Bunny Girl Evolution [A Monster Evolution LitRPG]

When Hans and the vampire vanished, Penelope didn’t notice. Not immediately, at least. She was busy fumbling with a ring of keys trying to free her third prisoner. When she noticed the sounds of battle vanish, she just assumed that Hans had won, and that he would soon be joining them. The vampire was in bad shape, after all.

However, when the silence stretched on, and she heard nothing from Hans, she finally looked back, and had no idea how to respond. The two combatants were simply gone. She hadn’t even sensed any surge of mana that would have indicated the use of a teleportation scroll or anything like that.

Her first thought was that maybe she was under some kind of mental illusion, which would make sense, given that the vampire seemed to have some kind of mental skills. However, when she activated {Knight’s Resolve}, there was no reaction, meaning that there was no mental tampering happening. They really had just vanished.

“Hans!” called Jag from the other side.

Penelope made eye contact with him where they shared a look of confusion before they both stood up and walked cautiously toward the center of the room. Neither let their guard down as they approached the spot where Hans had been fighting, but nothing happened. The only sounds were the weak movements of the prisoners.

“What happened?” asked Jag.

“I don’t know, I didn’t see,” said Penelope.

She walked around a bit, trying to see if there were any signs of what had happened, but again, there was nothing aside from general bloodstains and footprints. Or at least, that’s what she thought until she passed by a certain point when she froze. It was like she had suddenly walked into one of the knights’ recovery rooms, where the density of mana was increased, but dozens of times stronger. It was only a thin plane in the air, invisible to the eye, but it was definitely there.

“Jag, come here,” she said. “What’s this?”

“What?” he asked, walking forward.

He stopped in the same place she did, right next to her, and though she couldn’t read his facial expressions, she sensed his mood darken.

“A Domain,” he said.

“A Domain?” asked Penelope. “She was 9th tier?”

“No…” said Jag. “She shouldn’t have been. And she didn’t feel like a 9th tier. But this is definitely the entrance to a Domain.”

“Can we get in?”

“I believe it’s possible, but I haven’t the faintest idea how to do it.”

Penelope thought for a moment longer before speaking again.

“There’s nothing we can do then. Let’s keep freeing the prisoners and hope that he makes it out.”

“It’s a Domain though…” said Jag. “But you’re right. Let’s finish the mission. We have no way to contact the other squads, so hopefully, one will arrive to help.”

Penelope nodded, then the two turned away and returned to the cells. Penelope felt a bit numb as she worked, knowing that if it was indeed a Domain, Hans was likely dead, but she had work to do, and couldn’t spare the mental effort to dwell on it. There were almost a hundred prisoners, and all were in bad shape. They were all completely drained of mana, and most were drugged as well. She could tell they were all strong, but none were in any condition to fight.

She was about halfway done with her side of the room when she suddenly heard noise from behind her. She turned, hoping that Hans had somehow made it out, but to her dismay, she was instead greeted by the sight of a dozen armored guards escorting a corpulent man wearing expensive silk.

“Slay the beast and bring me the prisoners!” he commanded in a shrill voice. “Quickly now!” He turned to Penelope. “I’ll pay you twice whatever you’re being paid to help me instead.”

Penelope didn’t know the man, but she recognized his type. An amoral opportunist, hoping to make a profit amidst the chaos. It was possible he had already been planning something like this, considering that people of his wealth were supposed to be far upstairs. Penelope glanced at Jag, and the two stepped forward.

“Fuck off,” she said, standing up and drawing her sword. “Surrender and back down and I’ll spare your life. Do you really think you’ll be able to get away with this?”

“Of course,” said the man dismissively. “Kill her too.”

The guards stepped forward drawing their own weapons to meet Penelope and Jag in combat as Penelope activated a new skill she had received during her recent class evolution. It was a passive skill with the same name as her class, {Knight of the People}, and gave her enormous stat bonuses when she fought to protect the weak and innocent. With dozens of incapacitated prisoners behind her, her stats were more than doubled. Mana coursed through her body like it never had before, putting immense strain on her muscles and joints, but she ignored the pain as she stepped forward.

The fat man’s guards sensed the change in her, and started approaching much more cautiously, aware they were no longer dealing with a mere newly-evolved 6th tier. Still, they pressed on, none seeming particularly worried. Most of them were in the upper reaches of 6th tier with a couple low 7th tiers, and the ones fighting Jag were even stronger, showing off exactly how wealthy the opportunist was.

Accepting a job like the one these guards had often meant the end of their progression. Sure, they would still grow from carrying out their profession, but without struggle, the growth would be negligible. With so many of them guarding the same person, the odds of anyone trying any kind of attack were almost zero meaning that these guards would likely not progress much further. For them all to be willing to accept such a consequence rather than pushing further meant that the fat man was offering them quite a bit of money for that to be worth it.

It was for a similar reason that Jelor sent out their young knights into the world, rather than keeping them close. They had wandering knights all over the continent, seeking challenges to grow in power before returning to bolster Jelor’s ranks as 7th or 8th tiers. All that is to say that while the guards were higher in level than Penelope, she was not in any way inferior. They were stagnant. Lazy. Penelope was not. She had spent the last month of her life pushing herself to her limits to improve, fighting for hours every day. Even without {Knight of the People} active, she could have held her own against the high upper 6th tiers, and with it working, they were no match.

The first one to approach her had his sword broken and his head cut clean off in two swift moves. She saw the eyes of some of the others widen, but despite their fear, they continued to challenge her. While they had given up on improving, they had still managed to push themselves to 6th tier before then, proving they weren’t utter cowards and weaklings. They also had some semblance of organization forming a ring around her, blocking her both from reaching their employer, and from reaching Jag.

Penelope glanced over at Jag, seeing if she needed to break through the ring to reach him, but he seemed to be doing fine on his own. In fact, he was doing better than fine. After getting accustomed to the old monster’s polite and even meek demeanor, Penelope was a bit shocked seeing him fight so ferociously. In the short time she looked over, she saw him crush a guard’s head in his jaws, the metal helmet crumpling like paper and the skull cracking like a melon.

Seeing that he was doing alright, she instead turned her attention to the fat man, who seemed unconcerned, and even seemed to be looking for a way past the fighting so he could get a better look at the prisoners. In that moment, Penelope decided that was her target. She pushed forward to one of the guards, who panicked, but held his own, bringing his sword up to meet hers. Her attack, empowered by more mana than she could normally handle, cut into his blade, but didn’t break it, and at the same time, four more swords flew toward her sides as the ring collapsed around her.

She immediately spun to the side, dodging two of the blades and deflecting the other two. Then, a fifth blade struck her shoulder. She saw it at the last second and empowered her armor with mana, but it wasn’t quite enough, and the blade managed to break through the steel, cutting a quarter inch into her flesh. She gritted her teeth and pressed forward, somewhat recklessly attacking another guard. She managed to stab him in the heart, but took another glancing blow to her hip as she did so.

As she fought, Penelope found herself envying her companions. Maia, who could slip in and out of the shadows, fighting only on her own terms. Elise, who could hover at a distance, manipulating her enemies away from attacking her as she whittled them down. Hans, who was so fast that even in a group melee, none could hit him.

However, she was none of them. She was just a knight. She had high physical stats, and skills to make them even higher, but that was all. She could use her mana to attack a bit further than her reach, but by no stretch of the imagination could she call herself a ranged fighter. She had some mental skills, but they were more for empowering and inspiring allies, and weren’t anything manipulative like Elise’s. At this moment, all she had to rely on were her own body and mind.

She activated {Knight’s Resolve}, allowing her to remain calm and analytical, even in the chaos, and started slowly dismantling her opponents. She took more hits, but never anything too serious. Any empowered strikes, she put in effort to block or dodge, and the rest, she ignored, letting her passive defenses strengthened by {Knight of the People} handle.

When she killed the fourth guard, reducing her number of attackers to three, they finally started to panic. They grouped together, standing between her and the fat man, but none of them stepped forward. The three alive were the two low 7th tiers and one high 6th tier, and though they had yet to be hit, it was clear that they were already mentally damaged.

However, Penelope wasn’t doing well either. She had pushed herself to kill the first four guards, and the strain on her muscles was reaching the point that it was starting to get dangerous. Another minute of fighting and her body might start breaking down. She needed to end things soon.

She glanced over at Jag, who she noticed was in a similar situation to her. She felt a strong sense of camaraderie when she saw him covered in bloody cuts. Like her, he relied almost entirely on his own body, having only used his fire breath once. His opponents were mostly dead as well, and his jaw and front claws were both dripping with blood. He looked like a true monster in that moment, the kind that in another life Penelope might have been sent to hunt.

She made eye contact with him, then nodded, and the two surged forward. Penelope didn’t use any of her more powerful finishers. Her opponents had both the stats and skills to negate such attacks, making it a waste of her limited mana to use them. Instead, she just pushed forward using her raw aggression fueled by her anger and desire to protect.

Her first strike was met and deflected by one of the 7th tier guards. In that brief exchange, Penelope could tell that the man was more skilled than her with the sword. It didn’t matter though. He was fighting scared, and even with two more to fight alongside him, they were scared too. Penelope took damage, but she gave out as good as she got, and continued to press forward like a juggernaut.

The guards started to panic even more, until after only twenty seconds of fighting, one of them made a mistake. The 7th tier that Penelope had struck first, and that she had been primarily focused on, got too tunnel-visioned. He focused so much on his enemy’s sword that he didn’t pay attention to his surroundings. He took a step back, his foot landing on the blood-slick arm of a fallen guard, and he stumbled. He raised his sword as he fell, hoping to block Penelope’s downward swing, but she quickly changed her attack, instead stabbing him in the stomach. He managed to condense mana at the point of the attack, preventing fatal damage, but he fell to one knee as he did so. Penelope yanked the sword out, spinning to the side away from the strikes of the other two and bringing her blade down in a mighty backhanded strike on the downed guard’s neck.

Once again, he managed to condense mana to defend, but this time, it wasn’t enough. The sword hit him right in the back of the neck, and while it didn’t fully behead him, it sank deep, severing his spinal cord.

“What are you doing?!” screeched the fat man. “Kill her already, imbeciles!”

He seemed to have finally realized how poorly things were going for him, and he even started backing away toward the edge of the room. Penelope saw him retreating, and wanted to go after him, but the other two guards still blocked her way. She wanted to ask them why they were so willing to give their lives for such a man, but she didn’t have time for conversation. She was running low on mana, and her body was starting to fail her. If they surrendered, she would accept without a second thought, but neither seemed inclined to do that.

The 6th tier was the next to fall. Seeing the 7th tier fall made him panic, and he attacked recklessly. Penelope barely managed to deflect the huge amount of mana contained in the swing, taking a cut on the side of her head in the process, but she managed to step forward and take advantage of the opening created by the huge swing. A quick stab in the throat sent the guard to the ground, clawing at his gushing neck.

The final guard looked truly scared, as though he was about to turn tail and flee. Penelope sincerely hoped he would. She took a step forward, furrowing her brow, trying to intimidate him into leaving, but at that moment, things started to go wrong.

She heard a snap, and suddenly her leg buckled. Her achilles tendon had had enough, and gave out. The guard watched in shock as she struggled back to her feet, then pounced on the opportunity. Penelope managed to block his first strike, then deflected the second before blocking the third, but the force of that blow made something tear in her shoulder, and for the fourth strike, she couldn’t get her arm up in time to block it. She barely managed to turn her body, letting the strike aiming for her neck bury itself in her arm instead. She dropped the sword from her bad arm, catching it with the other hand and stabbing forward.

The guard sidestepped and responded with a stab of his own, the blade burying itself in Penelope’s gut. However, when he tried to pull it out, she clenched her muscles, slowing him down. Panic filled his face as he saw Penelope pouring the last of her mana into one final {Heavy Blow} coming down from above onto the unfortunate guard. He tried letting go of the sword to pull back faster, but it was too late. Penelope’s other shoulder tore as she made the final strike, but it was enough. The blade buried itself deep in the other man, cutting through his shoulder down across his heart and into his stomach. He fell to the ground, and a moment later, after pulling the sword from her stomach, Penelope did the same.

She deactivated her skills and though energy continued to course through her body, this time, it was pleasant. She had gained half a dozen levels from that short battle, increasing her Fortitude by quite a bit. She could already feel her wounds healing. If left alone, she would eventually be fine. She wasn’t sure if she would get that time though.

The guards were handled. Shortly after she finished hers, Jag finished up on his side. The fat noble tried to run away, but Jag even managed to take care of him as well, a well-aimed beam of fire burning the man alive. For a moment, peace returned to the room. Both Penelope and Jag knew it wouldn’t last though.

Neither Hans nor the vampire had emerged from the Domain yet. The fact that they hadn’t gave them some hope. Domains were the personal spaces of powerful beings. There was nowhere that they were stronger than within their own Domains. The fight should have been over quickly.

“Penelope,” said Jag, limping toward her.

“I’m here,” she replied weakly.

The sword had missed her lungs, but taking too deep of a breath still hurt.

“Are you alright?” he said, appearing in her vision, dripping blood from all over his body.

“No, but I will be if we make it out,” she said. “It’s not fatal.”

“Can you move?”

Penelope looked down at her own body, then sighed and sat up, groaning in pain.

“Barely,” she said. “Let’s get these prisoners out before-”

At that moment, the vampire emerged. Penelope’s heart sank as she saw her condition. Her injuries were gone entirely, and her face had gone from strained and worried to confident and cheerful. She took a deep breath, then made eye contact with Penelope and Jag.

“Well, well, well, what happened here?” she said with a smile. “Looks like poor old Harold bit off a bit more than he could chew.”

Jag stepped forward, standing in between Penelope and the Vampire. “Where is Hans?”

“He’s alive,” she said with a cruel smile. “Barely. He’s resting for now. Would you like to join him?”

Jag responded by launching another round of his fire breath at her. She dodged easily, laughing slightly. Then, a wave of pain crashed over both him and Penelope, and they both released involuntary screams. The vampire laughed even louder.

Penelope activated {Knight’s Resolve} and tried to get to her feet, but the skill crumbled when another wave of pain hit, sending her crashing to the ground. Jag was even worse off. He had no such mental protection skill, and Penelope had already witnessed how susceptible he was to Elise’s skills. He was now writhing on the ground, bending backward so far his tail brushed his ears.

Penelope gritted her teeth and tried to get to her feet again. When the pain came, she was more ready for it. She screamed, but instead of falling, she pushed herself harder, getting to her feet. Her sword was still embedded in the final guard, so she clenched her fists and limped a step forward. She could barely see from the pain, but she moved forward anyway. She heard the familiar ding of the System trying to tell her something, but she took another step forward to where she vaguely sensed the other vampire was.

Another wave of pain came, this time followed by dizziness. Her mind was strong, but her body was too weakened. She had lost a lot of blood. She fell to the ground again, the pain increasing. With a final push, she shoved herself to her feet. Suddenly, a wave of relief came, accompanied by clarity. There was a System message in front of her saying something about a Skill Quest.

She didn’t read it though, her attention instead taken up by the scene in front of her. The vampire wasn’t even looking at her. Instead, she was turned around, focusing on a group of new arrivals on the far side. Penelope immediately focused on Elise, still in her human form. The golden glow in her eyes was gone, leaving only the ordinary red, but as she saw this, Penelope felt a shiver run down her spine. The gold had been terrifyingly powerful, but the current expression on her face was far more sinister.

Elise was accompanied by Maia, the vampire they had freed earlier, and three more she didn’t recognize. Then, Penelope’s vision started to fade. Despite whatever skill she had just unlocked, her body’s condition was too poor. The blood loss was too much for her to remain standing. She fell forward, barely catching herself before she faceplanted. She looked back up as her vision faded to black, and the last thing she remembered seeing was a pair of red eyes filled with rage.