Zoey’s first opponent was the heir of one of the major magjistar clans. A B-Grade Magjistar with numerous successful cases done and zero failures. With her current strength with the limiter on or off, Zoey could go toe to toe with anyone classified in B-Grade. The difference between B-Grade and A-Grade was significant. Depending on the daemon, a B-Grade could shrug off military firearms with ease while an A-Grade could tear through tanks.

Zoey knew she was strong but going up against a tank? She wasn’t at that level yet. Her skills and stats needed to rise a lot more for something like that. But these prodigies, she was excited to fight them. Especially after learning about Heart Oaths. There was still a bit about them that made her confused, like how to actually activate it.

It turns out, the oath responds to how much danger she places herself in. If she said that she would only fight using her grappling skills, her grappling would rise in effectiveness from her magji rising thanks to the risk and Heart Oath. Considering she was only facing humans this time around, Zoey didn’t think that would be that bad of an oath to make. But this fire prodigy wasn’t one that Zoey was going to use that oath on. She’d get blacker than she already was and probably turn into charcoal.

“You have to take him by surprise and finish him fast. Don’t forget, we’re sending a message here! Don’t hold back and make sure you look cool while taking him out!” Victor pulled out his phone and started recording.

“Stupid...” Zoey rolled her eyes as she looked down from the rooftop at the red-headed magjistar.

Zoey started stretching before moving in. The magjistar prodigies, she wondered how they compared to Lindsay and Alexander from a few months ago. Was she going to lose to any of them? She was excited to find out.

With two light hops, Zoey suddenly leaped from the top of the roof toward the flame magjistar. Her spiked boxing glove tore through the air like a fearsome hawk swooping down on its prey. The magjistar wasn’t B-Grade for nothing, his survival instincts perked up instantly as a massive cloud of flames erupted from his body. Zoey grinned as the flames licked her skin.

She coated her body in mahna while her gloves ignored the flames entirely. Her spiked fist caved in the prodigy’s face and sent him flying through an abandoned building. For some reason, daemons loved to make bases in places void of humans even though they preyed on them. It didn’t make much sense to Zoey. If she was a daemon, she’d set up base at an amusement park or a school or a bank! But she’d have to be pretty smart to avoid detection while eating humans at populated places like those.

Anyway! Zoey went over to the injured and flaming magjistar unable to stand to his feet. She grabbed him by the collar despite the flames doing their best to burn her to a crisp. He had bright eyes and a strange birthmark on his cheek shaped like a flower. Zoey walked him out of the building and back to the street so that Victor could get a better view of them.

Then she pulled her fist back, gathered manha in her arm, and swung it toward his vulnerable face. He tried blocking it by holding up his hands and releasing a massive amount of flames from his hands but Zoey blinked and appeared behind him. The magji tool she got from Lindsay and Alexander. Zoey’s fist smashed into the magjistar’s back and buried him into the city street.

He made no further movements. Zoey blew out a small flame at the tip of her hair as she walked over to Victor moving his lips, probably gloating about how she won. That guy she just fought wasn’t bad but he wasn’t good either. He didn’t seem like he knew how to fight at all. All he did was throw around his magji.

Zoey also didn’t gain much in that short beating. None of her skills leveled up and her stats didn’t rise either. She even had her limiter on during the fight. Was that guy really considered a prodigy?

“And that was my cute little apprentice holding back! She didn’t even need to use any magji techniques or her learned magji. We’re going to come after all the little prodigies one by one because you bastards pissed me off. So, expect us and prepare.” Victor stopped recording and put away his phone as he grinned at her.

“Let’s go to the next one already.” Zoey was fed up looking at his stupid smug face.

“That eager to show the magjistar world how great a teacher I am?” Victor asked.

“No. I’m eager to learn those techniques and get my single demand from you.” Zoey replied, crossing her arms.

“Same thing, same thing.” Victor waved off her lackluster reply. “Okay! The next one is...” Victor pulled out his phone again. “Here!”

Zoey was suddenly moved through space and maybe time before arriving in front of a black-haired girl wielding a bow and an old man with an even bigger bow on his back. Zoey dropped to her knees as she clutched her stomach. It wasn’t the first time Victor used that magji on her but it always fucked with her stomach. It was like riding a roller coaster but the most intense parts of the ride happened all at once.

“I’m recording! You can start!” Victor patted the old man on the shoulder and vanished in the same way she did to get here.

“Fuck you!” Zoey swore as she slowly rose back to her feet.

“Who are you...?” The bow girl asked, looking at Zoey with a guarded look.

“Sorry about this. Clench your teeth, okay?” Zoey’s nearly instantaneous jab caught the girl’s cheek and knocked her off her feet.

She flipped through the air like a certain hedgehog but recovered faster than Zoey thought she would. As she was flipping, she grabbed her arrows from the quiver on her back and fired multiple arrows at Zoey. Zoey was honestly speechless at the sight. That was actual skill and talent! Zoey knew she couldn’t do some shit like that!

Zoey bob and weaved the arrows that shot at her before rushing toward the archer. More and more arrows came until there came a point where she couldn’t just dodge them anymore without suffering some injuries. So, she blinked! Zoey appeared behind the girl and wrapped her arms around her throat, putting her in a properly locked sleeper hold.

The archer struggled with all her strength and magji as Zoey forced her to the ground still strangling her. Unlike normal chokeholds like everyone thinks of, this submission technique isn’t one that constricts a person’s airway. This was a blood choke, a submission technique that compressed one or both of a person’s carotid arteries and/or the jugular veins. If used incorrectly or for too long, it could lead to injury or death.

Zoey expected her struggling to stop after three seconds but it turns out, she wasn’t the only one with a magji tool. Before 3 seconds had passed, the archer stabbed herself with one of her arrows. Blood shot out from the wound as a liquid before quickly forming into a tentacle-like thing. After seeing this, Zoey immediately released her hold around the archer’s neck but didn’t retreat to gain some distance.

She reached down, wrapped her arms around the archer’s waist, and started lifting backward. The two of them came crashing back down to the ground as quickly as they rose into the air! Zoey made sure to slam the archer on her back instead of her neck. If she landed on her neck, she could become crippled or dead.

A german suplex! This technique wasn’t taught by Zoey’s grappling teacher but something Zoey learned through watching various wrestling moves on Beetube. After slamming the archer into the ground, Zoey rushed to her feet and stood over the archer who had multiple blood tendrils flailing around her body. Zoey brought her guard up as she stood over the archer before unleashing multiple punches from above her into her face. Left, right, left, right, left, right, still.

Multiple blood tendrils whipped at Zoey’s skin and caused it to tear easily. Using mahna to cover her body was useless against it but luckily the girl wasn’t able to control the tendrils. They just whipped and attacked on their own. With Zoey’s defensive guard, they could only slash at her arms and chest.

When the archer was knocked out, the tendrils also stopped responding. Maybe it would’ve been better if Zoey targeted her jaw instead... If she landed a good punch on her jaw, it could’ve shaken up her brain and briefly knocked her unconscious. Something to note for the future...

Zoey took out her journal and wrote down a mention of this. Just as Zoey finished up, Victor came over and teleported her away. It was one thing to let her know before teleporting but it was another thing to suddenly do it just after she got done fighting! Once she got her stomach under control, Zoey swung at where she expected Victor to be standing with all her strength and limiter removed.

A person’s body went soaring through the air and Zoey instantly realized something wasn’t right... She looked up and noticed that Victor was standing behind her instead of on the side of her like he usually was when they teleported.

“You fucking knew...” Zoey muttered.

“Did I?” Victor grinned. “You finished off your opponent too fast, I didn’t even get the chance to record this instant knock out!”