Werewolf Secret Arts

Hao Ren stared blankly at the silver-haired girl before him. Her long silver hair fluttered in the cold wind, her Golden pupils glowed beneath the night sky, and, more importantly, those pointed ears made it impossible to look away. If her face had not remained unchanged, Hao Ren would hardly have recognized her as Liu Lili, the ditzy girl he had brought back from downtown not long ago.

But it really was her—her appearance confirmed it, and so did her clothes.

The wind around them was cold, the moonlight overhead was cold, the clothes on his body were cold, even the air he exhaled was cold—Hao Ren felt as though he was about to freeze solid. Yet this abnormal chill kept him clear-headed, and with the thick, inescapable stench of blood all around them, that clarity was even more important. It allowed him to stay alert while trying to piece his Worldview back together, hoping to figure out why something like this had happened in the real world.

He did not casually strike up a conversation with Lily like before. Perhaps the strange surroundings had put him in no mood to talk, or perhaps Lily's unusual appearance left him unsure how to begin. To be fair, beast-eared girls really were adorable, but who knew whether this beast-eared girl had undergone some personality-changing transformation? Hao Ren was one hundred percent certain that he could see a trace of primal savagery in Lily's eyes. It terrified him, and his mind immediately began replaying all sorts of bizarre domestic and foreign stories.

As the cold and bloody stench around them grew stronger, a thin layer of frost covered the path. At some point, the bright moon in the sky had also been dyed a faint red. Hao Ren wore only thin summer clothes, and he was shivering harder and harder in the freezing wind. Lily, however, seemed completely unaffected. She merely sniffed hard, her ears twitching a few times. "Cunning bat. It used the smell of blood to cover up its own scent... Landlord, don't stray too far from me. Those flying things operate at night. Sneak attacks are what they do best."

After "transforming," Lily spoke with an icy, unfamiliar edge, but Hao Ren could not help sighing in relief when he heard what she said. It seemed her personality had not changed, so he finally dared to ask, "Lily, what is going on? You..."

"I'm a werewolf." Lily's ears stood even more alertly than before, and pride filled her voice. "I don't know why, but I'm a werewolf! I used to keep my identity hidden, though. This is the first time anyone has seen me like this... Tch, getting involved with those flying bastards never leads to anything good."

"Oh." Hao Ren responded, thinking that the Worldview he had held since childhood might no longer be usable. But just as he was about to say something else, Lily suddenly shouted, "It's here!"

Almost the instant Lily's words fell, Hao Ren saw the edge of the red moon tremble in the corner of his eye. Then, a black dot abruptly expanded from the moon's halo and lunged straight at him!

The black dot expanded into a shadow. Hao Ren vaguely felt that it did not resemble a bat, but rather a cloaked humanoid figure. Yet he had no time to think further, because the shadow was already right in front of him!

Every muscle in his body had already tensed, ready for him to dodge at any moment. The instant he realized he was the target, his first reaction was to leap aside. At the same time, the shadow shot past, barely grazing his hair.

The black shadow missed its target and was about to crash into the ground, but Lily did not let the opportunity pass. The instant Hao Ren dodged away, she whipped a kick at the attacker. Her attack was simple and brutal, and the kick even produced a booming sonic crack. Then came a rapid series of popping impacts. Hao Ren could only see the silver-haired, wolf-eared girl become a silver-white flash almost as fast as the black shadow, fighting that blurry, vaguely humanoid shape with the simplest punches and kicks. There were no techniques or patterns to her movements; every punch and kick was direct. Yet they were brutally effective. The air rippled visibly beneath her fierce strikes, and the black shadow gradually fell into a disadvantage. At last, it suddenly contracted into the shape of a bat and shot into the sky, seemingly preparing to flee.

Lily's final punch missed. The black bat had already flown to the top of the wall. She frowned in annoyance and let out a series of low "woo woo" growls, like a jackal or wolf baring its fangs. Hao Ren knew that sound very well—he had lived in the mountains back in his hometown as a child, and there were wolves there at night.

That was the sound!

But this was not the time to marvel. Hao Ren knew he had been dragged into something unbelievable. Under normal circumstances, after reading a novel or watching television, he might have eagerly pondered such a miraculous experience. But right now, he only knew that this was a matter of life and death. The bat had not left after escaping into the air. It simply circled lazily overhead, as though mocking the werewolf on the ground for being unable to fly. As it flew, it even traced all kinds of shapes through the air—an S one moment, a B the next...

Hao Ren knew that as long as the bat kept circling overhead, he would not be safe. The werewolf girl seemed formidable in close combat, but she obviously could not fly and had no ranged attacks. More importantly, she was a ditz—if the bat swooped down at him again, Lily might not be able to stop it! What if she failed to react in time?

"Woo..." The furious threatening growls in Lily's throat became increasingly suppressed, and the fur on her ears stood up strand by strand. Then she suddenly raised her head and let out a clear, distant howl at the moon. "Awooo—"

The instant she threw back her head and howled, the bat in the sky dove down at high speed. Hao Ren nearly jumped out of his skin. I knew this werewolf girl was a ditz! At a life-or-death standoff like this, why the hell are you striking a pose?!

But just as the bat, wrapped in black mist, was about to reach Lily, Hao Ren suddenly saw her flick her wrist. Before he could see what had flown out, a shrill whistle tore through the air beside him. The diving bat only had time to partially turn itself into mist before it was struck hard and fled messily back into the sky. Only then did Hao Ren finally see what Lily held in her other hand: it was square, sharply edged, bright red and chillingly menacing—a brick!

"Ha! Keep flying if you've got the guts!" the Werewolf girl shouted provocatively at the bat circling above. "Don't think having wings means I can't deal with you! Ever since the day I found out I was a werewolf, I've been studying how to deal with flying assholes like you! I practiced this Heavenly Meteor Brick move for five whole years! Come on, fight me!"

Hao Ren collapsed headfirst onto the ground. How could the legendary werewolf's ultimate technique be throwing bricks? And it had actually worked!

The bat in the sky had evidently been hit hard by that brick. It flew crookedly now, and the blood stench and cold mist all around them seemed to fade away with it. Clearly, the bat could no longer sustain its power. It faced off against the Werewolf girl for several minutes, and during that time Lily quickly picked up another brick from the ground, reloading herself. Seeing this, the bat finally seemed to lose heart. After making one final circle in the sky, it turned and flew into the dark night.

Lily refused to let a drowning dog go unpunished. With two whooshes, she threw both bricks in her hands. Hao Ren could not see their trajectories, only the bat's body lurching crookedly again. At least one of the bricks had clearly hit its mark—the Heavenly Meteor Brick she had practiced for five years was indeed reliable.

But Hao Ren was more worried about where the bricks Lily had thrown would eventually land. This Werewolf girl possessed absurd strength; the bricks' initial speed was probably not much slower than cannon shells... He could only pray that this place was vast and sparsely populated. Hopefully no unlucky person would be caught up in this supernatural battle.

The attacker had been driven back, and the surroundings gradually returned to normal. The bloody stench vanished without a trace, as though it had been an illusion. The faint sultriness of a summer night returned. Hao Ren rubbed his nose and sneezed violently. Such a drastic change in temperature was not something a normal person could withstand. It looked like he would not escape catching a cold.

He looked up at the Werewolf girl from before and watched her beautiful silver hair turn back into its original short black hair at a visible rate. Her energetic wolf ears also disappeared. He smacked his lips, but had no idea what to say.

Even Lily could sense the awkward atmosphere now, but she seemed to have expected it—or perhaps she had already prepared herself for it. She only gave Hao Ren a slightly awkward smile, bent down to pick up her large suitcase, hoisted it onto her shoulder, and turned to leave. "Well, Landlord, I won't rent the house anymore... Hurry home. Oh, and don't tell anyone about what happened today. I'll be in a lot of trouble."

After saying that, Lily turned and walked away.

"Wait!" Hao Ren finally came to his senses after Lily had taken several steps away. "Where are you going at this hour? Come back with me and get your luggage settled in already..."

Lily turned back in astonishment, her big eyes shining in the night and filled with confusion. "Why? Aren't you afraid that flying thing will come back? It might be after me—I'm a werewolf. I'm mortal enemies with things like that."

Hao Ren gritted his teeth, then finally gave a chuckle. "Because I'm a good man!"