The Rise Of A Porter

'No way out of this.' Arnold thought.

He took a few quick breaths and fearlessly charged towards the Wyvern, he was focused on his goal - obtaining the Vindicator. No matter what, obtaining the vindicator was essential if he wanted to defeat the Wyvern.

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Even the Wyvern had got a wind of the situation when it saw Arnold, who had been hiding for so long, charging right towards itself and prepared to confront him by spewing an endless stream of fire at him.

Arnold had already seen through this and was well prepared to defend himself by using the pillars to his advantage. He would hide behind one of the pillars and wait for the Wyvern's attack to end and after that he'd rush towards the Wyvern again. The plan was simple but executing it was no joke as it was not an easy task to predict when the Wyvern would unleash it's attack.

It was easier for Arnold to dodge the Wyvern's attacks when there was some distance between them, and it took some time for the flames to reach him, giving him an ample amount of time to hide behind a pillar. But this wasn't possible as he began to get closer towards the Wyvern, because he could no longer take the distance advantage to himself.

He kept dodging and running but the closer he got to his goal, the riskier it became. Now not only did he had to be careful about the flames, but he had be weary of the sharp claws and the sword-like tail of the Wyvern as well. Just one hit by one of those things and he would get turned into minced meat, a thought he was not fond of.

The Wyvern might have been thinking the same thing as it started swinging it's tail around like a mad titan. Of course it didn't knew what the thing fell from the sky was, but all it cared about was that it's enemy needed the thing that was near its legs and it had to ensure that the human couldn't lay his hands on it. This was the reason why the Wyvern had gone berserk and was lashing out in such a manner.

While the Wyvern was analysing Arnold's moves, Arnold was busy doing the same.

'It takes about 30 seconds for the brat to use it's fire attack... so if I rush out after its attack ends I'll have about 30 seconds to grab the guns, that is, if I'm able to dodge it's claws and tail...' Arnold was constantly revising his plans based on the situation, 'If only I had the foresight now... tsk. If I make it alive through this trial I'll use that skill all the f*cking time!'

The Wyvern finally used the it's fire attack on Arnold, who had been waiting for the Wyvern to do so. The attack didn't last long and Arnold immediately broke into sprint, while counting down to thirty in his head. Even though his agility attribute was sealed, the adrenaline coursing through his veins, ended up giving him an insane boost.

This was proved a second later when the Wyvern swung it's left paw right at him, but Arnold somersaulted over the giant paw and rolled a couple of times under the Wyvern's armoured belly, before getting up. But he didn't had the time to celebrate as the moment he stood up, another paw was thrown at him which he managed to dodge, by the skin between his teeth. All of this happened in mere eight seconds, Arnold still had twenty two seconds before the Wyvern could unleash the fire attack again.

Even though he managed to dodge the attack, he lost his balance and fell over a small pile of rubble. The Wyvern, not wanting to lose this opportunity, used it's tail to attack him once again. Arnold rolled out of the way and escaped. The next second, the Wyvern's sword-like tail slammed down on to the rubble, it's tail had broken through the part where Arnold's crotch was a moment ago.

"THAT WAS LITERALLY A DICK MOVE DUDE! NOT COOL! NOT COOL AT ALL!" Arnold shouted as he moved towards the vindicator. Fifteen seconds have been passed, he had to hurry, but it was harder than pronouncing pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis in one try! (Author's note: Yup. This is genuine word, in fact it is the longest word in literature. It is a word that refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very fine silica particles, specifically from a volcano; medically, it is the same as silicosis.)

The Wyvern once again threw his tail towards him. Arnold felt his luck running out as his left cheek got grazed by the tail. Even though it was a small cut, it felt like someone had poured molten lava on his wound after rubbing a kilogram of salt and pepper on it. Arnold's eyes teared up a little bit, but he kept pushing through. Things only got worse after that. He became a lot slower and hence he couldn't defend himself well enough. He got five more wound after his cheek was grazed, thankfully he wasn't critically injured but the pain he was feeling was like nothing before.

He didn't allow the pain to stop him from completing his task though and was still adamant on getting his hands on the weapon, what had been pushed back towards the Wyvern's hind legs in all of the commotion. Arnold forgot the count when he was hit for the first time. So he had no clue, how much time he had left before the Wyvern would use it's attack once again.

"Damn it... this pain isn't allowing me to think clearly!" Arnold gritted his teeth as he slowly made his way towards the guns while barely dodging the Wyvern's attacks.

To his clouded mind, it felt like he was dodging the Wyvern's attacks when in reality the Wyvern was simply playing with his prey but it soon got bored with it and decided to cut short it's playing time.

Arnold's vision had gotten a bit blurry due to the pain but he roughly saw the Wyvern's tail coming towards him but he wasn't afraid of it like before.

"Looks like... it's time use that..." Arnold mumbled. He had been saving this skill to use it in the final trial but it looked like he would have to use it now. Arnold calmly closed his eyes and muttered two words, "Soul Grapple."

Arnold hadn't used this skill in a while so he had forgotten how it felt to have his soul ripped apart from his body. Since he knew the time restriction of his skill Arnold didn't waste a single moment and entered the Wyvern's body. That's when multiple texts appeared on his interface. (Author's note : technically, it's his conscience, not his soul)

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You have occupied a cosmic being.

<Your level is too low to fully control a cosmic being. Duration of the skill has been reduced.>

<The being is of much higher level. Duration of the skill has been reduced by a little.>

Total duration of the skill after deduction : 2 seconds.

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Two seconds might not have been much, but for Arnold, it was just enough as he just needed to divert the Wyvern's attack in order to save his body, before he was pulled out of the Wyvern's body.

Just as Arnold regained the control of his body, he saw the sword-like tail suddenly change its direction and hit the pillar next to him instead. He used this time to leap at the guns but just as he did... he saw a faint glow of light that was coming from behind... thirty seconds were over. Before Arnold could do anything... his body was surrounded with flames.