Bunny Girl Evolution [A Monster Evolution LitRPG]

98 – Finally Rescued

Elise was surprised that Daisy reacted so strongly. Just from what she had witnessed in the fight, Daisy’s stats should have been higher than hers, even in Charisma. She specialized in mental attacks, after all. She had already seen the passive resistance that higher Charisma could provide in her experiments on Jag, Maia, and Hans, but Daisy seemed to lack that? Or was it maybe just her odd constitution that was supercharging her attack?

Whatever the case, she didn’t have the time to spare any further thought on it.

PAIN!

Daisy screamed again and stepped back as Elise took a step forward.

AGONY!

Daisy lifted her hands to her head in pain, but managed to do another mental attack at Elise. It was the single target one she had used on Nigel before, and the pain was incomparable compared to her area-of-effect skill, making her feel like she was being eaten alive by a million fire ants. Elise almost blacked out right there, but managed to barely hold on, channeling the pain into her own skill.

TORTURE!

Elise’s pain immediately stopped as Daisy took another step back, her nose bleeding. Nigel tried to step forward, but Daisy released another wave of pain to her surroundings, freezing him. The pain ended almost as soon as it began as Elise countered again. It continued like this for nearly a minute, but Daisy still didn’t go down. She was bleeding from her nose, and her movements were shaky and sluggish, but she was always just barely able to fend off whatever they tried to do to her.

Elise was frustrated. She had heard what felt like dozens of notifications from the System, and she could feel her new skill getting stronger, but for some reason, it still felt… weak. Like she was missing something. Like she was only getting half the skill’s power out of it.

SUFFERING!

A tear of blood fell from Daisy’s eye, but she still managed to release yet another wave of pain, stopping the attacks of the others. Suddenly, Elise had an idea. With no time to think it through, she quickly shifted back to her changeling form and used the skill again.

PAIN!!

In her base form, it felt like a restriction had been lifted. The mental attack was so powerful it made Elise’s own head hurt. Daisy collapsed to the ground instantly, completely unconscious, blood leaking from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. But she was not dead.

Not yet, thought Elise.

FEAR!

Daisy shot to a sitting position, her eyes wide with fright. Nigel stepped forward, running her through with his sword, right through her heart. But Elise wasn’t done yet.

PAIN!

She didn’t even scream this time. She stopped moving entirely, her face stuck in an expression of abject terror. Blood ran down her ears, dripping onto her shoulders. Then, she fell to the side.

[ You have slain Vampire - Duchess of Sadism, lvl 43 ]

[ You have leveled up! 12 -> 21 ]

[ Strength +36, Agility +36, Dexterity +36, Fortitude +36, Charisma +315, Intelligence +126, Willpower +180, Mana +135, Mana Control +135 ]

[ You have unlocked the skill {Sense Emotions} ]

She glanced around the room, seeing the state of the others. Nigel seemed mostly fine, though he was sweating heavily and his face was pale. Maia and Lily were struggling back to their feet. Both of the guards were unconscious, but still breathing. Hans was-

Wait. Hans?

In the middle of the room, Hans was laying on the ground. He was in terrible condition. He was unconscious and pale. His fingers and toes had been amputated, as had his nose and ears, and he was dripping blood all over the floor. He was still alive though, fortunately. Elise had to resist the urge to run and start healing him, as while his condition was bad, he seemed stable, unlike Penelope.

Penelope was no longer bleeding. Elise knew that somehow, that was a bad sign. She was laying face-down on the ground where Daisy had dropped her, and her back barely moved when she breathed. Elise flew over as quickly as she could, raining {Fairy Dust} down on the dying knight. At first, nothing happened. Elise was worried she was too late.

Thankfully, after a few minutes, she seemed to grow a bit stronger. Her breathing got deeper. Some color returned to her face. Elise knew that Penelope’s Fortitude was one of her highest stats, if not the highest, and that Fortitude helped with natural healing. It seemed that Elise had managed to heal her just enough that her natural abilities could at least keep her alive on their own.

She wanted to keep going, but in the time that she was healing, she cleared her mind just enough to know that she couldn’t afford that luxury at the moment. Operation Blood was a success, but not a perfect one. She could see the bodies of the squad that was supposed to have taken out the guards on the ground. The entire squad in the VVIP booth had perished. With her rabbit ears, she could tell that the Syndicate guards weren’t rallying, but she had no idea how much time she had. And she had yet to accomplish her main goal: saving Nick and Bianca.

“Is she going to be okay?” asked Maia from beside her.

“I think so,” said Elise. “I don’t think her life is in too much danger right now, but we should get her to a real healer.”

At that moment, Elise heard faint stirring behind her and looked back to see Hans start to move. She flew over and used {Fairy Dust} on him as well, which didn’t do much, but allowed him to at least sit up.

“Elise?” he said weakly.

“It’s me,” she said. “You’re safe now. Mostly.”

“And the- the prisoners?”

“They’re…” She looked around the room, seeing that most were still in no shape to move, but were not in danger. “They’re safe too. Mostly. But I don’t know how we’ll move them.”

“I’ll call backup,” he said, giving his head a small shake to try to clear his mind. “What about your- your friends?”

“They’re in the arena still. But there was no one else around, last I saw. Just them.”

He frowned, but his eyes seemed to be clearing up. He looked around the room, taking stock of the situation, grimacing at all the injured and dead.

“Can you still move and fight?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Elise confidently.

She was certain that her aether stores were probably running low after using them so extensively, but she knew she still had some gas in the tank, and she had hardly touched her mana reserves.

“Lily!” he called, his voice barely loud enough to reach the vampire.

Lily approached, though as she did, Elise noticed a strange look on her face. It almost seemed like… fear? And it was directed at Elise.

“How do we get to the arena?”

“Straight through that door and take the first right at the large hallway,” said Lily immediately, pointing to a large set of doors.

“Go,” said Hans, looking at Elise. “We’ll finish up here.”

Elise glanced back at Penelope and the guards. Maia had finished checking on Penelope and was shaking the guards awake. Nigel was leaning against a wall, but he gave Elise a grin and a nod when they made eye contact.

“I’ll be right back,” said Elise, and she flew off toward the doorway that Lily had indicated.

The journey was quick and ended at a heavy iron gate that led out into the arena. There were no guards in sight, all of them having fled, but there didn’t seem to be any kind of mechanism to open the gate either. She switched to her slightly smaller Rabbit Fey form and managed to barely squeeze through the bars before reverting to her changeling form and flying up toward the tower where she had seen Nick and Bianca last.

She found them both sitting in a bed meditating, and she could sense that there was something wrong with Bianca’s mana. She was about to fly closer, but she noticed Nick tense, his hand drifting toward his sword.

“I’m here to help,” she said.

A moment passed, then Nick’s hand relaxed. Elise immediately flew up above Bianca and started raining {Fairy Dust} on Bianca. Both the humans gasped when she started, and Bianca’s mana got noticeably calmer almost immediately. A few minutes later, Elise unfortunately ran out of aether entirely, her supply of dust vanishing. But she had done enough.

The mana in Bianca’s body was more stable now, and whatever Nick was doing to help her seemed to have gotten easier. A minute later, they both breathed a deep sigh of relief and opened their eyes. Elise breathed a sigh of relief as well, drawing the attention of both, who stared up at her dumbfounded. Nick was the first to recover.

“S-Snowberry?” he said.

Elise internally grimaced. How am I going to explain everything?

“No time to explain right now,” she said. “We need to leave.”

“Y-you’re-” started Bianca.

“She’s right,” said Nick, cutting her off. “We need to go.”

“I-”

“B,” said Nick firmly.

She looked at him, then nodded.

“Okay.”

The two leapt out of bed. Nick ran toward the trap door in the center of the room, but Bianca ran toward the window instead. Nick ripped the wooden door off its hinges and looked back, only to see that Bianca planted a set of thick vines in the wall that were growing all the way to the ground. Elise’s eyes widened at the amount of mana she was using, and she flew outside to see the vines’ progress.

They made it down with plenty of room to spare, and after confirming this, Nick grabbed his fiancee by the waist and leapt out, sliding down the vines like a fireman’s pole. They reached the ground in no time and started running for the iron gate. Elise was about to suggest they try a different route, but Nick simply drew his sword and cut through the gate like it was made of butter and ran through, Bianca still clinging to him like a koala.

Nick seemed to have a destination in mind, running right past the hallway that lead to where Hans was, but Elise called him back, and together they re-entered the room with the prisoners.

The atmosphere in the room was a lot calmer than Elise was worried it would be. There was a group of newcomers, half humans and half monsters, and they were working toward freeing the remaining prisoners and tending to the wounded. While the ones healing Penelope and Hans seemed to be moving hurriedly, the ones freeing the prisoners were taking their time, seemingly in no hurry. The calm atmosphere changed in an instant when Nick and Bianca entered though.

“Penny!” shouted Bianca, seeing Penelope on the ground being tended to by a human healer while a monstrous spider wrapped her wounds in silk.

Bianca leapt from Nick’s arms as he drew his sword, and stepped forward.

“Wait!” said Elise. “They’re allies! Don’t attack!”

Nick didn’t seem convinced, and Elise noticed his gaze lock onto Lily and Maia, who were freeing prisoners. They met his gaze, and Lily immediately stepped forward.

“I’ve been freed,” she explained. “I’m working against the Blood Syndicate now.”

Maia looked confused, and a moment later, so did Nick.

“You’re not Rose,” he said.

Comprehension dawned on Maia’s face. “I’m Maia. Rose’s real name is Kaia. She’s my sister.”

Nick stared at her with suspicion in his eyes, but after a few seconds, he let his sword arm drop. Elise understood what he was experiencing. She had felt similarly when she first arrived at Ostra and saw all the terrifying-looking monsters acting like normal people. And he lacked the safety net of also being a monster.

Eventually, he took a step back, retreating to a more relaxed stance, but he never sheathed his sword. He at least didn’t seem like he was going to attack anyone anymore though, so Elise flew forward to Hans.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“We’re no longer on a time limit,” he explained as another human healer had her hands on his back. His missing parts were still missing, but he looked much better than he had a few minutes before. “The operation was a major success. Almost all the resistance has either surrendered or fled.”

He nodded toward Nigel and the other two guards, who were now cuffed and sitting down on the edge of the room. The two weaker guards seemed sad, but Nigel had his eyes closed, and a light smile on his face, almost as though he was taking a comfortable nap.

“More reinforcements will be arriving soon, and we’ll start taking the prisoners back. For now, you can just rest and recharge for a little while.”

The words almost sounded too good to be true and Elise wasn’t sure how to respond. She stared at him for a moment, then nodded mutely and turned away.

“Elise,” said Hans, making her pause. “Is- is Jag…?”

He trailed off, but Elise understood the question. She also didn’t have an answer. She had been trying not to think about it. It was entirely possible that Jag was dead. He wasn’t breathing. His heart was pierced. He was covered in other wounds. It might have been his corpse that she had taken into Astrid’s Star. At the same time, it was also possible that he was alive, and that he could still be saved. She didn’t dare take him out to check though. Not when she didn’t have any divine aether.

“I don’t know,” she answered. “He’s- I don’t know.”

“I see,” said Hans.

Elise looked down, unable to maintain eye contact, then continued moving away. She looked around for something to do, but found that everything seemed to be taken care of. She looked at Nick and Bianca, who were still at the edge of the room. Nick was looking around warily, while Bianca was mostly staring at Penelope and Elise. Elise was tempted to go join them and try to explain things, but she knew that would include explaining her own circumstances, and she didn’t feel ready for that just yet, so she flew to an unoccupied corner of the room and sat down to meditate. She did her best to clear her mind and focus on {Mana Circulation} so that she wouldn’t have to think of anything else, only letting her concentration slip when more Ostra members arrived, and everyone started packing up to leave.

One of the newcomers was a human in holy robes who had some kind of mass healing skill. He stood in the center of the room and started using it, and soon, the sluggish prisoners started regaining their energy. It wasn’t long before almost all of them were on their feet, and it was finally time to move out. Elise stayed on the edge of the group as they exited the tunnels, not wanting to talk to anyone.

On the way out, she felt a bit of pleasure when she saw that the first guards she dealt with were still fast asleep, but almost immediately returned to brooding. They left the Blood Syndicate behind, entering the now dark Jungle, but they soon came across an illuminated area guarded by humans. It was here that Nick and Bianca finally let their guard down as Bianca ran forward to greet an armored man she called “Uncle.”

It was the Lappin Trading Company’s group that had set up to care for the prisoners, and they even had a teleportation circle to start extracting the most stable ones. One by one, each former prisoner was sent to one of a few preset locations for processing, and the number of people in the camp slowly dwindled until there was no longer anyone in between Elise and Nick and Bianca. Elise sighed when she saw them approaching her, knowing she wouldn’t be able to avoid it anymore, and turned to face them, ready to talk.

***

As Lily waited to be teleported away, she glanced over at the white rabbit sitting on the edge of the camp. She suppressed a shudder as they made eye contact, and returned her gaze to the human guards in front of her.

When she first saw Elise, she was confused. She didn’t understand how a human could have so much aether. The red eyes made her wonder if the beautiful woman was possibly a vampire, but the fact that she produced her own aether made that an impossibility. When she freed Rose, and the divine portion faded, it made a bit more sense, but was still way too high. She had pushed her confusion aside at the time, figuring that she would get an answer later, but the mystery returned to the forefront of her mind as they fought Daisy.

The other vampire was severely weakened, and Lily could sense that Daisy’s soul was damaged, and that the pure aether that formed the core of her being was leaking. Her regular aether was full, but erratic and uncontrolled. It made sense that Elise was able to break through her normally strong mental barriers when her soul was in such a state. It even made sense that Elise was able to damage her soul without even using a proper attack. However, what happened when Elise turned into a rabbit didn’t make any sense at all.

It was like the floodgates had opened. Before, her aether was immense, but still was emitted at a normal rate. The amount used in each skill was normal for someone of her apparent level. That was not the case after the transformation. Just one attack was enough for Lily to know that even in top form, Daisy would have been hard-pressed to fully resist that attack. Considering that Daisy was nearing the peak of 8th tier and specialized in aether, that was nearly unthinkable for even a 7th tier, let alone whatever level Elise was.

Whatever was going on with Elise was frankly terrifying, and as much as her vampiric instincts were screaming at her to sink her fangs into the juicy ball of aether, she wanted nothing more than to get as far away as possible. That was why she was very relieved when she found out that she would be teleporting somewhere separate from her.

She turned her attention away from the rabbit, trying to put her mind on other things. After a few minutes, it was finally her turn to leave. She confirmed some personal details with the guard manning the teleportation pad, then stepped up and turned around.

As the mana charged up and the spell began to activate, she turned her gaze to the captured Blood Syndicate guards and noticed something strange. The two weaker bodyguards were still there, but next to them, where Nigel had been, there was only an empty set of handcuffs. She did not have time to point this out though, as a moment later, her vision turned white, and she reappeared on the other side of the continent.

***

In the Jungle, about a mile away from where Elise and the others were waiting to depart, a sparrow flew from tree to tree, checking for noise after every movement. It got another quarter mile away before flying to the ground, where it transformed into a humanoid. It was a man, though clearly not human. With his pure black eyes, pointed ears, and hair like hedgehog needles, there was no mistaking him for anything but a changeling.

He glanced around, making sure he wasn’t being observed, then let out a hearty laugh.

I wonder how Father will react when I tell him I met an Aetherborn, he thought.

Then, he produced a scroll from his pocket, tore it in half, and vanished.