Zann did not move like a support.
That was the first thing Gun learned.
The moment the Divers stepped into the training room and saw her standing there with that calm, almost gentle expression, it would have been easy to underestimate her. She looked composed. Elegant. Almost soft in the way she held herself.
Then the fight started.
Gun was the first one in.
He moved fast, blade already out, body snapping forward with the kind of urgency that had carried him through every battle since the tower appeared.
[Avenger's Cut].
A clean assassination line.
A perfect opening.
At the same time, Jack flashed in from the side.
[Flash].
Light burst across the room.
It should have been enough to throw anyone off.
It would have been enough for almost anyone else.
Zann simply turned her head a fraction.
Her eyes tracked the light.
Her feet shifted.
And both attacks failed simultaneously.
Gun's dagger cut through empty air.
Jack's flash blinded nothing.
Zann slid back just enough to let Gun miss by inches, then lifted a hand and smiled in a way that made it clear she had already seen the entire exchange before it happened.
"Well," she said softly. "That was a good first try."
Gun clicked his tongue and retreated.
Jack grimaced. "She dodged both."
Luna was already moving.
Her hand lifted, and [Graceful Flame] drifted to Jack first, the floating orb settling near him with a warm pulse of healing and defense.
Then Luna activated [Ashen Veil].
Smoke rolled out across the room in a thick gray wave, spreading under their feet and around the training floor. The Veil gave them cover, healing pressure, and a sense of control.
Gun stepped back into it.
Jack followed.
They attacked together from inside the smoke, the flames from Luna's veil layering over their movements.
For a few brief seconds, it almost looked like it might work.
Almost.
Zann dashed straight into the smoke.
No hesitation.
No fear.
She kicked the ground and launched the heat pressure outward, sending the Divers upward in a burst of force before they could stabilize their footing. The smoke tore apart around her as she lifted her wand.
[Burning Inferno].
The spell came down like judgment.
A massive beam of fire exploded across the training room with a temperature so violent that it vaporized Ashen Veil almost instantly.
The smoke turned into white heat and vanished.
Gun shielded his face as the room burned bright enough to make the walls glow.
For a moment, it looked like Zann had erased them.
Then the steam cleared.
And five enormous walls of ice stood in the blast's aftermath.
Four were already melting.
The fifth was on the verge of breaking, but Waver had already done his job.
Zann's eyes narrowed slightly.
Then, from every blind spot around her, five daggers came in.
Fast.
Precise.
Deadly.
Except they did not reach her.
The blades evaporated in midair before impact, consumed by the heat around her as if the space itself rejected them.
Zann lowered her wand and looked at them with mild amusement.
Then she answered the puzzle.
"You were all wondering why I was doing so much damage," she said.
Gun narrowed his eyes.
Zann placed a hand lightly over her own chest.
[Flame Within].
The air around her shimmered faintly.
"I burn myself a little to gain a massive boost to everything fire-related. Power, speed, output, control. The aura is small, subtle, and mostly only visible to me or to others using the same kind of skill."
Luna's expression sharpened.
"So that was the aura."
Zann nodded.
"Exactly."
Gun exhaled through his nose.
"So you've been fighting with a hidden buff the whole time."
Zann smiled.
"Yes."
That was all the warning they got.
Gun moved first.
Not toward Zann.
Toward Jack.
The whole room seemed to freeze for a half-second.
Jack's eyes widened. "What?"
Gun had already vanished.
[Flash Step].
He reappeared at Jack's side and cut in with [Avenger's Cut].
It was so sudden, so direct, and so unlike what anyone expected that Jack barely had time to react.
Even he looked shocked.
Zann's face shifted immediately.
Not fear.
Recognition.
A rescue instinct.
She lunged forward to intercept, but Gun had anticipated that too.
His earlier movement had already left a mirrored hit behind him.
[Mirror Strike].
A second attack flared from a nearly impossible angle, a delayed, mirrored slash that appeared at the exact distance needed to catch her path.
Zann had just enough time to twist.
Just enough.
Jack managed to bring up his guard and block Gun's first attack, but Zann's attempt to save him came a fraction too late.
The mirrored hit clipped her forearm.
A thin cut opened there.
Not deep.
But real.
The first scratch Gun had managed to land.
Gun immediately backed off and glanced at the cut with a sharp grin.
"Got you."
Luna let out a short breath, surprised.
Jack looked irritated more than hurt.
He looked at Gun and then at the tiny cut Zann had taken.
"…That was dirty."
Gun shrugged. "It worked."
Jack clicked his tongue, but after a second, he sighed.
"Yeah. It did."
Zann touched her forearm and looked at the blood with something close to interest.
Then she lifted her eyes to Gun and smiled a little wider.
"I did not expect that."
Slax, standing off to the side with folded arms, started clapping.
The sound echoed through the training room.
Then he laughed.
"I was not expecting a performance this good," he said. "Even though Zann physically destroyed you, you still managed to win with battle IQ."
He looked at the Divers with open approval.
"That's a feat of its own."
Gun straightened a little.
Slax continued, "That kind of decision-making is not common. It means your future potential is real."
Then he glanced at the floor, thinking for a moment, before turning back to them.
"So I have a proposal."
The room went quiet again.
Slax's expression became more serious.
"If you can make me stop moving for 0.1 seconds while I'm blindfolded and not using my weapon, I'll give each of you one scroll."
The Divers exchanged looks.
Slax raised one finger.
"And one blessing stone."
That made Gun go still.
A blessing stone.
A real one.
One of the rare premium items that only the top climbers usually had access to.
Slax noticed their expressions and nodded once.
"I currently only have one left myself."
That landed hard.
Even Jack looked genuinely surprised.
Luna blinked. "That rare?"
Slax shrugged.
"It is not something I plan to waste."
Gun looked at him carefully.
Then at the training room.
Then back at Slax.
The offer was insane.
The condition was even more insane.
But that was exactly why it mattered.
Slax was not looking at them like weak climbers anymore.
He was looking at them like a future force worth investing in.
Gun could feel it.
And this time, the tower's strongest man was not simply letting them survive.
He was giving them a way to become something more.
Gun's grip tightened around his swords.
This was the next step.
And he already knew he was going to take it.