The ping resonated through the ground and vibrated in Levi’s chest, like the hum of a massive drum.

Echoes came back at once, sharp and clear. Immediately Levi’s mind painted a mental image of everyone nearby, human, minion, anyone with the slightest drop of system power. The nearby dungeon blazed out like a beacon, their little kalvex pack much louder than the lower-leveled creatures.

He sensed more Awakened scattered through the nearby towns. He found his harpy flock slowly heading back from their battlefield, bearing their fallen leader.

“Huh.”

“Find something?”

“The harpies. They’ve been off killing monsters, it appears. Cleaning up after me."

Silently he applauded his minions for their initiative, though he didn’t have time to wait for them to catch up.

Information continued to flood in, more now as his ping spread wider and wider. Weaker and less clear, but still enough to get a general idea of things.

Occasional dungeons, most lower level. Occasional Awakened, also lower level.

Then a section lit up; the dungeon resonated strongly, with many strong people around it. All at around the same level of strength.

Not long after he found a second, but this one included a fainter presence mixed in with the fourth-threshold ones. The third echoed the first, no one weak within the immediate radius of the dungeon and several very strong people there.

"That way."

Still the ping spread, mapping out every dungeon across the state, every Awakened, every roaming Essence–

“Crap.”

“What is it?”

“Essence break.” Levi hissed through his teeth, torn. He wanted to rescue Cassandra, but an Essence roaming free was the kind of threat that he couldn’t leave unaddressed.

“What’s an Essence break?” asked Amy, the spider-focused tamer.

“Essence is like hyper-concentrated elemental energy, the same as what dungeon monsters are made up of, but in its raw primal form. It’ll transform as you split it apart into any type of monster that the element can spawn, and every one of them is an unstable plus type.”

Left to itself, it could decimate the town easily, and the Awakened in the area weren’t strong enough to stop it themselves. Not without knowing what they were doing.

Good thing he’d noticed, or who knew how much more devastation it would have caused before anyone could stop it.

The distant harpy swarm shifted directions, immediately starting after the new threat. Levi scanned his minion list for who else he could send. He couldn’t go himself. He was the only fighter even close to level 20, and everyone at the base they’d be infiltrating was higher than that. The Essence was only level 2 or 3, judging by its strength level. Still a major threat, yes, but not something a few dozen prepared Awakened at first threshold couldn’t deal with.

“Whoever’s the fastest, we need a team of twenty minimum to head out and deal with the Essence.”

"How far away are the harpies?" Gordon asked.

"Three hours that way. They’ll reach the Essence site in about two hours, so probably about the same time as your team."

“You’re putting me in charge of an away team?” Gordon asked, eyes widening. “I’m not qualified–”

“You’re the best we have right now.”

“Don’t worry,” Riana spoke up. “I’ll watch your back. I’m the strongest mage we have.”

Levi gave them a quick rundown of how best to deal with an Essence safely - split it into as many smaller pieces as possible, always maintain freedom of movement - then sent them out to collect volunteers.

"How many of us are going?" Riana asked. "There's like a hundred people now."

"Seventy-two," Irene corrected.

That was more than he could keep track of, by a lot. “Take as many as are willing and fast enough to keep up.”

In a way, it was a relief to have an excuse to split up the group. Finding something useful for so many people to do had started to feel like an overwhelming obligation. Separating into smaller groups eased the strain, even if it added more stress in other areas. He desperately hoped he wasn’t sending Gordon and the others to their deaths. They should be able to handle it, but there were no guarantees of safety.

He couldn’t afford to think about that right now. “It’ll be about two hours running if we go now. Could cut that down by a third if I take Diego, but that leaves me without backup.”

Irene’s reply was no surprise. “I’m coming with you.”

Levi searched the group. "Any tamers with Revive off cooldown?"

Negative mutters and shaking heads.

"So do we wait for them, or go now?" Irene asked.

Levi shook his head. "I don't think we can wait. I don't like leaving them behind again, but they're too slow and we need to move.“

He checked his own Revive timer. He'd planned to use it to revive Becca, just to be doubly sure she was fine, but right now he needed air power and he needed speed. Another ten minutes or so and he could cast it.

He stuck his head out the door to shout, "Lash, I need you." The soul-seeker bobbed over to Levi, accepting the Tame to return him to Levi's control without resisting. "Who else survived?"

Crackle buzzed over, four copies. The others had distributed themselves to Irene, Peter, and the other tamers for quick messaging if necessary.

“Gordon’s team, once you finish with the Essence, head toward the research facility. After we retrieve Cassandra, we’ll meet up here, at the next town over. Getting one person out is probably going to be easier than collecting all our minions.”

He wished the harpies could find more enemies to finish off, maybe they could push his own level up to 20 - he needed that next threshold as soon as possible. But they had to work with what they had available. The Essence was too far away for that fight to push him over before they arrived, and he didn’t sense any other monsters anywhere in easy reach.

“Snip is too slow, so you’ll be taking Snap,” Levi told Irene. “Grab Iris, if I manage to level soon enough to do another Revive we could use her.” Soul-Seekers were among the lightest weight minions. Bringing the body of someone like Cen or Becca would slow them down a lot, but Levi could take both Lash and Iris without difficulty.

“Will Peter be alright without us?” Irene asked.

“Yes. He’ll be fine. With Fang to watch over him, nothing should be able to get close to him.”

“It still feels wrong to leave him behind.”

Levi glanced back to where he knew Peter and Mark were still practicing their stamina-drag techniques. Neither of them had enough stamina to keep up with Diego, even if they were perfectly metered in its usage.

“I know what you mean,” he murmured. “But this is time-sensitive.”

“Fang can’t keep up?”

Levi took her hand in both of his. “We’re going to be breaking into someplace just as dangerous as where we just broke out of, and this time without an angry horde of monsters at our disposal. I don’t think Peter’s ready for that.”

Irene nodded reluctant assent.

The last few minutes before Levi’s Revive came off cooldown were spent sharing information and better coordinating with the others. Those not going with Gordon to fight the Essence were given directions to the rendezvous town, Levi gave Fang strict instructions to watch over Peter, and farewells were exchanged.

"Snap, you're up."

Irene hopped aboard the newly-revived lobsteroc, Snap flaring his feathered wings with a shriek of joy.

"Diego? You ready to run?" The cat didn’t look up, but his legs tensed in obvious preparation.

Skarm slinked out from the shadows, flexing his claws with a wicked grin.

“No, of course I wasn’t planning to leave you behind. Tink? You coming?”

The mirror-sprite fluttered uncertainly, then dove toward Levi with a grim nod.

"Okay. Then let's do this."

Levi tied Lash around his waist with two tendrils, the others reaching out to secure Skarm and Tink. Crackle settled down on Levi's chest and shoulders - then relocated to his back when Levi's heart involuntarily ramped up at the sight of so many scarabs so close.

Even knowing they were allied, his instincts still screamed at him whenever they were visible. Something he could work on dealing with another time.

Levi tucked his legs up and Diego surged forward.

For now, they had another rescue to pull off.