Dreadwolf, Lord of Runes

Panning the camera across the room, Kane also noticed a rather buff male beastling standing by the door, likely acting as a guard and caretaker.

He looked over his shoulder and addressed Luna. “Grab the rope from your backpack and secure it to something while I finish up here, alright?”

“Oooh, are you gonna tie me up, Master~?” Luna playfully quipped with an eager smile and a lustful glint in her eyes.

“Maybe later,” Kane rolled his eyes, despite the intrigued half-smile playing on his lips. “Let’s first try to get through this in one piece, alright?”

“Fiiiine,” Luna sighed dramatically, before turning around to follow his order.

Even now, despite knowing the serious situation they found themselves in, Luna found it hard to turn her personality off. But that was part of why Kane liked her so much.

He watched her walk away for a moment, before he went back to observing the room below them. After getting all the information he wanted, he told his little black ball to leave the micro-vent.

After dropping to the floor, he had the nanites move towards the window and hold their place there. Luckily, the ball of nanites was too small for the guard to notice.

With that done, he closed the interface just when Luna had finished her task as well. A sturdy rope was now tied to a not-so-sturdy looking lamp fixture.

“Are you sure that’s going to hold us?” Kane wondered sceptically as his mind drifted to scenes of them ending up as stains on the pavement.

“It only needs to hold you, Master,” Luna winked playfully. “I’ll just use my lightning chains.”

“Very comforting,” Kane sighed, before grabbing the rope and tugging on it a little. Deciding that it would be fine, he nodded. “Alright, let’s go.”

* * *

A few moments later, they were rappelling down the building’s side. Kane by holding onto the rope, and Luna by holding on to her lightning chains. Luna’s chains were fizzling as they wrapped around her hands, but didn’t harm her at all.

They quickly moved their way down to the window below while the wind blew through their hair and howled in their ears.

They were quite high up, but luckily, their powerful Mystic bodies allowed them to do this without much physical strain.

“Do you think the rumours are true, and fifth stage Mystics can fly…?” Luna wondered as she felt gravity's cruel grasp pulling her down.

Kane managed to barely hear her over the wind and chuckled back, “One step at a time, Luna. Let’s get to the Core Formation stage first, shall we?”

Luna grumbled something in response that Kane couldn’t hear, but they had already reached a place just above their target window anyway.

“Ready?” he asked Luna, who gave him an affirmative nod.

Releasing one hand on the rope, Kane pressed a button on his CyberStrap, causing the nanites by the window to spring to live again.

Just like most everything else in the non-slum parts of Riftshade, the windows were digitally controlled as well. Thus, the nanites flooded into the mechanism, and mere moments later, the window suddenly opened.

Inside, the bored looking guard frowned and quickly jumped into action mode, “What the—”

But before he could truly react, two forms fell inside the room, one after the other. He yelled for them to stop, but Kane and Luna rolled over the ground and stopped besides the two beastling netrunners.

Jumping up, they pressed their swords against the motionless netrunner’s throats.

Since they were currently in Cyberspace, they were completely unaware of the outside world, which is exactly why there was a guard with them. Unfortunately they never expected someone would come through the window.

“Stop!” the beastling guard yelled, scared that the two intruders would simply slice the necks of their main sources of income.

And his friends.

Luckily for him, neither Kane nor Luna had any intention of doing so. At least, not without reason.

“I want to make a deal,” Kane calmly stated while pressing his sword against the unprotected throat of the unconscious beastling besides him. “So get your leader in here.”

* * *

A few moments later, Kane and Luna were faced with three beastlings, standing about ten meters away from them, at the entrance of the room. One male guard, one female guard, and their leader: a female, wolf-type beastling, also referred to as a wolfling, in the Core Formation stage.

This leader glared angrily at the two intruders, arms crossed in front of her chest.

Tension swam in the air.

She had grey hair and fur, light-brown skin, and fierce, pale-yellow eyes. Kane estimated her age to be somewhere between 25 and 30, although it was often hard to tell with Mystics.

She was a little taller than Luna, but still shorter than Kane. Two wolf ears stuck out of her head, and a bushy tail swept angrily behind her back. She carried a large, two-handed, straight-edged sword, and wore a casual combat outfit, giving her a type of fierce beauty.

“Crap,” Kane muttered under his breath. ‘Didn’t think they’d have a second stage Mystic with them…’ he cursed inwardly.

Most Riftshade beastlings talented enough to enter the Core Formation stage or higher would end up as part of the criminal underworld. To see one as part of the Beastling Alliance was… as good as unheard of.

The woman noticed his surprise and tried to smirk confidently, despite the obvious rage bubbling beneath the surface, “Didn’t expect to find someone like me here, did you?” Swapping to a threatening growl, she continued, “So why don’t you let them go, and maybe we’ll let you two walk out of here.”

Luna’s ears and tail twitched a little due to nerves, but she managed to remain calm, trusting Kane to get them out of this.

'I guess there was never a chance we could have killed these beastlings,' he thought wryly.

Quickly stamping down on his nerves, Kane forced himself to calm down. 'My plan is good, I can convince her. And even if I can't, we can walk out of here while keeping these netrunners under threat.'

After a few moments of silence, Kane managed to stare down the woman in front of him and respond sternly, “You’re right. I didn’t expect to find someone like you here."

He shrugged calmly, "But even you can’t get to us before we kill your netrunners, and considering the difficulty you must have had in securing their education, I doubt you’d be willing to risk it.”

It’s not like anyone could just put on one of these helmets and start raking in the cash. They needed to learn the ins and outs of netrunning before they could really do anything. And judging from what these screens around them told him, these two were plenty skilled.

Which meant they would be very difficult to replace.

The beastling leader’s jaw tightened, her teeth gnashing audibly as her bluff was called. A flicker of uncertainty crossed her eyes before she masked it with anger.

He was right, she couldn’t get to them before they killed her people. Which, to her, wasn’t even just about their value. She cared about her people. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t still be with them despite being at the Core Formation stage.

Switching tactics, she decided to address Luna instead. “What about you, Catling? Would you really kill your own kind? Don’t you think our lives are hard enough in this world without killing each other as well?!”

Despite her usual playfulness, Luna looked deadly serious as she growled at this woman, “I would prefer if it didn’t come to that, wolfling. But don’t think I’ll hesitate if you take a single step closer!”

That’s when the woman noticed the blood oath tattoo on Luna’s lower arm, and she immediately scoffed with disdain, uncrossing her arms, before putting one on her hips and the other on her forehead. “Fucking hell, you’re a traditionalist…”

“Got a problem with that!?” Luna exclaimed furiously. It was her mother who raised her this way, and she’d be damned if she was going to stand here and let this random wolfling insult her upbringing.

“Yes, because it means there’s no point in talking to you,” the wolfling scowled, before turning her attention back to Kane. “Fine. I guess we’re at an impasse. You must want something, so spill it. What do you want?”

Seeing that she was now ready to talk, Kane smirked, “I want to make a mutually beneficial deal.”