Taeun Aldhiyaab's agile, elongated strides barely made a sound as his heavy boots connected with the ground.
…
He discovered this remarkable ability after a noisy misstep during his initial hunt, realizing the importance of remaining inconspicuous for subsequent endeavors. As he honed and tested the capabilities of his transformed physique, Taeun Aldhiyaab unearthed that he possessed superhuman attributes beyond mere speed and strength, which were further amplified during his hunts.
The inaugural hunt had been more of a serendipitous encounter rather than a calculated pursuit. Without undergoing his transformation, Taeun Aldhiyaab's errors against the trio of elderly Werewolves could have resulted in far more than the loss of a mere liter of blood and the seven broken bones he managed to escape with. For the subsequent hunt, Taeun Aldhiyaab relied heavily on his heightened senses, particularly his acute sense of smell and intuition. Although facing a modest pack of four Werewolves in their constant beastly form, dispatching them felt more like a recreational challenge compared to his initial ordeal. Despite sustaining injuries comparable to his prior encounter, Taeun Aldhiyaab successfully completed the task without resorting to his transformation.
…
'It's advantageous that he remains consumed by his instinctual savagery,' Taeun Aldhiyaab reflected, maintaining his pace alongside Don's werewolf form.
Eager to strike, Nibelrous's Rabies anticipated the gruesome act of beheading and extracting the creature's heart. Despite his primal urges urging for more, he recognized the danger of succumbing to sloppiness due to his lack of control – a mistake that could prove costly both figuratively and literally.
He similarly caught the scent of the large animal Don veered toward. 'The irony...' he mused inwardly.
The prey, a solitary Gray Wolf, stood no chance against Don's ferocity. With a menacing growl, Don lunged at the Gray Wolf, their bodies entwined in a chaotic tangle. As the frenzy subsided and the dust settled, the Werewolf emerged victorious, his jaws clamped around the Gray Wolf's vulnerable neck.
Exhaling volatile snorts, Don relinquished his grip, allowing the lifeless body of the Gray Wolf to slump onto the earth below. Ignoring the meat, he merely toyed with it, tearing into the flesh with primal fervor, his claws and fangs rending the carcass apart.
Meanwhile, Taeun Aldhiyaab cautiously closed in on his own target. His past self might have felt a pang of remorse at the senseless demise of the Gray Wolf. Yet, observing Don's indifference to the meat, merely chewing on it before discarding it, Taeun Aldhiyaab acknowledged the stark contrast between his evolved self and the unrestrained savagery of the Werewolf.
Don remained oblivious to his presence even as he closed the distance with a single leap. Despite the opportunity, Taeun Aldhiyaab refrained from striking, opting instead to refine his stealth and instincts. In the realm of group hunts, such opportunities were rare, and he relished the chance to confront a solitary target in his newfound occupation.
A mere meter from Don, the Werewolf abruptly ceased his macabre play with the Gray Wolf's carcass. His senses heightened, Don paused, his head raised as he sniffed and listened intently for the slightest disturbance.
"Human," rumbled a thick, gruff voice from deep within the Werewolf's throat as he swiftly pivoted, his claw slashing through the air.
With deft agility, Taeun Aldhiyaab intercepted the attack with his hunting knives, then swiftly retreated a few paces, gauging the situation. Don refrained from launching a follow-up assault, affording Taeun Aldhiyaab a brief respite to assess the situation and inspect his blades.
'So, this one can't shatter them with his strikes…' Taeun noted, recognizing the durability of his weapons. This wasn't his first pair of hunting knives.
"You…" Don's bloodied teeth parted, his voice gravelly. "You were at my motel. You're no ordinary individual. Are you a hunter of Nightly Creatures, or merely focused on Werewolves?" Without waiting for a response, he lunged into action once more, the conversation concluded, replaced by primal instinct and aggression.
Claw after claw, Don relentlessly assaulted Taeun Aldhiyaab, who adeptly parried each strike with his trusty hunting knives. While he could have used his hands, he maintained the use of his blades, studying Don's patterns, vulnerabilities, and overall arsenal under the guise of their one-sided exchange.
'Wait for the bite!' Taeun Aldhiyaab reminded himself, drawing from lessons learned in previous battles with Werewolves. He recognized that their instinctive resort to biting often clouded their judgment, presenting openings that required minimal effort to exploit.
With calculated precision, he anticipated Don's movements. As Don lunged with his left shoulder exposed, Taeun Aldhiyaab swiftly sidestepped and slashed, the hunting knife grazing fur and skin but failing to pierce flesh. Determined to draw out Don's power, Taeun evaded subsequent strikes, including counting blows and tail swipes.
While he lacked extensive hand-to-hand combat experience, his encounters with six Werewolves had demonstrated his comparable strength and agility. Despite the temptation to transform and overpower his opponent, he remained steadfast in his human form, driven by a desire to learn.
"Bastard!" Don howled in pain as Taeun's knives found their mark, slicing through his waist, abdomen, thigh, forearm, and muzzle, inflicting a series of shallow yet annoying wounds.
'Yes, just like this!' Taeun Aldhiyaab found his rhythm in the midst of the brutal confrontation, though he harbored no enjoyment in the violence unfolding before him. Unlike the carefree travelers seeking amusement, he had no such indulgence, a fact he had made clear to Jase.
"Get fucking LOST!" Don's enraged outburst echoed through the chaotic scene, accompanied by a primal wail that hinted at desperation. Recognizing the familiar call for reinforcement, Taeun Aldhiyaab knew he couldn't prolong the encounter any further.
Stepping back, his gaze ablaze with primal intensity, Taeun relinquished all restraint, allowing the power of the curse to surge within him without triggering a transformation. "HAAAA!" he bellowed, his form swelling by two sizes as a dense smog billowed forth, its corrosive touch quickly permeating everything it encountered.
Don recoiled in terror, the dread palpable in his Werewolf eyes as Taeun Aldhiyaab wielded his hunting knives, the smog swirling around the blades, imbuing them with a sinister gleam as it melded with their edges. Despite Don's swift retreat fueled by fear, Taeun Aldhiyaab unleashed a relentless onslaught. With each slash through the air, crescent-shaped waves of smog pursued their target.
Two waves of smog crashed into Don's chest with force, driving him backward as they tore into flesh and bone like rubber. Despite his attempts to rise and flee, the world around him spun, his pupils dilated, blood seeping from his seven orifices. "Poi-" He choked, his voice a strangled whisper.
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Taeun Aldhiyaab remained silent, observing Don's futile struggle to stand. Sensing his adversary's imminent defeat and wary of potential reinforcements, he braced himself, sinking to one knee as he fought to regain control of the volatile power coursing through him.
Seconds stretched into agonizing eternity, but Taeun Aldhiyaab maintained his composure. As distant howls echoed through the woods, Don lay motionless, his fate sealed. 'To fight or not…' Taeun Aldhiyaab deliberated, his gaze fixed on the fallen Werewolf. 'Judging by the sound, four are on their way.' It wouldn't be his first encounter with a group of four, and each kill only sharpened his skills as a hunter. Withdrawing into the foliage, he distanced roughly a hundred and fifty meters from the battleground.
'They're all there,' Taeun Aldhiyaab listened intently, attuned to the approaching threat.
…
"What's wrong with him?" A clear human voice tinged with apprehension broke the tense silence.
"Let me flip him over," responded the gruff voice of a Werewolf, revealing the presence of potential allies or adversaries lurking nearby.
"Help him, Gedeon," another clear human voice, this time a woman's, interjected.
"Thomas can-" began the fourth voice, belonging to a Werewolf, attempting to speak.
"The Odorless Spell is broken, and not by Don's Magick. Don't argue with me. You and Thomas, be careful!" the woman commanded with authority.
Though Gedeon growled in response, he obeyed, joining Thomas in lifting Don's prone form.
"What are these wounds?" Thomas demanded, his gaze fixed on the two gruesome slashes inflicted by the crescent smog. "They're puls-"
"THRO-" The woman's sentence was cut short as Thomas unleashed an agonized howl, Don sinking his fangs deep into his neck with relentless force.
Thomas collapsed, his left hand desperately trying to stem the torrent of blood gushing from the gaping wound where his neck had been bitten.
As the situation escalated, Gedeon, fearing a similar fate, released his grip on Don, his form dissolving into a brown shadow as he recoiled.
The woman and the remaining man transformed, assuming a defensive.
Don's once sleek brown coat now hung matted and unkempt, his eyes ablaze with a feverish, unrecognizable glint. In a grotesque display of agony and rage, he moved in a twisted and unpredictable dance, snapping at unseen adversaries, saliva foaming at the corners of his snarling mouth. His movements were spasmodic, jerking and convulsing as if tormented by malevolent spirits.
"Marshel, Doris, tell me I'm imagining this, but it looks to me like…" Gedeon's voice joined the chorus of concern.
"Rabies," Doris interjected in a Werewolfish tone, her voice weighted with dread.
"Can we even catch rabies?!" Marshel's incredulous question hung heavy in the air.
"It's not ordinary rabies. It's Magick," Doris clarified, her tone tinged with warning. "Thomas is also afflicted."
"Can you cure it? You know, with those Spells of yours?" Gedeon pressed urgently.
"The Pack only ever had the Odorless Spell!" Doris's response was grim, tinged with frustration.
"What do we-" Gedeon began, but Marshel's interruption stole his words.
"Thomas is getting up!" Marshel's urgent warning cut through the tense atmosphere.
"Kill them!" Doris roared, her command ringing out with fierce determination. "You two, get to Thomas before he fully succumbs like Don. I'll deal with Don myself!"
…
The ensuing five-way battle held little novelty for Taeun Aldhiyaab. As a novice Werewolf hunter with a mere month of experience, he knew survival hinged on securing an advantage. His arsenal of smog, blood, and transformation proved to be the natural adversaries of werewolves. Exposure to his smog or blood triggered rapid onset of rabies-like symptoms in the creatures, corroding both body and mind. Conversely, his transformation empowered him while weakening his lupine foes.
With a sense of finality, Taeun Aldhiyaab emerged from his hiding spot, approaching the aftermath of the conflict. Four decapitated bodies lay strewn across the ground, their naked forms mute testimony to the brutality of the encounter. Amidst the carnage stood a lone female Werewolf, exhaustion evident in her posture. Standing at an imposing two and a half meters tall, her fur a blend of brown and black, she bore claw injuries but remained uninfected.
"Hunter," she greeted Taeun Aldhiyaab with palpable resentment, her survival instincts sharpening her resolve.
"Is that a question?" Taeun Aldhiyaab retorted, his tone dripping with menace as he prepared to mete out his wrath. His disdain for the female Werewolves eclipsed even that reserved for their male counterparts.
Doris, sensing the imminent confrontation, emitted a low, menacing growl.
"Fine. I'll answer if you explain what Magick and the Odorless Spell entail," Taeun Aldhiyaab countered, his tone firm as he sought to gain insight into the mysterious forces at play. Doris circled Taeun Aldhiyaab, moving on all fours with an intensity that belied her intent to prevent his escape.
Sensing the impending clash, Taeun Aldhiyaab tightened his grip on his hunting knives, his muscles tensing as he prepared for combat. With practiced agility, he bent his knees and pivoted on the spot, ready to meet Doris's advance head-on.
As Doris roared and charged forward, her movements imbued with a grace and fluidity surpassing even Don's, Taeun Aldhiyaab made a decisive move. He drew his knives across his palms, coating the blades with his own blood, before emitting a primal roar and undergoing a transformation of his own.
Doris, feinting a swipe with her right arm, deliberately missed, using the momentum to spin and create a cloud of dust that obscured her movements. Seizing the opportunity, she swiftly snatched up Thomas's severed head and made a desperate dash for safety.
"NO!" Taeun Aldhiyaab's guttural refusal echoed through the chaos as he unleashed his full transformation without hesitation, morphing into a hulking abomination driven solely by the singular goal of apprehending his quarry.
Instantly, a noxious smog emanated from his transformed body, spreading out in a radius of twenty meters. Anything it touched began to decay, his clothes, boots, and even his hunting knives melting away in its wake. Yet, consumed by his primal pursuit, Taeun Aldhiyaab remained undeterred, his sole focus fixed on capturing the elusive female as he pursued her with reckless abandon.
The pursuit stretched on for nearly an hour, leaving behind a trail of environmental devastation in its wake. Despite his efforts, Doris had successfully eluded him, leaving him drained and defeated amidst a puddle of smog and blood, reverted to his human form.
Physically and emotionally drained, Taeun Aldhiyaab grappled with the aftermath of losing control yet again. With a heavy heart, he closed his eyes and succumbed to exhaustion, drifting into an uneasy slumber until the break of dawn.
"Mm," he grumbled upon waking, the bitter taste of defeat lingering in his mouth. "Shit!" he cursed, unwilling to accept Doris's escape. A nagging fear gnawed at him, knowing that beyond the Homeland Office of Special Cases, others might also come after him should word spread of a Werewolf Hunter on the loose.
Summoning what little resolve remained, Taeun pushed himself upright, his body dirty and exposed. "Come on!" he urged himself.
After an hour and a half of relentless running, he finally spotted the familiar cabin on the horizon. The door stood ajar, and a faint scent of blood lingered in the air, but no sounds pierced the stillness.
Upon entering the tranquil cabin, his eyes were drawn to a metallic chest of imposing stature that commanded the room's attention. Standing a meter and a half in length and twenty centimeters in width, it gleamed in the soft dawn light filtering through the rustic windows. The polished steel surface bore an intricate design depicting a fearsome Werewolf caught in mid-transformation. Its snarling visage, illuminated by an eerie, otherworldly light in its eyes, appeared poised to break free, with silver and obsidian moon phases framing the beast in a celestial dance.
Yet, the serenity of the cabin was shattered by the sight of a hole at its center, where three bodies lay unceremoniously dropped. Each chest was hollowed on the left side, their heads cruelly opened, and their brains removed.
Taeun Aldhiyaab averted his gaze, the sight triggering memories of his wife and daughter. Setting the chest aside, he removed the thin fabric it rested on to cover his loins. With bare hands, he dug three graves outside the cabin, arranging what he believed to be the personal belongings of each victim within and outside their resting places. Using planks torn from the cabin, he fashioned grave plaques, meticulously engraving the names found on their identifications.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice heavy with remorse, as he sat in silent reverence for what felt like an eternity – a moment of solace amidst the perpetual chaos that had consumed his life for the past month.
"Now..." he murmured, turning his attention back to the chest, the weight of its mystery heavy upon him.