Chronicles Of The Crafting Hero [REMASTERED]

Tyler stood in the monster zone, an uneasy heat of embarrassment climbing up the back of his neck at how instinctively he'd taken off after the fleeing wolf, chasing it without ever once deciding to.

Until a realization cut through the thought and stopped him cold. The wolf's path had been carrying it roughly in the direction of the base all along. Not directly, not in a straight line, but close enough that the trail it had carved through the underbrush worked almost like a shortcut in its own right.

He decided then and there. He'd follow the exact same route back. "Now that I'm done with the quest, I need to get back to Hector's shop quickly. I have to craft those recipes." His footsteps picked up speed by degrees, quickening out of a walk and into a jog before the jog gave way entirely to a full sprint, and at that speed the forest around him blurred into a single unbroken rush, the wind tearing hard against his face and dragging at his hair as he cut straight through it, piercing forward without slowing.

The trees on either side of him shuddered and trembled in his wake as he tore past them, branches whipping hard from the force of his passing, and he kept running like that, on and on, until he cleared a low bush in a single leap and came down hard on the other side, the ground giving way beneath the impact, a wide burst of dust and torn earth thrown outward from where his boots met the soil.

Something caught at the edge of his vision. A man, standing there. His eyes went wide the instant he placed exactly who it was, Bernardo, a sword held loose in one hand, its edge catching a thin glint of daylight, his whole body gone still and watchful as he stared back across the clearing.

Tyler's heart kicked hard against his ribs. He hadn't planned this, hadn't seen it coming at all, and yet here they were regardless, crossing paths again. The man he couldn't take down before, the one who'd fled and left him with nothing to show.

The one standing right there in front of him now. Something hot surged up through Tyler's chest as he turned to face him fully, and across the clearing Bernardo's own heart was hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird beating itself against the bars of a cage.

"You." Tyler took a step forward, his jaw setting hard, his eyes narrowing down on the man across from him.

"Stay the fuck away from me," Bernardo said, taking a step back, his knuckles whitening around the hilt still gripped tight in his hand. "I'll kill you, understand? You think I can't do it again?"

The words alone were enough to drive something hotter and tighter through Tyler's chest with every syllable of it. He knew exactly what Bernardo meant, the truth of how close he'd already come to dying at this man's hands wasn't something he could ever fully set aside, but hearing him stand there now and threaten to finish the job crossed a line Tyler wasn't willing to let go unanswered.

Tyler's fist clenched tight at his side, his eyes lighting with a faint blue glow, everything in him ready to break loose on the man standing across from him.

But the memory caught him before he could move, the last time he'd thrown a punch at Bernardo, the pain of it had landed squarely on him instead of the man he'd struck. Then he caught sight of something on Bernardo's face: faint bruising still marking his nose and the corner of his mouth, almost certainly left over from that very hit.

He understood it then, even with his attacks bending back around to strike him instead, that redirection clearly wasn't absolute. Some of it was still getting through. He could still hurt this man.

Tyler kept walking forward. Bernardo stopped retreating to match him, digging his heels in as if bracing for what came next. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Did you forget? You can never hurt me."

Before he could finish getting the last word out, a fist caught him full across the mouth, faster than he had any chance to react to. Bernardo's whole body left the ground under the force of it, launched backward through the air, the sword slipping loose from his grip somewhere in the middle of the fall and dropping away into the grass beneath him.

But in the same instant, Tyler felt an equally brutal impact strike him across his own mouth, agony blooming hot and sudden where no blow had actually touched him, and the force of it staggered him back several stumbling steps. He nearly went down onto his back before he caught his own balance, planting his feet hard beneath him.

Blood welled up and trickled from his nose a moment later, but through the haze of it he saw Bernardo groaning, twisting himself back around to face him again.

Bernardo looked to be in real pain of his own as well. A thin line of blood traced down from one of his nostrils, and his eyes went wide the instant he registered it, one gloved hand flying up to press hard against his nose.

That confirmed it for Tyler. Bernardo could still feel pain, only a fraction of it, maybe, but real all the same. Bernardo pulled his hand back and stared down at the blood smeared dark across the leather of his glove, then lifted his eyes back up to find Tyler already watching him, a grin spread wide and bloodied across his face, dark red slicking his teeth. Something like pure dread dropped through Bernardo's whole body at the sight of it.

"You're crazy," he muttered. Tyler advanced another step, and Bernardo's hand shot down toward the sword lying in the grass beside him. He snatched it up and leveled the point toward Tyler in warning.

A foot connected hard with Bernardo's face, closing the distance before the threat could mean anything. He tumbled over backward from the force of it, the sword falling loose from his grip yet again as he hit the ground.

Tyler felt the same brutal pain strike back through his own jaw, staggering him a couple of steps back. He nearly went down a second time before he caught himself and stood straight again, more blood running fresh from his mouth. It looked, by the feel of it, like his nose had broken too.

Bernardo gasped, pushing himself up on his hands. "Stop," he panted, his whole face bruised and swollen. *This insane power. How does he have so much strength? He's obviously suffering more damage than I am. But he's not stopping.*

Bernardo scrambled for the sword a third time. The instant his hand closed around the hilt, he pushed himself up onto his feet and went straight after Tyler. "I'll kill you," he said, swinging the blade in a hard vertical arc down toward Tyler's shoulder.

Tyler caught his wrist clean out of the air before the blade ever landed, and looked him dead in the eye. "You tried to kill me," Tyler said, his voice low and shaking with barely restrained fury. "Then you tried to steal from James." He tightened his grip around Bernardo's wrist. Bernardo grunted hard against the pressure of it. "Do you have any idea how hard James worked for what he had?"

He squeezed harder still, and felt his own wrist crack under the strain of it, the pain mirrored back onto him exactly as it always was, but he held on anyway, refusing to let it change anything. "All that money..." Bernardo's voice broke into a scream, his free hand flying up to claw uselessly at Tyler's grip, begging wordlessly for him to let go. Something in that same hand gave way an instant later, and Tyler felt it happen as sharply as if it were his own, a sudden, violent snap of pain that finally made him release Bernardo's wrist entirely.

Bernardo curled forward at once, clutching his ruined hand hard against his chest, a raw cry tearing loose through his gritted teeth. The pain of it hit Tyler just as hard, if not harder still, yet some steady certainty in him held that he could bear it regardless.

"What are you doing? Why are you doing this?" Bernardo staggered back a step, cradling his broken hand against his ribs. "You're gonna die before I do."

Tyler crouched low, meeting his eyes without flinching. Bernardo froze, caught fast in the intense blue glow still burning behind Tyler's stare.

"Are you seriously asking me that right now? Do you think I'm afraid of a little pain? This is nothing."

Bernardo's whole hand trembled where it hung useless at his side. "You're crazy," he said.

Tyler kicked him lightly in the chest, and the force of it sent him sprawling backward onto the ground regardless. Tyler crouched down over him and settled his weight onto Bernardo's abdomen, pinning him beneath his own body.

Bernardo thrashed and tried to twist free, but Tyler caught both of his arms and pressed them flat against his own chest, holding them there with a single hand while his other curled slowly into a fist.

"Stop! Please!" The words tore raw out of Bernardo's throat, cracking halfway through.

Tyler hit him anyway. The blow landed square across Bernardo's face, and the answering pain struck back through Tyler's own skull with the same brutal force, snapping his head back hard as though he'd taken the hit himself rather than delivered it.

He looked down at Bernardo again and struck a second time, the force of it alone sending a low, heavy shockwave rippling out through the ground beneath them, felt as a dull concussive pulse across the whole clearing.

He hit him again after that, and again, each blow landing in the same unbroken rhythm as the last, his own face taking every ounce of that same punishment back with each strike in turn, blood slicking down over his knuckles and across Bernardo's ruined face in equal measure, until at last he let go of Bernardo's arms and drew back.

Bernardo stared up at Tyler's face, swollen and bruised nearly past recognition. Both of them had lost teeth somewhere in the exchange.

"Please," Bernardo said, "I'm sorry. I will do anything."

Tyler curled his fist one more time.

"No. If you hit me again yo– you're going to die," Bernardo muttered.

A small smile broke across Tyler's own bruised, swollen cheeks. He let his fist drop and opened his palm instead. Bernardo's eyes went wide, swollen as they were, at the sight of a vial materializing in

Tyler's hand, its contents a slick, glowing green. Tyler tipped it back and drank it in a single swallow, and his skin lit with the same faint green glow that always came with it.

He looked back down at Bernardo, whose mouth fell open, small trembling cries breaking loose from his throat. Every mark on Tyler's face was gone. He'd healed completely, the damage wiped away as though none of it had ever touched him.

Tyler rose to his feet. Bernardo scrambled backward across the ground, dragging himself away on his hands. "No, that's not fair," he said, his voice breaking apart around the words. "This isn't fair."