THE NOT SO COLD DISH

"There. At the top!" The man near the door shouted. He had seen Uniq. Glax saw him pull the pistol from his belt across his chest.

'Oh, damn!'

Glax jumped over the huge pipe and then ran towards the man with the gun. He had no option but to expose himself in the open area, the quickest route to the guy pointing a gun at the redheaded woman.

He heard the crash echo, and the unexpected, shrill shatter of glass. It was inevitable to stop and look back, while the glow was extinguished in a sparkling and sizzling rain.

'Did the idiot hit the bulb, which was actually glass?! I don't believe it!'

"Euripyon! What did you do?!!!" The henchman called Geminos' incredulity was even greater than that of Glax. The valosian didn't know what had happened to Uniq, though. He heard the man reload and shoot again, howling in frustration.

"Stop! Stop shooting aimlessly up, asshole!" Gemini shouted, jumping off the platform. Glax crouched in the darkness, away from the green lanterns that were once again the only insufficient light.

He listened to try to hear Uniq.

But he heard nothing that could identify that she had fallen or was injured.

Now Glax heard the spaced and shifting knock on the iron door some meters away from him. And also the nervous steps of the armed man just a few meters away. Now Glax was far from the gas valve, and in a bad hiding place.

However, instead of cursing his bad luck, he decided to be bold.

He could still take Eurypion's weapon. Also, Eurypion didn't have the best aim in the world, and Glax was doing them a favor.

Still crouched, he advanced as fast as he could to get to the thug's side. The knocking from the heavy door that locked the pit, the same place where he had been imprisoned to die, dampened his arrival. Or at least that was what he expected.

Fortunately, it worked, or Eurypion was really a short-sighted idiot with a gun. He heard the noise, but turned the wrong way, aiming at the darkness. Glax got up behind him, leaning his rusty pistol on Eurypion's head. The other hand gripped his shoulder tightly.

"Hi. It's me again."

"Damn it." Eurypion froze.

Gemini was a little smarter, and he spun on his heels, aiming the gun in their direction.

"Stop right there!"

"Do you want to tell your friend that if he shoots, he'll kill you, not me?" Glax warned Eurypion.

"Dude… Watch out. He has a gun to my head." The thug pleaded to his companion.

"That's right. Do you think you can shoot as well as I can?"

The large, sturdy man approached slowly, taking aim, while holding his pistol with both hands.

"Oops. Bad, bad boy. Don't come any closer, Geminos..."

The green light from the flashlight allowed Glax to see the angry expression of the man with the gun pointed at them. But all he saw was determination, not fear.

"Geminos..." Eurypion pleaded.

"You are an idiot who shot the last *argipyron* lamp we had!" The big guy spat, showing little appreciation for his companion.

"Dude, I shot the woman who was there!" Eurypion whimpered. Glax almost took pity on the poor idiot. But he saw the moment when Geminos pulled the trigger.

Dropping his weapon, Glax grabbed Eurypion's armed hand while using his body as a shield.

The impact of the shot from Gemini's weapon against his human shield pushed him back. He tried not to close his eyes at the time of the shot. At the same time, Glax pressed Eurypion's finger against the trigger, aiming for Geminos' chest.

The second BANG repeated hundredths of a second after the first.

Glax felt Eurypion's body soften. He even held it up as a shield just in case.

The smoke from the shots hindered his vision.

Gemini fell forward with a thud. His head ... was a bloody mess.

Glax felt his blood run cold at the sight. He had only seen things like that in ultraviolent games, but that was shocking.

He didn't want to stop to think that he had just killed someone. He dropped Eurypion's still warm body in disgust, taking the weapon from his still contracted hand. Then he reached for the spare bullets in the small bag on the man's waist. Eurypion had a huge red hole in his chest.

He couldn't have any more doubts. This was not a delusion of his mind or a light isekai for an unknown video game. Death was real, even in the Ascended Hell.

He didn't know if the shots had caught anyone's attention other than the guy locked in the 'Bone Cleaner'.

Glax went to the oven. He opened it and saw again the weapons the smuggler had displayed, stored neatly as if the place were a safe. Pine shelves installed on the oven walls separated items by type.

A lamp without the glass shield was the ideal ignitor, which Glax left in the middle of the oven when he left.

Then he carefully closed it again, and ran for the gas register.

The gauntlet was stiff and stuck, and he had to use oil and also a crowbar as a lever, until the gas passed through the tube with a soft hiss.

It was done. He even heard the flames...

But now, he wanted to put a lot of distance between him and that oven!

:::::::::

About two hours later, Glax, Uniq, Hikesias and Aryn were having dinner at Wolf's Castle.

The group had arrived late for the magician show from beyond the Sea of ​​Mists. They drank Rhytosia wine at will for an extra fish, taking advantage of the offer for tourists.

Glax didn' think he would be so hungry after his adventures at The Rust. The northern fish, called black mullet, was tasty, seasoned with blood olives and herbs ... Blood olives were basically larger olives of a deep red color, fleshy and more spicy than normal olives. Although Galx would even eat cardboard at that moment.

Two-thirds of the night had been lost, and Glax had no more hope of getting Gunpowder.

"Is it safe for you to stay in the city?" Glax asked the girls. He supposed they would be questioned as soon as Medon connected the facts. And he didn't want to be responsible for that. He still didn't understand why these people volunteered to help him, but he was grateful they did it.

"I was hoping to find out what happened to my brother after Medon picked him up at home to work at The Rust," said Uniq. "He just took my brother with him on learning that he had worked at the factory. We never saw him again."

Aryn nodded, agreeing with her friend.

"We were hoping to find him somewhere in the factory, perhaps enslaved. But we never managed to find him there. Only one person said he saw him about a month ago, but then he denied having said that."

"You were brave, Uniq. Did you know that thing was made of glass?"

"I was actually scared because it WAS scary. It looked like I was going to be burned to death! I couldn't believe it when it exploded in scalding water just the moment I threw myself to the other side. And I was lucky not to get burned!" She showed how her legs were bruised now. "Acesis oil can relieve those pains! You will be fine in a few weeks," Aryn consoled her.

It relieved Glax that she hadn't been seriously injured. And he imagined Acesis was either the name of a doctor, or a plant. But he didn't want to know about it now.

He was impressed, because Uniq was a very smart girl, and quite bold. She almost broke his head in two when he came out of the pit.

"Are you two relatives?"

"Yes, Aryn married my brother. And after he was taken, my sister-in-law works making cosmetics and healing ointments with my mother!"

"And you?" Glax remembered women married at an early age among Echelians. In his previous life and world, they should be old enough to be in college. It surprised Glax that they, in fact, had a much less futile goal of being in The Rust than he thought at first.

"I'm a widow ... But that's not very interesting," she sighed, and shrugged. "Why did you want gunpowder, 'Neo'?"

"Have you heard of the monster that's ravaging the region of Cape Hellus?"

The girls looked at each other and shook their heads, but Hikesias asked, with his mouth full of food,

"The Sillabot Monster?"