The trap hit harder than Arty expected, and cleaner than he had hoped.
The upper shelving side slammed inward with stored weight while the lower rail snapped upward beneath it, turning the narrow lane into a converging kill box.
The creature reacted instantly.
Too fast for anything normal.
Its body twisted sideways, trying to thread through the shrinking gap before the two metal lines could meet, but caution had cost it time.
That half-second pause in the lane, the moment of suspicion before commitment, had already sealed the outcome.
The upper edge clipped its shoulder line, the lower rail caught beneath the torso, then the two forces crossed.
The creature shrieked as compression tore through its movement pattern, the same way a blade ruined momentum long before it reached flesh.
Arty didn't waste the opening.
He tightened both lines with a thought, not forcing wildly this time, but guiding the pressure inward with the cleaner control Precision II had given him.
The gap vanished, the shriek cut short, the body spasmed once, then collapsed between the rails as structure failed all at once.
[Pre-Loaded Shear Trigger Successful]
[Mental Load Reduced: Significant]
Arty exhaled sharply.
That mattered more than the kill.
He hadn't needed frantic timing.
He hadn't needed to wrestle moving metal through raw force.
He had prepared, triggered, and finished.
That was scalable.
That was survival.
The final distortion outside the boundary withdrew three steps immediately.
Its pressure signature pulsed in short, deliberate intervals as it studied the ruined lane and the broken remains inside it.
"Yeah," Arty said quietly, hand still resting on the reinforced frame.
"You should be worried."
The system flickered.
[Remaining Local Hostiles: 1]
[Behavioural State: High Caution]
For the first time since the cluster formed, the warehouse felt larger than the threat outside it.
Arty extended his awareness toward the fresh corpse and reached out with his intent.
The crystal tore free cleanly this time, ripping from the dissolving remains and sliding across concrete into his waiting hand.
Much faster, much easier, good.
[Claim Function Efficiency Improved Through Familiar Use]
He almost laughed at that.
Practice apparently applied to looting now.
The crystal felt colder than the last one, dense enough to matter.
He rolled it once across his fingers while watching the final distortion reposition near the side line.
Smarter route.
Less predictable angle.
It had learned not to enter the lane.
Which meant direct repetition was dead already.
That meant he needed to stay ahead.
"System," he said quietly.
"Immediate recommendation."
There was only a brief pause.
[Recommended Allocation Options:]
[Structural Control Capacity +1]
[Reserve Retention Minor Increase]
[Sensor Sweep Clarity +1]
Arty's eyes narrowed slightly, sensor clarity tempted him.
If the thing tried circling blind zones, better tracking could end the game quickly.
Capacity tempted him more, longer holds, with wider manipulation less collapse after each effort.
He glanced toward the side line where the distortion pressed lightly against reinforced ground, then withdrew before committing.
Patient, testing for fatigue, that was clever, way too clever to leave alive.
"Capacity."
The crystal dissolved into a cold pulse that ran through his chest and spine before settling deeper than the last upgrade had.
The warehouse connection responded instantly.
Range didn't expand, but depth did.
Every nearby metal point felt heavier, clearer, more ready to answer.
[Upgrade Applied: Structural Control Capacity I → II]
Arty rolled one shoulder and felt the difference immediately.
Less drag, less resistance, still limited, improved enough to matter.
The final distortion moved again, skirting the entrance entirely and sliding toward the stabilised fencing line where earlier pressure had nearly found weakness.
Of course it did, he had taught it where to look.
"Fair," Arty murmured.
"Now watch me learn faster."
He stepped away from the entrance and moved parallel through the warehouse interior, keeping pace with the creature from the safer side of the wall.
Metal shelves, wall braces, loose panels, fence posts.
Everything along that line entered his awareness as linked possibilities.
The distortion paused outside the fencing.
Its pressure narrowed, preparing a breach attempt, Arty didn't wait.
He seized three loose panels stacked near the wall and drove them downward into the soil line from inside the warehouse, turning them into buried vertical blades beneath the weak point.
Then he tightened the fence posts inward by inches, enough to disguise the change but narrow the path.
The effort stung, but Capacity II carried it better than before.
[Field Adjustment Successful]
The distortion pressed.
The soil gave way exactly where it wanted.
Then the hidden panels rose under its own momentum.
The creature jerked sideways in violent surprise as one panel tore along its lower flank and another blocked its escape line.
It launched backward immediately, but Arty was already moving.
He ripped the nearest fence post free at the base and swung it outward through the mesh like a spear driven by stored torque.
The post struck the creature mid-leap and pinned it against the outer concrete lip.
A harsh shriek ripped through the yard.
Arty's vision blurred for half a second from the effort, but he held control.
Not enough to finesse, enough to finish.
He drove the second buried panel sideways.
Metal crossed metal, the creature convulsed once between the converging lines.
Then stopped, silence rolled outward across the boundary, true silence this time.
Arty remained still for three full breaths, hand braced against the wall, waiting for another pressure pulse nothing came.
The system flickered slowly across his vision.
[Remaining Local Hostiles: 0]
[Immediate Territory Pressure: Cleared]
[Warehouse Survival Window Extended]
Arty closed his eyes for one second, then opened them again.
Not relief, assessment, three smarter creatures had come and died, each and every one of them had forced him to evolve.
He reached outward one final time.
The last crystal tore free from the corpse pinned beyond the fence, dragging through mesh and dirt before landing in his palm.
He looked down at it, then toward the dark streets beyond the warehouse.
"If this was the scouting party," he said quietly, voice rough with fatigue.
"I'd hate to meet the management team."
The system answered immediately.
[Warning: Larger Distortion Movement Detected Beyond Local Zone]
Arty stared into the darkness for a long moment.
"Good," he said.
"Let them come."