Manifestation of a Mad Instinct
After a few moments of oppressive silence, Suho stood proudly in the ruined arena, as if the breath of the previous battle had barely brushed against him.
He slowly sat down, took out recovery potions, drank them one after another, then began circulating mana through his body with ruthless discipline—forcing wounds to knit together and compelling his body to rise before its time.
His eyes were steady.
Waiting.
And at that moment—
The atmosphere changed.
The system window turned deep crimson red.
The ground trembled.
A heavy, suffocating pressure spread.
Final Wave.
Enemy: ????
The team sat in the rear, watching in silence laced with dread. None of them had the strength to move, nor the courage to speak.
Suho, however, rose after completing his recovery, planted his feet firmly, and lifted his head to face his opponent—not with anxiety, but with a strange sense of anticipation.
Then—
Footsteps.
Each step was like a hammer striking the earth, shaking it, planting fear in hearts before its owner even appeared.
An overwhelming presence preceded the body.
And when it emerged from the shadows—
Suho's companions froze in place.
A creature walking on four limbs—its body that of a wingless dragon, covered in dark scales that gleamed with a metallic sheen. A thick neck, long fangs, and a breath carrying the weight of ages.
Not a dragon…
Yet bearing their aura.
And their blood.
A Drake.
One of the descendants of the ancient dragons, heir to blood cursed with glory.
Fear paralyzed the team behind him. No matter their talents, they were still children—
And before them stood a being carrying the blood of the greatest creatures this world had ever known.
But—
Something unexpected happened.
Suho did not retreat.
He did not tremble.
There was no sign of fear.
He stood there… accepting.
His mind sank into a flood of questions:
Why?
Why do I not feel the dread of a dragon's aura?
This pressure… it feels like that of a stronger human—not a legendary beast.
On the opposite side—
The drake's mind was working as well.
It was not a blind monster. Dragon blood granted it primal awareness, silent pride, and an instinctive understanding of humans despite not speaking their language.
It stared at the boy before it, a single thought surfacing:
"This… is not merely a human."
It felt regret deep within itself—
Regret for its existence, for the shackles imposed upon it, for a battle it never chose.
It did not know who placed it here, but it knew they were the cause.
Its body moved against its will.
And at the same instant—
Suho charged.
A majestic sight—pure courage, without hesitation or calculation.
This was not a clash between man and monster,
But a collision of two beings, each surpassing their own definition.
They collided.
Suho swung his mana-reinforced sword—
The first strike… failed.
The second…
The third…
Claws hard as steel, hide thick as a legendary armor, and savage, merciless attacks.
The challenge bordered on the impossible.
And yet—
In the heart of the chaos, the boy's mind shone.
He began doing things without explanation.
Strange movements. Brilliant decisions. Ideas born and executed without conscious thought.
Pure instinct.
Suddenly—
He closed his eye.
In the midst of combat, he spread his energy—not outward…
But solely over the drake's body.
Searching.
An opening.
A discrepancy.
A single flaw.
And then—he found it.
A reversed scale above the lower abdomen.
A weakness.
His smile widened—
A smile that unsettled even the drake.
The battle continued.
Ten minutes.
Fifteen.
Twenty.
Twenty-five.
The boy's patience snapped, and he shouted without logic or purpose:
— "You bastard! Try eating me with that filthy mouth!"
A deliberate provocation.
Reckless.
Dangerous.
The drake's mind resisted—
But its body responded.
It lunged forward, jaws wide open, fangs like blades, its throat exposed.
The team screamed from the rear, helpless, exhausted, able only to watch.
At the final moment—
Suho planted his feet.
Before the gaping maw of the beast, only meters separating life from annihilation.
A wicked smile appeared on his face.
This is what I wanted.
At that instant, a mad instinct manifested.
A primal rebellion against all convention, all teaching, all logic.
He did not know why—
But he acted.
Suho directed his finishing skill straight into the monster's throat.
Momentum.
The momentum thrust was more violent than ever before.
He poured everything into it—
His strength, his will, his madness, and his mastery.
In a single instant—
The condensed mana strike pierced the core of the ancient drake.
The beast fell…
Thinking to itself: Why? Why did it come to this?
And the boy fell as well.
One knee to the ground.
One hand driving the sword into the earth to keep himself from collapsing.
Exhausted—
Before the corpse of a being that had been an illogical challenge.
The boy shattered logic.
And achieved what knights who trained for decades could not.
Not through experience—
But through instinct.
Through aberrant thoughts born only in defiant minds.
The scene was a work of art:
The drake's corpse,
The kneeling boy,
And a silent sunset in an artificial environment that felt like a dream.
His companions stood behind him in absolute silence—minds in turmoil, hearts unable to comprehend.
Then—
A system window appeared.
"You have cleared the test."
"The tower acknowledges the team."
And at that moment—
Suho lost consciousness,
Still kneeling, gripping his sword.
The scene froze…
At that eternal moment.