Gage gulped as he stared up at Charis, who towered over him like the Statue of Liberty. Unarmed, but still an exceedingly dangerous threat to the diminutive swordsman, the pink-haired giantess grinned playfully down at her prey.
“Don’t forget what we’re trying to do here,” Gage called up to her, his palms already sweating profusely.
“Oh?” asked Charis, tapping her foot menacingly. “What’s that?”
“We’re just trying to test out my combat abilities – you’re not trying to kill me.”
“Don’t worry,” assured Charis. “I won’t hurt you… too much.”
Gage scowled. Charis was having way too much fun with this, and it could end up with him in serious trouble. “Okay… just so we’re clear on that,” said Gage, trying to seem confident. “Would you do me a favor, though?”
“Hmm?”
“Would you take off your boots?” Despite his best efforts, his request came out quite sheepishly. “If you manage to step on me, I think it would hurt less to have your bare foot instead of your boot.”
“Of course, little guy,” smiled Charis. She bent over and began removing her boots, the simple movement of her arms and upper body intimidating poor Gage.
“Can we get on with this?” complained Rima, who observed proceedings from a nearby branch. She, too, seemed to be looking forward to the upcoming fight – if you could call it that. For Gage, it would be more like a Whack-A-Mole game, except instead of whacking it would be stomping.
“Ok, ready,” announced Charis, her bare toes wiggling a few dozen yards away (to him). “How about you, Gage? Ready to get up close and personal with my stinky feet?”
Gage drew his sword with his right hand and settled his black leather jacket with a shrug of his shoulders. “Ready,” he called.
“Ok then,” said Rima. Gage looked at the two massive feet resting a short distance away and gulped for a second time. He threw a glance upwards and saw Charis still smiling playfully at him. “3… 2… 1… GO!”
Gage bolted right with all the speed he could muster, and just in the nick of time. Charis’s tremendous foot occupied the space he had just been, the force of her stomp sending ripples through the branch they shared. Gripping his weapon in both hands, Gage made a slashing motion directed towards his friend’s exposed ankle. A barely perceptible arc of clear energy sizzled through the air, but upon impact with Charis’s foot it dissipated meekly.
He cursed even as he kept moving. That was his most powerful long-range attack, and it had brought Charis’s health down a tenth of a percent. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another foot crashing towards him. By reflex more than anything, he pivoted and sped off in another direction, barely avoiding death by squashing.
“You’re a quick little bug, Gage!” laughed Charis from high above.
“Yeah, well it’s not tough outrunning someone as big as you!” he shouted back.
“Are you calling me fat?” she giggled. “You’ll regret that!”
Glancing upwards, Gage saw Charis’s foot leading him slightly. With a violent twist, he planted his right foot into the ground and came to a full stop, just in time for her sole to smash into the branch in front of him.
Now’s my chance. Gripping his sword with both hands, he brought the hilt up to his ear and activated his ultimate attack. In an instant, the blade burst into blue flames, and he thrust forward with all of his might.
“Ow!” yelped Charis. Her reflexive kick sent Gage and his sword flying, and both of them crashed into the branch some distance away. The little warrior leapt to his feet, moving as quickly as possible to retrieve his weapon – but that was exactly what Charis expected.
Without warning, a massive weight slammed into his back, ruthlessly pressing him into the branch and leaving him breathless.
“Gotcha!” she heard him say triumphantly, her voice muffled by the enveloping skin of her foot. With a brusque movement, Charis rolled him over onto his back and shifted her foot back so that his head poked out between her big and second toes. He could make out Charis’s beaming face high above him, and off to the side he saw that Rima had come over as well to inspect the vanquished warrior.
“Well you didn’t put up much of a fight,” admonished the witch. “I’d put your effective level at around 40, maybe 45. Obviously against a Level 97 character like Charis, you have no chance, even with your heightened senses.”
“Speaking of senses,” interrupted Charis slyly. “Can you actually smell my feet? I mean, do they really stink?”
“Yes,” griped Gage from between her toes. Not only had she been wearing those boots for hours, but all the activity of their brief but intense fight had made them sweat, leaving poor Gage to inhale a truly intolerable stench. The vinegary smell coupled with the heat from her foot multiplied his suffering to the point where he started to feel dizzy.
“Ok, sorry,” she said, clearly not apologetic. She lifted her foot from Gage’s battered form, and he dragged himself up with some effort. Upon standing, both girls’ feet confronted him – although he knew it was ridiculous, they seemed to leer at him menacingly. Looking upward, he saw both girls smiling down at him. Clearly they couldn’t empathize with how frustrating it was to be helpless against a female foot.
“All right, you’ve had your fun… what now?”
“We need to go after that item,” explained Rima. “I asked a friend of mine to track it down. Apparently, it’s called Jack’s Magic Beans.”
Charis lowered herself at the knees and set her hand down in front of him. Gage stepped on, and then she lifted him up and placed him on her shoulder. He was grateful to at least be eye-level with them; hopefully they would take him a little more seriously.
“Comfy?” asked Charis, looking at him through the corner of her eye.
“Yeah,” he replied. And that was the truth. Despite the crushing heaviness of Charis’s weight, his body had actually been quite resilient. All in all, the worst part of the experience had been the smell of her dirty foot; otherwise, he felt pretty confident of his durability against anything but direct attacks. He shuddered to think what would happen if she aimed one of her guns at him.
“Here’s your sword,” said Rima, extending him his weapon. It looked like a toothpick. “Anyway, since it’s clear that you can’t contribute in your current form, I think it would be best to take advantage of your item enhancement side effect.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. How does it even work?” asked Gage.
“Well, you know how you can imbue items with gems and runes?” He nodded, already seeing where she was going. “My theory is that the game interprets your body as a power-up in that same vein, but since you’re a maxed out character, your contribution to the item is more than the item itself. With your help, Charis is on par with any non-hacking player in the game.”
“I guess that’s one reason to keep him around,” joked Charis. “Anyway, I should really log off... I’ve been online for hours now. Can you take care of him, Rima?”
“Yeah,” said the witch. “When you get back online tomorrow we can go after the Magic Beans.” She shifted her gaze towards him. “In the meantime, we can get started on your training.”
“Sounds good,” said Charis. “Let’s meet at my house at 4PM tomorrow, Eastern time. Gage can tell you where it is.”
As Charis handed him off to a witch that had tried to kill him just a short while ago, Gage mused at the irony of his situation since he had been shrunk. In the beginning, he had expected to become some sort of all-powerful being in the game, only to be cursed by a witch who later turned out to be a friend. On top of that, the girl who was his friend had just stomped him into the ground, and presently handed him to his former enemy. Part of him wondered if this was the best idea, but he reminded himself that if Rima wanted to hurt either of them, she could do so at a whim. He might as well try to make the best of his situation, and Rima seemed like a genuinely nice person when she wasn’t trying to grind the life out of him with her foot.
These thoughts circulated through his mind as he watched Charis exit the forest via a portal. Once she had gone, Rima regarded him in the palm of her hand with a bit of a smirk. “You really are adorable at that size, Gage.”
“Thanks, I try.” She might like it, but he certainly had misgivings. An image of Charis’s foot colliding into the ground in front of him flashed through his mind. He really needed to rectify this situation as soon as possible; hopefully it would only be a matter of time. In the meanwhile, however, he badly wanted to know more about his new, jailbroken abilities. He fixed Rima with a serious look. “Now about that training you mentioned…”