Excerpt

Guns blasted at Chen as he leaped into the air to his right in a freehanded cartwheel. Lead and splinters of wood flew beneath him as the bullets of the Horde squad peppered the area atop the crates where he’d just stood. The rows of wares were wide and stacked in multiple levels. He landed in a lower area where he was safe behind the stacks from the gunfire. Still the Horde members kept firing sporadically, their bullets whining and ricocheting through the warehouse.

Two of them, one using his Glock and the other an AR-15, left the group to run around the nearest end of the stacked row to the next aisle over. They crept cautiously along the ten foot wide path, keeping the firearms trained ahead of them as they searched the crates, boxes, and pallets that formed the walls on either side of them. When they had made their way about seventy-five feet, Chen jumped down to the concrete floor forty feet in front of them. As he sank to a crouch, both of his hands rolled forward from his shoulders in a fluid motion, his hands snapping down at the wrists with their palms up. Crescent shaped throwing blades sailed from his fingers in a vertical flight, one aimed at each Horde member. The man to his right with the AR-15 was struck just above his left knee. The man to his left with the Glock was hit just above his right hip. The painful impacts caused each of them to lower their guns in shock and surprise. Chen was up and sprinting toward them. He veered to his right as though to charge the henchman with the assault rifle. He sprang up and to his right. His right foot touched on the wall of boxes, and he pushed off of it to his left. His left foot tucked beneath him as he twisted his hips in the air in a flying right-footed roundhouse kick which knocked the Glock away from the henchman to his left as the man was bringing it up to pop off a shot. Chen landed on his right foot and spun on the ball of it as his left foot shot up in a hook kick to the man’s face. The Horde member was lifted off his feet and smashed backwards headfirst into a crate. His knees buckled and his body sagged so that he hung by his neck from his head being wedged in the hole it had made on impact. The other henchman was trying to bring his AR-15 into play when Chen skipped towards him and snapped his right leg up and down in an axe kick. He struck down the barrel of the assault rifle with such force it was snatched from the grip of the henchman to go flipping through the air and down the aisle. Chen pivoted on the ball of his left foot to fire two side kicks with his right foot in a double-tap to the man’s face. The Horde member swayed back as he flung his arms out for balance. The vigilante lunged forward on his right foot and his stiff left hand flashed out. Using the top ridge of his hand between his thumb and forefinger, he hit the man in the throat with such strength, that the fellow’s head dropped down, and he crumbled to the floor.

Chen took each man and laid him face down. To ensure neither of them tried to escape should they regain consciousness, he quickly removed any weapons they had on their persons. He took zip ties from inside his changshan and bound them by their hands and feet. Then he moved off to take care of the rest of them as well as the two he really wanted to get his hands on: the Black Viper and the Red Tiger.