Kongu hit the ground hard, the stone cracking beneath his weight.
Beside him, Varga collapsed to one knee, blood dripping from his jaw, breath coming out in broken bursts.
Both hybrids lay there—
broken, shaking, barely conscious.
And then—
FWUMP.
Liora dropped from above, dragging Falko by the arm.
His wings hung limp.
His eyes were open but unfocused.
His entire body trembled with paralysis.
She let him fall beside Kongu.
A second thud followed.
Varga turned his head just in time to see Gaja collapse against the shattered stone, tossed there like a corpse. His tusk was cracked, his fur soaked red.
Every fighter who had stood against the serpents… was broken.
Arbokh slithered forward, towering over them all, coils shaking the ground.
He laughed.
A faint crackle of electricity hummed through the dust.
Varga's head snapped up.
Voltis rose from behind Arbokh—
charred, limping, bloodied…
but still alive.
Lightning flickered weakly around his arms as he staggered forward.
He wiped blood from his mouth and smirked, forcing himself to stand tall beside Vorran and Liora.
Three silhouettes now towered over the ruined battlefield—
Vorran's hulking orca frame,
Liora's glowing toxic wings,
and Voltis' sparking, twitching aura.
Varga stared at them—at the three enemies still standing—
and something inside him cracked.
His voice trembled.
"W-we're useless…"
He clenched his fists, claws shaking.
"We're weak… all of them are still standing…"
Kongu lowered his head.
Gaja barely breathed.
Falko couldn't move.
For the first time, since that night...
they felt it—
the creeping, choking grip of despair.
They were about to accept it.
About to give in.
And then—
SHK—!!
Liora's head hit the floor.
Her body fell a second later, wings dimming into nothing.
Silence.
Vorran froze.
Voltis stumbled back in shock.
Even Arbokh's eyes widened.
A lone figure stood behind Liora's collapsing corpse—
blood dripping from his daggers,
body barely upright,
face pale and shaking.
Vail.
Covered in blood.
Vision hazy.
Breathing shallow.
"I'm…" he coughed, nearly collapsing.
"…still here."
Arbokh's hood flared with murderous fury.
"I really hate you, chameleon."
Vail laughed weakly, almost delirious.
"Same here..."
He spat blood.
"Look around…"
His knees buckled.
"Almost all of your supporters… are dead…"
He managed a faint, broken grin.
"We win…"
Arbokh's tail rose—
massive, coiled, lethal.
The strike came down—
FWOOOM—!!
"But you die," he said.
A blazing streak of silver and red crashed between them.
Rin.
His aura burst outward in a shockwave as he threw his entire body into Arbokh's tail, stopping the killing blow by inches. The sheer force sent cracks spidering across the ground.
Rin's arms trembled violently, bones nearly snapping.
Above them—
a pair of wings shimmered.
Lume swooped down, grabbing Vail just as his consciousness slipped away.
"I've got him!" she shouted, lifting his limp body into the air.
Arbokh hissed, furious.
Falko's fingers twitched weakly as he struggled to move his paralyzed limbs.
His breath was shallow, his wings trembling on the ground.
He lifted his head just enough to see the others collapsing around him.
A broken smile touched his lips.
"Us, bounty hunters," he muttered, referring to Vail.
"We have plot armor. We can't di—"
CRACK—!!
A colossal shadow fell over him.
Arbokh didn't even let him finish.
His tail crashed down like a falling mountain.
Falko's body bent unnaturally, smashed into the stone floor with a sound that silenced everything.
Dust billowed.
Blood sprayed.
The ground cratered beneath the impact.
Arbokh didn't even look down.
"I don't have time for your speech," he hissed, voice cold and venomous.
"Not from you. Not from any of you."
He dragged his massive tail back, Falko's crushed form barely recognizable beneath the rubble.
Falko's crushed body slid into the crater, limbs twisted, wings shredded.
For a heartbeat—
nothing.
Then—
Kongu screamed.
A raw, guttural sound that ripped through the lane.
Varga howled, claws digging into the stone.
Gaja, half-conscious, forced out a broken roar of agony.
"FALKOOOOO!!"
Their voices echoed, shaking the shattered arena.
Arbokh turned his head slowly.
"Quiet down."
He moved—
tail coiling, fangs bared—
ready to silence them forever.
But something blurred in front of him.
Waraabe.
Face twisted in a manic grin that wanted to cry but couldn't.
"Zame…Duma… and now Falko..." he snarled.
He lunged—
CHOMP—!!
His jaws clamped onto Arbokh's obsidian scales.
They didn't pierce…
but they cracked.
A fragment snapped off and clattered to the floor.
Arbokh froze.
His eyes widened with real, genuine shock.
"You—"
He didn't get to finish.
"RAAAAHHH!!"
Kongu's fist slammed into Arbokh's jaw like a meteor, sending the World Serpent skidding backward across the stone.
Varga followed him, slashing his face with his claws and pushing him further.
At the same instant—
THUD—!!
Vorran spun toward the noise just in time to see Gaja explode forward, his remaining tusk glowing with aura.
"DIE!!"
SHUNK—!!
He impaled Vorran straight through the abdomen, lifting the orca hybrid off the ground.
For a moment, it looked like Vorran was finished.
But the battlefield wasn't done.
Vorran's eyes snapped open—
glazed, furious, desperate.
A deep rumble built in his throat.
Before Gaja could pull away—
BWOOOOOOM—!!
A hypersonic shockwave exploded from Vorran's forehead, rippling through the broken stone, shattering the air itself.
Gaja's eyes went wide.
The sound hit him point-blank.
He convulsed violently, ears bleeding, vision exploding into white static.
His limbs locked.
The orca hybrid coughed through blood.
"Can't believe a simpleton like you made me use my final ability."
Another pulse hit Gaja in the skull.
He collapsed immediately, barely breathing, his senses scattered like broken glass.
Yet the chaos didn't end there.
A crackling surge lit the dust behind them—
Voltis, shaking violently, electricity coiling around his arms.
He raised both hands, sparks spiraling upward, forming a churning column of light.
A lightning pillar.
If he unleashed it—
everyone still standing would die.
Rin saw it instantly.
His eyes sharpened.
"Oh no… you won't."
SHHAAA—!!
He vanished, propelling himself forward at impossible speed.
Voltis barely had time to look up.
"W-wait—!"
SKRRSHNK—!!
Rin's raptorial mantis legs unfolded with a metallic snap and impaled Voltis clean through the chest.
The lightning in his hands fizzled out.
Voltis gagged, electricity sputtering uselessly from his throat.
Rin ripped his legs free, and the eel hybrid collapsed like a severed wire, twitching on the stone before going still.
Three fighters fell… and the battle still wasn't over.
© 2025 Moku. All rights reserved. INSTINCTBOUND is an original work by Moku. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution is prohibited.