My Werepanther System: Starting with Nine Lives

The walk through the jungles was arduous from the very first step. It didn't take Rex long to notice how hot it was. Or how mercilessly the bugs feasted on them if you didn't fight back. 

Fireflies that actually shot fire from their tails. Mosquitos with rare diseases and narcotic effects from the other creatures they fed on. And the frogs. 

All through the hike, the two upperclassmen fired and cut down the things with an uncanny sense of urgency. 

"Once inside and initiated, you can continue to find me or my partner for more questions. I'm Specialist Sunder and she's Corporal Green. We're your class's senior advisors." The male student with low cut brown hair said.

"AHHHH!" Someone screamed.

The students spun around to find the assumed threat. All they found at the center of the class was a short spiky haired boy with blonde tips. He swated and itched at his left hand as the skin turned to bright green scales.

"Please! It was just a mosquito! I'M BECOMING A LIZARD-MA-" 

Hunter chopped the back of his neck and knocked him unconscious. As he fell, Frank caught him and hauled him up over his shoulder.

Specialist Sunder laughed at the front of the group. "Nonlethal case of Lacertritis..... also known as.... Anyone?" 

From ahead of Rex, Imani raised her hand. 

"Yes." Corporal Green pointed her out. 

"Lizard-skin disease. It comes from Mosquitos who feed on reptillian Drift-Dimension Bosses in the jungles here. Also known as Dragons. If the sickness goes untreated, you run the risk of becoming a full fledged Lizard-man."

"Aka, your condition becomes lethal. Someone's been reading." Specialist Sunder said as he looked over Imani, "You must not come from a family of Soldiers. You're actually intelligent." 

The class laughed before continuing on for another few miles.

They passed a river that seemingly ran to the end of the world and trees that moved like living things and a number of other things that would follow Rex into his nightmares before they ran into their first patrols.

"Recruits, meet the Jungle-Monkey Unit." Specialist Sunder said.

The student with the lizard-skin condition— who'd only just woken up a few minutes prior, smirked, "Jungle Monkeys…?? PFFF—AH!"

Before he could even finish speaking, something fell from the branches and yanked him back up into the trees.

Specialist Sunder and Green rolled their eyes as if it was a yearly occurence.

Rex scanned the canopy above. Sunlight slipped through the cracks in the leaves.

"Recruits, they earned their name for a reason. Don't make them show you, because they will gladly."

Directly above Rex, a Drift-Soldier phased into existence as his camoflauge armor discontinued whatever light refraction technology it was previously emitting. In his left hand, he held the student by the back of his shirt. Somehow in the time between him laughing and getting yanked into the trees a piece of tape got slapped over his mouth.

The visible Jungle-Monkey ripped the tape off his lips with a grin.

"ARE YOU INSANE?!"

"Yes. What's your name, rookie?" The Jungle-Monkey asked. He wore green and black face paint and a necklace of goblin ears over his armor. Not the same model as the Senior advisors leading them but something similar. Lighter though and more manueverable.

"Tyson Dacre."

"Tyson, call me Gordon…. I'll see you around the berrics."

"He's a student…? Damn." Rex thought along with the other students.

Then, Gordon dropped Tyson for Rex to catch and took off.

"Zone five, clear." He turned invisible again and a legion of humanoid hoots and hollers shook the jungles.

Up ahead, Specialist Sunder checked his watch.

"Let's move!"

Suddenly they were running. Primary School was just a step down from Combat-School and many trained outside of it so they stayed tight and in formation. The run lasted two miles. The sun didn't move an inch. But fog waves and rain showers came in stride. Quick and intense enough to leave them looking like they ran for days instead of miles by the end.

The Box loomed overhead, standing so tall Rex had to crane his neck backwards to see the Sigil-Sequenced turret barrels peaking out from the rooftop

Back in the jungle brush, a man with rank badges all across his breast pocket took the stand at a podium. He wore a modern suit and tie with accents of old fashioned poly-steel armor over it. He had to be at least seven feet tall with a great sword sheathed at his back and two rapiers at his hip. Arm-blasters steamed at his forearms as if he'd just fired them. He had a mustache like coach key and pure grey hair gelled into two spikes like the ears of an angry wolf.

The students were silenced. If not by the many rank tags, then by the aura of power he emitted as he looked over them with his intense blue eyes. They felt invasive. Discomforting. Like a pair of hands groping your brain and pulling at the thoughts within.

Rex stood beside Victor who seemed to be the only one aside from himself who wasn't either starstruck or outright intimidated. Albeit for very different reasons. Victor was too strong to care. Rex had a Inheritence Ability to claim. He could care less about—

The eyes zeroed in one him and stayed there. From a hundred feet away. As if he heard his thoughts over the shuffle of wet boots and buzzing insects in the distance.

He swallowed silently. A unit of upper-classmen jogged into The Box in the distance, laughing about how some creature died.

The eyes didn't move. Neither did his. It went against what he knew to survive but that defiant rage still burned silently within. He wanted his dinner. He wanted his warm bed. He wanted to feel comfort so he had to feel he belonged. And what kind of soldier lacked bravery? One that didn't belong in Fort Amazonia.

The blue eyes softened. The old warrior nodded.

Behind him, Imani smiled faintly. In that cold robotic way she usually did.

"Everyone present?" His voice was softer than Rex expected. He sounded kind…. noble. Young.

The senior advisors nodded, "Yes, Alpha-General."

"Anyone dead?" He asked.

"A little frightened, but they're all here, Alpha-General."

He nodded and faced everyone. "Morning, Recruits. My name is Alpha-General Brennus, after this, the only time you'll see me is if you're in deep shit or at the top of all classes. Globally. What I expect from the rest of you here is simple. Work and learn. Learn to work. Work to learn. Become a good teammate before trying to become the team-lead. That goes for you Inheritence Ability users as well. I know your type. I see it in you— I hear it in your thoughts."

"He can read minds….. that sounds like hell." Rex thought.

Alpha-General Brennus continued, "You have arrogance. I know you do. And the curriculum here is designed to back up that arrogance. You'll have more classes, less sleep and food and be expected to have better results in testing. That's for a reason. You're a poor investment until your not. Forty-five percent of Inheritence Ability users die in their first year due to failures of the bonding process. For many of you, you'll wake up one day and use your powers and it'll kill you from the inside. On a genetic level. There's two hundred of you here. Sixty Inheritence Ability users. Forty five percent of you will die. Twenty seven will reach graduation and then ten more will die within the first deployment."

The soft casualness of his tone left the students shaken. At least the ones that didn't have soldiers in the family and didn't know how it got.

"Understand, behind the money and cars and women— or men— or both, you have enlisted yourselves into the worst job on earth. As your General I command you to make the best of it by doing as I said. Work and learn….. until your god damned nose bleeds. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Alpha-General!"

"Senior Advisors, get them to their berrics and ready for the kitting process. If anyone's late to their first class the whole of them have combatives and jungle sprints until nightfall."

Alpha-General Brennus remained as still as a statue as the Senior Advisors led them into The Box. Closer to his Inheritence Ability.

Rex readied himself.

Behind him, Hunter and his boys began cutting through the crowd to get to the front.