A sharp crack rang out as Shen Yixiu crushed the ape-man’s neck. The ape-man didn’t even have time to cry out in pain before it died.

The two earlier lulls in the fighting had been a deliberate choice on the Wipers’ part, but this one stemmed from pure shock.

This whole sequence of events had taken less than three seconds, from the four ape-men leaping into the air; to Plague Chicken driving the minivan onto the scene and slamming the brakes into a sideways skid; and finally to the robot punching through the roof, snatching an ape-man out of the sky mid-leap, and casually crushing its neck after landing.

Silence permeated the street once more.

The black mech stood wordlessly on the dilapidated old street, head tilted slightly upward to stare at the people on the rooftops. It still had a...