I have Nine Lives

Chapter 19: Preparation

While Felix's body was agile it was quite lacking in pure strength, however, that didn't lower his combat strength by much as he was an assassin, considering he could already kill people above his physical strength what would happen if he increased his physical strength as well?

Technically speaking he would be able to fight it out with people who had strong special abilities that he wouldn't be able to gain due to his unique constitution which was something that has been seen quite rarely in his new world.

Felix's muscles were starting to move as the Hex energy stored in his body was attacking them continuously like sharp needles trying to break through them, they were getting damaged and restored at high speed due to the Hex energy properties.

Along with his muscles, the same could be seen at his bones, his whole bone structure was changing and strengthening itself as his body was growing ever so slightly in his sleep.

However, these changes didn't give him any extraordinary aura or changed his outer looks by much, besides growing to a medium dog's size he remained the same cat that he was when he came from Earth, green emerald eyes combined with a slick fur coat of stripped orange, he was still looking quite fat even though he was basically exercising every day.

Felix's bodily changes didn't stop his from sleeping and as time passed the changes in his body exhausted all of the Hex energy he gained from eating the tiger youth, morning came and he woke up then stretched his whole body, after having a hearty breakfast at the inn he realized that his communication stone was beeping!

After he pressed the communication stone with his paw he could hear Landers's voice coming from it telling him:

"Come to our guard building, it's time for some training before the war starts, and being frank with you we don't have much time!"

Felix quickly started to run towards the guard building and shortly meet there with Landers who was instructing the lieutenant on what to do while he was away.

Seeing that Felix came he finished his instructions promptly and motioned with his hand for Felix to follow him.

Felix followed him out of the building and blinked his eyes as he saw him appear around 100 meters away from him, Landers gave him a side glance and a smile as Felix understood what he meant.

Felix started to run after him but he couldn't get near him at all!

His speed was so high that Felix could only eat his dust, as they left the capital behind them Felix saw his surroundings change multiple times as they went through a forest, a plain, and a few more villages and cities of the other tribes.

It took almost 3 days of running to reach their destination, they reached a clearing where a big mound was standing there, out of the mound came the aura of bloodlust and death, suddenly Felix could feel his fur stand on end as a sweet voice could be heard:

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"Oh isn't he cute Landers, why did you make him join us?"

Landers came in front of Felix and shielded him from the intense killing intent which was aimed at him and said:

"I wanted him to join us due to his unique talents and ability to grow, you might not see it now but as long as he will fight with our squad, his power will quickly increase, I'm not sure if he will become captain worthy before this war, but he would be at least a lieutenant!"

Another voice came from the mound that chilled Felix's blood in his veins that said:

"Aren't you overestimating a cat tribesmen's ability to grow? Even though his whole fur is orange colored I'm not sure if his potential is up to par!"

Felix could feel that there were around 3 more people inside the mound but they didn't say anything as they only observed.

Landers crouched to his eye level and told him to lessen the pressure on his shoulders:

"They are all captains of the lion tribe, even though they aren't from the same tribes, I became friends with them after we did missions in our rookie days and kept in contact, you won't be joining us per se but the people below us."

Landers then got up and looked at the mound while saying:

"Where are your protegees eh? Also, why don't you come in the light so my disciple can see you."

Two snorts could be heard coming from the mound as they left its darkness, it was a cute woman with long fangs and bat ears, she wore a purple skin-tight outfit that hugged her hourglass figure, she looked cute on the surface but Felix could see that she was quite bloodthirsty inside.

The other one was a rather stalwart man who wore a suit that seemed to be sewn to his skin, he had a curly mustache and he gave out a cool air around him, the other three people didn't come out as they were still observing.

The woman gave out a cute chuckle as she bowed slowly and said:

"My name is Varra from the bat tribe, nice to make your acquaintance little cat."

The man twirled his already curly mustache as he gave Felix another glance before he said:

"I'm Penzo from the Penguin tribe of the north."

Penguin tribe? Bat tribe? Felix didn't have much knowledge about all of the tribes of the Tarot continent so he only nodded his head while he gave back his greetings.

Landers knew that Felix was rather uncultured so he decided to give him a special scroll with all of the races on the continent so he wouldn't make a fool of himself in the future.

Varra wanted to come closer to Felix but Landers walked in front of her and said:

"You know what happened to the other apprentices who you got near, you can't get near him."

Varra licked her red cherry lips as she backed away from Landers, it was obvious she was quite scared of him from the way her eyes dilated when she looked at his face and muscles, at least that's what Felix thought.

Landers knew that Penzo wasn't really interested in Felix besides questioning his qualifications so he only gave him another nod before saying:

"If you think Felix isn't worthy to join our apprentice squads why don't you get out your apprentices to spar against him? I'm pretty sure he would surprise you."

Penzo snorted as he clapped his hands and a youth that looked similar to him ran out of the mound clumsily, he also had a suit that was seemingly sewn onto his skin, he had a clump of dark hair on his head that made it look like a bunch of hay freckles on his face.

He looked quite awkward standing behind his teacher twiddling his thumbs and not making eye contact with anyone as he was seemingly scared of everything that moved.

Varra snapped her finger and a bat came out of the mound behind them the bat formed into a cute girl that looked to be around 18 to 19 years old, she had a dark outfit on her that consisted of combat pants and boots along with a long-sleeved leather vest, her crimson eyes made her look quite cute in the sunlight along with her blonde hair.

The other three seeing that it was time to compare students also came out of the mound, they were respectively from the Pig tribe, Komodo Tribe and Flamingo Tribe.

The pig tribesman was obviously quite fat and wore a big chain armor on his body that protected him from any attacks regardless of angle, he had a helmet under his arm which indicated that his armor could protect all vital points, he looked to be middle-aged and bald and he had the normal features of the pig tribe, a big snout, and flappy ears, his curled tail was hidden under his armor.

The Komodo tribesman was a 30 years old male who wore full army-style leather armor that was made to camouflage his body, he had scars along his face and one of his eyes was gouged out, however it could be seen from his expression and posture that his blind side wasn't a weakness!

The Flamingo tribesman was a flamboyant woman who stood on one leg as she wore the strangest outfit out of all of them, she wore a pure pink dress that had no special advantages it was a dress made from a material that Felix didn't recognize so maybe it had his uses? Her pink hair was fluttering in the nonexistent wind as she stood there.

Behind them they each had their students, the student of the Pig tribesman was a cocky looking fatty who wore the same type of outfit as his teacher but he didn't have a helmet, he was around the other's age but for some reason, he had white hair.

The komodo tribesman student was a large youth that was fully packed with muscles, his tail was moving aggressively behind him and surprisingly he was from the crocodile tribe!

However he had a lazy disposition as he yawned and was ready to go to sleep, his fluffy dark hair was almost covering his eyes.

Last but not least was the student of the flamingo woman which was a flamboyant youth that was looking very similar to the woman so he must have been some kind of relative to her, son, grandson?

Landers already explained to them that Felix didn't have a human form before he even told Felix about the training so they weren't surprised at all seeing Felix remaining in his cat form, it was a very rare occurrence but people who couldn't transform into their humanoid form still exited up till this day, they mostly remained civilians as their battle power was subpar. That was one of the reasons Varra and Penzo were looking down on Felix, they both thought that his normal cat form would drag his battle power down along with their students.

Landers nodded seeing everyone coming out and clapped to take everyone's attention, it seems he was the leader of their squad:

"Ok now that everyone made acquaintance since the two of you don't think that Felix is up to par why don't we make our students fight for a few rounds? What do you say?"

Penzo gave out a gentlemanly smile as he nodded his head as he was accepting the proposal, Varra put a finger on her lips for a few seconds before she smiled showing her fangs while nodding as well, they wanted to see how much their students improved on the battlefield, after all, they were students in name only as they weren't taught much by the captains, the captains only took them in as students after they saw their records and growth.

The other three still just observed, they were the passive party in the squad and they would only go to work when orders from above were instilled, they were also vassal tribes to the Lion tribe, but they liked to use the term 'allies'.

Landers decided to become the referee in this situation as his student was the one issuing the challenge to prove himself.

They made some good space into the clearing as Lander's came to the middle, the first to come up to fight Felix was the bat-girl, she skipped towards her part of the battlefield and gave out a sweet smile to Felix as she waved to him, she found him pretty cute.

Felix nodded to her as a sign of respect between comrades and Landers started by telling the rules:

"No crippling is allowed, no deadly blows or techniques allowed, this is purely a spar between squadmates to compare our techniques and battle power, the fighter can give up by tapping the ground below them with any part of their body 3 times if the fighter becomes unconscious he loses, if the teacher of the fighter intervenes in the fight the fighter loses. These should be all of the rules, any comments?"

No one said anything, the rules were fair and unbiased so the fight was ready to begin.

Landers waved his hand as he started to count down:

"10,9,8....0"

Felix became invisible as he used his stealth footwork and disappeared from everyone's eyes, the teachers narrowed their eyes seeing such an impeccable stealth technique but Verra chuckled as she watched her student and said:

"Stealth maybe good in most situations but my student is quite special even among my kin, show her what you are made of Korro."

Korro's big bat ears were constantly twitching as she tried to locate Felix, it seemed she had an extreme sense of hearing aven among the other tribesmen from the bat tribe.

Felix kept himself a distance away from her as he planned his attack, he knew that in this situation instinct won't help him as much so he had to use his head, however, his intelligence while almost above average wasn't that high so he could only make a basic plan.

He nodded his head as he finished thinking and started to slowly approach her making almost no sound, he wanted to finish this match fast as he didn't know what techniques the other party had under her sleeves.