Rescuing his kidnapped family members was only step one. Levi also needed to retrieve his stolen minions. They had enough information to get started with, between the map of the local facilities, what they learned from their prisoners, and the traces from his overcharged mana ping. The majority of their minions were stored in a research and holding facility around the center of the area that had been staked out by this group.

Unfortunately, this attack would require a bit more than just run in, snatch the minions, and get out.

With the rescue of Cas, they had one specific target to get out and even then barely escaped. Their flight across the desert back to the relative freedom of anonymity had been successful, but not simple.

"We need to be subtle here. I don't think we can take another direct confrontation. We’ve made enough of an impact by now that they'll probably have increased security."

“Should we split the team? Send a handful of stealth specialists?”

“We don’t have any high enough level stealth specialists, and I'm not splitting us up again. There's every chance that they will be better prepared for us now that we've hit two of their facilities."

"Then we stay here and train until we’re ready."

"We should go sooner rather than later if we want any chance of retrieving our minions."

"And how do we know when we’ve trained enough? When do we need to take action?"

"Soon. We can't delay indefinitely."

Irene considered a moment. "Let me get to level 15. I’ll feel so much better about this knowing I have more options for taking care of everyone."

Levi nodded. As much as his impulse was to rush off himself and do it alone without bringing his family into the realm of danger, he wasn’t about to break his resolve. He had chosen to maintain their status as a unit until each and every one of them was strong enough to fend for themselves against all comers, and he would not contemplate breaking it now.

"Tell me how I can help."

"Just be our spotter. We don't need much aside from supervision and a backup plan in case things go terribly wrong. I think we’ve got this. Just watch my back?"

"You've got it." Levi couldn't help but grab his wife in his arms, smiling into her shoulder. "You know I love you, right?"

"Of course. You think I’d do this for just anyone?"

"What, the hug?"

He heard both the smile and resolve in her voice. "Becoming the healer queen of a ragtag army of misfits and monsters, of course."

"Does that make me the warrior king?"

She hummed thoughtfully, leaning back to look him over though their arms remained around each others’ waist. "Maybe warrior prince. I can't have you getting uppity about my throne."

Levi laughed. "Then let's get you power leveled, your Majesty."

How was it even with everything going on, all the chaos, all the death, all the danger, and Irene could still make them feel like a giddy teenager with his first crush?

“Aye.” Irene reached up to kiss him, her face set in grim lines despite the levity she pretended. That eased Levi's concerns, knowing she would treat it with the full gravity it deserved. Even if she would joke around about it, she wasn't treating it lightly.

"Let’s go,” she said when they broke apart. “We’ve got a lot of monsters waiting for us."

Irene took her self-claimed title as healer queen very seriously. Peter took his new status as T-Rex mounted archer very seriously, and Cas joined in as his copilot and ranged combat instructor.

Not that Levi thought Peter needed a specific bodyguard, but it still made them feel better knowing there was someone in such close proximity. He hung back to allow the others to level, since he already monopolized enough of the experience gained from the initial escape. He didn't want to slow their growth.

The group that had been hanging back at the original compound gradually dwindled as people who'd been all excited by the prospect of fighting for the earth's survival realized just how much this was going to be an annoyance and trickled away.

He stood near enough that he could jump in at a moment’s notice, his eyes flicking between everyone's status tags to ensure there was no one veering toward dangerously low health levels. Irene did the same, darting about with the determined focus of someone fully intent on winning a perfect score.

It took just under two days for Irene to reach her next threshold. Forty hours of constant fighting, of healing everyone who was so much as scratched, of throwing herself into the thick of the battle before withdrawing as soon as her health dropped below half.

The Beast dungeon wasn't safe. The monsters outleveled them all, and though they had numbers they were always walking a dangerous line.

The items they'd collected from the multiple treasure spots throughout the dungeon in their initial escape run were a substantial boon, including plenty of recovery potions of every sort. Irene didn't have to hold back, didn't have to ration her supply.

They found more supplies as they went, even the only partially recovered treasure rooms containing small piles of weaker restoratives or tokens. It wasn't abundant, but it was sufficient. They roamed through the dungeon, fighting everything they met, their levels surging upward.

By the time they finished, all the newcomers with them had reached a minimum of level 10. Half the tamers had dedicated their builds to maxing Revive, keeping theirs and others' minions up and active, while the other half were going Levi's route of pack leader, collecting as many creatures as they could.

Irene had gone along with this for a long time, out of a sense of obligation and loyalty, but now she was truly committed.

The Beast dungeon shifted as they continued to fight, its rooms rearranging and its monsters growing more uniformly high level..

The escapees Irene and Cas had been training with over the past days were no longer the unarmed and helpless group that they'd been the first time Levi saw them. Not all of them were fully armed, but Javier and a couple lower level helpers had been working full time to get them all as much custom crafted gear as possible.

They weren't an elite tactical squad yet, but they were far closer than they had any right to be after only a handful of days and insufficient training. Fighting monsters to the death on a constant basis was pretty effective practice. The system stats helped a lot too, stamina and health covering the gaps where mundane methodology would fall short.

Three of the warriors ran forward, their weapons raised between them and the single sabercat before them. It was fast, it was deadly, and it had no idea that it was outmatched.

Level 21, the cat bounded forward at an unreasonable speed. Two fighters lunged forward to meet its momentum with their own, driving their swords deep into its chest and surging mana.

Levi couldn't help but be impressed by their control. It'd taken him months to learn that level of active surge mastery. Well, not quite mastery, he corrected himself as one of the weapons dulled immediately and the other continued flaring brightly - excessively, wastefully - even after the cat twisted free and retaliated with a swipe across the warrior's armor. But they had well-timed activation, at least.

The sound of claws rending through metal tore through the enclosed space. Levi winced, but restrained his impulse to jump in to save the man.

Irene shouted orders, calling for a switch. The man backed out of the frontal wedge while another took his place, allowing him to pause long enough that Irene administered her restorative, then he took up his place in the second rank now.

There were seventeen of them total, including Levi and his family, so it wasn't a small group, but it still felt insufficient.

The sabercat continued its vicious attacks, dropping the health of anyone it got its claws into by a third or half, but Irene and Cas continued calling out their rotations, ensuring the injured parties were restored quickly and efficiently, the rangers and mages driving the angry monster back before it could reach the more vulnerable members.

The group of tamers standing by with monsters of their own made Levi smile.

He had to admit, this group was functioning a lot more effectively than 'throw a hundred fighters at a thing and see who survives long enough to level up.'

He'd always known that the strategy employed by whoever was in charge of the old timeline had been flawed and insufficient, but seeing the alternative play out for himself finally broke down the subconscious certainty that if it was what had been done it was probably what had to have been done: if fighters were the most survivable and therefore the best option for the untrained masses.

Not now.

He could admit that he'd been holding on to flawed methodology. There were six classes for a reason. They were meant to work together, not in individual specialist groups.

This was a microcosm of the strategy they'd need to use to win for real. They needed everyone, everywhere, to be able to work together like this.

"You’re taking notes?"

Cas continued her quick scribbling as the fight wrapped up. "Yeah. Book Two is going to be a whole different story."

"Book two?"

She grinned, looking up to meet his eyes. "The first book we're publishing, that was a 'how to survive' guide. This one's going to be ‘how to fight.’"