The Battle with the Werewolf Ken

“Aside from the three Magical Girls, is there a sniper too?”

Ken the Werewolf recalled that terrifying moment that had just left his heart pounding with lingering fear.

Close. It was truly a hair’s breadth away. If he hadn’t used his right hand to block it, would that bullet have pierced his forehead…?

Having experienced that attack, Ken’s initial frantic rage was suppressed by shock and fear, allowing him to think clearly.

Under the resumed suppressive fire, Ken glanced at his pierced palm. He recalled the bullet head he had glimpsed—the way it had visibly twisted and deformed after punching through his hand.

A question surfaced in his mind: Could that bullet really have killed me?

Ken quickly found his own answer.

Impossible. My power now is so immense. How could a tiny armor-piercing round possibly penetrate my skull?

Right! That’s it. Nothing can threaten the current me. All I need to do now is tear apart these weak, despicable rats who only know how to hide.

But first, he needed a springboard—a way to close the distance between himself and that annoying brat in the air.

Observing through his scope, Meng Shan noticed Ken turn his head to scan his surroundings amidst the gunfire before quickly diving into the largest and most topologically complex chemical factory nearby.

Meng Shan’s brow furrowed. He switched the sniper rifle’s power mode, rerouting the exoskeleton suit’s core energy into the electromagnetic rifle.

Things were progressing according to plan, for the most part. Next, it was up to Yi Ziling.

Inside the factory, Ken the Werewolf sprinted through the jungle of steel pipes and machinery. He knew that with Bai He’an’s firepower, it wouldn’t take long to level this place.

But all he needed was for her to lose his exact position for a split second.

The next moment, Ken leaped from the roof of the chemical plant. Bai He’an, mistakenly believing he was still hiding inside, had her cannons pointed toward the center of the facility.

Given Ken’s speed, Bai He’an didn’t have time to re-aim. Because of the altitude, Ken had also left the effective range of the illusion… or so he thought.

A massive surge of gel, already gathered at the top of the factory, told Ken otherwise. If he wanted to leave the “Butterfly Realm,” Yi Ziling had to give the word—and she wasn’t agreeing.

In an instant, a torrent of gel swarmed Ken, solidifying into a massive, rigid sphere that trapped him firmly within.

However, Yi Ziling alone couldn’t hold Ken for long. The moment the gel hardened, large cracks began spider-webbing toward the outer layer.

“Hurry! His strength is even greater than Sister Ran’s! I can’t hold him much longer!”

Jiang Yunshu shouted back, “Now! I’m ready!”

“Then do it now!”

Following Yi Ziling’s cry, a large hole suddenly opened in the front of the sphere.

Trapped inside, Ken was confused, thinking the sphere was simply collapsing under his might.

An instant later, a pink orb of light told him he was wrong.

Once the orb entered, Yi Ziling manipulated the remaining gel, forming a larger, even more reinforced sphere around it in a heartbeat.

Indeed, throughout the battle, Ken the Werewolf had made a fatal error: he had focused all his attention on the suppressive fire of Bai He’an and the illusions of Jiang Yunshu, completely forgetting Yi Ziling, who had barely made a move since the start.

Now, that mistake had dealt him a lethal blow.

Drawing from the experience of their fight with Ran Jiu’yi, Jiang Yunshu had charged this attack far longer than ever before. By extending the charging time, the mana accumulated within the orb was significantly denser.

Furthermore, by being trapped in a sealed environment, the high temperature and shockwave of the explosion would be maximized. Even without Bai He’an’s supplementary fire, this combined attack was more powerful than anything they had unleashed before.

A deafening explosion roared as the gel sphere was blown to smithereens. The residual shockwave shattered every remaining window in the factory district and shook the foundations of the less stable buildings.

Was Ken the Werewolf finished?

No!

As the smoke cleared, Ken’s silhouette reappeared. Much like Ran Jiu’yi before him, half of his body was a mangled mess of blood and bone, while the other half was covered in horrifying, deep lacerations.

Undoubtedly, the plan had been a success; Ken was gravely injured. However, looking at the scene, a terrible premonition bloomed in Yi Ziling’s heart.

It’s too similar. This looks exactly like the moment in the fight against Ran Jiu’yi.

Never having imagined he could suffer such severe trauma, Ken let out a furious roar: “You despicable humans! You dare—”

However, a single gunshot cut off his unfinished sentence—and Yi Ziling’s uneasy thoughts.

Following the crack of the rifle, a small portion of Ken’s once-intact head simply vanished.

“You… you lot…”

Suffering such a fatal wound, Ken the Werewolf fell weakly to his knees, his final words left unsaid.

“Energy remaining: 53%.”

Aboard a distant cooling tower, the body of the electromagnetic sniper rifle was emitting wisps of blue smoke due to the overload. The extreme heat scorched the moisture in the air, creating a crackling sound.

Meng Shan listened to the suit’s energy report, his eyes never leaving Ken.

“Spent 40% of my energy, but it seems to have had some effect.”

In past wars, many battles had proven that certain superhumans with powerful defensive traits could ignore standard electromagnetic rifle fire. To solve this, the Institute had modified the B-41, creating the B-42.

The key upgrade was the “Overload Attack Mode.” By utilizing two batteries or 40% of an exoskeleton’s energy, the firepower of a single shot could be boosted to 1.5 times its normal capacity.

The downsides were obvious: massive energy consumption and immediate overheating, making it impossible to fire in Overload Mode again for a short duration.

“Brother Dashan! We did it!”

Jiang Yunshu’s excited voice rang through the communicator. Ken was stronger than any monster she had ever faced; she had never dreamed they could take down such a powerful enemy together.

Today, that impossible dream had become reality.

Bai He’an added, “Yeah. But most of the credit goes to Brother Dashan. If it weren’t for his plan, we wouldn’t have lasted five minutes.”

Yi Ziling chimed in, “True, true! I didn’t know he was so amazing. Tonight, maybe we should—”

“Stay alert! Something’s wrong!” Meng Shan suddenly interrupted. “Ken the Werewolf isn’t dead yet. Resume combat operations.”

The observing Meng Shan had noticed something: the hand of Ken the Werewolf—who by all laws of nature should be dead from that head wound—had twitched.

Soon, it wasn’t just the hand. Ken’s entire body began to twitch rhythmically.

Seeing this eerie sight, Bai He’an asked in a panic, “What’s happening?”

“It’s his heart. It’s a phenomenon caused by his heart suddenly beating violently. Attack his heart, now!”

Before he even finished speaking, Meng Shan re-aimed and fired a shot at Ken’s chest.

But this shot lacked sufficient power. The AP round hit the chest but failed to deal effective damage to the heart, only slightly slowing the rhythm of the beats.

As the heartbeats grew more intense, plumes of steam began to billow from Ken’s entire body.

If Meng Shan wasn’t mistaken, the fatal wound on Ken’s head was regenerating at a visible speed, and his physical size was continuously expanding.

The sniper rifle’s batteries were spent. Although he had one round left, the barrel temperature was too high to use Overload Mode.

Seeing the three girls frozen in shock, Meng Shan screamed into the comms: “Hurry! Attack his heart!”

The girls snapped out of it and immediately unleashed a barrage at Ken’s chest.

Meng Shan also activated all remaining remote weapons and the armaments built into his suit, pouring everything he had onto the werewolf.

For a moment, the air was filled with a chaotic mess of attacks. However, every hit that could have dealt real damage—like Bai He’an’s laser cannons or Jiang Yunshu’s charged beams—was blocked by Ken. The remaining light attacks struggled even to pierce his skin.

“Brother Dashan! What is going on?”

Yi Ziling, lacking heavy offensive options, asked anxiously. She had never seen such a bizarre phenomenon. Her intuition told her the situation was catastrophic.

“It might be some kind of rebirth or enhancement ability,” Meng Shan analyzed calmly while firing. “But looking at him, it’s more like a forced consumption of mana to enhance and repair himself in a short window.”

“And it’s clearly a mechanism triggered by fatal trauma. I’ve never seen this kind of application before!”

“Eh?!” Yi Ziling asked. “Even you haven’t seen this before, Brother Dashan?”

“No. Theoretically, all abilities require a conscious mind to activate!”

In another laboratory far away, Cheng Ya looked up from a surgical table covered in nameless, writhing meat.

“Oh, I think I forgot to tell Ran Jiu’yi. Ken complained he was too weak, so I gave him a little tune-up. I added a ‘Mad Wolf’ form that only triggers after death.”

Alice, who was performing surgery beside her, glanced over. “That name is so tacky. Besides, didn’t you say she was strong? What are you worried about?”

“Ken picked the name himself. But you’re right. Let’s continue. Once this surgery is done, I’ll finish the ‘gift’ I prepared for Ran Jiu’yi. She’ll definitely love it.”

“…You really do like her.”

“Well, she helped upgrade my abilities, so it’s only right to repay her. Besides, she’s interesting—especially her understanding of pain.”

Alice shot Cheng Ya another look. “So you’re just saying she’s a freak just like you.”

“Not quite the same, I can feel it. I feel pain because I enjoy it. She feels pain partly to gain strength from it, and partly as a form of self-punishment.”

“So… a freak either way.”