Chapter 10: Gladiator

4 regulars & 4 minimized remain

The 8 remaining competitors lay in their new and much smaller break room, scaled down to accommodate the lack of competitors at this stage of the game. Gloom lay on many of the competitors who realized their number was almost up, as the common rooms got smaller so did their odds of survival. Their confidence couldn't be rejuvenated even by the fact that they had made it this far, fear is what kept them ready for anything. Andrea began to grow worried for the first time so far, her cocky attitude was depleting on the inside but not the outside, however this facade was broken by an intelligent bystander who carefully monitored the twitches in her facial muscles.

"Getting worried are we?" Thomas asked with his fake concern for Andrea's feelings continuing his veneer from last round. She swiftly turned her head in his direction as if angered by the way he spoke to her.

"Forgetting your place are we?" she snarled at him, this man dared to doubt her mental strength, resorting to taking jabs at his minuscule size and her power again. Her attempt at scaring the man on the bed didn't work, angrily exhaling out her nose and turning away again.

"What are you gonna do, rip off my other arm?" Thomas spoke quietly, sitting himself down onto the bed using his remaining arm as a brace for his weight to the bed.

"You're getting a little big for your tiny fuckin' boots, speak to me like that again and I'll show you what being a floor feels like." Andrea growled with anger, the audacity of this insect to speak to her with such an attitude, if he wasn't an advantage in the games she would strike him down right now as violently as possible for speaking to her like that.

"No, you won't." Thomas snickered whilst not making eye contact with her, relaxing on the bed. - "You have no cards left to play with me, Andrea. We're in it together till we die."

"I don't even have to work with you, runt. I can find someone else." Her eyes glared at him, furious that he was avoiding eye contact when she was speaking to him.

"Of course you do. You burnt bridges with everyone here, and those that happened to be on your side you killed!" Thomas burst out laughing as he spoke finally meeting her gaze to laugh in her face.

"We both killed them." she returned.

"You're right. We did. But it'll be your detriment more than mine." his face finally dropped it's forceful laughing, bringing his serious expression to the argument as he stared the devil in the eyes. 

Lisa held Lara's shoulders with her hands looking into her eyes, trying to find a sign of positivity. - "He made that choice, Lara. It wasn't anything to do with you." she tried to resonate with her, the boys on the large bed watched from the right, up to their knees in the thick bed cover.

"He was only forced into making that decision because I couldn't beat some stupid skinny teenager." Lara's head drooped, acting as a sign of her mental state, the lower it looked towards the ground the worse she wanted to curl up into a ball and die.

"You've got people to work together with, you need each other. If we worried about the outcome of every game we'd never get through another. You progressed this far because you put it behind you, you need to do it again, dear." Lisa smiled at her, hoping to burst through her wall of pain and bring her back to them, they all needed her as the next game was unknown and anything was on the table.

"It's pointless this time, more of us are definitely going to die next game." Lara began to raise her voice as well as her head.

Lisa couldn't immediately deflect this statement, taking a moment to think. The boys expected her to blast back immediately but were taken aback as she looked at the ground, realizing she was in some form of agreement since she couldn't rebut. - "If all of us can survive then we can refuse to participate. But we can't do that if some people are still trying to win." Lisa converted her gaze to the other side of the room, the listeners following her as she hinted towards Andrea, Thomas, Kristen & Michael on the other side of the room but still seperate from one another.

"What's that gonna do, Lisa? They'll just kill all of us." Joel shouted in disagreement with this ridiculous plan, attempting to march forward towards her in anger at the suggestion but sinking too much in the cushioned surface to walk.

"Think of it like a workplace strike, we refuse to participate in order to get what we want." Lisa explained, happy with her response believing the logic in the decision. Lara's eyes got lighter, her head raised as she was guided in the direction of an actual plan.

"Lisa, you are forgetting that companies have the option to ignore a strike and just fire everyone!" Joel shouted firmly.

"They could... if it was earlier in the game. If they were planning on letting one person walk with all the money at the end, why wouldn't they let 4?" Lisa questioned Joel, hoping to fill the hole in her plan.

"Because they have designed this game for a reason, likely entertainment. Whoever is watching will not be happy with such an ending."

"They won't have a choice. As long as we are the only remaining survivors." 

"You are doing so well, honey!" Michael shouted up to his brunette wife, she smiled with joy, the couple had an easy streak so far by avoiding relationships with others and only helping each other.

"You too, Michael. I'm surprised we're able to bypass most of the games like this. I thought they would've intervened." Kristen tiled her head with a giddy smile on her face, both of their faces blushing with glowing enthusiasm. - "We'll be able to tackle anything that comes our way with this advantage, we'll be even stronger as a couple and we'll be rich as a bonus!"

7 HOURS LATER

"PREPARE FOR GAME NUMBER SIX, FOLLOW US." the voice commanded waking everyone up, the rooms were now small enough for the guards to simply bellow from the front in their actual voices rather than the usual speaker system. The competitors sat up from their beds.

The players trudged along quietly in a solemn silence slowly coming to terms with the ever more likely death they were facing as the games went on, the fear of losing each other eating them up inside.

They entered a room which didn't follow the same white glossy design like the other rooms did, this one was glossy black with a dark chained cage in the centre which still had a glossy white floor. It looked like an MMA cage fighting arena, the ring was empty and barren.

"LISTEN CLOSELY" the guard commanded turning briskly to face the competitors who had all now entered the room and viewed the aparatus. - "WELCOME TO ARENA, IN THIS GAME THE REGULAR SIZED PLAYERS WILL ENGAGE IN COMBAT INSIDE THE CAGE. THEY WILL PARTNER WITH ONE MINIMIZED." A smirk formed on Thomas face as his eyes peeked up at Andrea towering next to him.

"YOU MUST TAPE YOUR MINIMIZED TO ANY PART OF YOUR BODY, TO WIN YOU MUST ELIMINATE THE OPPOSING TEAMS MINIMIZED AT ALL COSTS." the guard looked left to right at all the faces of the opponents, looking for specific responses from the competitors.

"What if the tape comes loose?" a voice spoke, the guard looked left to right again trying to see who spoke, looking down at the ground seeing a minimized trying to communicate with them. The guard noted them and stomped forward placing each of their black boots on either side of them.

"REPEAT" the guard commanded.

Thomas gulped at this figures terrifying looming stance. - "What if the tape holding us comes loose? Do we get re-taped or can our giants hold us?"

The guard didn't move an inch, staring straight at Thomas. He elevated his right hand slowly up to his ear, as if clutching an ear piece. The guard nodded a couple of times then lowered their hand back down.

"THE TAPE SHOULD ACT AS A DEFAULT STARTING SETUP, IF IT COMES LOOSE IT DOESN'T NEED TO BE FOLLOWED AGAIN." the guard let the answer linger for a few beats as Thomas slowly nodded, the guard turned on their boot heels and marched back to their previous position.

"FOR THIS GAME REGULAR SIZED PLAYERS WILL BE IN CHARGE OF CHOOSING THEIR PARTNER, WHOEVER THEY PICK FIRST IS THEIR IMMEDIATE PARTNER. BEGIN THIS PROCESS IMMEDIATELY." the guard wandered away to the side of the room to give more space to the players, all of whom looked at each other racking their brains.

"Are you gonna lift me up or what so we can get this over with?" Thomas shouted at Andrea above with his arms raised. She looked down at him with only her eyes not moving her head from its position, she smirked at him evily. - "What's that smile about?" Thomas asked as she lowered herself down to him, her long black hair surrounded him as it drooped from her scalp like curtains, surrounding his body like a tent. Giving privacy to the tiny and her evil expression.

"You are totally fucked." she spat with the giddiest evil expression Thomas had seen from her so far. She quickly stood up to her full height lifting her head away from his, pretending he wasn't there.

"What- what the fuck are you talking about?" Thomas shouted above with anger, butterflies formed in his stomach at the thought of being left behind by his only trump card. - "You need me!" he shouted as she began walking, her long white cotton padded legs striding over his body on the floor, her foot landed right next to him as she ignored his presence, the impact sending him off his feet painfully onto the ground. He watched as her legs left him behind.

"Come back..." Thomas muttered.

Joel turned to Lara who looked distraught at the realization that their team will have to split up and she would be forced to choose a partner. Her head flicked between both Theo and Joel who looked at her with curiosity, making up her mind she leaned down as her hand floated towards Joel.

"What the fuck do you think you are doing?" Joel shouted at Lara, her hand flinched back in fright as Joel violently shouted at her.

"What- what do you mean?"

"If you seriously think I'm going to let you leave the kid you are mistaken, Lara."

"But Joel, we need to stick together."

"We are, Theo is part of this group as well and he needs a protector like you." Joel explained, but Lara's hand kept floating in front of him, moving slightly forward in his direction as her mouth was agape at his response. - "Lara I swear to god, do not touch me! I can handle myself, the kid needs you, now more than ever."

"But..."

"TAKE THEO LARA, BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE."

Lara looked as if she could cry any second as he wrapped her hand around Theo securing her partner. - "What about you? Where will you go?"

"Don't worry Lisa will select me-" a hand gripped around Joel and lifted him up. - "See? don't worry Lara, we're going to be just fine." Joel looked up at Lara expecting her to look relieved but instead she looked horrified causing Joel to have another attempt at comforting her. - "Lara listen... everything will be-" as he spoke his eyes fixated on the nails of the fingers constricting him, they were black, his mouth opened wide as he turned around be faced with Andrea giving him evil eyes.

He began squirming violently whilst screaming. - "Lisa! Lisa get over here!" which she did, pulling Andrea's shoulder back so that the women were facing each other.

"Give him to me, he's my partner." Lisa commanded, keeping a strong and proud face in an attempt to scare her into submission.

Andrea waved her black nailed finger from side to side at Lisa- "Ah ah ah, that's not what the rules said... Lisa." she said her name with emphasis followed by a smirk.

Rage filled Lisa's face as she grabbed Andrea by the shirt forcing her to walk backwards. A guard suddenly presented themselves behind Lisa pointing the white firearm at her head, she just knew what it was, expecting interference from the guard because Andrea was right, regulars chose their partners. - "DO NOT INTERFERE WITH THE RULES OR FACE THE CONSEQUENCES." the guard waited for Lisa to respond as all three people stood frozen, everyone in the room watched with anticipation of what was going to occur. Lisa shakily exhaled as she loosened her hand from her shirt, Andrea's her evil smirk still glaring at her.

As Lisa's face drooped with sorrow he turned - "I'm sorry, Joel." as she turned away trudging in the opposite direction.

The final teams lined up together on the wall. Andrea & Joel, Kristen & Michael, Lara & Theo and matched due to being the last remaining; Lisa & Thomas.

"WE WILL NOW DRAW THE TEAMS." the guard spoke as he turned pointing at the monitor display on the wall.

Joel knew that because their group was separated into three teams that someone was destined to die and there was nothing they could do to avoid it. He just hoped to god up above that he wouldn't get matched with...

"PLAYER 6 TEAM VS PLAYER 23 TEAM & PLAYER 38 VS PLAYER 2." Joel's heart sank right through the floor as he made eye contact with his competitors, Lara & Theo who looked hellish as they watched him from Andrea's palm. Meaning Lisa was paired with Kristen.

"PLAYERS 38 AND 2, TAPE YOUR PARTNER AND ENTER THE ARENA."

Lisa & Thomas put aside their differences in an attempt to give themselves the best chance of survival, they weren't tasked with an impossible fight like Lara & Joel were. They simply needed to kill and proceed. Michael & Kristen had a free pass throughout most of their games due to their relationship and dedication, their odds of survival were high.

"Lisa, I need you to understand that I can't be forgiven for the things I've done and that's okay, but I want to make up for what I can with the little time I have left here." Thomas looked down at the fleshy palm floor of Lisa's hand, speaking of the terrible guilt he felt in his lack of regard for others thus far.

Lisa interrupted him as he prepared to move onto his next sentence- "I'm gonna stop you right there. I get it. You became greedy and violent, not thinking about the people who mattered to you and cared about you. What you do now matters so I'm glad you are going that far, I won't let you die until you pay back what you owe." she gave a determined look of confidence.

"How- how do you understand so much?" Thomas asked her, his mouth agape as she basically read his mind.

"I had this friend on the outside, I've always stuck by them and them by me, but after they were minimized I just totally ignored them. Their chances were minuscule, literally, so I figured I'd boost my own by working together with the regulars and focusing on myself. That's not who I am and I couldn't convince myself that they would've done the same had the roles been switched." Lisa's eyes drifted away from Thomas' staring in the wall, digging deep into the cavernous thoughts of her mind. - "He would've put his life on the line for me even after I betrayed him."

"You- you're talking about Joel??" Thomas shouted with surprise, taken aback by the sudden realization as was Lisa by his amazingly quick guess. - "You knew each other on the outside?"

"Yeah... which makes me worse than you. I ditched someone close to me who had been there for me. So trust me, we've both got a lot to repent for, if that's what we want." she smiled at him for the first time which he returned.

"Right. I know your strengths, so I need you to decide your own tape position, Joel told me your strategies were out of this world so I'll put my full faith in you." Lisa nodded, Thomas began thinking hard idly turning his head side to side as he charged his neurons, there was so much to think about.

"I believe the answer is the top of your head." he looked at her, awaiting a response to this request to which she nodded back.

"Makes sense I guess. We'll go with it." she said, Thomas began waving his finger as if coming to another realization.

"I also have some requests for how you should play the field to maximize this strategy." he explained

"That's exactly what I wanted to hear, call it." she smirked.

The two pairs entered the cage prepared for combat, Kristen had her game face on and was no longer the bubbly loving wife she appeared to be previously, knowing her husband life was on the line she refused to take any chances. Kristen stood in a crouching fighting position, her eyes drawn in dagger shapes as she assimilated her opponents body movements.

"Listen to me closely so you don't mishear me and this will be cake walk. Do not respond visually or audibly to anything I say, we cannot give away my position, I effectively have to act as your brain and you as the brawn." Thomas shouted on Lisa's hair padded head, she didn't respond as instructed.

"Based on the relationship of these two she is definitely holding him somewhere safe, within her audio and visible range. She knows it's not the best spot for combat but it dulls her paranoid thoughts about losing her husband. I predict two potential spots." Thomas continued to explain whilst keeping gaze on Kristen for any hint of which of the two it could immediately be, no clues were given so he began to command Lisa.

"BEGIN" the guard shouted.

"Between the breasts!" Thomas shouted, going for his leading spot of where Michael was being kept, it was comfortable, padded and visible.

Lisa paced forward with her fists in front of her face in a fighting stance, her feet moving her sidewards towards Kristen, the opponent threw a wild haymaker at Lisa giving her the opportunity of an easy dodge, backing up and avoiding the fist entirely. Kristen's body lunged forward as the momentum of the weight carried her forward after missing, Lisa pivoted forwards from the step back throwing her body weight into a powerful punch straight into the center of Kristens chest between the breasts.

Saliva came spilling out of Kristens mouth as the absurdly powerful impact rocked her chest, she kept her upper-body forward even as the rest of it fell backwards, she fell into a kneeling position as Lisa watched her, Kristen looked up at the girl with only her eyes, not lifting her head.

"Unfortunate. On the thigh underneath her bottom." Thomas was unsure about this one but it was as good as a guess as any.

Lisa swiftly shifted back into action using her right hand to violently grab the womans hair and pulled her head forwards, using all of her strength to kick Kristen on her right upper thigh, repeating this quickly for the other. Kristen barely reacted, steadily looking at the ground.

"I don't understand." he was shocked, his predictions had never been wrong before and this time he was certain, maybe he didn't understand this woman as much as he thought.

Kristen threw a punch straight into Lisa's stomach sending her stumbling backwards as the air shot out her mouth, winding her and refusing her the ability to breath. Lisa leaned forward clutching her stomach giving Kristen a perfect view of Thomas lying on his front on the hair, taped tight.

"Lisa. Problem!" Thomas shouted, terrified for his safety as Kristen ran towards him whilst he was still open for her to see, one slap and he'd be flattened into her scalp. - "LIFT YOUR HEAD, QUICKLY!" he screamed.  Lisa responded by returning to her stance and throwing a wild punch with her left arm, Kristen predicted this very same punch as it was identical to the first, dodging it entirely. As Lisa's head lifted incredibly fast the tape became loose, it wasn't as effectively sticky due to being applied to hair but this was the risk they attempted to play for lack of visibility to their opponents.

Kristen swiftly darted behind Lisa clutching her neck violently, pulling backwards. Lisa's head tipped backwards as Kristen's body weight pulled it further and further back. She tugged harder and harder bringing the top of Lisa's scalp down to her face, Thomas dangled from the loose tape as it strung down her hair leaving him swaying in the air as Lisa's body curved backwards due to the mass pulling her neck.

Thomas watched below as Kristens giant face watched him with anticipation, barely holding onto the yellow tape, her face was scrunched up from the maximum strength she was exerting attempting to pull Lisa to the ground who barely managed to stay standing. Kristens face leaned further in coming even closer to his body as her light pink lips parted revealing the pale rocks of her mouth as the cavern approached the dangling snack.

Thomas started shaking from the panic of death approaching, Lisa's head slowly lowered further and further back as Kristens face approached closer. Thomas lowered into the dark depths of her wet mouth still hanging from the tape, he cried as the teeth instantly snapped shut screaming "LISAA!" one last time as his body was buried in the murky darkness, her tongue pressed into his body soaking him in its slime, her teeth pushed into the tape he still clutched to for life attempting to chew through it and swallow him forever.

Lisa heard the screams realizing her partners life was in jeopardy, she released the tension in her right leg allowing her left leg to take the responsibility of holding her upwards from falling backwards, sending her right leg flying backwards into Kristen's shin with the heel of her right foot. Kristen's mouth flew open as she screeched in pain, Lisa shoved her head forwards as Thomas flew through the air dripping wet clutching the end of the tape.

"Are you okay?" she spoke whilst placing him back on her head, she did so without breaking eye contact with Kristen.

"I'm drenched in saliva, the bitch nearly chomped right through me."

"Well you spoke so I'm happy enough with that. Do you have any other regions we should check?" Lisa asked

"Well he's certainly not in her fucking mouth I'll tell you that much." Thomas angrily shouted as he shook his arms downwards releasing more sticky liquid from his body onto Lisa's head.

"That's not helping!" she shouted upwards at him as Kristen approached her.

That's when it dawned on him, Kristen hadn't spoken once, she used her eyes to watch them instead of moving her head, there was one part of the body that correlated with his theory about her placement as well as her actions. - "He's taped to the middle of her chin. I'm certain!"

"Her chin? she's coming towards me and we might not survive this part to get another shot at guessing. I can't put our lives on your certainty again, you were wrong twice."

"I'd literally put my goddamn life on it, now get in there!" he commanded as he attempted to secure the tape around him once more.

"Fuck! Fine!" she angrily spat as the two women ran towards each other, they both lifted their hands entering a viscous grapple as their hands held each other pushing their weight into each other trying to force the other to topple backwards. Kristen kept her head down, staring upwards past her eyebrows at Lisa as they pushed backwards and forwards.

Lisa thought to herself about Thomas' prediction, he better be right about this because she said she'd put her faith in him and that's exactly what she was going to do. She lunged her head forward bashing it into Kristen's creating an awful clunk noise as the bone surface of their skulls clashed, Kristen was shaken by this impact. Lisa followed up by repeatedly doing it unfortunately it equally damaged them. They stared into each other angrily as the tape began to loosen from the shaking, Michael began to dangle from the tape on her chin as one side of it held on for life.

Lisa saw him right there, if she eliminated the minimized right in front of her then they would pass immediately. Kristen's grip on her hands and the force of them pushing into each other through those very same hands disallowed them from attempting to grab each others minimized, effectively generating a stalemate, whoever gave out first would lose.

Michaels physique was finally becoming a detriment in the late stage of this competition as he couldn't hold up his own body weight for much longer, he let out one last scream as he knew his grip was loosening, he let go and began falling towards the ground below. He watched the floor approaching. At least my death will be caused by falling and not by the hand of one of these monsters, Kristen will feel better about a less violent end... I hope we see each other again somehow.

Lisa watched the tiny fall from Kristen's chin to which she was unaware, her opportunity was wide open, she pushed her strength to the left allowing her to face the left whilst still holding Kristen back. She kicked her foot through the air connecting with Michaels body like a tiny football sending him blasting towards the cage wall, the force was so great that nothing could stop his minimized body, connecting with the cage wall decapitating his body into multiple pieces. The pieces of his body skidded across the floor outside the ring in front of Lara's feet as she looked at them with a grossed out look on her face.

Lisa loosened her grip as she watched the man die violently to her left allowing Kristen to throw her backwards, she felt this reduction of strength, confused as to why. Panic erupted in her eyes as she touched her chin with her hand. - "Michael?" she asked with terror enveloping her expression. Looking at the ground to see nothing.

Lisa wasted no opportunity given to her and Thomas, uppercutting Kristen sending her head flying backwards as the same tape that Michael fell from flew off her chin and flew through the air to the side. Lisa lunged forward gripping her t-shirt collar and throwing Kristen over her shoulder onto her back on the floor with a loud crash, echoing throughout the room as the competitors watched with anticipation.

The crash of her body was immediately followed by a stomp as Lisa stamped down onto Kristen's chest holding her on the ground, she pressed all her weight to keep the girl in place. - "Michaeell! What did you do with my Michael!" she cried looking off to the side unable to process what happened, one second he was there and the next he was gone.

"Hold still and this will be over soon, the guard will reduce you soon. I just want to let you know that-" Lisa was abruptly interrupted by the guard inside the cage firing Kristen with the white laser shrinking her to 1 inch tall in the fraction of a second, Lisa's weight barreled downwards due to the gap being created by Kristen's body vanishing before she could even finish her sentence. The foot crashed into the floor creating a quick snapping noise, Lisa looked down shocked as she had just vanished into existence, lifting her foot to see the woman turned to mush below. - "...never mind." she said with a straight face as she transferred Thomas from her scalp into her hand, exiting the cage together.

"PLAYER 38 WINS. THE 2ND ROUND WILL BEGIN IMMEDIATELY, TAPE YOUR OPPONENT AND ENTER THE CAGE." the guard shouted once more, starting the next round that nobody except Andrea was prepared for.

Both Andrea & Lara stood staring at each other, this fight to the death would decide everything for them, their spat over the course of the games would finally be solved right here and now. Lara's group stood to lose no matter what, unable to think about what out they could use.

"I will kill you for this, you stupid bitch! Why couldn't you just stick with Thomas? why did you have to go and ruin everything?" Joel roared as he rustled violently from side to side, not moving an inch as the sticky tape held him to Andrea's bare skin. 

Andrea returned from above looking down at him. - "Because I know I'm going to win and you guys have been a great big thorn right up in my ass this entire game. I don't need Thomas for this one, I know that deep down your little- or should I say giant girlfriend isn't going to hurt you." her voice bellowed and vibrated down her vocal coords from inside her body into Joel's.

He  resided firmly between her big breasts, cushioned between them acting as his protection, her skin felt warm which was likely to get worse as she moved around. - "I swear to god I'm gonna-" Andrea pressed her breasts together smushing him and muffling his words to prevent him from speaking. - "I'll destroy your girl then we'll chat, okay? Great." she released causing him to inhale heavily from his lungs being compressed and the air removed.

Andrea watched Lara in front of her, she wasn't speaking to her partner, likely their strategy was to prevent her knowledge. She was unconvinced Lara would act, hence why she made no attempt to hide that Joel was plastered between her breasts.

"Quite the predicament you are in, hun. Wouldn't you say?" Andrea joked at the messy haired girl, she didn't look like she was going to stand a chance for a multitude of reasons. - "You shouldn't have snitched you do-goody whore." Andrea snarled as the guard shouted.

"BEGIN!"

Andrea sprinted towards Lara throwing a vicious swift punch towards her face, Lara saw this in slow motion anticipating fast moves from this girl who had nearly nothing to lose in this fight, she darted her head sideways sending her fist barreling past her in the chained cage wall behind them creating a ricketing noise as the vibrations shook the wall. Lisa & Thomas watched upon them with fear, their bodies jolting every time Andrea made moves.

Lara turned to anticipate another punch but was quickly socked straight in the face, Andrea wasn't letting up even for a moment. She'd waited all week for an opportunity like this. Lara collapsed onto her ass, her back and head swinging into the cage, struggling to retain her consciousness.

She came back to reality to see Andrea hands feeling up under her top in the chest area and sides. - "Where is that little brat?!" she uttered as the heel of Lara's foot shot straight into her nose sending her falling backwards. -  "You can't just defend all day!" Andrea stood to her feet again, both women stomping towards each other and grappling furiously, throwing each other sidewards in an attempt to topple the other one to the floor.

Andrea took Lara's her arm turning it painfully into an arm lock, turning around swiftly, lifting her blonde hair into a hand-made ponytail in order to survey the back of her neck, Lara returned with a backwards kick to Andrea's groin. She groaned in pain as she leaned forward. - "I'm going to make this harder for you, snitch!" she screamed. 

Lara daintily walked forward on her side in a fighting stance sending a furious high-legged kick straight across Andrea's head like a football, sending her to the ground onto her chest. Lara watched her body as she collapsed on her front with her arms by her side, unable to act any further, she just wanted to hurt this girl and postpone the inevitable.

The impact loosened Joel's tape as did the sweat from Andrea's chest, his head was ringing with a painful headache from the impacts and drops of Andrea's body. The breasts acted as a perfect cushion from her body, if she was a size smaller he would've been crushed under her chest. He ran out from under her body to see Lara stood ahead of him.

She watched as Joel waved his hands up to her trying to get her attention swiftly so they could act upon it as quickly as possible. - "Hurry up and eliminate me, Lara!" he commanded, he didn't seem scared of the death he requested.

"Joel I just can't..." she whispered whilst Theo shouted from his taped prison on Lara, crying out for Joel's life, afraid that he'd lose the man who protected him all this time, the first man who ever felt like a dad to him, something he'd never had before. The tape didn't let up, his teen body didn't help much not to mention Lara's insistence on his protection resorting to a strongly planted tape piece across his body securing him firmly.

"Lara we don't have time, you need to do it. For Theo's protection, otherwise you both die." Joel tried to get this fact into her, that which she already knew and understood well, she hoped that by drilling it out of her mind that it wouldn't come true. Lisa's idea & words echoed into her mind from earlier, about the work strike idea.

Lara turned quickly sticking her hands into the cage and shaking it, looking at the guard. "I abstain from combat! We aren't going to participate! Let us out!!" she screamed at the guard who didn't even look in their general direction, instead resorting to total ignorance. Lara cried her heart out for the game to end. - "I don't want this... please... let me out!" her weak legs were giving out below her, managing to hold herself up via the chain wall of the ring gripped in her hands.

"Lara-" Joel couldn't finish a word as he was gripped by Andrea, she vigorously span around thrusting her leg into Lara's in a sweep sending her flying to the ground. Lara screamed for mercy as Andrea dragged her into the centre of the ring, she jumped onto her chest pinning each of Lara's arms to the floor with her knees. Blood was dripping down one side of her face with a crazy look in her eye, in addition her nose also bled and was bent slightly to one side.

Andrea threw Joel along the floor causing him to skid to the other end of the arena, she began using her hands to violent slap various parts of Lara's body trying to pad out Theo. Lara squirmed around throwing her hands at Andrea in an attempt hit her. Andrea responded to this, gripping Lara's t-shirt collar with both her hands, she pulled violently forwards as she thrusted her forehead forward headbutting Lara violently sending her head crashing into the floor knocking her out.

Andrea felt all over her, searching over her body trying to uncover the tiny teenager she needed to eliminate. She searched her ears, mouth, breasts and arms. She felt nothing up Lara's left leg, quickly padding the other one as she reached the upper inner thigh she heard a dainty quiet- "owch." 

"There you are." she smiled with blood coating her teeth as she raised her hand for a violent fly swatting smack onto Lara's leg. Lara's head felt heavy as one eye opened to see an evil smile on Andrea's face as she went to slam her hand down in the place where she taped Theo, she had no energy push her off instead she used her remaining energy to turn swiftly onto her right as the hand rushed down.

Andrea missed, instead firmly smacking Lara on her other leg. She looked up at Lara in anger, standing up off the girl placing both of her feet on either side of her head. Lara had a full view of the girl from below giving her the perspective of what the minimized Andrea eliminated had seen in their final moments and it was terrifying. - "Stay down and it'll be over soon." she raised her barefoot above Lara's face preparing to cave it in so she could finish the round. Lara watched above delirious from the head injury, sincerely believing she was minimized and was about to be stepped on.

Andrea's head went fuzzy as the blood rushed away from her head after standing up combined with her violent headbutt from earlier, she toppled over to her left landing on her side. She passed out but it didn't look like it was going to be for long. Lara sat up looking at her hands realizing she was still normal, slowly standing up to watch Andrea from above once again. She stepped backwards trying to distance herself from this humanoid monster of a person. She wiped her face which stained her hand with her own blood.

Joel ran between her legs and stood in front of her as she gazed at him dizzily, Joel nearly cried at the sight of her face. She looked totally messed up, he couldn't let her take this endless beating any longer. - "Lara, you know what has to be done and please trust me, it's okay." he kept a brave smile at her trying to generate any hope that she would act upon what needed to be done to protect Theo. Her eyes watched him with happiness, that she was able to meet such an amazing person even in the worst of circumstances.

"For the kid, right?" - She smiled warmly trying to give him closure that she would protect Theo to her dying breath, anything for Joel. Theo beneath her pants furiously shook from side to side, he didn't want to be Joel's cause of death, he wanted them to survive together and become a family, no matter what.

"For the kid." he nodded which she returned. Lara heard Andrea mumbling as she slowly came to her senses. Lowering her warm face back down to Joel. - "Close your eyes, dear."

"You too." they both nodded in agreement as Joel brought darkness to his vision, remembering her beautiful face as his sense went dark. Lara took a terrified heart-broken deep breath as she elevated her foot off the ground above Joel. Down below he tried to pretend nothing was happening and that she was still smiling at him but he couldn't ignore the scraping as her foot lifted off the ground, the light that was seeping through his eyelids creating a red tint became black as he tried not to think about the fact that he was under a shadow.

"Goodbye, Joel." she thought one last time as her eyes closed, lifting her head up to the ceiling to avoiding looking in the general direction of her close friend.

Joel got shoved with an incredibly powerful force as he flew backwards onto his ass skidding his eyes barely managing to open before he hit the ground. His eyes opened to see a scared Theo standing right where he was. - "Theo!" he shouted as Lara's monolithic foot slammed into the ground crashing onto Theo, slamming him violently frontwards into the white floor. Tears streamed down Joel's face as he watched the violent slam, his body was still in tact. Lara pulled her stomp, clearly unable to make it quick due to her strong feelings, she realized that she hadn't struck hard enough and Joel was suffering because of it, pain entered her face as she spoke- "I'm so sorry, Joel! I won't let you suffer. Forgive me." as the muscles in her leg began to tense up forcing more body weight down them.

Joel lay there on his ass, useless and speechless as his lip trembled in horror, Theo's emotionless alive eyes stared right at his. - "Sir?" he helplessly called out as the sole lowered quickly, hundreds of bone snapping noises could be heard at once, meat crushing flat as the muscles tore themselves apart from the greater force pressing on them, his skull exploded sending red liquid blasting out forwards onto Joel. The foot finally flattened onto the ground, Joel felt bile forming in his throat as he attempted he close his senses, lowering his head and closing his eyes. Her foot began to twist causing the gorey crunching noises to slowly turn into wet squelching that deafened Joel.

Lara took a deep breath as she looked down and opened her eyes to be met with a cowering terrified crying Joel. She pieced everything together immediately, her lower lip began to tremble as she lifted her foot slowly revealing stringy viscera to Joel who finally began to scream. Lara attempted to remove her foot from the violence below but a foot crashed onto hers slamming it back down onto the gore, Andrea pressed all of her weight onto Lara's foot messing up the remains further.

Lara stared into Andrea's eyes as she stomped her foot flat. Lara screamed below- "Theo!!" as she cried, Andrea placed her fingers on Lara's chin lifting her face to connect their gazes together.

"You're talking to human goo, snitch." she smirked as a guard entered the cage and shot Lara. She watched as the red paste became huge giving her even greater detail of visceral gore that her weight left behind of the quiet teenager. Various bones could be seen in the pile some were dust. She looked up to see Andrea gigantic for real this time as she was plucked by her t-shirt into the sky.

Joel watched in grieving silence unable to process anything, he had no emotional reaction to anything following the horror he witnessed, unable to fight any longer.

Andrea dangled minimized Lara in front of her face. - "Remember back at the cafeteria, that poor man you attempted to save from the jaws of death? well you couldn't save him and you can't save yourself. You should never have attempted to snitch on me. Enjoy the consequences, bitch." Andrea finished her venomous spatting by opening her monstrous jaws revealing her solid white teeth, the tongue extended out from inside, glistening and wet, slithering like a krakens tentacle. Andrea released her in the cavernous depths of her mouth, throwing the girl around her teeth and tongue, tasting the remaining fear.

She pursed her lips together drowning the girl in permanent darkness as she forced her backwards down her throat, swallowing her life away. Lara slithered down the slimy chimney of Andrea's tube, eventually landing into a small pool of acid. Quickly feeling the burning sizzling all over her skin frantically trying to wipe it off.

Andrea swiped Joel off the ground. - "Listen to your snitching girlfriend." she violently used her fingers to press him onto her bare belly. Joel heard her desperate cries from within, calling out for him. - "Joel! Joel!!!" he could do nothing else but cry, her pleads for help being violently interrupted by Andrea's growling stomach. She lifted him up to her face closely. - "My body is making quick work of her and with that, we are now even." lowering her hand and dropping his tiny body to the floor.

He crashed to the floor banging his head and damaging his arm as he splashed into the red viscera, his entire body becoming drenched in Theo as he sank into the meat. He lay there sobbing in a red stain he once called "kid".