“So, what do I do now?” Zoey asked as she was brought into the stands by Coach after putting on her normal outfit.

“You sit and watch.” He smiled. “Take a good look at your future opponents and devise strategies to take them on.” Coach advised.

“How many fights can I have in one day?” She asked.

“It depends on how quick the matches are. If they’re as quick as your match, then you should be able to get a second match by tomorrow.”

“Okay then.” It was a good thing she brought her homework to do in the meantime.

She could fuck around on her phone the entire time but that wouldn’t help her grades or stop her from possibly failing and getting kicked out of track for not keeping up with her grades. So, while she loved boxing, getting stronger, and fighting. Her grades came first. Even if she found some way to make a living without going to college. Being the first one in her family to go to college would be cool. No one on her mother’s side has ever gone to college. Zoey didn’t know anything about her father's side of the family. They only visited her mom’s.

So, bringing out the huge algebra book on her lap, a notebook, pencil, a calculator, Zoey got to work on some annoying numbers and their expressions. From time to time she found her attention being grabbed by some of the fighters on stage. Coach said that most of the preliminary fighters won’t be anything special. The preliminaries are usually to eliminate the trash that managed to get in through connections and not skill.

“Am I one of them?” She didn’t do anything special to be invited here.

“Yeah, but you’re different.” He explained. “You think I would bring you here if I thought you were trash?”

“I was just asking.” Zoey shrugged before getting back to her homework.

There were two notable fighters that Zoey saw that instantly grabbed her opinion. The first one was Cory and Connie. The kicking guy and sword girl that attack Lindsay and Alexander in the library. And if they were here, then they obviously must have seen her first match. Zoey’s concentration was being pulled away by the thoughts of fighting fighters as strong as them. They were magjistar and probably cheating with their magic by strengthening their body but wasn’t she doing the same with her Box?

Except Zoey couldn’t turn off her Box or its skills. It was automatically on without her consent. But besides those two, there were some other fighters that Coach Scott pointed out to her. He pointed out the two magjistar, another boxer just like her but with a lot more cockiness and arrogance and muscle, a calm female aikido fighter, and a hyperactive Muay Thai martial artist. Zoey wanted to fight every single one of them for the sake of battle experience, her skills, and to evolve boxing as the ultimate fighting style.

“They’re calling you up, kid. It looks like you get two matches in one day, how lucky.” Coach patted her back, bringing her attention back to the ring.

“Huh? Someone challenged me specifically?” Zoey asked.

“Yep. Now go and make em regret ever thinking they can kick your ass!”

“Uh, okay.” She went off to the locker room to get changed.

“Kick his ass Zoey! Tony shouted, placing all the money in his bank account on Zoey.

“Show him your special move!” Steven yelled, doing the exact same.

“She has a special move?” Dylan asked. He decided not to gamble anymore today with his winnings.

“No. Those two are just trying to hype up the crowd.” Zack chuckled.

“Maybe this guy won’t be an idiot.” Ben said, looking at Zoey’s next opponent.

“And we’re back folks! It looks like we have Single Blow Boxer back in the ring once again! This time she is facing up with Aoiyama, a sumo wrestler that has 7 wins and 1 loss under his belt. Let’s find out who is going to win in this match up!”

Aoiyama looked down at the tiny girl that was supposed to be his opponent. This was going to be a cakewalk. He would’ve been a fool not to choose this small girl as his opponent. What could she even do to the glorious folds of pure muscle he had on his body? As the annoying announcer was continuing to talk, the little black American girl dared to stare him in his eyes without any fear. He’ll soon change that in a second.

The heavy-set young man squatted down low with his fist pressed to the mat. His opponent continued to meet his eyes and for a second, he could’ve sworn he saw a flame burning inside them! Aoiyama readied himself to absolutely obliterate this girl. He didn’t come all the way to America just to lose to some girl. It would be the biggest disgrace in his life. How could he go back to Japan and aim to become the future Yokozuna with a loss under his belt by someone like this? Impossible! Completely impossible is how!

“Begin!” The ref said.

Aoiyama was no longer inside the cage. In his place, an angry bull weighing 180+ pounds was charging straight for the girl. There was no avoiding this attack. At least, that’s what Aoiyama believed. The Black Boxer simply hopped out of the way and he didn’t notice until he nearly rammed his head into the cage. In no time, Aoiyama’s skin started to turn red as he angrily turned and charged once more.

Unlike before he kept his eyes straight onto the Black Boxer. He reached out with his hands to grab her. With his strength and size, once he grabbed her it was basically over. Once she was in his hands, he could squeeze her little torso until the ref stops him, slam her onto the mat and then crush her with his weight, or just throw her to the other side of the ring.

‘Hahaha! Free win for me!’ He laughed reaching for the Black Boxer in his dash.

“So slow...” Zoey muttered as Aoiyama’s eyes widened.

Oops, he heard her. Oh, well. It was too late anyway. Now Zoey was 95% sure that a big fella like this could definitely take one of her normal punches without falling like that Mr. Unbeatable from before. So, once he reached out to grab her after running at her, she slid to his exposed side and built up momentum and torque in her fist before throwing it out.

The side of his stomach was inwardly blown back as the force of Zoey’s punch was spread across his entire left torso. All of the innards on Aoiyama’s left side felt pain and he was about to drop from a pain he’s never felt in his life before. His knees quaked as his hands instinctively reached towards where Zoey’s punch landed. Making everyone realize that Zoey really had killer punches if she could hurt someone like this that was more than twice her size. Zoey tried pleading with her eyes, telling him to not drop. She needed more experience in things other than punching!

“負けません!” He spoke in Japanese.

Zoey could see the determination and liveliness in his eyes as he reached to grab her once again. With a leisure step backward out of the way of the hand practically moving in slow-motion, Zoey punched his hand down. She inwardly sighed as this big guy was practically already done. Might as well give him a respectful send-off. Now that he was basically presenting himself to her as a free meal, Zoey ate him up.

She sent his face soaring to the left before catching it with her left fist and then knocking him to the cage with a straight that sent him stumbling backward. With his large exposed gut calling out to her, her fists responded with a message of their own. It was called Rapid Blow Finish! Zoey’s fists shot out like a machine gun into Aoiyama’s belly. The impacts of her fists against his belly echoed out for everyone in the stands to hear. Each punch caused a wave of fat to spread across his stomach.

The referee had to push her out of the way before she could finish her combo. Aoiyama’s eyes weren’t lit and he wasn’t moving. He fell to the ground with his head banging off the mat. Zoey didn’t know how exactly to react when everyone else in the audience was dead silent again. Should she hold up her boxing glove in like a victory stance? Why not try it, for the hell of it? Zoey raised her arm up and a couple of people cheered as the announcer went nuts.

“It looks like we got a dark horse in the tournament this time round folks! Zoey Winters! The Girl with Cannons for Fists! Student Boxer! Female Fatale! Now no one can underestimate this girl for her size or gender when she’s beating strong guys left and right!” He yelled. Earning some good points in her book again.

Zoey was very easy to please with compliments and the like. No one usually complimented her or said positive things about her. But that was because she didn’t really have friends before. Maybe now that she’s friends with Callie and Katlyn, she’ll stop being the introverted awkward freak she is now. Hell, maybe she’ll even gain some friends from this tournament after it was over.

“Alright, kid. You ready to go? I don’t think anyone else is going to request a match from you after two matches like that.” Coach asked.

Zoey’s eyes wandered over to the taekwondo boy and kenjutsu girl. They didn’t meet her eyes like she expected so, she decided to leave. If they gave her a certain look then maybe she would’ve stayed to fight with them but now that she was thinking about it. It would be more exciting to fight them in the actual tournament. Not the preliminaries where only the admission into the actual tournament is the only thing at stake. She didn’t know the other talented fighters so, why would she look at them?

“So, what do you think Ben? Think you can stand up with freaks like this?” Tony asked.

“I want to spar with Zoey.” He revealed.

“Not now. Wait until the tournament is over. She has a lot to focus on and can’t waste any time messing around with you.” Coach Scott instantly shut that down.

“Tch. Whatever.” He gave Coach a nasty look.

“When is my next match Coach?” Zoey asked.

“Probably Friday. Since you all are kids, they give you a three-day break maximum. You can challenge people and they will be forced to fight with you the day after you announce your challenge. So, most scumbags use this time to pick off the fighters that got hurt today.”

“Don’t I need to win 5 matches before I’m officially in the brackets for the tournament?” She asked.

“That’s right.” Zack answered.

“Where and how do I challenge people? And can I challenge more than 5 people?” She really wanted to fight.

“Calm down you little spartan. I’ll answer all your questions in the car.” He loudly laughed at her obvious eagerness.

“Damn Zoey, you really been waiting for this huh?” Steven laughed.

Now she’s embarrassed, great. If these guys could see right through her that meant she was actually wearing her heart on her sleeve. But it wasn’t her fault she was like this. It isn’t often that she could really fight with people and when a chance like this came along, how could she help herself from wanting to jump around like an excited bunny in heat. All these fighters around her just made her itch like crazy that she couldn’t fight them all.

‘I might actually be going crazy...’ She suddenly realized.

“So, what do you think of the Dark Horse?”

“Strong. I can’t wait to fight her!”

“She is strong but I still can’t tell how skilled she is.”

“Both of her opponents were knocked around by her. But that Haruto Tanaka... he was definitely not weak.”

“Have you fought him before?”

“No, but I've seen a few of his matches. No one stood a chance against him in any of the videos I watched.”

“Maybe it was a fluke that she beat him.”

“She has good reflexes to dodge his attack at the start of the match like that.”

“And then to immediately follow up with a counter-attack? It might not have been a fluke.”

“We should keep an eye on her. Someone like her is definitely going to make it past the prelims.”

“It wouldn’t hurt.”

“Zoey Winters huh... I want you all to myself!”