I shut my eyes tightly the second I heard the gun go off, but surprisingly, I didn't feel any pain. Opening my eyes, I saw someone standing in front of me. A woman with red hair that was styled into a messy wolf cut. She had on a leather jacket and black denim pants. Taking a closer look, I could see her hands, tanned and surrounded by fire. It was Kia.
"The hell?!" The duelist cried out and jumped back, surprised by her sudden appearance. Just before the bullet had touched me, Kia had melted the projectile mid-air, removing the threat almost immediately. Although I couldn't see her face, I already knew that she was pissed off. She has a habit of letting her skills go loose when she's angry, causing the tips of her hair to spark and ignite. Good thing she has a built-in resistance to fire...
"I should be saying the same thing! I thought you were a good guy, Max!" I guess I shouldn't be surprised she knows him. Like I said before, she does get around easily with people, but most of the time, her judgment of others is pretty poor.
"Kia, I was just messing around with him! It's not every day you meet a support, y'know." Max says, snickering, not realizing what was happening at the moment. After a moment of silence, he looked down, noticing that the gun he was holding was melting by the second. He flinched and grit his teeth, releasing the firearm and watching as it burned a crater in the floor. Max looked back at Kia with a frown, a bead of sweat rolling down the side of his head from either nervousness or the intense heat that filled the room.
"I'd better not see you near him. If I do, I'll melt the skin off your bones." She says with all seriousness. Kia is a lot of things, but she could never lie to save herself. Despite being energetic and teasing all the time, she always held some kind of truth behind her words, and this was definitely not an exception.
Max sucked his teeth and stepped back into the elevator, looking down at me in disgust before the doors closed. I sighed, glad that it was over, but nervous to take on my next obstacle. I wasn't expecting to see her again so soon, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. I might as well tear off the band-aid now.
"Kia... I-"
"You're my friend." She quickly interrupted as her flames went out, the temperature of the room slowly reverting back to normal as well.
"What?" I ask, completely confused as to why she would say that in a moment like this.
"You left before I could answer your question. I'm still here for you because you're my friend." She turns around and smiles, extending her hand out for me.
I was completely stunned, still unable to comprehend how she could transition from one thing to another so nonchalantly and not be mad about what I did yesterday.
I stay silent, staring right at her before I start laughing.
"Hey! What the-"
"Sorry! Sorry! That sounded super cheesy just now-" I rub my eyes to get rid of some tears. Although it was pretty lighthearted, I couldn't help but point out how silly it was.
"I just saved you! The least you could do is thank me!" She laughs alongside me and grabs my hand before pulling me up on my feet. We just laugh with each other for a bit, talking about how dramatic she made her entrances. These kinds of moments were why we were good friends. Making each other laugh was just as easy as something like walking.
"Anyways, what are you doing here at the warrior-reserved floor? Cuz you know... You're not one?" The woman scratches the back of her head.
"I got access to all of the class facilities since they don't have one for supports. I guess there are some perks of being one." I say jokingly. I know that I do have an edge with me being a hybrid and having the Goddess of Alleviation's blessing, but both of those were probably going to be a lot for her to handle if I just mentioned it suddenly, so I'll do it one at a time.
"Right, but... why here specifically? I don't think support classes have any attacking skills, do they?"
Time to break the news to her. Let's start with my class...
...
"Okay, okay. So running it back again. You're not a complete support, but a new hybrid class of a warrior and a support?" Kia says. We decided to move to a different area of the warrior facility, a private training room that wasn't occupied, so we could avoid any trouble.
I was also able to get my hands on the standard warrior class outfit, which was just a sleeveless compression shirt, compression sleeves, and a pair of cargo pants, all of which are breathable and have been enhanced to take hits and stay intact. This should be able to trick people into thinking I'm a warrior unless they already know about me. Sure, nearly everyone knows that I'm a support now, but at least this could work on a select few.
"Yeah? This is my fifth time telling you this. Why do you need me to say it again?" I say, sighing and smiling. I was originally thinking of telling her about the goddess part, but with how she's reacting right now, it's probably best to set that off for another day.
"Right, but it's like... crazy, you know? Back then, even when people had kids with support classes, hybrids were pretty much impossible to achieve. Maybe over the years, some of the main classes got weak enough to make room for support class DNA?" She scratches her chin, looking down while drowning herself in her thoughts.
People always assume that she's not the brightest, but in reality, she's always been better than me in terms of grades and knowledge. You can say that she was the reason why I passed my classes back in high school.
"That's not a bad idea... But at the same time, why was support the only class that was ruled out? Plus, how did support class DNA become a part of me when none of my family has it?"
"Eh, you've got a good point. Guess it's not our job to think about it. More importantly..." Kia pushed herself up and onto the ground. "Can you show me what you can do?"
I never actually thought about training with Kia, especially since I thought I made her mad yesterday, but it's probably best to do so. She was a warrior hybrid after all, so she had some experience with focusing on more than one class.
I got myself off the floor and stretched one arm across my chest, following it up with the opposite one. "I don't see why not. Plus, those guys from earlier were pretty convenient." I cracked my knuckles and neck.
"Huh? You getting beaten up is good?"
"Yup! Just give me a second."
I walk up to a red punching bag that was hung from the ceiling by a chain. I tap the punching bag with my left hand, readying myself and placing my feet into a combat position, evenly spread out and light on my toes. My entire life I received Venator training to prepare myself, so I know some basic combat and self-defense.
Clenching my fist, I bring my right arm back and activate [Health Strike]. Upon using it, golden energy flowed around my body, filling me with energy that made me feel lighter and faster. The feeling could only be described as butterflies in your stomach spreading throughout your entire body. A tingling sensation created by an action that has yet to be released. And with that, I twist my body to the left and perform a cross punch. Millimeters before hitting the punching bag, it almost seems that time has stopped. And then...