The Lost Bride

Iris gazed up at the quest board, brow furrowed. It must have been a slow day, there were barely any jobs for hunters right now. No good.

An accomplished hunter herself, the newman usually had no trouble finding and completing high-level jobs. A lot of the banter with her rival, Adam, consisted of bragging to each other how much better they were than each other.

"If you're so good," he'd said, "let's make a bet. A week from now whoever's made the least cash, takes the other out for drinks."

It was silly, but she'd agreed. That had been two days, and she still had some time left. But she needed a real payday to pull ahead.

Hey eyes settled on one posting; Client named Cicil, reward 2500 meseta. Not terrible. All of the other postings were grunt work for scrap pay. It'd have to do.

Iris moved up to the counter, swaying alluringly as she walked. She was tall and toned, skin a warm bronze like a sculpted statue of an amazon. Years of strenuous physical activity had put a layer of firm muscle on her body, which she had no problem displaying, wearing little more than a tank top and hot pants.

She motioned at the job to the guild clerk. "I'll take that one."

"Alright! I'll bring the client out to meet you, please wait in the next room..."

Iris nodded and moved on. She settled into a chair, folding her long legs underneath. She retreated into her thoughts as she waited, mostly hoping that this job would be quick and easy and that she could move on to another one efficiently.

"Hello... Are you Miss Iris?"

She looked up quickly at the woman who'd entered the room. A human Force woman, a fairly common sight, but what was remarkable was her stature. Most Forces were known for being lithe and wispy, with a mythical air evocative of the arcane arts they were adept at. The woman, however, was on the chubbier side, her gown stretched around her gut and her normally flowing sleeves tight around her thick arms. Her hips jutted out as she walked, and Iris could see the outline of her thick thighs under her skirt.

"Hi, I'm Cicil," she said. "I also work for the Hunters Guild."

Iris nodded. "Go on."

"Well, I'm supposed to be getting married soon! Or, I was... I started taking jobs to pay for the wedding, but I'm not very strong... I got hurt a lot and had to use a lot of recovery items, and then I got, well," Cicil patted sheepishly at her wide hips.

"I haven't even seen my fiance recently, it'd be to much to let him see me like this!" Cicil continued, holding her face in her hands. "I can't get married like this. I want you to help me lose weight."

Iris kept nodding along, without much to add.

"So here's what we'll do," said Cicil, pulling up a map of the underground caves of Ragol. "We'll just go for a romp in the caves hunting monsters, and you'll cover me so I don't get hurt. Then when we reach the to room with the waterfall," she pointed at a specific square on the map, "we'll head back. That should be enough to get me back in shape. Sounds good?"

"Won't be a problem," Iris answered curtly. She stood up to shake Cicil's (pudgy, squishy) hand. "I'm gonna go grab my equipment. I'll meet you down at the surface teleporter in a bit."

The two women separated, and Iris set off to run some errands. In line at one of the equipment shops, she honed in on the words of two gossiping hunters.

"It seems Cicil's fiance hasn't seen her in weeks! I've heard he's heartbroken."

"Cicil is his goddess! Her beautiful form is the light of his life."

Iris smirked to herself. If you've seen what she looks like lately, you'd understand why she'd hide herself, she thought.

Moments later, Iris obtained her equipment and supplies, and headed off to the planet surface transporter, where Cicil was waiting for her.

"Ready? I'll lead the way." Iris strode confidently ahead, while Civil waddled behind her. Shortly, they had reached the caves of Ragol.

"Remember," Civil reminded, "don't let me get hurt! I can't use any recovery items."

They reached the first room filled with monsters, one cluster at the end and another near the entrance.

"Take the fat, the farther ones" commanded Iris. "I'll clean up these guys before they get too close to you."

"Got it!" Cicil ran ahead, while Iris turned her attention to a hang of Evil Sharks. She brandished her daggers artfully, dodging strikes and landing critical blows, making short work of the monsters.

"Ahh! Help, Iris!"

Iris turned her attention to Cicil. In a moment of carelessness, the Force had gotten surrounded by monsters. They took turns at hitting her, and she could barely keep up with blocking the hits, much less firing off a counterattack.

Iris sprinted across the room. While her forte was in physical combat, as a newman, she wasn't terrible at offensive Techniques herself. She fired off foie after foie, each fireball taking out one of the surrounding monsters. With only one more standing, she was getting close, but... her photon reserves felt low. Firing off another tech would show her down. She focused on the blade descending on Cicil's back. No time. With a burst of resolve, Iris launched herself forward.

She landed between the shark and Cicil just as the blade came down. It struck her down and she fell all the way to the ground, bouncing harshly on the rocky cave floor.

Pushing the pain to the back of her mind, she leapt up to her feet, dodging another slash, and moving to the back of the creature. With a flurry of strikes, it too fell, the room now cleared of enemies.

But before Iris had a chance to celebrate, she suddenly lurched forward. Cicil caught her, enveloping her in a soft circle of fat. "I'm so sorry," she cried, "are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," Iris panted, "just needed a little pick me up." She pulled away from Cicil's embrace and reached into her pack, pulling out a monomate.

A staple recovery item, the drink boosted the body's healing abilities and restored energy, formulated to work on humans, newmans, and androids. Iris popped the cap off and held it to her mouth. The drink went down thick and sweet, settling densely in her stomach. She chased it down with a monofluid, another recovery drink, meant to restore technique casting ability. Her stomach felt full and warm, and already she was feeling revitalized.

"Let's keep going," said Iris. Cecil looked shaken but she followed diligently.

The next few rooms were not that difficult, but Cicil was inexperienced and irresponsible. Iris tried to let Cicil blast the monsters while she covered the force, but the monsters often got too close for comfort, and Iris ended taking many strikes intended for the force. Their progress was slowed by Iris having to take multiple breaks and sip mates, but at least Cicil hadn't gotten hurt. The quest was still going successfully then.

A few rooms down, Iris noted a strange feeling. She was starting to feel heavy and slower, her breath was coming in raggedly, and she was covered in a film of sweat. Her thighs noticeably brushed against each other as she walked. Troubled, she pinched at her belly. Could she...?

No, not possible. She was sure that legitimate weight gain could only happen with sustained use of mates over a long period of time. This had only been one quest. The stress of the quest was making her tired and and heat of the lava-filled rooms they had traversed was making her feel excessively sweaty and her clothes feel tight. Perfectly normal.

Iris and Cicil were building of a rapport as they progressed. Cicil gabbed on about her wedding plans and her love for her husband, while Iris, usually more of a silent protagonist type, opened up about her work. It was nice to have something like a friendship. Her relationships with other hunters were strictly professional, and her rivalry was wholly competitive. Everything turned into a challenge between her and Adam, who could kill the most monsters, who could clear the most quests, who was stronger... Their last challenge was a weight-lifting competition of all things. Surprisingly, in spite of her newman physiology, Iris defeated him. He stormed off fuming and she hadn't seen him again since a few days ago, when he issued their bet.

Iris noticed that Cicil's own goal was coming along as well, the Force's gown had become looser and she was moving more agilely. Iris could be happy for her once this was all over.

But it was that general contentedness that ultimately distracted her. They rounded a large boulder, and out lunged a large, mantis-like monster. Grass Assassin. A monster known for trapping its prey in sticky silk-- and letting it's multitudinous young feed on them.

"Watch out!" Iris shouted, shoving Cicil out of the way. She tried to move away as well but it was too late, the creature bore down on her, and emptied its stores of silk on her body.

The silk wrapped around her, trapping her in place. She wriggled in futility; there was no moving from that spot. The silk bound her arms to her body and tethered her to the ground and surrounding rocks. "Nggh!"

Cicil grabbed at Iris and tried to pull her away, but it was no use. "Don't worry about me!" Iris gasped. Just take it out from the side!"

Cicil moved out of the way of the Grass Assassin while the monster focused on Iris. She braced herself against its slashes, but there was nothing she could do to block its assault. It struck at her again and again, while Cicil tried to take it out with the power of her techniques.

"Foie! Foie! RAFOIE!!!"

Just about Iris was about to pass out, the monster exploded in flame, an eerie scream escaping from its mouth as it collapsed. Its brood, palm-sized versions of the parent, escaped from the corpse, scrambling off in every direction.

"Oh, no don't--" Iris squirmed as they even crawled all over her bound form, going anywhere to put distance between themselves and the burning heap of arthropod that they spawned from. "Gross..."

The danger gone, Cicil approached Iris once more, and started pulling off the silk. The heat from the explosion had at least weakened the substance, making it not too difficult to pull off.

"Sorry," Civil whimpered, "you keep getting hurt because of me..."

"Well, it's what you're paying me for" Iris sighed bemusedly.

She pulled off the last chunk around her legs and Iris collapsed to the ground. A glance at the vitals displayed on her wrist unit told her she was on the verge of wiping out. Bedrudgingly, she pulled out another mate. Cicil helped hold it to Iris's lips as she gulped it down.

Once Iris was feeling better, Cicil pulled her to her feet.

"We're almost done," Cicil said. "Let me stay in front and try to do most of the fighting."

A force leading the charge was an unusual formation, but as they proceeded into the deeper levels of the cave and encountered stranger creatures, Cicil was moving more confidently, hitting harder and more accurately. Good, it kept her focused on the monsters, and let Iris lug behind, out of Cicil's sight.

Iris was sure, now, that she had taken too many recovery items in too short a time. Her once toned abs had lost their definition, and her stomach was nudging out over her shorts. Her arms had gone flabby, she could barely wrap her hands around her wrists. And she could FEEL her ass bounce as she moved, her thighs slapping against each other with every step. Iris caught a look at her reflection in a puddle and she winced. Before, she had a harsh disposition, with sharp cheek bones and an intimidating gaze. Now she was starting to look like some dorky chipmunk. She nudged at her cheeks with swollen hands. They gave way easily, then flopped down with gravity. "Nooo..."

Even with Iris' athletic ability, she couldn't keep up with her increasing weight. Every leap took more power, every strike took more resolve. Clashes that she once finished quickly and effortlessly were leaving her sore and winded.

Nonetheless, they continued, Cicil leading the charge. Iris did her best not to notice how uncomfortable her clothes were getting... and how Cicil's once-tight dress was now flowing smoothly. It was almost over, and she could easily lose the excess weight through other quests when she wasn't babysitting a rookie force.

The part of the caves they were in were wetter, almost like a marsh. There had to be a source of water close by. Iris still shielded Cicil from attacks here and there, but the monsters this deep were definitely stronger. Iris had blown through her stock of monomates some time ago, and now dipped into her supply of harder-hitting dimates and trimates. She relished in the sweet, energizing liquid as she downed drink after drink. One had to wonder if she even needed to drink as often as she did. The drinks were delicious on their own and it was easy to get addicted, drinking for the sake of it.

Iris trundled along, feeling a sort of high from her constant adrenaline rushes and the buzz from the recovery items. She felt a sort of soft, comforting warmth, not noticing that Cicil was trying her hardest not to notice her burgeoning companion.

They reached a large open room with a high ceiling. Iris staked it out from behind a boulder. Well over a dozen of a variety of monsters. Not a situation they could rush in without a plan.

She felt a gust of wind, and a shadow flew overhead. It landed at the far end of the room, a winged dragon-like creature just larger than the average hunter. Nano Dragon. A monster that got stronger through killing other monsters.

The menagerie of sharks and assassins could do nothing against the cave predator. The dragon took everything out with aerial strikes, swipes from its tail, and powerful laser blasts from its mouth. Once satisfied, in settled on a boulder near the exit of the room.

"Well it seems to have done our work for us," mumbled Cicil.

"Yeah but it's a lot stronger now," Iris responded. "And we'll need to kill it to get out of here."

"Listen," Iris continued, "you can't take this guy on your own. We're gonna do a traditional approach, you'll hang back and I'll fight it head on."

"Alright, let's go!"

The two spring out from behind the rock and rushed towards the dragon. While Cicil hung back, as planned, Iris pushed herself forward, her sprint more like a sloppy jog, arms flailing for balance.

She leapt at dragon, daggers brandishing, and immediately began slashing at its face. It lunged at her and tried to beat her with its stony wings, but she still managed to dodge its offense. Hah, she thought confidently, even if I'm like this, I'm still the best fighter...

And even with it's power boost, the dragon was no match for the seasoned hunter. It would need just a bit more to push it over the edge.

With a burst of wind that almost knocked Iris over, the dragon took off into the air. Scanning the room, it found its target; the weaker force that had been launching techniques at it from across the room.

Iris caught on to the dragon's plan just as it began to charge it's laser. Cicil, too inexperienced to understand, was still trying to hit it. She wouldn't get out of the way in time.

With a tired but unsurprised groan, Iris launched herself across the room. She threw herself against Cicil, knocking her down and out of the way, just as she launched a last fireball.

The laser hit Iris square in the back. She let out a harsh scream of pain as she landed, her wrist unit immediately sounding an alarm. Milliseconds later, the fireball connected with the dragon, and it let out a roar of its own, plummeting to the ground, defeated.

Cicil patted at Iris worriedly, a display of concern that had since been worn out. "I'm so sorry, sorry, Iris are you alright?"

"Fine, fine, I'm alright..."

Iris pushed herself up into a sitting position and shut off her beeping wrist unit. Out came another recovery item; the all-restoring trimate. With a practiced motion, she knocked it back, letting the fluid fill her once more. It was denser than a monomate, and even as her body absorbed it, she could feel it hang in her stomach and weigh her further down.

"Ok then, just a little more, just a little more then..." Civil scrambled off, not wanting to acknowledge the bad recovery item-using habits that she was clearly responsible for.

Iris got up and lumbered after her. She tried to focus straight ahead, but not even the bliss from the trimate could distract her from what had happened to her body. She could see her swollen breasts without even having to look down. And when she did look down, she could barely see her feet; her belly was full and distended, hanging over her shorts. Her arms were almost as wide as her head and slightly jutting out. Her stride was less of a catlike gait and more of an awkward wobble

Just a few battles later, they finally reached their goal. A great, water-filled cavern opened before them, fed by a group of waterfalls that lined the room, a rainbow arcing gracefully across.

"There it is!" Cicil shouted. "Waterfall! We made it!"

Having reached her goal, Cicil activated a telepipe to head back to the ship. Before leaving, she threw herself into hug around Iris. Now slim and petite, the force sunk into Iris's fat, like diving into a warm bed.

"Thank you so much for everything!" her voice came muffled from deep without Iris' cleavage. Cicil popped her head up. "You can get your reward from the counter. I have to go find my husband! I'll see you later, okay!"

She unburied herself from Iris' mass and skipped off to the telepipe, disappearing in a flash. Iris stood there, unwilling to return to the ship. To be seen by the entire guild like this would be humiliating. But then, she had to go by the ship to at least claim her reward and not let this whole escapade be in vain. Approaching the telepipe, she hoped that the guild would at least be as empty as it was when she left it.

Back on the ship, she exited the surface transporter as sneakily as possible and slunk towards the Hunters Guild. To her relief, there was no one there, just a very surprised clerk, who strained to hide her alarmed stare.

Iris composed herself, staring past the clerk, trying not to let her look get to her. "I'm the hunter, Iris. Picking up a reward from my client, Cicil."

"Y... Yes!" The clerk looked down at her screen, her face being quickly consumed by blush. "The money has been chunk-- has been TRANSFERRED to your account. Oh and this."

The clerk hurriedly pulled out a paper envelope and shoved it into Iris' hands. "A wedding invitation. Thank you and good job bye." With that, the clerk jumped up from her station and scrambled into the back room, hands clamped tightly against her mouth.

Iris sighed. Well at least that was over. Now to sneak back to her quarters...

As she stepped away from the counter, she felt a firm body push up against her. A pair of arms wrapped her massive gut, fingers grasping at the pudge. A chin rested on her shoulder, its face resting against her cheek.

"Hey there, Iris~" she froze completely. Adam.

"Don't have anything to say? That's fine, let's hang out."

He guided her away from the counter, towards the window that overlooked the surface of Ragol. Too mortified to do anything, she let him, even as he grabbed at her stomach and played with his fingers in the folds of her gut.

It was there that she saw her whole reflection for the first time and fully realized the changes she had gone through. Before, she was smaller than Adam but now he was barely visible behind her. She could barely see her shorts either, they were swallowed up by fat. Angling slightly to the side, she could see that they barely even functioned as shorts anymore, her huge butt hung out of them as if she was wearing only a thong. The long muscular legs she once took pride in now looked like they could crush a child. Her tank top had been pushed to its limit, riding all the way up her stomach, leaving it on full lurid display. The tank top barely contained her melon-like breasts, they spilled out and pushed against her chin, pushed up further by her round, expansive stomach.

"What happened?" Adam crooned. "Mighty hunter got a widdle too roughed up out there? Yoo drank too many monomates? It's rough out there babe, you should leading the big monsters to the pros."

"Sh... Shut up," Iris hissed. She blushed heavily, too embarrassed to focus on anything. Her surroundings seemed to blur, the only things she could concentrate on were Adam's voice and his touch against her round, squishy body.

"I get it," he continued, rubbing her stomach rhythmically. "You wanted to beat me at something else~ well I can't really say that I would have accepted this challenge."

She tried to muster up some anger so she could at least shove him off. Even if it wasn't allowed on the ship she could still kick his ass.

"Oh, Iris! You're still here, wonderful!" and that was Cicil. She'd have no chance of fighting back now.

"I wanted you to meet my fiance," Cicil said, producing a fairly average man, who, like the clerk, was staring rudely at Iris.

"He better be worth it," Iris grumbled. Adam laughed, slapping Iris' belly.

"So you're the one who helped out baby Cicil," Adam asked.

"We're cousins!" piped up Cicil.

Iris threw her head back, praying for a heaven's punisher to strike her down.

"How nice of you~" Adam whispered in Iris' ear.

"Well it's obvious that you've been working harder than all of us, so let's not worry about our bet," he continued. "I'll buy you all the drinks, and snacks, you want~"

"Oh, why don't we all hang out!"

"That's a wonderful idea baby cousin, let's head up to my place."

Defeated, Iris let herself be dragged up to Adam's apartment, him pawing at and massaging her belly the whole way. There, Cicil and her fiance were absorbed in their own conversation, while Adam and Iris huddled in a nook on the couch,a box of chocolates next to them.

"Don't worry," Adam sung, partly reassuringly but mostly mockingly. "I'm gonna be your diet buddy. We can't be rivals if you're not fit, right~? And then you can be AWASH with GRATITUDE to me every time you look in the mirror."

Iris grumbled to herself, arms crossed.

"But first, let's have some more chocolate," Adam reached for a piece from the box and held it to Iris' face.

"No."

"Yesss." He pressed it against her lips, and she hesitantly took a bite. A unique mix of salty and savory, it was a welcome departure from the overly sweet mates she had spent the past few hours guzzling. Good candy was hard to find on the ship, these had to be from his private stash.

"I gotta say I like you lot more like this, Iris," Adam said, you're all nice and soft, and you're not saying mean things to me... I'm gonna spoil you as long as I can." He grabbed another chocolate and pressed it to her lips. She let it into her mouth without protest.

Maybe she would let him spoil her, for now. It was, admittedly, a nice change in their relationship. He was there, cuddling against her, only saying playful things instead of the usual boasts of bravado. And having her belly played with felt shamefully amazing, each grab and nudge seemed to emanate a blissful warmth into her body. So she would be fine for now, then, cuddling on his couch, letting him play with her tummy and hair, telling her sweet things, and feeding her all his fancy snacks. For now.

(And then she would kick his ass.)