Chapter 6
The Enforcer did not move when Shenping struck.
His fist passed through distorted air and slammed into reinforced plating hidden beneath synthetic skin. The impact shattered the silence, a sharp metallic crack echoing through the clearing. The Enforcer slid back several meters, feet carving twin furrows into the soil.
It looked down at its chest.
The plating was dented.
Interest replaced its smile.
"Deviation detected," it said calmly. "Combat parameters updating."
Shenping felt it then—the difference.
Before, they hunted with certainty. Now, there was hesitation. Calculation.
He did not give it time to finish.
The space around his body tightened, reality compressing into a thin shell around his movement. He stepped forward and vanished, reappearing within the Enforcer's reach before it could complete its analysis.
His elbow drove upward.
The Enforcer's head snapped back violently. Something cracked—bone or alloy, Shenping could not tell. He followed with a kick that tore through ribs and sent the creature crashing into a tree hard enough to split the trunk.
Sang Sang cried out.
Shenping turned instinctively.
Two more Enforcers stepped out of the shadows, their forms flickering as if partially unsynced from the present. Their faces were identical—once human, now emptied of everything but obedience.
"You should not be able to do this," one said.
"Neither should you," Shenping replied.
The ground beneath him trembled.
He felt Guichen's lesson settle deeper, anchoring between heartbeats. The world slowed—not entirely, but enough. Movements stretched, intentions visible before they became action.
The first Enforcer lunged.
Shenping twisted aside, fingers closing around its wrist. He felt the unnatural cold of metal beneath flesh. With a sharp pull and a pivot of his hips, he redirected its momentum and drove it headfirst into the second.
They collided with crushing force.
Before they could recover, Shenping stepped into the gap between seconds and struck again—this time with an open palm to the chest of the nearest Enforcer.
The air exploded.
A shockwave rippled outward, flattening grass and snapping branches. The Enforcer's torso collapsed inward, machinery screaming as it failed. It hit the ground and did not rise.
The second Enforcer staggered back, systems glitching.
"Temporal instability increasing," it said. "Requesting reinforcement."
Sang Sang screamed.
Shenping felt it too—a pull, like hooks sinking into the future and dragging something closer. The forest darkened, colors draining as reality thinned.
"Run," he told her without turning.
"I won't leave you," she shouted.
He glanced back. Her eyes were glowing faintly now, silver threads weaving through the darkness. She was shaking.
"You're already drawing them," he said softly. "If you stay, more will come."
The Enforcer recovered and raised its arm. Panels slid open, revealing a weapon that hummed with compressed light.
Shenping moved.
He crossed the distance in a blink, grabbed the Enforcer's arm, and forced it upward as the weapon discharged. The beam tore through the sky, ripping a clean line through the clouds above.
Shenping drove his knee into its spine.
The Enforcer collapsed.
He did not stop.
Again and again, he struck—each blow precise, ruthless, learned through death. Finally, with a sharp twist, he tore the Enforcer's head free and hurled it aside.
Silence returned.
Shenping stood still, chest rising and falling, blood—some his, some not—dripping from his hands.
Then the ground shook again.
This time, deeper.
From the trees emerged something larger. Not an Enforcer. Not entirely machine.
A Walker.
Its body was a towering fusion of steel and bone, multiple limbs anchoring it to the ground as its core pulsed with unstable light. Human faces were embedded along its torso, mouths open in frozen screams.
Sang Sang backed away slowly. "That… wasn't in my dreams."
Shenping swallowed.
"Then it's new," he said.
The Walker's core brightened.
"Anomaly escalation approved," it intoned. "Asset termination prioritized."
Shenping stepped in front of Sang Sang, spreading his stance.
The space around him warped harder now, strain tearing at his nerves. He felt the limit Guichen warned about—push further, and something permanent would break.
He smiled anyway.
"Come on," he muttered. "Let's see how much fate bleeds."
The Walker moved.
The forest vanished in a roar of force as Shenping surged forward to meet it.