I have Nine Lives

Chapter 24: Changing teachers

Landers decided to tell him directly without beating around the bush:

"Our fighting styles are way too different, I don't think I can teach you a fighting style that would suit your body, the fighting styles of cats and lions are very different due to our different bodies and innate qualities but don't fret, I think I have a good teacher for you!"

While they were waiting someone entered the tent, it was a cat tribesman from his looks, he had an average height and he wore a dark militaristic outfit which showed he had a decent position in the lion army.

He had a small clump of orange in his black hair and his looks weren't anything to talk about, he wasn't average nor beautiful his face was kinda forgettable too.

Landers walked towards him and slapped him on the shoulder as he introduced him to Felix:

"He is your teacher, Captain Carto, he is a very strong cat tribesman from the northern tribes, I think I should leave you alone to get acquainted with each other first, I already told him about your peculiarities so you don't have to tell him much, just get to know each other personally."

Landers smiled as he left the tent while leaving the duo of cats behind.

Carto looked at Felix's body for a short while before he opened his mouth:

"His excellency Landers gave me all the needed information to train you, it seems that you have already mastered some of your abilities but you lack a fighting style that you can call your own, Landers also told me you come from a rather poor tribe so I understand why you weren't trained in the normal catfighting style."

Carto sighed as he suddenly disappeared and appeared in front of Felix, Felix eyes widened as he looked at the finger that was pointed towards his chest near his heart, Carto shook his head:

"It seems that you are lacking in reflexes as well, all of this can be fixed but we don't have much time, I just hope you won't find a captain level enemy on the battlefield or you will join the hero tablet back at the capital."

Felix gulped as he followed Carto, both of them left the tent behind as they found an open space where they could train, the other workers around the camp didn't have time to look at the officers' training so they were ignored.

Carto stood on the spot as he waved his hand and told Felix:

"You can attack me and I will point out the flaws of your attacks, I will teach you the cat combat style through fighting as it's the quickest way to learn it currently."

Felix didn't say anything as he used his stealth technique and disappeared, he rushed towards Carto but Carto just shook his head and easily dodged Felix's attacks while saying:

"It seems you don't know how to control your killing intent and you can easily be spotted by someone with experience, you might be able to stealthily kill rabble this way but true experts would be able to dodge your attacks and even hit back, but I commend you for stopping a few meters before attacking if you walked forward your chest might have gotten another wound."

Felix got the same feeling from Carto as he got from the scarred tiger so he stopped himself from attacking, it seemed it was the right decision.

Felix found himself on the ground as Carto sat near him pushing him down with both of his arms:

"Another weakness is that you can't feel killing intent, this a combination that we will have work on, you are also prone to fight people physically stronger than you so getting in this position means certain death."

However Carto was surprised as his body was slowly getting pushed up by Felix, his eyes narrowed as he tried to push further but he entered a strength stalemate with Felix!

Carto was also a cat tribesman so he wasn't that physically strong, but he was older and trained more than Felix so he was immediately surprised by the fact that Felix's bodily strength was equal to his.

He jumped backward and nodded:

"It seems you have a few hidden strengths, I commend you for that, now let's continue the training, Be sure to watch my attacks!"

Carto entered a stance as he put his arms down around his body and lowered himself to the ground like he was bowing his head.

The next second Felix found a claw attack flying towards his head that he barely dodged, Carto nodded at him and said:

"I have adjusted the poses for your primordial form as you don't have a humanoid form so watch well!"

Carto entered different stances as Felix barely dodged and had no time to counterattack as his life was on the line, he could feel the breath of death flowing on his back chilling his whole body every time he clashed with Carto.

Carto was holding back quite a great deal but he was surprised by Felix's tenacity and ability to adapt on the spot, he almost counterattacked a few times since the start of the training, it's been almost 4 hours and Felix was exhausted but he could still find weak spots that he could get advantage off.

This type of weak spots became more evident in Felix's mind the more he fought, his innate animal instincts were starting to take over the more he fought, however before he could continue his stomach started growling as he fell on his back in exhaustion.

Carto looked at Felix and shook his head:

"It seems we have trained a bit today, however, it's not enough yet! Eat and let's continue!"

It was around afternoon and Felix had to talk with the tribesmen who were working around the camp for food, since he was a soldier in the army he got the food for free, especially since he was training for the war, he got some extra nutritious food to help him with his training.

After he ate Felix had to train with Carto again until he fell on his back and couldn't move, he slept in the same place that night.

Felix woke up to the nudging of a boot, it was Carto who immediately stepped on his tail and made him awake, another day of training went by with Felix remaining the weaker party as Carto unleashed more of his prowess.

Time passed by and it was only one day before the start of the war, the skies were turning deep red as the sun bathed the ground, Carto was looking down at Felix's still form on the ground and nodded to him as he said:

"You have learned the fighting style and while you aren't that experienced with it, if you don't die in this war you should be able to master the fighting style, as for feeling and stopping the killing intent, it seems you aren't that talented in that regard, well we did have a short time..."

Felix got up from the ground and shook his head, he couldn't grasp the way of hiding his killing intent nor predicting the killing intent of the enemy, he couldn't feel it properly yet but he knew it was there.

Carto looked towards the horizon as the sun shone brightly in the sky and said:

"After this war one of the tribes might be exterminated..."

Felix stood there not saying anything, he only worked for the lion tribe because he found them first, he wasn't that attached to the tribe even though he had one friend inside it, two if you counted Landers, but he could feel that he wasn't that close to Landers.

Felix sighed as he looked in the same spot as Carto only for his eyes to widen, it seemed the Tigers were already getting ready for war as their strongest experts were currently coming right for them!

However, Felix could feel the ground shake under his feet as the experts of the Lion tribe suddenly appeared from the biggest tent in the camp and started to rush towards the middle of the battlefield.

Carto shook his head as he looked at the meeting in the middle of the battlefield and explained to Felix:

"The leaders of both tribes would usually meet each other before a tribe war would happen, however, you can see from our leaders that the tribe is in a precarious position."

The aura of the Lion tribesmen was indeed a little bit weaker and if Felix took a better look he could see that the leading Lion was looking quite old!

Carto seeing Felix recognizing their Shaman told him:

"As you know the Shaman of the lion tribe is old and should have been thrown out of the tribe already, unfortunately, his descendants couldn't get even half as strong as he is! Meaning that if he was thrown out of the tribe would collapse and we would be enslaved by the tiger tribe."

Carto shook his head as he saw the Shaman's from both tribes exchanging courtesies, most of the time the Shamans wouldn't have to fight but it seemed the Tiger Shaman was getting antsy seeing the old fossil of the Lion tribe standing in front of him.

Felix continued to observe and wait, he wasn't sure if he would learn anything by seeing their interactions but since he finished his training and didn't have anything to do he decided to watch the interactions of the upper echelons from both tribes with Carto.