Zoey’s next fight started off in a manner that she didn’t quite expect, nor did anyone else. Mike wasn’t anything like Tyler. He was the type of person she wanted to fight against but at the same time, didn’t. That was because right now he had her on the ground trying to submit her with a wrestling move or something! No one could blame Zoey as, how could anyone expect that Mike would start off the match by rushing in like a wild bull and wrapping around her waist! It was like trying to shake off dozens of children who are hell bent on staying attached to you at the waist and bringing you down to their level.

  So now Zoey was in her first real ground fight of her life. The scraps she had with delinquents where she pounded their faces in in the middle of dark alleyways wasn’t anything like facing off against a proper martial artist who knew what he was doing on the ground. Zoey knew her experience with grappling and ground fighting was basically zero. Which was why she did everything she could to stay on top and pound away at any visible skin on Mike’s body without letting him latch onto her or move his legs and arms around too much. She’s done a little research on martial artist that have experience in ground fighting.

  Her research may have consisted of watching several top 10 submission videos on Beetube but hey! Research was research! And she wouldn’t dare let anyone say that those videos didn’t help her. Because now Zoey knew exactly which limbs to not give to submission-style fighters when on the ground and how to prevent herself from being caught up in mistakes. Thankfully, Zoey was stronger than Mike. That also helped her from being put in a submission.

  Zoey got up from the ground and put some distance between her and Mike. His pale white skin, short nearly bald head, light brown eyes, and broad build made Zoey think of a typical wrestler. In a low stance with his arms opened wide, giving the impression that he was going in for another tackle. However, Zoey was ready this time. If he wanted to try that stunt again, he can expect a full-powered straight with her left fist.

“Don’t tell me your nervous.” He giggled, sweat dripping from his forehead.

“...” She didn’t respond and kept her feet light, ready for any type of sudden movement.

  He lurched forward with his body and frightened her. It was only a feint and that kind of pissed her off. Then straight after the feint, he did the same motion but this time actually throwing out a punch! Zoey hopped backwards and realized she needed to calm down. She couldn’t let him play mind games with her.

  However, her back was to the cage. She had nowhere to run anymore and he was grinning at her like a wild hyena who found an injured lioness all on her own. Mike didn’t give her the chance of escaping to the left or right. He followed her and kept her in that tight space with limited movements. Zoey’s anger was rising at the smiling bastard. Fine, he wanted to corner her?

‘Why don’t I show you what this cornered girl can do?’ Zoey stepped in and sent a quick jab.

  Her glove impacted against his forehead as he dove in low to tackle her legs. She slid backwards to the cage foot first but did not fall! Their position right now was incredibly awkward with Zoey on top of Mike’s back with him clutching his arms around her legs. Zoey used this chance to pound the right side of his ribs in with her boxing gloves while using her left hand to keep a good grip on him while in this position. Mike squirmed like a newly caught fish who refused to be the fisherman’s dinner. At one point, she got kicked in her left eye from how hard he was struggling. That kick caused her to instinctively cover her eye with the hand that was holding Mike down, giving him the chance to slip out and get behind her back. His legs wrapped around her stomach while his arms tried to strangle her by the neck!

  Zoey managed to put an arm in-between her neck and his arms before he could complete the hold. In this weird ass position, it was impossible for her to throw a good punch. Although, a good elbow wasn’t out of the question...

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“Guh!” Her elbow dug into his side.

  She continued to jab at his ribs with her elbow until she felt his grip weakening. It was at this point that Zoey started thinking something a little bit scary. If Mike was some scumbag delinquent or demon that she was facing off against right now. Zoey would actually be smiling at this turnaround. The pain he was feeling, the freedom she was regaining, the close call of actually losing because of her lack of experience, all of it tied in together as she broke free out of Mike’s hold and found herself staring at his exhausted face. Her fist was raised and she had a hard time from going all out and just beating his face in while he was defenseless.

  Even Zoey herself was shocked when she looked at her shaking fist. It was like two parts of her were fighting against each other. The part of her that demanded absolute freedom of expression and didn’t want to be hidden away anymore. And the part of her that refused to show the inner side of herself. To continue playing the friendly and likeable Zoey Winters that gave a shit about what others thought of her. This inner battle was temporarily put on hold as the Referee crouched over the stationary Mike and then gave her the win.

“Mike has forfeited the match! Zoey Winters is the winner!” He announced.

‘Hah?’ She wanted to fight more! But at the same time, she was glad it was over. Zoey didn’t know how much longer she would’ve been able to hold back against him.

“You were a great fighter.” She told him before leaving the ring.

“Heh... I didn’t stand a chance...” She heard him murmur to himself. “God damn it...!” He tightly balled up his fists and hit the mat.

  Zoey met the people from her gym and her family who all congratulated her while she was getting checked out by the MAT again. Despite being given the clear by the MAT, Coach refused to let her set up another match for tomorrow like he promised. To say that she was fucking pissed was an understatement. But she did understand why he didn’t want her doing what she was doing. Her close call with Mike in there when she almost got choked out only made him even more afraid for her.

So, like a healthy young girl would when being denied of something she wanted, Zoey spent most of the night punching her feelings out on the punching bag until she felt exhausted enough to sleep. The next morning, she sought out Alexander and Lindsay for the sole purpose of finding demons because of her opportunity of fighting was denied by Coach Scott. Ever since they got their butt kicked by those two of magicians, they’ve been going through a little training session of their own. It was hard for her to tell if they would be a match against the kicking guy and sword girl now because she doesn’t know what kind of training they went through. Right now, they didn’t look any different from usual except maybe they were a bit more confident? Lindsay had a bandage over the bridge of her nose while Alexander had one on his right cheek.

“It's a good thing you stopped by Zoey! Me and Lindsay were going to investigate the main part of Krey. We’ve heard of missing people reports from that area and wanted to check it out to see if a daemon is up there.” Alexander explained.

“The city? Wouldn’t magicians be all over if it was there then?” Zoey asked.

“A good number of the main city’s majistars are busy focusing their attention on other matters. Our job is only to investigate to see if it a daemon. If it is and it’s a daemon we can handle, deal with it. If we can’t retreat and report back to the OM. (Organization of Magjistars)” Lindsay stepped in.

“So, what if it isn’t a daemon but some serial killer or something?” Zoey wanted to know.

“Report it to the police.” Alexander answered.

“What if we can stop him?”

“If it's possible, do so. But we can’t use any magic.” Lindsay said.

“...Okay. Let’s go.” Zoey kept her thought to herself.

  Usually, you’d think that there would be some magical tool or spell that could wipe the memories of people so that magjistars could help people while using their powers without having to worry about normal people seeing them. But maybe that was only for the higher ups and most skilled majistars. There was no part inside Zoey’s brain that believed that there wasn’t a spell that messed with brains. If Lindsay could use ice magic and Alexander can use lighting magic, there had to be a mage that did brain magic or mental magic.

‘Now how in the fuck was I going to put up a fight against someone like that though?’ She wondered. ‘What if I upped my mental stat some more? It couldn’t hurt right?’ A little bit more studying was going to have to fill her nights coming soon.

“Great! Let’s head out!” Alexander was more than happy to look for some daemons.