“She’s gotten stronger since the last time we saw her.” Timmy chuckled.

“Tch, I guess she didn’t beat Lea by luck.” Kara chewed her fingernail.

“You guys are freaking out about nothing. You really think she would attack us all together when we won the Annual Meeting against her team?” Cassie scoffed at the thought of it.

“If any of you dare intervene in our fight, I'll kill you all first.” Jacky muttered.

Jacky was the unspoken strongest magjistar student from their class at Supreme Magjistar High. The others didn’t publicly acknowledge it but they knew in their hearts that they stood no chance against her in a fair fight. She wore a mouth mask designed with razor-sharp teeth across it, a black cropped tank top, and a long navy-blue skirt that hid everything beneath her waist. In her hand, she held a spiked metal bat dyed with the blood of numerous daemons.

Recently, Zoey Winters and Victor have been all the hype in the magjistar community. Two troublemakers on a spree to simply cause trouble and general havoc for no good reason. Official reports say that Victor was upset that he couldn’t show off his new apprentice at the Annual Meeting of Young Majistars. But this was difficult for everyone but the top magjistars to believe. Victor was something of a superstar within the magjistar community. An existence that you can only look up to, not relate with or understand.

Generally, it was a mystery to everyone why Victor and his apprentice were going around being nuisances for discernably no reason. Most of the young talents went into hiding once numerous well-known magjistar prodigies were recorded easily being taken out by Zoey. The straw that broke the camel’s back for the prodigies was when Zoey took out all of her teammates from the Annual Meeting of Young Magjistars by herself. By the end of the battle, she looked injured but the smile on her face made it hard to tell if she was hurt at all during the battle.

“Can’t I get a fucking minute to rest?” Zoey suddenly appeared in the middle of the classroom with Victor.

“You get stronger when pushed harder for some reason.” Victor realized this over the course of their relationship. “Are you sure you’re not part of an alien race known for fighting and transforming into giant apes during the full moon?” Victor had to question.

“Haah...” Zoey didn’t bother answering such a stupid question. “Die.”

“You’re mine!” Jacky suddenly appeared behind Zoey, her spiked bat swinging down to crack Zoey’s skull like a melon.

Zoey didn’t expect to be attacked out of the blue like this despite doing it to people for the past few days. She blocked with her spiked boxing gloves before being sent flying out of the classroom. This masked girl was a lot stronger than she looked. Her arms were thinner than twigs but strong enough to overpower her with her limiter on.

“You aren’t nearly as tough as the videos make you out to be.” Jacky grinned as she swaggered outside the school building.

“I’m only using 10% of my full power right now. So, you better take me out while you still can.” Zoey smirked, slowly getting up from the ground.

Zoey wiped some blood from her lips and rose her arms up, getting in a standard boxing stance. She was excited to see just how powerful this Heart Oath would be. It was a stereotypical anime villain type of thing. Where they hold back their power before eventually releasing it all when they’re in trouble or get really really pissed. Some protagonists also do this but Zoey couldn’t really see herself as some sort of protagonist. She wasn’t some goody good even though she did do good. But she wouldn’t say she was evil or an anti-hero either.

“This is probably the first time I've ever been looked down on by someone my age...” Jacky chuckled while spinning her bat.

“Are you gonna talk me to death or are we going to fight?” Zoey tapped her wrist as if an invisible watch was there.

“You asked for it!” A flare of black lightning shot out from Jacky’s body.

Zoey couldn’t help but be a bit surprised to see multiple daemons appear from the places where the lightning struck. A snake daemon taller than a bear standing on its hind legs, a winged pig daemon with a slot in the middle of its back, and a small child-like daemon with sharp claws and multiple swords sticking out of its body. This girl was a summoner. It was Zoey’s first time facing up against someone like this...

“Don’t piss yourself now.” Jacky spoke into Zoey’s left ear.

Zoey ignored the voice as she rushed toward the snake. It hissed before spitting a large wad of green venom toward her. Wide and thick, blowing her way through this was impossible if she wanted to keep the skin on her body. So, she jumped up into the sky by coating mahna all over her body, easily making herself a target for Jacky and the daemon pig.

The pig came flying toward her while Jacky appeared above her swinging her bat down. Zoey blinked and appeared above Jacky. With a slowly growing grin on Zoey’s face, she pulled her fist backward. The wind began to twist and distort in an unnatural way. Multiple thoughts danced inside Zoey’s head during this time.

‘Can she survive something like this with only 10% of my true power?’

‘I never tried something like this on a human before besides Victor...’

‘What if she dies?’

‘She’s pretty strong for a delinquent...’

‘She will survive.’

‘Won’t she?’

It was the second time in Jacky’s life that she’s ever felt an instinctive fear like this before. All the hair on her body rose up in fright as her body started to shiver. Jacky didn’t understand what was behind her right now, but she did understand that she may have looked down on Zoey Winters a bit more than she should have. Now she had to reveal one of her hidden aces to survive whatever the hell was behind her that sent a fear of death through her.

“Hidden Daemon Summoning: Hell Shadow!” Jacky cut across her palm with her spiked bat.

From the inside of her blood, darkness itself crawled out with uncontrollable hunger and malice. It pulled Jacky from the air straight to the ground, crashing in a giant mass of dust and rock. Both it and Zoey stared at each other. The human-shaped shadow seemed to mimic Zoey’s own grin as several giant black tendrils shot out from its body.

“Now I really have no reason to hold back!” Zoey was excited to see the full potential of Twisting Force Lv13 at 10% power.

When Zoey’s fist made contact with the first tendril, it was instantly eviscerated into nothingness. There was no change in the outcome even when dozens of tendrils were attacking at the same time. The wind itself turned into a spiraling drill under the control of Zoey’s Twisting Punch. Her body spun round and round until she reached the summoned daemon.

“KREEEEEE!!!” Zoey’s fist spared no mercy when reaching the body of the shadow daemon.

It drilled straight through the body of the creature until it was reduced to nothing more than just a shiny black magji shard. After landing back on the ground, Zoey couldn’t keep herself straight. She wobbled back and forth completely dizzy holding her head.

‘Okay, maybe next time, don’t spin yourself like a hundred times... Fucking idiot...’ Zoey cursed at herself.

“You killed an A-Grade daemon like that...?” Jacky was stunned speechless.

“A-Grade? But it felt weaker than a D-Grade daemon...” Zoey was confused as well.

“You...! Fine! I admit my loss!” Jacky stormed off into the distance, jumping on the pig daemon and flying away.

“A summoner weaker than their own daemon will never be able to use its full potential.” Victor shared.

“Could I summon those daemon things?” Zoey suddenly wondered.

“I didn’t take you for the type to leave others to do your work for you.” Victor grinned.

“Shut up, you dick. I was just wondering...” Pet daemons would make things easier for her... Easy doesn’t help raise skill levels and stats.

“Wanna finish the rest off?” Victor soon asked.

“Like hell I do. If they were fine just watching me earlier, I doubt they wanna fight me now. Right?” Zoey turned to the three inside the classroom huddled by the wall she was knocked through.

“I don’t know. They might stand a chance now that you're injured.” Victor smirked.

Zoey didn’t miss the light in their eyes after they heard she was injured. Which wasn’t true at all. She was just dizzy. There’s a difference from having the world be all spinny to hurting all over.

“We’ll be famous!” Cassie fired a torrent of water from her water gun in the shape of a rifle at Zoey.

Zoey couldn’t avoid the speed of the water and was shot.

“Did you kill her...?” Timmy questioned.