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We squared up, the ritual fight evolving fluidly around us, as if it had been staged all along. The dogs saw us and gathered around. There wasn't a puppy who lived in the yard who wanted to miss us fighting again. It was late in the afternoon, about an hour and a half before feeding time, so neither of us was weighted down too much by food. We were both fresh and awake. I'm sure these factors contributed to the fight happening when it did.

Honestly, it's hard to remember what even started that fight. All I really recall is the shepherd-lab tossing aside a dirty old stuffed duck whose squeaker had stopped working long ago. Whatever trifle that set this thing off though hardly mattered in the long run. This was destined to happen sooner or later. The Alpha had been spoiling for another fight for a long time and he'd kept on pushing and pushing me. This time, I decided I'd push back.

The eyes around us were the same as last time, but neither of us were the same. For one, I was taller by a head than the shepherd-lab, longer too. I'd finally started to look a little bit less like an overgrown infant and was beginning to show some more of my adult characteristics. The shape of my legs, the size of my head, ears and paws, and my now prominent testes vastly changed my image from the first time. And more than that, I was fatter than most of the assembled dogs. I'd earned my way into the top 10% despite my growing frame handicapping my ability to show the weight I'd gained. Granted, the shepherd-lab was right now, far and away the fattest dog here, at least one and a half times the second fattest who was his beta.

I couldn't deny that he cut a grand figure. He stood in front of me as the crowd assembled, watching me and my bristling neck hair with feigned non-interest, like last time. I was nothing more than a freak to him and he wasn't afraid to let me know with his body language. If he had any doubts about his ability to defeat me, they were as well hidden as most of his original shape was hidden under his incredibly thick coat of fat. Shifting his weight slowly back and forth, he stood with his paws widely spread. Facing me, his hind legs were hidden by the swell of his flanks and the drop of his paunch. His forelegs were largely hidden as well, draped with fat from the shoulders at the sides, brisket expanding widely in front of them. His back rose high, with the flesh piling on top of itself so that I could see the rolls behind his head between his pricked ears. Swollen round like a tick, the shepherd-lab appeared to me like the bloated heart of corpulence itself. I couldn't fathom at that moment a more obese dog than he, nor a more regal and authoritarian figure.

I wasn't afraid, though. Not like the last time. I already had my suspicions about him and if they were to be proved false, well, I'd worry about that when it came time to do so.

The Shepherd-lab didn't wait too long to get started. Like as not, I supposed that he didn't want to spend more time on his feet than he had to. He moved forward as if to bite and I swept around, easily out of his reach. I saw that he couldn't even turn his head around as far as before. The fatty rolls surrounding his neck had thickened mightily and constricted its movement. All the better for me. He couldn't hope to turn that massive body around fast enough, so I took the advantage to step in and sink my teeth into his exposed shoulder.

Last time, his neck had been so fatty and loose that not even my teeth could get enough purchase to break the skin. Well, it seemed like that level of fatness had spread over width swaths of the shepherd-lab's body now. I pushed my snout in, but all I felt was soft yielding flab and just firmer adipose underneath. There wasn't as much loose skin on his shoulder, but I could tell I'd not gotten a hold of anything vital, just an extraneous protrusion of solid fatty connective tissue. I could abuse it as much as I wanted and it'd only make the shepherd-lab bleed a little. Nevertheless, I did what I could, biting with the full force of my jaws and pulling. My four canines pricked into the skin, but that was all. The fatty lump of shoulder meat pulled with me and then the whole lab followed unresistingly. I noticed in time that the shepherd lab was aiming to topple onto me if I pulled him anymore. I hastily let go and backed up. Surprisingly, the Alpha caught himself and prevented a fall. He glared at me, two thin trickles at blood at his shoulder, already clotting. The look he gave me said he couldn't care less.

And it was probably true. I thought that I might be able to bite him in a hundred places and it might not bother him too much. The fat was literally feet deep in some places on my opponent and everything vital it seemed was thoroughly slathered. The shepherd-lab saw me hesitate and he lifted his nose and snorted at me. His meaning was clear, "You want another taste? Well, come and get it!" He didn't move save to brace his legs for me and once again, I had to go to him, or appear cowardly.

I jogged forward and felt the fat at my shoulders jostling as I did. I aimed for a high portion of his neck this time, intent on using my greater height to my advantage. I wasn't sure what I was thinking, given the vastness of the rippling neck. I suppose my animalistic intent was simply to make him hurt enough so that he'd submit.You can probably imagine how well my second attack fared.

Again, the shepherd-lab didn't move to dodge, or even get out of the way a little. He just set his paws and took me as I lowered my fangs to the top of his neck, behind his skull. My brisket pushed against his shoulder hard, but he stood as solidly as a boulder against me. My teeth just met more thick, soft fat and skin. I pushed my snout in deeper, and deeper still, I could feel nothing but the shepherd-lab's squishy meat underneath. Mouth full, I pulled and bit, pulled again, trying to work my teeth into him while he stood unresisting against me. It was useless, and on the neck, even at the top, the skin just pulled along with my teeth, pulling up the collars that sagged all around his head. Not even my canines broke the surface.

My efforts seemed to amuse the shepherd-lab for a few moments and then he casually began to reach over with his neck. Far underneath the fat I was biting, the Alpha's neck muscles moved with remarkable strength, pulling my head down with his own moving neck where I was latched on behind his skull. I didn't want to fight that strength, trained as it was with daily lifting of such a huge mass of flesh which clung to it. I moved my body out of his reach and his own thick neck defeated him in his pursuit. He growled softly and I met his intensity with my own.

With my body turned up against the globular mass of the shepherd-lab, my neck was stretched over and out at an awkward angle. No doubt I could have continued to straddle him thusly and he wouldn't have been able to get at me at all, but it was clear that attacking the neck was having no effect; even the upper portion near head where I'd thought the fat might be a little thinner. I thought while I gripped him and my neck strained; I could feel the shepherd-lab breathing against me, quite more serenely than myself for my biting and pulling so far. It wasn't working, that much was clear. I needed more of my mental facilities than the purely animal dog I'd behaved as so far. I had to reach into myself, to pull back the parts of me I'd tucked away, open myself to thinking about the future so that I could form a plan.

The old facilities sprang back into place far more easily than I'd hoped. I had only to will for them and they were back, my mind expanded and my view of the world altered, but remained the same, as if a lens had slid into place, bringing things back into focus. Why had I ever let go of this part of myself?

I let go of the top of the neck and the skin flowed back down to form its regular column of collars. I backed up a few steps so I could get a better look at my opponent that I couldn't while I'd been pressed against him. The shepherd-lab turned to face me - slowly, but perhaps it felt quick to him at this point - but I had enough time to reevaluate him and his well protected body.

It was little wonder the shepherd-lab didn't put any effort into dodging. As I'd noticed before, his entire body was liberally saturated in fat, even in areas one wouldn't consider very prone to growth. His abdomen was titanic and swelled up into flanks that stuck out to his sides nearly the original width of his shoulders on either side. It was very clear that his entire torso was unassailable, the fat was a foot thick in most places. The neck and throat area too was perhaps even better armored as the skin was much looser. This was terrible as I felt instinctively drawn to attack the throat. His rump was fattier than mine and would probably bleed as well as the torso if it came to it. The haunches were round and plump as well, so round that they sagged at the back, but perhaps the adipose was not so thick there... I thought that things might come to making the Alpha bleed until his gums were pale, but that would take all afternoon and the pack wouldn't stand for that. A decisive win was necessary for me, the challenger.

As I thought, the shepherd-lab finished his turn. I looked at his face and I thought perhaps his soft, fatty armor was indeed impenetrable and I would have to resort to biting at his face and ears. That would mean meeting his teeth, though and the countless hours he spent sparing with his betas, I felt would give him an unbeatable advantage over me... I happened to glance down and something clicked in my reopened mind.

For a moment, I saw the shepherd-lab as a geometric shape. The huge oval cylinder of his body supported off the ground... by four relatively skinny paws. I was able to see his forepaws from under the low swinging mass of his tan furred brisket. I saw the careful, deliberate way he moved them. I thought he must feel pretty top heavy, supporting all that weight off the ground. Even better, the four legs and the feet of his hind paws were padded with almost none of his phenomenal excess weight. They appeared like twigs supporting the blimp of a body in scope of the rest of him. In the span of three seconds it took for the shepherd-lab to round on me, I'd formulated a new plan of attack.

I didn't bother to wait. Likely as not, he wouldn't have moved anyways, waiting for me to go at his blubber futilely again and conserving his energy. I'd picked up some tricks at least from playing with my brother. I made as if to get around him, perhaps to try my luck attacking his rump or hindquarters. The shepherd-lab moved to the side to either stop me or graze me as I passed. But I feinted, instead going for the foreleg while he was leaning his weight on the other side.

He yipped and then growled as I grabbed the leg, pulled and tasted his blood on my tongue, more than the pinpricks I'd managed on his shoulder before. Quickly, more quickly than before, the shepherd-lab rounded on me and got two canines into my thickly padded shoulder. It hurt, but I pulled away from him, ripping my own skin in the process, but it was better than letting him shake. Leg still in my mouth, I turned my body away from his head again. This cause him to lift the foreleg leg and do a very awkward hop with his two hind legs which shook his entire body greatly. Good. If I could just get him a little more off balance...

And the shepherd-lab did become off balance... just not in the way that I'd hoped. I felt him shift his weight as his flank collided with mine and then began to push against me. I was heavy too, but most of the shepherd-lab's weight was at just above knee level on me. He was getting at me lower and so didn't have much trouble pushing me. Stupidly, I resisted at first, unwilling to let go of what I perceived as a weak point. With the adjustments I'd had to make so far to escape the Alpha's teeth, I hadn't given the foreleg my full biting force yet. I was just about to when I felt the shepherd-lab reach his tipping point as he was leaning against me.

Gravity moved the Alpha faster than he ever could have on his own. I was caught against his bulk despite the fact that I was taller because I'd refused to let go. When I felt him coming down on me though, I did abandon my attack and launched myself forward. I managed to dodge, but only partially. The shepherd-lab came down, his shoulders slamming against my hindquarters. I yelped at the impact and was pinned under him.

The crowd howled in excitement, but the fight wasn't over. Half of me remained free, the Alpha's shoulders stopped at my "waist;" or at least where my waist should have been. The shepherd-lab huffed and I groaned. I knew that he'd put the brunt of the impact on me and I was the worse off for it than he was. Mouth gaping, he leaned over and began to bite at my furry abdomen, which was the only part of me he could reach. I didn't pay him much attention. He was at a poor angle for real biting and also, I had similar protection such as he had; copious amounts of golden haired belly fat strapped around my middle. I focused on getting myself out from under him.

It was easier said than done. I could wiggle my feet under the oppressive weight, and that was more than I remembered possible the last time this had happened to me. I rotated my forequarters and strained with my paws across the ground. The soft flesh pinning my legs and hips pulled at first with me, but as I continued to strain, I could feel myself coming free. It got easier the more of myself I got out from under him and the shepherd-lab got more furious at attacking my flank. He broke the skin in a couple places, but they were just skin wounds and I hardly felt them. I yanked my feet free and rolled on my back away from him. I heaved a great sigh of relief. I hadn't lost this yet

I was back on my feet nearly half a minute before the weighted-down shepherd-lab, but I was grateful this time for the wait. The feeling of compression faded from my lower extremities as the seconds ticked by, circulation returning to my legs. I was still feeling pretty good by the time the Alpha lifted his fat ass off the ground again. Surprisingly, though, I was breathing harder than he was. Again, I doing most of the attacking. He had hardly moved yet.

Despite nearly getting pinned, I was still set on getting at his legs as they were still the most lightly fleshed parts of him. But they were also low to the ground and now he knew what I was going for. I did notice, however, the blood dribbling down his left forepaw as well as the fact that he kept his weight on his left side and was swapping less frequently. I hoped that I'd hurt him at least a little. I thought then if I could just hurt his legs enough he wouldn't be able to get up anymore and I'd be the victor by default. The image of him with bloody feet and forepaws on the ground stirred me to move again.

My brisket bounced heavily in front of me as I moved. This was going to be slightly more difficult. Granted, it would all have been a simple matter of jogging away from him and around to get at him from any direction I wanted, save for the damn crowd penning us in. The heavier bodies of the obese canines surrounding us on all sides seemed to make an even more solid wall than it had been earlier this year and they kept me from being able to move around the shepherd-lab in the way that I naturally wanted to, given my better mobility. But I just had to go for it regardless.

He would be expecting another feint. This much I was sure. So I decided to surprise him and meet him teeth to teeth. A deeply animal part of me wanted viciously to see what he could do. He stepped into my first thrust as I came in high, the natural angle given my stature. I didn't even realize what a disadvantage he'd put me in until I felt his teeth under my jaw and he stopped me completely. He bit into the fatty sheets hanging there and wasted no time in shaking. I thought that I'd be invulnerable in the same way he was, but the shepherd-lab had a monster bite in his jaws and had obviously worked on flesh of similar consistency with his betas. He ripped me a little, adjusted his bite and tore me some more. The tops of his ears were just out of reach of my gaping mouth. His attack lasted about 50 milliseconds and I reversed myself, just trying to get away now. He let go and let me.

We stood again facing each other, this time, however, I could feel a couple of hot trickles of blood dripping their way through the fur on my neck. My neck bristled and the battle rage in me clouded more thickly at the corners of my vision. I recognized and appreciated the fact that the shepherd-lab was an excellent scrapper and knew how to use that mouth of his and the shepherd strength in his jaws. I hated just then that my ancestors had been bred for "soft mouths" instead. I had to get around those teeth. Easier said than done. The Alpha had this entire time kept his back closer to the side of the arena and me towards the center when he could. And it was his rear end that I was interested in just now.

Trying to make it seem like I didn't know when to give up, I stepped forward again, right at his face. This time, I went in lower instead of cockily towering over him. I realized as I approached that I must have a greater reach than he and decided to improvise. I snapped at him from a distance instead of closing with him. When he stepped forward to close the gap, I stepped back. My neck was longer than his and less encumbered, even if I lacked his skill and practiced speed. It was a strange sort of duel, not what I was used to as a dog. Our bodies didn't collide and there was no grabbing and thrashing. To me, it felt like fighting the ghost of the Shepherd-lab as I was trying to anticipate his movements and step in and snap where I could. The Alpha was not so prepared for this style of assault, so I held the advantage... for about twenty seconds.

I scratched his nose first, a thin red line barely visible through the black fur. He tried to close in rage, but I wouldn't let him. I was faster on my long legs and less encumbered frame by a large margin and he knew it. When he pushed me to the edge of the circle, I turned to the side with a flourish and managed a nip to his right ear while I had both forepaws off the ground. I offered him the side of my body and then my rump in return as I rounded him, but apparently I was just out of his range. I nicked his tall ear again with the same trick, worse the second time so that I actually tore it a little and the blood began to dibble down the side. Hatefully, he pushed forward again and one of my canines grazed his cheek. I was too cocky, though and didn't step back fast enough.

With two teeth, he pinched my jowl firmly and yanked hard enough to tear. Both of us were slowly accumulating nicks and cuts, and I feared for both of our eventual states if things indeed had to come to who bled the most. After that, the shepherd-lab seemed to wise up to most of my tricks, which were admittedly few since I was trying to make them up as I went along. He didn't rush into me and countered when I stepped in. My cheek was lacerated and I got a cut above the right eye that was painful but didn't bled too much. For such a staunch, obese figure, the Alpha was adaptable.

Of course, this whole dance was just a diversion. I'd only kept it up so long because I was doing well to start. I started another bold series of strikes which the Alpha countered, his nose stepping in front of me, every time I'd thought I'd led him in the opposite direction with my movements. But he didn't read me when I angled to the left and then sidestepped him entirely to the right.

I went in low and banged the side of the Alpha with my own flank once I was past, to force him to correct his balance. While he recovered, I grabbed the left hind leg, right around the long furry foot which supported so much of his weight. The Alpha yipped again pleasingly as I chomped down, straining with my jaws and willing my teeth to do as much damage as they could. I pulled up, but it was hard with all of the Alpha's weight bearing down on the limb and shook it, but again, the motion was stifled by the thick haunch it was attached to. The foot in my mouth felt hard and unforgiving under a quarter inch of skin and adipose, though. It was all bone and tendon after all. A bulldog or a genuine german shepherd might have been able to break the foot, but not I, although I felt the firm tendons squish a little under my grip.

To my side, the bulk of the Alpha shifted away from me as I lifted the leg. So much the better and I hoped he would stumble over onto his side and be at my mercy. But he corrected himself with fearsome strength. Overcorrected, in fact, as his flank rocked back, and kept coming. I yanked on the leg again, pulling forward and out, trying to twist something deep inside the fat-filled haunch that I wouldn't be able to reach otherwise. I felt the weight pressing against me, a little lower than the center of my ribs, but I planted my feet, unwilling to sacrifice my advantage. I thought that I could bear the shepherd-lab's weight against me with my feet planted this time and more leverage.

I was wrong. Just as I thought that his weight against me had reached its limit, that gravity had run its course in his lazy lean against me, the shepherd-lab proved that he could bring his muscles into play as well. He bent his legs and his flank dropped slightly. With new leverage, he pushed against me with three legs, and combined with the weight of his body, that was finally too much for me.

When we hit the ground, the shepherd-lab and his behemoth bulk on top of me, the air pressed out of my lungs as if I were a squeeze bellows. My side, where I hit exploded in pain and all four of my legs were under his fat-flooded carcass. The fact that my rump was under his head and he had nothing to bite at except my tail or the fur of my haunch as I laid there pinned was one of few consolation. I wheezed with the high portion of his body sitting on my ribs. As for my head, I'd actually pushed my way forward as we fell and due to chance, the shepherd-lab's bloodied leg which I'd forgone at the last instant was on the other side of my neck. There was a huge crushing pressure around my neck as my head was essentially between the shepherd-lab's meaty haunches and the massive fatty bulge of his paunch pressed my ears against my skull. But amazingly, I could breathe and I could see... almost. My snout and most of my face was clear of the space behind his haunches and under his tail.

I had to give some credit to my great size here. The shepherd-lab's monstrous abdomen was resting pretty much on my chest and yet I was still able to draw breath, if with some difficulty. In front of my nose, I could feel the air drafts from the Alpha's waving tail with my whiskers and see them dimly, what with the swollen thigh meat compressing my head on all sides. I bet he thought he'd won just now. Well... I wasn't beaten just yet.

I am aware that in my predicament with the shepherd-lab, my head was likely in contact with his softer bits in that awkward position. But, I was only aware in the sense that I might be able to bite them and cause my opponent untold pain. Otherwise, the situation held absolutely no sexual connotations or discomfort for me, despite how I may have been special compared to the average canine. They were just another part of his body for me, like his paw or his ear. But at any rate, I didn't seen any parts of him that looked particularly soft and vulnerable to biting, the shepherd-lab was just as fatty - if not more so - down here as he was from the outside. So his very fatness again hid a possible weak point from me as I struggled deep underneath his massive weight.

By the way I felt him relaxing on top of me, the shepherd-lab was certain of his victory and unaware or unconcerned by any sort of counter attack at this point. Whether that was wise or not, I can't say. I'm sure that any other opponent of his wouldn't have been able to breathe with so much weight squarely on their chest. I'm sure he thought I was disabled, just as a constricting snake feels their prey is disabled when they get their coils about them.

But I wasn't, not completely. My side was hurting bad for the double fall, so it took me a few moments to get started. In that time, though I realized how badly I'd been pinned and already rejected the idea of biting my opponents gonads on the grounds that I couldn't find them, despite their obvious proximity. However, the mild breeze alerted me to the fact that my back was still exposed and the top of my hips still more. The shepherd-lab's head was on top of my haunches, but that wasn't as bad as his torso, so there I began to squirm. I pushed with my hind legs against the ground. It was a little difficult at first because the leverage wanted to pull my head further between the Alpha's thickened haunches. The Shepherd-lab didn't resist my initial efforts. I'm sure he was just waiting for me to exhaust myself under him before declaring himself victor.

But I kept at it and was rewarded with the feel of neck meat rolling off of my hind legs. I rolled and twisted my forequarters under the heavy weight of the Alpha's body to give myself more leverage. As my hind legs began to come free, then the Shepherd-lab began to retaliate. He leaned with his neck, putting more weight on me at the expense of his chest area. He would have bit me if he could have, I'm sure, but I was too far behind him. My legs staggered under the weight, but I battled it more, curving my spine and shoving at the ground. There was so much friction, between my side and the Alpha, between my thighs and the ground, even my own paunch was getting in the way and the scratches I'd received there stung when I rubbed them the wrong way. But I forced my legs to comply. I pushed and I shoved and eventually, I won my way free. I could feel my rump and tail and hind legs on the ground beyond the soft hot bulk of the shepherd-lab. My forequarters remained trapped under the Alpha's abdomen, however.

I realized I couldn't go forward, I wasn't strong enough to topple the shepherd-lab completely, not from underneath and certainly not while pinned to the ground as I was. So I dug my heels into the grass behind me, belly flat on the ground and pulled. My forepaws were buried deep in the Alpha's flesh under me, one rested on the ground, but the other was on top of some fleshy pad. I thought that it crossed the leg that I'd injured. But it hardly matter, I pushed down and back with it anyways, regardless to what part of the Alpha'a anatomy I was pressing. The light disappeared and the tight furry skin closed around my snout, as if trying to tell me that there wasn't enough available space for itself let alone my offending nose. The last thing I really remember before disappearing into the close, constrictive world under the shepherd-lab was the strength of the odor from his skin and thinking bizarrely what a great difficulty daily maintenance of himself must be at his size.

I escaped from under the shepherd-lab's monumental paunch in a single breath. Fur pulled the wrong way against my head and face and shoulders as I pulled myself free. My jaw scraped first over the inside surface of the Alpha's haunch and then the grass underneath. The first part was the hardest, and by the time my head was free from between the hind legs, I only had a couple good yanks before I was free. The shepherd-lab tried to resist, of course, but when he moved to put more of his weight on my back, he obviously didn't realize that what was really holding me was the compression between his legs. He had to set his legs to get leverage, and that opened his hind legs up a little and actually enabled me to get my head free.

The rough surface of my paw must have dragged over the hind foot for the Alpha shuddered and yipped when I was pulling it free. The shepherd-lab felt like a mattress on my shoulders and I continued to drag myself against the less resistive surface of the grass against my chest. He rolled towards me, nearly onto his back to keep me under him, but it was too late. My rump was high, even if my chest and forelegs were compressed under his expansive soft bulk. I pushed against him with my back and my spine and his roll halted. Crawling backwards more effectively now, I yanked myself back with even tugs of my hind legs. The air was clawing at my chest by the end, but I freed myself in time.

I gasped the moment I was free and the shepherd-lab's flesh slapped audibly to the ground where I'd been holding it up. I wobbled for a bit on my feet though, my head a little dizzy. I guess that's why I didn't see him coming from under me.

When I was free, I didn't notice that I'd also removed the hindrance the shepherd-lab had to his roll. Rather than going back to get back onto his feet, he continued rolling my my direction. Given his oval shape, he came down onto his back much faster than he had been rotating before. The last portion was just close enough to slam into my forelegs. My neck collided against his wide, exposed chest and his forepaws were immediately on the back of my neck, holding me down. I snarled and tried to turn my head to bite, but the shepherd-lab kept his roll. My weight was on his chest, not my forelegs at this point, so I fell with him. My shoulder collided with the earth and I lost balance with my hindquarters and they collapsed as well. I suppose if I'd been thinner, I could have twisted enough to stay partially up, but my weight pulled me down as well. The shepherd-lab's hind feet began to hammer into stomach below the ribs as he held onto my neck.

Now we were belly to belly (granted, my body extended far below his given our positions and difference in length). I suspected that the Alpha would lean his head down to bite me, but he didn't. I think he knew that his own neck was too thick to allow that and might even just well the flesh up around my face and enable me to bite. I pulled back, trying to get away from him and onto my feet, but one foreleg was stuck fast under his chest so I had just one to work with. In the meantime, the shepherd-lab kicked me savagely, claw first in the abdomen. You wouldn't think it, but the muscles in his legs were also powerful. They had to support all that weight after all. And despite the thickness of my own paunch, he was at a great angle for his work and I found myself really hurting after a few hits. Not to mention the fact that his claws like as not tore the skin on my belly with each blow.

I pushed and pulled for a few moments, but my foreleg had me almost as trapped as the forepaws around my neck and unlike just a few moments ago, I was at a really bad position to yank myself free. I couldn't take the abuse on my stomach though. In anger, I decided to use my longer hind legs on the Alpha and give him a taste of his own medicine. I had to reach high to reach anything but his rump, but then his paunch was a pretty big target and not easy to miss. I pounded my feet against it like a sac of heavy dough. It didn't have as much effect as I'd hoped, but it did affect the non-stop pounding against my own stomach. We began scrabbling our hind legs against each other. I scratched his legs with my nails and he did mine. Tiny red pinpricks began to splatter against both of our overlarge pink abdomens. But still, we weren't doing all that much damage to each other. I was huffing and panting for all the exertion in the last couple minutes. And yes, the fight had been going on for only about three minutes so far, and at least 30 seconds of that had been the Shepherd-lab getting to his feet, and another minute or so of me pulling myself free.

We pummeled each other like kangaroos, but clearly the shepherd-lab had the advantage here because he was higher up on my body. I had to reach to even touch him. My jaw was still firmly pressed against his thick chest. I stopped pushing with my forepaw and instead boxed at the arms holding me. I struck wildly two or three times, paused and then began to slam upward at the elbow. It took three hits and in the time that this had all started, the shepherd lab had kicked me in the stomach about three dozen times. But with the repeated whacks to his elbow, his paw finally shifted enough for me to lift my head away from his chest. I grabbed the lower foreleg in my teeth, the same I'd gotten earlier, and jammed my paw against his other leg. I couldn't shake with the angle of my body and my opponent's foreleg was just as powerful as my own as we wrestled with each other.

But since I'd got my head free, the shepherd-lab seemed desperate not to let me chew his foreleg into oblivion. This leg had more meat on it than the foot had and that was to his benefit, but still, I was happy for the new turn the fight had taken. In response, the shepherd-lab began to draw the foreleg I was clamped onto under his body. His hind leg was drawing away as well as he got partially onto his belly. I say partially because his paunch was so bloated and vast that it stuck far ahead of the core of his body. Most of his bulk stayed put, even though he was trying to rotate his limbs and "upper" torso; by that I mean the wide cylindrical shape above the sagging and fat filled paunch.

I was able to push his forepaw up until it not only disappeared into his shoulder flesh, but my leg began to follow in after it. As for the leg I was biting, I let it go, lest my face get pressed under his sagging flesh as well. He was getting his legs under him on his opposite side as I began to pull my foreleg free. If I didn't get up in time, he'd roll right back on top of me. I cannot describe how tiring this fight was getting at this point. My opponent felt as unaffected by my attacks as beaten dough and his weight was constantly doing all the hard work for him. I began to despair that a thinner dog really couldn't win, despite whatever inferences I'd gleaned watching him spare over the past months as he'd grown.

With the last ounces of my strength, I yanked my arm free and rolled over on my back to avoid the steamrolling monolith of the Alpha's body. But once I was free, he quit his efforts, instead simply getting his belly under him and lying on it so that it spread widely to his sides and left his knees hanging, almost as if he were resting on some sort of inflatable pool toy. I myself sat and panted, my tongue feeling hot and my toes moist. It took me a couple seconds to realize that the shepherd-lab too was just as bad off as me. His tongue was fully extended and flared, beet red in the sunlight. His paws hung limply at his sides where he laid on the fat of his abdomen. His flanks heaved with the force of his breath. I didn't know if I was worse off or he. I was sitting up, but perhaps it was simply more natural for him to lay flat out like that. My belly still heaved with my own pants, pressing against the backs of my forepaws as it did. My fatty tail shelf flowed over the ground at my rump and I was too tired to wag my tail. I felt exhausted and extremely overweight. I could only hope the shepherd-lab felt as bad or worse as I did. If he didn't or if he recovered faster than I did, I didn't know how I was going to continue the fight.

Because the fight was to be continued. Of that, there was no doubt. If the like had happened with regular dogs, the aggression between the two males might have dispersed with any pause in the battle. But we were special, we could hold onto our anger. And more, we loved and respected our Alphas and how heavy they were. We also understood their needs. That's why we had grooming circles. We also understood the toll carrying such profound and admirable weight took on our leaders' stamina. The unspoken rule of "respite" was taking effect now as we both sat and panted away from each other. We'd both be given some time to recover before the fight continued was what it basically boiled down to.

So I sat and panted, my fat jiggling against the ground where it pooled at my hips and paunch as I did. My legs shook a bit as I struggled with the fact that I'd been more active and intense in the last few minutes that I typically was in days worth of time playing with my brother. It almost seemed like I couldn't pull enough air into my body. I glanced up and noticed some dogs getting up out of line and going for a drink of water. A couple of the youngest pups had wandered off altogether. But the rest remained and the older dogs always returned to take their place. For us, this was entertainment, true, but it was also essentially the equivalent of a human political debate, campaign and election rolled into one. Sure, we were fun to watch, but the result of the battle was deeply tied to how things would be done from this point forward. No one could afford to miss us fight... and still, I think I knew that I was giving them a pretty good show; and furthermore, I was glad to do so.

The respite lasted five full minutes, which by the end was straining most of the dogs' patience. We hadn't been allowed to leave and get water, but that was alright, I guess. I only expected the fight to last a few more minutes after we started again. We didn't have a human's stamina for prolonged conflict. We bit and scratched and kicked furiously until one of us gave up or did't get up anymore. Already, it felt like I'd given everything I'd had once and after just five minutes recovery, I still felt like I had hardly half as much fight in me as I'd had at the start.

Just as I'd hoped though, the shepherd-lab was much worse off. He'd expected to end this as soon as he'd sat on me and I don't suppose in his wildest dreams he suspected that the fight with me would be so drawn out. But I'd known. In fact, in part I'd counted on it. You see, over the last couple months, I'd stopped paying attention to most "extraneous details" of life in favor of the doggish present, but I was still capable of noticing things. One of the things that I would notice continuously was the Alpha's spars with his betas.

The shepherd lab had always fought with his two betas. In particular, he fought with the thinner one, the terrier-faced lab. I always knew why he licked to play fight with terrier-face. He was expecting a leaner opponent in myself, right from the start and so practiced constantly against him. So they bit at each other and they feinted each other and worked on footwork. They grappled and wrestled with each other and then terrier-face had to struggle to even survive against the never ending flush of his Alpha's escalating weight. And although the shepherd-lab grew frightfully efficient at pinning his opponent under his unstoppable bulk, I noticed other things lagging. His footwork got worse and he slowed visible, eventually stopping any sort of dodging or pacing altogether. Really, he only used his paws for fighting anymore when he was on his side or his back, otherwise, they were just solid props for supporting his enormous weight. I noticed one other thing as well, even as the shepherd-lab began to be frightfully efficient and competent at his chosen style. The length of his sparing bouts decreased over time. At first, I thought it might be because he was getting better and simply felt like his betas had less and less to offer him in terms of challenge, but as they kept getter shorter and I saw him lingering at the water fountain afterwards, I couldn't help but suspect that the Alpha's cherished obesity was weighing on him more heavily than he really let anyone know.

I could see that plainly this was fact now. The shepherd-lab not only had fewer reserves, but I could see that he recovered more slowly as well. In five whole minutes, he'd scarcely improved. He was panting hard, whole body heaving with the force of it. He'd stopped bleeding at this point from the many scratches, as had I, but I thought that he wished he could continue this in about another hour or two instead.

But I was up on my paws and staring down at him. I was the one waiting now and although he was Alpha and had propriety, he couldn't keep me waiting forever. It was clear that I wanted to fight now and more, the crowd was getting anxious. They couldn't be kept waiting, no matter the size of their beloved Alpha. So it was with a burning anger in his eyes that the shepherd-lab began to stagger back to his feet again. He did it painfully slowly, but I was sure at this point that his apparent pain was just an act and he was just buying some more time to recover. But then, maybe not. When he was on his feet, he shifted his weight to his right side and kept it there, hardly swaying as he usually did. I looked at the hind foot I'd lacerated and saw that he kept only a little weight on it. I felt a flush of joy. Finally I was accomplishing something.

But I had to take stock of my own injuries as well. My abdomen was still bruised, cut and hurting, deeper than I would have guessed, given my fatty protection layers. I'd been slammed against the ground twice now by the heavy mass of shepherd-lab, and that had taken its toll as I was a little achey all over and I felt a sharp pain in one of my knees that hadn't been there before. I also had much more blood on me that the shepherd-lab for all of my extra biting. He was only really bleeding from his two legs, and the foreleg had stopped now for the most part.

We faced each other, both injured, both tired. But I thought I could see my victory looming in the cloudiness of the shepherd-lab's eyes as he stood panting with enough force to rock his entire, tick-like body. Then he began walking towards me. His gait was uneven for the first couple steps, high center of gravity coupled with his injured foot. But he adjusted his gait and I saw him put more weight comfortably down on the bloody hind foot as well. His waddle was severe as he ambled his way towards me and the watching dogs seemed thick at my back.

I thought it strange that he was coming towards me, however slowly. I'd been expecting him to stay put and wait to react as he had done this entire fight so far. I was uneasy and was trying to read his body language... but it was difficult because of the density of his fat covering him and the way it bounced and swayed as he moved and rocked himself gently... almost in a hypnotizing fashion.

The way he bounced and moved his body blinded me completely to his attack. I have to admit, even in hindsight, it was perfectly executed. He'd kept his tail level, for one, so I couldn't see it behind his back and he knew perfectly well that most of his natural body contours were plowed over and buried under his surging tide of adipose. He lunged forward with hidden speed frankly unreduced from last time, despite the fact that he'd put on nearly 50% of his previous weight.

It must have tested him sorely, but he came just the same and caught me by surprise. The Alpha came at me from the side, his swaying act hiding the time of the attack. His jaws closed on the side of my neck, near the base. I was able at least to prevent him from grabbing me higher up. I pulled away from him and surprisingly he let go immediately. As I was still stepping away, I belatedly saw him turn and lunge toward my hindquarters.

Apparently he'd also come to the conclusion that it was pointless attacking my extremely well fleshed neck and decided to trying something less padded. I thought he might have been going for one of my legs to return the favor I'd dealt him. Not really thinking, I swished my tail in front of his face as something of a distraction as I fought to put some distance between us. Whatever he had been aiming for before didn't really matter. My tail somehow ended up in his mouth, closer than halfway down its length and he bit down on it... hard.

From my experience, humans are strangely deprived in some areas I consider vital to my existence; a lack of a tail being one of them. How then should I describe the sensation of teeth bearing down on what is essential an extension of my spinal column outside of my body to you, my reader? Well, it fucking hurt, for starters.

The tail is mostly bone, and it's far from vital. That's why you don't see dogs typically going for each others' tails. In my fight with the Alpha, however, perhaps it was indeed something worth looking at, considering the dense heavy padding we wore over the rest of our bodies. The Alpha grabbed my tail and bit down with enough force to crack bone. It was easily the worst pain I'd known so far in my short existence. It shot right up my spine, and I just can't describe what it's like to have someone grab you by the tail like that. It's a vulnerable, demeaning feeling, and you can feel the tug of it all along your body, not like when someone grabs your arm or leg. Add to that fact the hot nasty pain of a hairline fracture in at least one vertebra, and you'll be close to what I felt in that instant.

The more logical parts of my mind wanted to shut down in response to the pain, to retreat from it. I don't exactly recall if they did, in fact, leave me entirely for a few moments. But my animal self is not cowed by pain like that, as I mentioned earlier. I felt it - oh, how I felt it! - But the animal that I am was able to compartmentalize it. It was there, but I chose not to focus on it, in lieu of the fight itself. I hobbled around by pure instinct back to the shepherd-lab grinding his teeth into my tail, my legs feeling stiff and my only thoughts right then of getting my teeth into his face.

If I had been a little fatter, I would not have been able to twist my torso around in the way I needed to face the shepherd-lab. As it was, it was already a challenge, and I could feel the flesh of my flanks bunching at my side, hindering the way I used to be able to bend. But it didn't matter. I got my head around and in a flash launched my snout at my enemy.

The shepherd-lab was slower to react than I anticipated. I actually got my mouth around his snout before he pulled away. I closed on his nose briefly before he slipped out. I left him with two ugly scratches on his nose where my fangs had made contact. He licked at these obviously painful scratches as he backed away.

I threw my hindquarters behind me as fast as I could and started moving forward. I found that I liked the shepherd-lab even less on offense than defense and intended to press him again. We snapped at each other for a good few seconds, darting in and out as we had been before. My longer neck was still an advantage I wanted to make the most of and I made sure to keep my head lower so he couldn't get under me as easily.

Again, the shepherd-lab was reacting more slowly and attacking me less. His panting was worse than ever. All that weight must be such a hassle to carry! I thought with demented glee then. Seeing my opponent weakening flushed me with new strength despite the fact that I myself was terribly out of shape and feeling the pain of it as the seconds of high exertion wore on. My heart was hammering in my chest and I was panting too... just not as hard as the shepherd-lab.

Still, I decided then to get alongside the Alpha again, where he couldn't get at me for his thickened neck, and perhaps end this by ripping up his last good hind leg. His attack style was full of openings, what with him laboring for breath, flanks shivering the entire molten mass of his body behind the relatively small snapping head. I came in to his right, feinted and launched myself past on the other side. The unmarked foot came into view at last from over the horizon of swaying tan belly.

And it was swaying a lot... and away from me. My target foot was nearly lifted off the ground the shepherd-lab had shifted his weight so much. My only thoughts were that it was going to be that much easier to reach. That was why it came as such a surprise to be suddenly thrown off my feet entirely. The Shepherd-lab's wide flank hit me like a battering ram and my own inertia just worked against me as I was suddenly thrown off balance and down to the ground. I shook my head, wondering what had hit me. I saw the Alpha staggering toward me a couple steps, reigning in his massive shift in weight which he'd actually used as a weapon. It was enough time for me to get doggedly to my feet. I winced at the pain in my tail as I did so.

If I'd been feeling about 50% at the start of this second round, I was feeling like 10% now. I already wanted another respite, the muscles across my body aching for rest and just aching in general. Getting battered by the shepherd-lab's incredible weight over and over was having an all-over negative effect on me that was perhaps worse than the wound I'd dealt to his valuable foot. I honestly didn't know how many times I could keep getting up.

But as bad as I was feeling, the shepherd-lab really did look worse in a different way. I can't tell you what he was feeling, but that glassy look in his eyes was worse. He kept surprising me and I didn't know how much of his labored breaths was just an act to lull me again into thinking less of him, but it was a fact that he was close to his breaking point. The fight had already gone on too long and he fidgeted, looking uncomfortable on his paws. Each attack for him was an effort.

It was what I wanted, and it was how I'd intended to win, pretty much from the start. I decided for the first time that I was safer confronting his teeth than the rest of his bloated, fat filled body and jogged forward. I was fully intent on keeping this up for the rest of the fight, on wearing the shepherd lab out until he couldn't support his own weight any longer. I snapped in the air in the front and to the sides of his face, got close and back away. I dodged, he dodged and we both traded a few minor scratches to our collections around our head. I managed to nick his ear again closer to the base. It was a little worse, but nothing major.

After I got his ear again, the shepherd-lab suddenly seemed to lose his confidence facing me head on. He was defensive and backing up almost constantly. That was fine with me. I let him back up all the way to the edge of the crowd where he would be cornered. I was flushed with excitement that the Alpha would soon be too tired to continue to fight against me.

But suddenly, the shepherd-lab paused to release three specific barks. I hesitated, wondering what his meaning was, this was far past the time for intimidation and barking at each other. It turned out to be a signal. I saw someone step forward from the crowd. It was the shepherd-lab's beta, and not just his beta, but the second fattest dog in the yard. Although much heavier than the black lab had been, he still looked like an Akins success story compared to the behemoth corpulent hulk of his Alpha.

I spread my paws, fully expecting this to turn into a two-on-one fight, even though it broke the rules and even though it threatened to turn the entire pack into a howling, biting free-for-all. But the beta dog didn't step forward. He stayed behind the Alpha and surprisingly, began to lay down behind him. They did this with practiced smoothness and I wondered when exactly they had spent time doing this, but far more, I wondered what the shepherd-lab was planning.

I decided not to wait. I went in again, but the Alpha didn't try to oppose me or fight me off. Instead he shoved the ground hard with his forepaws and rose from the ground, and continued to rise. I had to stop, opened mouthed and gape at the sight of all that rising flesh. The shepherd-lab was rearing up! He was actually managing to raise up on his hind legs despite all that weight dragging at his body! Given the shape and prominence of his body, it was an amazing sight.

The fat beta behind him grunted as he took the Alpha's weight, which was more than considerable as he was putting nearly all of his bulk on him, just using his own hind legs for balance. The fat of the shepherd-lab's body rippled and changed in contour. The paunch dropped to rest heavily in front of his knees and seemed to protrude far ahead of himself, given his enormously inflated body. The chest and shoulders were completely different shapes, sagging along a new line of orientation and the shepherd-lab now looked down on me, his neck fat bunching completely and bulging out from under his jaw in every direction.

If he was expecting a reaction from me, he got it. I paused, looking up and sharing in the admiration that no doubt every other dog there was feeling. It didn't matter that he was my enemy right then, the shepherd-lab cut an impressive figure, he always had. I also couldn't believe that he's been strong enough to actually lift all the weight, no matter if he had someone supporting nearly all of it from behind. The beta under him wheezed a single breath. And then that mammoth tub of belly fat rocked to the side and then out and slammed into the side of my head.

Again I didn't know what hit me. I actually felt dazed for the blow and collapsed to my elbows. If I could compare it to anything, it might have been perhaps closest to being hit by a sack of mashed potatoes, if you imagine those potatoes being at about 40 degrees, because under the soft surface of his paunch, the shepherd-lab's abdomen was actually surprisingly firm, solid and very heavy. I got up only to be hit on the other side of my head by the returning backhand of the shepherd-lab's paunch. That one bowled me over entirely.

I wasn't safe on the ground, though. The mass of belly fat had zoomed over me, but it hovered nearby like the mass of a small moon that hovered in a huge swath of my peripheral vision. He was going to hit me with it a third time, perhaps slamming it down on my prone form. But there, on the ground, I could see what was hidden under the surging might of the Alpha's proud belly. The skinny hind feet he was using to balance himself and give him leverage, the same feet he used to support all of this raging bulk of his with which he'd rendered me so battered. One was bloody, the other pristine. I had almost a full second before the Alpha could halt and then regather the momentum of his pendulous, hanging gut.

I scrambled on my knees and lunged with my neck. My teeth closed on the foot a moment before that belly fell on me for the last time. Then everything went dark.

The Alpha hadn't just slapped me with his heavy paunch again, he'd ended up all but belly flopping the entirely of his lard-filled, overstuffed body onto my back. It felt like a small hill had fallen on me. The close quarters saved me. If he had been so much as a foot off the ground, the added energy of the impact might have seriously injured or even killed me. Still, it hurt, but even that was not so bad as the fact that he remained on top of me after the hit.

I had the foot in my mouth though and I bit down as hard as I could. The dark, heaving mass I could feel pressing me against the ground shivered and I could hear plainly the Alpha's cries of pain, the sound oddly affected by the passage through his enormous body. In response, the shepherd-lab used the strength in his hind leg to kick me in the back of the mouth. One of his claws roughly tore my jowl and then he simply yanked his foot free. I couldn't hold on, I had no leverage. Belly fat flooded in to replace the space where the foot had been and things suddenly seemed very bad.

The very fattest part of the damn shepherd-lab was localized squarely on my head and forequarters. The Alpha had done his best to match up our two disparate lengths. The tip of my black nose just protruded from under the fleshy bulge that existed under his crotch and between his haunches. He had me lying on my belly and was squarely on top of me. I was fat and round and my flanks were wide, but the shepherd-lab had more than doubled his weight since he'd been as thin as I was. His fat literally draped to either side of me enough to touch the ground, so obese and wide of midsection he was. But he wasn't nearly as long as I was. My hips existed under his neck, but I could feel his heavy forepaws on them. My crotch was turned to the ground, legs splayed, with his paws on my rump pushing them down, I couldn't hope to get leverage. He had me pinned as well as it was possible for him to do, in fact, I was very nearly buried under him.

I could breathe, but only just. My nose was freed, but I could feel the pounds and countless pounds of hastily grown dog meat on top of my chest. I had to work to pull any air into my abused body. I'll admit that I lost hope. My opponent wouldn't be appeased until it was clear that I'd passed out completely, that much was clear. And to that effect, every few seconds he'd lean down and bite me on my posterior. I'd squirm uselessly with my hind legs and the waiting would continue. I could just imagine myself, the would-be contender being ungracefully dragged out from under the sagging fat of the Alpha after this. I wouldn't be surprised if he marked on me as punishment for my defiance and out of spite. My slotted role as Omega would be stuck to me for life. I would have to roll over for all other dogs, no one would be lower than I.

The heat of the Alpha's body surrounding me grew to be stifling and the air seemed harder and harder to pull into my nostrils. I heaved up with my forelegs against the ground, but only succeeded in pushing into the give in the flesh. It was useless.

And I wondered, in my despair, how I ever could have thought I could beat the shepherd-lab. He was hopelessly fatter than I was and therefore he was better. It didn't matter if I could eat three times as much as him, he didn't have to fight against a stupid growing body! His meals actually turned into desirable, attractive fat, instead of being spread thin over a giant's frame. I was useless and clumsy and a dreamer at heart. The shepherd-lab was skilled, precise and aggressive. He owned every inch of himself like a champion and had gotten more inches than anyone had thought possible. He was a genius Alpha and I was... I was...

A Freak. I thought then that perhaps the shepherd-lab's treatment of me was right and proper. Yes, I should be punished for my freakish growth and towering height. It was an aberration of our pack's ideals. It wasn't what our masters wanted for us and it defied our true purpose....

Or did it? Memories arose to contradict my new conclusion. I could see them in the blackness enveloping me under the shepherd-lab. The masters wanted the lab-shepherd. No, that was wrong. If they had, they would have taken him from this place and more, the black lab had told me why they hadn't wanted him. There was something defective inside of him, something that couldn't be seen or smelled on him. That's why he lingered here, growing to such monstrous proportions.

I was a freak... But I remembered my physical. I remembered the way the scientist had chatted around me, I remembered the scent of their excitement. They'd patted me and expressed joy, would they do that for a freak? They knew I was growing for sure, but they'd expressed genuine affection just the same, would they do that for a freak? Why they'd even given me my own bowl, would they do that...

The black lab had seen something in me from an early age. He'd appreciated an intellectual equal sure, but there was more. From the time that I was noticeably taller than my brother, there was more. And he'd told me so, many times. I was...

"I... am... special..." I grunted, setting my paws down on the earth under me. I heaved with all of the strength in my shoulders and the fat pressed down over me, irresistibly heavy, but I kept on pushing upwards, straining with my back and my knees against the ground.

Slowly, the tan furred flesh parted from the ground to the sides and there was light under me. Every inch of the shepherd-lab's blubber pressed down on me. It pressed down on my shoulders, my neck and my back, even my nose. But I moved that bulk just the same. The shepherd-lab had his weight to offer, but he didn't have anything other than his weight. Using the strength in my back and in my shoulder and in my legs, I shouted against gravity and the mass of shepherd-dog on me.

I didn't stand. I couldn't do that much, but I got my elbows under me and enough space to breath. I paused for just a second, feeling the now panicking bulk of shepherd-lab wobbling unsteadily over me. He struggled to keep on top of me, and that was a challenge as his flanks only just covered me to either side and now I had lifted him just a bit clear. I was soon ready to push him with even greater strength, because I had a gift in something the shepherd-lab clearly didn't value, the size of my muscles. I pushed, now my paws under me. The shepherd -lab bit at my fatty rump, but I didn't care, I got my hind paws under me as well and I started to rise. He kept on me, but soon wobbled over to one side. With a grunt, I threw him off of my back and he landed with a heavy thud on the ground beside me. He groaned.

I stood looking into the eyes of the other dogs surrounding me for almost the first time. I saw shock in their faces, open and unhidden. But I also saw something more, I saw respect. Then the Alpha kicked my haunch and informed me that he wasn't done yet.

I growled and looked at him, we were both panting hard, tongues stretched out and blood red. He fumbled clumsily onto his belly and slowly, so slowly began to ratchet up his forequarters with his paws. When it came time to lift up his heavy rear end, however, he paused. He shifted his weight a few times and then settled on a position of paws. His belly, however hadn't cleared the ground before he yelped and sat back down. My heavy pant turned into laughter.

He tried again and fell, then swapped sides, but it was plain that his hind feet were both too damaged to take that awesome weight of his. He sat there and stared at me with loathing. I stood in front of him and waited, as if with infinite patience. I'd won. He could only drag this out so long. The others would see that he couldn't fight anymore after a while and when that happened, I would be recognized as Alpha.

A minute passed and then two. Most of the infant puppies were gone already from the crowd, having lost interest long ago. Even the heavier, more stalwart of the watchers were scratching at their ears and licking their chops in frustration. Still the shepherd-lab didn't rise. He couldn't. All I had to do was wait for the pressure to build.

Then, around minute three, the shepherd-lab barked another signal. His betas began to move. I steeled myself again, but they weren't moving towards me. They were, in fact, beginning to circle the crowd. They bumped into the dogs, seated or standing, nipping when they refused to move. They pushed the dogs inward, thickening the mass and reducing the size of our fighting circle. I had to move a few steps in, then a few more, as the circle closed. I couldn't force my way through them, as that would be as good as admitting defeat.

I tried intimidating one dog to stay back, and he did, but the dogs to my other sides continued to move closer, driven by the betas. Their eyes were haggard and agitated. If I'd pressed one, I'd start another fight for sure. I backed up and the one whom I'd intimidated simply fell into the back rows as the dogs became a huddle around me.

The Alpha began to bark and speak with his eyes and tail as the dogs moved closer and became more stressed for the herding and also for each other's proximity. Mostly it was a challenge to me. He was telling me to face him head-on. No more dishonest footwork and dancing. He told me to face his power with my own, head-on, or be a coward. The attention of the crowd was thus expertly diverted to me. We were face to face and the standing dogs were still getting closer. They would force us to grapple and the ability - or lack thereof - of the shepherd-lab to support his own fatty body would be moot. The gap would close and we would spend the rest of the fight on top of each other.

It was a dirty trick, but not one that strictly broke one of the few rules of engagement that we had. Although he was clearly to the point of exhaustion, the shepherd-lab reared up on his behind, his belly flooding the ground ahead of him to stabilize himself. Now he had his forepaws free to box me as well as bite...

This wasn't right... How could he call himself an Alpha when he couldn't even stand? When he was too goddamned heavy to lift his own goddamned ass off the ground? This was a perversion of the ritual dominance fight, I could feel it in my blood. It was... unfair.

In a rage, I bounded forward, heedless of the shepherd-lab's claws or his teeth. I slammed into him and through him. His fatty weight grounding him to the floor didn't matter, nothing did. I drove into him like a fist into water. His flesh rippled around me as he tumbled back, his rump dragging at the ground as I blew past him. His wide back thudded on the ground and I was on top of him. His torso was so thick, I was all but lying on him, my paws barely able to reach past both of our girths to the ground. But I was on top, and the he was lying dazed and unresisting under me, his chest continued to heave as he panted feebly. There was a growl in my throat as I leaned over him, waiting for him to come back to life and fight against me some more... but he didn't.

Slowly, the dogs surrounding us backed off. The betas were mute and let them. I was panting hard, and I felt like collapsing, but I staggered off the still mass of the shepherd-lab. He whimpered slightly when I stepped on him in order to clear the girth of his midsection. Everyone was staring at me and for the first time, the enormity of what I'd just done hit me. My abstract thoughts threatened to hit me with unsureness and apprehension, but I pushed them away. Now was a time just to be a dog.

So I stalked through them silently, getting a sniff from each dog's rump as I passed them, sometimes nipping them if I felt they were not sufficiently cowed. I let my body language declare my victory for me as I paced among them, limping just slightly and smelling of blood. I came to the Alpha's old betas and they bowed their heads and dissolved into the crowd. They might become mine, perhaps. For them, now that there was a change in leadership, they would have to earn their positions again from scratch, if they wanted them back. Still the shepherd-lab didn't get up.

His lack of resistance was all that was required. By the time I walked away from the place in the yard where we'd fought, taking a portion of the crowd with me, it was done. I was Alpha.