Bunny Girl Evolution [A Monster Evolution LitRPG]

93 – The Sadist

As soon as Elise and Maia left with the vampire, Hans turned his attention back to the guards. With the vampire gone, they suddenly seemed much less motivated to free the prisoners.

“Why have you slowed down?” asked Hans.

A few of the guards glanced at each other hesitatingly. They were not stupid. They must have realized that something had happened to Lily and that she was no longer loyal to the Blood Syndicate, but that still threw everything into question. Should they still follow her orders now that she was gone? What if they kept going and the Blood Syndicate won? There were only three enemies left. If they worked together, could they win?

“As I said, the Blood Syndicate is falling today,” Hans continued. “I can’t guarantee that you will avoid punishment, but if you assist us in freeing the prisoners, that will be taken into consideration when determining your fates. However, if you choose to continue to resist, you will be killed.”

To drive the point home, Hans dashed toward where the guard captain lay fallen and beheaded him before dashing back to his original position. It was not all that impressive, since the man had already been incapacitated by whatever Lily had done to him, but the whole sequence happened in a split second, faster than a blink. The guards’ eyes widened and their efforts to break the prisoners’ bindings redoubled.

Hans was relieved. The display had not taken a lot out of him, but moving that fast was not without cost, and he would rather conserve his energy. There were supposed to be two other teams underground with them handling any resistance, but if Daisy was around, then he wanted to make sure he was in top form if he encountered her.

He looked around the room as the prisoners emerged from the cells. He recognized none of them. He had been expecting that, but it still made his heart sink a little. That meant that everyone that he had been imprisoned with was either dead or sold off somewhere.

He also didn’t see any of the “high-value targets” that they were supposed to be aiming for. Any prisoners freed was good, but these ones were not their main priority. They were technically supposed to fall to another group whose composition was more suited to escorting large numbers of people, but the fact that this other group was nowhere to be seen didn’t bode well.

“Escort them out and into the Jungle,” Hans commanded the guards as soon as the shackles were all broken. “Simply go straight out. We have teams waiting to take them. Surrender your weapons when you arrive and you will be spared.”

Some of the guards hesitated, but others immediately started guiding the prisoners toward the tunnel. Soon, groupthink took hold of the rest, and the whole group started shuffling down the tunnel. Their progress was not fast, since many of the prisoners were weakened, but hopefully that wouldn’t pose a problem with so many 5th and 6th tier guards alongside them.

Hans was mildly worried about the chance of them encountering more Syndicate forces outside, as their loyalty was weak, but with all the chaos going on, it wasn’t likely. Assuming that Elise had properly taken care of the guards outside, there shouldn’t be any trouble.

When he thought of the young rabbit changeling, Hans’ mood turned strange. Sometime after encountering Maia’s sister, he had confronted her about the fact that Rose said they had sensed a powerful priest. It took a bit of coaxing, but Elise eventually revealed that she had a skill that let her channel Titania’s power, and that it was the skill she had been testing in the woods when she asked to be alone. That tracked with what he had guessed, but it also had some odd implications.

As far as he knew, she didn’t have any kind of priest species. She hadn’t been at all cagey when talking about her species, so he knew she was just a Lesser Rabbit Changeling and he knew Lesser Changelings didn’t have any skills that would let them channel divine power. That combined with her oddly high Charisma and her seemingly infinite ability to use mental skills indicated there was something else going on. What it was though, he had no idea.

On top of that, now that he finally got to see her divine channeling in action, he knew it was no ordinary channeling. He had seen other priests before. They could channel the divine power of their own gods into their actions, improving the skills of themselves and others, but what Elise had done was on an entirely different level.

More importantly, when he was in her presence while she channeled that divine power, he had a deep, inherent feeling of reverence, as if he was standing in front of Titania herself. It did not override his own thoughts, but he did find himself subconsciously agreeing with what she said and thinking of ways to make her duties easier. It was to the point that he had to consciously remind himself that he was the leader of the squad.

Now that she was gone, he realized that perhaps the subtle subservience went deeper than he believed. He shouldn’t have let her take Maia and go like that. The VVIP booth wasn’t their job. Their squad was supposed to be extracting high-value prisoners. Sure, they could stretch that definition to include Kaia, but Hans was certain that if he was thinking more clearly he wouldn’t have allowed it. Especially now that he knew that Daisy was underground with them.

But, there was no point in having regrets now. It was far too late to call her back. They would just have to hope that the other squads had done their job, and that Daisy wouldn’t be a problem. But of course, that was too much to ask.

With the guards escorting the prisoners, Hans, Jag, and Penelope all sprinted further into the tunnels toward their main target, a much larger prison directly adjacent to the entrance to the arena itself. As they drew nearer, they heard the sounds of combat and screaming. The screaming would be Daisy’s doing. Hans gritted his teeth as he pushed himself to go faster, leaving the other two behind.

By the time he reached his destination, the sounds of fighting were gone, replaced by only the pained screams. He emerged from the tunnel into a room with a high ceiling and walls lined with cells. The bars on these cells were much thicker and almost hummed with the amount of mana inside them. The prisoners inside each were also bound much more tightly, and Hans recognized them as the ones they were supposed to extract. However, between him and them, a redheaded woman stood, her hand shoved deep inside a human warrior’s chest.

“Hans?” she said, greeting him with a smile as he entered the room.

“Daisy,” he said with a scowl.

Her face was almost exactly as he remembered it. Big blue eyes, a small nose, and thin lips would have given her an almost cute appearance if not twisted into an ugly, sadistic smile. Her body was not in great shape, however. She was surrounded by corpses, both human guards and non-human Ostra members, indicating that she had killed the squad that tried to attack her, but she didn’t do so effortlessly. Her left arm was entirely gone, and there was a wide hole in her torso that went so deep he caught a glimpse of her spine.

She was far from out of the fight though. As she stood there with the man dangling from her arm, screaming in pain, her wounds were visibly healing. The hole was filling in, and the flesh on the stump of her arm was wriggling and starting to extend outward. Hans also knew quite a bit about her abilities and knew that it would take much more than that to take her out. Especially with how much stronger she seemed to have gotten since he last saw her.

“Did you come back to see me, darling?” she asked.

Hans responded by dashing forward, hands covered in sharp mana as he aimed for her neck. She reacted well, swinging the man around to intercept his blow and taking a step back. Hans’ blow took the man’s head off, ending his suffering, which was also an acceptable outcome. He didn’t want to kill anymore than he had to, but that man was practically already dead, and the longer he lingered on the brink, the stronger Daisy would get.

Daisy was a tricky opponent for multiple reasons. The most obvious was that she was a bonafide 8th tier with a Legendary or Mythical class, putting her stats well above what most had. She had been an early 8th tier when Hans knew her, but at this point, she was a good ways’ in, and was likely approaching late 8th tier. Even beyond just that though, her class made her uniquely difficult to handle.

Daisy was a sadist through and through and the System rewarded her for it. When he was imprisoned there, she had been the Syndicate’s chief torturer, and many of her skills were dedicated solely to inflicting pain. On top of that, she had multiple passive skills that scaled with the pain she inflicted. One of them was a direct stat buff, and another was a recoil effect making it so that any pain she received was reflected and multiplied on the attacker.

The only reason that Hans thought he had any chance against her was that her class was not designed for combat. She was certainly a formidable opponent, and her skills synergized well, but she had very few actual attack or defense skills. On the other hand, while Hans was much weaker stat-wise, being only at the peak of 7th tier, his species was dedicated to one-on-one combat, and it had been for the past 3 tiers.

He dove toward her, once again aiming his blade at her neck. He was much faster than her, and she was unable to dodge, but she managed to get her good arm up to block the blow. His blade was sharp, but her Strength and Fortitude were both much higher than his, so his attack was halted before it could reach its target.

At the same time, his own arm exploded in pain as her passive skill reflected the sensation back on him. It did not mirror the damage as well, fortunately, so Hans could just push through it, but it would be a lie to say it wasn’t distracting.

He attacked again, but Daisy snapped her fingers and he was hit with a wave of sudden pain. His earlier training with Elise had helped him become accustomed to sudden mental attacks, and he had even done a bit of training so that he could follow through with his original attacks even when struck with such skills, but his resistance was not that strong yet. The pain made his entire body spasm, his arm pulling back involuntarily and making his attack miss.

At that moment, Jag and Penelope finally arrived, and as soon as they saw Hans locked in combat, they rushed forward to help.

“Stop!” shouted Hans. “I’ll handle her. Stay as far away from her as possible. Focus on freeing the prisoners instead.”

The last thing he needed was for them to empower her further by getting too close and getting hit by her. He assumed that’s why the last group failed. They had attacked her as a group, and when she used her area-of-effect skills, they empowered her to the point that she became practically unbeatable.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” said Daisy with a smile.

She backed up to the cells, and snapped her fingers again. Immediately, a half dozen prisoners behind her started screaming in pain, and her wounds started healing visibly faster. Hans cursed and dove in again, restarting the melee. With every move he made, he was struck with another wave of pain, and what little damage he managed to deal only hurt himself as well, but he needed to keep her on her toes. If he ever left her alone, she would be able to fully recover, and any hope of victory would be gone.

He raised his knife and swung it down at her, but this time, paused part way through. At the same moment, he was hit with another wave of pain, but as soon as it vanished, he continued his swing, using {Swift Strike} to accelerate it toward its target. {Swift Strike} was a skill he had learned early in his fighting career, and while it was a simple skill, it was largely because of it that he managed to get as strong as he was. It scaled with Agility, and with his Agility being higher than most 8th tiers’ that meant that his attacks using the skills nearly broke the sound barrier, making them almost impossible to dodge or block. Daisy found this out the hard way as she erected a mana barrier above herself after the blade had already cut a long gash across her body from shoulder to hip.

His vision went white and he stumbled, but no attack came while he was incapacitated. When his vision cleared, Daisy was standing a few feet back, blood pouring from her torso as she panted. She still wore a confident smile, but after that attack, Hans knew she was putting on a front. Her wounds were temporary and if given time, she would be able to fully recover without issue, but the prior battle had clearly taken a heavy toll on her. She could not go on forever.

Infused with new hope, Hans rushed forward again. Swinging his knife at her in an upward swing. The wave of pain came again, but Hans expected it. Right before it hit, he let go of his blade, using {Swift Throw} at the same time. His body convulsed, but the knife was undeterred, flying straight forward. She had been smart enough to erect a mana barrier at the same time, but the knife punched through it and into her body, its momentum only slightly reduced.

With another skill, Hans summoned the blade back, making it twist slightly as it emerged from her body. The pain this caused him was immense, and his vision once again went white, but it was well worth it. The pain he felt made Daisy stronger, but with only one opponent, it was not enough to offset the damage he dealt.

In addition, as he fought, Penelope and Jag were on the other side of the room, searching the possessions of the dead guards for the keys to the cells. When his vision cleared again, he saw Daisy looking toward them, clearly wanting to stop them, but Hans never gave her a chance. He attacked again and again, using every trick he knew to catch her off guard. His stats were boosted by a passive skill since he was in a one-on-one battle, making him impossible for her to avoid. She tried her best to use her own tricks to stop him, but as a torturer first, fighter second, she was always one step behind.

The amount of pain Hans was in increased with every strike, but he not only bore with it, but started integrating it into his attacks. He was facing the woman who had tortured him for years, and while she was causing him more pain now, he knew that every bit of pain he felt brought him one step closer to being rid of her for good.

After a minute more of fighting, her body was riddled with wounds, her right arm now also gone below the elbow, and her organs spilling out of her body. Her confident facade was gone, her face pale and haggard. She was on her last legs, and Hans knew it. He rushed forward, hoping to deliver the finishing blow, but she transformed into a mist of blood and drifted past him toward Jag and Penelope, who had now found the keys and were unlocking the first cage.

“Look out!” said Hans as he moved to intercept the vampire.

He tried to blow the blood mist away with his wings, but it kept going forward unimpeded. It flew over a few corpses, absorbing their blood as it went. Jag and Penelope scrambled out of the way, and after a second, the vampire reappeared. Her wounds had healed somewhat from the blood she absorbed, but her face was paler than ever, and there were dark circles under her eyes. While she was a vampire, as far as Hans knew, she had only become one after reaching 8th tier, meaning she only had the most basic of vampiric skills, and she had just pushed them to their limit.

“Come on, darling,” she rasped. “No need to get so fussy.”

She tried smiling at him, but the effect was ruined by the dark circles under her eyes and her obvious lack of energy. Another wave of pain hit Hans, but he was used to it at that point, and soldiered through it, preparing another {Swift Strike} to end her, but his attack merely swished through empty air as his surroundings suddenly shifted.

He was no longer in the room surrounded by prison cells. He was instead in what looked like a torture chamber. It was a dimly lit room lined with tables carrying all manner of disgusting-looking equipment, and a few different types of chairs and tables that he could only imagine the uses for. On the other side of the room, Daisy stood, looking completely unharmed.

“I didn’t want to have to use this,” she said.

She was smiling, and her voice sounded cheerful, but Hans could sense immense rage teeming under the surface. He wanted to attack her immediately, but his instincts told him that she had gotten much more dangerous, and he decided to wait and observe for a bit instead.

“I really, really didn’t want to have to use this,” she continued. “I was saving this for something special. Even the Lady doesn’t know I have it yet. But you’ve forced my hand, darling.”

She spread her arms wide, and the room seemed to come to life. Blades lifted off the table and started spinning. Various belts and ropes and other restraints started writhing, and even the chairs turned toward him, their heavy legs scraping across the stone floor.

“Welcome to my Domain.”