Intelligent Design: A Monster Evolution LitRPG

Claire was a bit off-balance from the added weight, but resolutely allowed David to guide her through the pitch-blackness of the forest and out onto the highway that descended into Redfield. Masking his apprehension with humor, he stood with his hind legs astride her neck, wings regally draped across the bony crest protruding from her skull as if he was directing his army into battle, snout held high as Claire grumbled at his antics. They’d briefly discussed David heading back to Riverport to get some help, mainly from Dallas and Kai, but decided that the situation called for a swifter intervention. Unwilling to allow Viktor to snowball any farther at the cost of lives, they had worked out a quick and dirty plan that boiled down to “Cause a distraction then cut the head off of the snake”, though in practice it did involve a bit of strategy on their part.

“Are you sure they’re going to have their guard down? I was just there not even a few hours ago.” David chattered as he leaned down over the thick protrusion to peer around Claire’s new horns.

“Probably. They’ll either think it was a one-off or expect you to go get help, which would take time. You messed up telling Randal you had a ‘friend’ and that we both spoke to Theodore.” Claire sighed, “You can still go back for some help if you want, but for once I think we can handle this if we don’t go in all half-cocked and dumb about it…”

She trailed off for a minute, sniffing at a waft of swampy air drifting up from the sinking city as her feet finally splashed into the murky water. David watched the ripples spread away from her massive clawed foot, lily pads and cat tails swaying gently in time with the movement of the water as she ground to a halt cautiously, snuffling at the wetland air before slowly resuming her march forward as he chirped and chattered directions.

“Are you sure you’re…okay with your part in the plan?” Claire hissed quietly.

“I mean, no. Not really. I’ll deal with it though, it needs to be done.” David said bluntly, “I trust you, and if you say we should go do something now I believe you. I’ve just never…uh…”

Claire nodded slightly before arresting the motion sheepishly when David nearly flew off her head with a startled noise, wings beating the air to maintain his position. She made an apologetic sound while she picked her way carefully into the swamp, her steps delicate for multiple tons of reptile and strangely birdlike in their precision as she stalked forward. The water lapped around her shins, occasionally reaching as far up as her hips, and sometimes barely covering the tops of her enormous clawed feet as they continued forward in silence, the clouds parting slightly and allowing the moon to break through from the night sky above. Claire hummed happily with the illumination, her eyes shining an ominous red-orange as they trapped the moonlight, oblivious to the way that even her indirect gaze set alarm bells ringing in David’s mind and utterly silenced the wildlife in every direction she turned her snout.

“I’m more than happy to do it instead if you want to focus on trying to get everyone out of wherever they’ve got them holed up at?” Claire rumbled quietly as the first of the crumbling brick buildings suddenly lurched up out of the night. Claire snorted at the sight of the ‘Welcome to Redfield” sign that had been completely consumed by a plant that definitely had kudzu in the family tree somewhere if how prevalent it seemed to be was any indication.

“No, you have your part to play and uh…Yeah.” David barked tersely, “Even if we did go get help, it wouldn’t change much. Maybe Dallas could do it, but I doubt it. I have the best Evolution for this by far, I just wish I didn’t right now. Even if Viktor is a bastard.”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” Claire mumbled as she began to stalk through the streets with the type of patience only plants and reptiles were capable of.

“Maybe it’s cliche to say it, but Viktor and people like him don’t deserve the pity. It’s been what, a little less than two weeks and he’s already eating people?” She continued, “If that’s the game he wants to play, so be it, but he’s not invincible. I don’t know if you realize this, David, but your setup is…effective. If you caught me unaware that’d be game over, and he’s just some stupid baboon.”

“I’ve just never killed anyone before…” David squeaked uncertainly as he climbed fully atop the new perch extending from the back of Claire’s skull.

“I’ve watched you charge straight at a monster the size of a bus without batting an eye, and you’re feeling bad for a cannibal ex-convict that’s torturing people for profit?” Claire spat suddenly before cringing, “David, shit. I didn’t mean that. I just-”

David cut her off, “No, you’re okay. When you put it like that I feel a little dumb. You’re right. He’ll just keep killing people, and I’ve got the best shot at putting him down. We’re getting close, it’s maybe fifteen minutes from here. We have a couple of hours before dawn, I bet. You remember the plan?”

“Well yeah, it’s basically my plan.” Claire replied in a softer tone, “I roar, wreck some stuff, get their attention. They send out the idiots, Viktor sends out the troops, and I act nervous and back up. I keep my ass pointed at the snake, and stuff my face in the water if he manages to land a shot on my eyes, and I straight up bail if it looks unwinnable. You go in and blitz the monkey while his back is turned, both barrels, no brakes. Once he goes down I start using Abilities and crush the other two, just please make it fast if you can.”

“Yeah, there’s no way he’s getting a bunch of random hostages to run straight at something like you in the dark, should be easy to figure out who the bad guys are by who’s giving the orders.” David mused, “Alright, you ready to get started on the hard part?”

She growled in response and began to stomp towards one of the deeper areas of the swamp as David bounced off her head and into the air, flapping over to a telephone pole that was leaning at a crazy angle and latching on. Claire proceeded to roll in the water, slathering the mystery muck from the bottom of the wetland thickly over her scaly hide in the hopes of forming a protective layer against Paul’s corrosive attacks. David’s fur stood on end when she finally rose from the murky waters, her form almost totally obscured by mud and clumps of vegetation that had been dredged up with it, only her fanged maw and malevolent eyeshine still identifiable. David gulped, then flew down the street to cling to the building a bit ahead of her as she used the Pack system to unerringly hone in on his location, and together they leapfrogged quickly through the decaying city until the fires burning around the City Hall came into view.

Claire shot him a curt nod from the shadows of the flooded streets and David’s stomach dropped as the tiny part of him that hoped this wasn’t real somehow shriveled up and died, crushed beneath the predatory instincts that suddenly surged with raw aggression directed entirely at Viktor. His heart thumped loudly in his chest as he gained altitude, Claire shrinking away into a menacing shadow in the moonlit darkness between buildings as he climbed into the sky and began to circle behind the City Hall. The roof was covered in Viktor’s minions idly milling about, some openly sleeping with arms or legs hanging off of the roof, others sitting together in groups grooming, and none of them looking particularly alert as he leered down at them from the sky.

David dug deep into his body's new instincts as a way to soothe his roiling anxiety, that faint voice in the back of his head swelling in volume as he cleared his mind and allowed it to present its unfiltered opinions while his perspective of the scene below shifted. Slowly, a different scene took form in his mind.

The prey was unaware, unappetizing, and undisciplined. His packmate would lure them away, draw out the betas and chaff, leaving their cowardly alpha completely exposed, and the challenge to his supremacy would not go unanswered. David’s fangs gleamed in the moonlight as he suddenly saw weaknesses everywhere, tiny gaps and routes into the building that he had overlooked before now evident, glaring even. A thundering roar split the night like a rockslide, and David felt only grim satisfaction as the swarm of minions began to move almost immediately, with a single unfortunate member falling completely off the roof and into the waters below as it jerked awake. A loud crash rang out, followed by the crumbling of stone, and David guessed that Claire had smashed one of the deteriorating buildings with her new tail and caused a bit more damage than she had intended.

Within seconds, the roof was empty and David began to dive, tucking his wings in tightly and spearing through the warm night air to land softly with a perfectly timed flare of his wings, drifting the last several feet to the surface like the specter of death.

–Flight has leveled up!–

–Gained 3xp–

He ignored the sounds of aggression sounding from the horde of summons while they swarmed toward Claire's location as he quickly glided across the roof, not slowing for a single heartbeat as he transitioned from horizontal to vertical movement, and found himself slightly surprised as he wriggled into a gap in the wall barely larger than his head. He fired a single Echolocation into the room on the other side and then moved, pulling himself along on his back until he emerged inside, clinging tightly to the ceiling as he repeated the process, moving in quick starts and stops rather than sprinting heedlessly forward. Within moments he had darted out of the tiny office, still tightly clinging to the ceiling, and emerged from the corridor it connected with, using his flexible neck to look straight down from the vaulted ceiling above what had once been an elaborate staircase that led to the lower floors.

David suddenly resurfaced in his own mind for a moment as he experienced a wave of uncertainty, the cold predatory drive ebbing as he snapped out of his intense killing intent, surprised he'd let himself get that engrossed in it. He shook his head, the unthinking instinctual action bubbling just below the surface, ready to be unleashed again with a single thought now that it had been awoken and roused to anger.

Well, that’s scary. I think I just figured out what ‘Predatory Physiology’ actually means, and it’s not just my body…it’s my mind too. Omega, you’re a real piece of work you know that? Everything associated with you is too effective not to use, and somehow still awful. But I think just this one time…

David let go and allowed himself to sink back below the surface.