The dust from Voltis's collapse still swirled through the shattered lane.
Rin stood alone, blood dripping from the tips of his mantis legs, chest heaving with exhaustion.
Across from him, Vorran staggered upright, a hole in his abdomen.
The arena was a graveyard of ruins, bodies, and burning aura.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Vorran tilted his head, cracking his neck with a low, irritated groan.
"All of you…" he growled, black-and-white aura flaring.
"Annoying insects. Always crawling back. Always getting in the way."
He spat blood onto the stone.
"I'm going to make sure none of you stand up again."
Rin wiped the blood from his lip, eyes like sharpened glass.
"…Funny," he said quietly.
"I was just thinking the same thing."
He pointed one mantis leg at Vorran, its metallic edge dripping crimson.
"This is for Kongu," he hissed.
"And for what you did to his friends."
Vorran smirked, taking a single heavy step forward.
"I'd like to see you try."
The stone trembled beneath them as they prepared to collide—
And then—
PAH!
A deafening crack split the air.
Vorran jerked violently, head snapping to the side as a pressurized bullet of water punched clean through his skull.
His eyes widened.
He froze mid-step.
And his enormous body toppled like a felled beast.
Silence crashed over the arena.
Rin blinked, stunned.
Kongu, Varga, Waraabe— all stared with hollow disbelief.
The shot had come from outside the arena.
Far beyond the gates.
Beyond the walls.
Beyond the battlefield.
Perched atop a distant tower and silhouetted in the crimson evening glow, stood a lone figure.
Name: Toxor
Faction: Enforcer
Rank: A+
Not holding a rifle.
Not aiming a crossbow.
Instead, braced against his shoulder and strapped across his torso was a massive blowgun—
as long as a sniper rifle, reinforced with steel bands and carved pressure chambers.
A weapon built not for hands…
but for his mouth.
An Archerfish hybrid.
He lowered one arm, steam rising from the blowgun.
"Target neutralized," he announced through his earpiece.
He shifted slightly, re-aiming.
Toxor lifted the blowgun slightly and drew a small pool of water into his mouth.His cheeks tightened. His throat pulsed.The liquid compressed with a sharp internal churn—becoming a dense, pressurized sphere.
He lifted the blowgun to his lips.The instant the mouthpiece sealed, the internal coils began to hum—amplifying the pressure building inside him.
He aligned the barrel with Arbokh.
PAH—!!
The second shot cut through the air like a screaming needle, slamming into the World Serpent's side.
It struck one of Arbokh's obsidian scales and—
KRK—
Cracked it.
Only a fragment flaked away, clattering onto the broken stone below.
Arbokh's head turned slowly, vertical pupils narrowing as he looked toward the distant tower.
"…I see," he hissed. "A sniper."
Toxor lowered the blowgun a fraction.
"Armor-class target," he murmured. "Penetration insufficient, adding more power to the shot."
But before he could fire again—
BOOOOM—!!!
The front gates of the tournament burst open with explosive force.
An entire battalion stormed through:
Enforcers marching in formation, armor glowing with crystalline sigils.
Sentinels entering in perfect lines.
Drones buzzed overhead, scanners illuminating the arena's devastation.
And at the front of them all—
A massive figure stepped through the dust, each footfall shaking the fractured stone.
The Enforcers' leader.
Atrax, the T-Rex hybrid.
His body towered above the other soldiers—muscular, colossal, built like a living fortress of bone and rage.
Thick, scaled plates ran down his arms and spine like jagged armor.
Each breath he exhaled came out as a deep rumble that vibrated through the air.
His golden-green reptilian eyes locked on Kongu and Rin with a rare glimmer of admiration as he walked past them, tail dragging heavy grooves into the stone behind him.
When he finally stopped, he stood between Arbokh and the rest of the arena—
a wall of scaled, prehistoric fury.
"Arbokh," he said, voice calm but heavy enough to crush stone.
"Your outer forces have been neutralized. 90% of your inner forces are eliminated. Your siege ends here."
He raised a single hand, and the Enforcers behind him shifted, weapons ready, aura cycling to full power.
"This is over.
Stand down."
The air trembled with tension.
And then—
"Oh my… Gaja…"
A woman's voice, soft and pained, cut through the chaos.
"…What have they done to you?"
Everyone turned.
A dark red but warm aura came from a woman— a Sentinel.
Her presence was nothing like the T-Rex's crushing force—
but it was no less commanding.
Her hair floated around her like dark water.
Her eyes were sharp yet gentle, studying everything with clinical precision.
Faint, circular markings traced the skin of her arms and fingers—like the subtle impression of leech suckers.
The Sentinel Leader.
Sanguina, the Leech hybrid.
She touched down beside Gaja without a word to anyone else, knees bending as she crouched over his massive frame.
Up close, the damage was even worse.
His cracked tusk hung loosely.
His fur was soaked in blood.
His breathing was shallow and ragged.
The woman's expression tightened.
She placed her hands on his chest.
A deep red-black glow bloomed from her palms, veins of aura spreading through Gaja's body like branching rivers.
The ground beneath him darkened as poisoned, clotted blood was drawn out, forming heavy droplets that fell and evaporated into mist.
Fresh, enriched blood pulsed back through his veins, his heartbeat stabilizing, torn tissues knitting together.
Gaja groaned, eyelids fluttering.
"Easy…" the woman murmured. "You're alright. Just hold on."
His gaze struggled to focus on her.
"H-hey…"
His voice was barely a whisper.
"N-not… me…"
His fingers twitched, trying to lift, but they barely moved.
"Don't… heal me…"
His eyes dragged themselves toward the crater where Falko's body lay—twisted, wings shattered, limbs bent at impossible angles.
"Heal… Falko…"
His voice cracked.
"H-heal him…"
The woman followed his gaze.
Her aura flickered at the edges.
She held Gaja's stare for a long, painful second—
then slowly shook her head.
"I'm sorry, Gaja," she said softly.
Her voice was calm, but there was a quiet weight to it.
"His injuries are… beyond my capabilities."
Gaja's breath hitched.
He didn't scream.
Didn't beg.
Tears just started pouring down his eyes.
The world seemed to hold still.
The Enforcers.
The Sentinels.
All of them caught between relief, grief—
and the looming dread coiled at the center of the arena.
Atrax didn't take his eyes off Arbokh.
"I'll say it again," he rumbled. "Arbokh. Surrender. You're surrounded. This is your last chance."
For a moment, the World Serpent said nothing.
Then he laughed.
It started as a low hiss…
then grew and grew until it rattled the broken stands.
"Surrender…?" Arbokh repeated, his hood spreading wider, eyes narrowing.
"You really don't understand… any of you."
The ground beneath him began to crack.
"Did you think this was my limit…?"
Kongu's heart pounded.
Varga's claws scraped deeper trenches into the stone.
Waraabe's grin finally vanished.
The Sentinel Leader's healing aura faltered for an instant.
"Everyone…" she whispered. "Get back. Now."
Arbokh's coils tightened.
The air itself seemed to suffocate, heavy with crushing pressure.
"This isn't over," Arbokh hissed.
His voice boomed across the arena, layered with something older, deeper, hungrier.
"This is just the beginning."
The stone exploded beneath him as his body erupted in size.
Coils thick as towers wrapped around shattered pillars, pulverizing them into dust.
The arena floor buckled and split as segments of his body burst through, looping around the edges of the colosseum, squeezing.
Sentinels and Enforcers scrambled back as the ground heaved under their feet.
Arbokh's hood flared to monstrous proportions, his jaws extending wider than a transport craft.
His eyes burned with an ancient, abyssal rage.
The Blood Moon's crimson light seemed to bend toward him.
"BEHOLD," he roared, voice echoing like the cracking of the world,
"THE TRUE WORLD SERPENT!"
The fully awakened form—
a colossal serpent that seemed too big for the arena, too big for the city, too big for the world—
coiled tight, every movement threatening to shatter what little remained standing.
Kongu felt his lungs forget how to breathe.
Varga's heart hammered in his ears.
Waraabe's mouth opened, but no joke came out this time.
Rin stared up at the monster he now faced, mantis legs dripping blood onto the stone.
The arena shook as Arbokh's coils tightened once more.
The World Serpent had truly awakened.
And the real nightmare was only beginning.
© 2025 Moku. All rights reserved. INSTINCTBOUND is an original work by Moku. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution is prohibited.