Chapter 4: The Crack in the Mask

The gong’s echo hadn’t even faded before Lin Mei moved. Not a charge, not a leap—just a shift of weight that turned her into a blur of black and silver. Leo’s System flashed a warning in the corner of his vision, but he didn’t need it. He saw the angle of her shoulder, the way her trailing foot scraped the floor to generate torque. He saw the strike coming before it arrived.