With one thought, her system disappeared. She faced the three and pouted "alright, alright, I'll let them off this time easily".
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and exhaled slowly.
A fist hung right above Zhiheng's face, they stopped fighting and the glow in their eyes vanished.
Disoriented and in excruciating pain, they tried to recollect themselves. They couldn't remember anything right after Gabbie took a position in front.
She couldn't have done this, they reassured themselves, she was just a woman after all. Women had no right to stand before men, more or less beat up three.
They stared at her with fright. The mischievous look that lingered in her eyes spoke of her evil nature and cruelty. They were fine minutes ago, how did they end up in bruises?
Without being told, they ran away frightened.
Gabbie waved them off while smiling, "byebye little piggies". She had fun, yes but she never forgot her skill limit.
"This might not end well" Eiden sighed.
"Derrick", Gabbie called out with a fierce side eye, her face turned serious all of a sudden
Derrick took a step back "hey hey hey now, what's with that look?" He asked, his brows creased
She turned to him fully, her eyes narrowed "I hope you learnt some lessons from today's show"
Derrick arched his eyebrow, lessons? Did she mean he shouldn't call her weak just like Zhiheng did? Cause if that was it then he hadn't learnt a single thing.
Realizing what she meant, he shrugged "well, you of all people know learning isn't really my thing"
Why did he have to be so annoying? She was trying to scare him and he assumed it to be the best time to joke around.
Gabbie opened her mouth to speak but Eiden beat her to it. "Where do we go from now?", He asked the second sane person other than himself that is.
Jason analyzed the place "not sure but we could use—" his words were cut short by a grumble…..a stomach grumble.
All eyes were now on Derrick. He held his stomach while laughing awkwardly "Don't look at me, I'm still starving", he averted his eyes from their judgy gaze.
"Me too," Gabbie sighed in defeat.
Same with the rest but they only had 2 coins and from what they witnessed from the sales woman, 2 coins can't afford much.
While they stood sunken in hunger, Eiden's brow furrowed, his instincts tingled with a familiar sense of unease.
Something felt off.
His peripheral vision caught a flash of brightness, and he turned to see a fiery orb hurtling towards Gabbie.
The fireball was quick but Jason's impulse was quicker. Jason reacted instinctively, positioning himself in front of her with arms outstretched. Eyes shut tight, he braced for the impact, the heat from the orb already palpable. But when he opened his eyes, the orb had vanished, leaving only a shower of glowing amber fragments that fell like fiery petals at his feet.
"What the hell!?" Derrick cursed, what was that just now?
They all turned to the direction where it came from but it was just a rubblefield. Their guess, the person might be hiding behind the rocks...why was everything so against them today?
"Hey! We know you're there, you might as well show yourself" said Eiden. There was no response. The four of them glared at that particular spot with a broken wall, a suitable place for a rat to hide and throw a fireball.
While they waited for a response, Eiden had an epiphany. It could be a player, right? And perhaps fire is their skill, what if they're trapped here as well?
Eiden changed his tone, "are you a player? Are you stuck in the game too?" He asked and the others threw perplexed looks at him.
Still no response.
"Jason, you can move now" said Gabbie, he was still standing in a protective form in front of her.
It was a bit awkward since he acted out of impulse, the last time he wasn't paying attention she warped into a 'teleportation crystal'. He moved to the side.
Visibly annoyed, Derrick voiced "if you are, just come out, who knows, maybe we could help each other….right after you explain the fire show".
Their eyes peered in wonder at the frail creature that came out of its hiding, she was flustered all over and couldn't even look up straight at them.
"What the…" said Derrick
"It's a girl?" Whispered Gabbie.
A girl, and probably not a gamer seeing as though she wore a fine Maiden Chinese attire.
Coming out fully, she stuttered while she explained "I..I didn't mean to hurt anyone" her voice was sweet and gentle like a whisper, a correct description of how a lady's voice should sound after puberty.
She continued, "I was trying to get your attention," she held her wrist, still looking down, "I haven't mastered my powers yet I knew it wouldn't hurt anyone".
They stared at her, amused. She became even more flustered as they weren't saying anything in return.
"WHAT THE HELL!?", her feeble body flinched at Derrick's loud voice.
"You were trying to get our attention!?" He asked
She nodded slowly, her cheeks burned with embarrassment.
Derrick arched his brow, and put on his sarcastic mask "oh, well, in that case congratulations! That's some next-level communication skills right there. I'm impressed. I mean, who needs a 'hi there, excuse me' when you could just shoot them a fireball in the face".
"I didn't mean to" her voice sounded even more shriveled this time, she could barely understand what he was saying.
"Oh, well, that makes it totally okay then" he replied.
Eiden nudged him, "you're being rude Derrick, you're scaring her". He felt sorry for her for falling into Derrick's jackass side.
"Hey, it's okay. You're forgiven" said Eiden but Jason objected,
"Not yet she's not, that fire thing was aiming towards Gabbie, any explanation why?" He asked her.
Her face lit up all of a sudden, the fluster and redness on her face vanished without a trace. She looked up at Gabbie with an excited expression "you're just like me aren't you?" She asked
Gabbie laughed nervously, "uh…what do you mean?"
"What you did to Zhiheng and his crew just now, you took over their minds didn't you?" She asked hastily, unable to contain her excitement
Gabbie didn't want to answer straight away, the girl was behaving strangely "um....who are you?"