Seika commissioned me to write a short story sketch, and here is the result!
(Seika, I made a small edit when I read over this to post it just now, and just ask me if you want an updated file.)
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Arena by Selendro
Sezar stumbled backward as the lioness' sword cleaved through his paltry wooden shield. He coughed as the dust kicked up around him, and tried to keep his eyes open to watch the approach of the tall, muscled lioness. The very sight of her was a distraction, dressed as she was in what amounted to a leather bikini. He shook his head, trying to focus. His eyes stung from the amount of dust in the air, and he just caught the glint of metal as she raised her sword to strike. He blindly threw up his own sword to block the heavy blow, crying out as it struck home, ripping his sword from his hands and causing him to fall on his back in the dirt. He struggled to get to his feet, but had the wind knocked out of him by the lioness' paw coming down on his chest. He wheezed and closed his eyes as she lifted the point of her sword to his throat.
The killing blow refused to come after several moments, and he gradually noticed the crowd was shouting something.
“Crush! Crush! Crush! Crush!” shouted voices from all around him. He began to struggle desperately.
“No! Mercy!” he cried, staring wildly up at the lioness, who had a smirk on her face.
“The defeated deserve no mercy, human,” she growled as the sword point lifted away and she tossed it off to the side.
He began to feel the change overtaking him, and all he could do is scream as his body dwindled beneath the paw of the lioness. She simply smiled as she watched the pitiful human get smaller and smaller, his struggles getting weaker by the moment. He desperately gripped at her toes, trying to keep his head in the open air, but he could not stop the inevitable. He gave one last desperate look up at the grinning face above before everything went dark and all he could see is the underside of the now huge lioness paw. Beneath the paw, the heat was oppressive, and his tiny lungs gasped for air.
Once she had the human fully beneath her paw, she wasted no time in twisting and grinding it down on him. His tiny screams of pain were muffled by the giant pad as he was dragged over the rough ground. Stones in the dirt which had once been small to him now tore through his flesh like knives, opening wounds all over his body. She stopped grinding and lifted her foot, gazing down at the tiny, bloodied human. He simply gasped and panted, taking in as much air as he could and trying to ignore the horrible burning all over his skin.
“Hmm, I sometimes forget you humans are so delicate,” she mused. “You're soft and pink like a little earthworm. Why don't you eat dirt, worm?”
The breathless human couldn't even spit out a reply before her toe pressed his face roughly into the ground. He groaned as the small rocks pressed into his face.
“Eat it!” she commanded. He shuddered, but opened his mouth a little and started to lick some of the dirt up, most of it stained with his own blood. He swallowed with great effort and whimpered.
“That's right, good little worm. Now, lick my pads clean.” She lowered her foot down to his face, and he stared up with unfocused eyes at the huge black, dusty pad, covered with his blood. His stomach felt like it was turning inside out.
“I-I c-can't!” he stammered, closing his eyes so he didn't have to look at it. She lowered a toe onto one of the little human's legs and, with a simple twist, pulverized the flesh and bone. His eyes snapped open and he screamed, writhing on the ground by the great toe, and reaching pitifully for the remains of his leg. The looming pad returned to his face.
“Lick it clean, and I'll let you crawl away like the worm you are,” she sneered. He looked up again through tears of intense pain, and could only just force his tongue out and started to lick the broad pad of her foot, tasting the sweat and blood like a foul salty mixture. He wanted to throw up, but he just kept licking. There wasn't even a thought in his head now, just pain and that huge paw looming above.
“That's enough worm, get crawling!” she boomed down. In a haze he stared up at the lioness looming so tall above him and started crawling away, dragging his ruin of a leg in the dirt behind him and looking lost and confused. After what seemed like endless crawling, he felt little tremors in the ground. He could only shiver as he looked back and saw the paws of the lioness walking towards him, little poofs of dust billowing from beneath them with every step.
“W-why?” was all he could croak as the paw lifted over his pitiful form.
“I said you could crawl away, worm. I didn't say for how long.” she smirked as she brought her paw down on the ruined human, who no longer put up any resistance as she simply dragged him back with her paw, leaving a bloody streak in the dirt. With him in place, she simply pressed her foot down. He could only make weak noises as he felt the pressure and heat all around him, driving him into the dirt. He felt his bones begin to give out, and just before everything went dark he could hear the cheering of the crowd as if from far away.
The lioness gave a smile as she felt the human crunch beneath her paw, a spray of blood shooting out from beneath it as she crushed him into the dirt. She raised her arms to the cheering crowd before wiping what little remained of him off on a clean patch of ground. She retrieved her sword and walked out of the arena to prepare for her next fight.
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