Lucid dreams

I'm flitting through alleyways, behind cars and trees. My mentality is in what I call assassin mode. I think this is a reflection of one of my past lives, which makes sense because my family consists of warriors... My name literally means 'warrior', also my middle name 'Adler' means "eagle hunter," if that's any consolation.
Anyway I'm exploring the dream with the mindset of trying to find something 'evil' to kill. And as I explore I see a man holding a knife to my dads back- which makes no sense at all.. Because my dad trained to be a SEAL, and would have killed this guy with this his own knife. I'm pissed and forget my instinct to jump him in an ambush. I walk out from behind the car and stand in plain view so the man can see me. He spots me and walks in my direction... My "dad" evaporates into mist... I shrug the idea of my dad being a hologram off and am even more angry the guy lured me. I sense something oddly familiar behind me and look to my right to see many smoky figures standing around and some sitting on cars and SUVs. I turn back to see the man running full sprint at me, now 10 feet away. I pull my knife; a 10 inch bladed Bowie knife, and deflected his first slash with my left arm. Instinct kicks in as I'm dodging and returning attacks. After about a minute or two of fighting I finally get a good stab under the ribs, my knife halfway in his chest. The shadow people quickly pull the man back and I am left with a few cuts on my left arm, not too deep because most of the blade caught the sleeve of my hoodie. I awake feeling the many cuts in my left arm for a few minutes. I think these shadow people are mostly associated with the lower astral planes, usually nightmares. and they felt familiar, like I've known them for a very, very long time, ancient even. what does that mean?