It took Rex a mont to realize he was no longer standing. He was laying in dirt. Facing the night sky that he once thought swallowed the whole world.
"Are you serious? Right as I start to fight? The guy got to throw around the jungle but as soon as I swing back I'm flipped to..... this?!" Rex stood, snarling with frustration.
"You'll soon find the war gods are the first tier of the Panther's Domain for a reason. They're the first tier for most Beast Totem Domain's for a reason for that matter. War is a human and ..... what would the word be? Childish, yes. It's a human and childish concept. The gods who lord over it as a result also are the most human and childish. That ans they tend to be cowardly as well. War is born out of cowardice..... fear.... jealousy.... selfishness. It makes them the easiest to understand to you all." A black panther said as it sat across from him. Though it's jaws never moved.
"Who are you?" Rex asked.
"What."
"..... what?"
"What are you, is what you should be asking."
Rex stood silently watching in confusion.
"I am Panther. The first. The beginning and swift ender." Panther said.
"....right. Do I have to fight you to?" Rex asked.
"You'd hope not."
The severe calmness in Panther's tone made him agree imdiately.
"Walk with ." Panther turned and began padding onward.
Rex followed.
"You're the first to awaken in a long ti." Panther said.
"Five remaining...." Rex thought.
Panther purred, "You're smart. Not book smart, but the life you've lived.... It's forced you to take extra care in what you experience. Your hypervigilance will serve you well if it isn't always interrupted by your ferocity."
"So what does it an— who are the other five?"
"I couldn't tell you much beyond they're yet to be discovered by you.They are products of and protected by their own totems. Their own pantheons and gods. So allies, others enemies. It depends on the iteration and holder of this power." Panther explained.
"And what is this power?" Rex asked.
Panther looked back at him, "Can't you tell? It's to change. To be infinite. To be what you humans have obsessed over since the beginning of your so called reign on your small planet."
Rex didn't have the patience to decipher the subliminal or deeper aning of Panther's reply. He moved onto the next question as his fingers twitched with anxiety and interest.
"Did you give this?" He touched the tattoos on his neck and chest. "I can't imagine a power like this being given to soone like by another person who wouldn't want it for themselves."
Panther shook her head, "You know your kind well. Generally. But there's always outliers."
"So this was given to by soone?" Rex asked.
"She once was soone. But when she gave it to you, she had long passed and walked the earth as her true form made palatable to human eyes. To your eyes."
"I don't get it." Rex said.
"You don't rember any bizzare feline figures in your life? Maybe very recently, following you or a—"
"Jag..... no way. The stray? That was a person. A dead person? That's gonna happen to ?"
"She used all nine of her very long lives. This was her last mission as werepanther of earth."
"The nine lives skill...." Rex rembered.
Panther nodded.
"How did she find — why, did she choose ?" Rex asked as he stood in the dark dirt world.
"Kin has a sll." Panther pawed the dirt as her long tail swayed in the night.
Rex felt his heart skip a beat, "She was my..... what— like my mom?"
Part of him wished the old god would say yes. But that would an his mom's dead— and his first ti eting her was as a cat-corpse or feline ghost of sorts. rely remnants of a mission that needed completing. It didn't have that sa wholeso ring to it that most orphan family fantasies had.
"Maybe. It was most likely a distant cousin or aunt." Panther shrugged, "You'll soon find of all the Totem-Warriors, the Panther Totem is the least connected. We tend to draw an antisocial bunch. Rarely do we form groups... unlike the Wolf Totem."
"Right. Strays. How on the nose."
"There is nothing on my nose." Panther replied.
"What?"
"What?"
The two looked at eachother in a sort of awkward silence for a mont before Rex asked the next most obvious question.
"So I'm starting to get it. My ancestors started with this power. It's been wielded through the generations by one holder at a ti. Sotis you make legendary warriors, other tis assassins of the modern age, or Sorcerors, whatever fits the ti and person. And each one is supported by gods. Like beast-gods. We have to please them to fully develop these totem-powers. But those gods didn't make this." Rex looked down at his tattooings.
"I did." Panther replied.
"And what are you? Are you a god too?"
Panther smiled. He couldn't see it anywhere but her feline eyes.
"What ca first, man or cat?"
"Cat. By about ten million years." Rex replied. He didn't know why he knew that fact, but he did at tis question what the world was like before man and its technologies.
Panther nodded. "It's that way for all Totems. All Progenitors. I'm not a god. It doesn't fit my power or purpose. It's a new term made by humans to fit a human image— to bring reason to inhuman power and circumstance. We use it as a mold to work within— sothing you can understand."
"What wouldn't I understand?" Rex asked.
"The interconnectedness of the universes. Energy beyond your known spectrums of light. I could go on, but you've been here long. Or not? I forget how human ti unwinds sotis."
He could feel the eting was wrapping up.
"What's the catch?" Rex asked.
Panther's ears perked up.
"You can't just be giving all this power for no reason. There's got to be sothing else to this."
Panther shrugged— which he never thought he'd see a panther do, "Aren't you in the middle of an apocalypse. Your life is already caught— for lack of a better word. Free yourself from its clutches. That is all. You want a warm bed and dinner don't you?"
"How did you...."
"With this you can have it endlessly. I will be watching you, Rex." Panther walked off into the dark, seemingly stepping into and becoming the shadows.
Rex felt himself becoming uncontrollably sleepy as he watched the Progenitor figure's tail sway out of existence.
Back and forth and back and forth and....
It took him a mont to realize he had his eyes closed. It felt like they'd been closed the whole ti— the only thing making it apparent now was the heat. He could feel it on his skin.
He opened his eyes and found that he was still laying in the jungles. Only now he could hear The Box in the distance. And the apish howls of the Jungle-Monkey Unit.
They were coming.
"Thank god— cause I have no idea where I am." Rex got to his feet.
His ears twitched as silent footfalls tore up the bark on the branches above. His skin tingled and his body hair stood on end at the scent of gunpowder and sothing sweet. Sothing inviting.
[Fear-scent recognized...]
[ 2 STR]
[-2 CNTRL]
[Predator's Frenzy 20%...]
His ears twitched again as he caught the faint click of electronics followed by a voice.
"Is this the sight of the flare? Whatever it is, kill on sight. Drift Dinsion spawn points don't even generate that much heat."
"What about the missing New Recruit/NR?" A familiar voice whispered in question.
"Shoot first, ask questions later. We've got a whole class to worry about. One of which being a Fauve boy. Focus, Gordon."
"Understood."
Rex spun around at the ntion of the Jungle-Monkey's na.
"Gordon!" He looked up into the trees where his voice ca from.
He didn't turn off his camoflauge or stop aiming his weapon. Rex could sll the barrel like it was right in front of him.
"What a—"
He flipped to the left as a finger squeezed a trigger behind him.
A tranq dart sank into the jungle grounds where he stood.
"FIRE! FIRE!"
As he landed he summoned his system screen and activated his (Nine Lives) Skill, knowing full well he was in danger. More danger than he'd ever been.
He just didn't understand why.
"Gordon! It's ! I'm the missing s—"
Before he could move again, a bomb rolled to his feet and went off.
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