The distortions didn't wait forever, but they waited long enough for Arty to understand the pattern before it shifted.
The nearest one pulsed again, then crossed the boundary without hesitation, committing to the approach with none of the caution the first skirmisher had shown.
It wasn't testing anymore, this time it was acting.
Arty didn't immediately engage, because something about the approach didn't match the first encounter.
This one wasn't probing angles or searching for weakness, it was moving on a line that already existed, as if the path had been established before it ever crossed the boundary.
His eyes narrowed slightly as the thought settled into place, his focus tightening not on the creature itself, but on the space it moved through.
"Show me pattern continuity," he said quietly.
There was a brief delay before the system responded.
[Pattern Reference: Partial Match Detected]
[Cluster Influence: Active]
That confirmed it, this wasn't an isolated push, it was following structure laid down by the others.
Arty didn't move from his position inside the entrance, his focus already locked on the narrowed channel he had shaped in the previous minutes.
"Yeah," he said quietly, his tone steady as the distortion advanced.
"That's where you'd come through, right where I wanted you to."
The creature moved fast once it committed, its structure snapping into motion with the same broken geometry he had seen before, only this time it didn't hesitate at the boundary.
It pushed through, the reinforced line held, but the pressure behind it drove the creature forward.
Not trapped, rather guided and that was the difference.
Arty stepped forward half a pace, keeping one hand against the reinforced frame as his awareness spread across the metal around him.
The shelving, the brackets, mesh that he had used before, with his ute just outside the line, all of it connected and available.
The distortion surged again, accelerating through the channel as it tried to break into open space.
Arty reacted.
Not with the pipe, no not this time, he reached for the metal.
The mesh snapped upward from the ground, tightening around the creature's lower limbs, slowing it just enough to disrupt its movement.
Not enough to stop it.
Not yet.
"Hold," he said under his breath, pushing harder through the connection.
The response dragged against his control, not resisting outright, but refusing to align the way it had during simpler adjustments.
It wasn't the material, it was him, attempting too many inputs at once.
Too many simultaneous points of control trying to overlap without structure.
The connection strained under the load, and for a moment it felt like trying to hold water in his hands while forcing it into shape.
It resisted, the metal responded, but not cleanly, not because it couldn't move, but because he was trying to do too much at once.
The creature twisted, its upper body snapping free of the initial bind as it tried to tear through the restraint.
Arty's jaw tightened as the strain hit him.
Too many points and too many variables, Arty stripped it back to one line and one action.
The shelving beside the channel buckled inward under his focus, not collapsing, but shifting just enough to narrow the space further.
The creature hit the restriction mid-motion, its path disrupted as the angle changed.
That was better, more controlled.
The distortion shrieked and lashed out, its movement becoming erratic as it tried to compensate for the shifting environment.
Arty held the line, breathing steady as he tracked its motion, waiting for the moment where its movement would compress again.
"There," he said quietly.
The creature twisted low, trying to slip through the gap between the shelving and the floor.
That was the moment.
Arty snapped his focus downward and inward at the same time, pulling the metal mesh tight while driving the shelving edge forward in a single, controlled motion.
The two points met, not cleanly and certainly not perfectly.
The creature caught between them, its movement collapsing into a confined space where its speed no longer worked in its favour.
Arty felt the resistance spike immediately, the metal strained, his control faltered for a fraction of a second.
Too much force, too much pressure, yet Arty pushed anyway.
The shelving groaned as it bent further than it should have, the mesh tightening until it cut into the creature's structure.
The distortion reacted violently, its body spasming as it tried to break free.
Arty's vision flickered at the edges as the strain from the feedback of the connection, his focus slipping as the system struggled to keep up with the mental load.
"Come on," he muttered, forcing the control to hold.
Not wider, not stronger, just tighter, the key wasn't force, it was alignment.
The idea didn't come fully formed, but it didn't need to.
Force had been failing because he was trying to overpower the movement, while the creature itself relied on precision and redirection.
So he matched it, not by pushing harder, but by positioning the metal where the movement would collapse on its own.
Two lines. One path. Everything else fell away.
He adjusted again, shifting the angle of pressure rather than increasing it, letting the metal slide into a more natural position instead of forcing it against resistance.
The change was immediate as the strain reduced, control stabilised, and the metal moved.
The shelving edge drove forward in a clean line, guided by his focus rather than forced through it, while the mesh tightened in response, holding the creature exactly where it needed to be.
The distortion shrieked again, then it broke.
Not explosively, not dramatically.
Just a sudden collapse of structure as the contained pressure exceeded what it could adapt to.
The movement stopped, the resistance vanished and the metal settled.
Arty staggered back half a step, his breath catching as the feedback hit him all at once, the strain of holding that level of control finally catching up.
"Yeah," he said quietly, forcing his breathing back into rhythm.
"That works."
The system flickered in response.
[Structural Manipulation Efficiency Increased]
[New Interaction Pattern Detected: Shear Compression]
The system didn't fade after that, it held.
[Combat Efficiency Increase Detected]
[Structural Control Application: Improved]
[Adaptive Learning Integration: Minor]
Arty exhaled slowly as the feedback settled into place, not just a confirmation of success, but a recognition of change.
This wasn't a one-off, the system had recorded it, which meant it could build on it.
Shear. That tracked. He hadn't crushed it.
Cleaner, more efficient and far more controllable.
Arty straightened slowly, his gaze shifting back toward the boundary where the remaining distortions still held position.
They hadn't rushed in, and they hadn't scattered, but they had moved closer.
Not reacting to the kill, responding to the method.
His jaw tightened slightly as that realisation settled in.
"They're watching the process," he said quietly.
[Confirmed]
Of course they were.
The system flickered again.
[Cognitive Adaptation Risk: Increasing]
That was the real problem.
He had just shown them something new.
Arty looked back down at the metal around him, at the way it had responded when he stopped forcing it and started guiding it instead.
There were more of them out there, more control and more potential, but it came at a cost.
His head still rang faintly from the strain, his focus slower to recover than he would have liked.
Low level, limited output, that wasn't changing yet, but the application that could change.
He glanced back toward the boundary one more time, his posture settling as the next wave of pressure began to build.
"Alright," he said quietly, the tone steady despite the strain.
"If you're going to learn… Two can play that game."
He rested his hand against the metal frame again, re-establishing the connection as cleanly as he could.
"…then I'm going to get better faster."
The distortions pulsed again, not retreating or advancing, but adjusting in tighter, more deliberate patterns than before.
They weren't reacting anymore, they were recalculating.
Arty held his position, his hand still resting against the metal frame as the connection steadied beneath the strain.
"Good," he said quietly, the word carrying more weight this time.
Because if they were going to learn, then so would he.