My Werepanther System: Starting with Nine Lives
Chapter 50 KINGDOMS PACE

Chapter 50: 50 KINGDOMS PACE

The rest of Rex’s day went about as normal as the last few. Which wasn’t saying much. After the bathroom incident, Rex and Imani had given the gossiper’s new fuel and Hunter a new way to hate him.

Now, Rex wasn’t just disrupting hierarchies with his jokes and lack of care for social acumen in relation to capitol.

He was sucking face with the princess of The Box. And many other military training zones.

He could feel his eyes and tatted constructs focused on him for most of the day.

On one hand, it wasn’t smart to build a new enemy, on the other hand, there were risks to be taken at every turn. And in Rex’s eyes, it was either rile up rich kids who already didn’t like him to strengthen his alibi or risk blowing his cover trying to stay lowkey.

Hunter was already thinking he was lying.

Rex could only wish him good luck with that theory now.

And Rex could only keep pressing on as he walked into the last class of the day. Day three.

Strategy.

It was held in a room right next to their starting class for Vehicular/Gundam Piloting and Mechanics class. Meaning, as Rex and his classmates entered the tiny black metal walled room, they could hear the buzz and crack of gear headed operatives working on their machines right outside.

It made focusing near impossible.

That was the point.

Training was only worthwhile if there was resistance. Pushback to force you to push forward.

As their teacher said.

He was at the front of the room, doing pull-ups from a heating and ventilation pipe running across the ceiling. A weight belt hung from his waist carrying an extra two hundred pounds.

"Him and his resistance...." Someone muttered, seemingly already growing tired of his formula.

Despite the clear strength feat, he wasn’t very physically imposing. That was probably a strategically sound decision on his part somehow. He was average. Military average in the sense that he was lean, mean and anything but green. He had a youthful glow to his suntanned skin and he was bald. Even more bald than Rex beneath his skull-cap. He wore a martial-skin like the other students which was not common.

Since Imani did a data entry skim over just about everyone, Rex knew more about the teacher than he would’ve without her.

Sargeant Ethan Atheno. He served and completed forty-six Hellzones at the age of seventeen. Meaning while everyone in the classroom with Rex was worrying about who he stuck his tongue into, Sgt Atheno was keeping one in the chamber for the next Goblin-Lord or Orcish Battle-Tyrant leading a horde of Manasaurus Rex’s. All thanks to him being part of some experimental military curriculum with a few other trainees and special forces entrants. He was the only survivor by the end of the operations lifespan.

But that wasn’t his strong suit. Surviving aside.

Apparently, he shined when he was leading counterterrorism units across the globe centered around dismantling raiding enterprises, criminal syndicates and illegal sympathizer thinktanks.

He was good at getting into the heads of men and staying there.

Which is why Rex went about the class a little more delicately than others.

He took his stand in the middle of the class behind a off-center seat three rows from the front. Away from any windows or standout seats. Somewhere that didn’t scream, "Hey! I’m the main guy! Look at me!"

He kept his head down and eyes forward, thumbing through his class packet as everyone else filled in and stood behind their seats.

Sgt. Atheno was on rep eighty-five of weighted pull-ups when the bend in the metal pipe reached its breaking point and snapped suddenly, sending him and his belt of added weight crashing down to the metal checkered floors.

"Woah!" Natasha flinched at the metallic clang that easily rose above the mechanics working and cursing outside.

"Are you alright, Sgt?" Tyson asked.

"Man’s greatest attribute is resilience. Of course I am." Sgt. Atheno got up from behind his desk and dusted himself off. He left his toppled chair on the ground and climbed up onto his desk and took a seat there, "Good evening class."

They remained silent, as you were supposed to when standing at attention.

Sgt Atheno grinned, "Good improvement, Private Dacre."

Tyson fought off a smile as he passed the test of staying silent and in formation when standing at attention.

Sgt. Atheno made everything a game— a test. In fact, on their first day, they took ten tests. An erasure of anxiety he called it. While also threatening to drop anyone who failed.

"At ease, soldiers."

They all fell out of standing at attention.

"Your third day." He started as he looked around, "And no Inheritence Ability users are dead. That’s good. That means more of you lessers...." He used air quotes, "....will survive on the battle field. That also means, you’re all adjusting to the stimulus of your new lives. Let’s change that. Let’s..... bring up the temp."

Sgt. Atheno looked up at the broken pipe. Noxious hot air flew from the snapped pipes and filled the room with fiery air that smelled like gas and gunpowder.

"So that was on purpose? Insane." Rex thought.

Victor grinned to himself beside him.

"Everyone move your desks to your right side." Sgt. Atheno said.

Quickly, everyone shifted their desks across the metal floor to their right side.

"Rows one, three and five turn around. Everyone assume the front leaning rest position."

Rex could feel a number of trainees groan internally.

Either way, ten or so minutes later and they were all in the push-up position, head to head with the trainee ahead of them in partner positions.

The room had long since risen considerably in temperature to the point that it was suffocating.

Beads of sweat dotted the floors, vibrating in the stillness as Sgt. Atheno walked between the planking students.

"What’s all the groaning for?" Sgt Atheno asked as he stepped over Natasha and literally stood on Syrus’ back. "You guys are gonna be superheroes... with guns. A plank in the heat shouldn’t bother any of you. You eat sleep and shit gruesome combat."

Rex looked up and found Imani planking across from him. Sweat beads slicked the baby hairs framing her face into delicate shadowy swirls. Her sweat smelled sweet. He could almost taste the fruits she ate for breakfast.

"It’s fascinating, isn’t it?" Sgt. Atheno said as he loudly stepped between Imani and Rex. "There’s a couple of you in this room that are juuuuuuust short of being considered nuclear threats. I mean, when Victor’s father had the Tiger-Flame ability, he ashed an entire island. He changed global geography. That’s the potential of some of you in this room. And you’d never be able to tell. You’re all so undeniably human in this room in this moment. Equalized by a plank."

Rex couldn’t laughed at the irony.

"Except you." Sgt. Atheno squatted beside Rex, ".....I wouldn’t have recognized you if I wasn’t me. Nothing gets past me. Especially not you, shapechanger."

Rex felt his insides shrivel. Suddenly he was back on the office with AG Brennus on the brink of death. Only this time, he was sure he wasn’t somehow going to sneak his way into another rank up this time.

Imani looked up at him. Her face was unreadable. Great.

"What are you taking, private?" Sgt Atheno asked.

"High protein foods and the occasional energel, Sgt." Rex said.

"That’s a good diet." Sgt. Atheno said before getting up and walking back to his desk.

Rex exhaled.

"Relax, Rex. It’s all a test in here. Look at the ground. We’re standing on a chessboard."

Rex felt stupid for just realizing it as he looked at his veiny hands on the floor.

"Everything he does and says is a game or strategic advance. If you react, he’ll keep going. If you stay cool, and make your own move, then the ball is in your court." Imani explained. "Remember, he’s trying to teach us something here."

"Did you just... make a sports reference?" Rex asked.

"Is that all you got from what I just said?" Imani asked.

"Of course not. I need to work on my poker face." Rex said.

Sgt. Atheno made his way through the rows of students and dropped down black boards that matched portions of the black floors.

"I’m sure you’re all wondering what this is? If you’re not too tired to consider your surroundings yet." Sgt. Atheno said.

The trainees grunted and groaned as they remained in the push-up position.

"It’s a chessboard."

"What’s the catch?" Rex thought.

"The white side gets revealed by your breaths."

Imani dropped lower into the push-up position and blew air across the board laid between them.

Slowly, in uneven fading streaks of white, her side of the board was revealed.

He could see the calculation already taking place in her eyes. Even as pistons fired and gear heads roared outside. Even as the heat climbed inside.

"Every winner of todays match gets an upgraded mana stone. Some of you probably need it more than others." Sgt. Atheno said as he walked past Rex.

It was another test. He knew about Rex. Rex knew to feign indifference.

Imani nodded in approval.

"You may begin."

Everyone got to work.

"Oh. But everytime someone falls out of position, the whole classroom has to restart their match."

"Oh come on!"

"What?"

"That’s impossible!"

Sgt. Atheno grinned, "From potential nuclear powers to humans... to whining children. And not a single push-up has been completed. This is true power."

While most everyone complained, Rex took in his surroundings.

The audial assault of the world beyond. The horrendous heat and fumes. The prying professor in military form. The game inside the game set on near impossible to follow rules.

It was.....

Familiar.

Sgt. Atheno spoke like he was inside Rex’s brain.

"Come on, trainees." He clapped his hands as they began moving chess pieces and grunting in pain, "There’s going to come a time when you’re up against impossible odds. There’s going to be a time where you’re in a Hellzone alone. Your whole unit is dead. Drake food. Or worse, they’re being buried. Processed in living soil by the dryads. The enviroment’s trying to eat you. The entire foodchain and ecosystem is hardwired and motivated to eat you. You’re tired. Like right now. You’re aggravated. Traumatized. But you have to play the game. And you have to win. How?"

Rex felt himself immersed in ways he’d never been before.

"How will you overcome impossible odds?"

At the same time, Rex found himself thinking, "How will I fight off a god in three weeks?"