“…ugh… wh-what happened…?”

Zoey groaned, his whole body was sore from the blow that came at him out of nowhere. If he didn’t know any better, he would assume that he was taken down by some sort of moving mountain.

The traitor of the Great Ram sect was slowly climbing up to his feet, already connecting that the words of the martial artist from the Raging Bull sect meant that he was not alone when…

“…?!”

He spotted someone new standing over the twitching body of the other martial artist.

Someone who did not look like he came to rescue anyone…

“Ah~ Already up? The guy you wanted to help didn’t prove to be a challenge, so we should continue. Just the two of us~”

The black-haired stranger with the eyes like obsidian playfully unclenched and clenched his fist back, staring straight at Zoey with a villainous grin that some members of dark sects would be jealous of.

“I… tried to help…?”

The dark-blond-haired ex-Great-Ram-sect-member shook his head in disbelief and gasped.

He got hit hard, but not so hard enough to actually lose memories of what he did before getting knocked out cold.

Why was this stranger acting as if…?

“Zoey! Help! That crazy guy attacked us all!”

“Knock that guy out and help us!”

“ZOEY!”

He was already opening his mouth to ask the black-haired man what kind of bull** was he spouting when the familiar voices called at him from behind…

“!!!”

…and it turned out to be every single person that Zoey had fooled into fighting the seven-limbed bear – all tied up and with visible bruises and broken limbs, but very much conscious and outspoken…!

“…what the hell is going on…?!”

The dark sect member faltered, shaking his head, trying to piece together the chain of events that must have occurred for him to get into this exact situation.

The only semi-plausible answer was that he switched between paralleled words like some of the practitioners of the law of Pisces claimed to do.

The problem with that was – Zoey had no talent in the law of Pisces…

*WHOOSH* *WHAM*

“HUARRRGH…!”

*SLAM*

“ZOEY?!”

“Didn’t you hear when I said I want to have a fight, little hero?”

As the dark-blond-haired man was standing still trying to deal with his confusion, the black-haired man was already by his side and sent him flying and crashing into a tree opposite the house that Zoey originally knocked Seth against.

—-

“It was already annoying that some weaklings walked in on my training ground – they managed to confuse a guardian monster with a normal seven-limbed bear – but when a somewhat worthy sparing partner appears, he is distracted by said weaklings.”

Zoemi sighed, making a disappointed expression and shrugging his shoulders theatrically while the Great Ram sect members were shouting words of encouragement to the person that secretly betrayed them all and even set it up for them to be killed, while not realizing that the supposed villain with an evil grin was on their side.

“You…!”

Zoey crawled his way back up to his feet, clenching his hands on his abdomen which felt as if it was hit with a red-hot iron.

Truth be told the less Zoey would speak the better – especially since when the push came to a shove Zoemi realized the many flaws of his plan.

Still, things were already in motion…

…and so was he once more…

*WHOOOSH*

“LAW OF CAPRICORN!”

*CRUSH*

Zoemi was by Zoey in a blink of an eye, but this time the dark-blond-haired man managed to activate his own star power and escaped the punch that created a clean, fist-sized hole in the trunk of the ancient tree… EXACTLY at the spot where Zoey’s stomach would be if not for the quick evasive movement.

“You know, I really did you all a favor. If I didn’t stop you from messing with the wrong seven-limbed bear like some idiots, you would be responsible for killing a guardian monster at the territory of the sect that this guy over there is a part of. Could you convince your friend to up his game? This is embarrassing.”

The black-haired man was using the time that he gained by scaring off the dark-blond-haired member of the dark sect by chatting up the people from the Great Ram sect.

Which of course didn’t earn him any warm words – and it was not the point in the first place – but what it did quite well was to make them assume that what they were about to do before Zoemi wrecked them was extremely dangerous.

Both physically for them, and then on a higher level, to their guild as a whole.

“LAW OF ARIES, LAW OF CAPRICORN, LAW OF TAURUS!”

*BOOOOOM*

Zoey was so angry that the only words that left his mouth were the activation for the star power that his spiritual energy got converted into – and made a sizable crater as he kicked the ground to charge the impudent black-haired man speaking nonsense.

There still was time.

Zoey just needed to deal with the stranger and then he would be sure that no one else could pose an actual threat to him anymore.

In the first place, using another martial artist’s life to cultivate using the techniques of the dark sects was far a lot more effective than doing the same using lives of mere villagers right out of some backward settlement.

“Didn’t you already have this active earlier?”

*WHAM* *CRUSH*

“AAAARGHHHH…!”

Zoemi had enough time to ask that but still, he did not move an inch and let the attack reach him – which resulted in Zoey shattering his bones on the black-haired man’s face and letting out a growl of pain.

“You know what else you could use your time instead of screaming? Dodging~”

*BOOOOOOM*

Zoemi grinned wildly and raised his foot – the stop wasn’t a part of any technique – it was certainly not a combat move or anything – but if the dark-blond-haired member of the dark sect didn’t dodge in time, he would end up as a messy stain…

*CRACK* ***ASH*

The unfortunate tree that got in the way of Zoemi’s leg got cut down and fell down away from the village, causing everyone watching the fight to jump.

|Enviroment with no mana really does wonders to my physique… isn’t this already better than most enchantments?|

Zoemi thought to himself, looking at the panicking dark sect member scrambling to get his wits together with his arm dangling limply by his side.

“Law of Capricorn… LAW OF SCORPIUS!”

“!!!”

*WHOOOSH*

As it turned out the answer that Zoey came to in the end, was to try to mess Zoemi’s plans – which he didn’t know at all, but it sure felt like it was a thing to the black-haired man in question – and used the one star power that he did not train extensively before betraying his original sect.

*CRUSH*

And even with that, the only effect that the attempt had was to incapacitate Zoey’s other arm, which funnily enough became visually similar to the tail of a scorpion – with how much the broken bones bent it out of shape, that is…

“Huh? Wh-what? Ho…GHHHHHHHHRRAAAAUUUUUGHHHH!”

The amount of time it took Zoey’s brain to register the pain flowing through his disfigured limb was enough for him to start talking while staring in disbelief at his own bone marrow, cleanly exposed through the ripped-out flesh – but in the end, it hit him and the animal-like cry escaped the tractors mouth while he fell to the ground to succumb into agony.

“L-L-A-AW OF LEO! LAW OF ARIES! LAW OF VIRGO!”

“Oh?”

…or so it seemed, but the next moment Zoey managed to stutter the name of another star power upon which activation granted him enough clearance to start the recovery process.

“Interesting. Nothing worth writing home about though.”

*SLAM*

“…!”

Zoemi nodded with approval before unceremoniously slapping the dark-blond-haired man down, cutting his consciousness off with no effort whatsoever.

“That’s really it…?”

Zoemi tilted his head and asked in disbelief, a bit underwhelmed – to say the least.

“Mister, who is your teacher?”

The only person who did not say a single thing spoke up and asked – it just so happened to be the youth that according to Zoey’s scheme was supposed to die while fighting the guardian monster.

“Don’t really have one… Though I could say that my journey with star power was kick-started by a white-haired guy with black eyes who seemed to want to stir trouble in my homeland.”

The black-haired man turned to face them and shrugged, not actually mentioning William’s name just in case he was someone well-known who could get him in trouble.

“…”

Still, judging by the reaction of the youth, it seemed that they actually caught on to something. They were the most problematic person, others from their group were knocked out cold before the seven-limbed bear was chased off. Not that one. Thinking that they were a part of the dark sect, Zoemi ended up spouting some wild assumptions loud and clear to them before knocking them out…

“Why did you bring us all here after you had your fun?”

Interestingly, the youth asked quite a good question that would help Zoemi flesh out his story – which needed to happen if anyone were to believe him.

“Because there are monsters in the forest, obviously. I want a good fight, not to commit murder.”

The black-haired man shrugged his shoulders and explained.

“Is that something that white-haired man you mentioned has told you?”

“…”𝒪𝒱𝓵xt.𝗇𝓔t

They asked, making Zoemi close his mouth and observe them with suspicion.

“Even if it’s true, why does this matter…? Huh…?!”

*blub*