The Rise Of A Porter

The sky roared with thunder as Scylla landed on the ground. Luke was too shocked to do anything. Too scared to move. It was the first time he had seen a dragon so closely.

Everything about the dragon, its jade scales, its horns and its blazing eyes scared him crapless. His heart fell deeper and deeper into his bowel the more he stared at Scylla. He felt cold... Ice cold. So much so that his hands were started shivering uncontrollably. His intuition, his body, his mind and everything around him was begging him to run. Everything apart from his legs that had rebelled against him, unwilling to budge from the place.

In hindsight, He wasn't scared of the dragon. No. He was more scared of the one standing on its back. The man was smartly dressed in black clothes, looking like devil's personal hitman. Just looking at the man, made his spine shiver uncontrollably. Before Luke knew it, Arnold began walking towards him. His heart sank with each step he took.

Luke couldn't get a read on Arnold's face. It was completely... Expressionless, emotionless. He thought Arnold would be enraged, ready to kill him on the spot. After all, he had bashed his girlfriend like a ragdoll. But Arnold didn't do anything. He just kept walking towards Nina, his firm steps sending shockwaves throughout the area.

While Luke was boring a hole into Arnold's soul, the latter opened a portal and out of it walked his summons.

"Alice, Natasha, check on Nina's condition." Arnold mumbled after kneeling next to his lover, "Asterios, BB, go inside that dungeon. Drag everyone who's inside. Don't kill anyone, I'll kill them myself. I don't care if they don't have a limb or not, they should be breathing. And Dread make sure no one disturbs us."

With his words, his summons went into action. Alice and Natasha fused their magic to heal Nina faster. They had barely started when Arnold took Nina's bloody hand into his. He was continuously mumbling something but no one heard him. Alice and Natasha were too absorbed into saving Nina and Luke... Well, he was too scared to even breathe.

Before attacking Nina, he thought he was ready to die. After he got his revenge, he had nothing to live for. Yet now that he had done the unforgivable, he was scared for his life... At first, he thought the dragon was the one he was scared of, but no, he now knew, he was scared of the man. Always had been. They were fools to anger someone like him... Someone with enough strength to rule over the world if he wanted to.

The atmosphere grew deadly silent. Even the winds which had been soaring just moments ago had stopped completely. The roaring sky went silent. Even the clouds were stationary as if even they were scared to move in Arnold's presence.

Alice was the one who broke the eerie silence, "They're safe. Both of them!"

"Thank god... Thank god... Thank god..." Arnold kept mumbling incoherently before looking at Alice with his bloodshot eyes, "Take her to the hospital. Take Scylla with you, you'll get there faster."

Arnold then lifted the unconscious Nina in his arms and walked back to Scylla with Alice in toe. Alice got on top of the dragon and Arnold handed Nina over to her after kissing her forehead.

Scylla flapped her ginormous wings, carefully lifting the injured woman before disappearing into the night. Right at that moment, Talos, Bad-Breath and Asterios walked out of the portal. Talos was missing an arm but he was okay otherwise. Bad-Breath was dragging a man behind him while Asterios walked with a dozen broken automatons.

"Master, I-" Talos wanted to apologize for his failure but Arnold wasn't in the mood for it and raised his hand telling the automaton to stop.

"I don't wanna hear it. Take the automatons, get back inside the domain and get yourself fixed. I'll talk to you when I've calmed down." Arnold's instructions were as clear as day, "Till then don't say a word."

Talos knew he had failed to do one thing his master asked for. He deserved to be punished. As Talos began walking into the portal, Asterios patted him on his shoulder. Even the usually emotionless minotaur could understand what Talos was going through.

"Both of you, go with him and prepare for battle." Arnold instructed Asterios and Bad-Breath who followed his command without any questions, "Leave the man here. I'll take care of him."

All of his summons knew Arnold wasn't calm. His anger had gone beyond the limits. There was no saving the ones responsible for this anymore. The only thing they could now hope for was to get a painless dead. Which, given the circumstances, was unlikely to happen.

Bad-Breath dumped Adrian near Arnold's foot before walking inside the portal. Now there were only three people left there apart from Arnold's summons, Arnold, Luke and Adrian. However, Adrian was barely alive. Most of the bones in his body were shattered and Arnold could almost see his bones all messed up even through the skin.

"Fix him up," Arnold ordered Natasha to heal Adrian.

Natasha was a bit confused, why would her master want to heal the one who conspired against the mistress? However, just as the rest of the summons, she knew better than to question Arnold when he was mad and did what he told her to.

Adrian had been knocked unconscious by Bad-Breath and didn't know what was happening outside. But as soon as he saw Arnold he knew he had to run. He tried crawling back inside the dungeon but something had latched onto his legs, pulling him back. Adrian turned around, almost on the verge of breaking down, to see that a tree had wrapped its roots and branches around his limbs and neck.

Arnold then snapped his fingers and the tree went into action, forcing its branches inside every orifice it could find. Adrian's eyes swelled in pain as his mouth had been stuffed with mud, dirt and timber. He frantically looked at Arnold, his eyes pleading for mercy but Arnold didn't even look at him and snapped his fingers again. The next second Adrian was ripped to shreds from the inside. The remains of his body flew everywhere. It felt like it was raining... A rain of blood, bones and flesh.

Arnold then turned his attention towards Luke, who suddenly found the strength to run away. But the same thing happened to him. The trees stopped him in his track, forcing him to kneel before Arnold.

"Where is Andrex?" Arnold asked the man, witnessing Luke wet himself the moment Arnold emitted his concealed aura.

"In... His mansion." Luke barely managed to mumble in despair when Arnold kicked him unconscious.

Arnold then turned towards Natasha, "Do your worst but keep him alive. When I return I want him begging me to kill him. Understood?"

"It'll be my pleasure, master," Natasha said, smiling like a depraved creature as Arnold made his way towards Andrex's mansion.