The Rise Of A Porter

The ground trembled as Yan raised the dead Olympians once again to conquer their enemies. Only this time, their enemies weren't going to be humanity but the Gods. The sight of ten thousand armoured zombies didn't look pretty, to say the least. But Arnold didn't resurrect them to look good in the first place. All he wanted was for them to retain their stats, and thankfully their stats were more or less remained the same. He had asked Yan to resurrect them only because of their strength. If their stats would have reduced upon resurrection, they wouldn't be of much use to him other than being labours or a meat shield.

"Don't you think your abilities are a bit... overpowered?" Nicole mumbled to Arnold who was standing next to her, "I mean, we all get stronger by defeating enemies, but you're something else. Our growth pales in your comparison." 

"That ain't my ability. Well, maybe it is... this sh*t is too complicated anyways." Arnold didn't want to give too many details about all the resurrection stuff because he still didn't trust Donna.

Anyways, Talos' and Yan's abilities were theirs, to begin with. Even now, it might seem that the Olympians were a part of his army, but in reality, Arnold had no control over them as they belonged to Yan and Yan alone. But since Yan belonged to him, this indirectly made the Olympians his army. But he didn't need to explain all this to Nicole. Not until he found a way to subdue Donna without affecting Nicole.

"Alright then, let's keep things going. Talos you ready yet?" Arnold asked the automaton who kept hovering above Hercule's corpse rather than resurrecting him.

"Hm... I am ready master, but it seems our guest isn't." Talos mumbled a response after squatting down next to Hercules.

"What do you mean? Is the corpse in such a bad state that even you can't resurrect him?" Arnold rushed over towards Talos to see what was wrong.

"No master, that's not a problem this time. With my evolved resurrection ability, I can resurrect someone even if they have become a mashed potato." Talos replied before drawing his guns out, "The problem here is... this basta*d isn't dead yet."

"What the hell? How is that even be possible?"

"I know it seems strange but it's true. Even after being thrashed so hard, he's still alive. At least in the literal sense of the word. It's faint, almost non-existent, but he has a pulse. It seems like he is some sort of hibernation or something."

Arnold could believe what Talos was saying, but then he remembered that he never got the experience points after Hercules apparently 'died'. He had chalked it up thinking that technically the warriors were the ones to kill him. But then he was reminded that even if that was the case, he should have gotten a share of the EXP at least.

"This... sneaky bastard. He was most probably thinking some god will come and save him." Arnold kicked whatever remained of Hercules' corpse in rage, "Yan would you have been able to resurrect him?"

"I... wouldn't... have been... even if he... was dead..." Yan sincerely apologized for his 'incompetence'.

"Then that was his intention. he thought I'll try to resurrect him, fail and think he can't be resurrected. So he faked being dead hoping I would leave him be and some as*hole god would come to save his butt. Too bad he wasn't aware that Talos had a superior resurrection ability." Arnold scratched his forehead, "If it wasn't for Talos, he could have easily gotten away with this sh*t. Alice, Natasha, how could you miss such an important thing?" 

Alice and Natasha both were equally surprised when Talos told everyone that Hercules was still alive. To be honest, they hadn't noticed it. But it wasn't like it was their fault either. Even Talos was only able to determine that because he had decided to scan him for vitals on a whim.

"Master... I think it happened because there was too much lifeforce concentrated around him so we missed his almost non-existent life signs..." Natasha managed to mumble a response before Alice, "But now that you and Madam Nicole are the only ones alive on this Island... I can feel his diminutive heartbeats."

"I agree with her Arnold," Alice chimed in, "We are not trying to make excuses because we know we're in the wrong here. However, considering all the death and life that was simultaneously around us, it was easy for Hercules to hide among them..."

"Keeping that aside, I think it was more of a self-defence mechanism than a preplanned move. Because I don't think he could have thought of this by himself." Talos informed Arnold about his theory, "You know, just like the Automatic lockdown system we have incorporated in the automatons. Maybe the pain of being stomped was too much even for him so his brain decided to cut off the pain by shutting everything down. Either way, it doesn't matter. After all, I can easily kill him. Just give me the word, master. Those dreadful words."

Just because it was a serious matter, it didn't look like Talos would let a chance to embarrass Arnold get by him. But he forgot one thing, Arnold was the one who made him, not the other way around. He already had a response specifically prepared for this.

"I already gave the others the word to kill. They are the ones who failed to do so." Arnold was really close to smacking Talos for his cheekiness, "So, I don't think I need to give you morons the command once again to kill the same person. After all, you're the ones responsible for this mess, not me."

"Damn it." Talos rarely cursed out, but when he did, the others could help to snigger because he never used his voice to curse. Instead, he used one of Arnold's clippings that he had gathered over the years, "I miss the time when I was the smart one between the two of us..."

"Yeah, yeah get to work before I smack your head off your shoulders." Arnold shook his head before turning towards Nicole.

"What word is he talking about?" Nicole asked him.

"Believe me, you don't wanna know."

***

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