My Werepanther System: Starting with Nine Lives

Sparring warm-ups started in earnest atop the steel obstacle course.

The jungle morning air was rife with scents of pollen, poison and river water.

It was just beginning to approach the temperature territory of sweltering heat, making the steel floors begin to burn the recruits feet as they got to work.

Friends chose unique locations to re-enact specific combat situations like close quarters encounters and balance battles on beams suspended by wires.

Others showed off their abilities while their sparring partner recorded for social media.

Not that Staff-Sergeant Dream cared. He was sleeping against a tree beyond the course. Leaving Rex and Victor alone with the other fifty other recruits that wanted them both dead. While also being capable of dying themselves any second.

It put a level of tension in the air that was thicker than the fog and smoke flowing from the spinning rivers in the deeper jungle.

That was without considering the new animosity growing between Rex and his sparring partner— who still smelled of dried blood, malice and adrenaline flow.

He was somehow even smaller standing than expected as they faced off on the flat wrestling portion of the steel grounds.

"Who even are you? What family are you from?" He asked.

"That's none of your business." Rex replied as they circled eachother, searching for weaknesses.

"It's literally public information. Every Inheritence Ability originated from one of the two-hundred and fifty Progenitor Ability Users who created family lines to cultivate and expand the powers. They're logged."

"Thanks for the history lesson….?" Rex replied.

"Seemed like you needed it, brute. Whatever family you're from must not hold much power or political acumen. If they did, you would've known not to touch me."

"Yes, because you're also bothered by me disrupting the military ranks and think you're better than me. You all occupy the same brain." Rex rolled his eyes.

"No, because if you damage my brain and ability, you ruin the fate of the world for us." He said— seemingly serious for the first time and not outright offended, "Do you live on a rooftop? Why are you so clueless?"

Rex could've laughed at the question. It must've made its way to Rex's face because the recruit closed the distance they shared with a right hook.

Rex dodged the swing.

"I'm Oliver Odon of the Odon Defensive Agenc—"

Rex front kicked his lead leg. As Oliver fell off balance, Rex jumped and switched legs, kicking him across the face with a mid-air roundhouse kick. "Yea not ringing a bell. It doesn't matter anyway, you tried to kill my friend."

Oliver stumbled to the left with blood spilling from his mouth.

He recovered quickly. Rex was faster and tackled him to the ground. As they rolled, he wrapped up the much smaller and less wrestling adept recruit in a chokehold from behind.

Quickly, he began to squeeze the air from Oliver's lungs.

Oliver's face went beet red as veins bulged in his face.

If Rex listened, he could hear his blood pressure rise in its chaotic flow.

Before Oliver could lose conciousness, a necklace of small forcefields occupying the near microscopic spaces between Oliver's neck and Rex's arm expanded until Rex was being pried off of his opponent.

Oliver and Rex were back in their feet.

The obstacle course shook as blasts emerged and wires whistled through the air. The recruits were beginning to flex their muscle.

Rex's hands ignited. Beneath the flames, he felt his nails sharpen into claws.

Oliver's fingers flickered like he was plucking the strings of a guitar.

Suddenly the mana powering Rex's fire was twisting and dissipating until he couldn't hold a solid flame.

"What the—"

"Alright…. *yawwwn* I've seen enough. You guys suck." Staff-Sergeant Dream said as he got up off his tree stump, "Everyone on me."

Oliver and Rex held each others gaze until Oliver looked him up and down, laughed, and then ran to join the others.

Rex joined the huddle a bit later, hovering on the outside as the instructor spoke while rubbing crust from his eyes.

"Ok….. if you all couldn't tell already, this is your free of charge Inheritence Ability Proficiency Course. It's only free because you already signed your life over to the EMRA. Dystopian concepts aside, here you'll learn how to use your abilities the same way you use your limbs. We'll make it...."

He fell asleep.

Victor reached out to tap his shoulder.

Staff-Sergeant Dream snorted away and slapped his hand, "Don't be rude. As I was saying, the goal here is to make your ability usage…..uhhhhh, second nature. Understood?"

"Yes, Staff-Sergeant!" The huddle shouted.

He flinched at the volume and itched his messy bun of hair, "Guys it's too early. Quiet down."

"Yes, Staff-Sergeant."

He coughed and continued, "I studied your Mana circulations and ability usage during your spar. Most of you have base line levels of control and comfort. So far, the classes most adept Ability users are Victor Fauve, Natasha Bloom, and Caspien Errant."

Syrus rolled his eyes in the background.

"The rest of you suck. Your abilities damage you internally or externally…. or worse, you just can't control them as well as the others. Cough, cough, Rex."

Rex watched as the other fifty two students turned to look at him.

"Which brings me to our next metric. The worst rated ability users I took note of. Syrus Sling, Gregoire Legion and Kalico Rex."

The silence was loud.

"You got all that from sleeping on the job, Sergeant?" Syrus asked as he towered over everyone.

Staff-Sergeant Dream turned around to face the new recruit. "Ah…. The WolfSpider. I can already tell, you're nothing like your older brother. Maybe that'll keep you alive."

Syrus smiled as if he was being told a joke that was funny.

"To answer your question, yes."

"But I won the event last night." Syrus said.

"You have an incredibly strong ability. Mana Webbing. Energetic string that has a tensile strength that puts spiders to shame— not to mention you control every inch and can alter both the temperature, other Mana circulation and density. You also have the Adaption Physicality— so the more you strain your ability, the more your body adapts. You lean on that too much. Whatever you're trying to do by injecting yourself with your webs, you aren't careful. There's a reason you don't do up close and personal combat anymore. You're injured. You suck."

Syrus smiled even wider, baring his overpronounced canines. "I like you."

"I like sleep…. And results. You have a week to become a top performer or you all have to clear a Drift Dimension alone with no weaponry."

"WHAT?!"

Staff-Sergeant Dream yawned and clapped his hands, "Now, to get a better hang of your abilities, you need to see yourself from outside yourself. To put it simply, you need to be around your kind... *yawn*….. I want you to group up by ability. I want my defensive shield users in one group, my element conjurers in another, physical amplifiers, transformers, teleporters, mind-stealers, psychokinetics, you get the point. Group up."

He fell asleep. No surprise.

Everyone grouped up.

The groups were uneven. There were more physical amplifiers than teleporters and less teleporters than element conjurors.

"This is stupid." Rex thought as he stood among his group of twenty five element conjurors. "How will the training results be the same if the numbers aren't? Glasses-guy is in a group with two other people!"

Staff-Sergeant Dream woke up, "Some of you can already see the imbalance. Look around."

The recruits did.

He continued, "Your numbers are a representation of ability saturation among Drift Soldiers. Those of you that have more members are less likely to be chosen by a high quality Military Unit or Guild. You have to fight harder to get a chance. Those of you with three or less members, if you get even remotely strong, you'll have a spot among the best. The Drift Spawn are adapting to us after generations of facing the same abilities. Those of you that are unique will go far."

Rex sort of deflated at the instructors message, "How unique am I really as a Werepanther if this power has been here since even before humans…."

"Now, in your groups, you're going to start limit testing. Shield users, test your density and defensive capacity. Mind readers, test the quality of your readings, element users push the limits of your heat or freeze or electrical pulse. Blah…. Blah… blah. You know the deal. That's it for the day. Test your limits, find them, understand them. Whatever it starts as, if you don't grow a percent by the end of todays class, you failed. Failures die. Failures sleep forever... maybe I should die—"

"This guy is a psycho." Victor mumbled to Rex.

"He's defintely not what I was expect—"

"Begin!"

The steel obstacle course lit up as the recruits got to work.

Rex couldn't help but feel a morsel of excitement as he tested his flames with Victor.

He was still at the bottom of the ladder. Still weak. But now he had a power to ascend and with it, he had all the tools.

Even an endless supply of enemies to sharpen his skill against.