"I have sinned, Father..."
Norton's eyes gradually cleared as he lay there, half-charred.
"I became a vampire?"
Looking at his right hand as it changed from its shriveled state, recalling what had happened before he died and the church books he had read over the past two days, Norton found it incredible!
Being reborn brought Norton a little joy, but far more amazement.
Although the books had already convinced him that vampires did exist, it felt entirely different when he actually became one himself.
It was a bit like seeing a supernatural movie come to life.
"This... there really is always a way out, Father!"
Norton looked at his recovering hands and felt that his body was a little strange.
But now was not the time to dwell on it.
He needed to get away from here as quickly as possible, at least before the church knights from the church arrived.
After studying vampires for so many years, the church surely had ways to deal with them. Although he did not know how the church knight in front of him had died, he was sure that if two of these heavily armored church knights came after him, he would be no match for them.
So his first priority was to run.
Norton stripped the armor from the church knight's corpse on the ground and put it on. Although it was a little tight in the crotch, it at least covered his still half-shriveled body and gave him a little more protection.
"Father, I'll be back!"
Norton cast a venomous glance toward the city with his cloudy eyes, then walked into the dense woods behind the mass grave without looking back.
He, Norton, never forgot a grudge!
Father Mia, fuck you!
"Whoosh, whoosh~~"
The north wind blew cold, rocking the wooden window of the small livestock shed back and forth.
The joints in the weathered wooden structure creaked and groaned.
Darkness enveloped the entire shed. A cow cried out in misery again and again inside, as though something were gnawing on its body.
"My lords, my lords, this is the only cow my family has left! You can't take it away!"
A somewhat elderly man's voice rang out from outside the shed, but the heavily armored church knight answered him with a vicious kick.
"Get lost!"
Church knights never showed any mercy to the poor beneath them.
The kick made the old white man vomit blood and caused a girl to burst into tears.
It also drew the attention of the beast inside the shed.
"Creak... bang!"
The shed doors were flung open, and the wind rushed in, bringing the cow's screams to an abrupt halt.
In the dark shed, besides the cow's faint cries, there seemed to be panting like that of a dog.
"Werewolf!"
The church knight standing at the entrance immediately shouted when he heard the faint panting.
As his shout rang out, several torches were thrown into the shed from outside, driving away the darkness and illuminating the scene within.
In the cramped shed, a bloody hole had been bitten into a cow's abdomen, and something had nearly hollowed out its internal organs.
Crouched beside the cow was a monster covered in black fur, with a long, narrow wolf's face.
With such a classic werewolf appearance, it went without saying what the thing was.
A werewolf!
Werewolves were one of the classic monsters of Central Europe. Like vampires, they were among the original monsters of Central European fantasy.
The last monster magazine Norton had read contained a description of this creature.
They too were products of God's crossbreeding, but unlike vampires, who were transformed from the dead, werewolves were born to she-wolves.
There was a small chance that a she-wolf would give birth to a werewolf. There were currently no research findings on why such a thing was conceived, so the answer could only be sought in theology.
Werewolves were born as mutants with bodies combining those of wolves and humans. Raised by she-wolves, they had no humanity and were wild to the extreme.
Like wolves, werewolves could also be domesticated. But they could neither become humans nor turn into wolves. They were more like genetically mutated wolves, though they still had certain special abilities, such as extraordinary regeneration and great strength.
The best way to describe them was as beasts.
But they were living creatures, completely different from vampires. Vampires were more like undead caught between life and death, while other monsters, including werewolves, were merely living creatures.
As the torches were thrown into the shed, the werewolf, startled by the flames, let out a piercing howl.
"Awooo..."
Then it crouched low, pushed off with its legs, and leaped toward the opening in the shed used to feed the livestock.
"It's getting away! Block it!"
The church knight at the entrance stepped into the shed with his greatsword, shouting as he went.
The werewolf moved more like a wild animal, but its body was by no means small. Even without its tail, it was a full 1.7 meters long, and its body bulged with muscle.
With that movement, the werewolf shot toward the window like an arrow.
But just as its body reached the window, a greatsword came chopping down hard.
"Awooo!"
With no way to change direction in midair, the werewolf could only try to dodge, but the greatsword still struck its leg.
There was no telling how church knights were trained, but their monstrous strength was immense. The blow chopped straight through the bone in the werewolf's thigh, drawing a piercing wail from its mouth. Its entire left leg was left hanging by a little skin and flesh.
Even so, it took the chance to escape the shed.
"Awooo!!!"
The werewolf fell outside the shed because of its severed leg. Propped on its front paws and right hind leg, it bared its teeth and howled at the church knight standing at the window who had cut through its left leg.
But unfortunately, church knights were like genetic warriors, and their combat prowess was simply astonishing.
Without a moment's hesitation, the three church knights standing outside immediately moved in and charged at the werewolf.
The wind blew so hard that people could barely keep their eyes open. It looked as though a heavy downpour might soon fall here.
The werewolf's severed leg seemed to be healing, but very slowly. Although this proved that it could regenerate a severed limb, clearly the church knights would not give it the chance to recover.
"Awooo!!!"
Seeing the three church knights charging at it, the werewolf opened its bloody jaws and let out a piercing howl, then turned and tried to run toward the dense woods behind it.
But the church knight who emerged from the shed took a crossbow-like weapon from his waist and fired it at the werewolf, which had already turned away.
"Pfft!"
What the crossbow fired was not a bolt, but a grappling hook attached to a chain.
The hook pierced the flesh of the werewolf's chest, and its backward-facing barbs caught in the flesh and the breastbone beneath.
"Awooo!!!"
A piercing wolf howl rang out. The agony of the hook catching on its bone drove the werewolf into a savage frenzy, and it knew it had no way out.
It turned around again and pounced on the approaching church knights, knocking the nearest one to the ground.
The werewolf's gaping jaws dripped with foul-smelling saliva as it frantically bit at the gaps in the church knight's steel helmet. The reeking drool and blood on its muzzle even dripped through the gaps into the helmet and ran onto the knight's face.
Whether because this world's ironmaking techniques were too undeveloped and left too many impurities, or because the werewolf was too strong, the werewolf that had pinned the church knight down actually bit through the steel armor over his face, driving its teeth into the knight's face.
"Crunch... crunch..."
The werewolf's bite was truly terrifying. Its gaping jaws clamped down, biting the steel helmet on the church knight's face out of shape!
Blood seeped from the helmet of the church knight beneath the werewolf, but the knight had also driven his greatsword straight through the werewolf's chest.
The agony made the werewolf howl incessantly, but the barbed hook on the chain tugged hard on its breastbone, dragging it backward, while the other two church knights closing in behind it brought their greatswords down fiercely!