“You’re that one girl. Victor’s apprentice, right? The one that went around humiliating those prodigies from the Connate Faction?” The Fire Tiger girl spoke up for the rest of them.
“I guess?” Zoey guessed there were factions in the magji world, but Victor didn’t really tell her much about them.
She definitely didn’t know that the prodigies she was put against were specifically from that faction only. Neither did she know exactly how many factions there were. Zoey felt a headache coming, Victor didn’t tell her much about the magji world politics. Unless she included how the top heads in the OM wanted her dead, captured, or gone, then she didn’t know too much about anything else.
“You guess?” Teen Magjistar B threw her a look.
“I don’t know what you heard about me, but I have only been in the magji world for a few months. I don’t know anything about factions, who's in them, or anything like that.” Zoey explained, feeling a little pissed and embarrassed.
If Victor just told her all this, maybe she wouldn’t have to look stupid in front of these people. Now all of them were looking at her like she was an unfathomable creature. Zoey was starting to wish she could turn invisible and fly away like Little Imp. It’d be a quick and easy escape that wouldn’t be awkward at all.
“I can help with that!” Fire Tiger eagerly spoke. “As a favor for telling you all this juicy stuff, can you please escort us to a Squad Leader? We’re a little in over our heads.” She admitted.
“Sure.” Zoey thought it was a fair trade even though she had no fucking clue where she was right now.
“I think it would be best if I was the one to explain about the Connate Factions.” Teen Magjistar C spoke up. “I’m Tiara Shadows, a part of the Shadow Clan.” Tiara introduced herself by performing a spell and controlling the shadows around them by waving around.
“Shadow Clan can do shadow magji, and they inherit it from their parents?” Zoey guessed.
“...” Tiara narrowed her eyes at her. “Are you sure you don’t know about the factions?”
“Lucky guess?” Zoey responded. ‘I’m a little fucking slow, but I'm not braindead, you dumb bitch.’
“Well, the Connate Faction is made up of several clans with connate magji. There’s the Flame Clan, Ocean Clan, Shadow Clan, Healing Clan, Lightning Clan, Muscle Clan, and more. Most of the strongest magjistars in the OM are from the Connate Faction. If you can avoid it, you should try and not get on the bad side of any magjistars from the Connate Faction.” She proudly finished.
“I see...” Too bad that advice is far too late for Zoey.
“I’ll go next. The next big faction is the Mercenary Faction. This group is usually filled with people who weren’t born in the connate clans, kicked out of connate clans for some reason, or magjistars who were rejected by both the Learned Faction and the Connate Faction. Your master was a part of the Connate Faction before denouncing his clan and joining the Mercenary Faction.” Teen Magjistar D explained.
“Sup, I guess I'm going last. The Learned Faction is basically the faction for bookworms, geeks, and nerds who want to study and understand everything about magji. It doesn’t matter if you got connate magji or had to learn magji. All that matters to those maniacs is your dedication to studying magji and keeping everything you learn or find out about within the Learned Faction.” Teen Magjistar E lazily rubbed the back of his head.
In the middle of all this informative knowledge she should’ve known already, Zoey was confidently leading their group through the hallways. Defeating daemons while spilling as little blood as she could. After her fun experience in the gas wing, her control over the perfect way to punch daemons to death grew. While she couldn’t punch a daemon’s chest and have its insides twist into a spiral as she wanted, she could control the direction in which the spiral went now. That brought a smile to Zoey’s bloody face. Further progress in her techniques was always satisfying to see.
The daemons usually only spilled blood through their orifices after experiencing Zoey’s twisting blows. Eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and other places. Zoey thought about twisting their necks or something along those lines, but that was too dangerous and, overall, not worth the effort. Even if she did her absolute best to avoid spilling blood, she was only one person in a building filled with murderous daemons and eager bloodthirsty magjistars.
“So, uh, what is it like being Victor’s apprentice?” Tiara’s eyes glowed as she asked this question.
She wasn’t the only one, either. Everyone else also was interested in this question. Zoey nearly forgot that Victor was one of the strongest magjistars alive and basically an idol and hero to her generation of magjistars. It certainly didn’t feel like she was privileged with a legendary heroic teacher.
“Brutal.” Zoey summed it up in one simple word.
“Huh?” Their faces scrunched up in confusion.
“Training, fighting daemons, and more training. Nothing more, nothing less.” Zoey helped them a bit more.
“But what about you giving it to those Connate Faction prodigies?” Fire Tiger asked.
“Training and a deal between us,” Zoey answered.
“...” Tiara Shadow was flabbergasted. “Could I get as strong as you just by training and fighting daemons?” She asked skeptically.
“It’s not impossible.”
Zoey had the Box as her divine helper. She didn’t believe she had a growth limit. Victor also knew a lot about magji and daemons. Probably more than most, so that also helped. Without the Box, Zoey wouldn’t even be eligible to step into the magji world. Apparently, magjistars awakened their magji talent at a young age.
Eventually, Zoey dropped off the group of five after nearly an hour of traveling and fighting together. None of them sparked a fighting urge within her, sadly, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t still be friends. She made a group chat for magjistars and invited them along with Alexander, Lindsay, and Joseph. Zoey didn’t include Victor because she wanted it to be a thing for people around her age, and he was probably going to get pissy with her if too many people tried messaging him because she added him. She named the group, Study Group, for safety.
“Now, where are we headed?” Zoey asked Little Imp.
“Most of the strong daemons are gone. We should head to the gymnasium. I can feel something very powerful there.” Little Imp answered.
Little Imp had a feeling that it was the secret hidden underneath the gym that his boss was talking about! Although he was worried for his personal safety, he definitely wasn’t worried about Zoey’s. She was rather tough for a human... It’s been a few hours since they joined up together, and she’s basically been fighting non-stop, but as far as Little Imp could tell, she didn’t look exhausted or tired at all. Even he was a little tired of just flying all this time.
He was surprised to see that Zoey was able to connect normally with other humans. He thought that a monster like her would definitely have trouble fitting in, but since humans were so weak and needed to rely on each other, a monster like Zoey protecting them would be seen as a good thing. How lucky... Little Imp thought back to when he and his boss first met.
The two of them ran into so many problems because of daemons' instinctive dislike of grouping up and working together. They thought it was beneath them and too similar to humans to do such a thing. Boss didn’t disagree, but his magji shard furiously rejected such foolish notions. To come to a compromise, Boss overpowered them and forced them under him. Instead of working together, he made them see it as being bound by the same master while not fighting against one another. Little Imp didn’t understand the intricacies of it but knew that somehow Boss tricked the daemons into teaming up and working together like humans.
Although Little Imp wasn’t like most daemons, even he had moments where it was difficult to reject his inner desires as a daemon. Like right now, for instance, Zoey placing her trust in him and allowing him to lead her from behind. He could easily coat his clawed hand in mahna and sever her neck from the back. It’d be quick and easy. While Boss would be pissed at him, they could just start over their group again after fleeing this place. He’d fly them out together.
“You...!” A familiar face angrily pointed at Zoey from the end of the hallway.
On their back were several swords radiating with daemonic aura. Their cool green eyes flared viciously in her direction. Zoey felt a little awkward meeting this guy again. His outfit was a little different but not so different she didn’t recognize him. It was the Hanma Clan assassin from before.
“Oh, hey...” Zoey awkwardly waved. “Feel like being my friend now?”
“I’ll kill you properly this time.” He swallowed some sort of object before a large burst of grey mahna exploded from his body.
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