King of Adaption

Due to my impressive show the spirits of my teammates remained high even though we had failed. That was until our instructor shouted at us as if we were in a real military boot camp. Still I guess you could compare our situations to that, after all everyone here is training for war rather than going to a normal school in another country.

Well there aren't many countries on the continent of Noxus anyway, only four total. Along with another continent more formally known as the Kingdom of Seyan, the very leader that refuses to send any of their warriors over to help aid us in battle even though we have a peace treaty. Anyhow while I was lost in thought my instructor's hand gripped my shoulder with enough power to send any adult or if your body wasn't enforced with Ki to the ground. However I was different from the rest and was able to stand upright, almost negating the pressure outright.

"Listen when I'm speaking! You shouldn't be celebrating! Those who lose in the face of war die and with their death come the many who they were carrying on their shoulders along the way! So quiet down and form your single file lines and wipe that smirk off your face!" Instructor Caddle ordered as though he'd almost gone insane. And to be honest I wanted to argue that he was wrong still I hadn't because with his words I've come to notice something that the system made me believe.

Up until now since I've gained this body, I've sort of been treating this word like a game. Those who aren't important to me or useful could be killed however now I've come to realize. This world isn't a game. People besides myself have lives that they live on a daily basis, just like me and families that they love just as much. I've gotten cocky, become undisciplined and I've placed far too much trust into my system. The skills and strength I have now can always be outshined by others and polished further.

"It's time I start taking this world seriously." I said to myself after I slapped my cheeks with both hands and got into line.

"The second lesson will teach you how to spot spies and traitors among your ranks. There's no telling how and when the Beast Lord will try and take advantage of our Human nature. By that I mean our greed. The Golden has the Beast Lord classified as a Sentient Creature though only the head of the Golden has actually seen and even once fought against him. However this was all in the early parts of the war. Ultimately this lesson will help strengthen your minds and help raise your supions of those against you."

"There will be a traitor and a target. If the target is 'killed' by the traitor then those who don't have a role will fail and the traitor alone will win. The target can be 'killed' if there is a splash of red paint that coats this plastic knife onto the target who can defend themselves in any way however they can not use a weapon of any kind. Thus, in this scenario you must sniff out both the target and traitor."

"Proving to me that you can master this skill will set you apart from the naive to actually being strong." Caddle spoke before grabbing a jar off one of the many tables and walking down the lines signaling for each of us to each take one piece of paper from the jar.

Soon I felt as though I was somehow being singled out because rather than sticking my head inside of the jar Caddle reach for my hand and placed his selected role onto me. After glazing at the words written on the paper I knew that I 'A' either needed to earn his respect or 'B' make him want mine.

Needless to say but I had no other choice but to go for Option B, now was the time to prove that not always is the target a weak minded prey.

A series of different people had the courage to walk up to Instructor Caddle and report their problems with being given their role. This made it harder to spot who exactly was the Traitor because I knew that the only way for them to get a hold of the knife he held was to walk up to him and ask for it or for them to go some place separate singling the traitor out.

Once again we were told that the Traitor had a time limit of thirty minutes to complete their job and all the target had to do was not stand out yet not remain too silent or try too hard to fight in between, in other words they simply had to just act normal, almost too easy of a job but I'll get it done.

Soon I met back up with my friends or rather comrades and we began discussing ways to uncover the impost hidden among us. Rather than providing my own Ideas I wanted to sit back and listen to how the others would approach this to give me some sort of reference. Though the topic quickly steered off to the time during the Golden Trials when the three of us faced the Sorrow Bird.

"That reminds me, did the others who helped us ever show up, I haven't seen them?" I inquired generously as to what the others who helped me pass the trial were up to.

Soon Patrica replied with a smirk and asked,"Why have you finally overcome your depression Mr. Edge lord, or are you actually a big softy?"

I hadn't expected to hear such words from her nor Steward ever in my lifetime…assuming that they would be in it much longer if she kept up her antics.``Will you answer my question or should we each confront one another with our deepest and most caring feelings? If so you can go fir-" I was about to finish until Patrica roared before almost connecting a solid punch to my stomach.

"Y-you Jerk faced idiot, unloveable, two faced monster, heartless bastard…" The insults just kept going on and on until a piece of paper happened to slip out of my pocket as I dodged Patrica's strikes. It was obvious that she knew that I know about her growing feelings for Steward who if not for his blade and freckles I would have assumed he was a girl especially due to his blonde hair. Patrica certainly had strange tastes.

Curiously Steward bent down and picked up the paper with one hand and read it as if head been reading any other newspaper. As I saw this I grew relaxed to know that he wasn't the Traitor until swiftly he pulled out the very same knife I had seen earlier. Only this time it didn't look so much like plastic, it was a real knife, beautifully crafted might I add, and the red paint made it look as if the blade was made from ruby.

My eyes widened in shock as Steward actually took a clean swipe at my body, quickly I pushed Patrica out of the way and sidestepped the attack. "I-I could have actually died, in a place like this I would have died by a mere accident." I came to this conclusion because based on the way Steward struck and by following his eyes I could tell his target was on my right shoulder. However after struggling with Patrica the force of her body had pushed me and her back enough to have let the attack pierce right through if not cut my neck wide open.

Stewards instantly realized the damage the attack would have had, however that didn't stop him from increasing his speed and lethalness growing closer and closer with each slash of his dagger, it was by my standards true talent in the making.

Patrica sat on the ground and watched silently as both Steward and I fought well. It was more like a dance where he attacked and I dodged waiting for the best timing to strike. The paint from the dagger threatened to make contact with my uniform with each swing and his speed continued to increase as if he was a mighty beast closing in on his prey but…

How would such a mighty lion react if it suddenly knew that it wasn't in the very jungle it thought it was but rather in the ocean. Stranded in an endless blue sea, the home territory of its 'prey', this forest would soon become my ocean and sky for I would embody similar movements I would later come to call The Dawnless Sea.

Quick memories of watching Patrica fight by merely using her gauntlets resurfaced when we fought against beasts and her quick witted nature and decisions also came. I was beginning to copy the style of Patria only because I didn't carry around a weapon everywhere I went, technically I do but that would defeat the purpose of showing the entirety of the people here just how far I'm willing to go to see improvement and to prove to myself that I'm actually enjoying and taking the time I was gifted by my family and friends to view life seriously.

Quickly I widened our distance before going into a stance I had only once seen before, I'd seen my brother do this before? When? How? Suddenly a quick memory of my brother instructing me on how to throw a jab and other series of punches flowed and his stance that he called a Muay Thai stance.

I followed his every word as if they were orders and as if I was a starved beast I longed for more until the vision faded and quickly Steward was upon me. I raised my right leg and empowered Ki into my left one and jumped high into the air before twisting and slamming my right foot into his face.

WHAM!

"Insubordination. I'm bound to face problems like this If I keep going against my own nature and trying to lead a life I'm not cut out for. Why fit into a crowd when you can make on others want to be apart of?" I said before calmly landing back onto the ground with a throbbing foot and trying my best to act cool. Soon I kicked away the knife and raised Steward into the air, maybe I was going to kill him. That was until I remembered back when I'd just woken up from a deep rest and questioned myself on the reason why I'd killed Claire and her friends, breaking down almost in the hall way and today when I made it known to myself that people had reasons for living just like me and there was no need to kill Steward

"If you challenge me again for whatever reason it was that you had such a strong look of rage and disgust in your eyes then I'll just beat you again and again until you lose your will to fight because that is who I am. Marcel King, son of a disaster yet a boy full of talent who can overcome his odds at any given point it won't be long until I'm known as the King of Adaptation."

I made my debut into this world and this was where my story finally began…

Suddenly it made sense why I'd seen Steward talking with Caddel not because he had the guts to complain but because he needed the knife. However I can't think of any other reason for them both to harbor bad intentions towards me other than my father or something similar after all he was the root of most of my problems nowadays. Still, I began to ponder as I left the class not caring whether or not Caddle was mad though I guess he wouldn't be because suddenly the bells rang signaling that it was time for us to head to our dorms and for me to finally put in some work like everyone else.