“Vio... team up with me..” An injured female figure pleaded.

“I should help put you out of your misery. Give me a good reason to not feast on your flesh to make myself stronger.” The male’s tongue flicked out of his mouth revealing that it was forked and long.

“If you haven’t forgotten, I'm a Poison Daemon! I will make sure with my dying breath to poison you with everything I have left. And we both know that no one will be willing to save a daemon on the verge of death.” She glared at him.

“But why should I team up with you? Grouping is for those weak magjistars. As a daemon, you should have more pride!”

“Are you stupid? When has pride ever helped a daemon? Maybe it's because the humans group up and work together that they have the advantage over us! Have you ever thought about that?! It's because of how they cooperate that we are the ones forced into hiding while they freely walk amongst the humans!”

This caused the male daemon to momentarily reconsider his previous beliefs.

“What benefits will there be if I teamed up with you?” He got straight to the point.

“Hunting humans will be easier, defending ourselves from magjistars will be a piece of cake, and becoming stronger will be no problem the longer we live! We won’t betray each other for the smallest benefits or fight for food. There are millions of humans! There is no reason why we can’t share half of that million together. Don’t let greed blind us and we can flip our standing around! Magjistars will be the ones hiding from us and we will walk around with the humans.” Her voice radiated with magji.

“I’ll join you but I won’t be bossed around by a pathetic daemon like yourself.”

“Whatever. Who cares about who is on top or not? Do you think the magjistars that hunt us down argue and fight over who is in charge? Quit being so simple-minded fool! But thank you for hearing me out.” She grabbed his shoulder for stability.

“I’m only doing this because of how great you made it sound. If I find out that you spoke nothing but lies, I will leave immediately.”

“That’s fine. Leaving is perfectly acceptable if us grouping up together doesn’t work out in both of our favor.” Poison told him.

“Follow me. I’ve been using this place to hide from magjistars. With all that blood your leaking, you’ll lead someone straight here.” He brought her inside the bar he stole from a human.

“Thanks, Vio.” She slowly walked inside, clutching her wounds.

“I don’t feel comfortable teaming up on a single girl.” One of the gangsters said as they surrounded her.

“No one is making you, pussy. Go back and tell Miles that you didn’t want to rough up a girl.” The other sneered.

“You know Miles has gone crazy. He’s been spending money left and right to get this girl in his hands. He’d break my shins or some shit if I told him something like that.” Zoey did not know this.

Miles had delinquents searching all over for her. If he would’ve told her, she would’ve happily revealed herself. This way, Zoey could say that she wasn’t crazy for fighting all these guys. These guys were crazy to fight with her. Right? It kind of makes sense.

“Then get the girl and don’t get fucked up.” They closed in on her together.

Two in the front and two in the back. Maybe choosing this dark alleyway in the middle of the day wasn’t the smartest choice. Thankfully none of them seemed to be holding any weapons. That made things a bit easier. Zoey decided to not make the first move this time. She had some training to do in preparation for the fight or fights on Monday. Which was pure evasion! Evading every fucking thing she could until she could land a good blow and finish the fight.

Zoey wanted to do the complete opposite and go full offense but this was her first real official fight! If she fucked up by giving in to her desires and lost somehow, she’d never forgive herself. She didn’t even want to think of how Coach would react or how the others at the gym would. All that training just for her to lose in her first real fight. She’d want to kill herself.

Zoey dashed forward towards the closest delinquent in front of her. He readied himself to grab her, thinking that she was attempting to escape. Seeing that he left his stomach and face so unguarded, Zoey couldn’t help but make a small mistake and accidentally knock him off his feet with an uppercut. The sound of his body falling to the ground unconscious was enough to place some reasonable fear into the other 3. They were probably thinking that this chick wasn’t wanted for no reason.

“Sorry. That was an accident.” She apologized, hoping that they would go back into aggro mode and attack her.

But nope, these were real humans and not video game mobs. They grabbed objects in the alleyway and grouped up together. One held a pipe, one picked up an abandoned bicycle, and the last one grabbed a cinderblock. Making this fight a bit more annoying but a lot more exciting. In fact, one of the thugs thought it was confusing why she wasn’t running away even though her back was to the exit in the alleyway and there was no one blocking her way out.

‘Alright, you fuckers! Come get some!’ Zoey gestured her boxing glove at them, beckoning them to come over.

“Fucking psycho Boxer Chick...” Pipe Dude took the first step forward.

He swung the pipe like a baseball bat, aiming for Zoey’s body like she was a pinata. Zoey leaned her body back just enough for it to swipe the air in front of her, she considered slugging him across the jaw for his miss but Bicycle Dude came in just in time. A bicycle was thrown at her from the side, forcing her to hop to the side unless she wanted to get hit. The bicycle crashed against the wall behind her as Pipe Dude and Cinderblock Dude attacked her at the same time.

With her back to the wall, Zoey had no choice but to take these two head-on. She slipped forward by ducking her head low and bringing her arms below their vision. The pipe went sailing over her head while the cinderblock never left Cinderblock Dude’s hand. Zoey’s gloves covered their faces as she grabbed their heads and brought them down headfirst into the pavement. To make sure that they were down, she gave them an extra punch to the face.

“You’re a goddamn freak...” The last standing delinquent said to her. “Just leave already. We aren’t strong enough to take someone like you down.” He dropped his hands.

“Hmm...” This was disappointing. Zoey wanted a bit more exp for her skills but if he wanted to give up, she couldn’t stop him.

She shrugged and walked out of the alleyway. Before those guys came over to start trouble with her, Zoey was on her way to try out for track. Hopefully, she still had time to try out. This would probably be her last chance to make friends her sophomore year. Zoey started jogging her way to the school’s track in the back after putting her boxing gloves in her bag.

Once she arrived, she noticed plenty of other girls hanging around on the track field, on the stands, or near the coaches. Zoey made her way over to the group by the coaches and like a ghost included herself in the group.

“For those wanting to try out for running, you’ll stay here with me. For girls interesting in jumping, head over to Coach Smith. And those that aren’t interested in running or jumping but throwing, you will be with Coach Todd.” She explained.

Zoey felt like running would help out her more in a fight. Jumping and throwing weren’t things she did often in a fight. The only things she threw were her fists! So, she stayed with this lady coach along with a majority of the other girls. Few split off to throwing while a good amount went to jumping.

“Looks like we have a lot of runners this season. I hope you all aren’t trying out for the same positions or this’ll be pretty awkward.” She laughed.

Some girls laughed along with her but not Zoey. She planned on being a 100m sprinter. It fit perfectly with her fighting style. Getting to her opponent as fast as possible and punching them into pieces. It looked like the 100m runners were the most contested spot among those trying out today.

“Alright girls. Since there are so many of you, we’re going to have to see what you girls got. But don’t panic if the 100m isn’t for you. We have plenty of more positions you girls can try out for. If you feel particularly confident, you can participate in more than one event.” She smiled.

Zoey lined up behind the other girls waiting for her chance to sprint the 100m on the track. Nine girls lined up side by side to start running. She was one of the last to line up so, she had plenty of time to see exactly what she was supposed to do in a sprint besides just run. The girls getting ready to sprint seemed to know exactly what to do because they all had the same starting motions before it began. That was something that Zoey was going to need to learn when she joined the team. With the Box, Zoey doubted that any of the other girls stood a chance against her. Right now, she was stronger than some guys in strength alone. And most of those guys were fighters or worked out regularly.

“Alright. Next nine, move your tushies on up!” It was Zoey’s turn to go.