"It took me a damn long time to find you...” Zoey stood at the entrance of the door with a smile.

In front of her sat the daemon she was searching up and down for this entire time. A naked lava-like daemon sitting on the melted remains of what used to be a teacher’s desk. Standing in front of the daemon like this made Zoey unsure if it was because of the heat radiating from the daemon that she was starting to sweat a bit, her Endurance skill catching up to her from all the running she did, or nervousness at fighting someone like this. Zoey had Terrifying Aura on full blast and he or she was simply smiling at her.

“If I knew you were coming, I would’ve given directions.” A woman’s voice came from the daemon’s mouth.

“You didn’t hear the yelling?” Zoey momentarily took this chance to catch her breath. She really was about to lose her mind earlier looking for this woman.

“Humans scream all the time. You’d be surprised how often I hear them. I just enjoy it the same way you humans enjoy music.” She explained.

“Stupid question I guess, asking a daemon something like that.” Zoey realized.

“Wasn’t the brightest.” She smiled.

“Are you the strongest daemon in the South Wing?” Zoey was ready to get down to business now.

“Probably?” A confident smile radiated from the daemon despite her less than honest answer.

“I’m probably the strongest magjistar in the South Wing.” Zoey boasted. “If you defeat me, you shouldn’t have much of an issue with the others.”

“Then I guess I should kill you fast, so I can enjoy the others.” In the middle of her sentence, she raised her palm as a spiraling column of flames shot toward Zoey.

“Where would the fun be in getting things done so quickly?” Zoey swayed her upper body out of the way, allowing the flames to directly burn through the window behind her. “I’m the type to hold back my strength until it's forced out of me. It works perfectly with my magji.” Zoey explained. “Wanna see?” Zoey dashed straight toward the daemon.

“Hmph. Unless your magji counters mine, I don’t see why it matters.” Lava Lady held both palms up, a barrier of fire surrounded her body as she stared into Zoey’s eyes.

“My magji is called Combo Magji.” Zoey’s daemonic boxing gloves shapeshifted into vicious hounds. “Combo Volume I: Combo Time!” Zoey brought down her fist on the barrier.

The impact of Zoey’s fist shook the barrier but besides that didn’t do much in terms of damage. Lava Lady eyebrow rose in interest. It looked like her heat barely affected this magjistar for some reason. Lava Lady never heard of a magji called Combo Magji. Perhaps it was something that had resistance toward heat and fire.

“Combo Magji isn’t the secret to why I can handle your heat so well.” Zoey smiled before throwing another punch at the barrier. “Combo Magji gradually increases my power every time I land an attack.” A rapid flurry of punches struck against the barrier. The barrier violently rippled as if it was reaching its limit soon.

“Interesting...” Lava Lady muttered, if this keeps up, her barrier would definitely break.

“But I have a very short time frame in where if I don’t land an attack within a certain period of time, all the power I built up is reset back to zero.” Zoey explained, releasing a hail of precise punches at the barrier aimed at the same spot on the barrier.

“You...” Lava Lady didn’t understand why this girl was explaining how her magji worked...

It couldn’t be that this human was a fool. No, she refused to believe this girl was simply dumb and was just telling her information that could be used against her. There had to be something she was missing. Lava Lady could tell the girl wasn’t lying but if she wasn’t lying then what was the purpose of telling her this?

Could it be that she was confident in winning even after telling her the weakness of her magji? The human was looking down on her?! Lava Lady didn’t think it was this either though. Sure, the human had a smile on her face while she was breaking down her barrier, but she could tell that wasn’t a smile born from arrogance or confidence but excitement. It mimicked her own expression right now.

“I am a daemon born from a serial arsonist. The suffering of the victims from his spree gave birth to me. My magji allows me to create, manipulate, and become fire.” Lava Lady explained.

After her words, she felt a qualitative boost in how she could use her magji. The barrier that was on the verge of shattering could now firmly stand against the girl’s punches. But Lava Lady knew she could do more than this. Why would she just sit and allow the human to gain the upper hand? Lava Lady opened a hole in her barrier as the human threw a punch before quickly closing it, trapping the fist of the human inside the barrier.

“Oi! I didn’t know the Heart Oath worked for daemons too!” Zoey placed both of her feet on top of the barrier as she continued hammering with her free arm. “Why didn’t he fucking tell me that!?” Zoey’s anger rose as she put a little more force into her punches.

“Heart Oath...” It was the first time Lava Lady heard this term.

It looks like that gradual increase in power couldn’t be underestimated, even after the boost in her magji, her barrier still couldn’t hold out against the human’s attacks for long. But it wasn’t that big of a deal for Lava Lady. Defense wasn’t her forte in the first place. It was an all-out offensive!

Lava Lady flame barrier shattered on its own and from her palms, two spinning flames sped toward the exposed Zoey. At this distance, it was basically impossible for the magjistar to dodge! Especially when her magji was boosted past its usual limits. Lava Lady grinned, expecting to see the magjistar burned to ash or severely weakened.

“Heh...” Zoey suddenly grinned as the flames smashed into her body and sent her to the entrance of the classroom.

“You really aren’t bad at all for a human...” Lava Lady felt conflicted but at the same time, a little excited.

“Fire is not a good match with my personality... I can feel myself losing control a little bit...” A maniacal grin slowly formed on Zoey’s face as bright purple flames blazed from her body.

The two hound heads licked their lips after devouring the tasty magji and giving it to their wielder. It looked as if Zoey’s excitement was shared directly with them as they looked quite similar to her. They couldn’t wait to taste more of the daemon’s magji for themselves. Maybe if they were lucky, the daemon was hiding something even stronger.

“I’ll be going all out from now on. Let’s see if you can keep up.” Lava Lady informed as she similar burst into flames like Zoey.

Her flames were orange and began to light up the entire classroom. High-rising flames that reached the roof of the classroom boxed them. No way in. No way out. The two flame-users locked eyes. One seemed to be struggling to keep it together while the other was analyzing the new state of their opponent. Zoey stomped the ground before disappearing.

“Am I really that pretty for you to be staring so hard?” Zoey suddenly appeared in front of the daemon.

Her fist was already in motion from before she moved to land itself in the gut of the daemon. Lava Lady was surprised at the girl’s speed but managed to block the attack. At least, that’s what she thought until the weight of the girl’s fist made itself known. Zoey’s fist launched Lava Lady off of her feet and knocked her through the classroom wall into an entirely different room.

Lava Lady managed to negate most of the damage from the punch by blocking but the power of that human’s punch was a lot stronger than she thought... Is that combo magji really that powerful? She had to quickly reset the boost or kill this human before she vastly overpowers herself. However, it looked like Zoey had no plans of allowing her to do so as she leaped into the new classroom with her fist brought back, ready to strike Lava Lady from above.

Lava Lady placed her palms side by side as she began creating a mass of fire to shoot. Zoey’s mad grin was still etched on her face with the purple flames blazing from her body. She didn’t even think to block the magji attack coming right toward her and took it head-on. Lava Lady spat out blue blood as Zoey’s fist planted itself in her stomach while Zoey’s clothes were scorched into ashes.

Zoey didn’t give the clothes a second thought as she stood over the daemon. As she rose up over the injured daemon, her foot came crashing down on the daemon’s stomach. Over and over and over again until she found herself laughing. The daemonic gloves were more than happy to lick and eat at any blood or flames coming from Lava Lady, fueling Zoey’s uncontrollable flame magji even more. The surrounding orange flames slowly became purple.

“Hey, hey, hey, isn’t this really bad?” Zoey smiled to herself. “Do you think we can handle being like this for long?” Her grin briefly disappeared. “Let’s work it out of our system as soon as possible. We’re already crazy as is. We don’t need to be more crazy.” Zoey went back to grinning. “No more eating fire magji, noted.” Zoey bonked the heads of the gloves.