As the runes manifested in the circle, Gilliam walked over to the wall next to the door. The runes were Earth, Stone, Cube and a targeting sub-circle with Touch as the source. The spell circle glowed a yellow-brown-hued light as Gilliam touched the wall before activating it.

It collapsed and spread its energy to the wall where Gilliam was touching, but also to the floor next to him. In a brief second, a large chunk of the wall was removed and placed on the floor in a rough cube. Though it wasn’t structurally stable it collapsed into a pile as soon as the magic let go, but the result was a large square hole through the wall next to the metal door.

Gilliam didn’t pay attention to his party’s reaction nor to the sounds of the people outside staring to tear down the blockage in the door, and just entered the new entry into the vault.
The inside of it was surprisingly uninteresting. A large room spanning the entire width of the building, it had thicker stone walls than the front wall they came in through but that was about it. No windows or anything besides the steel vault door.
Inside the room, there was also practically nothing. The only thing besides sand and rocks was a fancy stone pedestal of sorts with what looked like a staff placed on it. The pedestal was about as long as Gilliiam was tall, but not wide enough for him to properly lie on. It had a slightly concave top where the staff was laying in. It wasn’t engraved with anything special more than having a slight pyramid shape.

The staff itself was more interesting. The handle had a black colour but also looked like some metal with a rough pattern to it. The bottom had a silver-like metal band before it terminated in a similarly silver-like-coloured metal cone. The top was much more special.
It had what looked like a faceted sphere, almost like it was of a lower polygon make. It was held in place by a similarly silver-like metal which had a band going around it horizontally as well as four bands over it that returned into the handle. The four intersection points of the bands had another small, almost black gem. All of the silver metal parts were nicely engraved with patterns and lines.

The link to the key that Gilliam got from the Gate was pointing him at this staff, given that the hole was a small circular hole just shoving this into it could be enough.
Entering the room he walked up to the staff and wondered if he should just grab it, it was giving off a powerful magical radiation, but he couldn’t tell if it was good or bad. Perhaps it was cursed? The only thing he knew was that they needed it for the gate.

The sound of something heavy and powerful impacted the outside wall, Gilliam could barely see that several claws were sticking through the whole wall. They bent slightly down almost as if grabbing hold of the wall and tore out a massive hole in the building, bringing a chunk of the roof at the same time.
This didn’t give Gilliam the time he would like to weigh the options about the staff, stepping closer he grabbed it and made his way to the rest of his group.

Or at least that was the plan.

As soon as he grabbed the staff he felt an extraordinarily powerful pulse of mana. It had the same feel as his own just that it was coming through the staff. He felt the smallest of mana drain through his arm into the staff as a second, much more powerful pulse burst out from the crystal in its head.

He picked the staff up properly and stopped the flowing mana through his arm. It seemed that it was feeding on just the little he had circulating his body and was amplifying it considerably. At least that was what it felt like.

Panicking as he looked around, expecting a fight to be already happening, he luckily saw that everyone had stopped. They were eyeing him with confused and uncertain eyes. Angela and Petal were just confused and uncertain, the Fracturians he saw through the door looked both confused and terrified.

This was a good thing to capitalise on, he held his hand out for his party. They seemed to understand what was happening and didn’t waste time, stepping in close and grabbing the hand.
“Savia, back to the Gate.” His order didn’t take long to activate, the energy she needed seemed to almost be available and they found themselves blinded yet again.

Expecting that they had landed on top of the building again, he repeated the large barrier that he had done before. This time he didn’t hear pummelling against it but rather a strange and eerie silence.

As the bright light faded and Gilliam got to take a look around, he saw that he was indeed on the top of the building but around him was something different than he expected. There was indeed a larger army there, even larger than the one they saw here earlier. It was filled with all kinds of demonic creatures, now more varied than before. All from the normal Lizardman to floating eyeballs with a flexing nervous system trailing after them.

The most intimidating presence of the group was an individual Fracturian, he had a commanding presence even looking at him from afar. He had a lean and agile frame making him more slender than even a normal lizard-like Fraturian, but compared to most of them his tail ended up with a bone-white serrated blade. His scales were a mix of browns and beiges but with some intense streaks of blues and yellows, like lighting going through his body. He had a pair of ivory-white horns curving backwards from his forehead, both his eyes and his tail-blade crackled with an electric blue energy.

Since the army here now was made up of not only a larger group than before but of stronger-looking individuals, Gilliam didn’t feel confident that his barriers could hold long enough for them to activate the Gate properly and leave.
However, it could prove a good test, of sorts.

“Should... should I challenge him?” His voice didn’t sound too certain. He kept the question on V’idan just in case anything was overheard.

Angela was looking very on edge. “If that works... it could make this a bit easier..” She didn’t sound entirely confident either. “Petal, how does the challenge thing work, do we get out of here if we win?”

Petal thought for a second. “Normally when you challenge someone in power, if they accept it becomes a duel. The normal is that the victor is the one who lives in the end, and he gets everything the other had. So... if this is his army, and he accepts, and we win...”

“We could get an army?” Gilliam completed her sentence, trying to speed up the talk a bit.

“Maybe, I don’t know if they will follow you, normally you’re food so...” Petal didn’t sugarcoat it at all, but she did have a good point.

Normally anything non-Fracturian was considered food for several reasons, and Gilliam was no exception. Being powerful as he was he was probably a sought-after delicacy.
Petal had explained that eating other Fracturians’ hearts didn’t often do much unless they were already mutated or powerful entities. This cuts down on cannibalism a lot unless it’s just for food. But it explained why eating Margol’s heart triggered the mutation in Petal, but also why she didn’t go around to get the hearts of all the normal ones they took out.

“I could raise something more powerful and we can make a break for it, hoping that this works. I also don’t know what the staff does properly but I feel like it empowers me...” His voice sounded hopeful at the end.

He hadn’t had a moment to test anything with the staff yet, but based on the powerful pulses it sent out from the trickle of mana it absorbed, it could be that rather than empowering it somehow managed to focus all the mana it absorbed into a perfect level of utilization?
This was somewhat like what a laser would do, managing to more effectively collect all produced light into a single point which dramatically enhanced the effect. Or a magnifying glass focusing only a small area of sunlight into a point strong enough to burn things. Based on the stuff he read and explanations he was given about how a Foci worked, it was something like the lens or reflector around a candle to make it focused and easier to use. If the staff did this to his magic it could prove a stupidly powerful tool.

Though he had never used a Foci before in any form, so he didn’t know how to use it. If he could get a chance to practice once or twice it could prove very helpful. Suddenly casting spells, no matter how weak, could also trigger an attack which could at best destroy the Gate, and at worst just kill them all.
Considering things a little also gave Gilliam some hope, he had some weird mastery of things magical, which proved itself when he used the Broken Blade. He was utterly shit when using the training sword with Kintas at first, but as soon as he picked up the magical sword he did much, much better. Lacking experience, yes, but he still did better. Same with the ring, he managed to use it correctly the first time he tried.

Though, that being said, if it did work that well, it could not only increase his odds in the duel but it could increase the power to his defences if he cast barriers or raised a stone dome around the Gate to let them escape.

“If it works as well as I hope, it could help me in the duel but it could perhaps also aid in defending the gate until we get it activated?” Gilliam shared the end of his thoughts with the group.

“Why not both?” Angela started, still very much on edge. “Try the duel, and if he refuses or it doesn’t work, we take to the defensive and try to run?”

Gilliam nodded, she had a good thought. Since they banked on the duel working later on with the Lord, this was a good time to try if it could work at all. And if it didn’t work or he didn’t accept, at least they could turn tail at that point.

“Then... how do I do this?” He asked Petal. “Do I just shout that I challenge him?”
He had no idea how to do this, just further hinting at his lack of preparedness in this whole endeavour.

“Yes. You should shout it so as many as possible can hear it, you then discuss terms and then duel to the death.” All things considered, Petal looked quite calm in this situation.

Gilliam tried to calm his mind, psyche himself up. As he inhaled and was about to shout the challenge Petal added some more information.
“You should be aggressive and insulting, if you come out as weak he might not accept.”

Though this made perfect sense it still messed up his focus, forcing him to go through the whole process again. He would just have to channel his inner douchebag and go full arrogance on the Fracturian.

Inhaling deep as he walked over to the edge of the building he shouted as loud and clear as he could in Fracturian.
“I CHALLENGE YOU!” He did his best to make it sound like a statement of fact rather than a question.

This almost instantly caused some murmur between the locals, they were too far away to hear what was being said. Gilliam jumped down to the ground from the building, using the still-going flight spell to slow the fall. Angela and Petal followed shortly after but didn’t seem to need the flight spell to land safely. Angela just stepped off and landed fine, Petal took use of her tail to lower her down smoothly.

Gilliam started walking towards the demon, he had to own the situation and he had to be honest, adrenaline was flowing with everything that had happened in addition to what he expected from the staff.

Nobody attacked or did anything weird, not counting the weird-looking demons who were weird by default in Gilliam’s eyes. Repeating in his mind that he had to own it, again and again, he realised that he just had to stop thinking and surrender himself to the situation.

Getting closer their leader also started walking towards Gilliam, something he appreciated as walking in sand with normal boots was annoying enough as it was. As the distance had closed quite a bit Gilliam got a better look at the demon, the blade on his tail had some weak sparks of electricity jump around the serrated edge, and the markings along his scales and glow in his eyes strongly suggested that he was lightning aligned.

As soon as they were within talking distance the demon started smiling, though he was slender and small per Fracturian standards, he was still a solid head taller than Gilliam.
“What makes you think that I’ll accept a challenge from my food?” His voice was powerful and his question was heavily taunting in tone.

“Oh, I thought you were smart enough to take advantage of a good situation, but I suppose you’re not that much better than your goons.” Gilliam wasn’t a good actor, but like many others, he had enough arrogance and repressed rage that could be used in cases like these.

It seemed to work a little, the demon's smile soured slightly but it quickly returned to normal afterwards.
“And what do I have to gain from fighting a pitiful p-” Gilliam didn’t let him finish and broke onto his question.

“I have a powerful mage’s heart, you can probably feel it from a distance. I’m sure it would suit you well to have it if you won. In return, if I win, I want your army and safe passage out of here.” Gilliam didn’t expect that the army would follow him, nor that he would agree. But there was this tactic of over-demanding something to have things to let go of during negotiations. Perhaps it also worked here?

The demon laughed tauntingly for several seconds. Gilliam didn’t break his mask, even though he was quite intimidated by his opponent.
Parts of him thought that perhaps he could just off him right away during talks, but that would probably have the entire army dogpile them into oblivion. He could also just start going mad with AOE spells but that could either get the girls caught or damage the Gate.

The fact that he was willing to talk like this was still proof of concept, if they made it out of there and got to the Lord then they had a chance. Even if they had to suddenly run away.

The demon was about to reply but Gilliam wanted to try to push the matter even more.
“Or do you think there is a chance for me to actually win?” He forced a smirk, trying to pluck on his ego, at least he hoped this demon had an ego to play against.

Luckily it seemed to work, there wasn’t exactly a tick in his eyes but the smile faded entirely and his tone changed.
“You really think you can win against me?” His taunting tone had turned into annoyance.

“I do, I really do. The fact that you have yet to respond to my demands might suggest that you also think so.” Putting on his best asshole persona, something he was not used to in the slightest, seemed to at least help put off an air of better-than-thou.

This made him seethe. Gilliam could tell that he wanted to just attack him right away but it seemed that the challenge was at least somewhat important in their culture so it at least worked for now.

Holding back his anger the demon replied the first proper answer so far. “My army will not follow shits like you, even if you win.”

“Fine!” Gilliam shouted out with a dissatisfied tone. This tone wasn’t even fake as he hoped they would be fine with this. Though he could perhaps persuade some of them he decided to not push the topic.
“Then I’ll change it. If I win your army let us safely and unharmed leave this place through the gate, help me if needed, and you explain me the rules of the challenge before we start.” He put extra pressure on ‘before’.

Though Petal had explained the simple concept, it would be best that he got a proper introduction in case there is something weird he didn’t get through lacking cultural norms or something.
This lowering of demands should also be much more interesting. Though Gilliam's winning meant that there would be no way for his opponent to take advantage of anything, at least it should be easier to accept for the army.

“So when I win, I get all of you-” This was toned and worded like he got all of Gilliam, not the entire group. “-and should you win you all get to safely leave through the gate, with help if needed?”

“And explanations of the rules, yes. Making sure that I understand them and agree before we start” Gilliam added, mainly to be pushy more than anything. The latter part was just his smart-ass self to make sure the demon didn’t ramble through any rules before attacking.

“Then I accept your challenge!” The demon shouted with confidence which had most of the army erupt in various yells and shouts at once.

During all of this, the demon explained the simple rules.
“We start fighting, we fight until one of us is dead. Just you and me. That are the rules.”

“So we can use anything and everything?” Gilliam wanted to confirm before he started getting ideas. Or rather, he had plenty of ideas but he needed to know if they were valid.

“Yes.” The demon confirmed as his tail started sparking electric jolts more energetically, seeming to be tied into his eagerness for the fight.

“And I assume the fight starts as soon as I agree to understand all of this?” Gilliam framed the question as a loaded gun, mentally preparing what to do already.

“Yes. Do you understand?” The demon replied with his own loaded gun as the energy within his tail and now also his claws became more active.

Angela and Petal had already taken the hints and made some distance between them. Or rather Petal did and Angla took the hint and followed, not knowing the local language was a problem at times but following her allies into cover was not.

Gilliam focused everything he had on his opponent as well as his magic and replied coldly.
“I understand.”