Billy Bruntin

Billy Bruntin, better known in the underground ring as Billy Buster, is the first person Gary Dem accidentally turns into a werewolf. The bite does not make Billy Gary's subordinate because both men are then Pawn-grade Omegas. Instead, Billy becomes an independent rival whose killings convert Gary's private transformation into a responsibility toward everyone endangered by it. His revenge-driven pursuit of former opponents, repeated attacks on Innu, and superior early strength force Gary to learn controlled transformation and accept that creating a werewolf also means deciding whether that werewolf can be contained. Billy dies before joining a pack, but the danger he represents becomes the precedent behind Gary's later caution about turning others and the rules of the Howlers Pack.

Biography

An underground fighter and an accidental bite

At nineteen, Billy fights under the name Billy Buster in Slough's illegal circuit. He enters his bout with Gary having fought fifteen underground matches and won ten, but he does not rely on reputation alone: the thick gloves he wears conceal metal reinforcement around the knuckles. Billy's early swings are broad enough for Gary to evade, yet he recognizes Gary's injured side and repeatedly attacks it, showing more ring experience than Gary's speed alone can neutralize. As Gary's heart rate rises beyond his control, he bites Billy in the right shoulder and then beats him unconscious. Neither fighter understands the bite as an act of transmission. Billy wakes roughly half an hour later with a broken nose and a throbbing wound, accepts medical cleaning, and says that he never wants to fight “Green Fang” again. (Chapters 17–20)

The apparent retreat lasts only until the bite changes the terms of both lives. Billy's parents are found mauled in their apartment, Billy disappears, and the police name him their principal suspect. At the same time, Gary's System announces that an Omega has been created. Tom's research and the System's subsequent quest establish the important hierarchy: because Gary is still a lone Pawn-grade Omega rather than an Alpha, his bite has produced another independent Omega, not an obedient Beta. Gary therefore cannot issue Billy pack orders or assume that the bite created loyalty. The creation was accidental, but once Gary recognizes it, he treats Billy's actions as a consequence he must stop. (Chapters 39–41)

Billy later gives his only account of his parents' deaths while defeated and facing execution. He says that his father struck his mother with an ashtray, that he attacked to protect her, and that hunger and bloodlust overwhelmed him after she defended his father, leaving both parents dead. The explanation supplies a possible immediate cause for the first attack, but it remains Billy's unverified testimony; Gary explicitly doubts how much of it is true. It also does not explain away the deliberate pattern Billy establishes afterward against unrelated former opponents. (Chapter 183)

Revenge targets and a growing Omega

Billy's next killings reveal a sequence that his parents' deaths alone cannot. A high-school fighter and a university fighter who had previously defeated him are murdered, while pieces of fresh human flesh are left at Gary's apartment and later near Innu. Kai identifies four underground opponents who had beaten Billy: the two dead men, Innu, and Gary. Innu had beaten him three times, which explains why Billy continues pursuing him after the first two targets are gone. The gifts suggest that Billy recognizes Gary as another werewolf and attempts some form of communication or offering, but the corpus never establishes a pack custom or confirms Billy's precise purpose. What is clear is that he acts on old grievances and brings the results of his killings to the two remaining men. (Chapters 42–44 and 55–57)

The bite rapidly changes Billy's human body. Within days he is larger, faster, stronger, and durable enough to ignore attacks that would stop an ordinary fighter. He enters Innu's school during class, blocks students from leaving, breaks one student's bones, kicks another aside, and attacks Innu with a desk. When Gary intervenes, Billy thanks him for what he has done, indicating that he values the strength even if the transformation was imposed without warning. Billy overpowers both Gary and Austin, opens his jaws around Austin, and says that the stronger boy “deserves this.” Gary concludes that Billy means to create a werewolf of his own, but Billy never completes the bite, so neither his exact intent nor his ability to turn Austin is proven in the scene. (Chapters 63–67)

This attack turns Billy from a distant murder suspect into Gary's immediate obligation. Gary's attempt to impose a Forced Bond fails because Billy is no longer human, while Billy escapes by jumping from the school's third floor. Gary now knows that Billy can reach his friends in daylight, may be trying to spread the condition, and is growing faster than Gary can through ordinary training. He begins treating the coming confrontation not as revenge for losing a fight but as the necessary containment of an Omega created by his own uncontrolled bite. (Chapters 66–71)

The full moon exposes the werewolf threat

On the first full moon after the bite, Billy changes into a massive black-furred werewolf and attacks the teenagers gathered near Cipen Park. He decapitates Xin Clove's bodyguard with one swipe and feeds on the body before chasing the others through the trees. Even in this fully transformed state he repeatedly redirects his attention toward Innu, carrying the earlier revenge target into the night's feral violence. Gary arrives in a smaller brown form and protects the group, but Billy is the stronger of the two: he tears Gary open faster than the wounds can finish healing, throws him through trees, and repeatedly breaks away to continue the pursuit. (Chapters 79–82)

The clash exposes both werewolves to forces that had previously treated the murders as an Altered case. Altered Hunters use electrified batons to separate them, and White Rose agents intervene against Billy and the senior hunter. Billy withstands repeated feather strikes, pulls projectiles from his regenerating body, wounds the winged agent Sadie by biting through her foot, and escapes into the forest. Blood recovered from that encounter later matches traces at the Bruntin home and at the two murdered fighters, giving White Rose direct evidence that the black creature and Billy are the same person. Publicly the case remains framed as an unregistered Altered killing spree because the investigators do not recognize werewolves as a separate power system. (Chapters 82–86 and 134–137)

Billy's conduct that night does not prove either total consciousness or total absence of it. His fixation on Innu is continuous with his human behavior, while the immediate killing, feeding, and inability to speak human language resemble a predator acting under hunger and bloodlust. Gary himself loses memory during that full-moon transformation, and Billy later describes the same drives during his parents' deaths. The corpus never enters Billy's viewpoint or shows a System interface that would establish what he remembers, what commands he receives, or how much control he retains. (Chapters 79–86 and 176–183)

The hunt, defeat, and death

Gary eventually gains Full Transformation and tests whether he can remain conscious outside the full moon. He then asks Blake, an apprentice Altered Hunter, to help track Billy. The search leads them to the orphanage Innu visits, where Billy stands outside watching through the gate. That location and his prolonged observation show that he is still stalking Innu rather than attacking at random. When Gary tackles him, Billy laughs at the idea that Gary has been hunting him, partially changes while resisting, and then enters his full black-furred form without a full moon. He flees toward an isolated underpass, avoiding populated streets, though the reason for choosing that route is not stated. (Chapters 140–148 and 169–176)

In the underpass, transformed Billy growls that Gary is the one who made him this way, and Gary can understand the meaning even though the sounds are not human speech. Billy remains physically superior, slashing through the tunnel wall, healing Gary's claw wounds, and forcing Gary to spend Energy on his own recovery. Gary and Blake compensate through cooperation: Blake's electrical device creates an opening for Gary to pierce Billy's abdomen, while repeated sword strikes tax Billy's healing. When a woman enters the tunnel, Billy abandons the duel, kills her, and feeds. The fresh flesh restores much of his accumulated damage and lets him sustain the werewolf form longer, transforming a bystander into both a victim and a combat resource. (Chapters 176–178)

Gary fully transforms, combines his claws and bite with learned tackles and grappling, and holds Billy in place while Blake targets the eye, hands, and legs. Their attacks eventually exhaust Billy's recovery and force him back toward human form. Gary's System identifies the defeated Billy as a Pawn-grade Omega and offers two outcomes: kill the stray or invite him into Gary's future pack as a Beta. Billy's late account of his parents makes Gary hesitate, but it is not Gary who settles the choice. Blake decapitates Billy before Gary answers, stating that the woman Billy has just killed proves he cannot be safely left alive. The System confirms Billy's death, and the official news later credits Altered Hunters. (Chapters 178 and 182–183; Chapter 191)

Billy's body continues to affect Gary after the fight. Gary consumes part of it and receives his first Pawn Point, revealing that werewolf flesh can advance grade, skills, or statistics. More importantly, Billy becomes Gary's negative model for every later bite. Gary considers turning the critically injured Mr Root but refuses because he cannot risk creating another hungry Omega. When he later bites Olivia, he deliberately uses a defeated enemy as a controlled test after becoming a higher-grade Knight; the grade difference creates a Beta rather than an independent Omega and makes Gary an Alpha. Gary's pack rules then prohibit killing without permission and creating more werewolves without the Alpha's approval—rules explicitly shaped to prevent another grievance-driven killer like Billy. Billy never belongs to the Howlers Pack, but containing the consequences of his existence teaches Gary that an Alpha's authority is inseparable from responsibility for the wolves created beneath it. (Chapters 183, 204, and 241–246)

Appearance and personality

Billy is nineteen when introduced, although his bald head and heavy build make him look middle-aged. He is unusually tall and broad even before the bite, with an obese torso the narration jokingly calls a “six pack of flabs.” The early infection exaggerates rather than replaces that frame: his body becomes larger over a matter of days, and by the school attack his raw size, speed, and toughness visibly exceed the fighter Gary first met. (Chapters 17–20 and 63–67)

His full werewolf form is approximately two and a half metres tall, heavily muscled, and covered in dark black fur. It has a large snout, protruding teeth, glowing eyes, long claws, and enough mass to distinguish it immediately from Gary's shorter, leaner brown form. Outside a full moon Billy can move between human and werewolf forms, but his reverted body at defeat remains partially changed long enough for the fangs to persist after death. (Chapters 79–82, 142, 175, and 182–183)

Billy's observable behavior combines resentment, appetite for power, and escalating violence. He gives up on fighting Gary immediately after their bout, but after gaining supernatural strength he targets the people who beat him, thanks Gary for the transformation, and treats Austin's strength as a reason to bite him. These choices support a revenge and dominance pattern; they do not establish a detailed ideology or excuse the killings as purely involuntary. His final plea presents hunger and bloodlust as forces he could not control during his parents' deaths, while his pursuit of named targets, school invasion, and attack on an uninvolved woman show that he repeatedly endangers people beyond that first crisis. (Chapters 20, 39–67, 178, and 183)

Billy can also act tactically. He exploits Gary's injury in the ring, hunts former opponents in sequence, disables Marie's emergency call by lunging toward the phone, uses trees as cover against Sadie's ranged feathers, watches Innu's orphanage before approaching, and feeds during the final battle to restore himself. The narrative never supplies his inner reasoning for all of these actions, so they are best understood as demonstrated decisions rather than evidence of a coherent long-term plan. (Chapters 17–20, 39–67, 80, 86, and 175–178)

Powers and abilities

Omega transformation and hierarchy

Billy becomes a werewolf through the shoulder bite Gary gives him during their underground fight. Because Gary is then a Pawn-grade Omega rather than an Alpha of higher grade, the System classifies Billy as another Omega: independent, unbound, and potentially a rival for dominance. Gary's Forced Bond cannot mark him once the change has occurred. The corpus does not show Billy possessing Gary's Werewolf System, receiving quests, or allocating statistics; his Pawn grade is revealed only through Gary's interface after he is defeated. (Chapters 19–20, 40–41, 66, and 182–183)

The first full moon forces Billy into a complete black-furred form. By the later hunt he can fully transform on another night and can begin with localized changes to his eyes and forearms, demonstrating progress toward voluntary activation. The text does not explain when he learned this, whether his transformation consumes a quantified Energy reserve, or whether he has named skills comparable to Gary's. Damage and sustained fighting eventually make his healing slower and force his body toward human form, while feeding on fresh human flesh restores wounds and helps him remain transformed. (Chapters 79–86, 175–178, and 182)

Physical enhancement and natural weapons

Even in human form, Billy gains superhuman size, strength, speed, jumping ability, and durability. He breaks students' bones with casual blows, throws desks, overwhelms Austin and Gary together, survives their attacks with little reaction, and escapes a third-floor classroom by jumping from the window. In werewolf form he becomes still larger and faster, moves effectively on two legs or all fours, shatters trees and masonry, decapitates a man with one claw strike, and uses his weight to overpower Gary in direct grappling. (Chapters 63–67, 79–82, and 175–182)

His claws can open deep wounds and tear through a tunnel wall, while his jaws are strong enough to bite through Sadie's transformed foot, seize a human neck, and threaten Gary's skull. Werewolf hide and bone provide substantial protection: Blake's ordinary sword strokes remain shallow, Gary's claws cannot pierce Billy's skull, and repeated blows are required to daze him. That protection is not uniform. The eye is vulnerable to Blake's blade, sharper daggers can penetrate the hands, and coordinated attacks to the legs restrict his mobility. (Chapters 81–86 and 176–182)

Healing, feeding, and endurance

Billy regenerates cuts and punctures rapidly in both his early human state and full form. Claw wounds close during combat, embedded feather injuries heal after he pulls the projectiles free, and even abdominal and neck wounds begin repairing themselves. Healing is not unlimited: repeated damage makes each recovery slower, and loss of blood and continued combat eventually contribute to reversion. Consuming a fresh human victim during the final battle reverses much of that accumulated damage and sustains the transformation, directly establishing feeding as a recovery mechanism rather than merely an appetite. (Chapters 66, 81–86, and 176–182)

Billy's hunger and bloodlust appear strongest around his first transformations and the full moon. His own testimony attributes the Bruntin deaths to those drives, and his park and tunnel attacks show immediate feeding on victims. The corpus does not test chocolate on Billy, establish a required daily diet, or confirm that eating people permanently raises his statistics. Gary speculates that Billy's killings made him stronger, but the demonstrated effect is short-term healing and transformation support. (Chapters 79–86, 92, 178, and 183)

Senses, communication, and limitations

Billy locates Gary, follows Innu across several locations, and distinguishes targets within groups, behavior consistent with a werewolf's enhanced senses. However, the source does not isolate whether he uses scent, ordinary surveillance, memory from the fight circuit, or a mixture of them. In full form he cannot produce normal human speech; his growls can nevertheless be understood by Gary once both share werewolf nature. No telepathy, pack link, or remote command between them is demonstrated. (Chapters 42–67, 79–82, and 175–176)

Electrical hunter batons and devices can shock and briefly interrupt him, while Sadie's feathers penetrate his body even though regeneration removes their lasting advantage. His greatest combat limitation is that raw power does not overcome coordinated targeting: Gary restrains and damages him while Blake attacks vulnerable areas and mobility. Once defeated, Billy can be killed by decapitation, and death ends every transformation and recovery option. His final state is therefore permanently deceased, with no later resurrection or retained active ability. (Chapters 82–86 and 176–183)

Before his transformation, Billy has considerable underground-fighting experience and recognizes injuries worth exploiting. His concealed reinforced gloves increase the danger of his punches, but his technique is inconsistent: Gary finds his opening swings wild, and Billy relies increasingly on strength once the werewolf change begins. During the last battle, Gary's trained tackling, grappling, and cooperation with Blake prove more adaptable than Billy's direct charges and swipes. (Chapters 17–20 and 177–182)

Power progression

Relationships

Gary Dem. Gary defeats and accidentally bites Billy, creating an independent Omega rather than a subordinate. Billy later thanks him for the strength, leaves human flesh at his home, attacks him as a rival, and finally blames him for the transformation. Gary accepts causal responsibility without accepting responsibility for Billy's later choices. Their conflict drives Gary to master full transformation, learn werewolf hierarchy, and eventually build pack safeguards that did not exist when Billy was created. (Chapters 17–20, 40–71, 176–183, and 241–246)

Billy's parents. The Bruntin couple are Billy's first known victims. At defeat, Billy claims he attacked after his father struck his mother and that hunger and bloodlust caused him to kill both when his mother intervened. Because no surviving witness or viewpoint confirms this account, the relationship's final moments remain known only through Billy's plea and the physical evidence tying his blood to the scene. (Chapters 39–40, 136, and 183)

Innu. Innu had defeated Billy three times in underground fights, making him the most repeatedly successful name on Billy's target list. Billy invades his school, pursues him through the first full moon, and later watches the orphanage Innu visits. Innu's continued danger is one of the strongest reasons Gary stops treating Billy as a problem that might disappear on its own. (Chapters 55–67, 79–82, and 174–175)

Blake. Blake first encounters Billy as an apprentice Altered Hunter and later works with Gary to find him. In the final fight Blake supplies tracking equipment, electrical control, blades, and precise attacks against Billy's vulnerable areas. After Billy is defeated and offers an explanation, Blake refuses the risk of mercy and decapitates him before Gary chooses between execution and pack recruitment. He takes the head as proof and leaves the Hunters' calling card, making Billy's public death an Altered Hunter victory. (Chapters 82–91, 147–148, and 169–191)

Items

Billy has no finalized configured inventory item. In his first underground bout he uses thick gloves with concealed metal reinforcement, but they are cheating equipment for that fight rather than a named supernatural or recurring possession. (Chapters 17–20)