They hunted through the forest for any remaining monsters, but Agent 325 was only giving it half his attention. His mind was focused elsewhere.

The cat didn't want to be tamed.

He could feel it fighting him, clawing at his ability, trying to shred his concentration, twisting itself away from his reach.

But if there was one thing Agent 325 had going for him, it was sheer bullheaded determination.

"You will be mine," he whispered. "I'm not giving up."

Levi dropped into the maelstrom of flashing fish, immediately blinded by the sheer volume of creatures filling every space, surrounding him. He fell slowly, the mass of the swarm holding him up even as they bit and sliced.

Instinct screamed for him to fight to escape, fight free right now, but he held himself to stillness. Counting seconds as he gradually descended into the churning swarm.

His health fell fast, dropping from full to below half in seconds.

The essence of Destruction in his palm burned, humming its siren call, demanding to be released. He gripped the Destruction sword in both hands, the matching natures resonating and building against one another.

Levi held the power, waiting until he'd reached the center of the swarm, or at least as close to it as he could get without dying in the attempt. Then he released it.

The sword had nothing to guide the power apart from the base tracings, but his mind and soul knew what to do even if the power itself didn't.

With a thought, he oversurged his mana, forcing all of it through his essence-infused hand and into the sword in a single instant.

His sword lit up in a flash so bright he saw it even through multiple flying fish blocking the line of sight between his eyes and his hands.

A sonic impact slammed into his chest as power exploded outwards in a single devastating pulse. If he hadn't been gripping the sword so firmly it would have torn itself from his grip as it threw everything back and away.

Then Levi blinked in the sudden still quiet. He was falling faster now, through a haze of orange light that whited out almost everything beyond his immediate surroundings. He saw other shapes falling around him, hundreds of the bladefins dropping lifelessly from the sky. If any had survived beyond the range of his attack, he didn't see them.

Then he dropped beneath the sphere of corrosive mist, just in time for a giant lobster claw to snatch him out of the sky.

Snap deposited him back on his back and Levi hastily strapped himself back in. With a pulse of wind, they blasted through the tattered remains of the bladefin swarm, soaring into their room of origination.

Levi swallowed a mana and health restorative, feeling momentarily weightless and intangible as all sensation whited out under the sudden influx of mana. He trusted Snap to keep them safe, but it was still nerve-wracking to be helpless and entirely unaware of his surroundings.

When his senses returned, they'd already crossed half the room, Snap out-flying all but the fastest of the attacking fish. He still had dozens clinging to his wings or tail, but there was nothing Levi could do about them at the moment.

His explosive release of Destruction power had thinned out the pursuit by a lot, but there were still thousands of fish racing after them as they soared over the river of the fishes' home territory. Behind the pursuing swarms poured the still-enraged horde of third-floor monsters, followed by the giant gorilla.

Ahead, there was no treasure room any more, no respite from the pursuit; instead a vast opening gaped between rooms 1 and 2, leaving plenty of room for even the gorilla to pass through without so much as slowing.

Levi flew out over the first room's drab terrain, the spikysaurs jumping and snapping futilely at his passage. Despite the desperation of the moment, he smiled at the memory of Javier's similar escape. One of the inspirations for this particular iteration of the plan.

"Couldn't have done it without you," Levi murmured, glancing back once to see their pursuit still undeterred.

Then they were through, emerging into the first floor. Which is where they encountered the one major problem that Levi's plan hadn't taken into account.

The boss room was occupied.

He soared into the first floor, ready to rampage with his irate entourage through the entirety of the level and out into the open. Instead they emerged into a closed room, sealed both forward and back, the only exit back through the same portal to the second floor as they'd entered through.

Levi realized immediately this could go very badly very quickly, but there wasn't time to do anything about it.

Below, thirty higher level Awakened fought a crimson-furred spider-skunk backed up by a pack of winged raptors.

Behind, the flood of pursuing monsters poured into the room, filling the large boss room to capacity in moments.

Levi urged Snap higher, the lobsteroc complying. It wouldn't be enough. There were still flying enemies rushing after them. Being trapped in a small room with them was a death sentence. Mobility and evasion were their only advantages, and a limited location like this all but negated those.

He scanned the battle taking place below, thoughts racing.

If he could kill off the boss quickly enough, they may be able to bypass the part where every furious monster in the dungeon caught up with him. But it was level 20, and still had half its health. If the thirty higher level Awakened below couldn't bring it down by now, nothing he could do would be fast enough.

Or... nothing he could normally do.

He didn't have time to second guess the impulse, Destruction power still burning in his palm. If a diffuse form had taken out a whole bladefin swarm, then maybe a focused form could take down the boss. If he didn't do something now to change the balance of the fight, they were going to die.

The boss room, though large by normal standards, felt downright cramped when filled with dinosaurs, flying murderfish, lobster-birds, turkeys, sabercats, more dinosaurs, and even more murderfish.

"Down."

Snap dove.

Levi unclipped his harness and drew his sword again. Easing up just a bit on his iron control, he allowed the Destruction power building in his essence-imbued hand to flow into the sword, building the resonance in the heartbeats of time before the remaining fish, lobsterocs, and more flight-enabled turkeys caught up.

He jumped.

He spun as he fell, slashing out in all directions to buy himself at least enough time to reach the boss before being overwhelmed. His sword painted glowing orange lines of visible power in the air, slashes that lingered and expanded, a slow-moving vortex of pure devastation left in his wake.

Then Levi shifted his stance, streamlined his body, as he dove sword-first through the air toward the single monster keeping them trapped here. The reason the doors remained sealed.

The boss advertised itself with bright red fur, making itself an obvious target.

Level 20+

(Spider-Skunk)

Health 58%

Levi slammed sword-first into the boss's furry back, and for a second time poured his full mana pool into becoming Destruction incarnate, directing the entirety of the overpowered overcharged attack straight down through the blade and into the spider-skunk standing between him and freedom.

Any other day, this would have taken minutes or even hours to deal with.

With the Destruction power amplifying his damage output to such insane levels, it took two seconds.

Level 20+

(Spider-Skunk)

Health 39%

Orange light glowed where Levi's sword had struck, lighting up the boss from within like a paper lantern as the power had nowhere else to go, the light in his hand visibly dimming in strength.

Level 20+

(Spider-Skunk)

Health 22%

Levi wavered at the backlash from the dramatic outpouring of power. Oversurging mana twice in two minutes was taking its toll, his grip weakening as he swayed, his body feeling like a distant thing. Like the inverse of drinking a mana elixir, but no less dangerous, sensation was numbed and dulled instead of overwhelmed.

Level 20+

(Spider-Skunk)

Health 6%

The damage slowed as the initial pulse ended, but the lingering corrosive effect of the Destruction element remained. The spider-skunk trembled and its color shifted, the red deepening as it entered an enrage phase transformation. A cloud of noxious brown smoke rose from its body, choking-thick and beyond vile.

Disoriented as he was, Levi wasn't fast enough to avoid getting a faceful of the smog. He immediately surged stamina to correct for the mana absence, yanking his sword free of the boss just as the closest tyrannosaur reached them.