Raphael's intuition had been correct; the Beyonder he had ambushed was indeed a Sequence 8 Unwinged Angel from the Criminal Pathway.
The instant the man's spiritual intuition warned him, Raphael had already leaped down, completing his transformation mid-fall from the rooftop.
"Grrr~" With a savage grin, Raphael extended his wolf claws, aiming for the target's eyes.
Beyonders of the Criminal Pathway generally had decent reflexes. The man quickly bent down and dodged to the side.
Raphael knew his first strike wouldn't kill the opponent. As he landed, he lunged forward, using his superior speed to send the retreating Unwinged Angel flying...
*Thud!*
...He slammed into the wall. In the next instant, Raphael's wolf claws were already stabbing toward him again.
Panic filled the man's eyes. He desperately wanted to dodge, but discovered his speed wasn't fast enough. Moreover, the collision had left his body feeling like it had fallen apart, making it difficult to execute an evasive maneuver in time.
*Pfft!*
A sharp sound of blades sinking into flesh rang out. Raphael's claws had pierced the Unwinged Angel's throat. When he withdrew his claws, blood sprayed out.
The Unwinged Angel struggled to cover his neck but couldn't stop the gushing flow. His mouth opened wide, but no sound came out.
Looking at his bloodied wolf claws, Raphael revealed a wild grin. The entire fight had lasted no more than two seconds. The target's reactions had almost all been within his predictions, and his prey hadn't even had time to call for help.
Being able to kill his target so quickly was due not only to being one Sequence higher, but also to his diligent practice of the Wolf Fang Claw.
Only in actual combat could Raphael truly appreciate the subtleties of the technique.
Other Werewolves generally used their claws to strike at the head, shoulders, or chest, since those were the easiest areas to target... but the Wolf Fang Claw was different.
The technique had two uses: 'stabbing' and 'slashing'.
Stabbing was aimed at the eyes, throat, or liver. Slashing was mainly used against the target's limbs and back, seizing opportunities to inject Werewolf Venom. The technique was clearly meant for entangling with opponents in prolonged close-quarters combat.
Raphael struggled to suppress the excitement brought on by the kill. He looked at the target convulsing on the ground and was about to hoist the body up and leave.
Suddenly, his gaze snapped toward the end of the street. Another Beyonder who had just left the gathering happened to be walking this way.
"Grrr..." Raphael bared his fangs and growled at the man.
The Beyonder was startled: "Oh my goodness, a Werewolf!"
As he spoke, he frantically reached for his gun, but before he could draw it, the Werewolf had already hoisted the corpse, used his claws to vault over the high wall, and vanished from the man's sight.
The man was also a wild Beyonder, so naturally he had no intention of reporting anything to the authorities. He stood frozen for a full two seconds before quickly turning around and fleeing the area.
As for the gathering that had just ended... he would never dare attend it again.
...
Raphael carried the corpse to a dim alley reeking with the stench of excrement, making him rub his wolf nose despite himself.
However he couldn't afford to worry about the environment now. While waiting for the Beyonder characteristic to precipitate, he immediately took out the Southern Continent-style bracelet he had seized from the previous battle.
Since the item granted the ability to perform Spirit Channeling, Raphael had named it the 'Spirit Channeling Bracelet'...
He still wasn't entirely clear on its negative effects, though he had conducted many tests. His spiritual intuition told him that using it to channel for about two minutes posed no major risk.
Additionally, after using it, he sensed that he became more easily noticed by lingering spirits. If there happened to be malevolent ghosts nearby, he might even be attacked by them.
At this moment, in his Werewolf state, Raphael gripped the Spirit Channeling Bracelet tightly and infused it with Spirituality; this caused a scene of rolling illusory fog to immediately manifest before him.
Within the fog materialized a vacant-eyed figure of the deceased Unwinged Angel...
Raphael opened his wolf maw and spoke in a low, hoarse voice, "Who do you answer to? Or what organization do you belong to?"
The fog before him suddenly churned, revealing a scene of a man with an indistinguishable face sneering coldly at the deceased Unwinged Angel: "That's right. You are bait, meant to lure out those Devils hiding in the shadows who don't belong to our sect. Then I will make my move and kill them."
Suddenly, a hideous face appeared in the scene. Long goat horns protruded from the top of this face, accompanied by an evil, sinister smile. The figure bore a genuine demonic visage.
*Whoosh!*
The goat horns suddenly ignited with pale blue flames, emitting a pungent odor...
Raphael seemed to be ejected from the Spirit Channeling process. He clutched his head in agony, collapsing to his knees, "Hahaha, my head hurts so much! It's like ten thousand insects gnawing at my brain! Hehe this Spirit Channeling was really exhilarating! Ahooo~!"
His pained expression was gradually replaced by madness. Raphael quickly recovered from the spiritual attack he had suffered, though tears, snot, and drool streamed down his face. Clearly, the ordeal had left him considerably damaged.
But he casually wiped his face with his hand, picked up the newly condensed Beyonder characteristic, and used his Werewolf speed to swiftly flee the area...
...
About a dozen seconds after Raphael left, a mass of illusory, viscous black liquid silently flowed to the side of the Unwinged Angel's corpse. The liquid coalesced into a dark humanoid figure; a 'Desire Apostle'.
"He actually escaped?" He sounded somewhat surprised.
He could sense that the attacker was a Werewolf, and said Werewolf had just performed a Spirit Channeling, triggering the spiritual attack the Desire Apostle had planted within the Unwinged Angel's body.
"That Werewolf shouldn't have recovered so quickly..."
Then a pale blue fireball appeared in the black figure's hand.
"Huh?" He softly exclaimed in surprise, unable to sense the other's location.
Without lingering, the dark figure dissolved back into black liquid and swiftly flowed away. He suspected this might be a trap, and that the Werewolf could also be bait...
...
The reason the Desire Apostle couldn't find Raphael was, of course, due to Raphael's special nature, or rather, because Raphael was shielded by the Sefirah Castle.
Before taking action, Raphael had anticipated that his Spirit Channeling might provoke a mental or Spiritual counterattack, but to find out where he could obtain the subsequent 'Serial Killer' Beyonder characteristic, he judged the risk to be acceptable.
What he hadn't expected was that this Unwinged Angel was purely bait. Some Devil or Desire Apostle had simply been waiting for him to kill the bait, ready to strike immediately.
He would have to set aside this lead for now and find another way to obtain a Serial Killer characteristic.
For now, the most important thing was to consume the Unwinged Angel potion as soon as possible...
~~~
{T/N: Serial Killer, Devil, and Desire Apostle are the respective Sequence 7, 6, and 5 of the Criminal/Abyss Pathway...}