The Howl on the Rooftop
Seo Rin threw up his arm as if he could see the bullet coming. The sniper round failed to punch through his body and stopped dead inside his forearm.
"Grrrrrrr!"
That was enough to fix the enemy's direction. Seo Rin bolted forward at once, vaulting over buildings. He kicked off the wall of a massive neighboring officetel, launched himself onto the roof in a single bound, and slashed with his nails.
In an instant his nails elongated into hideous silver hooks that tore through the rooftop shadows. The scream of metal on metal rang out, and something toppled onto the roof. Startled, Seo Rin looked closer—and froze. Inside a large steel case sat nothing but a sniper rifle.
"……Kyaaaaah!"
The case was fitted with a camera, remote controls, and a rotating mount so the gun could be fired from afar. What little reason Seo Rin still possessed evaporated completely.
Stiff silver-gray fur erupted across his body, shredding his clothes. In moments Seo Rin had become a grotesque hybrid, half man and half beast.
Standing still, the luxuriant silver-gray coat might have given him a certain dignity. Lost to rage, however, he was nothing more than a mindless beast.
"What's that noise?"
People on their way to work jerked their heads up at the racket from the rooftop. A long, drawn-out howl had begun—exactly the cry of a Siberian husky or Alaskan malamute.
"Who keeps a dog on the roof?"
They all stared up at the sleek officetel in bewilderment. No one would be raising a dog on the roof of a luxury building only two years old.
Curiosity satisfied once the howling died down, they went back to their own paths, back to their peaceful, monotonous days. All except one. A young man in a black racing jacket turned away from the crowd and headed straight into the officetel lobby.
Paolo watched the entire scene through his surveillance cameras. That Seo Rin had survived the remote-controlled gun nest prepared in advance was surprise enough. Yet the wounds were clearly fatal. The forced transformation of his body to keep itself alive made that plain.
"This is getting out of hand. If I'm not careful that thing's going to start tearing into people."
When a lycanthrope was forced into beast form by protective instinct—or under the full moon against its will—most of them turned vicious. Someone who understood their own power and knew how to master it could still hold the reins. But Seo Rin was an obvious novice; the odds that he would lose all reason and attack humans were high.
That did not mean Paolo was about to leave his hideout. A man who had laid multi-layered traps and conducted sniper fire purely for his own safety had no reason to risk himself just because people might die.
The chaos and slaughter that would follow were not what he wanted either, of course. Still, for the moment he remained a cowardly spectator, eyes fixed on the screen.
Then—a young man in a black racing jacket flickered across the camera feed. He ripped the rooftop shutter open with his bare hands, strolled in as if nothing were amiss, and casually tossed the heavy shutter aside.
"Is that… the Beast?"
Among the mages he was remembered as the incarnation of madness who had single-handedly stormed Flex Medical—the medical conglomerate controlled by Tetra Anax—and slaughtered countless vampires.
Demon Beast. Massacre on Legs. Enrage. Every epithet that trailed after Han Se-gun was rotten. The mages, who in a certain sense were allies of the vampires, found this uncontrollable madman deeply troublesome.
Yet Paolo, still young by mage standards, privately found it galling that even their elders flinched at some green Eastern brat. Wasn't he getting overrated just because he was a little unhinged?
"Let's see what he's really made of."
At that exact moment Han Se-gun locked eyes with the camera. He had already found the carefully hidden lens? Even through the screen Paolo recoiled in shock.
Fzzzzzt!
Static flooded the monitors.
A rough wind funneled between the city's concrete towers. Se-gun, whose soul had long since been invaded by ghosts in a way no ordinary human's was, looked down and saw indigo thoughts surging along the wind like a raging current, the buildings standing in its path. The wind itself formed whirlpools and made eerie noises.
Thud.
Se-gun drew a knife and flung it at the surveillance camera—clearly left behind so the remote sniper could keep watch on the scene.
"……Grrrrrrr!"
The sound of the thrown knife set Seo Rin growling. Transformed into a silver-gray half-beast, he clung to a steel tower with razor claws.
"I was going to see how you'd handle it… and you let yourself get played by a half-assed bastard like that."
Se-gun spoke as he closed the distance. With every step he took, Seo Rin flinched back in terror. Around Han Se-gun the wraiths howled and spat hideous curses.
"Kyaaah."
Unable to bear the crushing pressure, Seo Rin charged. The moment his forepaw lashed out, Han Se-gun met the full-speed rush head-on.
Crack!
Se-gun's elbow smashed into Seo Rin's brow. He slipped through the gaps in Seo Rin's charge with bullet-like speed and drove the elbow home. In a single blow the skull fractured and blood sprayed.
"Gah!"
"Hm?"
But the monster Seo Rin had become paid no mind. He clenched his forepaw into a fist and swung. Han Se-gun deflected the punch while slamming a low kick home.
He failed to completely redirect the fist. Seo Rin's raw power was simply too great; even after Se-gun knocked the blow aside, it still grazed his shoulder.
"Kyao!"
Seo Rin opened his hand again and drove those razor claws deep into Se-gun's shoulder. Dark, almost black-blue blood—stained by the darkness inside him—spurted out. In that same instant a pitch-black blade punched straight through Seo Rin's back. From nowhere Han Se-gun had produced a massive Western sword and impaled Seo Rin clean through the chest.
"This is going to sting a little."
Se-gun kept the sword buried and drove forward. Seo Rin tried to throw him off, but the pain left him unable to move, and Se-gun's charge was too fast, too violent. Before he could react he slammed into the wall. With the blade still inside him the impact shredded his torso into ragged ruin.
"Kuuuh!"
Mindless with rage, Seo Rin reached for Se-gun's head. No matter how strong a man was, flesh and bone would not survive that grip. Se-gun simply twisted his body sideways and began to run with Seo Rin still skewered on the sword. The blade scraped along the wall, trailing sparks.
"Hah!"
Still running with his burden, Se-gun planted a powerful foot, spun hard in the exact opposite direction of his charge, and ripped the sword free. The blade tore sideways out of Seo Rin's flank in one brutal motion.
Pssh… cough…
A strange sound, like air escaping a tire, accompanied the wet cascade of organs, blood, and flesh that tumbled from Seo Rin's body in chunks.
Receiving an attack that nearly bisected him and still not dying was remarkable. Only then did Se-gun realize he had gone too far. He flung the sword skyward. The blade, black as pure night, summoned darkness into itself and vanished into thin air.
"……Damn. That was a mistake."
To Han Se-gun, Seo Rin was still a precious lure—bait meant to draw out Tetra Anax and other vampires. He could not be allowed to die by Se-gun's hand. Yet the wound was catastrophic, and Seo Rin had already been forced into transformation by a fatal injury. Left alone he would die for certain.
Se-gun approached. The transformation had already receded; Seo Rin lay moaning in agony. Seeing the split flank and the spilled organs, Se-gun had no choice. He scooped the organs up with his bare hands and shoved them back inside.
"What a pain. What am I supposed to do if he dies on me?"
Muttering, he pulled a small pack from inside his jacket and tore it open. Inside were vinyl gloves, surgical needles, and thread. Without hesitation Se-gun began suturing Seo Rin's organs.
Torn flank muscle and skin were nothing serious for a lycanthrope like Seo Rin. Ruptured organs, however, meant catastrophic bleeding and the risk of blood pooling in the abdominal cavity until everything necrotized.
"Nnngh…"
Utterly drained, Seo Rin simply surrendered his body to whatever Se-gun was doing.
"Lilith's descendant, and all you've got going for you is the regeneration. Not much else, huh."
Han Se-gun snipped the surgical thread with the knife he kept strapped to his ankle. The emergency treatment was finished, but he could not leave Seo Rin here.
He stripped off his own jacket, draped it over Seo Rin's nearly naked body, and hoisted him up in one clean motion.
"People are going to notice… but there's no other way."
He walked toward the officetel's elevator.
Whooooosh—
A cold wind blew. Sky and earth alike were painted gray across a vast snowfield. Someone's hand led him forward as he walked.
His body still straddled the boundary of magic; the young flesh knew neither fatigue nor the true pain of cold. Only the many frozen corpses lying along the path hinted at the chill.
The little boy lifted his head to look at the owner of the hand that guided him. But the figure stood against a light too dazzling; the face was invisible.
"……Mom?"
The boy spoke without thinking. The other simply shook their head. Sudden terror seized him and he tried to pull free—but before he could let go, the world before his eyes flared blindingly bright.
"You awake?"
A ceiling of carefully finished woodwork and a decorative fan spinning lazily overhead came into view—expensive interior design. Startled, Seo Rin pushed himself up and saw a woman with softly waved long hair smiling as she adjusted the collar of her blouse.
She looked to be in her late twenties, though her real age was anyone's guess. Change the clothes and makeup and she could pass for almost any age. One thing was certain: she was a rare beauty. Under any other circumstances Seo Rin would have felt a considerable stir of interest.
"You woke up much faster than expected. Hello. How are you feeling?"
"……Mom, huh. That's rich. Heh."
Behind her, Han Se-gun was struggling not to laugh. Seo Rin stared at him in shock. Se-gun was wearing an apron and drying dishes.
"What the hell are you doing?"