"Left pocket," Evan said. "Again."
Shields touched. The hum of the Territory Shield brushed Evan's knuckles whenever he leaned just enough toward safety.
North was a different wrong - lighter, quicker, a tick under the fog like bone deciding whether to brag.
"Two steps, hold," Evan said. He pointed the pocket at a shallow rise that looked like it had memorized feet. "We do not give the first move. We buy it."
The corpse crescent they'd dragged outward worked. Flies tried to be important. Something with too many small legs rearranged the slick edges and then thought better of it when a shield tilted its way.
"No chase," Evan said. "Pocket first. We kill at the price we set."
One soldier shifted his heel half an inch to anchor the left edge of the soft patch. The loam sat like a lie with a deadline.
A murmur in the fog pretended to be wind and failed. The sound carried small stones in it, as if something had learned to count on claws.
"Inventory," Evan said, eyes on the gray.
[INVENTORY - SUMMARY][BLACK IRON INGOT × 22][DESERT MIST LIZARD LEATHER × 38][MONSTER CORE (BLACK IRON - LOWER) × 6][RANK STONE: BLACK IRON - LOWER × 4][BLUEPRINT: PALISADE WALL (FRAGMENT) × 1]
Enough to build when the fog was bored, not when it was listening.
"Straps," he said. "Two more. Short ones."
At the Workbench, leather learned to be a loop. He kept one and gave one to the first soldier. "If someone drops a knee, you drag the knee back, not the whole man."
Three shallow holes opened where loam had been taught to slide. Not burrow-glide tunnels - nibbling mouths, exploratory and mean.
"Not ours," Evan said. "Hold line. Let the holes speak first."
A forearm-thick head pushed up, tasted air with a mouth made to cut, then retreated.
"Scavengers," Evan said. "Do not gift them steel unless they insist."
World Channel pestered.
[UNKNOWN RACE / ID: 12,880]: The human line keeps singing north.][HUMAN - EARTH / ID: 9,118,003]: Palisade fragments rewarded - build after dark.]
"Mute," Evan said.
"Two pace advance," he said. "On me. Keep the pocket a U."
They moved. A thin line in the dirt became a crack. The first soldier's foot dropped to the ankle as the lip collapsed. The strap turned intention into plan; the second soldier pulled the knee, not the man. The leg came back like a draw from a well.
"Reset," Evan said.
Emptiness prepared to be populated. Far left, the body crescent attracted a commotion. "Leave it," Evan said. "Wrong meat for the living."
He paid one ingot into a rim repair that would matter later.
[WORKBENCH: REPAIR - SHIELD RIM][REQUIRED: BLACK IRON INGOT × 1][STATUS: COMPLETE]
The fog went quiet on purpose - an opening bid.
"Eyes down, then up," Evan said. "Left foot short. Right foot sure."
Two taps. A pause. Two taps again.
"Counting," Evan said. "Not brave yet."
A small, pale shape shot its head up and froze. Legs folded for springing. A crescent of needles for a mouth.
"Do not give it hands," Evan said. "Make it pick a door."
It went for the soft patch. The soft patch was to be admired, not used.
"Down," Evan said.
Shields tilted. A sword found the seam where neck begged to be a hinge. The body stopped.
[LOOT ACQUIRED][CHITIN (BLACK IRON - LOWER) × 1][BLACK IRON INGOT × 1][MONSTER CORE (BLACK IRON - LOWER) × 1]
Two more heads tried the same door at different angles. Angles were not invitations.
[LOOT ACQUIRED][CHITIN (BLACK IRON - LOWER) × 2][BLACK IRON INGOT × 1]
"Pocket holds," Evan said.
They waited. The left soldier breathed with the Shield hum. The right watched the flies. The middle watched the place where the quiet had a seam.
"Blueprint check," Evan said.
[WORKBENCH: ONLINE][BLUEPRINT: PALISADE WALL - FRAGMENT][REQUIREMENTS (PER SEGMENT): WOOD ×50 · FINE SAND ×50 · STONE ×50 · FOG HEART (BLACK IRON) ×1][STATUS: PARTIAL - ADDITIONAL FRAGMENTS REQUIRED.]
"Night build only," he said. "Not while the fog has ears."
To the far right, the ground lifted and set itself down again - a squat creature with too much quiet in it.
"Not lizard," Evan said. "Legs. Long ones. See the shadow's knees."
A line of bent joints tested a route around the soft patch and found it wrong. It adjusted, which meant it could learn, which meant he had to be strict.
"Pocket one inch left," Evan said. "Everyone moves by the same inch."
The pocket did not wobble.
The long legged shape reached around the soft with something clever.
"Teach it bored," he said. "Left shield wait. Right shield deny. Center hold the seam."
On the fourth test it stepped into the soft patch as if nothing bad had ever happened there.
"Down," Evan said.
Three shields dropped. A sword kissed the place where leg wanted to be long forever. The leg learned short. The second sword found the hinge every animal owns. The third finished.
[LOOT ACQUIRED][BLACK IRON INGOT × 2][MONSTER CORE (BLACK IRON - LOWER) × 1]
The north wrong changed its math. Two silhouettes moved where one had been, using scavenger holes like a board.
"Similar job," Evan said. "Keep the pocket."
He ate a mouthful while the line breathed with him.
He glanced once at the Gate. A fifth shield would make the curve a wall and ring a louder bell. Not yet.
The fog gathered into two low hills traveling toward his left edge.
"Make the lie bigger," he said. The left soldier deepened the soft. The right set his weight to arrive early.
"On me," Evan said softly. "We let them choose, then we make them regret."
The hills paused, then split high and low.
"Center, count to two after my call," Evan said. "Left, bite on one. Right, on three."
"One."
Left shield down. The lower creature met plan and lost opinion.
"Two."
Center seam removed posture.
"Three."
Right denial arrived exactly at the hunger of the higher one and filled it with iron. The last blade turned the attempt into a report no one wanted to read again.
[LOOT ACQUIRED][BLACK IRON INGOT × 3][MONSTER CORE (BLACK IRON - LOWER) × 1]
Silence went back to being an accident.
"We do not advance," he said. "We have taught the north what door we sell. It will come back with a counter offer. We will not pay retail."
He stepped back through the Shield until the hum soaked his wrist, then forward again.
Inside the Hut he set the palisade fragment down and did nothing to it.
[BLUEPRINT: PALISADE WALL - FRAGMENT][STATUS: PARTIAL]
"Night," he said to wood and stone. "You can be a wall at night."
One more repair at the Workbench, not because the edge needed it yet but because it would and he had time.
[WORKBENCH: REPAIR - SHORT SWORD EDGE][REQUIRED: BLACK IRON INGOT × 1][STATUS: COMPLETE]
Back at the line he put his hand on the left shield for a second.
"Unknowns still north," the right soldier said.
"I prefer them there," Evan said. "We will keep buying the first move until they sell us a mistake."
The fog lifted one corner like a tablecloth being checked for crumbs. Two silhouettes fixed on the line.
"Hold," Evan said. "Test within the pocket only."
He took one step so the Shield hum brushed his knuckles, then pointed at the place where the soft patch was biggest.
A lone scavenger tested the far left lip with the boldness of something that believed it had invented angles.
The left shield dipped a thumb's width and waited. When the head committed, the strap snapped tight and pulled the knee back again - small cost, clean save.
Evan let the correction stand in the air without praise. Procedure did the talking.
He reopened the palisade pane just long enough to memorize the join once more and closed it with the same small click.
Walls were for nights and neighbors, not for afternoons when fog collected stories.
He breathed with the men until their rhythm matched the Shield's hum.
The pocket's curve settled - not pretty, correct.
The north held its breath as if waiting for him to decorate the moment.
He did not. He sold it discipline instead.
"On my count," he said. "We make the pocket speak."