Azure Plains - 21:47 Game Time


    The bounty hunter’s smirk glowed in the moonlight. "Surrender now, Crimson-Marked. Your girlfriend’s already enjoying cellblock cuisine."


    I tightened my grip on Moonblade, the weapon’s edge humming with unstable enchantments. "Let’s negotiate." My boot crushed a twig – the signal.


    Lucky erupted from the shadows in full draconic fury, molten saliva dripping onto prairie grass. The hunter barely dodged the ambush, his defensive wards sizzling.


    "Cheap trick!" He backflipped, summoning spectral chains that lashed at my ankles. "The system pays triple for live capture!"


    Rose’s frost wolf pup – now named Snowdrift – materialized mid-leap, fangs sinking into the hunter’s forearm. A notification flashed:


    [Snowdrift (Lv.15) activates Permafrost Bite! Target movement reduced 40%!]


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    "Good boy!" I lunged, blade aimed for the hunter’s mana core. His panicked teleport spell misfired, scattering equipment across the field.


    Temporal Prison - Visitor’s Interface


    Rose’s hologram flickered in my HUD, her cell’s obsidian walls pulsing with anti-magic runes. "He’s using Soulbrand tactics! Disrupt his—"


    The connection died as the hunter detonated a Void Grenade. Reality itself stuttered, granting him milliseconds to recast Judgment Chains.


    "Enough!" My cloak billowed as I triggered Shadowmeld, phasing through his next attack. "You want a prize?" I tore the bounty poster from his belt – our faces pixelated beneath WANTED: 50,000 Gold. "Here’s your reward."


    The Soulreaver dagger I’d looted from Dragon Valley plunged into his avatar’s core. His scream echoed across three server shards before the killfeed announced:


    [Player “GrimHarvest” eliminated! 15% Evil Value reduction!]


    Epilogue: Warden’s Keep


    The prison’s rusted gates creaked open. Rose emerged clutching a warden’s severed head – apparently she’d “negotiated” her release. Snowdrift trotted behind, now Lv.45 and the size of a pickup truck.


    "Took you long enough." She tossed me a prison master key glowing with stolen admin codes. "Next time a hunter comes knocking..."


    I studied the key’s fractal patterns. "...we turn their bounty system into confetti."


    Her kiss tasted of victory and gunpowder. The security drones wisely looked away.