The world changed the day nature chose to wake inside mankind.
At eighteen, some humans feel it—the whisper of scales, the call of wings, the heartbeat of the wild echoing through their blood.
They call it the Awakening.
From that moment, a single law governs all life:
Each creature's soul belongs to only one host.
Only the person whose spirit mirrors the animal's instinct, whose body carries its strength, whose heart beats to its rhythm, may inherit that essence.
Those who do are no longer fully human.
They are known as Apexes—the living embodiment of nature's supremacy.
The Awakening shattered the balance of civilization.
Empires fell. New powers rose. The world rebuilt itself around the instincts of beasts now walking in human skin.
To contain—or perhaps to guide—the chaos, four great factions emerged, each believing their way alone could tame evolution.
The Enforcers — Government / Police
Keep order among Apexes and protect the fragile remains of human society.
(Kongu belongs to them.)
The Sentinels — Heroes
Stand between life and extinction, vowing to defend both man and beast.
(Gaja and Duma fight under this banner.)
The Predators — Villains
Tear down law itself, claiming that instinct is the only truth and that civilization shackles evolution.
(Zame hunts among them.)
The Drifters — Independents
Answer to no creed. Wanderers, bounty hunters, information brokers—souls who live by nothing but their own pulse.
(Falko, Varga, and Waraabe walk this path.)
Only those strong enough to reach Rank B or higher may claim a place in these factions.
Power decides everything, and the world of Apexes measures power through five ascending ranks.
Rank D — Hibernators (Civilians)
Ordinary men and women who never trained their abilities. They live quietly, pretending the old world still exists.
Rank C — Hatchlings
The newly awakened. They study under watchful eyes, learning to speak with the creature inside without losing their sanity.
Rank B — Hunters
They have mastered control. Beast and man move as one. Hunters roam the streets as protectors, mercenaries, or assassins—the sharp edge between order and chaos.
Rank A — Alphas
Few ever ascend this far. For them, transformation is no longer an act—it is existence itself. The human mind and the creature's will breathe as a single being.
Mythic Rank — Apex Predators
Beyond the Alphas lies the impossible. Mythics are not trained; they mutate. In moments of violent transcendence, human and beast dissolve entirely, giving birth to something ancient… something divine.
❖ ❖ ❖
Sirens howled through the ruins of what used to be the industrial district.
A crowd of civilians fled down shattered streets, eyes wide, breaths heavy with panic.
And at the center of it all—
a man with gill-slits carved into his neck and a grin sharp as glass.
Zame, the Shark Hybrid.
His eyes shimmered like the sea under a storm.
Blood dripped from his knuckles, mixing with the rain as another Enforcer lay unconscious at his feet.
"You call this justice?" he growled, kicking a badge into the gutter.
"You cage beasts and call it peace."
A deep voice answered from the smoke.
"And you call this freedom?"
Zame turned.
Through the haze stepped a broad figure, uniform torn but insignia intact—
the steel-fisted Kongu, the Gorilla Hybrid of the Enforcers.
The air between them felt heavier than the smoke.
Once brothers. Now predator and lawman.
Kongu's eyes softened for a heartbeat.
"What have you become, Zame?"
The Shark laughed, a sound both human and not.
"What the world made me."
The rain hit harder. Sparks flickered from broken streetlights as the two instincts faced each other—
order and chaos, both born from the same pain.
Then they charged.
— Hours later… —
The rain had stopped, but the smell of smoke still clung to the air.
Inside a dim Enforcer outpost, Kongu sat alone in his quarters.
His knuckles were still bruised, his uniform half-burned from the skirmish with Zame.
Steam rose from a forgotten cup of coffee on the desk beside him.
A single light flickered above, swaying gently as thunder rolled far away.
He opened the drawer.
Inside, wrapped in worn paper, lay a photo—eight children smiling at a cracked camera lens.
Mud on their shoes. Sunlight on their faces.
Eight hearts that once believed they could conquer the world.
Kongu stared at it for a long time.
The edges of the photo were torn, the ink faded from years of regret.
"Fate is cruel," he whispered.
"Who would've thought that we seven… would awaken as Apexes."
His thumb brushed over each face in the picture—
the boy with the grin too wide for his own good,
the quiet one always standing at the back,
the one who could never stop running.
And at the center, the one who was gone—Vico.
Kongu closed his eyes, the memory pulling him back like a tide.
Outside, a distant siren wailed; inside, the silence was heavier than steel.
❖ ❖ ❖
Images flickered like old film reels beneath the Blood Moon's glow…
Zame — The Shark
A sea of bodies in a flooded street. Water swirling red. Sharp teeth glinting through the rain.
Duma — The Cheetah
A figure running through neon alleys, the fastest one, his shadow stretching endlessly behind him.
Kongu — The Gorilla
Fists shattering stone, training alone beneath a weight heavier than guilt itself.
Waraabe — The Hyena
Laughter echoing through firelight—too loud to be human, too sad to be fake.
Gaja — The Elephant
Hands glowing with warmth as he lifts rubble from the wounded—gentle eyes hiding endless sorrow.
Falko — The Hawk
High above the world, wings spread against the clouds, eyes sharp and cold as steel.
Varga — The Wolf
A man walking the empty streets at dawn, chasing ghosts only he can see.
The seven instincts, scattered across a fractured world,
each haunted by the same memory—
each bearing the mark of Vico, the soul they could not save.
© 2025 Moku. All rights reserved.
Apexes: Legacy of the Pack is an original work by Moku. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution is prohibited.