The Hanma assassin vanished from Zoey’s sight. It looks her plan for them to suddenly become best buds didn’t work out. Maybe she just needed to beat him hard enough. She knew of who particular alien prince needed three whole arcs to become friends with the protagonist’s crew. Maybe this was their second arc right now.

“Let’s see if you can force me to show at least 50% of my true strength.” Zoey activated her protagonist-like Heart Oath.

Zoey felt a large majority of her strength being shackled by the world’s magic. She couldn’t help but grin a little as she barely dodged the assassin’s blade coming toward her throat from the floor. He quickly regained control over the blade that was meant to decapitate her and slashed down to split her into two. His killing intent was much better this time around compared to the first time he tried killing her. If she compared the two, this time would be like he was actually trying to kill her with everything she got while the first time was simply testing the limits of his own power and if she happened to die during that, so be it.

Slash after slash, slice after slice, the assassin gave his all into killing her. Zoey would’ve fully focused all her attention on defense but that wasn’t really her style unless she wanted to show off. She was going to enjoy this fight, unlike their first one. She had to deal with those bratty twins before they lied to the OM about what happened to them.

Since she could enjoy this fight with no reservations, Zoey did exactly that. Each sword strike was completely countered by her fist. If her strength wasn’t restricted, she’d even be coming out on top with each clash but since she was restrained by the heart oath, she was pushed back in each clash. That didn’t stop her but simply forced her to change up her technique. If hitting the sword wasn’t working, she’d hit the person using the sword on her.

Zoey targeted his wrists, arms, and shoulders with sharp piercing jabs. The jabs caused a momentary disruption to his flow of movements allowing Zoey to throw more punches. In nearly a minute, the two finally broke away from each other. Zoey sporting some bloody slashes on her body that couldn’t be avoided entirely while the Hanma Clan assassin’s arms could be seen shaking.

“You definitely got stronger.” Zoey honestly complimented him.

“Don’t insult me! Do you think I need your pity?!” He suddenly shouted at her.

Zoey jumped from the seriousness in his voice. She didn’t realize this was such a big deal to him. Maybe failing to kill her back then ruined his perfect assassin record in his clan and since then his clan started to treat him like shit or something. Zoey guessed he must have been treated as an assassin prince since young and losing to her with his life intact must have been the first time he’s ever faced failure.

‘Am I in an anime now? This is pretty fucking cool.’ Zoey suddenly realized his background.

“Fine. I won’t compliment you but if you want me to take you seriously, you need to push me harder. I need to feel like I'm in the boundary between life and death.” Zoey decided to give the little prince what he wanted.

“Still mocking me, huh? I’m not even worth using your full power for.?” Blood split from biting his lower lip too hard. “Ghost Volume I: Terror of the Night!” He turned all ghostly before disappearing completely.

“Magji Technique: Mahna Gathering Bomb!” Zoey’s fist glowed bright blue as she calmly waited for the incoming attack.

There! Zoey ducked as she felt the overwhelming amount of killing intent radiating off of the assassin’s body behind her. She blinked behind him and grabbed him by the neck before unleashing a devastating blow to the center of his back. The assassin dropped to his knees from the horrific pain but gritted his teeth to prevent himself from crying out.

If she was just sparring, she would give him time to get up. But, he did want her to take him seriously... So, maybe just this once she can let loose and go a little street. Zoey didn’t spend all that time fighting those delinquents for nothing. She picked up a few dirty tricks to incorporate into her fighting style.

Zoey punt kicked the ninja in the ribs like she was a punter from a football team. This time he couldn’t help but cry out in pain. The dark side of Zoey that craved violence and brutality screamed at her in pleasure. She wouldn’t admit it but that felt really good. It was so unsportsmanlike. So disrespectful. Just fucking raw!

That brutal side of her was begging for her to continue and Zoey had half a mind to listen to it. If she knew a thing about arrogant rival characters, it took complete domination for them to accept defeat. This was similar but she didn’t feel like this was it. There was still fight left in his eyes. He still planned to fight her in this condition.

So, she gave in just a little bit. Zoey tried kicking him again only for her foot to pass right through his body. She frowned as he soon disappeared once again. Unknown to the assassin prince, Zoey performed a little trick with her Mahna Gathering Bomb technique. A little trick that was going to surprise the fuck out of him.

‘I trained so hard just to be toyed around like this...?’ Hayato refused to believe it.

Every night since his defeat, he meditated exactly on how to defeat this woman! He went through their fight from start to finish, meditating on what he should’ve done differently. How he could’ve come out on top. It turns out, that those battles were nothing more than his imagination. This accursed woman was somehow stronger than he thought.

Hayato bled, sweated, and even cried in his efforts to gain enough strength to defeat this woman. She ruined everything! His position in the clan was no longer stable. The elders called him a spoiled pompous brat that didn’t know how to kill at all! Those fakes! All throughout his childhood, they praised him head to toe but he makes one little mistake and now he’s a disappointment?!

Just because he’s a genius means he’s not allowed to lose or make mistakes?! No one is perfect! But I'll show those old foggies... I’ll show them a damn prodigy of the Hanma Clan... Why am I fighting with this woman in the first place? I’m an assassin! Not some fool!

Hayato limped away from the woman. If his assassination fails, he falls back to strike again another time. He shouldn’t stay and fight. That’s how he’s taking so much damage. Falling into the pace of this damned woman with her freakish strength. Not even his father hit him as hard during training as she does.

Several ghostly arms grabbed the hilts of the daemonic blade on his back. Hayato wanted to see how she would defend against a strike like this! All these swords attacking at the same time? Even he would have to retreat if he went up against something like this.

‘He’s sure taking his sweet time...’ Zoey thought. ‘Oh, here he comes.’

The assassin prince took the first initiative to charge but Zoey rushed in faster. With her fist slung back like a strung back bow, she plunged it straight into the ninja’s gut. He didn’t even get the chance to speak as blood, spit, and maybe vomit spew from his mouth, staining his mask. Zoey was disgusted but didn’t hold it against him. He managed to bring out at least 20% of her true strength.

“How...?” He dropped to his knees, dropping all his swords to the floor next to him.

“If you become my friend, I might be willing to tell you what you need to work on to get stronger.” Zoey offered like a temptress.

“F-Fine...” Hayato gave up his pride as an opponent.

“Great! I was expecting us to fight at least two more times before you finally gave in, you know? I guess whatever training you did to prepare wasn’t as good as you thought. What better way to get stronger than by the person constantly beating your butt? I mean, I couldn’t do it but you’re a better person than me since you're willing to give it a try. I’d rather stubbornly keep training on my own until I defeated them with my own power but I guess I can’t really talk since I got Victor as my teacher. With him as my teacher, all of my efforts are basically credited to him since he’s one of the strongest magjistars alive. It’s bullshit but I get it.” As Zoey chatted, she took out his phone from his pocket.

“Guh...” Hayato moaned in pain.

“Ah, let me get that off of you before you suffocate or something.” Zoey took off his mask and used his thumbprint to open his locked phone.

She then put in her contact info, invited him to the Study Group, and left a cute picture of herself as the image for her contact. Now that they were officially friends, Zoey needed to ask a question.

“Since we’re friends now, Hayato, how attached are you to your clan?” Zoey suddenly asked.

“???” Hayato could breathe easier now but was still in pain.

“Like I don’t really see the point of a clan of assassins in today’s time. Because to me, it seems like you’re only assassinating magjistars and not daemons. And if you were assassinating daemons, that would make your clan rather pointless since every magjistar tries to exterminate daemons. If magjistars have differences they need to settle, they should settle it out between each other. Not hire magic ninjas to solve their disputes for them. You get what I'm saying?”

“Mrhm?” Hayato didn’t understand what she was getting at? Did she hate his clan?

“I’m going to personally destroy your clan if any more assassins come after me since I don’t really see the point of there being a clan meant solely for assassinations.” Zoey explained it to him simply.

“!!!” Hayato couldn’t believe what he was hearing!

Not even he was bold enough to say he could destroy a magji clan! That’s a feat he wouldn’t even attempt in the future at the pinnacle of his power! Not to mention the amount of heat he would get from the OM from doing such a thing. They’d bring down hell on his head for even doing something like that. You don’t just exterminate a magji clan. It hasn’t been done ever! Maybe if they were known to be colluding with daemons or something but besides that, Hayato didn’t believe there would be a reason to.

“So, if you have any loved ones you don’t want horribly injured, tell me beforehand. I’ll let you know at the time when I'm going to do it. But I can’t right now since I'm still too weak. Just something to think on in the future.” Zoey grinned.

“Leave me...” Hayato needed time to think and be alone. He just lost and didn’t need to be showered in this emotional confusion while his pride was still injured.

“Okay. Talk to you later new friend. I’m heading to the gym. If you hear any loud noises, I'm probably fighting a really strong daemon or something. Come check it out once you're feeling better just in case I die.” Someone had to report her death if she did somehow die.