MONSTER OF THE KRANE

THE MONSTER OF THE KRANE

“Looks like you understand now.”

Drake stood at the edge of the crater, looking down at me.

I frowned.

Understand what?

My body was still buried partially beneath the shattered stone, but my mind was already trying to piece together what had just happened.

“Is this some lesson about not insulting the weak?”

Ever since I had become Vice-Captain, the name Will Gurberr had developed a certain reputation.

I looked down on weaklings.

I mocked those beneath me.

Perhaps Drake was trying to teach me humility.

But that didn't sound like him.

Drake himself wasn't exactly famous for respecting the weak.

Does he want to teach me that only the strongest have the right to look down on others?

“No.”

Drake shook his head.

“What you need to understand is that you'll never reach the top with raw magic and control alone.”

He rested his sword against his shoulder.

“You need attributes.”

“Skills.”

“And techniques that belong specifically to you.”

Only then can you truly rise to the top.

Attributes...

I already knew about them.

My sister had mastered both wind and water.

My father had possessed flame and wind.

As far as I knew, the four basic elemental attributes were flame, water, wind, and lightning.

From those foundations came countless variations.

Ice.

Cloud.

Steam.

And countless others.

But Drake's power wasn't an extension of any of those.

It belonged to another category entirely.

Demonic Arts.

I still had no idea who had come up with such a ridiculous name, but according to what I'd been taught, only specially chosen individuals could wield them.

I slowly pulled myself out of the crater.

If I wanted to remain important in the coming rebellion, I couldn't afford to win this by revealing my real strength.

I had already established Will Gurberr's limits.

Forty percent.

That was all I could use without completely destroying the image I'd created.

So I had to win using only that much.

“Enough talking, Captain.”

I raised my sword.

“Let's fight.”

I didn't have a proper plan yet.

For now, I simply needed time.

I charged my blade with mana once again.

Then I attacked.

Drake didn't move.

The moment I entered his range—

The world tilted.

My body was violently pulled sideways.

I was no longer being dragged simply downward.

The direction of gravity itself had changed.

That was the secret.

Drake wasn't controlling my body.

He was changing the gravitational force acting on me.

When the force pointed downward, my body was crushed toward the ground.

When it shifted diagonally, my instincts automatically forced me to compensate for the new direction.

My balance disappeared.

My attack became useless.

I rushed at him again.

Thud!

This time, I didn't crash into a wall.

My body landed perfectly against one.

My boots somehow found footing on the vertical surface.

Then—

Slip.

The gravity changed again.

I slid off the wall.

But I managed to twist in midair and land perfectly on my feet.

I immediately looked toward Drake.

Did he cancel the spell himself?

Or...

Was there a time limit?

I had been thinking about range.

But if there was also a duration—

That was much better.

A smile formed on my face.

I have a plan.

I turned and slashed the wall behind me.

BOOM!

Stone exploded outward.

Dust filled the air.

Large chunks of broken masonry tumbled across the training ground.

Drake didn't even blink.

“If you're planning to block my vision, don't bother.”

His voice remained calm.

“You become my target the moment you enter my range.”

Perfect.

I rushed toward him again.

Gravity struck.

My body was suddenly dragged sideways.

I allowed it.

The moment Drake shifted me out of my original position, a massive chunk of stone came flying from behind.

I had thrown it before charging.

The moment the gravitational pull moved me away, the rock continued along its original trajectory.

BOOM!

The stone slammed directly into Drake.

His body was blasted backward.

Perfect.

I had been moved.

But the rock hadn't.

Drake's ability could manipulate the gravitational force acting on me.

It didn't automatically control everything around me.

And the moment that thought entered my mind—

The pressure disappeared.

The limit has been reached.

I launched myself forward.

Drake was still recovering from the impact.

I closed the distance before he could fully regain his balance and swung my sword with everything I was permitted to use.

CLANG!

Drake managed to raise his blade at the last second.

The swords collided.

But the force behind my attack sent him flying backward.

BOOOOM!

He crashed into the stone wall.

The impact created a crater several times larger than the one he'd made with me.

For a few seconds, silence covered the training ground.

Then Drake slowly pulled himself out of the rubble.

He looked down at his sword.

Then at me.

A strange smile appeared on his face.

“You really are a monster.”

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

“Even after I blocked your mana-enhanced attack, I still got thrown that far.”

His smile faded.

“If that strike had landed directly...”

He looked at the crater behind him.

“I would have died.”

I remained silent.

My mind was racing.

His range is somewhere around twenty to thirty meters.

And the gravitational distortion seems to last somewhere around two or three seconds.

Maybe.

It could still be a bluff.

I wasn't going to assume anything yet.

But at least now I had something.

Information.

Drake stared directly at me.

“Tell me.”

My voice became quieter.

“Are you finally ready to get serious?”

He  didn't answer.

Drake simply looked upward.

At the night sky.

At the enormous full moon hanging above the training ground.

Then—

“Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!”

His laughter exploded across the field.

I froze.

Why is he laughing like that?

The moonlight reflected off his enormous frame.

His shoulders shook.

His laughter sounded less like a human laugh...

And more like a howl.

For some reason, he suddenly reminded me of the werewolves from the old fairytales I'd read as a child.

A huge man beneath a full moon.

Laughing like a beast. 

Drake stopped laughing.

For a moment, he simply stood beneath the full moon.

And somehow, that sight dragged an old memory from the back of my mind.

A story my father once told me.

A story about a boy born with absolutely no talent.

No exceptional bloodline.

No overwhelming mana.

Nothing that suggested he would ever become important.

Yet through nothing but relentless training and sheer madness, he climbed to the very top.

During the war against the Blood Kingdom, he completed 104 of 117 missions.

The remaining thirteen?

The Blood Tyrant himself had intervened.

My father once told me that whenever the Blood Tyrant heard even a rumor that this man had entered the battlefield, he would personally appear to face him.

Not because the man was stronger.

He wasn't.

The Blood Tyrant was overwhelmingly superior.

But the mere presence of this one human had become so dangerous that Ruken refused to leave his defeat to anyone else as there was no one besides him who could've killed him.

Throughout the Blood Kingdom, his name eventually became synonymous with fear.

They didn't call him the strongest.

They called him something far more terrifying.

I slowly raised my sword and pointed it toward Drake.

“You're...”

My eyes narrowed.

“The Monster of Krane.”

Drake's smile returned.

“Let's leave the past where it belongs.”

He raised his sword.

“We live in the present.”

And then I felt it.

Not the strongest mana I'd ever encountered.

Not the greatest magical pressure.

Something worse.

Malice.

A suffocating killing intent spread across the training ground.

My instincts screamed.

Every hair on my body stood on end.

For the first time since this duel began...

I felt genuine danger.

The man standing before me was no longer simply Krane's strongest captain.

He was the monster whose name had once been feared even in the Blood Kingdom and acknowledged by the Blood Tyrant himself he was the MONSTER OF KRANE.