felt as if he had transcended the level of godhood that even Shiva didn't know it existed. 

The space around him began distorting. Time stopped with each of his steps. At that moment, he was truly the one above all. Even the primordial himself. 

"I tasted despair, sadly it ain't my cup of tea." Arnold smiled as the primordial struggled to find a way to get back on his feet, "Maybe you'll like it more?"

"Haha... HAHA! Do you think you can defeat an outer like me with those petty tricks of yours? Fine by me, show me what you got!"