The words had barely left his mouth before the Skullrend changed.
Not dramatically. Not with the kind of obvious telegraphing that made adaptation easy. It was subtle — a shift in the angle of its approach, the way it planted its weight slightly ahead of where Renji expected, the forward lunge cutting off not the space they were standing in but the space they were moving toward. Like it had recalibrated. Like something in its processing had updated mid-fight and the new version was marginally worse to deal with than the old one.
'It's not charging anymore. It's herding.'
The realization landed cold.
