The crowd of over a thousand people went wild as Zoey walked to the stage. Coach Scott and Zack followed her out with the crew from their gym. She was met with a bunch of boos and cheers at the same time. From her eyes, it looked like a majority of her fans were women while her haters were men. Zoey didn’t think too deeply about this, her goal wasn’t to be some strong figure for women or anything but just to fight. If some people saw her as such, she didn’t have a problem with it. But if some rumors or false allegations about her being a feminist or she thought that women were superior to men or something came out, she’d stomp them in the ground.

Zoey played into her villain persona very well. She ignored both her fans and haters on her way to the ring. Her eyes focusing solely on crushing the arrogant taekwondo magjistar in the ring. He gave a small smirk as he looked down on her. This smirk resembled a daemon’s smirk. The type of smirk that a daemon had when they were assured of their victory. Their opponent was nothing more than a fool or a joke for trying to fight them.

On entering the hexagonal cage, Zoey’s regular boxing gloves felt unfamiliar but at the same time familiar. Her cursed boxing gloves have come a long way from just being able to recover with some blood thanks to Victor’s inhumane teaching. She threw a few quick punches with a smile on her face. It really has been a while...

That menacing smile of hers made the crowd go crazy. Her fans began chanting her name once they saw that familiar smile. Were they going to see some blood? Was the current champion going to have something of his broken just like Zoey’s last opponent?!

“Hmph. I didn’t think you’d actually take me up on my challenge after forfeiting the tournament.” Cory chatted, seconds before the start of the fight.

“Fighting a champion sounded fun.” Zoey answered.

“Fun?” His face scrunched up. “Yea, you’re right. This will be fun.” He grinned.

“Ready!?” The referee shouted. The two fighters nodded. “Begin!”

The match started off with high intensity. Cory led with a high right kick aimed at Zoey’s face. Zoey brought her left fist to the right like a vicious hook. It landed accurately on his ankle and sent his leg flying to the side. A fierce grimace appeared on Cory’s face as he felt the pain in his ankle but he didn’t let the pain get to him as he followed up with another attack.

Cory’s body moved forward once his leg returned back to the ground. Zoey’s eyes looked on in interest. What was he going to do by coming close to her like this? She didn’t see how he would be able to kick from this distance. Was he going to come into her zone and fight her with his fists? He is the champion after all. Let’s see what surprises he has in store.

A fist came soaring towards her exposed face. Zoey blocked it with her open boxing glove and she suddenly felt more force than she was expecting. Her palm was sent flying backward as he completely opened up her guard and landed a painful kick straight to her face. The force of the kick knocked her into the cage wall and Cory did not let up this opportunity.

This fucker used mahna with that punch! He really did want to settle things with her from back then! This petty motherfucker still hasn’t gotten over that time in the library!? Well good! Zoey hasn’t forgotten how he and that wooden sword girl bullied Alexander and Lindsay. She’s learned a few new tricks since then too!

Cory attacked her with a constant flow of kicks while her back was against the cage. Zoey blocked and moved forward to get out of this kicking hell. With a heavy shove with her shoulder, Cory was knocked to the center of the ring but not without kicking her across the face with his toes, leaving a cut across her face. Now that she had a chance to breathe, Zoey was ready to pound this dickhead into the dirt.

Zoey’s body moved in constant motion. Similar to how a boxer would constantly move their feet even while staying still. Her entire body moved together as one. Cory had no interest in whatever the hell she was doing.

He threw a low kick to slow her movements only to realize that Zoey threw a punch at that exact moment as well. This punch filled Cory with a sense of danger that he only felt when facing daemons. His instincts were urging him to dodge this fist. Dodge this fist or else he’ll regret it.

A moment’s hesitation was all it took for Zoey’s fist to harshly scrape Cory’s side. Cory decided to listen to his instincts but not completely which is why he felt his side twisted up something horrible. The pain was unbelievable. Sweat dripped down his face with his expression scrunched up horribly. There was no mahna in that punch!

It was a completely natural punch that had no influence from mahna or magji! No normal punch can bring him such fear. Cory refused to believe this gully could possibly reach such strength in merely a few weeks. It had to be a trick or some sort of magji tool. It had to be!

“You were smart to dodge it.” Zoey complimented him.

The last time she threw that punch, it completely twisted up a daemon’s heart. While Zoey wasn’t going to go as far as to twist up Cory’s organs. Reaching skin wouldn’t cause any serious issues besides a little pain. She smiled at the arrogant asshole.

Fear and anger seized Cory’s heart. Combining those two main emotions, Cory began to control his mahna into completely covering his own body. None of his mahna leaked from his body nor was it visible by anyone but decent magjistars. He was going to completely dominate this gully if it was the last thing he did.

“You’re really brave!” Zoey couldn’t help but be shocked. In front of thousands of people, he was using mahna like this. Wasn’t he afraid that someone from the OM was watching from the stands?

The answer to that question didn’t take long to be answered as Cory rushed toward her. Kick after kick after kick after kick came her way. Head, throat, chest, legs, waist; nothing was spared from the wrath of his legs. Zoey blocked with everything she had, feeling the ache in her body from the impact of his attacks.

‘There isn’t anything special about the way he fights...’ Zoey analyzed Cory while blocking. ‘It's similar to my Offensive Boxing form that doesn’t think about defense and only focuses on offense.’

“I think I’ve seen enough.” Zoey muttered, catching Cory’s leg out of the air with her glove.

Her hand gripped around his ankle as she pulled him toward herself, ignoring the mahna he used to resist. She tossed him to the ground and then pounced on his back. Her arms snaking around his body until they ended up around his throat. Cory struck her side with his elbow but Zoey was made out of tougher stuff than that. Zoey’s hands locked together to complete the hold.

“Gu- Hak! Koff!” It only took three seconds of frantic panicking before Cory went limp and the referee called the match.

Zoey released her hold on Cory and stood up. The audience yelled so loudly at her victory that she almost covered her ears. Her arm was raised by the ref but she shook him off with an annoyed look on her face. She still had to play into her villain persona!

“Zoey Winters is the winner!” The referee announced with a mic that he pulled out from nowhere that Zoey knew.

Zoey wasn’t declared the champion or anything. This wasn’t a title match but just a callout. A friendly challenge that really was only for publicity's sake. She still got a lot of money by being called out by the champion though. Zoey refused to accept until Cory paid her a lot of money because it would be kind of stupid to accept a fight for nothing. He wanted to fight her. She wasn’t that interested in fighting him in the YFTL.

Of course, this still did wonders for her online presence which was being handled by herself, Coach Scott, and her social media manager, Angelica. It was Angelica's job to make sure she didn’t say or do anything stupid online, make her look good physically, mentally, and socially, and inform the public about anything she was involved in. Like interviews or fights and stuff.

After she defeated the champion in a fair fight, her fame increased even more. Now people from all over the world were interested in fighting her. Zoey was now the unofficial YFTL national champion. She was very interested in touring the world fighting people but she simply didn’t have the time to spare. Right now Zoey was only focused on the magji world, raising her skills, and surprisingly enough, school. It felt a bit impossible to try and juggle these three but her Endurance skill was rising like crazy because of her attempting this impossible.