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Hector pushed on through the debris. If he couldn’t rely on Garovel, then he would just have to find Lord Asad himself. He materialized a cloud of iron dust ahead of him in order to scout out for any more invisible opponents in his path.

There were at least a dozen.

Hector summoned a field of spikes over the whole area but didn’t stop moving for a moment. With a flourish of his free hand, he annihilated a path for himself. His opponents were already doing similarly for themselves.

‘...Agh, Hector...’

‘Garovel?!’

‘Go to... shards...’

‘Shards?’

Another string of explosions stole his attention, nearly knocking him off his feet. He stumbled through a wall of smoke and fire but found his balance again and kept stomping onward. He’d nearly reached the underground entrance.

‘Garovel?’

The reaper did not respond.

Hector racked his brain as he ran. Shards? What shards? Was that supposed to help him locate Asad? How would--?

And it hit him. He knew exactly where to go now.

The doors on the underground entrance flew from their hinges as Hector bulldozed through and stormed up the nearest staircase. It was time for another cloud of iron dust, he decided, and sure enough, there were plenty more hostiles waiting for him down the next hallway.

There was nothing for it, he supposed. He just had to push through. He leaned even farther into his run and prepared to weather still more shit.

Something changed, however. In an instant, all of his opponents were suddenly visible. It happened so suddenly that he lost focus and nearly stumbled.

A path of destruction caught his shield, which took the attack admirably, but the impact still put him through a wall. He brought down a line of bathroom stalls and landed on his back.