Wolves and Bats

"Lily, transform!"

This was the only solution Hao Ren could think of. That familiar scent of blood and cold sensation had appeared again. He knew that, as an ordinary human, there was no way he could stand against this "monster" before him that looked human but was actually another species. But after shouting those words, he did not hold out much hope: he was less than two meters away from the "girl" in front of him!

A rush of wind came from behind him. Hao Ren knew that transformed Lily was charging over to rescue him. At the same time, he immediately pushed off with his feet, preparing to leap aside and let the werewolf face this suspected vampire head-on. Then he would be safe!

But he had overestimated his own reaction speed—or rather, underestimated the fighting ability of "nonhumans." Almost the instant he thought of dodging, the black-haired girl in front of him reached out with movements far faster than human reflexes. She grabbed Hao Ren's arm and yanked him behind her with such brute force that it nearly pulled his bones out of place, then gave a low shout in a lovely voice: "Watch out!"

Hao Ren froze the moment he was flung away. That "watch out" just now seemed to have come from this dangerous creature in front of him?

By then, Lily finally arrived at the door a beat too late. To Hao Ren's despair, this airheaded werewolf girl had neither transformed nor brought a weapon. She was still dressed in her breezy, lively stay-at-home outfit, with neither white hair nor ears popping out. She bounced up to the door and cheerfully called, "Landlord, Landlord, I'm here! Is it the delivery guy?"

A nearly grief-stricken roar rang out in Hao Ren's heart: This idiot! Aaaah! We have absolutely no coordination! Aaaah!

Lily's idiotic behavior made Hao Ren completely give up hope of escaping the vampire alive. Although Lily immediately realized what was happening upon seeing the unfamiliar black-haired girl and transformed within a second, even picking up two bricks by the door to prepare for battle, he still felt there was no hope. Since last night, he never should have placed his hopes on this brain-dead werewolf! Stringing up some garlic from the kitchen and wearing it around his neck would probably have been more reliable than Lily!

Of course, he would later learn that garlic was actually useless against a certain vampire.

Seeing that her Landlord had already been dragged over by the enemy, Lily's face flashed with annoyance for an instant. But she still gripped the bricks tightly and let out a threatening low "woof" from her throat. "Vampire... it's daytime now. You couldn't beat me at night, so you're even less of a match for me during the day! Give the Landlord back, and I'll spare your life!"

The black-haired girl, now confirmed to be a vampire, showed no fear whatsoever. She stood between Hao Ren and Lily, extending her right hand in a defensive stance as her sharp Fingernails slowly lengthened. A chill and the scent of blood began swirling around her body. Yet her left hand quietly moved behind her back, where she waved it hard twice under Hao Ren's baffled gaze. It felt like... she was urging Hao Ren to leave quickly?

"Werewolf, since when did beasts start putting on airs and mingling in human cities?" The Vampire Girl's voice was cold and contemptuous. Though it carried an inexplicable hint of weakness, her disdain for Lily was obvious—even though the werewolf in front of her had smacked her with two bricks just last night. "Shouldn't catching rabbits in the wilderness be your proper job?"

"Hmph!" Lily snorted angrily. "Stupid vampire, I bet you'd never guess that I can't catch rabbits at all!"

Hao Ren wanted to just slam his head into something and die, so this brain-dead werewolf would not have to embarrass herself any further. Idiot, idiot, idiot!

Even the normally composed Vampire Girl was stunned by Lily's completely illogical way of speaking. She nearly laughed, but then she began waving her left hand behind her back even more forcefully. At the same time, Hao Ren heard a voice ring directly inside his ear: "Human, run first. I'll hold this werewolf back... Even during the day, I can still hold her off!"

Hao Ren: "...What?"

For once, Lily finally was not being an idiot. She noticed that the vampire had been distracted for an instant, so she immediately let out a low growl and charged forward while brandishing her bricks. She did not rashly throw them, likely because she was afraid of hitting the Landlord standing so close by.

"Die, winged rat!"

The Vampire Girl charged forward without fear as well. With a flick of her hand, a faint red streak of blood condensed in the air. Her sharp Fingernails, now over ten centimeters long, stabbed toward Lily's chest like a cluster of tiny daggers. "Die, beast that can only catch rabbits!"

"Stupid vampire! I told you, I can't catch rabbits at all!"

"Don't think you can distract me again with that trick. The same move never works twice on a vampire!"

In the instant Hao Ren was distracted, the two creatures beyond ordinary reason had already become entangled in battle. Lily darted left and right like a streak of silver light at the entrance to the rental apartment, desperately trying to reach Hao Ren. Meanwhile, the mysterious Vampire Girl was not much slower even in daylight. She became a black afterimage, red blood streaks and claw strikes flashing wildly as she repeatedly forced back the werewolf whenever Lily looked about to break through. Lily's roars and the Vampire Girl's shouts seemed to ring out from more than a dozen different places at once. This had completely surpassed the reaction speed of human eyes and ears!

But Hao Ren had recovered from his initial shock. Though he was still unsure of the truth, he knew he could not let these two keep fighting. If nothing else... he was worried someone would see this bizarre scene!

No matter how remote the place was, people still lived here. It was already morning, and the few residents on this street could come out at any moment. Lily and the Vampire Girl were making quite a commotion. If anyone saw them, there would definitely be trouble—Lily might really be captured by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, sliced up, and sent to the cafeteria to see how she tasted! Hao Ren fully believed in the national character of the great foodie nation!

When he saw a courtyard gate at the end of the street slowly being pushed open, Hao Ren panicked and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Stop! Quit fighting!"

His shout was earth-shaking. Hao Ren could practically imagine that, days later, the old men and women from the neighboring street would surround him and spend half the day asking whether he had suffered domestic abuse. But the shout really worked. The two storms formed by Lily and the Vampire Girl immediately came to a halt. They both looked at Hao Ren in bewilderment, then swiftly turned furious glares on their opponent.

Lily was still brimming with fighting spirit, as though that battle had only been a warm-up. The Vampire Girl, however, seemed to have expended a great deal of energy. She panted heavily, an unnatural flush on her face. It seemed that engaging in an evenly matched close-quarters fight with a werewolf under sunlight was no easy task. Still, they had one thing in common: despite such an intense battle, neither of them had shed a single drop of sweat.

The cold air the Vampire girl carried around with her was freaking freezing.

"You two might have misunderstood each other!" Seeing the two glaring at each other as though they could resume fighting at any moment, Hao Ren hurriedly stepped between them—though he stood a little closer to Lily, naturally. "First, I need to confirm something. Miss vamp... vampire, you weren't actually planning to kill me, were you?"

The moment he said it, Hao Ren felt that it sounded strange, but this was no time to fuss over wording. He felt that an enormous misunderstanding had occurred between the werewolf and vampire—one pointing toward a seriously messed-up possibility.

Sure enough, the Vampire Girl immediately widened her eyes. Keeping watch on Lily, she shot Hao Ren a quick glance. "I wanted to save you!"

Before Hao Ren could speak, Lily jumped in. "Who are you trying to fool?! You wanted to drink the Landlord's blood! I've seen it on TV—none of you vampires are any good!"

Hao Ren suddenly realized something: why had this werewolf learned so much from television? Was this her first time seeing a vampire?

"Wasn't it you who kidnapped this human first?" The vampire girl narrowed her slender eyes, killing intent radiating from them. "You kidnapped a human and forced him to help conceal your identity, so you could live in a human town. Few werewolves have functioning brains. You were using this tactic hundreds of years ago, and it still hasn't changed—no wonder your kind is nearly extinct."

Then Lily and the Vampire Girl continued glaring at each other, though it seemed that both of them were beginning to lose some confidence.

Having listened to the exchange while caught between them, Hao Ren finally slapped his forehead. "Sigh, what a mess... Stop fighting for now. Let's go home and talk!"

(The dozen or so people from Star Cluster Studio are ganging up to spam me—I've truly committed terrible sins in this life...)