Zoe looked at Dan, whose lifeless body lay on the floor, then at Brad, who was lying on the other side with his arm cut off. She looked up at Hadrian, who had spiky blond hair and was staring at her with crazy eyes. Hadrian had called her Zoe and even claimed she was a treacherous bitch. This bastard must have known me from Rox City, she thought but her anger quickly overpowered the curiosity. Her anger had even taken over her entire body. She was now looking at Hadrian with fire in her eyes.
Hadrian, who had been so self-confident until now, suddenly seemed to remember something when he saw Zoe's anger, and all his self-confidence disappeared. Hadrian began to mumble. “You got it wrong, Zoe, that's not what I meant. I was just really surprised to see you in front of me." Hadrian acted as if he remembered he was supposed to be afraid of Zoe. And it was clear that he was indeed terrified.
Zoe was a little taken aback by Hadrian's sudden change in demeanor, but she thought it could be a trap. She reverted to her two-legged form, closing her spider legs. Using her card, she summoned Pinky in her hand. Her pink-hilted katana appeared out of thin air in her hand. She grabbed Pinky with both hands and prepared to attack.
“Did I misunderstand what you did to Dan, too?” said Zoe. Her voice was also furious, it reflected her fury.
Hadrian was quite surprised when he saw a katana in Zoe's hand. He too, raising his glaive, prepared for the fight. The man, who was clearly still uneasy, said, “Did you decide to play games with me? I haven't seen you hold a sword even once!”
Zoe was now sure that Hadrian really knew her. He is afraid of me, says I betrayed him, and he has never seen me wield a sword before… What kind of acquaintance did we have with this guy, she wondered. If I reveal to this maniac that I have lost my memory, I will not be able to get him to speak and I will lose my psychological superiority.
"Hadrian, I will make you pay for what you did to Dan!" Zoe yelled, leaping forward. She started attacking Hadrian with the katana she was holding in both hands. Thanks to the training she received from Lucy, she could now attack without giving openings. She was making powerful attacks with the strength she got from her rage.
With the long weapon in his hand, Hadrian was able to counter the attacks, yet, with each incoming attack, Hadrian was pulled back. “You're looking down at me like this, huh Zoe? You're too arrogant to use your card. It wasn't enough to throw me here, are you now here to finish what you started?!” he shouted, hurling the glaive. It was also obvious that he saw Zoe attacking him with the sword as something humiliating. This ignited a fire in Hadrian, causing his anger to overcome his fear.
Zoe jumped back to dodge the Glaive attack, but she couldn't avoid Hadrian's words. Lots of thoughts rushed into her mind at once. My card? “You threw” me here? Did I throw this guy in here? Who the hell is this dude? What was I like before here?
Struggling with all the thoughts in her head, Zoe was now the one who was suddenly forced to retreat in the fight. Hadrian seemed to be getting stronger with each attack.
Shocked, Zoe could only meet the attacks. Seeing that there was no response, Hadrian was flinging the glaive, which he held with both hands, with more exuberance each time.
“I prayed every day to come across you. Even every moment!” cried Hadrian, he now completely forgot about his fear. He had now turned into someone burning with the fire of vengeance. He was emitting an aura like a bloodthirsty beast. “I took the anger I felt for you out on the people here, Zoe. Is your sidekick here too? That Cain brat. This is how you paid me back after what I did for you!”
The moment she heard the name Cain, all Zoe's logic left her body. She countered Hadrian's attack he made holding the glaive with both hands from above with her katana. Sparks flew as the weapons collided. Zoe was about to ask Hadrian how he knew Cain when something distracted her.
With one arm cut off, Brad was coming to attack Hadrian from behind. No matter how enraged Hadrian was, he still had the instinct to notice the attack coming from behind. Zoe realized how dangerous this was and shouted.
“Don't come here, Brad!”
"But this bastard killed Dan," wailed Brad, upset and furious at losing Dan after Seth. "How can I sit and watch? I'll kill him.”
Zoe exploited Hadrian's hesitation as he anticipated an attack from behind. She repulsed Hadrian's glaive, whom she was still struggling with, and cut a thin wound into her opponent's left arm. "Don't worry. You can be sure that this bastard will die in agony,” she said. Injured, Hadrian took a few steps back. Zoe continued to talk to Brad. “But if you interfere with the way you are, it can be a big problem.”
Brad, who didn't seem very convinced, was still starting to distance himself from the two. He couldn't suppress his anger, and he no longer cared about his own life. He withdrew only because he thought that Zoe might be harmed if he intervened. Then there would be no one left to kill this son of a bitch, he thought.
“So you learned to use a sword, too?” Hadrian said, trying to put distance between Zoe and himself. He spun his Glaive with acrobatic movements in his hand. He seemed to want to show how much he had mastered this weapon also. “You know you can't kill me if you don't use your card, Zoe. And you knew you wouldn't stand a chance against me if you and that bastard hadn't trapped me and ripped off my CyberDeck!”
The bastard he referred to must be Cain, Zoe thought. So I was really close with Cain. Me, Cain, and Hadrian… What's the connection between the three of us? Why did I disassemble his CyberDeck and throw him in here? Was I doing to others what Cain did to me? As all these thoughts rushed into Zoe's mind, the pain in her chest was getting heavier. Zoe rushed forward to strike again. I should fight calmly and get as many words out of his mouth as I can, she thought.
Seeing Zoe running towards him with her katana in hand, Hadrian took his glaive in one hand. He slipped his other hand into the inner pocket of his coat. He swung his glaive forward, fending off Zoe and buying time. He took a long chain from his pocket. He now slung the glaive that he held with his right hand over his back. He was swinging the chain he took out from his pocket with his left hand. At the end of the chain was a metal ball, which was obviously heavy.
“Remember what happened when you were little and you turned against me, Zoe?” said Hadrian, laughing maniacally. "You would regret it wouldn't you?" He was still swinging the chain. “I was thinking…” he said, and swung the chain against a nearby boulder. The metal at the end of the chain shattered the rock. “…You couldn't have come to the Abyss just to kill me. You probably thought I was dead when you threw me in here.”
As he finished his sentence, he threw the chain toward Zoe this time. With a fleet movement, Zoe dodged the chain. Thinking Hadrian has given me an opening, she began to head toward her opponent. But Hadrian quickly pulled the end of the chain that was now on the ground behind Zoe. Realizing that the chain was targeting her feet, Zoe jumped and evaded the attack. She wasn't hurt, but she had also missed the opportunity to attack Hadrian.
Zoe couldn't remember what Hadrian had said for obvious reasons, leading to her inability to recall how he had used the chain as a weapon He claims that he has known me since I was little, she thought. But she didn't want to be vulnerable to her rival by being stuck in her past now. The anger at what Hadrian had done to Dan was still palpable in every cell of her. The desire to tear Hadrian to pieces outweighed the desire to learn about her past.
Not wanting to give Hadrian a chance to attack from afar, Zoe ran toward her opponent. She thought her opponent wouldn't be able to make powerful attacks, as he couldn't swing the chain at short range. With her katana held tightly in both hands, she launched a powerful attack on her opponent, accelerating from top to bottom.
Hadrian grinned as if he had been waiting for this attack all along. He met the sword with the chain he was stretching with both hands. Then, with a swift movement, he wrapped his chain around the sword and kicked Zoe.
Zoe was knocked back by the force of the kick and landed on the ground. Although she was not seriously injured, her katana was now in her opponent's hands. She quickly got up from where she fell. So that's how close-range fights with chains are, she thought.
Hadrian was laughing out loud now, swinging the katana he was holding in his hand. “If you think you can beat me with a sword, you've really gone mad. Have you forgotten the beatings you took from me, Zoe? When you threw me here, did you erase all your traumas as well?" Having said this, he took the sword and threw it behind himself. “You summoned this sword with a card, didn't you? I will not let you use this spell again!” He yelled, making chain attacks in rapid succession.
He must be thinking that I'm going to cancel the spell and use it again, Zoe thought as she tried to dodge the attacks that were quickly coming towards her. While Zoe was contemplating what to do, she decided that the best idea was to activate her Mantis Blades. I need to avoid chain attacks. If I meet them, I fall into his trap.
She did know that she had to avoid them, but it was easier said than done. Although she was able to evade burst attacks with her AGI, Zoe also knew that she wouldn't be able to do it forever.
Realizing that it would do her no good to try to evade the attacks so helplessly, Zoe began to run toward her opponent. A plan came to her mind.
“So you took out the Mantis Blades! That's more like the Zoe I know," exclaimed Hadrian, and added, "But did you ever beat me with them?" After saying that, he let out a hysterical laugh.
Zoe knew she would lose to Hadrian if she got into a power struggle. But she thought that if she used her agility, she could be victorious. She jumped on Hadrian and started to repel her opponent with attacks from left and right. She was attacking rapidly with her blades.
Although Hadrian countered the attacks, Zoe quickly pulled back her blades. He was unable to catch her with his chains. He knew that if he tried to hold the attack coming from her right arm, he would take damage from the attack coming from her left arm. Finding himself cornered, Hadrian decided to counterattack. He pulled back suddenly, trying to grab Zoe by the neck with the chain he was holding in both hands. He thought he could win the fight with this move.
But Zoe had been pushing Hadrian into her trap all along. Zoe's plan was to get as close to Pinky as possible. When Hadrian threw the sword away, the sword was out of Zoe's radius. She had planned to corner her opponent with rapid attacks and deliver the final blow with Pinky. She had deliberately hidden this feature of Pinky from the very beginning of the fight.
Unaware of all this, Hadrian was making the move that he thought would win the fight, while Pinky dashed toward him, stabbing him in his back. Hadrian tumbled forward as the katana sunk into him. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Zoe pulled the katana from his back and tore her opponent's arms and legs from his body. She was still careful not to kill Hadrian, her only goal was to prevent him from trying anything new.
Allowing her sword to float, Zoe grabbed Hadrian by the blond hair and lifted him. Unable to believe that he had been defeated, Hadrian's eyes were filled with daze. He spoke, watching the sword float through the air.
“You really did improve your backstabbing, Zoe!”
Zoe slapped Hadrian hard and spoke.
“Now tell me. Who are you? How do you know me and Cain? And most importantly who am I?"
