The fire spreaded with voracity, completely consuming the impacted tree and, with any luck, those who hid in its foliage. Yishe didn't wait to see him, he didn't care. He quickly took the second one and ignoring the pain and the white blood that ran down his left shoulder, he threw it with all the force he had, letting out, in turn, a rumbling cry of survival.

— Now Konfe, now or never! Yishe leapt onto the cart, and from under it, Konfe emerged in a cloud of hot steam, her face and arms covered in stone as black as night,  purple eyes blazing with fury and determination. — Cover my rear Yishe, thank me after we stopped to rest. And without another word, with a force that cracked the very rocks beneath her, Konfe ran, chariot and all, up the mountain.

— Konfe, many urns were broken! We'll have to improvise. Yishe said as he took more torn pieces of oil-covered cloth from his jacket.

— How many do we have left?! —

— Five! — Yishe had finished placing the last piece of cloth on the mouthpiece of the urn — How long do we have to go?!

— We are close to, Yishe! The Keliph quickened her pace. —I already feel the hollow earth below us. —

— That's good Konfe.  Because I still think they're following us! — Yishe wasn't wrong, he couldn't be, the silhouettes wrapped in flames that followed them were impossible to lose sight of, jumping from branch to branch, leaving a trail of fire in their wake.

A flaming arrow shot out from one of the infernal creatures, heading straight for Konfe's head, making a hollow sound as it hit the dense rock embedded in the back of her neck, before being repelled, swinging heavily before falling to the ground.  “I'm glad I ate that obsidian before I came! — Konfe said in a victorious air and in a certain tone of ridicule.

Another incandescent arrow flew at the chariot, then another, and another after that. Yishe had drawn his sword to fend off the projectiles coming at him, relieved that none seemed to come close. His joy was short-lived, quickly realizing why in the apparent lack of aim of his pursuers. — The urns! They are targeting the Urns, the bastards are intelligent! — Yishe strongly questioned the decisions he had made by accepting the job, but that only lasted for a short time, the consequences were pressing him too hard to think about past mistakes.

—We must use it Yishe, there is no other way! – Konfe directed his hand to a small bag that he had on her hip, and while she steered with one hand, she took out a strange cylindrical artifact. A handle and a hollowed-out cylinder joined by a glassy sphere of an intense red. – Use it now, or they will catch up with us! —

— But if I use it now, how will we let Urn know that- —

—  We'll have to act fast from now on, now do it! — Konfe's words were resounding and imposing, Yishe knew that he should listen to her.

Without thinking twice, the angioprosus took the artifact, quickly heading towards the approaching mob of creatures.  He set his target.  Trigger pressed, the weapon discharged its contents in a resounding sound like lightning.

 Dark green smoke came out in a thunderous puff, flooding the mountain, blurring the view of the pursuers before beginning to rise like a cloud.

— That'll keep us from getting shot at for a while, and luckily, that's all we need!  — The keliph gave a cry of emotion — We're right behind Yishe, get ready! —.

Yishe breathed a sigh of relief, as he turned forward, he could see how the previously forested mountain gradually turned into a small plain. — —Okay Konfe, bring me closer to the biggest gaps, we'll throw this away and when we're done, we'll use the shock to... —

Knoshite'Bultre! The high nasal voice, full of rage, came flying to the cart along with its owner. Passing through the green barrier and falling sharply on the already broken pieces of pottery, making a thunderous sound as it fell.

It’s body, full of ash and coal, had turned a deep black that melted all the features into a macabre silhouette, smoked by the embers of the charred armor it carried, which still refused to go out and seemed to blend with the skin of the body.  His dark brown eyes were a vortex of oppressive rage that engulfed everything he looked at, imposing an unnatural pressure that made Yishe's insides shake. Despite his small size compared to the angioprosus, Yishe knew that it was not going to be an easy fight, not under these circumstances.

— What's going on back there?  Yishe? — Konfe tried to turn his head, but carelessness caused her to stumble down a slope, causing the wagon to shake up and down and Yishe momentarily lost his balance.

The creature used the distraction and was the first to attack. The long dagger he carried in one of his hands moved erratically, reflecting the glare of the sun on Yishe's face, blinding him, and giving him an almost instantaneous moment to deflect the thrust that was coming straight for his stomach. The creature didn't take a moment to reposition itself, making a sudden turn, to slash its target's instep.

Yishe had no time to defend himself and the blade razor-sharply slashed through his flesh, slicing through it, bringing the angioprous to his knees in pain, struggling to keep his gaze on his erratic opponent. Yishe brought his sword down sharply to the ground as he fell, missing the cut but parrying his opponent's attacks by forcing him to dodge to the side. For a moment, he thought he had taken some ground to recover, but his opponent showed no mercy, and with another twist, the creature's long tail cracked like a whip in Yishe's face, knocking him against the sharp pebbles, scattered on the ground.

—Koiuktere not ricote? Kono nine! – Yishe did not need to know the language to understand the intentions of his words, it was enough for him with the smile on his face and the edge of his weapon pointing at his neck.

He was not going to have time to defend himself, his sword had fallen away from his grasp, his leg already felt numb, his left arm was burning with pain already from the moment he threw the second urn. He had come to this much, fought so much, just to die from a creature like that? – Those were not questions that he should ask himself at that moment, in an epiphany before dying, Yishe understood that pride would be useless against the steel of a sword, the real question was, what could he do not to die in that moment?

Of course, fate did not wait for an answer and the creature launched in search of one last bite, aiming at the neck of his prey.

Small streams of white blood rained down on the cart after the meat was pierced by steel. Yishe gasped as he used all his strength to straighten up, overcoming the force of his attacker, and using his impaled hand to slowly move the knife, which, like a naive predator, had become stuck in the flesh of its prey, one too large to be annihilated so easily.

In one last jerky move, Yishe snatched the creature's arm away, leaving it unprotected, and with an impulse, placed his hand on his opponent's face. Both cries resounded in unison when Yishe discharged all her concentrated essence into his hand, making an ephemeral but powerful spark of electricity that ran through all the being's muscles, causing it to recoil in spasms of pain and muscle contractions. A pebble finished the job, being stepped on by his clumsy stumbles, which gave him the last push, to fall over the walls of the cart, rushing headlong on the hard stone that ended his life with a loud Crack!

— Yishe, are you alright? We're almost there! Talk to me please! — Konfe wanted to look back, stop the carriage, and see his partner, but he could feel the footsteps behind them — Yishe For all the cursed say something. You damn flower you piece of...! —

— Konfe... stop please — Yishe had a hard time getting up, trying several times will his legs to move, only to fall back to the floor of the cart — Uff... At least now we know that I inherited something else from my ancestors...! Agh — The arrow bolts fell after being ripped from his shoulder. "Approach me to the first spot, I hope I have enough spark to light them."

The Keliph took a deep breath, grateful that her partner could not only answer clearly, but that he was also thinking about the mission, a good sing. — Stubborn like you alone, huh? Come on then, Here comes the first! — Just as she said, the cart quickly approached a large Hole, little larger than the cartwheel, surrounded by a dozen smaller ones, seemingly randomly arranged. —  Ready?! —.

—  There goes the first! — As soon as they passed the cleft, the angioprosus launched the first improvised bomb, trying to make it fall directly into the circular abyss. Konfe didn't wait for it to finish falling before continuing with the second one, she had to gain space before...

Boom! The cloud of dust rose like a small erupting volcano, as the rift collapsed into itself, closing in a heap of stone and rubble.

— Is everything alright back there? —  She asked uneasily, hoping that the earth will not succumb to the explosion.

— Yes!... just go to the second we must... Fast and obstinate these little demons had to be! Here they come! — Indeed, the scorched creatures had reached them on the plain, now discovered on the ground lacking foliage to cover themselves and patience to hide. They could be heard shouting orders in their nasal accents, in an attempt to bring order to the commotion. Futile orders, unheeded by the dozens of creatures more focused on avoiding the debris falling around them while others ran, swords in hand, against the pair of escaped arsonists.

—  Throw the other one! —  Konfe shouted between snorts of exhaustion while, he accelerated again to the next mark of him.

Boom! Boom! Kaboom! One after another, the explosions continued to be heard, as the bombs fell one after another, on their respective targets. — The… ult… uff… Last… — Thump.

— What’d you say?!...Yishe?...Yishe?! — There was no answer — Yishe, do you have the last one read...? Konfe stopped the float, her eyes seemed to pop out of his sockets as soon as he saw him. Yishe had collapsed on a considerable amount of whitish liquid next to the last urn, already lit; and in front of that, 3 of the creatures, almost a breath away. Konfe clenched snout, biting down so hard that a trail of thick blood began to flow from her gums.

The Kelifo turned around, between her gasps and the noise caused, she tried to focus. The last hole, too far to carry without being caught, lay to the right of him.

There was no time to think, not a second, if he didn't act right now, or if she failed, all would be lost... if she failed, Yishe's sacrifice would be in vain. Konfe let out a cry at the top of her lungs before jumping onto the cart, grabbing the urn with the last bits of burning cloth in one hand, and throwing Yishe on her back. She jumped as hard as she could towards the last hole, falling Sharply. She stood up, fracturing the already weak ground below them, not losing momentum before running away,  still too far away to fall of exhaustion.

— Uff... uff... uff... Why do angioprosus have to be so big? — Konfe tried to better accommodate the body of his badly injured friend on her shoulder, completely ignoring her pursuers, focusing solely on her target.

Screams and debris buzzed in her ear, some falling on top of her, splintering the already flimsy armor on her head, others even making contact with her yellow skin, ripping it apart, taking blotches of dark red liquid before impacting abruptly on the ground. Konfe ran as fast as she could, faster than exhaustion. Feeling the weight she carried on her shoulders, she clutched the urn firmly and tensing her legs as hard as he could, she leapt over the last dark abyss.  “ We still have to see what bad joke we can tell about this, something to laugh about in the future”  Konfe thought, deep inside herself.

The next moment happened in a split of a second. In mid-air, Konfe threw the urn under her. Being a victim of momentum, she quickly fell forward, and preventing herself from being able to withstand the fall, she turned her back to the ground, tightly grabbing Yishe and covering him with her body. The other spectators could only witness the feat for a second, before being blinded by a trail of light and dust that in turn marked the end of the land they walked on.

The earth shook violently, letting out muffled cries of agony as it collapsed along with those unfortunates who could not foresee what their death would be like. One last cloud of dust, as thick as fate, clouded the entire stage, closing the curtain and leaving the spectators, if there were any, with the sounds of a broken stage, and the cries of defeat from the villains.

Yishe opened her eyes, her gaze was drawn to an orange sky with hints of pink, the colors of sunset. The clouds bathe happily in the sunset, rays of light playing with the shadows, each one trying to recreate their own version of the world, the angioprosus thought he saw a banorilo passing through a ring of flames. — Did we die? —  Hir eyes fell on the head of her companion, lying next to him, her gaze fixed on the sky.

— Hmm...I don't think so. —  she said softly in an entirely sarcastic tone.

— And how are you so sure? It seems to me that this is a sight worthy of divine calm. Yishe slowly raised his right hand to the sky, pointing at the strange shape created by the clouds. — Don't you think that there are giant flying banorilos in the afterlife? —.

— Oh yes! — She said with emotion in his fragile voice — Flying Banorilos and .... coff coff … Juggling losaurs! Now, that would be a real show!... But unfortunately, we're not — Konfe put her hands to her face, scratching a bloody crust that had formed under her swollen eyelid, which completely covered his purple eye.  — No... my legs hurt too much to be on the realm of calmness—

Again, with the same thing? If you want, we can stop the... AGH! Yishe writhed in pain in his stomach as he received the weak blow from Konfe's hand.

— So, they do feel pain! And here I thought all of you were just, dead inside... — Konfe paused for a moment, trying to stifle the laughter that made her sides hurt so much —I've always been jealous of how ruined resistant you are... being so lanky... flimsy... Who knew you could take such a beating and come out as cool as... well... lettuce? —

— And now who insults whom? — Yishe returned the fragile blow to the keliph, making her writhe momentarily in pain. “I… I really don't feel so fresh,” he said, turning his hand to the now healed arrow slits.

— Me neither Yishe... Should we go back now?— Konfe was groping with her arms, trying to support herself to lift her body.

— No…I'm sure Urn will come back for us when he finishes the job…I mean, we left a pretty visible trail. Yishe formed a small smile, turning his gaze towards the sky. —Let's stay looking at the clouds for another moment... I want to see what other shapes they make. —