Five years before…
The Kingdom of Durman, one of the small countries in the southern part of the continent, was plagued by a sudden infestation of Cryptids.
Wolves roamed in the middle of the city, mysterious beasts ate people every night, and the nightmare of an endless blood scent continued for more than a month.
Even the officers were helpless.
Even though soldiers and knights were deployed, the Cryptids evaded their siege by messing with the knights.
The situation had been sluggish and unsolved.
Among them, there was one of the most notorious Cryptids.
It was a monster that had invaded Jévaudan, one of the largest cities in the Kingdom of Durman.
It was a rare monster that ate three knights who held the title of elite soldiers.
—The worst Cryptid ever to dominate the horrors of the kingdom and a nightmare for Jévaudan.
The monster of Jévaudan.
The King of Durman thought that things wouldn't work out like that, so he had issued an official paper saying that he would give a huge reward to those who defeated Cryptids.
After hearing the rumors, all kinds of freelance wizards, wandering knights, and famous mercenaries from the continent gathered in the Kingdom of Durman and began a massive operation to suppress the Cryptids.
Countless Cryptids had died, and a considerable amount of human beings had also died.
People called the hunt 'Bloody Night' because the blood shed at that time colored the ground red.
The Bloody Night was enough to instill fame in many people.
At that time, there was one person who had made the greatest achievement.
—A person who single-handedly defeated the most notorious monster in Jévaudan and recorded the most achievements in shooting down and slaughtering Cryptids.
He was not a famous wizard, a high-ranking chivalrous knight, or an elite special mercenary.
He was only a hunter.
The hunter was adept at handling all kinds of tools and weapons, and during the year after the Bloody Night, he traveled all over Durman, setting up a record of defeating Cryptids with a kill count of more than three digits.
The name of the hunter, who was also famous as a mystic because he didn’t actually reveal his identity…
Was ‘Abraham Van Helsing’.
***
Fully equipped, Ludger slowly walked out to the boulevard.
The damp night fog blanketed his coat.
The blurry scarlet light spreads dimly around the street lamp as if it had consumed the water from the fog.
The smell of the beast, which gently exuded among the reek of soggy mud, brushed against the tip of his nose.
'What a memory.'
Dum!
Ludger immediately kicked a drum that was lying around in the street.
Ka-boom boom!
As the drum collapsed, a strong noise echoed through the air. The werewolf, who was searching for prey, turned his head when he heard the sound.
His ferocious eyes found Ludger standing alone in the center of the boulevard.
Grrrrr.
The werewolf jumped from the roof of the building and landed in front of Ludger.
‘It’s big.’
Ludger was able to get a closer look at the werewolf.
He was over 2.5 meters tall, had bloodshot eyes, and his body was full of black fur.
His sharp nails were pointed on both hands, and his energy was so creepy that Ludger could feel it in his skin.
If he got caught by that thing, even steel would be ripped like paper.
But most of all, what caught his eyes was the metal leash that was stuck in the werewolf's neck.
'I knew it. I wasn't mistaken.’
There's no way that was just hanging around the werewolf's neck without a cause.
There was no way that a wild beast who lost his rationality would think by himself and wear that around his neck.
There was only one possibility:
'Someone deliberately raised or made that werewolf.'
He thought that it wasn't completely impossible.
It was a world where magic existed where and science had developed in a strange direction, and Hans, whom he knew, had the body type that made him turn into a beast whenever he got bitten by a beast.
Well, it wouldn't be strange if some secret organization made a werewolf as their experiment.
'The question is: why does it have to happen in this kind of timing?'
The incident happened not long after the start of Sören academy's semester. when things had been quiet without much news until then.
Also, in the year when he was appointed as the professor?
He couldn't help but be suspicious about the situation that was so blatant.
'Well, I'll find out once I catch and beat him up.'
Ludger immediately got into his position.
The werewolf distorted his face as he seemed to feel uncomfortable when the human in front of him raised his will to fight rather than run away.
Owooooo!!!
The roaring werewolf that was stretching his chest and raising his head to the sky rushed immediately toward Ludger.
The werewolf, who ran fast on the ground with his four legs, was faster than a car.
Ludger stepped back while watching his movement. The werewolf's claws passed through the air where Ludger was.
Grrrr!
The werewolf waved his arms nonstop; Ludger continued to take back steps and focused on avoiding the werewolf.
Thud.
The moment the tip of Ludger's brown shoes touched the ground, a strange wavelength spread around him.
Booom!
Every time the werewolf's attack missed, Ludger continued to tap the ground with his toes and spread the wavelength of mana.
In an extreme situation where he might be torn to the bone just by brushing against the claws, Ludger never allowed the werewolf to attack him.
Gaaaaah!
The angry werewolf roared and spread his arms wide. He was going to attack Ludger in that state and grasp him so that he wouldn't be able to avoid his attack.
‘So he used his brain.’
Ludger's mouth, which was covered by the shade of his hat, smiled.
Hiiiiiiiiiiing!
The werewolf, who was about to jump at Ludger, suddenly distorted his face and fell flat on the ground.
Badump.
The werewolf slipped over the mud that covered the ground.
“Oh, ooh?”
Hans, who was watching nervously from afar, suddenly opened his eyes wide, confused at the sight of the fallen werewolf.
Did he eat something wrong?
"Your head will ring a lot."
Ludger gently stepped on the back of the werewolf, who was struggling in pain.
The werewolf was more of a beast than a human.
And since it was a canid, it was particularly sensitive to high frequencies that ordinary people couldn’t hear.
Ludger's stomping while avoiding the werewolf attacks was a preliminary preparation to cast such a spell.
That spell—which moderately mixed sound waves and vibration magic—may have been nothing to humans, but it was different to werewolves, who heard sounds beyond a certain frequency range.
Even then, the ultrasonic waves that rang the werewolf's ears in real-time and shook its brains continued to shake the surrounding area.
"I don't have to use expensive silver."
There was no more suitable way than that because the purpose was to suppress the werewolf, not to kill it in the first place.
‘Now, let's check where the hell they made this guy.’
It was when Ludger took out a syringe and tried to collect his blood…
Hiiiiiiiing!
"Here it is! I heard a sound from here!"
"Everyone, move quickly!"
* * *
* * *
With a whistle, uniformed policemen rushed towards them from beyond the fog.
Police officers, who had been patrolling for two days due to rumors of werewolves, must have flocked as soon as they heard the disturbance here.
'Why does it have to be right now.'
When Ludger looked away for a moment, the werewolf, who had stayed still meekly, jumped up.
Ludger hastily stepped back and avoided an incoming mishap.
Ludger was immediately wary of the werewolf's counterattack, but the werewolf had no interest in Ludger in the first place.
The werewolf shook his head a few times and soon turned his back and ran away.
‘Darn.’
‘I didn't expect the werewolf to run away in this situation.’
Ludger sighed and released the high-frequency spell that was spread around him.
When the police officers who were carrying mana appeared one by one, Ludger decided to slowly step back from his spot.
"There! There's someone there!"
"Arrest all suspicious people!"
Before he knew it, the werewolf was climbing up the wall of the factory and climbing to the rooftop.
Ludger ran after the werewolf.
He was running through alleys avoiding spells and the sound of whistles.
Ludger, who was running through the dark alley, stretched his arm in the air as he felt that the werewolf was going farther away.
Whoosh!
The machine spring, which was hanging under the wrist of his gauntlet, quickly turned around, and soon a wire-mounted hook was shot toward the roof.
Click!
As soon as the hook was fixed to the roof railing, the cogwheel rotated and wound the wire at high speed.
—A tightening pulling force.
Ludger used the rebound to fly up to the roof.
It was Ludger's favorite item when he was active as a hunter, commonly called a Wire Launcher.
Ludger landed splendidly on the rooftop.
Whiiirrrrr!
Ludger, who pulled the wire and withdrew the hook, witnessed the back of the werewolf that was fleeing far away.
'I won't let it go.'
Ludger put mana on his legs.
Wizards that were in that world had methods of strengthening their bodies with mana which had spread widely in case of unexpected situations.
Ludger stormed out the roof and chased after the werewolf with his strengthened legs.
Whoooosh.
The night scene in the industrial zone quickly passed by. He could see the werewolf that was running away gradually getting closer.
The werewolf looked back as he felt a strange sense of presence as he ran; he found out that Ludger was chasing him, then accelerated his speed to escape.
The werewolf, who was constantly jumping over between the roofs of the factory, jumped onto the huge railroad down there.
Just in time, a cargo train loaded with magic stones was passing underneath.
Boom!
The werewolf landed roughly on the cargo train.
Ludger jumped down and landed on the cargo train as well, scared to miss the werewolf.
He minimized the shock of his landing by flowing the mana that was loaded on his legs to the soles of his feet.
Ludger gazed at the werewolf with a flick of his hand over his shoulder.
Perhaps the werewolf realized that he could no longer escape. He looked back at Ludger while raising his bent body.
Clackety-clack.
On top of the train, Ludger and the werewolf faced each other about three cabins apart.
As the train ran, the strong wind blew Ludger's coat hem.
The scarlet streetlights stretched along the streets and scattered around as it was reflecting the light.
"I was just going to control you moderately at first."
Grrrrrrrrr.
"But I can't do that."
Judging from his situation and the police officers around who were after him after hearing some commotion, he couldn't afford to do it.
The night breeze that was passing by the edge of his cheeks and the steam emitted from the head of the train blurred the view for a moment.
Hap!
Using that moment, the werewolf rushed toward Ludger.
It was a pretty sharp move to pierce through his opponent's weak point using the moment when his opponent's view was covered.
But Ludger had already calculated a couple of steps ahead of the werewolf’s movement.
Ziiiiiing!
The werewolf, who was rushing toward Ludger, stopped running at the strange noise that rang in his ears—it was some kind of instinctive intuition as a beast.
His judgment was indeed correct.
Something sharp passed quickly on both sides of the werewolf's neck.
“Your intuition is good.”
As they cut through the skin of the werewolf's neck, they spun around and went back to Ludger.
—They were boomerangs with sharp blades that were spread out like a fan.
If he was a little too late to stop, the sharp circular saw would have cut the werewolf's throat.
The werewolf quickly regenerated the wound running through his neck. He was angry at the fact that there were wounds in his body, and veins popped out throughout his body.
"I was just going to finish you with that in one blow."
Ludger left his regret behind and took out a wand hanging from his waistline, and grabbed it.
That time it was Ludger's turn to charge.
He held a wand in his right hand and collected mana in his left hand to create a spell called Shining Stone.
It was shot like a bullet and aimed at one eye of the werewolf.
Whoosh!
The werewolf bowed his head and dodged the Shining Stone. At that moment, Ludger flicked his left index finger.
Then, the Shining Stone that passed by the werewolf made a turn in the air and hit the back of the werewolf's head.
Baam!
While the werewolf was dumbfounded by the intense pain that he felt in the back of his head, Ludger rushed at the werewolf and swung his wand to the werewolf's face with all of his might.
As soon as the werewolf tried to block it with his arms, a saw blade boomerang flew and pierced through the werewolf's hands.
Ludger had already expected it and threw the boomerang ahead of time.
Aaaaargh!
The bewildered werewolf opened his mouth wide and bit Ludger's wand because his arms were not able to move.
Craack!
His powerful teeth gripped and bit the wand.
The werewolf's eyes bent like a crescent moon.
Since he had already bit the cane, there would be nothing that his opponent could do.
As soon as the wound on his arm regenerated, he was going to tear the arrogant human in front of him into pieces.
But as if he was mocking such werewolf's thoughts, Ludger immediately took the next move.
Whrrr.
The handle and the grip of the wand were separated, and a white sword blade was pulled out of it.
At such an unexpected sight, the werewolf could not even think of putting the empty shell of the wand in his mouth.
—Wand blade.
Often referred to as a sword-stick, it was more like an assassin weapon that pierced through the opponent's weak point rather than a weapon used head-on.
And there was only one moment when he picked this in a fight that was aiming for each other's lives.
—It was only when he was confident that he could kill the other person.
Ludger's body spun around once in his spot.
Whoosh!
A solid white line was drawn in the air.
An extremely thin but vivid light gently split the werewolf's neck.
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