Harry didn't answer right away.
He was still standing in front of the old man's house, while the tip of the black claw that had appeared earlier slowly disappeared behind the crack.
The atmosphere grew too quiet.
Even the sound of the wind seemed to vanish.
Harry tightened his grip on the rifle he'd just taken from the old man. His eyes remained fixed on the wall.
There was something behind it.
Something breathing.
Something that knew they were there.
And what bothered Harry the most...
was that the creature seemed to be deliberately letting them know it was there.
"Come inside," the old man whispered again.
Harry turned.
"Why?"
"Because you don't understand yet."
"Understand what?"
The old man swallowed.
"That creature doesn't attack randomly."
Harry fell silent.
"Then what does it do?"
"Choose."
"Choose?"
"Its victims."
Harry narrowed his eyes.
"How?"
The old man didn't answer.
Another breath came from behind the wall.
Haaaah...
Haaaah...
The hair on the back of Harry's neck stood up.
But suddenly...
his heart began pounding.
Thump!
Harry clutched his chest.
Thump!
Thump!
Heat spread from his neck throughout his body.
Harry grimaced.
"Agh..."
The old man was startled.
"What's wrong with you?"
Harry didn't answer.
The heat grew stronger.
As if the blood inside his body were boiling.
His hands trembled.
His fingernails grew slightly longer.
Harry saw the change.
"No..."
He gritted his teeth.
Not now.
Not here.
His body was reacting to something again.
Ever since the werewolf had bitten him a few nights ago, small changes had continued to occur.
But this time was different.
Much stronger.
Harry felt something moving inside his body.
Like a beast newly awakened from a long sleep.
"Harry?"
The old man's voice sounded faint.
Harry backed away.
"Don't come any closer."
"What's happening to you?"
Harry stared at his hands.
The veins in his arms began to bulge.
His skin felt hot.
His breathing grew heavier.
And then...
a voice appeared inside his head.
Kill.
Harry froze.
"What?"
Kill.
The voice wasn't human.
Deeper.
Harsher.
Wilder.
Harry closed his eyes.
"Shut up."
Kill.
"Shut up!"
He clutched his head.
His nails dug into his skin.
The old man backed away in fear.
"Harry..."
"Don't come any closer!"
Harry shouted.
His body doubled over.
His bones hurt.
They hurt terribly.
As if his entire body were being rebuilt from scratch.
Crack.
Crack.
Harry gritted his teeth.
"Ahhh!"
A growl rumbled from his throat.
The old man immediately grabbed another rifle leaning near the door.
But he didn't fire.
He only stared.
What was really happening to that boy?
Harry dropped to his knees.
His hands changed.
His human fingernails slowly lengthened into claws.
Black fur grew across the backs of his hands.
Pain spread up his arms.
But strangely...
in the middle of that pain, Harry felt something else.
Power.
An enormous amount of it.
He could hear the old man's heartbeat.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
He could smell his sweat.
The scent of wood.
The smell of gun oil.
Even the scent of a rat hiding beneath the floorboards.
Everything felt so clear.
Harry opened his eyes.
The world had changed.
Sharper.
More alive.
But also more dangerous.
He could hear a small creature moving dozens of yards from where he stood.
He could smell the dried blood on the old man's clothes.
And then...
he smelled something that emptied his mind.
Blood.
Fresh.
A lot of it.
Harry turned toward the forest.
The instinct inside him rose at once.
Chase.
Kill.
Eat.
Harry gritted his teeth.
"No."
His legs trembled.
"I'm not a beast."
The voice in his head answered.
Kill.
Harry slammed his fist into the ground.
CRACK!
The wooden floor split.
The old man flinched.
Harry stared at the mark his fist had left.
He froze.
"What..."
His hand began to feel normal again.
The fur that had appeared slowly vanished.
His breathing began to steady.
Harry stared at his palm.
"This power..."
He slowly stood.
His body still felt hot.
But the change had stopped.
For now.
The old man continued staring at him with a pale face.
"You..."
Harry turned.
"What?"
"You're not an ordinary human."
Harry gave him a faint smile.
"Looks that way."
The old man took a step back.
Harry raised a hand.
"Relax."
"You..."
"I can still think."
Harry looked at him seriously.
"And as long as I can still think, I won't kill you."
The old man didn't answer.
Harry then turned toward the forest.
The blood he'd smelled earlier was getting stronger.
Something was happening.
A fight.
He could hear it.
Very far away.
Yet his ears caught the sounds clearly.
BANG!
Harry lifted his head.
A gunshot.
Then came a scream.
"Attack!"
The sound of metal striking metal.
CLANG!
Harry narrowed his eyes.
"Over there..."
The old man was startled.
"What?"
"In the forest."
"What did you hear?"
Harry didn't answer.
He picked up his rifle.
Then he headed for the door.
The old man quickly stopped him.
"Don't go!"
Harry turned.
"Someone's fighting."
"Leave them alone!"
"What if they're human?"
"Harry!"
The old man grabbed his arm.
"You don't know what's out there!"
Harry looked at the man's hand.
Then he slowly pulled free.
"I know."
He opened the door.
"I also don't know what's out there."
Harry stared at the forest.
"But if I keep hiding because I'm afraid, I'll never find out what's happening."
He stepped outside.
The old man could only stare at his back.
"Foolish boy..."
Yet for some reason, deep in his heart...
he felt that Harry was the only person who might be able to survive.
Harry ran.
At first, he ran like an ordinary human.
But a few seconds later, his body began moving without him realizing it.
WHOOSH!
The trees blurred past.
Harry was startled.
"What?"
He leaped.
His body sailed over a massive tree root.
Then he landed lightly.
Harry stopped.
He stared at his feet.
"My speed..."
He exhaled.
Then he smiled faintly.
"Interesting."
Harry started running again.
This time, he was faster.
Much faster.
The forest, which normally took hours to cross, now felt like his own backyard.
He leaped over fallen trunks.
Dodged rocks.
He even ran across slanted logs without losing his balance.
His body moved naturally.
As if he'd been doing this for years.
Harry began to understand something.
The werewolf hadn't just given him strength.
This body had also given him instincts.
Hunting instincts.
Fighting instincts.
The instinct to survive.
And most dangerously of all...
those instincts felt good.
Harry smiled as he ran.
Then he quickly wiped the smile away.
"Don't get used to it."
He had to remain human.
The sounds of battle grew closer.
BANG!
BANG!
A bullet struck the tree beside Harry.
Harry stopped.
"Firearms?"
He crouched.
A human voice echoed in the distance.
"Don't let them get away!"
Harry peeked from behind the tree.
On a narrow road in the middle of the forest stood a black carriage.
Several armed men surrounded it.
Three bodies lay around the carriage.
Blood covered the ground.
Harry frowned.
"A robbery?"
But then he saw someone standing in front of the carriage.
A woman.
Her hair was long and dark.
She wore a black coat that billowed in the wind.
She held a pistol in each hand.
Her gaze was sharp.
Extremely sharp.
A large man attacked her with a sword.
The woman dodged.
One step.
Then she raised a pistol.
BANG!
The bullet struck the man's shoulder.
He staggered.
The woman moved closer.
"Still want to keep going?"
The man roared and attacked again.
The woman ducked.
The sword passed over her head.
Then she spun.
THUD!
Her elbow slammed into the man's jaw.
The man fell.
Harry fell silent.
"She's strong."
Not just strong.
Her movements were highly trained.
Not one of them was wasted.
The woman looked at her enemies.
"I'll ask one more time."
She spun the pistol in her hand.
"Who sent you?"
No one answered.
One of the men laughed.
"You think we're going to tell you?"
The woman sighed.
"What a shame."
She raised her pistol.
But before she could pull the trigger—
Rrrrgh...
A growl came from the forest.
Everyone froze.
So did Harry.
It wasn't coming from inside him.
The sound came from the other side of the forest.
Then three massive creatures emerged.
Their bodies resembled wolves.
But they were nearly twice the size of ordinary wolves.
Their skin was covered in black scales.
Their eyes were red.
One of the men shouted.
"Monster!"
The creature lunged.
The battle erupted again.
The mysterious woman fired.
BANG!
One monster fell.
But the other two attacked at the same time.
Harry watched their movements.
Too slow.
He didn't know why his mind immediately judged them that way.
His body moved.
WHOOSH!
Harry burst out from behind the tree.
He leaped high.
Then landed directly in front of one of the monsters.
THUD!
His claws slammed into the creature's head.
The monster was thrown several yards away.
Everyone fell silent.
The woman stared at Harry.
Harry himself was stunned.
He looked at his hands.
Black claws.
Fur had begun growing along his arms.
His eyes felt hot.
"Ah..."
He realized it only now.
The change had returned.
The second monster lunged.
Harry dodged.
His body spun on instinct.
His claws struck the monster's chest.
SLASH!
Black blood sprayed.
The monster fell.
Harry panted.
The instinct in his head screamed.
Kill the last one.
Harry turned.
The last monster was running toward him.
He lowered his body.
Then lunged.
The two creatures collided.
CRASH!
Harry bit into the monster's neck.
His body moved without thought.
The monster thrashed.
Harry held it down.
Then...
it went still.
Harry released it.
He stood amid the blood.
His breathing was heavy.
He looked at both his hands.
"I..."
He had just killed a monster with his bare hands.
But something strange happened.
A faint light began to pour from the monster's body.
Harry stepped back.
"What is that?"
A small object emerged from the creature's chest.
A red crystal.
The crystal floated in the air.
Thump.
Thump.
Like a heart.
Harry moved closer.
Something inside him gave him an instinctive command.
Take it.
Harry reached out his hand.
The moment his fingers touched the crystal—
WHOOSH!
Hot energy poured into his body.
Harry staggered.
"Agh!"
His eyes widened.
He felt something flow through his blood.
Heat.
Cold.
Then...
calm.
A voice sounded inside his mind.
[Magical energy detected.]
Harry froze.
"What?"
[Body synchronization successful.]
A strange sensation filled his mind.
[First ability awakened.]
Harry held his breath.
[Predator Instinct.]
The world suddenly felt different.
He could smell every creature around him.
Know their direction.
Know whether they were afraid.
Angry.
Or hunting.
Harry stared at the forest.
"So..."
He smiled faintly.
"I really did get an ability."
But his smile vanished when he realized someone was watching him.
Harry slowly turned.
The mysterious woman from earlier stood several yards behind him.
Her pistols were still in her hands.
But she wasn't aiming them.
She was simply staring at Harry.
Their eyes met.
Harry could smell her.
The scent of night-blooming flowers.
A faint trace of iron.
And something he couldn't explain.
The woman also looked confused.
She clearly hadn't expected the monster that had just helped her...
to have eyes like a human's.
Harry stared at her.
The woman stared back.
For a moment, neither of them said a word.
The wind moved through the trees.
The woman's hair stirred slowly.
Harry didn't know who she was.
The woman didn't know who Harry was either.
And yet, for some reason, the brief encounter felt like the beginning of something far greater.
Harry finally stepped back.
His wolf instinct whispered.
Don't attack.
Harry turned around.
Before leaving, he glanced back one more time.
The woman was still standing there.
Still watching him.
Harry then disappeared into the forest.
The woman lowered her pistols.
One of her men approached with a pale face.
"Miss..."
The woman didn't answer.
"What kind of creature was that?"
The woman continued staring in the direction Harry had disappeared.
A few seconds later, the corner of her mouth lifted.
"I don't know."
She holstered her pistols.
"But..."
Her eyes narrowed with curiosity.
"He's definitely not an ordinary werewolf."
Meanwhile, deep in the forest, Harry ran without looking back.
But one question continued circling through his mind.
Who was that woman...?