Exceeding Expectations

Fucking giants.

It was always the same with them: towering bodies, overly muscular arms, barrel chests, and legs like tree trunks along with massive hands for crushing, and heavy feet for stomping. The way they heaved their lumbering forms around, incognizant of everything below them. Their swollen lips that pointless words cascaded from without a single thought in deep, thunderous booms.

“Little fox girl wear pretty dress for Ostendorlf? Want Ostendorlf take little fox girl out after Ostendorlf’s win? Ostendorlf have plenty coin to spend on little fox girl. Buy pretty things for pretty little fox girl.”

Such large bodies.

Such tiny brains.

Such loud voices.

“Ostendorlf like little fox girl tail. Ostendorlf bet tail soft. Little fox girl let Ostendorlf touch tail?”

Sakura closed her eyes, willing herself to calm, as her ears flattened against her skull in a meager attempt to avoid the vibrations of his voice echoing throughout the arena. This wasn’t the first giant she had gone up against, and he wasn’t the dumbest. Though, be wasn’t the brightest either. However, the scale for comparison was about as long as a well trimmed fingernail, so it really wasn’t saying much. They were all pretty similar with some differences here and there in regard to looks and personality—some with longer or wider noses, others with stubby or bowed legs, while others preferred starring at the sun over shattering jars between their fingertips.

There were always two things that never seemed to change though.

They never shut up.

And they had an unsettling fascination with her tail.

“Why little fox girl don’t talk? Little fox girl too good for Ostendorlf? Ostendorlf like little fox girl. Like little fox girl tail. Tail so red. Ostendorlf like red. Ostendorlf be nice to little fox girl. Treat little fox girl nice. Touch tail nice. Buy nice, pretty things for little fox girl. Make little fox girl happy.”

The woman withered away inside. It could all end now. It would be simple. Barely take any time at all.

But Zero was right.

Sakura needed to be calm. Needed to think.

Now was not the time to get disqualified before the match even began.

“Fighters ready?” The dwarf stood outside the line off attack between the demon and giant, both arms straight above his head. He glanced at each of them and his arms fell to his sides as he stepped further back. “Begin!”

“Come little fox girl.” The giant spread his arms wide, inviting the new apple of his eye into them. “Come to Ostendorlf.”

Well…

If he insisted.

Sakura opened her eyes and took only a moment to read the giant’s position. He was easily five meters tall, and his feet stood planted on the ground with plenty of room in between them.

It would be the quickest route.

The vixen burst forward towards the giant who guffawed at the sight of the woman doing as he had told her. But his laughter quickly turned to befuddled grunts as her body fell low to the ground and she slid between his legs and disappeared behind him. With a powerful push from her arms, Sakura was back on her feet and leaping onto the giant, clawing and kicking her way up his back to sit on his shoulders.

The laughter picked up once more as he reached for the demon. “Little fox girl play hard to get. Ostendorlf like to play.”

Her fingers tangled into the giant’s wiry, ginger hair and pulled his head back to expose his short, thick neck. Legs wrapped around it in a vice grip, cutting off all air and chuckles from the man as she released his head and dropped to lay upside down with her back against his. The skirt of her dress fluttered past the corset and to her chin, revealing black shorts underneath, as it and her cherry hair swayed with the giant’s frantic attempts to grab at her.

First, his meaty fingers tried to dig under her legs to release the choke hold from around his throat, but Ostendorlf quickly found that there was no space for his fingers to grip around in order to pull them apart as his vision became increasingly spotty. So, he attempted to clutch at the woman’s body but massive biceps prevented him from reaching the middle of his back where she lay while his lungs began to burn like fire without oxygen to cool them. In a fit of panic, the giant spun around, hoping to either fling the fox free or swing her body enough to get a hold of it. However, all it accomplished was making the giant even dizzier than he already was, and he hunched forward to try to regain stability.

That was Sakura’s cue. She raised her body back up, snatching the giant’s hair again as she ripped his head to the side and smashed her fist over and over into the opposite side of his face with a sickening wet crunch, the sound similar to assaulting a raw chicken.

Ostendorlf reached for her, but his vision had gone black and he was spinning uncontrollably into an abyss with no end. His knees buckled and he crashed to the ground on them, fists still reigning down on his skull in rapid succession as his torso followed the direction his legs had taken.

With only moments to spare, Sakura unwrapped her legs and extended them straight in front of her as the giant’s chest collided against the ground followed by his head. She sat there in the eerie silence of the arena, giving the unconscious man’s cheek a few pokes. “Ostendorlf don’t want to play with little fox girl?” she mocked in a deeper voice. “Little fox girl so sad.”

There was no sign of Ostendorlf’s immediate awakening, so she rose to her feet and fixed the skirt to her dress, observing no damage. A satisfied smile graced her lips at the sight of the untarnished fabric and she strutted over to where the dwarf stood frozen, staring wide eyed at the fallen giant. The woman stopped before him, looking down with a curious tilt of her head. “Are you going to count? Or would you prefer I do it?”

His head snapped up and he stumbled over his tongue. “O...one! Two!”

“Thank you!” Sakura chirped as she left the announcer to finish his count and the shock from the crowd erupted into cheers and applause that rumbled through the amphitheater and washed out over the town.

Now that the easy part was done, it was time to deal with Ren.

However, he wasn’t exactly how the woman envisioned him. Instead of greeting her with a cocky grin and some flippant comment, the man was leaning forward in his seat, head in his hands, curls in complete disarray.

“You gonna be alright there?” the woman asked simply as she stood before him.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.” Ren tossed his head back and forth, shaking away his jitters, and sat up. “I see you did wear your shorts. That was a good choice.”

“You think so, huh?”

He nodded. “Oh yeah. I think I now understand how Raz felt all those years of you running amok.” A grin spread across his face along with his arms, welcoming her into them. “Now come here. Come sit with your king alpha mate and enjoy the next match. You deserve it after that victory.”

This was more along the lines of what Sakura had been expecting. Whatever had gotten into the man hadn’t lasted long, and he was back to his normal, obnoxious self. “I’d rather not.”

Nothing could bring him down. “Come on, don’t be shy. Take a seat and meet my friend. Or… re-meet him. Apparently, you broke his buddy’s arm.”

Sakura looked at the wolf demon, digging deep into the recesses of her memory. “Your friend?”

Ahiga nodded. “Yeah, my friend.”

The woman took a deep breath and pushed it out. “It’s not ringing any bells.”

“Really? How often does this happen?” The wolf blinked in amazement at her nonchalant shrug. “You broke his arm. Just snapped it in half like a piece of celery. All because he touched that girl’s hand. You don’t remember that?”

She chewed her cheek, concentrating harder. There was probably some inkling of something happening at some point, but what that was would remain lost. “When and where did this happen?”

“A year or so ago. We crossed you on the path heading southwest towards Golden City.”

A low groan rumbled from the fox’s throat as she shook her head lightly. “Nope, sorry. I don’t remember that. Are you sure it was me?”

“It was! He had black hair,” Ivy piped in sweetly, attempting to help jog the woman’s memory. “He was so nice. He even offered to get us a room for the night. Then he just barely touched my hand on accident, and you broke his arm and punched him in the face. Then we went to Golden City to see Lore. Remember? Lore made a bunch of coin off of a good haul, and he took us to the candy shop and bought us chocolate and those little caramels. They were so good!”

Sakura’s mouth watered, the taste of sugar a welcomed reminiscence on her tongue. But that was about all that came to mind. “I remember the candy,” she admitted, “not your friend. But by the sounds of it, I should have broke something other than his arm. He should consider himself lucky.”

“Alright, settle down. We’re not here for that right now,” Ren insisted, patting his lap. “We can worry about that after I win this tournament. Come on, the next match is about to begin. Sit right here and whisper sweet nothings into your king alpha mate’s ear.”

An involuntary twitch rippled across the woman’s brow as her upper lip began to curl up and expose her fangs. But just as quickly as it came, did it go and leave nothing but apathy behind. “No thanks,” she drawled and stepped away to take a seat in between Zero and a stranger as the angel watched her go.

There was a nudge in his side and Ren turned to look at the wolf.

“Your woman doesn’t seem too happy with you.” Ahiga pointed out with a smirk.

“Oh, just you wait.” The man glanced back at the fox before grinning deviously at his acquaintance. “This is only the beginning. It’s all downhill from here.”