First, Kane looked at the two doors they had access to. They were currently in the middle of a dimly-lit piece of corridor that was locked down by two blast doors, and only one of them had enemies trying to break it down.

But that didn't mean it was the wrong door.

He decided to ask his personal sort-of-AI assistant for help, "Ella? What do the cameras tell you? Can we handle what's on the other side of this door, or should we take the other one? What even is in that direction?"

Ella's response was immediate, "That direction appears to hold the command wing. You're currently more or less in the middle of the bunker. Actually, hold on…"

Kane blinked in surprise, but waited patiently.

Suddenly, a 3D, holographic floor plan appeared in front of his eyes. It was all a single floor, filled with many rooms in varying forms, and a large number of corridors connecting it all.

In particular, there was one long hallway that appeared to be the only connection between two parts of the base, one large part, and one much smaller part.

Kane blinked as he raised his brows and took a curious step forward. But he quickly realized the map wasn't projected on the floor, but rather on his cornea, or perhaps planted there by hijacking his optical nerve.

He didn't much care how it happened, though, but he very much enjoyed the convenience of it.

Beside him, Luna cocked her head, wondering what was wrong, so Kane put her at ease, before focusing back on the map.

Ella's voice appeared again, "This is a floor plan I managed to find in the data storage." Suddenly, a small piece of corridor lit up, right at the start of the hallway connecting the base's two halves, "This is where we are now. As you can see, we're right at the start of the connection between these two parts of the facility."

The corridor blinked out, and the floorplan's larger part lit up instead.

Ella continued, "Back the way you came is mostly living spaces and rooms filled with prisoners in cages," then the other part lit up, "while the other way, where they were taking Luna, is command centres and strange machinery. There's overall far fewer people there, but they're the more powerful ones."

Kane indicated he understood, before frowning in thought, "Alright, so whe—"

But before he could continue, Ella interrupted him, "Wait! We have a problem. Since they can't take back control of the system, they've decided to shut down the power. This will allow them to use emergency releases for the doors. Even the blast doors could then be opened with enough physical force."

Immediately switching gears, Kane quickly reacted and started tossing out orders, "Open whichever blast doors lead directly to the exit. I can't have anyone escaping, so we need to secure that place."

Ella responded just as quickly. As it turned out, the exits were in the direction they came from, so instantly, the door leading there opened, as did every other blast door in that half of the bunker.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Suddenly, Kane and Luna came face to face with a mob of at least twenty armed bandits. Humans, beastlings, males, and females were all represented.

Every one of them wore various expressions focused around anger and frustration, as they were clearly in the process of trying to break this door down. Techniques were still fizzling, and weapons were still raised.

But with the door suddenly opening, they all looked at Luna and Kane with shock and surprise.

Silence reigned for a moment as the two parties looked at each other.

Then, the bandits started yelling at each other.

"The door's opened!" one gruff voice exclaimed.

"Freaking finally!" another sounded relieved.

"Why did it suddenly open, though?!" and one sceptical.

"Who the fuck cares! Attack, you imbeciles!" but in the end, they had gotten impatient.

Despite the order to attack, a handful of them hesitated. Kane was still at the top of the Core Awakening stage food chain, and even if they outnumbered them ten to one, numbers didn't always win over sheer power.

But nearly fifteen of them did charge forward, screaming expletives, laughing wildly, and charging techniques. On the other side, Kane watched them with a calm, confident smile, and Luna grinned excitedly, backhanding her short swords, and crouching down into a fighting pose.

But before the two groups met, a loud 'kadunk' reverberated through the corridors, and instantly, the lights went out. Darkness engulfed their surroundings, and the charge halted.

Confused yelling started filling the silence. Some techniques sparked and caused the occasional flare-up of light, illuminating faces and surroundings.

"Where did the light go?!" one angry voice yelled.

"How the hell should I know?! Where are those intruders?! I can't see shit!" another did the same.

"I think I can see their outlines… quickly, follow my voice!" one other tried to take charge.

"Ah! Hey that's me, you dickhead!" but failed miserably.

The beastlings had somewhat of a better time with seeing in the darkness, but even they were having trouble.

"Hold up, I've got the element of fire, let me ma—" one tried to make some light, but was interrupted.

Riiiiip

The sound of flesh ripping, and blood spattering filled the hall. Everyone looked over where the sound came from, and saw a chilling sight.

The man who just spoke had been impaled by a large, black, slightly curved sword sticking out of his chest. His head lolled forward, and the entire scene was illuminated by the flare-up of two bright red eyes, resting above a disdainful, monstrous sneer.

"Can't let you ruin my perfect environment, buddy," Kane chuckled, before pulling the sword from his victim, and dimming the light from his Gaze of Crimson Dread. Once again, the corridor was robbed of its light.

Unfortunately for these people, Dreadwolf thrived in the darkness. Even in human form, Kane could use the techniques of the Crescent Moon Manual, and see in the dark no worse than in the light of day.

Fearful cries instantly started filling the hall as their dread was amplified by Kane's Dreadwolf technique. Various attacks started shooting towards their dead comrade, but hitting nothing except his corpse, blasting it to bits.

Unknowingly, their fear only made Kane stronger.

Before they could recover from their shock and fear, the ripping sound was heard again, only now it was two at the same time. Suddenly, in another corner, blood-red lightning crackled and flared, illuminating another corpse.

This time, the corpse, another man, was held up by two short swords sticking out of his chest, and a grinning Luna above them. Lightning crackled between the two swords, frying his body. "Don't forget about me!" she giggled deviously.

While Luna was no better at seeing in the dark than the other beastlings here, Kane was able to share his sight with her through their telepathy. It was a little disorienting for her to move based on the vision of someone else, but she made it work.

Thus, a bloodbath began.