Luke pointed to the building. It was large enough to rise over most of the others, and even from this distance, you could see a group of people on top of it, flinging spells down into the milling dwarves.

  "This is going to be such a pain," Penny said.

  The streets, short as they were, were already getting overrun with dwarves, but from the look of things, some were pulling back.

  Liza frowned. "You think that's the Curtis effect?"

  "Don't forget Mateo," Penny said. "He's a devil with that spear."

  "Still a lot of dwarves down there. Should have kept a fighter with us," Luke said.

  "Hannah and I can deal with that," Penny said. "Right, Hannah?"

  Hannah stood a little off to the side, looking lost and a little dazed.

  "Hannah!" Penny shouted.

  She blinked and looked back at the group.

  Penny pointed. "We have to make a path to the house."

  "Sure," Hannah said, nodding. "It's like my shadows want to come out, so it should be fine." She looked at her hands. "I hope."

  As Luke watched, shadows formed through drops that began falling from the tips of her fingers, then her arms, creating a pool of ever-expanding darkness around her. Once Hannah was satisfied with the amount, she moved her hands forward in what looked like a double palm strike, and the shadows stretched forward.

  Zap, crack, boom!

  Clear the street, make room!

  Lightning jumps, doom, doom, doom!

  One of her chain lightning attacks surged through the street, killing several and incapacitating even more of the attacking dwarves. It was beautiful and terrible to see in equal measure, crackling lightning tearing into their enemies. Luke shuddered, but it was nothing compared to Hannah's river of darkness that continued forward at a slow but unrelenting pace, swallowing everything in its path. Even the house walls it touched were pulled into that darkness, and whenever a dwarf got in its way, that dwarf was sucked into the river, disappearing without a sound.

  Hannah let out a whimper.

  "What's wrong, Hannah?" Liza asked.

  "It's reaching out again," Hannah groaned. Her fingers went up to her face, and streaks of red appeared as she clawed at herself, whimpering again. "This was a mistake. Big mistake."

  Tentacles rose out of Hannah's river, snatching up even more dwarves, yanking them off their feet, plucking them from buildings, and even dragging the dead ones into the river of death. The shadows didn't stop with dwarves, though. Defending humans, some of those few who remained, were taken as well, and even a few Integrated who stepped too close trying to get away from the dwarves.

  "It's coming out, I can't hold it back," Hannah groaned, falling to her knees, and Luke stared in horror as the form he recognized as the Deep Dweller began to emerge from Hannah's shadows.

  "Reverse the spell, Hannah!" he shouted.

  A mewling sound escaped Hannah's throat. "I can't!"

  It was the Liza situation all over again. Then, rendering the Warder unconscious made her drop the barrier wards.

  "We have to run," Liza said, her voice a calm point in the chaos.

  Penny walked up to Hannah. "Do I zap her again?"

  "Wait," Luke said.

  Racking his brain for a way to knock Hannah out, Luke couldn't find an answer. At least not one where he could put her to sleep without running the risk of harming her in the process. Perhaps if he constricted her arteries to lower the blood flow to the brain, but that had some risky side effects. Messing with her brain was the same, and he didn't have the first clue how to go around changing hormones.

  Thick tentacles, the size of buildings, slithered out of that pit of darkness, and Hannah's eyes turned black. Seeing no medical way forward, Luke did the only thing he could think of and sent a fist straight into Hannah's face. He put a lot of weight behind it, but he hadn't expected her to slam into the ground with such force.

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  Wincing, he got down on his knees to examine her. In the corner of his eye, he saw the shadows pull back and the Deep Dweller disappear into the ground. Little by little, the strands of shadow returned to their nest inside Hannah and between the strands of her hair. He checked her eyes again and found them normal, if dazed.

  "Quick thinking," Penny said. "But wouldn't zapping her do the same thing?"

  Luke shook his head, healing the damage to Hannah's nose. "Electricity running through your body multiple times is bad news."

  "Is she alright? You punched her!" Liza shouted.

  "What was I supposed to do? If the Deep Dweller emerged here, we'd all be dead."

  Hannah's eyelids fluttered open, and she winced. "What happened?"

  "You lost control," Luke said, "almost summoned the Deep Dweller."

  "Shit," Hannah said, sitting up with a jerk and looking around.

  "It's not here," Liza said.

  Luke gathered up his courage and spoke. "You need to leave."

  "What?" Hannah asked.

  "It isn't safe. If you can't use your abilities without attracting that thing, you really shouldn't use them at all in this dungeon."

  Hannah set her jaw and glared at him. Then the air seemed to go out of her, and she looked down at the ground, nodding. "You're right."

  Liza took Hannah's hand and helped her to her feet. "I can accompany you if you want."

  At first, it looked like Hannah would refuse, but then she nodded. "Thank you."

  "Be safe," Luke said, squeezing Hannah's shoulder, "and I'll talk to you later, yeah?"

  She gave him a weak but dejected smile. "Yeah."

  And the two were off. Liza looked back over her shoulder. "I'll try to come back."

  "Check in first," Luke said. "We might not be here."

  He exchanged a look with Penny once the other two were gone. "Looks like it's just you and me."

  "Kinda wish we had someone with a weapon, or shield at least, with us," Penny said, looking after the two young women setting a brisk pace through the portal.

  That brought his thoughts back to Nate, but he pushed them away. There were more important things to focus on at the moment.

  Luke: "Curtis, Milla, Mateo. That Emma woman is on top of the centermost building. Curtis knows which one. Meet us there."

  Curtis: "We're coming."

  Luke turned to Penny again. "Ready?"

  Crackle, spark, light me bright!

  Shine with power, storm and fight!

  Touch me close, you’ll feel my might!

  Lightning crackled along Penny's fingers, running up her arms and even up her neck. Her eyes went white and glowed. Even her hair rose to stand up in all directions, charged by the lightning.

  "Now I'm ready," she said.

  Luke grinned. "That looks badass."

  "New level 10 spell," she said, even her voice sounding charged with lightning.

  The two set off, heading towards Emma and the rest of her group. Dwarves appeared on the street, but Penny just pointed at them, and lightning surged from her finger and into their enemies. Some were torn apart, while others just fell to the ground, dead. All those who dared go near met their end.

  More and more dwarves noticed them and threw themselves at Penny, who was the more obvious threat. Luke wished they didn't have to fight these monsters at all, since they didn't have much of a reason to at this point. But there were no calming things now, not here. And if they used the communication gems too, the dwarves knew that their town was under siege, adding to the aggression.

  A few dwarves made attempts at reaching Luke, but Penny seemed to have eyes at the back of her head, because she spun and dealt with those as well, which Luke was grateful for. Even with full mana, he was feeling the effects of being in the dungeon for so long. Exhaustion crept in, and the constant need to focus when healing was taking its toll as well. He needed rest. After this, he promised himself, he would stay away from dungeons for at least a few days, experience and levels be damned.

  They had just about reached the house when Penny's spell fizzled. The last few bolts drained the lightning effect running along her arms and head, causing Penny to stagger and put a hand against a building for support. The two of them were close now, and they could get a proper look at the people struggling on top of the roof.

  Abraham. Gunner. Level 10.

  Kurt. Empath. Level 7.

  Emma. Siegebreaker. Level 9.

  Simon. Mana Harvester. Level 9.

  The gunner, Abraham, was using an honest-to-God machine gun mounted on the roof. A hail of bullets punched into the dwarves as they attempted to approach the building from that side, the sound of the weapon adding to the incredible din. Seeing a modern weapon used in this context was a little weird, but it wasn't the first time. One of the girls from the Tutorial Dungeon used handguns, but Luke had forgotten her name. Irene, was it? No, she was the other one. The asshole.

  Between the gunner and Emma, who wielded a larger-than-normal bow that shot thick, heavy-looking arrows, they were keeping most of the dwarves at bay, but not all of them.

  Simon? Why the hell was Simon up there?

  He dropped something from the side of the building, by the looks of it, resulting in explosions that rang out with loud bangs. Somehow, though, the blasts didn't touch the building even while they ripped dwarves to shreds.

  The Empath, by the look of it, was just sitting there, cross-legged on the roof with his eyes closed. So many weird classes. Off to the right, screams sounded, followed by a war cry rising above the buildings.

  "?Por los míos, hasta el final!"

  "That's Mateo," Luke told Penny. "They're coming. Can you go on?"

  She nodded and pushed away from the building, swaying a little. "I'm fine, just used more mana than I thought."

  In that moment, a dwarf came charging out of a side street, a cudgel raised over its head as it rushed toward Luke without making any sound other than its feet slapping against the cobbled street. It wasn't fear that struck him in that moment, just a bone-deep tiredness. Wanting nothing more than to go home and sleep, Luke held out his hand and thrust forward with a thread of mana that took the dwarf straight between the eyes. Inside the monster, Luke affixed a Needle of Life to the thread and made a stirring motion. The dwarf’s knees buckled, and it fell face-first onto the ground.

  Looting another gem, Luke spotted two more dwarves farther down the street, rushing toward them.

  "We should hurry," he said, and wrapped Penny's arm over his shoulders for support.

  Together they struggled toward their destination.