Chronicles Of The Crafting Hero

Earlier, before Tyler had unleashed his full assault on the Black Cloud Guild, the captain and his members stood outside the mansion. He gave them strict orders to remain on guard, for he was certain that Tyler would return. An instinct, honed by years of experience, told him that Tyler would come back to challenge them.

Recent events had solidified the captain's conviction. Tyler had effortlessly taken down a B-rank assassin from their guild. He had also dispatched Gary and a number of others with ease, even killing the White Fang, Gary's B-rank pet. Because of this, the captain was confident that Tyler was at least an A-class threat, even though Tyler still held the official title of a C-rank in his assessment records. The guild members weren't fooled; they believed that Tyler was a false ranker.

The captain believed that with a mage like Jason on his side, he would be able to better track Tyler. But the captain knew the situation was now trickier, since Tyler had shown the ability to teleport. This was unprecedented. Assassins, by their very nature, were masters of stealthand speed, not instant travel. And from the information they had gathered, Tyler's use of teleportation seemed effortless. He had even teleported with Rebecca, taking her away in a flash. But even with this new, and dangerous, ability, the captain was 100% confident that he, an S-ranked tank, could effortlessly defeat Tyler.

In that instant, the captain was slammed by a sensation unlike any he had known. A bloodlust, potent and alien, washed over him from an unknown source. Following it, an aura of palpable darkness surged forward. The captain planted his feet. He braced himself, steeling to meet whatever emerged, to face Tyler, the man who had slaughtered some of his guild's finest.

Knowing Tyler's is an assassin, the captain anticipated skills of stealth and speed. He accounted for related techniques, but not enough to threaten his S-rank, tank-class build. He didn't even activate his skill: Titan's Hide*.

Then, a movement shattered the air, a blur erupting from the forest's edge. The captain's eyes tracked its trajectory, the thought, *What the? He's so fast,* echoing in his mind. Tyler materialized before him.

Clad in dark armor that swelled with faint black smoke. Tyler's fist, encased in a darkness, even more darker than the smoke, was coiled back. The captain raised his sword, just as Tyler unleashed the attack. The fist connected, and a sonic boom erupted, flinging the remaining guild members away

The captain's eyes flared wide not in rage, but disbelief as Tyler's fist connected.

He didn't just fly.

He was hurled.

Stone cracked. Timber screamed. The mansion's walls shattered like parchment as he tore through them room after room, floor after floor a living projectile carving a ruinous path. Dust choked the air. Glass exploded outward. Somewhere, someone screamed. He didn't hear it.

Pain came in flashes ribs screaming, armor buckling but his grip on the dark blade never faltered. Even as trees splintered beneath him, branches whipping like lashes, he clung to it.

*Still not slowing down…*

The thought clawed through the chaos.

*No. Impossible. Only an S-rank hits like this.*

Then impact.

Earth buckled. He bounced, rolled, skidded a broken doll flung by a man's hand until his body met Veridia's outer wall. It didn't stop him. It *shattered*. Stone groaned, then gave way. He tumbled into silence.

Lying there, breath ragged, body a map of agony, one thought burned brighter than the pain:

*I didn't activate Titan's Hide …*

Regret swallowed him whole and darkness followed.

He woke with a gasp.

Night air stung his lungs. Vision swam blurred rooftops, shattered stone, the gaping wound in Veridia's wall where he'd punched through it.

"No…" His voice was raw. "This… isn't right."

He pushed himself up, trembling. Every muscle screamed. Blood trickled from his lip.

"An A-rank?" he rasped. "*Just* an A-rank?"

His fingers curled into fists.

"I'm Level 150. S-rank. Guild Captain. Even without Titanhide… that punch shouldn't have *done* this."

He stared at the ruin. At the silence. At the humiliation carved into stone and street.

"That bastard…" His voice dropped to a growl, low and molten. "He dared… in front of my own guild."

Rage didn't flare.

It ignited.

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The captain's eyes blazed with a crimson fury as he clenched his teeth, the veins in his neck bulging like cables under strain. *I'm going to make him pay for this,* he vowed, his grip tightening on the black, immense sword — the one that had split shields, shattered bone, and buried itself in the backs of kings.

He activated *Titan's Hide.*

His skin flared a faint crimson, the glow spreading like fever under flesh, hardening him from the inside out. At the same moment, he unleashed *Berserk.*

The world buckled.

In a heartbeat, the captain exploded forward — a blur of motion, a bullet ripped from a gun's cruel muzzle. He vanished from his position, his speed bending the sound barrier, warping the air into rippling shockwaves. The ground cracked beneath him with every step, fissures spiderwebbing in his wake.

Mid-stride, he activated: Slashing Sword.

The blade answered — edges sharpening beyond steel, beyond enchantment, humming with the promise of cleaving through anything in its path. A faint red glow ignited along its length, casting sparks that hissed against the night air. Each stride carved ruin into the earth, the soil itself trembling beneath his passage.

He arrived a whirlwind of fury, a storm given flesh tearing past the mansion's earlier wreckage, the rubble still settling from his own violent flight minutes before.

Instantly, he was behind Tyler.

Tyler red dagger low, stance coiled standing over Silvia. Her leg twisted at an unnatural angle. Her arm bent grotesquely. Her breath came in shallow, pained gasps.

*How dare you,* the captain thought the words a silent roar, a vow carved in blood.

He hurled the sword.

It became a streak of darkness a shadow given purpose, screaming through the air like a falling star wrapped in wrath.

Tyler moved.

Not much. Just enough.

The blade's edge grazed his side armor splitting, flesh parting a thin red line blooming across his ribs. A sharp groan escaped him as he leaped back, hand flying to the wound, eyes narrowing not in fear but recognition.

The sword didn't fall.

Its momentum reversed midair spinning with impossible grace, howling as it arced back like a loyal hound returning to heel. The captain caught it without looking the hilt slamming into his palm like it never left.

Tyler's crimson eyes flared with a startled shock as he cradled his wound. *He's back,* the thought slammed into him. *Stronger than before. And that blade… it ripped through my scales, through the shadow armor. It's not even affected by my blood.* He met the captain's gaze, the words a silent challenge.

Silvia rasped, her voice a fragile thread, "Captain… you're back." Blood bloomed, painting the ground beneath her. The captain whirled, his face a granite mask carved by fury. He surveyed the carnage, the scene a slaughterhouse of broken bodies. His comrades, the guild members, were scattered, their forms twisted in grotesque angles. Even the vice-captain, his head a ruin, lay beside his daughter, whose face was a canvas of crimson.

A ragged breath, a bellows of pure rage, tore from the captain's chest as he absorbed the devastation. "You… you killed them all," he choked out, his voice a broken rasp. "You killed all of them."

Tyler grinned, his lips peeling back in a mockery of grief, a viper's strike. He released his wound, *Acid Blood* ceasing to melt the armor. "Yes," he hissed. "And what are you going to do about it?"

The captain's teeth ground together, the words a whip that cracked, feeding the inferno of his rage. He moved before thought, a blur of motion. In an instant, he launched himself at Tyler, as if he had teleported. Tyler's eyes widened, a flicker of raw terror flashing across his features. *What the…*

The captain's sword descended, a crimson comet, aimed to shatter Tyler's shoulder.

The instant the blade kissed Tyler's shoulder, the assassin dissolved not with a sound, but with a ripple, his form unraveling into a swirl of dark smoke as the captain's sword cleaved empty air, halting just above the earth. The force of the swing, unchecked, tore through the ground in a wave of displaced wind, sending grass and dust spiraling in wild, panicked arcs.

Before the captain could reset his stance, Tyler reappeared silent, sudden materializing at his flank, dagger already arcing toward his neck. Steel met skin but not the yielding flesh Tyler expected. Instead, a sharp, ringing *clang* shattered the silence, the dagger glancing off the captain's hardened flesh as if striking plate armor.

Tyler's eyes widened.

*What? I can't cut him?*

There was no time to think, only react.

The captain spun, his motion a seamless, brutal pivot, and before Tyler could vanish again, the flat of the black sword slammed into his ribs with the force of a siege hammer. A thunderous *thud* cracked the air. Tyler's body folded breath ripped from his lungs in a spray of crimson, his form hurtling backward, limbs flailing, eyes wide with disbelief.

*He's so fast… He hit me before I could even teleport.*

Even as Tyler tumbled through the air, blood trailing behind him like a banner of defeat, the captain activated *Step* his body flickering forward in a blur of controlled fury. His blade descended once more, a crimson comet aimed to end the fight but it carved only empty night.

With a final, desperate hiss of escaping energy, Tyler's form dissolved collapsing into a puff of acrid smoke that scattered on the wind, leaving nothing behind but the fading black mist.

Tyler materialized beside the captain, a predatory glint in his crimson eyes. *If I can't cut him, I'll break him,* he decided, a plan hardening in his mind. With a spinning kick, he aimed for the captain's head. The blow landed, a sharp *thwack* that echoed in the sudden quiet. The captain stumbled, his legs scraping against the ravaged ground. A flicker of surprise, quickly masked, crossed Tyler's features. He had expected more.

The captain, abandoning all pretense of defense, swung his blade, a whirlwind of black steel. Tyler vanished, a whisper of displaced air, reappearing behind the captain's back. A kick, a solid *thud* against the captain's spine, sent him stumbling forward. He vanished again, and materialized, a blur of motion, kicking the captain in the shoulder, then the side of the face. Again and again, the blows rained down, a relentless storm of strikes.

Finally, Tyler teleported, unleashing one last, desperate kick, connecting with the captain's face. The force propelled him away, a strategic retreat. But to Tyler's shock, the captain didn't even flinch. It was as if he had kicked a solid wall; however, this was something else. The captain's unwavering resilience sent a chill down his spine. *This is getting dangerous. I can't keep teleporting like this forever.* His teleportation was limited to a two-minute window, a ticking clock of dwindling power. *Not to mention,* he realized, a knot of apprehension tightening in his chest, *it's almost as if this guy just keeps getting stronger the more I hit him. Almost like his skin is getting harder.*

Tyler then remembered what Grone had told him: that the more you fight a tank who has become a berserker and activated their skill, the stronger they get over time.

Suddenly, the captain charged at Tyler. His step crushed the forest ground, as if his weight was too much for the earth itself. The ground spider-webbed beneath his feet as he ran, the impact of each stride a visible tremor. Tyler charged at the captain as well, his mind racing, *This skill consumes manna, but this is the captain. He is the strongest one. I have no choice.*

The captain abruptly threw his sword at Tyler. The blade spun vertically, a blur of black steel. Tyler, mid-run, dove to the forest floor, crouching low. He slid on his knees, narrowly avoiding the BlackSword, which whistled over his head. He quickly launched himself from the ground, activating Shadow Strike. Dark smoke billowed from his legs as he unleashed a roundhouse kick, connecting with the captain's chest. He followed with a kick from his right leg, the impact a solid *thud*. Then, a second kick, aimed lower, in the abdomen, sending the captain skidding across the ground.

As Tyler turned to assess the captain, a sound, a rushing *whoosh*, caught his attention. He barely dodged the returning sword, which swung vertically, missing his chest by a hair's breadth as it arced back towards the captain. Tyler thought, *Shadow Strike barely scratched him. How am I going to take him down? His sword can easily pierce through my armor.*

Meanwhile, Silvia lay on the ground, her vision blurring. She was losing blood, and the world swam before her eyes. *It looks like the captain may have the upper hand,* she thought, the words a distant echo in her mind. *With his skills, he can take that assassin down. But I don't think I'll still be alive to see it. So this is what it feels like to die... I've seen so many people die. I've killed them. They've died from losing blood. I made them bleed. It feels like my energy is draining. This pain is unbearable. I don't want to die.*

Tyler, with renewed resolve, launched himself at the captain, attacking first. The captain roared, and a red glow erupted from his body. A red, almost visible, glowing smoke, like an aura, spread outwards, enveloping him. The energy slammed into Tyler, launching him backward and causing his ears to ring. Tyler spun in midair, landing on his feet with a groan. *What was that?* he thought.

Mid-thought, the captain used his skill, Step, and instantly appeared directly in front of Tyler. He swung his sword. Tyler tried to activate Shadow Strike, but a system prompt appeared: *All skills nullified*. The blade was arcing towards him. *Crap,* Tyler thought.

All the scales on Tyler's body rushed to the point of impact where the blade was about to strike. But the blade connected, and the scales seemed to shatter. Tyler was sent spinning across the landscape, hitting the ground repeatedly before his body slammed through a tree.