"Haa....haa...."
In a dark hallway illuminated by a few opened dorm rooms stood Dean McLovin covered in blood and guts.
His watch light flickered a bit but still shone brightly while holoprojecting the small pink figure of Kat who was worriedly looking at him.
[Ummm.....Deaaan aarreee yyou alright?], stuttered the pink holographic girl.
"I...haa....just need...haa....5 minutes", replied Dean in between breaths. Fighting against 3 husks at the same time wasn't difficult for Dean even when he had to cut their limbs off to kill or at least immobilize them.
Dozen?
Now that was taxing for him especially when they surrounded him from all sides.
He used his telekinesis to break the encirclement by impaling a few to the wall. Dean traded a few cuts to break out of the encirclement, luckily his endurance was B- and his academy jacket did its job, so the cuts were shallow....mostly.
From there, it was a little easier facing all of them from one direction. If only the husks died through conventional methods but alas even when he carved through their chests horizontally, vertically, and even diagonally they still continue attacking.
So he opted for the guaranteed way: cutting their limbs off.
Cutting.
Impaling with his telekinesis.
Kicking.
Sidestepping.
Doing all of those motions were taxing on Dean as the husks were fast moving and barraged him with multiple slashes.
Dean still managed to defeat all of them but it drained his stamina and mental capacity from using his powers; avoiding multiple slashes at once was impossible thus leaving more small cuts on him, it was regretful since the fight could've been a cake walk....if only....
'my powers affects living organisms.'
[AH DEAN...you have a deep cut on your left forearm. I saw a med spray hanging on that corpse there.], Kat panicked but quickly lowered her voice in case there were more enemies lurking in the darkness.
Despite painfully training his endurance up to where it is today, blocking an incoming attack with his arm was not ideal for him. The reason why?
"Kat...can you check if I'm infected?", Dean calmly asked. Strangely he was nervous, not because he was afraid to die, but because he was afraid of leaving Kat all alone or even worse...go insane in front of her. Both weren't sure how the students turned, but the unknown was always scary.
Kat felt the same too as her eyes turned moist, afraid that her companion and official best friend of a few hours might turn. She was never used to being alone as Kat was always popular in her school, her streaming sidejob, and her fellow Paxians at this academy.
Nevertheless, she performed the scan while shaking slightly using one of the watch's features. Kat then nervously look at the results and...
.
.
.
The results?
.
.
.
[Phew, only infection you'll be getting is the usual stuff if you don't disinfect that wound mister], Kat act a little bossy to lighten the tense atmosphere.
"Heh"
Dean chuckled a bit as he went over to the corpse that had the med spray on it. He then sprayed it on his wound and after a moment of thought he continue spraying on the other small wounds all over his body.
The spray disinfected the wounds then a foam-like substance appeared and quickly hardened preventing foreign substances from entering while enhancing the healing process.
[We're lucky that one of them was carrying a med spray, possibly from the infirmary in Pleasantville.]
"Yeah"
Dean, after 5 minutes of resting, finally started moving towards the stairway as the regular elevators still felt like a deathtrap.
Deep in thought, Dean asked a question that the duo didn't want to address.
"Kat....if something was to happen to me, you shou-"
[No don't say that, don't you ever say that.], hissed Kat still keeping her voice level even as her anger rose.
She then teleported from beside Dean to facing him upfront and continued, [You're going to survive this and hell even ask out Melanie because there's no way one of the strongest Espers became one of them. I refuse to 'believe' or 'think' about it. Haa...look, I may not be able to do anything to those monsters, but I'll do everything in my power to protect you from any harm. I'll even hack into the security drones and turrets to-]
"I understand...I won't mention it again. And....sorry for interrupting you", Dean replied as he arrived in front of the stairway door.
Satisfied, Kat nodded and her holographic form teleported back beside Dean. Dean then proceeded to push the button next to the door allowing it to slide open.
Walking down the stairs, Dean replayed their earlier conversations in his head and suddenly asked, "Why would I ask out Melanie?".
Kat's neutral expression shifted quickly to her deadpan expression upon hearing that question and muttered something along the line of 'dense motherfucker'.
Of course, Dean subconsciously let those words slip past his ears and continued the conversation, "To Melanie, I'm just a low-born commoner with good grades, so at best she'll consider me another political connection when I join the military. That's why she's been nicer to me for the past year right?"
'So he's not a dense idiot, but just an idiot', Kat thought after processing his full explanation. He wasn't wrong as Melanie hated anyone that wasn't a noble, the hatred stems from Melanie's upbringing in the harsh world of politics.
But...
[Dean...have you tried to talk to her and I mean Really tried to talk to her.]
"No...", Dean replied thinking of all the times he spoke to her over the years. From small talks to school related talks as they were forced into groups together, but they never really talked as Melanie had a disgusted face whenever she was with Dean.
Granted over time, her disgusted expression slowly shifted to neutral and even a slightly soft expression in the past year.
[When you meet her again, pay attention to her body language but don't ogle her, and when you're talking to her pay attention to her face. Her expressions will tell you how she feels about you even if she's a trained noble and.....oh pay attention to her eyes as that's the easiest indicator.]
Dean nodded slowly taking Kat's words to heart as dating was still foreign to him despite reading various articles on them. Obviously he wasn't considering on asking Melanie out but he put Kat's advice to the test.
[Good, you should listen to this love master as I have consumed every piece of media related to romance.....heh.]
Dean smiled a bit but as the door to floor 13 slid open-
"ANYONE HELLLLPPPPPP PLEEEAASSSSSEEEEE...AHHHHH...STOP PLEASE...STOPPPPPP"
**********
A/N: Kat gives better love advices than Alexa...not that I would know >.>