Hao Ren’s eyes were fixed on the silver-haired girl. Her golden eyes gleamed in the dark and her long, silver hair blew in the wind. Her pointy ears especially attracted his attention. If it were not for her face which was still the same, he would not have recognized her as the very same Lily Liu whom he had brought from town.
It was her—he could tell from her face and attire.
The wind, moon, his clothes and even his breath felt chilly—Hao Ren felt like he was being frozen in place. The smell of the air reminded him of a slaughterhouse but the chill kept him awake. He needed to be alert as he tried hard to clear his befuddled mind to make sense of all the crazy stuff that had transpired.
He stopped chatting Lily up; the spooky atmosphere probably dampened his mood. It was either that or he was at a lost for words due to Lily’s strange look. In any case, Hao Ren was awed by the beauty of Lily, who was now a werewolf. Yet, he was also worried about the possibility of her being aggressive. He could see the beastly nature in her eyes which made him nervous. At the same time, he couldn’t help but also relate Lily with some of the comical characters in ACG (Anime, Comic and Games).
The acrid smell of blood in the air became even more unbearable and black ice started to form on the road’s surface; the once bright moon had turned a faint red. Hao Ren was shivering in the cold wind as he was only wearing a thin layer of clothes. Lily however, did not seem to be affected. Tilting her ears, she stuck her nose out in the air and sniffed as though she was looking for something. "The cunning bat is using the smell of blood as a camouflage...Mr. Landlord, please stay with me. These flying creatures are notoriously active at night. They always prey on the unsuspected."
The voice of the ‘transformed’ Lily sounded cold but he took a little comfort in the fact that she was not aggressive. So, he plucked up his courage and asked, "Lily, what’s going on? You..."
"I’m a werewolf." Lily’s ears stood erect as she proudly proclaimed, "All the while, I’ve been hiding my werewolf identity. This is the first time it’s been seen by a human... Beware! Nothing good will come out whenever you see these flying creatures."
Hao Ren’s understanding of the world had been thrown upside down. Before he could utter another word, Lily shouted in a muffled voice, "There it comes!"
A shadowy figure swooped down from the night sky.
He could vaguely see its silhouette under the faint moonlight. It did not look like a bat but more like someone with a cloak on. He did not have time to analyze everything as things unfolded too quickly.
Knowing that he was the prey, every muscle and nerve in his body contracted and burst into action. He moved aside swiftly; the attacker swooped past him and barely brushed his hair.
Lily seized the opportunity as the black shadow was diving towards the ground. A sound akin to a sonic boom followed as her leg swept through the air striking the enemy. It was straightforward but brutal. She quickly faded into a silver, shadowy figure as she engaged the black shadow in a hand-to-hand battle. Hao Ren could see the vortexes of air created by their quick movements. Not long after, the black shadow was bested; it then transformed into a bat and flitted to the air.
Before Lily could deliver the final blow, the bat was already up in the air above the walls. She was furious. She started to howl and Hao Ren recognized the howling sound. It was the same sound he had heard countless of times during his childhood near the woods.
It was the sound of a howling wolf!
However there was no time to be in awe as he was in deep shit—a life and death situation. The bat did not flee instead, it circled in the air like a vulture. It seemed like it was laughing at the werewolf for not being able to fly or rather, it was waiting for the right moment to pounce on its prey.
Hao Ren knew that as long as the bat was still in the air, he was not safe. He worked out in his mind that although the werewolf girl was good in hand-to-hand combat, she could not fly or perform long range attacks. Moreover, she was dim-witted! If the bat were to have attacked him again, she probably would not have been able to stop it or react in time to save him.
The werewolf girl raised her thin lips and growled furiously while the hair on her pointy ears stood up. She threw her head back, pointed her nose in the moon’s direction and let out a loud, piercing howl.
Right at that same time, the bat dived at an incredible speed towards Lily. Hao Ren was starting to panic.
"The werewolf girl is putting herself in danger posing pointlessly like that. The timing especially is inappropriate!"
Hao Ren saw an object in Lily’s hand but before he could tell what it was, Lily had already hurled the object towards the bat. The bat was hit directly in its course before it could come close. The bat was yelped in pain; it quickly turned around and fled up into the air. Hao Ren could then see the object in Lily’s hand—rectangular and red—it was a brick!
"Come, if you dare!" The werewolf girl shouted at the bat provocatively. "Don’t think that I can’t get you! Ever since I realized I was a werewolf, I’ve been waiting for the day I can beat the hell out of flying bastards like you. Five years of Shooting Brick practice just for this moment!"
Hao Ren was stumped —her trump card was only brick-throwing? Seriously?
The bat’s movement was wobbly. Apparently, it was hit hard by Lily’s Shooting Brick. The pungent smell of blood began to subside as the bat started to lose its magic power. The standoff continued on for a few minutes during which Lily reloaded her ‘ammunition’ by picking up another brick on the ground. The bat realized it was not going to be able to take advantage of her. It circled in the air once more and flew away into the darkness.
However, Lily was not quite ready to let the bat go just yet. She raised her arms and hurled the remaining bricks towards the fleeing bat. Hao Ren could not see the projectiles but the bat was visibly alarmed as it fled the scene. At least one of the bricks could have hit its target.
Yet Hao Ren was worried about something else; he was concerned about where the bricks would land. The projectiles were traveling at speeds no slower than a bullet. He could only pray that no one was in the vicinity of the desolate town as the bricks were landing.
The attacker was finally gone and the surroundings were tranquil again. There was no more trace of blood in the air. Hao Ren rubbed his nose and sneezed as he was sensitive to the sudden changes in the air temperature. The chilly air slowly subsided and was displaced by the summer heat wave.
He looked up; Lily was slowly transforming back to human form—slow enough that he could observe the transformation process itself. Her waist-length, silver hair turned black and retracted to shoulder length while the pointy wolf ears disappeared from her head. He smacked his lips and was at a lost for words due to what he had witnessed.
Lily sensed the awkwardness but she had expected it. She smiled at Hao Ren awkwardly and proceeded to carry the oversized suitcase on her shoulder. As she was about to leave, she turned around and said, "Oh ya! Landlord, I’ve decided not to rent your apartment... And please, don’t tell anyone about the things that happened today or else I’ll be in trouble."
Then, she left.
"Wait a second!" Hao Ren called out to Lily after abruptly recovering from his daze. "Where could you possibly go in the middle of the night? You can come to my place and stay for the night..."
Lily was startled for a moment before she turned around. Her big eyes gleamed with doubts and she said, "Why? Ain’t you afraid that the flying creature will return? It’s most probably after me, I’m a werewolf—its archenemy."
"Not at all because, I’m a good person!" Hao Ren replied whimsically.