The gate slammed shut behind them. Lin's boots skidded on wet sand, and the crowd noise hit like a wall. Crunch pressed against his leg, low growl already vibrating through its chest. Across the pit, something big scraped claws against metal.
Lin couldn't see it yet. The floodlights were aimed at center ring, and the holding pen on the far side was still dark. But he could hear it. Heavy. Plated. The scrape had that hollow ring of bone or chitin, not fur.
"New blood!" someone screamed from the stands. The rest of the crowd picked it up, chanting, stomping. Lin's heart hammered. He'd watched five matches from the back tunnel while they waited. Watched a tamer get his arm ripped off when his beast went down. Watched another kid, maybe eighteen, drag his dying wolf-thing off the sand while the crowd booed.
Don't die, the boss had said. That was the whole job.
The opposite gate creaked open. The thing that came out had six legs, a tail like a spiked club, and plates down its spine that looked like they'd been grafted on. Hook-claws. Lin recognized the profile from the pre-collapse zoology texts his grandmother used to hoard. Extinct sixty years before the Ash Wilds even formed. Except this one wasn't extinct. It was here, and it was staring at Crunch like dinner.
"Kill fast," Lin muttered. Crunch didn't look up. Its ears were flat, eyes locked on the hook-claw.
A horn blared. The crowd roared. The hook-claw charged.
Crunch moved first. It didn't wait for Lin's signal, just launched sideways off his leg and hit the sand running. The hook-claw was bigger, heavier, but Crunch was faster. It darted under the first swipe, claws kicking up sand, and went for the exposed belly.
Didn't work. The hook-claw twisted mid-step, brought its tail around, and slammed Crunch into the pit wall. The crack echoed. Crunch yelped, hit the ground, rolled. Got up. Shook itself. Kept moving.
Lin's throat went dry. He'd seen Crunch tear through the ironback yesterday. That was different. That was rage. This was a fight, and the hook-claw knew what it was doing.
"Go low!" Lin shouted. Useless. The crowd drowned him out. Crunch couldn't hear him anyway, not over the noise, not with the blood already pounding in its head. It circled, limping slightly on the left hind leg. The hook-claw tracked it, patient. Its tamer stood at the far edge, arms crossed. Not worried.
Lin should've been in the center. That's where most tamers stood, close enough to call commands, far enough to stay out of the blood. But his legs wouldn't move. He was still pressed against the gate, hands clenched, watching Crunch try to stay alive.
The hook-claw lunged again. Crunch dodged, barely, and snapped at its front leg. Teeth scraped chitin. Didn't bite through. The hook-claw kicked back, claws raking across Crunch's side. Blood welled up, dark against grey fur.
Crunch didn't yelp this time. It just snarled, low and wet, and went for the leg again. This time it bit down and held on. The hook-claw screamed, a sound like metal tearing, and thrashed. Its tail came around. Hit Crunch square in the ribs. Crunch let go, staggered, but stayed on its feet.
Lin forced himself forward. His boots slipped in the sand. He didn't have a weapon. Didn't have anything except a dead man's debt and a creature that was bleeding out in front of him.
"Crunch!" He didn't know what he was saying. Just yelling. Just trying to get its attention. Crunch's ears flicked back for half a second, then snapped forward again. It was breathing hard now, sides heaving. The hook-claw circled closer. Its tamer finally moved, stepping into the light. Young guy, maybe Lin's age, with scar tissue down one side of his face and a grin that said he'd done this a hundred times.
"First match?" the guy called over. His voice barely carried. "Don't worry. I'll make it quick."
The hook-claw lunged. Crunch tried to dodge. Didn't make it. The claws caught it across the shoulder, ripped down, and Crunch went sprawling. It hit the sand hard, rolled, tried to get up. Slipped.
Lin was moving before he thought about it. He didn't have a plan. Didn't have anything. He just ran, grabbed a chunk of broken rebar from the edge of the pit, and swung it at the hook-claw's head.
It didn't connect. The hook-claw turned, faster than something that size should move, and backhanded him. Lin went down. His shoulder hit first, then his head. The world tilted. Blood filled his mouth. He spat, tried to push himself up, and the hook-claw's shadow fell over him.
Then Crunch was there.
It came in low, under the hook-claw's guard, and went straight for its throat. Not the plated neck. The soft tissue underneath. Crunch's jaws locked down, and the hook-claw's scream cut off. It thrashed. Crunch held on. Its claws dug into the sand, legs braced, and it shook its head like it was trying to snap the thing's spine.
Lin dragged himself backward. His shoulder throbbed. Blood dripped from his chin. He could taste copper and sand. Crunch's eyes were different. Wider. Pupils blown. It wasn't fighting smart anymore. It was just fighting.
The hook-claw's legs buckled. It tried to get its tail around, one last swing, but Crunch was already shifting. It let go of the throat, darted sideways, and tore into the exposed belly. Blood sprayed. The crowd went insane. The hook-claw hit the ground.
Crunch didn't stop. It kept tearing, claws raking, jaws snapping, and the hook-claw's tamer was screaming something Lin couldn't hear. The ref finally blew the horn. Three sharp blasts. Match over.
Crunch didn't stop.
"Crunch!" Lin tried to stand. His legs shook. "Crunch, stop!"
It turned. Looked at him. For a second, Lin didn't recognize it. The grey fur was matted with blood, some of it its own, most of it not. Its sides heaved. Its eyes were still too wide, still locked on him, and Lin could see the exact moment it registered the blood on his face.
Crunch took a step toward him.
Lin's breath caught. He didn't move. Couldn't. Crunch took another step, head low, and the crowd noise faded into something distant and meaningless. All Lin could see was the blood on Crunch's muzzle and the way its ears were flat against its skull.
Then Crunch's nose twitched. It sniffed the air. Looked at Lin. Looked back at the hook-claw's corpse. Its tamer was still yelling, but the ref had one hand on his chest, holding him back.
Crunch turned. Walked back to the hook-claw. Bit down on the last intact claw, the one still twitching, and tore it clean off.
The crowd lost it. Lin heard bets changing hands, heard his name, heard the boss's voice crackling over the speakers: "Winner, new entry, Lin Xu and the grey."
Lin's knees gave out. He sat down hard in the sand. Crunch trotted over, dropped the severed claw at his feet, and sat. It licked its muzzle. Blood smeared across its nose. It looked pleased.
"You're insane," Lin said. His voice didn't sound right. Too thin. Crunch's tail thumped once.
The gate creaked open. Two guys in grey coveralls came out with a stretcher and a body bag. One of them glanced at Lin. "You good?"
"Yeah." Lin wiped his mouth. His hand came away red. "Yeah, I'm good."
The guy nodded, didn't look convinced, and went back to scraping up the hook-claw. Lin pushed himself to his feet. His shoulder still throbbed, but nothing felt broken. Crunch stood with him, close enough that Lin could feel the heat coming off its body.
They walked toward the exit. The crowd was still chanting. Lin didn't hear it. He was too busy watching Crunch, making sure it didn't turn around, didn't go back for another piece of the corpse. It didn't. It just walked, steady and calm, like it hadn't almost killed him thirty seconds ago.
They were halfway across the pit when something metallic clinked against the sand near Lin's boot. He stopped. Looked down. A small metal tag, maybe an inch across, stamped with a string of numbers and letters. The edges were worn smooth. Old.
Lin bent down. Picked it up. Turned it over.
His stomach dropped.
The code on the tag was familiar. He'd seen it a thousand times, back when he still had a lab coat and a name badge and a life that made sense. Sample intake code. Pre-collapse biobank format. The kind they used to track genetic material before everything went to hell.
His code. His lab. His handwriting on the req slip, probably, if he could still find the files.
Crunch nudged his leg. Lin looked down. The creature stared up at him, head tilted, blood still drying on its fur.
"Where did you come from?" Lin whispered.
Crunch didn't answer. The gate slammed shut behind them, and the next match started.