By the time the next challengers came, Kenji had already tried making the trench answer six more times.
Twice he had gotten nothing.
Three times the mist had thickened for a moment around his hand before fading.
And once—
once he had made a thin stream curl over a crack in the stone toward him before it broke apart.
That one had felt good.
Very good.
Enough that he had almost tried forcing more and ruined the next attempt entirely.
Now he stood near the center of the trench again, his mood slightly improved.
Not because he had mastered anything.
Far from it.
But because the mist no longer felt completely unreachable.
It felt like prey you had not caught yet.
That was easier to understand.
A low clicking sound reached his ears.
Then another.
Kenji stilled.
There.
Not above.
Inside the trench this time.
Multiple.
He smiled without showing teeth.
The sound came from deeper in the haze, where the trench narrowed and curved between two broken walls of stone.
Click-click.
Scrape.
Pause.
Then again.
Not a beast charging.
Not something careless.
Something cautious.
Kenji stepped forward slowly.
The red mist brushed against his legs as he moved.
He kept one hand low, not enough to actually use it, but enough to stay aware of the flow around him.
The clicking grew louder.
Then shapes emerged.
Three of them.
The first was tall and narrow, moving on four limbs, though its front pair looked more like long arms than legs.
Its body was covered in overlapping black plates.
Its head was small and flat, with two hooked jaws that opened sideways instead of up and down.
The second and third were smaller but built the same way.
Pack creatures.
Good.
The lead one stopped when it saw him.
The others spread apart at once.
Kenji noticed that immediately.
Smart.
He rolled his neck.
"Three at once? That's flattering."
The lead creature clicked its jaws together.
A sharp, metallic sound.
Then all three moved.
One straight at him.
One to the left wall.
One to the right.
Kenji leaped backward as the first slashed with both hooked jaws.
Stone exploded where he had been standing.
The second came from the side, skittering along the trench wall instead of the floor.
Fast.
Kenji ducked under its lunge and slammed his elbow into its plated ribs.
The impact knocked it off balance but did not break through.
Too hard.
The third one shot low for his legs.
Kenji twisted and kicked downward, sending it skidding across the stone.
No time to finish.
The first was already back.
Its hooked jaws snapped shut inches from his shoulder.
Kenji caught one side with his left hand and felt the pressure instantly.
Strong.
More than scavengers.
Less than Vargan-level absurdity.
Good enough.
He drove his right claw into the hinge of its jaw.
The creature screeched and thrashed.
The wall-runner slammed into his side before he could finish it.
All three really were coordinated.
Kenji hit the trench wall hard enough to crack stone and barely twisted in time to avoid the low one taking off his knee.
A strip of fur and flesh tore free instead.
Pain flashed.
He grinned.
This was better.
Much better.
He forced energy through his legs and burst forward.
Not at the one in front.
At the one circling wide.
The creature reacted quickly, trying to leap back to the wall.
Kenji caught its arm-limb instead and swung it into the low one.
Both crashed together.
The leader rushed him again.
He let it.
At the last instant, he stepped inside the range of its jaws instead of away from them and jammed his forearm crosswise into its mouth.
Its jaws clamped down.
Pain tore through him.
But that was fine.
He had it.
With his free hand, he hammered into the side of its head again and again.
The plates cracked on the fourth hit.
On the fifth, one hooked jaw broke loose.
The creature shrieked.
Kenji ripped his bleeding arm free and headbutted it so hard its skull caved.
It collapsed twitching.
The other two were already up again.
One came high.
One came low.
Kenji laughed through blood and grabbed at the mist around his feet on pure instinct.
Not properly.
Not cleanly.
Just a desperate pull along the trench.
The haze thickened near the ground for a brief second.
The low attacker hit it first.
Its step caught.
Only slightly.
But enough.
Kenji's grin widened wildly.
He stomped its head into the stone.
The wall-runner reached him a heartbeat later and carved a deep line across his back.
Kenji snarled, spun, and caught it mid-lunge by one hooked jaw.
The thing thrashed, clawing at him, but he held on.
Then he slammed it face-first into the trench floor.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
On the fourth, the plates around its head split.
He tore the whole front half open and dropped it.
Silence returned in pieces.
His breathing.
The slow twitching of dying limbs.
The distant sound of something screaming far above.
Kenji stood in the middle of the trench, bleeding from his arm, back, and leg.
Then he looked down at the low one he had stomped.
At the faint red haze still drifting around the cracked stone where its step had caught.
He blinked.
Then laughed.
"That counted."
Barely.
Pathetically.
But it counted.
He had not really controlled the mist.
Not the way Hesh or Khar could.
Still, he had interfered.
Just enough to ruin one step.
And that had been enough.
Kenji crouched over the nearest body and tore into it while its nerves still jumped.
The taste was harder than expected.
Dry at first, then rich beneath the shell.
The others tasted similar.
Not perfect.
But strong.
Strong enough that by the time he stood again, the wounds across his back had already dulled to a manageable burn.
He flexed his hand.
Then lowered it toward the trench floor.
The mist drifted by.
Slowly.
He smiled down at it.
"Yeah."
Not prey.
Not exactly.
But not beyond him either.
Above the trench, somewhere beyond the ridges, something let out a deep roar.
Kenji looked up.
The sound did not belong to Vargan.
Not heavy enough.
Not old enough.
But strong.
Very strong.
His grin returned instantly.
The trench was useful.
The mist was useful.
But sooner or later, he would have to leave and keep climbing.
That part had not changed.
He looked back down into the red crack in the earth.
Then at the fresh blood soaking into its stone.
"Just not yet."
For now, the trench still had more to give.
And as long as stronger things kept coming into it—
he would keep taking.