"Is this what you wanted," I cooed at him, suddenly compliant.
This confused him enough to be immediately suspicious, but I'd expected nothing less. "If you so much as think of biting me, you'll live to regret it," he growled.
Despite his suspicion that I was up to no good, though, he couldn't quite bring himself to make me stop. Really, he didn't have it in him to do anything that might stop what was about to happen next, as I reached up to his fly.
At first, I found that I couldn't quite reach it as the invisible barrier blocked me. Instead, I rubbed the invisible armor for a moment and whispered, "I can't apologize to you properly if you're hidden away inside there, now can I…"
"You know, I've never done this before either," I purred, hating myself for using a voice and a face that no one but my Ryan deserved to see. "I've never done anything before…"
"Well, that ain't the way I'd want to go out if I was you," he breathed, "Not with tits like that."
"Oh, these?" I teased, pulling my hands away from his unzipped pants and his tented boxers so that I could press my large breasts together for him to ogle. I hated herself for doing it, but I only had to drag this out for another half a minute, maybe less. So, anything that kept his dick away from my a little while longer was worth it in my mind. "You want to see what these look like?"
Like you'll ever get a chance, I thought acidly. My boyfriend and eventual fiancé might have that privilege, but a monster like this? Well, he'll get what he deserves soon enough.
"Show me," he said.
He'd obviously meant it like an order, but it had come out as something closer to begging. Still, I pretended to obey as I lowered my hands and grasped the bottom of my tight top. I never had to do more than that. The moment he was drooling over my big, beautiful breasts was the moment that monster who'd been crawling toward us this whole time finally arrived. Its slender tentacles reached through the metal gate without any warning and started to devour the Warrior.
He screamed as soon as the thing's barbed tentacles wrapped around his throat and chest. He even reactivated his armor, but it was too late. He was going to die with his dick hanging out, and he deserved it.
I stood, wrapping my jacket around me as tight as I could as I watched his armor try and fail to protect him from the barbs that were sinking into his flesh. Instead, I watched them start to suck the blood right out of him.
"Help me!" he screamed. "Please! I'm sorry! I— Ahhhhh…."
I turned my back on the asshole and stepped well out of the reach of that thing's waving tendrils. Then, as an afterthought, I grabbed the young man who had tried to save me earlier and dragged him out of reach as well, just in case. "Only one of us deserves to be eaten alive," I mumbled to myself.
The unconscious cashier didn't stir, and the Warrior didn't stop screaming until he was nothing more than a skeleton wrapped in loose skin. That didn't upset me at all, though. If anything, the mass of tentacles was doing us a favor at this point. It blocked the front of the store so completely that I could no longer see the carnage playing out in the rest of the mall. I could barely even hear it. Instead, my world shrank to only the few feet, which were illuminated only by several glowing displays. Still, I kept dragging the bleeding man until we were both hidden by the counter.
Then I tried to heal him. As I touched his skin and focused, I got most of the same information as I'd gotten the last time I tried something like this. This cashier was in better shape, had O-negative blood, and was in good health aside from a worsening concussion and significant bruising.
I took a deep breath and focused on the worst of his symptoms. As I did so, I felt the energy flow out of me again, but this time, it was less violent and more natural. This, at least, out of everything that had happened tonight, felt right.
You have healed your patient's Heavy Concussion! +50 exp.
You have healed your patient's Concussion! +30 exp.
You have healed your patient's Light Concussion! +15 exp.
As I watched his eyes flutter open, I pulled my hands away. I was more than a little surprised that I felt less drained by this experience than I had after I attacked the Warrior with my powers.
I guess the thing wasn't lying about significant, after all, I thought as the boy slowly woke up.
"Be careful, I told him. You took a pretty bad hit to the face there," I said.
"You're telling me…" he sighed. "My head is killing me."
On instinct, I reached to his head and touched it, willing that to go away too. The fact that I was instantly given another message told me that it had worked before I even asked.
You have healed your patient's Headache! +1 exp.
"How did you do that?" he asked.
"Your guess is as good as mine," I shrugged. "Magic, or something like it."
"I see…" he said, sitting up. "So, you don't know what's going on either, huh?"
"I know that asshole was about to rape me, and you tried to save me," I answered. "Which makes you the only hero in the whole place."
"The only hero without magic, probably," he laughed. "I'm Micheal, by the way."
"Magic ain't all it's cracked up to be," I sighed before introducing myself. After that, I explained how the bubbles worked, as near as I understood, and told him what the voice had told me about people who proved themselves. It was then that I remembered the orb I still had in my pocket, but I didn't bring it up. Instead, I touched it and saw that I still had two minutes left to decide on that.
"It's just as well," he sighed. "Despite what you might think, I'm not the best guy. I'd probably be another one of those monsters out there. You don't end up working at the mall because you made good life decisions."
"Any idea how we're getting out of here?" I asked, not sure that either of us had any idea how the powers behind this viewed morality.
"There's no back door, if that's what you're asking," he said quickly. "There's the front door, and that's about it, so for as long as that holds, we're stuck here until the police or the army show up to save us."
As he spoke, he rose to his feet and walked to the small broom closet. He took out a mop and then broke it off with his foot to create an impromptu spear. Then he handed me a heavy flashlight and said, "But I'm not a fan of sitting around and waiting for people to save me. If we can get outside, we can get to my motorcycle and get the fuck out of here."
"But you just said…" I protested.
"I said there's no doors," he smiled, showing off a dazzling grin on a face that would have been halfway to handsome if he hadn't just gotten beaten to shit. He raised his spear and tapped on a grate above their head. "I'm pretty sure this leads to the roof. So if we just climb up, we can crawl out, take the fire ladder down, and then we're pretty much home-free."
"You're a genius, Micheal!" I said, springing to my feet and hugging him for a moment before I remembered myself and pulled away slightly.
"I have a present for you too, actually," I said, reaching into my pocket, "But unfortunately, you have less than a minute to decide what you want to do."
I didn't dare set the thing down for fear that it would pop. Instead, I held it there in both hands, offering it to him as I explained both options to him.
Micheal didn't hesitate. Instead of agreeing or declining right away, he yanked the nearest display shelf into position underneath the vent. Then he flashed up his makeshift ladder and yanked off the metal grate. When that was done, he said, "If you see me start to turn into something ugly, you just get out of here, alright?"
"But—" I said, unable to really argue anything since we had less than ten seconds left on my internally ticking clock.
"But nothing," he interrupted. "Win or lose, this isn't your fault." Then, without a single word of warning, he reached forward and grabbed the sphere.
As soon as he held it and I let go, the thing swelled in size and began to glow once more. I held my breath, willing him to be okay. Please don't let me end up alone in all of this, I whispered to myself as I waited for the universe to decide the young man's fate.