Galen explained gently;
"Well, by the time she was ten years old, Sabrina had already attained the enviable position of a B grade mage. Consequently, she was then hailed as once-in-a-century Chosen One…"
Rachel hung on to his every word, totally enjoying the success story of this mysterious girl. It was like her own fantasy, and her eyes shimmered as she let her own imagination run wild, thinking what it would be like to be her.
"…she continued in that path of glory for a while, and then, much to everyone's surprise, she peaked and took a sudden nose dive."
Harry didn't get that last part. "What do you mean by sudden nose dive?"
"I mean she dropped from the level of a B grade mage became an F grade mage. Yes, by some freak of nature, she suddenly became an average mage over night. It was like nature suddenly decided to take back what it had given her, like it was an accident or something."
"I didn't even know this was possible." Harry was the one speaking now.
"Indeed. But she turned nineteen this year, and suddenly became a C rank mage within a very short period. And then, she was promoted to a teacher's position at Cassell High School."
Harry asked thoughtfully; "How and when did this happen?"
"Well, these sudden transformations happened only just about a month ago. So, only a very few number of higher-ups in the academic world know about this. And maybe those around Sabrina herself, otherwise, it's been a hush hush thing."
Rachel had sunk into her own world in the past few minutes. Galen's brief narration triggered an eight year old memory from last time that actually involved Sabrina. Rachel actually recalled seeing Sabrina perform at the palace in person. At the time, Valarie had also been invited to perform at the palace, but as a child prodigy since she had also been significantly younger. But even then, she had been slightly inferior to Sabrina.
Rachel was so overwhelmed with a cascade of reflective emotions that she let out a hysterical outburst (but in a regal manner of course.)
"It's her! She's she child prodigy from eight years ago! She's come back strong today!!"
The others (who appeared to have completely forgotten that the princess was present) were taken aback by her hysterical outburst.
Meanwhile, Zavier who was off the field was watching the whole battle scene carefully. Naturally, no one saw what he was seeing- no one had the secret advantage of a Time-Space eye.
With his time space eye, Zavier roved back and forth between all the players involved, hoping to catch something that wasn't visible to the naked eye. His instincts weren't wrong. Inside the site girl whom was now everyone's darling, Zavier observed a very odd phenomenon going on inside her. With the advantage of a high definition optical technique, Zavier zoomed in and took a closer look. Right at the core of her being, he saw that the girl's essence (in the form of an aurora) was starting to faintly flicker- like it was expecting to explode into a big light at any moment.
Gabby on the other hand led his goons onto the field. Acting like they were a bunch of magnanimous opponents, Ibneiah spoke in a seemingly gracious tone;
"Little girl, whatever happens here, remember that you were the one who instigated this three on one. When you've been finally defeated, i hope you learn that this is how the real world works. No excuses or hard feelings alright?"
Ibneiah had genuinely been expecting some kind of friendly chatter from the girl before they finished her off. She genuinely seemed like the type that would absolutely love that. But she didn't. Not only did Sabrina refuse to answer him, she ignored him with a coldness that one would never expect from a happy-go-lucky girl like her. Acting as though she was completely oblivious of all of them, she casually reached into her basket and pulled out a flower.
Macbeth, Ibneiah and Gabby all looked at each other queerly. Their expressions were all the same- puzzled! What was she doing? How were they supposed to completely decimate someone who looked like she was still mentally in kindergarten? They stared on in wonder as she brought the flower close to her lip, and proceeded to kiss the petals as though she was praying to someone.
The whole scene was simply just too cute. The referee blew on his pistol and it let out a very shrill sound, signalling the commencement of the match. Macbeth and Ibneiah immediately fanned out, and took their place in their regular tripod formation with Gabby at the head of the trident. Despite all of this, she still didn't even as much as make above to do anything at all. She simply stayed in the position of one who was in prayer. She made no move to attack at all.
The whole crowd watched the display in silent gasps. No one made the mistake of taking their eyes off of the match for a second. ninety eight percent of the crowd felt bad for the girl because she was about to be torn apart by three hybrids. The remaining two percent of the crowd retained an illogical optimistic hope that she might emerge victorious because of some secret power that would only be unveiled at the end.
Of course, given how it looked, it was just wishful thinking on the part of anyone who was nurturing any hope of the girl prevailing. Gabby had never been so unsure in battle before as he was then. He always welcomed aggression from his enemies. Aggression, guile, and even a little dishonour were things he understood. But not this. Whatever it was, it wasn't going to change the outcome of the match. Either way, he was going to decimate her without any mercy.
He glanced at his other team mates, and the reassuring looks on their faces showed that they were all on the same page. So, in a wordless agreement, they all dove in to execute their notorious three-man combo move. It was a simple tactic (to the three of them anyway), they had practiced it so many times over that they were practically always in sync whenever they moved to execute this tripod effect.
As the head of the trident, Gabby would go long from the side to interfere, thus allowing Ibneiah (the power house of the team) close contact with the target. And then, Macbeth, their angel of destruction who was very proficient with the sword, would swoop in with his three foot long blade and deliver the fatal strike. It was a fool proof plan. And their roles played well to their individual strengths as hybrids of the choicest bloodlines.
Ibneiah, who was part man part werewolf, literally sprang on Sabrina, hoping to at least scare her into dodging, thus changing her trajectory to set her on a course that would be in the second person's line of attack.
Sabrina did nothing. Still in the same praying position, and with a very sad countenance on her face, she remained stoic and unbothered, as if she had surrendered herself to the hands of fate, awaiting anything that was to happen to her.
Ibneiah who had entered into her orbit, saw her unflinching faith in her prayer and knew that this girl was indeed suicidal. Not even his partial transformation had been able to make her shudder a little. Well, he had a job to do. And he fully intended to carry out his teacher's orders by completely decimating this stubborn girl. There was no shred on sympathy in him as he charged towards her with all the intensity of an apex predator.
By now, the other spectators had their hands on their heads as they anticipated the bloody victory that was about to ensue. None of them could understand why she was choosing to remain so defenceless like this. A lot of people were now thinking what Ibneiah had been thinking; maybe she was suicidal! Maybe she had conceded defeat a long time ago, because of how overwhelming it might had been to get to this stage all on her own.
? But they were all wrong- dead wrong. And unfortunately, only Zavier could see it. He took a long look into her and saw that aura inside of her was glowing brighter and brighter by the second. It was like it was gearing up for something. Ibneiah on the other hand had made significant progress. He was now all but inches away from her now. No matter how quick she was, there was simply no way she could escape without being marred by the half man, half beast.
With the tension in the venue now thick as a cloud, everyone watched with bated breaths as (what they thought to be) the final act of the scene unfolds before them. Almost as though it was a live motion picture being acted out in slow motion, they all looked on as Ibneiah's sharp claws stretched out to rip Sabrina's pretty face, (being the bastard that he was, Ibneiah had gone straight for her cute face).