CRACK-CLUNK

Balls

Damn carriage at the top of the convoy got caught in another pothole, and this time the impact had snapped the axle off the cheap wood, if the swearing of the drivers and screeching of the horses was anything to go by.

For the last few hours of this foggy Wednesday, a large group of grungy, ironclad hired swords had been contracted to guard and oversee a small caravan of horse-drawn wagons under the direct ownership of one "Sparkleboy's Pretty Things" a morally questionable jeweller's guild and mining/cave excavation company that used its business of selling basic, purely decorative jewels as a front for their real business: The distribution of magically enchanted ores and gemstones that were classed as "Ridiculously Illegal". This convoy in particular was tasked with transporting a substance known as Rackerstones, dull grey and supernaturally dense crystals capable of absorbing and storing almost any form of kinetic damage or disturbance, making them highly valued as conduits for weapon enchantments or as a noticeably potent alternative to explosives. Of course, due to their extreme density, geologists across the nation have pointed out that with enough energy stored up, a Rackerstone could theoretically reach a singularity of incredibly destructive force capable of obliterating acres of space, leading the Empire to strictly outlaw even so much as the creation of publicly available records of Rackerstone locations to prevent the risk of it being used for nefarious purposes. But of course, this backfired, as SPT had found a large vein of the crystals during one of their definitely unauthorized mining contracts, and thus had pulled out all the stops to prevent their dubious discovery from reaching the ears of law enforcement by hiring the most clueless, apathetic, gullible thugs they could.

Unfortunately, one of these thugs was a girl called Shiny.

"Damn, that bookworm over there could make a killing as a singer if he can reach high notes like that." Shiny chuckled in amusement as she watched the company issued supervisor seemingly losing his shit from her position all the way at the second to last carriage in the convoy. "What's got his nuts in a twist all of a sudden?"

"Contractors said somethin' about the cargo being 'extremely fucking delicate' or some shit." A gruffer shotgun carrying man with an eyepatch, breastplate, and padded coat grunted, snorting briefly before spitting out a glob of goop his body probably shouldn't be producing onto the ground. "Goober's probably freakin' out about some of it up front gettin' smashed from the impact."

"Fragile mystery cargo huh? Well great, now you've made me wanna look in one." Shiny replied as she moved to reach up at one of the boxes, before the shotgun man reached out a gauntlet to shove her back.

"Oi, watch it dumbass." He scolded, gesturing to the crates. "These break, they're comin' out of our pay, which doesn't cover questions. Don't touch 'em or knock 'em are everyone's orders missy, and I ain't takin' the fall for ya, just so we're clear."

"Pfft, fine." Shiny scoffed as she moved back to her post and glanced over to the flailing figures up at the front.

Now, while technically Shiny worked full time for her current employer, Minerva didn't mind if the mercenary sought out some extra bounties or jobs to rake in some funds for the rest of their slowly growing entourage, if anything it proved to be very useful considering how lucrative the business could be depending on the contract.
But sometimes, a job could drain her enthusiasm quickly.
Shiny was at the two furthest back wagons in a 5 wagon convoy, meaning that there was little she could do without leaving her position outside of watching the commotion up front, and now that the supervisor had gotten his demands across there was no longer anything entertaining about the goons up front trying to conduct repairs on their wagon's broken axle. With the other mercs nearby not interested in small talk, the boredom of having to wait around for the repairs to complete quickly caught up to Shiny's mind as the minutes started to build into hours.

And when Shiny's bored...her mind starts wandering.

Since she was a pretty strong gal herself, seeing the goons up front try and fail to lift up the heavy wagon multiple times annoyed her deeply, to the point where every part of her wanted to go over there and lift it up herself, and she could do it easy, her muscles were huge. Okay well, right now they weren't, but they could get huge. They could swell and bulge to hulking size if she wanted, all she'd have to do is just will herself into it, give her brain a justifiable reason to change and her big meaty paws would be bursting out of her boots in no time. Damn....that sounded pretty good right about now, this job was turning into a snore fest and her feet ached from all the travel. Surely it couldn't hurt to just, I dunno, pop her boots for just a little bit right? Let her big throbbing pads have some fresh air, snuggle herself with her soft cuddly fur, just a few minutes as a meaty muscular murderbunny would make her feel so much more enthusiastic about this dull as hell-

Wait.

Why were her feet hurting?

Shiny's annoyed scowl faltered as she just now noticed a dull yet intense aching and pumping sensation flowing down her legs and into her feet, and her boots had suddenly become unbearably pinching. With a confused grunt, the armoured lass lifted her right leg up to see what was the issue, and the moment she did so was the moment she noticed that her leg had suddenly swelled, for the flex puffed out the freshly grown extra flesh even further, bulging out the muscles around her lower thigh and knee. As a consequence, the cloth underwent more strain than it could handle, and with a loud ripping pop, it tore wide across her knee, her armoured knee pad snapping clean off and tumbling to the ground as well. If that wasn't enough, from its raised position Shiny could clearly see her boot was suddenly bulging massively, or rather the foot inside was, as with a tiny snap picked up by suddenly extended ears, four thick, bubbling toes popped clean out of the front, squeezed together by the slowly widening gap they were peaking out of.
Shiny's eyes widened in shock as the tips of lengthening ears poked through her blonde hair and her nose started to warp and twitch into the beginnings of a rodent muzzle. She was changing, she must've been craving it more that she realized and her wandering thoughts had triggered a transformation. Splits appeared in the sides of her other boot, large tears ripping open in the inner cloth of her legs as her greaves snapped open. Parts of her shoulder armour popped and pinged off her swelling arms, and her sleeves tore across her suddenly bulging biceps. All while her movements caused the armour around her waist to pop and rip across her naval, abs beginning to form.
She wasn't just changing, she was changing rapidly. Her body was suddenly growing and swelling at a chaotic, aggressive pace, and she was getting taller and taller, more and more hulking by the millisecond, her clothes tearing themselves apart against her.

Well damn, if she wanted to get changed this badly, then there was no sense in stopping now. So instead of trying to calm herself, Shiny simply slammed her swollen foot back down onto the ground, and grinned with sharpening teeth as the motion caused her foot to bulge even fatter, her boot and her leg armour both exploding off her bulked up leg with a loud "RIIIIIIP!", leaving only ripped scraps of under cloth pulled tight around her ankle and her mutating paw-like foot completely naked. Pearl white fur began to sprout across her skin, straining her armour even tighter, rips and tears spreading quickly across the inner cloth, allowing the fuzz to poke through as her cute little bunny tail burst out of her backside. Her sleeves then ripped up even further, the straps of her shoulder pads peeling and snapping apart, while her gauntlets stretched loudly in protest as they strained against her hands, before bursting and snapping right off her pudgy, meaty paw hands and leaving every bit of her arms almost completely exposed. As cloth-strewn, broken, and twisted metal clanked and clunked to the ground around her swelling feet, Shiny's grin only grew with her increasingly massive, gorgeous body, the smile being warped by her face pushing and stretching out into a rabbit's muzzle as her hair began to turn a similar pigment to her fur.

During all of this, Shiny's remaining boot had been straining and stretching tighter, and tighter, and tiiighter as she kept growing bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until with a sudden loud "rriiiiIIII-POP!", the armoured boot soon became an open toed sandal. Grunting, wincing, and shutting her eyes in blissful, satisfying agony, Shiny gleefully raised her rippling leg as inner cloth around both it and her other leg burst and tore into little more than fashionably tattered shorts, her side skirts snapping and popping off her immense thighs as her remaining metal kneepad pinged off her flexing knee just like the other one. As her shoulder armour burst off her arms and her hair melting into the fur on her scalp, her left foot erupted and tripled its original shoe size with rapid bulges of fat, meaty paw pads, causing whatever was left of her remaining boot and greave to snap off her ankle with a "TWANG!", the bottom of her shoe falling to the ground pathetically, right before the huge bare foot stomped down onto it.

With a few tiny ripping sounds prodding at her ears, Shiny panted and groaned as she stretched out taller and taller, looking progressively less and less human with each centimetre she grew, her beast features fully overtaking her form until her changes were eventually complete, concluding with a loud crackle as she stretched and flexed out the last of the aches. Sighing in satisfaction, Shiny's now glowing, bright yellow eyes opened to admire her engorged body, with the tatters and strips of her armour's inner cloth dangling from the gaps in whatever metal remained on her body, largely just her breastplate. Her body was sore from the rapid swelling, but fucking hell it felt luxurious, her fanged smile grunting with pleasure as she flexed her arm and watched the bicep bulge and ripple with the motion, her gaze moving upwards to admire the comparatively beefy forearm and paw-like hand covered in wonderfully soft, fluffy fur.

"Y'know what?" Shiny grinned as she glanced over to her eyepatch wearing co-worker, gleeful at how much she now towered over him. "I think those guys up front could use a bit of help from a big bulgin' bunny babe, so I'm gonna head over and hold that wagon up with mah huge, seeeexy muscles, watch over this bit while I'm gone will you bud-...dyyyy...?"

But then, her smile faded and her words faltered on her lips as she noticed the eyepatch man staring up at her in complete, flabbergasted shock and horror, his jaw hanging open as his single eye bulged out of his skull, locked tightly on Shiny's frame. Strange, he was reacting like he had just seen a huge boulder tumbling from a cliff directly towards him, why was Shiny having that effect on the dude? She just transformed into her lovely bunny self, how on earth would she seem-

Oh.

Oooooh...

Right, these guys weren't Scarves were they? No they.... they were just some random mercs.... who weren't supposed to know that.... she was a mutant....

Uh oh.

".....oops" Shiny squeaked out, her ears flattening to her head as the realization dawned on her, a little too late. "EhHHEEEEH...HEH-HEEEEH.....Ah this is....right this is kinda awkward not gonna lie....um....ya like what ya see big boy?" She then chuckled in a vain attempt to save face, striking the best seductive pose she could.

Eyepatch meanwhile just stood there, mouth agape.

"...Ey?" Shiny tried to continue the conversation, stuttering over her words, trying her best to think of how her more competent comrades handled situations like this. "...um....right I....I bet you're a bit confused right? Well u-um......uuuh....", kinda forgetting the fact that they wouldn't be dumb enough to be in these situations in the first place.

And for a good few seconds, there was a dead, mind-numbingly awkward silence.

............

...rriiight before Eyepatch suddenly yanked up his shotgun and pointed it at the bunny, who through split-second reflexes alone managed to swiftly kick the man across the road with bunched, powerful leg muscles. Leg muscles that were so strong in fact that as Eyepatch was flung into the carriage right behind the one the pair were originally stationed at, the moment he made contact with the vehicle his spine was shattered into a million pieces, killing the man instantly as his corpse crumpled to the ground, his shotgun clattering nearby.

Unfortunately, that didn't go unnoticed.

"OI YOU CRAZY CUNTS!" The driver of the impacted carriage suddenly yelled out as he was startled into action by the sudden appearance of the dead merc. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE DOOOOoooooooo....." Riiight as he fully registered what he was yelling at.

Shiny winced and sucked in air through grit teeth as she soon felt the gaze of literally everyone in this convoy burning into her. Her sensitive hearing could distinctly pick up the clunking sound of guns and crossbows being loaded and primed, the scrape of swords exiting their sheaths, the rattling of flails, the clicks of probably other weapons that just hooked onto belts being unhooked, the whinnying of the panicked horses, and the growing squabbles and yells from dozens of voices slowly realizing that there was a mutant present. They seemed...mad at her. Was it because she had suddenly swelled up into a giant rabbit monster? Or because she kinda, sorta, killed that guy?

.....

It was probably both actually.

"Shiiiiit...." Shiny cringed. "...I didn't really think this through did I?"

"SLEEPER!" The driver of the wagon Shiny was actually stationed at screamed as he scrambled and tumbled into the cargo area of the vehicle in the hopes of finding protection. "WE'VE GOT A SLEEPER, FUCK-FUCK-FUCK!"

"Well don't just stand there ya idiots!" A tall old man at the front clad in a tank's worth of steel bellowed out as he gestured to the goons now surrounding the mutant. "KILL IT!

"HEY I'M NOT AN 'IT' YOU WRINKLY MOTHERFU-" Shiny snapped at the man's assumption, before her thick paw like hands shot to her mouth as she suddenly remembered that they weren't supposed to assume anything else.

"The fu-DID IT JUST TALK?!" The SPT supervisor screeched in panic as even he was made aware of what Shiny had gotten herself into.

"U-u-uuuh, no!" Shiny stuttered. "I didn't say shit! I-I-I mean, you didn't hear that! Uuuh...squeak! Squeaky squeak!....rabbits make that noise right?"

"Oh Heeell no son, that shit's a demon!" A spear-wielding man with padded brigandine armour and a god awful bowl cut accused as he pointed right at the fluffy cuddly rabbit monster.

"Who cares what is ya bleedin' numbnuts?!" The heavily armoured man yelled again, his tone revealing him to be the man in charge of all these other dudes. "Waste the bitch before it fucks up our pay check!"

Composing themselves, Shiny could tell that the mercs decided not to question what exactly she was and instead shifted focus onto killing her quickly. And even though Shiny was, evidently, quite a moron, even she could read the room and register that she was completely boned if she tried to use any more terrible diplomacy. In fact, her doom seemed to be approaching quite rapidly, as the spear-wielding merc with the abysmal hair yelled out a mighty battle cry as he bravely charged the hulking beast before him, spear point ready to impale her.

In response, Shiny simply sighed out a "......ah fuck this." before grabbing the wagon next to her, spinning around, and with a roar of primal fury she used the momentum of her spin to hoist the entire thing into the air, cargo, horses, and driver included, the combined weight barely tiring the beast's excessively mutated musculature.

"Oh I've made a terrible mistaaaAAAAA-" Was all the man with the yee-yee ass haircut could yell as the momentum of his charge gravely hampered his scrambling dodges before the rabbit's improvised weapon slammed down onto him, both he and the hiding driver pulverised by the powerful impact as the horses were wrenched from their reigns and sent careening off to gods know where.

And with that, the murderbunny roared loudly like an apex predator challenging its rival, before yanking bowl-cut's spear from his mushy body and positioning herself into a mighty battle stance, her fangs curled into a grin as the excitement of battle started to fill her soul.

"GAH-AH-AH, FUCK!" The supervisor spluttered in alarm as he witnessed and hurriedly pointed towards the ordeal. "K-K-KEEP IT AWAY FROM THE RACKERSTONES!"

"The what?" The old metal clad merc SPT had hired to lead the other goons questioned, his head turning to give an accusatory glare to the panicking accountant.

"NOT NOW!" The bookworm spat back. "JUST DON'T LET THAT THING NEAR THE CARGO, ALRIGHT?!"

A deep-voiced man with a short-sleeved shirt and impressive biceps roared as he acknowledged his orders and charged the mutant from behind, a massive sledgehammer raised above his head. In response, Shiny snarled and expertly twirled her spear in spite of her meaty paw fingers, positioning the point towards the hammer man before thrusting it back, the tip plunging cleanly into his open mouth and hooking into his skull, allowing Shiny to tug it upwards and wrench his head right off his shoulders and lower jaw, creating her own makeshift hammer she then used to shatter the neck of another charging assailant, her free hand splaying out to deftly catch the sledgehammer falling from the bicep-man's limp grasp.

A prince-charming looking dude then jumped off a nearby tree to leap towards her, a sword in each hand. But the wild magic in Shiny's bloodstream forced itself into her reflexes, and with shocking speed she was able to throw the sledgehammer she just caught right into the guy. Her intention was for it to bash him right in the head with the metal tip, but instead the handle ended up impaling him right through the abdomen. I mean it still killed him easily but like....it wasn't as cool.

Y'know what was cool though? The guy clad a long black leather cloak swinging around a long whip-like flail of barbed chain links. This dude was the first to actually harm Shiny, as his whip cleanly wrapped around her arm and torso, pinning them together. Shiny meanwhile winced and grimaced as the barbs cut into her skin, before her golden gaze glared over at the whip user to understand how he worked. Seeing him struggle and fail to pull her towards him, an idea formed in her head, an idea to crouch down slightly, feel the muscle fibres in her legs bulge and ripple, before thrusting her knees open, extending her legs out as she launched herself into the air, the whip man yelling in alarm before Shiny gripped the chain around her, wrenched it off, and used the end still attached to the whip man to fling him down at a gathering fire squad aiming their rifles up at her, using the momentum of her fall to add a ludicrous amount of force to her throw.

In response, the whip man's tumbling through the sky caused him to curl up into a ball, and with a sound nearly identical to the sound of a bowling ball knocking down a set of pins, the human projectile sent the riflemen scattered and flying as he knocked straight into them, right as Shiny landed back down effortlessly, a perfect strike.

"WOO!" She then screamed as she thrust her arms into the air, the thrill of the fight proving to be quite enthralling.

"Alright, this is embarrassing to watch." The old ironclad man sighed before hopping off his position. "Want something done right, do it yourself..."

A loud whistle stung Shiny's hyper-sensitive ears, and the rabbit mutant turned to the old commander confidently approaching her.

"Hey, uh, could you not do that?" Shiny grumbled as she rubbed an ear with her finger. "That was like....annoyingly squeaky-"

"I ain't go no idea what you are." The old man sniffed as he calmly approached the mutant. "But 'dead woman' sounds like a good enough title"

As the man cracked his knuckles, Shiny realized that he wasn't carrying any weapons. Instead, he wore a pair of thick leather gloves adorned with small metal spikes and studs. Cestus. This man was a puncher.

Shiny grinned. She liked fist fights.

"Oh....you're coming towards me eh?" Shiny chuckled, ditching her own weapons on the ground as she splayed out her arms in a challenger's pose. "You're not scared and running away, you're choosing to get right up in my face?"

"Well of course." The old man replied sternly. "I can't beat the shit out of you without getting closer."

"Oh HOOO!" Shiny spluttered a laugh in elated surprise. "Well then.... come as close as ya want!"

And with Shiny's toothy smile and the old man's stern glare, the two began striding closer to each other. The man's metal boots clunked and clanked with focused, determined movements, while the fleshy pads of Shiny's bare feet thumped and squished against the rocky dirt path as they stomped and stepped with gleeful, excited confidence, the toe claws cutting into the ground as the toes in question wiggled and flexed with each meaty step.
Soon the two were face to face, and though the geezer was a very imposing guy to the average man, Shiny's monstrous form still loomed over him, her sharp teeth joined in a smug grin.

"Heh, you really sure you wanna do this short stack?" Shiny giggled, going as far as to compare head height with her hand. "I put on a lotta weight when I bulk up y'know, gain like a good few tall points bigger."

"Tall points?" The old man raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to say your measurements-"

"And it ain't for show either." Shiny continued, completely ignoring him as she held up an arm to rub it. "There's some real strong juice packed into all this girth. I mean did you see how I just like.... picked up that wagon? It was awesome!"

"Are you even listening to me-"

"So I'm a really, really strong gal, and you're like....old and shit y'know? Gonna be honest, I feel kinda bad for you." A cheeky wink.

"Okay fuck this-"

"Cause like, you seem really cool and badass, but you're also super tiny and wrinkly compared to me, so honestly I could easily just snap you in two-"

CRUNCH.

"-OOO-OOF!" The rabbit mutant then spluttered loudly, as the old man's spiked, reinforced cestus slammed hard right into her exposed naval. Normally a blow like that would tickle not only due to her thick, cushioning fur, but simultaneously her reinforced, heavily mutated sinews and flesh. But this punch felt far from the average guy, because she could physically feel a rib crack in her gut from the impact.
And before Shiny could figure out how the man injured her so effectively, he readied himself into a boxer's stance and swung a heavy right hook directly into her face, sending her hulking form stumbling back as the man charged to intercept.

Burning pain sparked an equally fiery rage, and with a snarl escaping Shiny's lips, she felt her cockiness faulter into an overwhelming desire to hurt this fucker. With sinew bulging under her skin, Shiny's hands splayed out their claws before her muscular arm swiped hard at the old geezer. However, the man anticipated retaliation, and immediately went into a power slide that exploited Shiny's height advantage, allowing him to duck right under her swing and deliver a swift yet brutal elbow jab right into her poor fluffy tail.
And oh boy, was that a mean manoeuvre.

With her worthless level of knowledge on animal anatomy and evolution, Shiny had absolutely zero idea why the shock of pain erupting in her tail hurt soooo much worse than any other hits she had taken today, but she didn't exactly care to question the exact reason and instead opted to just yell out an "AAAAAOOOOOW YOU ELDERY FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUAAAAAAACK!" As her bulky hands clutched at her stinging rump while her body flailed in pain and frustration.

The geezer however just chuckled at the mutant's reaction. This thing -gods forbid what it actually was- definitely seemed to be more brawn than brains, and whatever it tried to label as battle tactics seemed to be immature and poorly thought out at best. It was definitely some kind of warrior, but one better suited to following orders then making up its own plans, hardly a mark of something worthy of his level of skill. It stood a great chance in a fight with the average group of mooks sure, hell it could probably hold its own against another monster just like it. But to an opponent with tactics, experience, actual military skill, peh. It was a fuckin' scrub, a fool, a loser, a ring dingin'-

Though to be fair, for as dumb as Shiny was, at least she knew better than to just stand there and get lost in your own egotistical thoughts right as your opponent recovers and retaliates with a frustrated roundhouse kick. And since there was a lot more bulk in the rabbit mutant's legs than there was in her arms, the sheer amount of power that pooled into her strike not only sent the man flying with considerable speed, but the velocity with which he was flung made his immediate impact with one of the convoy's wagons smashed the vehicle into pieces, sending the driver into the dirt and the horses into a frenzied escape from their reigns.

"Phew...man you're kind of a dick y'know." Shiny panted, managing to quell her bestial rage through a brief breathing exercise before placing her hands on her hips and admiring the scene before her. "But from the looks of things, I think I'm a better kicker than a puncher. I mean, I guess it's fitting cause, y'know, rabbit. I know certainly kicked your ass hard though, that's for....sure?" However, Shiny's eyes widened as she saw the man's gauntleted hands grab the splintered debris and hoist him back to his feet, his face bleeding and his voice grunting in presumably pain, but still battle ready regardless. What the fuck? The last guy she did this do went full hilariously glitchy ragdoll physics, how the hell was this guy different?!

That's when her sensitive ears picked up a noise. There was some... miniscule whirring and clunking sound coming from the man's armour. Whirring that never came from the average merc's attire, at least not any Shiny knew. Shit... she....she recognized those noises. Was he....WAS HE-

"Holy fuck are- a-a-are y-you...." Shiny stuttered, her mind racing as she connected the dots, before pointing an accusing finger at the geezer and bellowing a: "ARE YOU A FUCKIN' ROBOT?!"

"What?" The geezer replied, titling his head in surprised confusion. "N-no that's just my exo-suit."

"...Huh?" Shiny blinked. "Y-.....your what?"

"My....exoskeleton..." The old man slowly tried to explain, gesturing to his clunking armour. "Y'know, mechanically augmented plate armour?" The beast didn't respond. "Designed to improve the wearer's strength, speed, and stamina using clockwork mechanisms?" It didn't look like the monster was following. "A type of....wearable machine....used in and out of Empire jurisdiction and famous across the nation?" He could see this strange rabbit-like mutant was staring at him, her gaze and presumably brain drawing a complete blank. "....Aaaaany of that ringing a bell?"

"So you're like.....not a robot?" Shiny slowly replied, her brain going into overdrive to have any chance of understanding whatever the hell this guy was talking about. "But you're......wearing one?"

"Uuuuh....Sure?"

"That's....nah you're fuckin' with me, that's impossible!"

"Wha-..." The man spluttered. "Have you never met a Welder before?"

"Pfft, of course I have, what kind of legally questionable hired sword would I be if I didn't? ......Those were the edgy fire guys right?"

"No."

"Uh, then why are they called the Welders?"

"They're not." The geezer scowled. "The Welders are the tech ones, The Arsonists are the fire ones."

Shiny giggled. "Dude, I may be dumb, but I'm not dumb enough to believe that there's a gang naming themselves after butts."

"Ok fuck this, ROUND TWO BITCH!"

And with that, the man yelled a battle cry and charged right at the beast, grappling her still tender waist and swinging a mighty, exoskeleton empowered jab right into the same cracked rib he had struck before.

"AAAACK, FUCK-UGH" Shiny cried out in response to the pain and surprise, now starting to cough out blood from the injuries she was starting to sustain. Though, as typical for the lass, her mind was still a bit elsewhere. "Oh, wait, wait, you're one of those like, Welly guys right?!"

The Old man smirked as he landed another jab. "Try former member of the Bison's Finest. First class marshal in fact. No smart-asses get away without a good few broken bones, not on my watch girlie."

"Urk!... u-uuuh....which one was that again?"

"The big dudes with the big guns. They have exo-suits too."

"Oh! Riiight gotcha-GAGH-ACK-SPPSPSPPT!" Shiny was then cut off as an uppercut right to her face caused her sharp teeth to slice right into her tongue. Spluttering out some blood and trying to focus on healing, the mutant growled as the man readied another strike.

"38 years of service" Another gut punch to stun. "with an extra 9 years of perfected practice!" A roundhouse kick to the beast's shin sent her onto her knees. "Only thing that held me back was their rules and etiquette, but now that I'm quote-on-quote 'retired', they can't demand shit from me!" The geezer then used the mutant's recovery time for his most signature move, scuttling onto a wagon the pair stood next to, reaching a way to descend upon her hulking frame. "Now that I'm sworn to the merc life, despite my age I've never felt so limber and liberated." And then with a loud clunk and a grunt, the Ex-Empire veteran lept powerfully from his position and onto the beast's bloated shoulders. "CAUSE THERE AIN'T NOTHING IN THIS WORLD THAT BRINGS ME BETTER JOY, THEN SHIT-STOMPIN' WORTHLESS LITTLE FUCKS LIKE- ...you?"

Now, the veteran's intention was to pull the mutant down onto the ground with a fabulous RKO slam, hopefully snapping her neck in the process. However, he planned to do this by using his own weight, a weight that, well, wasn't quite heavy enough to strain the rabbit's strength.
Because what actually happened was that the vet had grabbed Shiny's neck, tried to pull, and instead just now dangled from her back as the mutant's height prevented his feet from touching the ground.

"Uuuuuh....huh..." Were among the only things the confuzzled bastard could say. "This uh.....I don't......Shiiiit, I didn't really think this though did I?"

And though it took her a good few seconds to realize the geezer's mistake, once Shiny did, her predatory grin returned in full force as she let out a menacing mix of a smug giggle and low menacing growl. Then, gripping the ground tightly with her toes, Shiny rose to her full, threatening height and glanced back at her baffled assailant, gleefully watching his face speedrun through the seven stages of grief.

"I mean, you ain't wrong." Shiny chuckled, the yellow glow of her eyes brightening with her smugness. "You're pretty strong, pretty skilled, pretty darn persistent. You were one tough fight, not gonna lie." The veteran was able to give one last glare before the mutant's huge hands suddenly reached back to grab her would-be killer. "But, thing is, despite all those fancy doohickies ya got, at the end of day ...I'm still taller~"

And with a furious roar, Shiny's hands clenched the dude tight, yanked him off, and engorged themselves with powerful wild magic strength to violently slam the geezer to the ground, right onto a large rock in the dirt path with a deafening crack, his body crumpling to her feet

"Sorry to knock ya down like this old man~" Shiny giggled, leaning down as her foot flicked his body over for him to face her. "But you didn't seem to notice that your time's long behind ya, outpaced by us in the new generati-oh he's dead...." But her bragging immediately stopped as she noticed how the rock he fell head first into now completely replaced his face, jammed into his skull from the forceful impact. "...he's uh....wow okay he's like....super dead....eww...."

More clunks then tickled Shiny's heightened hearing, and with some winces of pain the mutant turned around to face the rest of the mercenaries, who all glared at her with weapons raised. However, none dared to strike, for they could see their primary strategist stone dead on the ground. Literally, in fact.

"Uuuuh....shit, fuck me, other swears I can't think of right now...." One rifleman murmured, hesitation clear in his gaze.

Shiny meanwhile, well if her cockiness wasn't already being fuelled, it sure was now.

"Aaaawwww....what's the matter guys?" She giggled, letting them watch as her bruises visibly faded and her cuts slowly sealed themselves. "Don't tell me you're all being spooked by an adorable, fluffy, cute n' cuddly little bunny girl, are ya?"

"Er, fellas?" Another rifleman stammered.

"Oh shit..." A halberd carrying guy breathed in, Shiny's boasting making her not notice how his gaze wasn't on her.

"I mean, I sorta get it." Shiny then bragged further, taking some steps closer as the goons shuffled back and hurriedly glanced to each other. "Doc says that my bunny self is 'magically modified to have predatory features', or whatever that means, so I'm pretty sure I'm really darn intimidating. But honestly, I think that's part of my charm y'know, like my intense physique only makes my cute side even cuter, ya get me?"

"Aw hell, I ain't gettin' paid enough for this!" An axe-wielder yelled as he quickly glanced to Shiny's feet, or rather... what was next to them.

"Uh...O-okay guys, c'mon, I know I'm covered in blood but I can't be that scary can....I...." Shiny's sentence started with a bit of self-conscious, forced chuckling, but then suddenly faltered when her ears picked up a strange....crackling sound. And now that she was paying a bit more attention, she realized that because the bare skin of her paw pads was touching the ground, she was able to feel a very....noticeable vibration in the ground slowly growing more and more intense.

To discern where the vibrations and the noise were coming from, Shiny's golden eyes scanned the scene around her, and she was quickly able to see the plethora of crates and boxes the convoy was carrying now lay splintered and broken across the dirt road, the cargo they carried spilled out everywhere. Cargo that appeared to be numerous, dull grey crystals. Crystals that were....violently shaking. And glowing very brightly.

Shiny may be far from the the smartest girl in the country, and she had no idea what a Rackerstone was or what they really did.

But a mercenary knew an impending explosion when they saw one.

"OH I GOTTA OUTTA HERE!" One cowboy hat-wearing goon yelled mightily as he and the rest of the convoy's contracted guardsmen immediately began to scramble and scatter, sprinting and screaming in terror like their lives depended on it, or rather, because their lives depended on it.

Shiny meanwhile could only blurt out an "OooOOOOH FUCK!" before hurriedly scooping up the scraps of her clothes and armour and sprinting away from the now furiously shaking Rackerstones with all her might, her enhanced body erupting with the seemingly panicking Mutation as she crossed entire metres of distance within seconds. Which turned out to be rather helpful, because the ensuing-

*EXPLOSION ONOMATOPIA*

-had such a ridiculous range that even with the absurd distance crossed, the sheer force of the blast still launched the gal across several hills, the rest of the non-mutant mercenaries within the area completely vaporised with immeasurably powerful arcane kinetic energy.

"OW PISS-OW SHIT-OW COCK-OW FUCK-OW-OW-OW-OWIE-OW-FUCK-ACK-GUGH!" Was the noise that spluttered out from Shiny's maw as her eventual landing was a clumsy, comical tumble down a nearby forest hill, twigs, dirt and dead plants getting caught in her fur as tiny pebbles and not so tiny rocks battered her face, until she crashed head-first into a large tree root, the similarly rolling and tumbling scraps of her armour exacting their vengeance by clattering and pelting her from behind, spilling onto her in a heap. ".....ow..."

It was nothing short of a miracle that Shiny had just barely managed to avoid the lethal areas of the gargantuan blast, suffering only a pair of blown out eardrums due to how agonizingly loud the detonation had been, though fortunately a brief few minutes just laying there and moaning allowed her ears to regenerate.
With her hearing probably back up to snuff, Shiny then groaned again as she rose to her feet, before she turned around and climbed back up the hill to get a view of how badly she had wrecked the place this time.

What she witnessed was something she even had to say was: "Ooo...that's pretty.", because with the smoke cleared and the convoy reduced to atoms, what remained was a beautiful mess of crystalline structures and frozen waves, as if a tiny collection of mountains and spires had suddenly sprouted in the middle of the dirt road.
See, the thing with these Rackerstones, was that a single sample usually left fairly weak debris if it ever detonated, so most uses of it yielded nothing more than a slightly stronger blast than the average stick of dynamite. However, when enough Rackerstones were in close proximity, then the heat and power of their eventual release of kinetic energy causes the shower of debris to fuse and expand, resulting in a mathematically larger collection of them. So funnily enough, though she had no idea about it, Shiny had become one of the very lucky few to witness the very beautiful and complex reproductive cycle of Rackerstone geodes and live to tell the tale.

Not that she really cared though, she just found that it looked really pretty, and giggled at the thought of how pissed the local authorities would get if they ever found this.

Still though, her mind switched from admiration to disappointment, as she realized that Sparkleboy guy or whatever would be equally, if not more furious at this accident. Like eyepatch said, if the cargo broke, it was coming out of her pay. Damn, this job was gonna be worth a pretty penny too, it kinda sucked that she had been at this guard duty for so long and ended up with nothing to show for it-

CLINK

"OW!" The rabbit then suddenly cried out as something hard and heavy landed on her head and plopped to the ground. "Ugh! Really universe?" She scowled while rubbing her head. "You already used my lust against me, and now you're gonna juuuuuuu....." Just as she was about to complain however, as her gaze drifted down to whatever object had decided to fling itself at her, the mutant's yellow eyes widened in surprise.

For what sat right between her bloated, paw-like feet, was an equally bloated, very fine looking tiny sack, with Sparkleboy's logo printed on it. It was the pencil pusher's coin purse. Filled to the brim with golden coins.
And then, her ears picked up more clinking sounds, and with nary a squint, she could soon see other pouches of gold, platinum, gems and more, all tumbling to the ground nearby the explosion site. The other mercs, they must've been carrying their own cash with them, and judging from some of the higher end stuff similarly clattering to the ground, the convoy had been lugging around priceless stuff too. Enough to fill in the gap the loss of her contract's pay check would make. No, way more in fact.

It was a haul worthy of an outlaw's wet dream.

".....Nnnnevermind, this works just fine." Shiny then beamed, as she scooped out the still pretty warm and suspiciously feminine purse. "BUNNY BITCH'S EATIN' GOOD TO-NIGHT!"

And with that, having learned nothing, the gleeful Murderbunny mercenary giddily scurried down towards whatever was left of SPT's convoy, eagerly imagining the looks on the Emerald scarves' faces once she came home with all these girthy, bountiful coin pouches.

Let's uuuh....not tell her that all the gold coins and gems in them were melted together and stuck into to leather from the blast, eh?

---

This one took a bit of a while to get done, but I'm immensely proud of it,  Roarbowildside had already rendered Minerva beautifully, but to be honest I think his version of Shiny looks even better.

To concide with this, you'll notice that I've decided to tackle an action theme to the scene this time around. At its core, Engrievion is a setting with a lot of combat occuring, so I eventually had to make some fight scenes for it sooner or later, to show off not only how comedically brutal the setting is, but to also give an idea of how dangerous both Shiny and any other mutants can be if the odds are in their favour. Shiny's not called a "Murderbunny" for no reason after all, the girl's bloodthirsty and hits like a truck. Her stupidity is actually for balancing sake believe it or not.

Now, I've never actually written a fight scene before, at least nothing like the one I've done here, so this is largely the first time I've given dabbled in the realms of creating in the action genre.

Did I do a good job?

......

I'm not going to answer that.


Artwork by:  Roarbowildside