Landing in the sand from the tail slap, Gilliam coughed hard as he did his best to get back on his feet. Instantly starting healing as soon as he could he was feeling better by the second, though he didn’t have many seconds to work on as the bodybuilder-looking lizard was on his way to him with his spear ready to strike. Splitting his focus between healing and manifesting a new shield worked surprisingly well, though it helped a lot that the coat handled manifesting the spell circle. It flashed in and out of existence as the circle collapsed and pulsed a field around Gilliam. Though completely transparent it had a yellow hue as it grew.

The lizard seemed to recognise this but didn’t react too much, stepping in for another spear strike Gilliam did his best to dodge but his ribs felt like they hadn’t healed yet so he was sluggish at best. The spear connected with the barrier but luckily this time it held up, Gilliam remained where he was, as the stab was a little off-centre it glanced to the right. Since spells didn’t work well on him, Gilliam had another idea. Something often brought up in modern media was how to deal with spell resistance creatures and the answer was simple; use secondary effects of magic.

Having gotten the seconds he needed to heal he ignored the time needed to make a spell circle for a new spell, this showed the value of having things pre-planned. Using Unstructured magic he reached out to the spear with a tendril of mana, as it connected he focused his telekinetic might on the spear.
Yanking it towards the side the lizard had no idea this was going to happen and immediately lost his grasp of it, Gilliam overcompensated with strength as he assumed the lizard might hold onto it better. The spear broke as it slammed into the face of another, normal-looking lizard-man, braining him completely and sending him on his back. Though half a spear was not what Gilliam intended, it was still plenty for his idea. The bodybuilder was sceptical at this movement of his weapon, as Gilliam pointed it at him and stabbed the half-spear towards him.

Having his focus in this area, the lizardman could dodge the blow, though he seemed confused about the flying weapon. The weapon was light enough that momentum was not an issue, as soon as the lizard dodged Gilliam was able to turn it around and change the direction. This time it worked much better and though he felt the grasping power on the spear waver as it made contact, it was still plenty to send it through his chest. The Fracturian gurgled for a split second before he fell on his side.

Gilliam’s celebration was short as his shield was hit from the side, in his narrow focus he had lowered his awareness enough to be attacked, but the shield held good, he took the sword out of the ring and activated the wide blade before swinging at the attacker was enough to take care of that problem.

Another quick check showed that the incoming attackers were uncertain, the girls were doing remarkably well, Angela’s punches and kicks were enough to take down the bodybuilders with ease, and though Petal struggled more with the spiked demons she still held her own quite well.

Though they were holding up quite well, ignoring the tail that hit Gilliam a moment ago, in a war of attrition they had no chance against these numbers. The main problem was that Gilliam couldn’t go nuts with large-scale spells, it was in danger of damaging the Gate, and they couldn’t have that.

Using a few valuable seconds Gilliam cast the crescent energy spell again, as he was channelling the spell he became a target. Luckily the girls took note of this and sprung to his side. Petal was the first to arrive on account of her long tail, planting the claw as an open hand on the sand she could thrust herself forward like a surprisingly fast and long jump. Though she missed the lizardman heading his way with her landing, the tail was still quite useful and moments after flying past the lizard the tail came trailing after with claws pointed his way, they hooked deep into his side and pulled him sideways, being thrown like a wet rag further down the sands. It seemed that Petal was focusing on her increased agility and clawed appendages more than Angela could, however, Angela seemed to work more on technique and power, her punches and kicks weren’t as swift or over the top but rather calculated and highly efficient. Every landing strike broke something, whether that was heads, ribs or someone's entire existence depended on the target.

As they kept enough focus away from Gilliam, he finally got his spell charged up, though he had successfully used it not long ago it was still new to him and he hadn’t gotten used to it enough to manifest the whole circle yet. The spell circle collapsed into the crescent disc and flew away from him, widening considerably. Though it flickered slightly when it came into contact with the strongmen and spiked enemies it didn’t seem to destabilise it enough to stop it from bisecting them.

The resulting blood bath was horrifying since more Fracturians had gathered to protect the Gate it had given the spell a more dense population to fly through. The ones who outright died were the lucky ones, others used several seconds to quiet down. This time Gilliam didn’t pay it much mind as he was busy defending himself, and through the whole ordeal his mind realised something borderline moronic: Why were they even fighting?

They needed to get away, not only did they have the flying spell but also had Savia, taking to the skies was much smarter than this.

“Angela, Petal, we’re leaving!” Gilliam shouted in V’idan.

They didn’t hesitate and did what they needed to get in range, Angela made it there faster on the account of being closer, putting a hand on Gilliam’s shoulder right away he felt Petal’s tail reach out to grab his arm rather than getting in close herself.
He was glad she had enough control so his arm didn’t shatter like Angela’s.

“Savia, up!” Gilliam commanded.

Savia didn’t need more explanation, it only took a brief moment to charge up before the familiar sting of the bright light in their eyes to blot out everything for a moment. The winds around them had returned and though the barriers kept the sand from coating them, the winds were still very much affecting them.
Mentally affecting the flight spell to take hold, the winds stopped being a large problem and they found themselves hovering again.

Once the bright light disappeared, a quick check of everything proved that there was nothing to consider besides smaller wounds. Angela had healed herself before they checked, and Petal’s demonic constitution was doing something similar. The damage done to Gilliam’s chest took longer but was luckily also taken care of by this time.

“Well... That could have turned out better.” Gilliam commented with a sigh.

“What happened? Why didn’t you activate the Gate?” Angela asked, seeming a little annoyed.

“The Gate was locked, I tried working around it but didn’t have the time to read the entire thing. Though when I tried to hack it I felt a pull towards the city, I think the key is there. In fact-” As the situation was calmer this allowed Gilliam’s mind the moment to calm down and feel again. “-I can still feel it, it’s roughly there.” He pointed down at the city below to an area too wide to make out at this distance.

“It’s hard to pinpoint from this range, but it’s somewhere in that area... If you take the end of the city and make a circle from the oasis. In there somewhere”
Gilliam tried to explain a vague feeling towards a massive area. Though the area was large it was still in the smaller percentile of the city as a whole, the area was closest to the gate.

Angela pondered for a moment before replying.
“Well, that’s a problem. They know we’re here now, so either we need to wait a while and get in, or go in right away before they can set up any defense.”

Gilliam didn’t have much to add, she had good points. Waiting could have the problem of them moving or defending it more or even moving the key. Going now, before they can prepare, sounded like the better option.
“I think going now might be the better idea, well defended is worse...”
He wasn’t too keen on another fight, but that just made it even more pressing to do it now.

The Fracturians probably knew about something happening and might have upped their defences as a result, it wasn’t like the attack was silent, though there was a bit of distance between the assumed location of the Key and the Gate, so they might still have a chance.

“Then let’s go.” Angela stated surprisingly eager.

Gilliam wanted to comment on it, but an eager combatant of her skill was hardly a problem as long as it didn’t tip over into insanity.
Reaching his hand back to his hair, Savia took this as a request to climb aboard and Gilliam had his little companion in his hand moments later. Bringing the hand back in front of himself he started explaining to her.

He pointed down to where he thought the Key might be. “When we’re ready, I need you to bring us down there, above the buildings but still close. I will most likely get a better feel for where we need to go after that so I’ll point out other buildings or areas, I want you to bring us above them until I find out which one we need to enter. Is that ok?”

Gilliam worried a little, though Savia looked surprisingly fine, this was heavily reliant on her. She seemed to have a sizable mana pool of her own, but he wondered if the rapid teleports would cause problems for her. The big teleport after they got into the Fractured Lands seemed to have taken a lot out of her, but the smaller teleports within the same landmass didn’t seem to affect her that much. He had no idea what the difference was besides range, perhaps? Or perhaps there was something between or outside the landmasses? He had no idea and decided to err on the side of caution at the moment.

They had also been awake and active for quite some time ‘today’, though there weren’t any night cycles he was feeling tired. Having no idea how long they were knocked out when struggling with Margol. Gilliam was knocked out at least twice. And he had no idea how long they used to fly in a straight line after they arrived in the Finger. They slept many times but... even in a normal world, they would probably have slept several times a day as it was quite boring, after all. From the point they stopped trying to fly between masses and started taking a more active approach... he didn’t even know how long they had been awake.

He decided to suggest some resting after getting the key and going through the Gate.

Savia jumped to her legs with a large smile. “Savia can do it!”
She looked surprisingly pumped and happy. Their shared connection validated this with a strong sense of eagerness.

Looking at his other companions, Angela already stated her eagerness but he was wondering about Petal. Her body had some drastic changes not that long ago, he would think that would take some energy from her but she looked as perked up as normal.

“Let’s get some more barriers up before we go.” Gilliam commented to the group. He hoped it wasn’t necessary but it had proven very smart to have a few layers on at all times.

Angela and Petal floated in closer as Gilliam had started with himself and Savia, multiple players were cast with a sizeable chunk of mana assigned to them. He didn’t want them to instantly pop like with his first strongman fight.

After the barriers were on everyone he wanted to recharge his Boundary, he couldn’t go in half-assed after all. He took out both of the cylindrical gems from the ring, one of the failed crystals he made during the Circle recruitment day, though they didn’t match what the Kobold wanted it was still a crystal with power. Consuming those put him back to a comfortable level. The time they spent up here had also done its thing in recharging, so he was close to full.

“I suppose we’re ready.” Gilliam commented to his diminutive friend.

The others placed a hand on his shoulder as Savia looked over his hand and seemed to aim and concentrate for a few seconds, after which her body started channelling up energy.

The familiar pulse and blinding light marked a successful teleport. Around the same time he could properly see again, the locals had also found out that something was going on.
A quick look around surprised Gilliam, there were more civilian-looking demons in there than anywhere he had seen. They wore clothing that looked more like normal clothing than something thrown together from pelts or rags. The place had less sand in it than he expected and was surprisingly clean. Though rough and somewhat primitive it was more akin to a normal city than he thought.
The buildings were made of rock and sandstone they still had a surprising level of detail to them, this felt like a normal city which happened to have demons living in them more than the same primitive hellhole he had seen in the Finger or Hand.

It was still very rudimentary and rough, not all the demons here looked as civilized as the others, and some still walked around naked and carried weapons, but this place was still more proper than he expected.

This image of the demons being upstanding citizens fell apart as most of them started attacking the group, throwing anything they could, some started climbing buildings to get to them. Their barriers were already proving useful in protecting them from incoming attacks but this also made Gilliam realize that there was a surprising lacking level of the flying Imps as they got to the inner areas. He’d have to think of that later as though the barriers held they still had something they needed to do.

Focusing for a moment he got a much clearer picture of where the Key was located, it didn’t seem like they were too far away, but at the same time, he wasn’t exactly sure of the distance.

“Savia, take us to the tall building over there.” He pointed at a slightly taller building than the ones surrounding it in the distance.

It seemed like Savia was ready from the moment they landed, she didn’t need as long to charge up for the teleport and they immediately found themselves at the new location.
Being a bit higher up they got attacked less, the fact that Gilliam now also focused on the Key from the start cut down on time. He pointed out another location and Savia moved them again.

This went on for another five teleports. At this point, Gilliam got a solid taste for the teleport fatigue. Multiple teleportations without sufficient breaks between tended to affect people who weren’t used to it, and though Gilliam was used to being teleported he wasn’t used to rapid teleportation. This caused him to be a bit nauseous, but luckily it didn’t become enough of a problem to affect him. Looking at the others it seemed that they weren’t affected at all.

After the triangulation through the teleports, he found out where the Key was. It was in a specific building which seemed more fortified than the others, being one of the constructions made out of rock, it didn’t have any sandstone at all. It was a one-floor building and seemed to be built for strength rather than looking nice. It had one door and no proper windows.

Not wasting a moment they flew down to the ground, ignoring the fleeing locals. They got some valuable seconds alone which was used to open the door. The inside of the building was very well lit up by what looked like glowing orbs placed around the walls. The whole building seemed to be split in two by an internal and sturdy wall, the wall had a single but massive rectangular metal door. All this looked like a vault.
In addition to this, there were actual desks, chairs and even shelves and cupboards in here, which was the first time Gilliam had seen any form of proper furniture in the Fractured Lands. Though made of stone they still seemed functional.

As far as security went it seemed that there weren’t that many in here. A few lizardmen-like demons, two strongmen and one who looked a little like the four-armed mage from before, just that he had two arms instead.

The vault caught Gilliam off guard, he didn’t expect them to have an actual vault in here. Though the walls were made of stone and the door wasn’t like the modern vault doors with a code lock or worse, it was still large, heavy and seemed locked by a key. He could feel the key behind the vault door, so they needed to get in there.

Petal had already identified the most dangerous person and before Gilliam even reacted she used her tail to grab the stone doorframe and propelled herself towards the assumed mage. Before he got proper time to react she landed on his chest and brought the tail-claw around her and through his head. He was dead before he got the chance to react.

The others swarmed them but with Petal and Angela on different sides of the room, their pincer attack was enough to handle everything, there wasn’t even a need for Gilliam to do anything, it was over before it properly started.

Instead, Gilliam considered the door, being attacked in here would be a problem, so he wanted to close the door properly. Now they didn’t need to exit the door once they were done, so a simple blockage was plenty. He started by raising a barrier large enough to cover most of this side of the building, he didn’t care much to cover the whole thing as it was the vault building after all. Raising a barrier is fast, and though it did trap a few individuals inside they were swiftly taken care of with a multi-homing dart spell.

Using a moment to set up a new spell, using Earth, Expand, Wall, Stone and Power in a pentagon circle, once it was fed the energy it needed it collapsed into the ground and pulled up rocks from under the ground, filling the doorframe, crushing the door already set there and solidifying into a rather solid wall. It had a similar texture but different colouration than the already existing wall, however, it was sturdy which was all he needed at the moment.
Leaving the barrier there for some extra moments he turned to the group.

He didn’t stand still but rather moved around in the room. “Try to find the key for the door.”
Making for the desk he expected to find drawers but there were only shelves along the sides, they were empty but still had a neat design.

Petal and Angela copied his actions and checked other desks, shelves and cupboards. They found some random tools and weapons, trinkets and rocks, but no key. Moving on to checking the clothing of the people in here as well as double checking that they didn’t have it on a chain around their neck or something similar, they all came up empty.

“Well... fuck...” Gilliam muttered as they all confirmed the lack of any keys.

Petal had already tried opening the door so they weren’t lucky enough to find it empty.
Both Angela and Petal had tried attacking it, and though they did something to it they didn’t have enough time to hammer through it. The door opened inwards so there weren’t any hinges to attack either.
Seconds after the exit door was plugged up his barrier had popped and they started attacking it, Gilliam was glad that it hadn’t yielded but now the attacks were hitting much harder than before so someone else had arrived. It was beginning to crack a little and he had no idea how much time was left.

“So, how do we open it?” Angela commented. She looked at Gilliam with a face hinting that she expected him to have the answer.

“Well, we don’t need to go through the door, stone is easier than metal.” He commented, taking his sword and triggering the second activation. Trying to cut through the wall proved fruitless, it did make some decent gashes but it wasn’t effective enough.

“Well, I have a better idea, then.” Gilliam smiled as he started putting together a spell circle.