Kenji stayed in the lower basin until the last worthwhile piece of Boral was gone.
Not because he loved the taste.
The opposite, really.
The thing had tasted like poison pretending to be food.
But strength was strength.
And whatever he gained from it was already settling into his body.
His burned arm still hurt.
Still looked bad.
Yet the raw flesh had already started sealing beneath a thin dark layer.
Not normal.
Not healthy.
Useful.
He climbed back up from the lower basin to the main trench with slower steps than usual.
Not weak.
Just thinking.
This place was bigger than he first thought.
The upper trench where challengers came.
The lower basin where Boral nested.
The mist thickening differently in different sections.
And apparently enough creatures around here knew each other by name to make all of that matter.
Claims inside claims.
Feeding grounds inside feeding grounds.
Kenji liked that.
It meant there was more structure to exploit.
When he reached the main center of the trench again, he looked around more carefully than before.
The stone ledges.
The narrow turns.
The places where a creature could crouch and wait.
The lines where the mist naturally flowed thicker.
The blood-dark cracks where the trench seemed to breathe a little colder.
The whole place really did have teeth.
Not literally.
But close enough.
A good place to grow.
A good place to kill.
A good place to survive until he could move upward.
Kenji smirked and crouched near one of the darker cracks.
Then lowered his hand into the red haze.
This time, sensing it came faster.
Not because he had become good.
Not yet.
But because the trench was more familiar now.
He could feel the little currents moving along the ground.
The way the mist hesitated near old blood.
The way it settled into the deeper grooves as though choosing where to rest.
He pressed his will into the stone beneath his palm.
The haze thickened slightly.
Then coiled along the crack in a thin, drifting line.
Kenji's eyes sharpened.
"Better."
He did not push.
Did not try to force too much.
He just followed it.
A little more left.
A little more right.
The mist moved.
Barely.
But it moved.
Then a sharp pulse of irritation hit him—
Mine.
And the whole thing unraveled.
Kenji stared at the haze as it scattered.
Then groaned.
"Why is that the part that keeps ruining it?"
Because, obviously, he wanted it to be his.
The trench.
The mist.
The strength in it.
All of it.
Apparently the trench disliked being treated like prey.
Or maybe it disliked impatience.
Either way, it was annoying.
A scraping sound cut through the quiet.
Kenji rose at once.
Not from the ridges.
Not from the lower basin.
From the far mouth of the trench.
Something was entering openly.
Heavy steps.
No stealth.
No caution.
Then the figure appeared.
A large humanoid thing with skin like cracked stone and a body wrapped in strands of dried sinew.
Its arms were thick.
Its neck short.
Its head slightly sunken between its shoulders.
No horns.
No fur.
No expression, either.
Just two pale eyes and a mouth full of blunt, square teeth.
It stopped near the trench entrance and looked at him.
Kenji smiled.
This one did not feel like a scavenger.
Good.
The stone-skinned creature looked around once.
At the blood.
At the corpses.
At Kenji.
Then it spoke in a voice like rocks sliding together.
"Sael said the trench has a new owner."
Kenji's brows lifted.
"Oh? Word spreads fast."
The creature ignored the joke.
"I came to see."
Kenji spread one hand slightly.
"Then see."
The pale eyes remained fixed on him.
Then it said, "If you are weak, this place opens again."
Kenji's grin sharpened.
"And if I'm not?"
The creature took one more step inward.
"Then I remember your scent."
That was a strange answer.
Not bad.
But strange.
Kenji rolled his shoulders.
"Name?"
"Drav."
"Kenji."
Drav nodded once.
Then, unlike the others, he did not give advice.
Did not judge aloud.
Did not talk about claims or the mist or Hesh or Boral.
He simply attacked.
The ground cracked beneath his first step.
Kenji barely got both arms up in time.
Drav's fist slammed into him like a falling stone.
He hit the trench wall hard enough to burst part of it apart.
Pain flashed through his back and shoulders.
Before he could reset, Drav was already there.
No wasted movement.
No roar.
No grin.
Just another punch.
Kenji ducked it by inches and drove his claws across Drav's ribs.
A horrible scraping sound followed.
Sparks.
Actual sparks.
Kenji blinked.
"You're kidding."
Drav's elbow smashed down toward his head.
Kenji twisted away and felt the blow crack stone beside him instead.
So that was how it was.
Hard body.
Straightforward fighter.
No tricks yet.
Kenji could work with that.
He sprang backward and forced energy into both legs.
Then burst in low, aiming not at Drav's chest but at his knee.
His shoulder hit like a battering ram.
Drav shifted a fraction.
Not enough to avoid it.
Enough to blunt it.
The big creature took one step back.
That was all.
Then his fist came down again.
Kenji crossed his arms and took it head-on.
The force drove him to one knee.
His grin widened instead of fading.
"Okay. You're heavy."
Drav said nothing.
He stomped.
Kenji jumped aside as the stone beneath him exploded upward.
Fragments slashed past his side.
Drav followed with a backhand that clipped one horn and spun Kenji halfway around.
Pain flashed white.
He laughed.
This was good.
Simple.
Brutal.
The kind of fight where both sides just had to break the other first.
Kenji rushed him again.
A claw strike to the throat.
Blocked.
A kick to the hip.
Barely moved him.
A low feint into a punch at the ribs.
That one landed.
Drav's body shifted half a step.
Not enough.
Still not enough.
Then Drav grabbed him.
One thick hand closed around Kenji's forearm.
The other seized his shoulder.
For one second, they stood there.
Then Drav slammed him into the trench floor.
Once.
The air left Kenji's lungs.
Twice.
The ground split beneath his back.
On the third attempt, Kenji twisted and sank his teeth into Drav's wrist.
The taste of blood hit instantly—
gritty.
Dense.
Awful.
Strong.
Drav's grip tightened instead of loosening.
Then he hurled Kenji across the trench.
Kenji crashed through a jutting stone edge and rolled hard before catching himself on all fours.
Blood ran down his mouth.
He grinned through it.
"Oh, you're good."
Drav's pale eyes did not change.
He stepped forward again.
Steady.
Certain.
The kind of creature that expected his weight to decide everything.
Maybe most of the time it did.
Kenji spat blood to the side and lowered his center of gravity.
Then glanced at the trench floor.
At the blood-dark cracks.
At the mist.
A thought rose.
Not enough to control it well.
But enough to use what was already here.
Drav came in again.
Kenji met him halfway.
Not to overpower him.
To turn him.
He slammed into Drav's chest, twisted at the last second, and gave ground deliberately, letting the bigger body surge one step too deep into the center of the trench.
Then Kenji grabbed.
Not the mist itself.
The place.
The crack.
The blood-rich center that had answered him before.
For one brief second, the haze thickened low around Drav's feet.
Just enough.
Drav's next step dragged.
Tiny.
Almost nothing.
But against a force-based fighter, almost nothing was enough.
His weight shifted wrong.
His footing broke.
And in that single opening, Kenji drove both claws up under Drav's chin.
The stone-like skin resisted.
Then cracked.
Not deeply.
But enough.
Drav's head jerked back.
Kenji followed instantly with a headbutt straight into the split point.
The crack spread.
Drav staggered.
For the first time, a real expression crossed his face.
Irritation.
Kenji laughed and hit him again.
Claws into the same crack.
Elbow into the throat.
Knee into the ribs.
Drav tried to answer with another crushing punch, but the timing was off now.
The trench had ruined the rhythm for him.
Kenji slipped inside the swing and bit into the cracked throat.
The taste was terrible.
Still, he tore down hard.
Stone-like flesh split.
Dark blood burst out.
Drav hit him once more across the side of the skull.
Hard enough to send him stumbling.
Hard enough that his vision blurred.
But by then the damage was done.
Drav took one step.
Then another.
Then dropped to both knees.
He reached for his throat.
Failed.
And collapsed forward into the trench floor.
Silence.
Kenji stood over the body, breathing hard.
Blood ran from his mouth, head, shoulder, and ribs.
One horn throbbed where it had been clipped.
His arms felt heavy.
His chest hurt.
And yet—
he was smiling.
"That one counted too."
Not just the kill.
The trench.
The mist.
The way it had answered at the right moment.
Still crude.
Still weak.
But no longer luck.
He crouched over Drav's body and bit in before the life left completely.
The taste hit like crushed stone and hot iron.
Disgusting.
Dense.
Powerful.
He tore off another piece.
Then another.
By the time he finished enough to matter, the ache in his body had already started settling into strength.
Kenji rose slowly and looked around his trench.
The main center.
The lower basin.
The ridges above.
The blood-soaked cracks.
A place with teeth.
A place that was starting to know him.
He licked the blood from his fangs and smiled into the red dark.
"Come on, then."
If stronger things kept hearing about him—
good.
That only meant the trench would keep feeding him.