The sudden appearance of the monster sent the gangsters into a panic.
Mickey was the boss, after all, and he was the first to react.
He immediately drew the handgun from his waist, raised it, and fired.
“Bang!”
The bullet missed the monster completely and instead punched through the back of one of his own men’s head.
“Shit!
Blondie, I didn’t mean to!”
The Skinwalker swatted another thug aside with one claw.
The man spun several times through the air before slamming into a tree and going still.
The remaining three gangsters finally snapped out of their shock.
They turned and ran, firing wildly behind them as they fled.
The Skinwalker gave the forest ranger a complicated look, then immediately chased after them.
Meanwhile, Liam stepped out from behind the tree in response to the ranger’s provocation.
Seeing his prey emerge, the ranger said smugly,
“Didn’t expect you to be that loyal.
You actually let the others escape first.
Won’t do you any good, though.
I already got to Goldman’s car before you and sabotaged it.
Once I kill you, I’ll go finish off the rest.”
Liam showed no anger at the ranger’s taunting.
Instead, he asked a question with complete seriousness.
“Are there any other unknown creatures in this forest?
Or any other mysterious incidents?”
“What?”
“How did you get this ability?
Can you demonstrate it for me?
I’d like to get the whole transformation on camera.”
The ranger’s face twitched.
“So you really are crazy.
Fine, then I won’t waste any more time.
I didn’t bring a skin with me, but you’ll make a perfect test subject for the new form I learned.”
As soon as he finished speaking, a series of sharp cracking sounds came from his body as his bones began to shift.
His limbs lengthened and bent backward.
Sparse black hair sprouted across his body, fangs pushed out from his mouth, and claws grew from his fingers.
Within moments, the forest ranger had transformed into a half-human, half-beast monster.
Liam hadn’t been idle during any of this.
He filmed the entire transformation from start to finish, even getting several close-up shots of the important details.
Seeing that Liam wasn’t afraid in the slightest only made the ranger angrier.
Now that he possessed this extraordinary power, he couldn’t stand the thought of someone refusing to fear him.
“ROAR!”
The ranger let out an enraged howl and charged at Liam.
Liam still didn’t counterattack right away.
He kept the camera raised, dodging while continuing his commentary.
As you can see, unlike the one we encountered earlier, this one transformed without using an animal hide.
Now let’s test what differences there are between the two forms.”
He casually sidestepped the ranger’s lunge.
“Mr.
Ranger’s physical abilities have clearly improved quite a bit.
His charge through the forest is already comparable to a sprinter at full speed, but he obviously hasn’t learned how to control that strength properly.
That makes him very easy to dodge.”
Furious, the ranger lunged again, slashing repeatedly with his claws in an attempt to tear the infuriating man apart.
Liam still looked completely at ease.
With his free left hand, he drew a small knife and parried every attack.
“His strength is already far beyond that of a normal person.
If he had ambushed me, I probably would’ve died.
But after fighting him head-on, I can tell that he’s relying entirely on instinct.
His combat experience is probably worse than that of a young Wolf that’s only just been weaned.”
“ROAR!
Will you shut up already?!”
The ranger had finally had enough.
Not only had he failed to take down his prey, but Liam had been talking nonstop the entire time.
Worse still, Liam was right.
After listening to that analysis, the ranger finally understood the strengths and weaknesses of this form himself, including flaws he hadn’t even realized he had.
“By the way, have you ever killed anyone?”
Liam suddenly asked while dodging another attack.
The ranger, focused entirely on offense, answered without thinking.
“Of course.
Who do you think wrote those letters?”
“What a shame.
Die.”
“What?”
The sudden shift in Liam’s tone caught the ranger completely off guard.
In that instant, Liam hurled the small knife from his hand.
The ranger instinctively raised his hardened claws and successfully knocked the blade aside.
Before he could attack again, Liam was already standing directly in front of him, holding a handgun.
“Kids, the next part is a little graphic.
Please watch with parental supervision.”
“Bang!”
Blood sprayed through the air.
In the end, the Skinwalker’s enhanced body still hadn’t exceeded the limits of a carbon-based life-form.
Its skull was just as vulnerable as that of an ordinary creature.
One bullet was enough.
After confirming that the ranger was dead, Liam hurried over to the two gangsters who had been killed earlier and searched their bodies.
He quickly found two more handguns.
Apparently, the Curly-Haired Gang really was struggling financially.
“All right.
Now let’s go find poor Mike.”
Since the other Skinwalker still hadn’t returned, Liam decided to enter the cave first.
Inside, Mike was sitting there with his head hanging down, staring blankly into space.
When he heard someone approaching, he assumed the Skinwalker had returned.
Then he looked up and realized it was Liam.
His face immediately lit up.
“Bro!
I’m over here!
Get me out of this!”
Liam stepped forward and cut through the ropes.
As he worked, Mike babbled out everything he had seen earlier in a disorganized rush.
After listening, Liam fell into thought.
“So that’s how it is.
Looks like there are other supernatural creatures in this forest.”
Mike looked confused.
“Why do you say that?
That bearded guy could barely talk.
He looked like some kind of wild man.”
Liam first turned the camera toward the herbs and tools and recorded them carefully before answering.
“Knowledge doesn’t just appear out of nowhere, just like cars don’t build themselves.
There’s a fairly complete system of herbal medicine here, primitive as it may be.”
Mike immediately understood.
“I get it.
Skinwalker transformation is obviously some kind of mysterious technique.
That bearded guy must have had someone teach him.”
“Good answer, kid.”
Liam rummaged through the pile of tools until he finally found a ring of keys.
Then he walked over to the mother bear and bear cub chained to the wall.
Seeing Mike’s puzzled expression, Liam explained,
“According to what you told me, that bearded man can recover quickly using bear blood.
Since he hasn’t come back yet, we should weaken him as much as we can.”
With that, Liam unlocked all the chains restraining the two brown bears.
The moment they were freed, both animals collapsed weakly to the ground.
They had been starved for a long time and repeatedly drained of blood, leaving them severely weakened.
Liam searched the cave and found some dried meat.
He placed it in front of the bears, then slowly backed away to show that he meant them no harm.
The mother bear sniffed the food cautiously.
Eventually, hunger won out, and she began devouring it.
After resting for a while, both bears recovered some of their strength.
The mother bear got to her feet and began searching the cave for more food.
Liam immediately took the opportunity to wrap an arm around the fluffy bear cub and wave at the camera.
The mother bear glanced back at him, gave an annoyed snort, and went back to what she was doing.