199 Chapter 199

But at the dying second, just at the last moment, a single lovely petal rose up from her basket in a very ethereal manner, and landed on her palm, thus defending her from the werewolf's savage onslaught.

If Ibneiah had any concept of what the engine of a Boeing 747 airbus was, he would have used that to describe the feeling of what had slammed into him at that last moment. But because he hadn't the slightest idea of what the hot busy engine of a major aircraft looked like, and because he didn't have any idea of what had hit him, Ibneiah was very nearly paralysed with catatonic shock.

Across the entire venue, every single person present, including Ibneiah himself, (ESPECIALLYIbneiah) was wondering the exact same thing;

"WHAT IN HEAVEN'S NAME HAD JUST HAPPENED?!!!"

In Ibneiah's form as a raging beast, there were very few things on the planet that could stop him. There were even fewer things that could repel him in that manner and with such brute uncompromising force. A petal was definitely not one of those things! Not by half!

While the rest of the public wondered, Ibneiah was left to deal with the flaming pain that was practically engorging his palm. After he had finally skidded to a halt (as a result of the deterring force,) he finally found the time and opportunity to glance at what the girl's 'lovely petal' had done to his palm. With a horrid look on his face, he found a slit right through his palm! Before now, his werewolf genes had granted him immunity from broken skin.

But now, it seemed he was not so invincible anymore. He had to alert his team mates!

Ibneiah didn't need to. Their eyes were already on him. Immediately, using hand signs and codes that only the three of them could understand, Ibneiah communicated his message to them with as much urgency as he could transmit;

"STAY BACK! SHE'S DANGEROUS!"

Gabby was a very wilful person. If Ibneiah was actually telling them that they could get hurt by this very plain looking girl, then he just had to see for himself! Even as he formulated a new plan, his training refused to allow him throw caution to the wind. He decided to make use of bat bombs first to test Sabrina.

He lifted up his sleeves, and like a magician at a kid's show, bats came fluttering out in droves. Only this time, they weren't just ordinary bats, on the wings were loaded mid explosives. They rushed towards their intended target with destruction on their wings, casting a shadow of death on the ground beneath them as they surged towards Sabrina.

But they didn't even get to come close to her. Before the bat' shadows could get to her, the remainder of the flower petals in her basket responded with a counter attack. They rose up in that same ethereal manner and triggered the premature explosion of every single bat bomb before they could arrive at their destination to do the damage they were meant for.

Macbeth, being the fang of the three headed hydra, took advantage of the chaos to try to sneak in an attack from behind. Creeping around in the cloud of dust and smoke, he stealthily tip toed his way around Sabrina in a bid to land one on her while she was occupied and still trying to recover from her last move. This was his perfect opportunity. The others had paved the way for him and created an opening. He wasn't going to waste it.

So, with his magnificent sword shielded from Sabrina's sight, and with Sabrina's attention still on Ibneiah and Gabby, he lifted up his great dragon sword and brought it down with full force (with the target being Sabrina's exposed back of course.)

But Macbeth was also disappointed in the grandest way. Because his sword attacks had never failed him, he went in with all the confidence that this was a done deal. However, the same petals that had stopped the other two stopped him. In fact, the had almost been wounded by them since his attack had been up close and personal because of the nature of his weapon.

Gabby, the only one who had been sensible enough to launch an attack from afar, had watched her reactions and gauged her responses very closely. her last deflection had been a very strange one. Her back had been turned against Macbeth the whole time! Gabby was sure of it, so how then had she managed to not just deflect the attack, but also counter as well?

Another unnerving thing about this whole situation was the fact that this cute little girl hadn't appeared to have been focusing on their attacks from the very beginning. And yet, she had been able to defend herself against all three of them in a very graceful manner. How?!

Sabrina had taken to pacing around the field after the last attack. It wasn't the kind of one who was agitated and was in desperate need to move about so she could think. No, her pacing was of a very patient soul. It was almost like she was trying to declare that she had all the time in the world. Three attacks now, and none of them had even remotely hit or graze her.

All things considered, she was pretty much on top of things. And she declared this aloud to the one watching her with careful eyes;

"Gabby is it? By now, I'm guessing you've realised that you can't beat me. I will allow you to admit defeat and get out of here in one piece. Know that if you chose to stay, you all will end up being seriously injured."

Even now, as she addressed her opponents, her voice was still free of the arrogant, and condescending tone of a haughty conqueror. She sounded very polite, and yet very confident at the same time. While this was Gabby's and the rest of his team' problem, it was a whole different vibe with the public outside.

On the stands, across the vast unending columns of spectators, there was a general feeling in the air. It was almost like an epidemic. The crowd outside was totally in love with they way Sabrina was effortlessly going about the whole thing! It was so infectious, and they loved it. Especially Rachel. Her aloofness and detachment was all very alluring to the public. It was like she wasn't even trying at all! And they loved it.

Sabrina's words fell on Gabby's ears like water on a wall. They made no impact at all. In the same way she had ignored all of them at the beginning of the battle, Gabby also ignored her and spurned her warning. He was too excited, and way too consumed with planning a decent strategy to take this creature down. It had been a while since he saw a challenge like this, he wasn't just going to throw in the towel because she had politely asked him to.

Even as Sabrina warned him gently, like a rebellious child, Gabby was already planning what he wanted to do next. He decided to test his suspicions. He already laid it down from his previous observations that her abilities were out of the norm. So, he decided to see just how extreme they were.

On the spot, Gabby began to do the impossible. He began to rapidly burn mana the way an aircraft's engine devoured rocket fuel. As burned his way through his mana, his figure began to slowly shimmer like an apparition. He began to resemble a blur because of how fast he was moving. Every atom in Gabby's body was practically vibrating at an unnatural speed. Thousands of eyes in the crowd watched in awe as he displayed one of the techniques that was elusive to the vampire race only.

Gabby's speed began to pick up, and soon, not even his shadow could be seen. He was vibrating at a supersonic speed such that no ordinary eye could neither see nor follow his movements. Only a mage like Zavier with exceptional visual prowess could hope to see Gabby as he transversed the length and breath of the field.

In a state that was something between a fast moving whirlwind and a human blur, Gabby zig-zagged around the length and breath of the field, hoping to take advantage of his high speed, and land a sneak attack on the unsuspecting girl. It should have worked, but Gabby wasn't really counting on it. Because at the end of the day, this was merely a hypothesis. After establishing an irregular pattern, he finally went in for the kill.

Time for Gabby seemed to slow down for him in that state of very quick movements. Everything around him seemed to move in slow motion while he himself appeared to be moving at regular speed. Even the birds overhead looked like they were moving extra sluggishly. But this was just his perspective. In reality, his body mass had lessened by about one-hundredth of its original value, and he was moving approximately one hundred times faster.