The Beast Unleashed
"What the hell?!"
Hyuk-jin, who had just brought Seo Rin down, stared at him in shock. From that body whose heart had clearly stopped, a bizarre resonance began to rise.
"Yeah! That's more like it! Don't die so easily!"
Hyuk-jin smiled. From the moment Giovanni had seized him, he had steeled himself for the fact that he had thrown his body across the boundary between reality and unreality. So even if Seo Rin clawed his way back from those wounds, it would not be strange.
No—he had been hoping for it!
The joy of killing Seo Rin… the thought that it would not end with a single time made his heart pound so hard he could not suppress it.
But then it happened.
Seo Rin rose slowly, still smiling, and supported his broken neck with both hands. With a sharp crack of bone meeting bone, the cervical vertebrae snapped back into place and the wounds sealed over in an instant.
Even Hyuk-jin, whose guts had swollen as far as guts could swell, felt his courage wither at the sight of Seo Rin regenerating his wounds clean and rising again. A monster that set his own snapped neck with his own hands! Moreover, the Seo Rin of this moment strangely lacked any humanity. He had always grinned and dealt with the people around him with playful gestures, but this smile was wrong. This was not the expression of a guy who had just been murdered by his friend's hand.
Ordinarily he would have taken it as a provocation and flown into a rage… but the air itself was different now. Yeah—even the air was different! When had it gotten this cold? Hyuk-jin recoiled in shock, retreating step by hesitant step. A chill swallowed his entire body until he was thoroughly creeped out.
Crunch.
A pine branch snapped underfoot. Normally it would have been nothing special, but in this moment it held the power to chill the blood like a scream from a horror film. His already huddled body twitched.
"Heh heh heh heh!"
Seo Rin was glaring at Hyuk-jin with crimson eyes. Originally the colors of his pupils had differed, but now both burned blood-red. A dangerous light poured from the depths of those eyes—no matter how one looked at it, this was not the usual Seo Rin. Of course Hyuk-jin had been prepared for at least this much.
This was not just anyone. This was the target of interest of the vampire who had so easily subdued Hyuk-jin—Giovanni. Even if the man was being careful because of Se-gun protecting Seo Rin, the fact that a vampire capable of turning humans into lycanthropes was so uniquely obsessed with him meant Seo Rin was something special.
"Hey, Seo Rin! Wait!"
Whether Seo Rin could not hear him or simply did not care, he walked toward Hyuk-jin completely unprotected. Startled, Hyuk-jin reflexively threw a low kick. But the next moment, something astonishing happened.
CRACK!
"No!"
In that instant Hyuk-jin's knee tore open and his leg flew up into the air. Blood droplets that looked black under the moonlight and the mercury lamps floated upward. Seo Rin had dropped his stance and lightly extended a hand, splitting Hyuk-jin's knee apart.
Just by forming his fingers into eagle claws and swinging them in a crossing motion from left and right, muscle and skin tore away at once.
"Ha?!"
Shocked and dumbfounded, a gasp escaped instead of a scream. The power was one thing, but he was even more stunned by Seo Rin executing such a cruel attack without the slightest hesitation.
The Seo Rin until now, even if he were capable of it, was the type who would never do something this cruel. Soft-hearted and full of sentiment, he would jump in even when he was busy enough to die if he saw kids tormenting a stray cat or dog.
And that guy had just cut off a person's leg?
Well, considering what I did, I guess this response is natural.
Hyuk-jin grumbled inwardly, clutching his severed leg and hopping backward in a chicken-fight shuffle.
"Grrrrr!"
As Hyuk-jin retreated, Seo Rin seemed stimulated by it—he dropped to all fours on the ground and snarled like a beast. Probably forced beastification from the attack Hyuk-jin had dealt. Being a lycanthrope himself, Hyuk-jin instinctively understood.
"Damn it all! Things are getting really twisted."
Hyuk-jin retreated until his remaining leg caught on a tree root and he fell. In that interval Seo Rin's body began to mutate.
At first his flesh swelled like bread dough shoved into an oven and his clothes tore, then fur sprouted at a conspicuous speed. Even his synthetic-leather shoes could not withstand Seo Rin's beastification and split apart, revealing claws reminiscent of ivory paper knives. Walking around with those vicious things for claws…
"They'd be great for nail art. Damn it."
Hyuk-jin planted his hands on the ground and rose again by elasticity alone. By then Seo Rin had completely finished his transformation.
From within a massive shadow roughly 2.2 meters tall, two blood-red eyes glared at him while he snarled… a sight that would scare the elderly and pregnant women to death on the spot.
"Funny for me to say this, but this is truly absurd."
Hyuk-jin grumbled and once more planted his hands on the ground behind him, flipping his body and kicking off with both palms. A simple backhand tumble—but when he shoved the earth with both hands he instantly flew about seven meters back and landed in the backyard with the clothes-drying rack. Physical ability that would make track athletes despair.
But Seo Rin had no intention of letting Hyuk-jin escape. He charged with ferocious momentum. With a racket like a machine gun raking fire, tree branches snapped and the red-eyed werewolf burst through.
"KAAAAAAAH!"
Just hearing the roar made his head hurt. Indeed, branches shook around Seo Rin as wind rose. This was literally the eye of the storm. His instincts screamed at him to run.
The thing before his eyes was no longer Seo Rin or anything else. Just a bloodthirsty, ferocious beast! Fighting with one leg lost, there was no chance of victory. But…
With a leg gone, running is probably impossible anyway.
Then fighting to the end offered a higher chance of survival.
Without hesitation Hyuk-jin dropped to one knee beside the clothes-drying rack and thrust both hands forward into a defensive stance. Facing a standing opponent from something like a sitting shooting posture looked extremely dangerous, but Hyuk-jin, who had trained martial arts since childhood, was used to fighting from this position.
What a newbie would throw at a lowered opponent is still a soccer kick, right? Or would he pounce like a werewolf with his body? Teeth or claws?
Either way he planned to take the attack and apply a joint lock. Though he lagged far behind in terms of lycanthrope bloodline, there was not much difference in raw strength. The beastification was concerning, but Seo Rin had never learned martial arts or fighting techniques, and he had rarely fought opponents with power equal to his own. Yeah—the chance of victory was here!
But Seo Rin charged at Hyuk-jin and swung his claws at empty air.
SHIIIIING!
He thought he heard the wind, then both eardrums burst and the insides of his ears went warm. This without even being hit? Startled, Hyuk-jin rolled backward again to widen the gap.
"Wha—?!"
Suddenly a dizzying vertigo hit and his vision went black. Like fighter pilots in a sharp turn, a blackout phenomenon had occurred. Just now, when Seo Rin swung his claws, he must have attacked Hyuk-jin with something invisible.
THUD!
Seo Rin mercilessly launched a kick. Exactly as Hyuk-jin expected—a big swinging circle soccer kick like driving a soccer ball—but Hyuk-jin was blinded and could not counter. He merely thrust his arms out awkwardly to protect himself!
CRACK!
Hyuk-jin's arms caught on Seo Rin's claws and tore away. His right arm was completely severed and flew into the sky, landing on the roof of the clothes-drying rack made of vinyl greenhouse material, while the bone of his left arm was severed and hung limply by skin alone. Just defending a kick, and wounds this severe.
This was no longer a fight—it was one-sided slaughter. But Seo Rin did not stop.
"Grrrrrrr!"
Lost to his beast nature, Seo Rin raised his claws. But then—
Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap…
Applause sounded. A blond giant was approaching slowly while clapping. Only then did Hyuk-jin, vision recovered, recognize him and freeze in horror.
"Y-you? How are you here?"
Hyuk-jin stared at him in shock. This giant was the very person who had made him a lycanthrope and sent him after Seo Rin: Giovanni Vantero. He was pretty sure the man was some high executive in a giant vampire organization, but his head was so foggy he could not remember well.
"Well, my specialty is teleportation. No matter how renowned Mister Han is in this field, he would never have imagined I would space-shift out and come this way. But you did better than expected. Well done."
"Grrrrrr!"
Seo Rin snarled at the newly appeared enemy. Thanks to emergency beastification to escape crisis, he was now completely buried in wild nature. The closer a lycanthrope was to pure bloodline, the higher the chance of maintaining reason when beastified. And as a child of the primordial witch Lilith, Seo Rin should have stood at the pinnacle as a lycanthrope!
Yet Seo Rin had lost his self and was rampaging. That made him nothing more than a mindless simple beast. Giovanni was rather disappointed.
"Well then… doesn't seem like you'll listen if I ask nicely, so in this case shall I just cut the limbs off appropriately, pack you up, and take you away?"
Giovanni loosened up and slowly approached Seo Rin.
A slate-roofed building converted from a quiet rural church. In its backyard a scene was unfolding that one would believe if told it was a movie shoot—no, that one could not believe unless one said that.
A massive monster with a wolf's head and a blond giant of a foreigner faced each other.
"Damn."
Watching that scene, Hyuk-jin found his severed arm and roughly pressed it to the wound. Just lightly pressing, and the wound healed instantly; the arm reattached. It still would not move, but once the nerves fully recovered it would. The problem was the leg—the severed leg lay in the pine forest, so he had to leave this spot.
"KRAAAAAH!"
Seo Rin charged at Giovanni with a frenzied roar, swinging his claws. No matter how massive Giovanni was, Seo Rin's claws and talons and the tough muscular body unique to beasts were not to be underestimated. Hyuk-jin had defended without knowing better and lost both arms at once. How would Giovanni fight this monster of monstrous strength? Hyuk-jin watched him with a strange sense of anticipation.
"Hmph."
Giovanni easily space-shifted as if finding the charging Seo Rin pathetic, appearing behind him. The sight nearly made Hyuk-jin faint from shock. Wait—vampires could do that too?!
"He disappeared?!"
CRACK!
In that moment Giovanni held a long silver dagger and stabbed Seo Rin's lower back. When the dagger sank beside the spine, Seo Rin writhed in pain and swung his arms. Movements of a beast with not a trace of reason—just thrashing limbs as the body dictated. Even so, fast and strong!
"My, my!"
But Giovanni touched Seo Rin's arm. And attempted partial spatial transition. By space-shifting part of Seo Rin's arm, he severed it. Just that, and Seo Rin's arm was cut off and flung away!
"What?!"
Giovanni beautifully punched the lower jaw of the balance-lost Seo Rin whose arm was gone. That connected solidly too—Seo Rin was instantly bloodied and staggered back.
Watching that, Hyuk-jin could only be astonished. The Seo Rin who had looked like the ultimate ferocious beast until moments ago was being handled so helplessly. Was the gap that big? Were all the residents of this mad moon world monsters of that caliber?
"Insane."
It was already a critical injury that would have killed a human a hundred times over. But Giovanni did not stop there—as he stepped back he grabbed a crossbow and drew it.
PING!
With a sound cutting the wind a bolt flew and sank into Seo Rin's shoulder. Unable to withstand the impact, Seo Rin toppled backward and collapsed. Still not even recognizing that his arm was gone, he flailed trying to push himself up with his hands on the ground. The sight was so pitiful Hyuk-jin was shocked again.
"That idiot! Ah, crap."
This was not the time. Staying here longer was dangerous. If he did not quickly grab the fallen leg and get out of here, Hyuk-jin's own life was at risk! Hyuk-jin used his starting-to-move hand to seize a branch and flung his body forward, landing in the underbrush where the severed leg had fallen. Fortunately the blood smell was so strong he found it easily.
"Please attach already!"
Hyuk-jin grabbed the leg and pressed it to the wound. He needed the leg to attach so he could at least run. At this rate Seo Rin would clearly be caught by Giovanni, and Giovanni would kill Hyuk-jin to leave no loose ends.
So he had to run…
"Damn it!"
Hyuk-jin clawed at the still-incompletely-attached cross-section of the leg with his nails. The scab that had just started forming tore off and it hurt enough to black out, but thanks to that his mind cleared a bit. The regeneration speed also seemed to climb even higher.
"This dogshit! What the hell am I doing right now?!"
Since childhood he had taken pride in violence. The one who had wounded that pride was Seo Rin. So he had wanted to surpass the guy with his own hands no matter what.
He could not let that guy die by someone else's hands!
It was ridiculous, but he truly thought of Seo Rin as a friend. For someone who only reigned as a tyrant over other kids his age, Seo Rin was practically his only friend. In this world painted entirely gray, the only existence that still kept its primary colors, the only personality he could take interest in—that was how Seo Rin existed. Would he let that irreplaceable precious friend die by someone else's hands?!
"Insane."
Even thinking it himself was absurd. Only a madman could think this way. But… only a madman, huh?