Haneul came out of the dark low and fast, and he didn't stop coming.
The first strike came from the left. Jin turned to meet it and caught the staff on his forearm, and the second strike was already coming from behind him before the first had finished landing. He twisted away from that one, and a third came up out of the dirt at his feet, out of his own shadow, and cracked against his shin.
Jin hopped back, and his shadow hopped with him. It stretched and pulled at his ankles and tried to lock around them the way it had before. He tore free of it, and by the time he looked up, Haneul was gone again.
He wasn't in the shade of the gym. He wasn't in the trees. Jin turned in a slow circle with his hands up and felt the yard around him. The shadows were longer now, and darker than they should have been for this hour, like the whole yard was leaning toward evening ahead of the sun.
The staff came out of the wall of the gym, ten feet to his right, already growing.
