The sequel to Holdem's Punishment, this time it's Mercenary's turn to get tricked and see how it feels, Although it goes a little farther than expected.

I'm very happy with how this story turned out, let me know what you think in the comments


The town market was a bustle as usual with the townsfolk going about their day, one of the many people at the market happened to be Holdem, and as he lumbered by people would give each other hushed whispers as they stared at him with unease. Holdem was accustomed to this kind of treatment being a beast-fallen, but that wasn’t the reason everyone was staring at him, it was more likely that the wolf beast-fallen was 450 lbs. Which wasn’t always the case, he used to be quite slim with a slightly muscular body that made him rather quick on his feet and hard to hit in a fight. But now he was the farthest thing from his former self, due to a prank pulled on him by his brother in arms, another beast-fallen with the aid of the witch he himself had sworn to protect, he had ballooned into his current state. Why did they have to send me to the market? Holdem thought to himself, his face going red having to show himself in public like this. Due to his large size he took up a lot of space and people had to back away from him more than they normally would, all of his steps felt so slow and heavy as his tree trunk sized thighs forced him to waddle. What’s worse he felt as if he was showing off how fat he was for everyone to see as his clothes were practically painted onto his flabby body being several sizes too small. They were his clothes that had initially been ripped to shreds by his sudden growth, and while Zero was able to mend them and stretch them out a bit with her magic there was only so much fabric to work with, but it was better than nothing. His pants looked like they were ready to burst, but at this point, they looked more like booty shorts as Zero had shifted the fabric of the pants, so they were large enough to go around his rear even still it felt like half of his butt was exposed. His shirt looked more like a bra as all they could do is cover his supple chest leaving the entirety of his belly exposed, as it stuck out in front of him and hung past his crotch. Then while in vain, Holdem was trying to look somewhat decent as he still dawned his red coat and yellow scarf, although the coat wasn’t nearly large enough, the only thing that still fit was the scarf…lucky him. He was starting to miss the way people looked at him before, they used to be intimidated by him and even slightly scared, but he would have much preferred that than the looks of judgment and the whispers of gossip spreading around him. He was the farthest thing from intimidating, even his face which used to be angular and had what he called a rugged handsomeness had been rounded out with his chubby cheeks and multiple chins. He just wanted to get what he needed and get out of the market.

Holdem wished he had known that Zero was loaded as he looked around the market for what he needed, he could get basically anything with the amount she had given him to go shopping. He first went to a clothing shop for his own personal needs. When he entered the shop, he looked around and seemed to be the only one there, thankfully, aside from the tailor working behind the counter. They had heard the door open and looked seeing a beast-fallen enter their store, what started out as initial fear was quickly replaced by confusion and ended with a nervous unease. “Uh-why hello there good sir” said the tailor giving Holdem a forced smile, “welcome to my shop…”. The beast fallen seemed restless, and it was obvious from having to walk around basically half naked with clothes that were ill-fitting. “I’m s-sorry sir but we don’t usually cater to…well…your kind. And that aside I don’t think we have your size anyway, so sorry.” Said the tailor slightly afraid that if they angered him they might get eaten and judging from his size he might have already eaten a few people. “No, no I’m just here to pick up some fabric” said Holdem looking longingly at all of the outfits that he used to be able to wear. “Oh! Right away” said the tailor who brought out several kinds of fabric hoping to get this beast-fallen out as soon as possible. The tailor wasn’t the only one wanting to get out of there as soon as possible, Holdem wanted to leave the town before he had to suffer any more embarrassment. When he was shown the different fabrics he quickly looked over the variety and chose fabrics that resembled what his own clothes in both material and color. Along with that Holdem also bought an entire extra role of fabric…just to be safe. And with his business done he left the shop, much to the tailors’ relief but the tailor couldn’t help but be a little giddy from the major profit he just made, with the amount of fabric that large beast-fallen had taken he could have made a dozen or so outfits.

After he finished at the tailor’s shop he went to go buy some ingredients for Mercenary since he was starting to run low on certain spices and items. Holdem first went to the spice stand and crinkled his nose since because of his enhanced sense of smell all the spices were beginning to overwhelm him. After that, he went to go get some produce, potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, while Holdem hated being sent to buy ingredients he couldn’t help but admit just how good Mercenary’s cooking skills were and he started imagining all the delicious things he could make with what Holdem was buying. That turned out to be a mistake because thinking of food made Holdem’s belly growl in hunger, yet another side effect is he got an appetite to match his new size which made it difficult to restrain himself when he was hungry. And now all Holdem could think about was how hungry he was and how good everything around him looked, Holdem shook his head and decided it was time to leave. As he was heading out of town, however, he came across a bakery and he happened to catch a whiff of what was inside, he could smell all kinds of pastries. It was almost like Holdem could hear his belly saying just one couldn’t hurt, so Holdem went inside, and got the same reaction from everyone inside the bakery as the tailor had, they all had to take in the large beast-fallen. Holdem just ignored him and focused on the source of the delicious smells, he looked at the wide array of treats and picked up an apple Danish, it smelled heavenly, but then he caught sight of a delectable looking cinnamon roll, and an éclair, he couldn’t decide which one to get. After another 10 minutes, Holdem left the bakery and headed back to their campsite in the woods happily munching away on a pile of different pastries he was holding. Less munching but rather scarfing them down because even though the campsite wasn’t very far away Holdem had polished off every single pastry before he got back, hoping to hide the fact he splurged on himself.
Back at the campsite was Mercenary, Albus, and Zero. All of them were just sitting around the campfire waiting for Holdem to get back, they had already finished all of their tasks. Mercenary was leaning against the trunk of a tree with his arms behind his head, he didn’t really mind having to wait for Holdem since it gave him a while to just sit back and relax, something that he doesn’t have the opportunity to do anymore, mainly because his group consisted of not only two beast-fallen but two witches as well, not the best paring. Albus and Zero were sitting in front of the fire waiting for Holdem, but for different reasons, Albus still felt guilty for what she did to Holdem, while he did deserve it she felt bad that she couldn’t reverse the effects. Zero however didn’t care in the slightest about Holdem’s condition but rather was waiting because without him they couldn’t start on dinner and she was starving. After a few more minutes Albus spotted Holdem walking towards them, he was panting and looked winded even though he had only been walking for a few minutes. Mercenary opened his eyes and glanced over at Holdem, almost instantly picking up on the lingering smell of sweets coming from him, and it didn’t help his case considering his muzzle and chest were covered with crumbs. “So, what took you so long?” said Mercenary getting up and walking towards Holdem. “Oh, it just took a little longer than expected to find everything you asked for is all” said Holdem hoping that he would buy it. “Really? You didn’t make any extra stops anywhere?” said Mercenary eyeing Holdem making him nervous. “No what would make you think that?” said Holdem trying to walk past Mercenary only for him to grab his shoulder stopping him. Then he picked off a crumb off of Holdem’s chest much to his embarrassment, and Mercenary popped it in his mouth, “Hm, tastes like some kind of pastry, you know I heard there was a pretty decent bakery in that town. What do you think?” said Mercenary. Holdem’s ears went flat knowing that he had been caught and it didn’t help that Mercenary was smirking at him, then Albus came over and looked at Holdem, “Come on Holdem, how do you expect to lose any of this weight if you keep getting yourself snacks all the time. The reason we sent you was to give you some exercise and now it was kind of pointless.” Said Albus, “Well its not my fault I’m stuck like this” said Holdem who was agitated but then saw Albus’ concern turn into guilt, “yeah your right, its not your fault, it’s mine…” said Albus not able to look at Holdem. Now it was Holdem’s turn to feel guilty for making the girl he was sworn to protect feel guilty, “No milady, it’s not your fault at all. It was all Mercenary’s fault, it was his idea remember” said Holdem looking at Mercenary who picked up on the situation, “Yeah it was my fault kid, not yours. And for the last time I’m sorry but you did get what you deserve I think.” Holdem felt like he wanted to argue with Mercenary but instead focused on Albus who’s mood got a little better after hearing that and as if to shift everyone’s focus to the more pressing matter Zero got up and grabbed all the ingredients Holdem had bought and shoved them into Mercenary’s hands, “Can we please just get to preparing dinner now, I’ve waited long enough” said Zero. And with that welcomed distraction Mercenary got started on dinner and within an hour he had a creamy meat and carrot stew. Mercenary took a spoon and tasted the stew and licked his lips satisfied, “alright time to eat” he said. Both Albus and Mercenary were just satisfied with one bowl of stew, and usually it was Zero who would consume multiple bowls, one of her greatest mysteries is where she puts all that food, but nobody had to guess where it Holdem’s food went who after his change was giving Zero a run for her money. Mercenary had to make twice as much now otherwise both Zero and Holdem would complain that there isn’t enough or more commonly eat his share before he even knew it happened. After a few minutes Zero had finished eating, patting her full stomach, but Holdem took the liberty to finish off the rest of the pot by simply pouring the rest into his waiting maw. Then being stuffed Holdem leaned back and stretched showing off the full expanse of his belly to everyone. “You should really try to show some restraint when your eating” said Albus looking at Holdem, “Oh come on milady, I’m not that bad” said Holdem, but then Albus looked at his belly and gave it a poke, her finger sinking into his flabby gut, “I’m not so sure, I swear that your looking even bigger recently” said Albus, “That statement is correct, Holdem has indeed grown over the past few days, mainly in the stomach, chest, and rear” said Zero staring at Holdem as if she were analyzing him. This made Holdem blush and become embarrassed, “Alight…I start cutting back” said Holdem.

Now that dinner was over Holdem and Zero went into the woods away from the campsite so that she could use her magic to mend his clothes. Not something he wanted to do in front of Albus, or Mercenary since it required him to strip down to nothing but his underwear which was ridiculously tight but those could get fixed after he had some other clothes to put on. “Hey Zero, do you have a spell that could conjure a mirror?” asked Holdem, “Not a mirror per say but I can make a reflective surface for you, but why?” asked Zero, “Well…I haven’t really been able to get a good look at myself since my “change” and I’d like to fully grasp how much I’ve changed” said Holdem looking down at his belly which was all he could really see. “Alright give me a moment” said Zero, luckily they were near a stream so she uttered a spell and water started to rise and drift over towards them, and once in front of them the water spread out and thinned becoming a large circle, and Zero used one more spell and the water was no longer clear but retained its reflective property effectively becoming a floating mirror. This was Holdem’s first chance to truly see how fat he had become, he looked at himself and grabbed handfuls of his belly shaking and jiggling it, he lifted his moobs and let them flop on top of his belly. He turned sideways and say just how wide his rear was, and his giant love handles that were above them, then he looked at his face seeing how round his features had gotten and how he had multiple chins. It was then that Holdem couldn’t help but think of Mercenary, he had never been envious of his body before because while he was bigger and had more muscle, Holdem had a slim athletic build which gave him great speed which is what he had over Mercenary. But now all he could think about is how envious he was of Mercenary’s sculpted pecs, and rock-hard abs, while he was bigger than the average beast-fallen, it was all muscle and Holdem looked at his flabby gut and thoughts of envy turned into anger in frustration because he was the one who put Albus up to it. But in an effort to hold on to some self-esteem he remained positive thinking that he still had his looks, while rounder, he was still handsome and while he was “big” it could have been worse. While Holdem was observing himself in the mirror Zero looked and thought that she maybe saw Holdem smiling looking at his new body. But she regained focus and looked at the pile of fabric Holdem bought along with his ill-fitting clothes, Zero raised her hands while saying a spell and the Holdem’s clothes floated in the air as fabric floated towards them, and as the fabric came in contact with Holdem’s clothes the fabric merged with the clothes with both its color and fabric shifting to match the clothes they merged with. And after a minute Holdem’s clothes were now made of much more fabric and was several sizes bigger. Holdem smiled as he put on his pants and shirt and found them actually being able to wrap around his large form and while not very loose, wasn’t tight either but rather accented his body and was from fitting. “Thank you so much Zero” said Holdem looking at himself in the mirror again but fully clothed in clothes that actually fit him, but Zero looked and found that there was still a large amount of fabric left unused. “Why did you get so much fabric?” asked Zero, “Oh sorry I didn’t really know how much you were going to need but at least we have extra just in case…” said Holdem.

Zero had started to head back to the others when Holdem stopped her. “Hey Zero, wait a minute I need to talk to you about something” said Holdem, “What is it?” asked Zero. Holdem looked a little like he was trying to think of how to word what he was about to say, “You know that spell that Albus used that made me like this?” asked Holdem, “It’s not an exact spell but I could easily cast something similar” said Zero, “Ok, I want you to use that spell on Mercenary” Said Holdem. “Why would I do that?” asked Zero with no reaction at all, “Well…because it’s what he deserves! He’s the one who did this to me and he should get a taste of his own medicine, or in this case magic. See how he likes ballooning into a butterball” said Holdem. Zero then replied “And why should I help you do that? What do I get from this?”. Holdem thought a moment, he didn’t think he’d have to coerce her into doing it, then Holdem thought of the perfect thing to convince her. “So you know how you always use Mercenary as a bed and sleep on top of him?” asked Holdem, “Yes it’s because his fur is very soft and warm” said Zero, “Now imagine if he had a belly like mine” said Holdem shaking his for emphasis, “Then he’d be even softer, and with a big belly you’d have even more of him to sleep on, he’d be like a big, soft bed”. Zero thought to herself a moment imagining if Mercenary were as fat as Holdem and what it would be like to sleep on his belly, she imagined it would be like sleeping on a white fluffy cloud, this thought made Zero have a mischievous smile thinking of how good she will sleep once this happened. She stuck her hand out towards Holdem, “You got yourself a deal” said Zero. Holdem was now smiling and shook her hand, they then started working on Holdem’s revenge plan.

The plan was fairly simple, just like with what happened to Holdem, Zero was going to enchant some food that Holdem will get Mercenary to eat, and then wait for the results. But Holdem had to be smart about how he would get Mercenary to eat something without being suspicious, he could wait until mercenary makes something and have Zero enchant it when he’s not looking…but the enchantment takes too long, and he’d notice. Holdem could try to cook something as a kind gesture offering to help out more…but that in itself would make Mercenary suspicious since Holdem had shown no signs of wanting to cook before, and he’d be stuck cooking by the fire right in front of him with no opportunity to have Zero do her part. That’s when it stuck Holdem, the perfect idea that wouldn’t draw suspicion.

The following morning Mercenary woke up with the first rays of light spilling over the horizon and into his eyes, he was slightly confused by the lack of weight on his chest though, at this point he was used to waking up with Zero sleeping on top of him, but she was nowhere to be found, and neither was Holdem for that matter. He assumed they must have gone off somewhere, but he was still half asleep and didn’t give it much thought. It wasn’t until the sun had completely risen before Mercenary heard the sounds of loud heavy foot steps alongside small tiny ones. He looked towards the direction of the nearby town and saw Holdem and Zero walking towards them, and like yesterday Holdem was carrying an array of pastries from what he could assume was the bakery. “The pastries, again? Didn’t you get your fill of those the other day?” asked Mercenary, “Well it wasn’t me, Zero wanted to see if they were as good as I said they were and had me take her first thing so she could get fresh ones, and trust me fresh ones are even better since they’re still warm” said Holdem, Mercenary looked at Zero happily munching away at a apple Danish, and he thought it definitely sounded like something she’d do. “We made sure to bring back extra’s for you” said Zero grabbing another pastry from Holdem’s arms. The smell of the pastries had reached Albus waking her up to the sight of Holdem carrying an armful of pastries, and while she didn’t like that he got so many, she was happy to see he had the control to not eat them all. Holdem walked over to Albus handing her a pastry, “here you go milady, I picked this one especially for you” said Holdem. Albus took a bite and was surprised by the taste of warm gooey chocolate, “Wow, these really are good” said Albus, “See I told you, and this one’s for you” said Holdem who was now holding a pastry in front of Mercenaries face, “Thanks but I’m good” he said. “Aw come on are you sure, its really good. I picked this one out especially for you” said Holdem not giving up, “I said I’m good” said Mercenary a little annoyed at his persistence. “Come on just take it, I went through the trouble of getting you one, so you should at least have it!” said Holdem almost forcing the pastry at Mercenary. “Alright! Sheesh” said Mercenary as he reached out, but instead of grabbing the one Holdem was holding he went and grabbed one of the pastries he was holding in his arm, “But I don’t want that one. I’ll have this one” said Mercenary being wary of Holdem’s actions. Holdem looked at him for a seconded and then shrugged as he popped the pastry he had offered to Mercenary in his mouth. Mercenary watched him eat it without a problem and thought maybe he had been over thinking things and took a bite of the pastry…and he had to admit it was pretty tasty, so he shoved the rest in his mouth savoring the taste and swallowed. “Well thanks for the treat” said Mercenary, “No no…thank you” said Holdem with a grin on his face, a grin that immediately put Mercenary on alert as he realized that Holdem had just done something and he just fell for it.

Mercenary was smart enough to guess what happened next and looked down at his toned abs and watched them begin to disappear under a layer of flab. His mind was awash with anger, confusion, surprise, anxiousness, but mainly anger and he felt like he was about to pounce onto Holdem and throw a few swings at him. But he just stood there staring at his growing middle, it was all he could seem to do. He in just a few seconds he had gone from having a six pack to a small pot belly where he could feel a warm sensation pooling, but that warmth was spreading throughout his body as his limbs began to grow as well, all his muscles he had developed over the years being coating by layer after layer of fat. Soon Mercenary began to feel a tightness in his pants as his new bubble butt began to fill out and widen along with his hips where a new set of love handles developed. It was a good thing that Mercenary’s shirt didn’t cover his middle otherwise it would have been torn to shreds as his stomach grew larger into a full on gut that had started to hand over his waist pushing out further and further, while his shirt still grew tight having to contain his growing chest, as his chiseled pecs began to soften and sag becoming a set of moobs that soon rested on his growing gut. And while Mercenary couldn’t see his face, the one that many would find menacing and even frightening started softening and rounding out as he lost his sharp edges and only took notice when he felt his extra chins coming in forcing his head up little by little.

After a minute or two Mercenary’s growth began to slow down, and the damage to his clothes was severe, his pants had multiple tears from not being able to contain his tree trunk thighs with holes all along his thighs and his butt which looked like two white beach balls with half of it sticking out of his pants, the only thing holding them up was his belt which was extremely tight around his waist and dug deeply into his flesh. His jacket lay in taters on the ground with his shirt barely containing his new set of moobs which would make any woman jealous that were resting comfortably on Mercenary’s expansive gut which stuck so far out he doubted he could even reach that far and hung down low to his mid-thighs. The look of anger on his face would have been much scarier and intimidating if it weren’t for the multiple chins he now had and the pair of round chubby cheeks on his face. If Holdem was around 450lbs, then Mercenary would be around 550lbs, he might even be closer to 600lbs actually.

Mercenary was still stunned and places his hands on his belly feeling them sink into the warm flesh as if he was seeing if what just happened was real, he then quickly remembered the culprit of his predicament and look directly at Holdem who was laughing his fat ass off causing his own belly to jiggle and bounce, “Y-ou…You should see yourself!” said Holdem between laughs. This just made Mercenary angrier, he tried taking a step towards Holdem only to almost lose balance with a majority of his weight now in front of him, he could feel his body jiggle from the slight movement which just made it all worse, he could feel his thighs rubbing together putting him in a permanent waddle. “What the F-!” Mercenary started to say before Zero stepped in between him and Holdem and she looked him right in the eye and calmly said “It was I who did this to you not Holdem, if you have any anger at him you should redirect it towards me.” This took Mercenary aback for a moment and made him forget his anger… but only for a second as he realized that it was most likely Holdem who put her up to it, the only question in his mind though was “Why” he said to her. “Well first off you shouldn’t be angry as it is only fair this happened to you after what you did to Holdem” she said, “But..” he started only to not be able to finish the thought because he knew how purely logical Zero could be at times and from her point of view this was completely fair, even if Holdem deserved what happened. “You had a number of ways to deal with Holdem’s “snacking”, but you chose a drastic action, and did you really not expect any retaliation from him?” she asked but before he could answer she continued “So Holdem came to me to get even and I accepted, and this would be the end of it but something you did not know is that I was offended when you asked Albus to help you rather than me, a superior mage who could have crafted a much better spell, for example I could have added in a second delayed reaction to the spell…as you’ll find out..” said Zero with a wicked grin, while everyone else had a look of shock on their faces as they looked towards Mercenary.

As if on command Mercenary felt that familiar warmth begin to grow inside him again as he resumed growing once more, with not nearly as much shock as before Mercenary was better able to observe his own growth closely. A majority of the growth was in his gigantic belly as it filled out further and he could feel it slowly sagging lower and lower as his belly approached his knees. He could hear his pants ripping more and more and he felt his belt digging deeper into him causing him much discomfort then *SNAP*, as the belt couldn’t take it anymore giving way with enough force to cause Mercenary to lose balance and fall on his expanding rear, and with plenty of cushion he barely felt the thing, he landed with a bit *THUD* that shook the ground slightly. Mercenary felt some relief with the belt having broke but was still focused on his belly as it now rested on his lap and between his thunder thighs, he could feel the cool grass on his underbelly as it rested on the ground in front of him. His chest had to be the size of large watermelons, one thing he took note of was his nipples seemed to have thickened out a bit becoming slightly perky. Finally, his growth had stopped, but the damage had been done, his belly was almost as big as Mercenary had been before all this happened, his rear was wider than Zero was tall, and any hint of muscle was now completely hidden under untold layers of flab. Mercenary didn’t even know what to think, before he could think of anything Zero wasted no time jumping on top of him rolling around on his belly. Zero was in bliss, it felt like she was laying on a big white cloud, but had the consistency of a water bed, she crawled further up and rested her head on one of Mercenary’s moobs, it was the softest pillow she’d ever felt, she could get used to this. Mercenary seeing how happy she was only made him sink deeper into despair. “I hope your happy, at least when this happened to Holdem he could still move! I doubt I can even stand at this point!” Mercenary shouted. “I’m hurt you doubt me so much that you’d think I wouldn’t take that into account” said Zero who pulled out another pastry she had hidden in her pocket and jammed it into Mercenary’s mouth, the suddenness of it made him instinctively swallow it, “Bleah…what was that?” said Mercenary, “The solution to your problem” said Zero. Mercenary prepared for the worst but didn’t feel that warmth return, he didn’t really feel anything, but he didn’t know why but his body started feeling sore. It was hard to tell from just looking but Mercenary’s body did start shifting slightly, where his limbs seemed weighed down with fat just sagging seemed to perk up and expand a bit making his body look even thicker. What was happening was all the muscles hidden beneath the flab were growing becoming bigger and stronger, strong enough to support the immense weight he now carried. Zero slid off Mercenary, “Ok, try to get up” said Zero, Mercenary didn’t know why she thought he could. He first tried moving his arms and found this is was a lot easier to move than he had thought it would, same with bending his legs. He tried rocking his body to get on his knees, succeeding after a few attempts, his belly was almost too big for his knees to even touch the ground but he managed, using the tree next to him for support his slowly stood up to his surprise amazed he could do such a feat. It was only when he was standing that everyone besides Zero saw that he’d also grown a little taller, Zero did this to balance out the mass he carried. “I made sure in my calculations to give you enough muscle mass to properly carry yourself, can’t have my mercenary immobile, now can I?” said Zero grinning. Both Holdem and Albus were just starring in silence trying to process the past few minutes. Mercenary tried taking a step and almost fell over again, not used to all the weight in front of him now, after a few steps he seemed to have figured it out, to be honest with himself it didn’t feel too much different from before when moving around. Sure, he couldn’t run like he used to but like Zero said it shouldn’t be a problem getting around, and since he could walk…he eyed Holdem with such rage that anyone would think he was about to kill him, and how tempted he was, but he thought something else just short of killing him. He started to lumber towards Holdem with is slow heavy steps, which shook Holdem out of his daze to realize Mercenary was coming after him now. And catching him off guard Mercenary did a mini sprint surprising both him and Holdem catching him before he could run away. Next thing he knew Holdem was on the ground having the air knocked out of him as a half-ton of beast-fallen was sitting on top of him. With a smug look Mercenary said, “You just stay there and think about what you’ve done and how your going to fix this otherwise I’m not moving from this spot”. Holdem couldn’t even squeak out a reply as he was being crushed, he looks to Albus who just turned away sighing. Zero just watched the two of them, she stared at Mercenary as if admiring her handywork, she couldn’t wait to sleep tonight as she now had the best bed in the kingdom, no the world. And with Mercenary’s rage focused solely on Holdem she wondered if he’d even realize that she could reverse the spell at any time. However, the thought of loosing her ultimate cushion worried her but she though to herself that she’d tell him…eventually