—"Tsk…" —Keren clicked his tongue—. "You should feel lucky. Others in your place would already be dead."
The man did not respond. His priority was to get out of there. When he looked up, Keren had already begun walking in the opposite direction, disappearing into the shadows of the ruined tunnel.
—"Now get lost. I'll take care of the ones coming." —Keren said without turning his head.
The man said nothing more. He pivoted on his heels and began running down the indicated corridor.
As he moved through the dark passageways, the rock walls seemed to close in around him. The tunnel was long, its walls rough and narrow. The echo of his own footsteps surrounded him, along with the lingering echo of the slaughter still ringing in his mind.
—A labyrinth of death.—
Minutes passed in the gloom. From time to time, he passed forgotten corpses. Some were old, skeletons covered in dust. Others were fresh.
The minutes dragged on. He counted mentally until he reached ten. Then he saw it: the stone door, hidden among debris.
—"The secret exit."—
The man approached cautiously, running his hand along the right wall until he found what he was looking for, a small hidden groove.
He slipped his fingers inside and pulled. A deep sound rumbled through the rock… and the door slowly began to slide open.
Cold, damp air rushed in from the other side. At last, he had found the exit. The man slipped through without hesitation, crossing the threshold. He had made it out.
The outside world greeted him beneath a dark sky. He was in a dense forest, filled with tall trees and twisted roots. There was no time to rest. He needed to move.
But before taking a step… he heard something. The echo of screams and the sound of bones piercing flesh. He turned instinctively.
In the distance, back at the complex, Keren was facing a new squad of technological soldiers, all wearing the same tactical armor and mechanical enhancements as the bodies he had seen during his escape.
There, in the darkness, Keren continued on his path… toward more blood.
Because of that brief distraction, a new group of soldiers had managed to reach the man.
This time, the enemies carried something clearly different: heavier armor, visible implants along their necks and jaws, and metallic bandanas bearing the emblem of the Core Sect, two interlocking geometric blocks.
The soldiers braced themselves as they took in the surrounding massacre.
The man did not know much about this world, but he understood what he was seeing.
Keren was not fighting. He was slaughtering.
—"How annoying." —Keren murmured as he swiftly positioned himself between the man and the soldiers in front of him.
Bones erupted from his back, his fingers transforming into bone daggers. The soldiers' screams were drowned by their own blood.
The man did not wait to witness the massacre. He watched for only an instant, then, without a word, turned and vanished among the trees, continuing on his path with no clear destination.
He had seen enough death for one day. It was not his battle. Not yet.
This world… a world of sects, technology, and blood… was not so different from his past life. In that life, death also lurked in the darkness and in broad daylight. You could not live peacefully or sleep soundly, because death was always there.
After several minutes of walking, the only things accompanying him were the gusts of wind whistling through the leaves. Every snapping branch sounded like thunder in the silence. The moon barely illuminated the dark forest due to the towering height of the surrounding trees.
The man moved slowly, each step calculated, his body still aching from the escape. His mind churned with thoughts, but there was no time to process them.
The only thing clear was that he was being hunted. The voices came before he could see them.
—"Damn it… where is that bastard?" —a deep voice growled, only a few meters away.
The man stopped cold and held his breath, instinctively pressing himself against the trunk of a tree.
—"I don't know, but he couldn't have gone far." —another, younger voice replied—. "They say those experiments of the Great Leader don't last long without their medicine."
—Medicine?—
Without making a sound, he peeked through the bushes.
There were three figures wearing the same clothing as those in the tunnel: dark garments, combat vests with dark armor, visible implants, and glowing visors. They were searching for him.
Their eyes scanned the area carefully. They were hunting him.
—What happened to the other one? The bone guy, did they kill him?—
With doubts swirling in his head, the man could not allow these men to raise the alarm that they had found him. That would mean more soldiers would be after him.
He moved slowly, stepping only where the leaves were soft, where the ground would not betray his stealth.
One of the soldiers broke away from the group, moving a few meters off to inspect behind some bushes.
That soldier was his target.
The man slid after him like a shadow, closing the distance step by step until he was close enough to strike.
There were no words. Only action.
In a swift motion, he covered the soldier's mouth with one hand and drove the sharpened bone into his neck with the other.
A precise puncture. He felt skin, muscle, and trachea give way beneath the pressure. Warm blood drenched his hand.
The soldier tried to struggle, but his movements became spasmodic, weak. His eyes lost focus. When the body stopped trembling, the killer carefully lowered it to the ground.
—One less.—
The other two noticed nothing. They continued talking among themselves. They were close together; approaching them directly was dangerous.
Even so, he moved fluidly through the bushes until he was positioned behind another tree, now holding a knife in his hand, taken from the corpse of the soldier he had just executed.
He took a breath. Aimed. And with great precision, he threw the blade.
The weapon sliced through the air with a whistle and buried itself in the second soldier's neck. He choked on his own blood and fell to his knees. The third barely had time to turn before the man was already upon him.
A brief struggle, a quick twist, and a knife plunging into the soldier's heart was enough to finish the last of them.
And then… silence. It was over.
The man breathed deeply and looked at the corpses. He could not stay in the area for long. He hurried to take some of their gear, slipping on a light vest to protect himself from the cold. A few blades, smoke grenades. He was better prepared now.
But this forest… held more dangers than just soldiers.
The crunch of leaves alerted him.
He turned instantly, his body reacting before his mind. Something was stalking him.
Between the trees, only a few meters away, a pair of eyes glowed in the darkness.
Exposed fangs. A low, threatening growl. A predator.
Looking closer, the man had no doubt what he was seeing… a massive wolf, larger than any he had seen in his past life. Its fur was black as night, its muscles defined beneath its skin.
The man did not hesitate. He moved the instant the beast lunged, rolling to the side and dodging the attack by mere centimeters. The creature landed with a heavy thud and immediately turned, charging again with a ferocious roar.
This time, the killer was better armed. He raised the knife and drove it into the wolf's eye.
The wolf's shriek echoed through the forest. The creature staggered, shaking its head in fury, but the killer gave it no time to recover.
The sharpened bone in his hand went straight for its throat. A spasm and one final growl were the last signs of life before death claimed it.
The man caught his breath. But he was still not alone.
He heard more movement in the bushes and saw more glowing eyes in the darkness. Slowly, more wolves emerged from the undergrowth.
—Shit…—
The man could not fight them all. Not in this condition. As a quick escape measure, he pulled out one of the smoke bombs and threw it to the ground.
Gray fog enveloped the area, blinding the animals. The man took advantage of the confusion and ran.
The growls and barks faded into the distance.
He had survived. For now.