The night was as dark as the moon was new. Oanna leaned back on the cobblestone wall of the Treyun Tavern, one of her favorite drinking spots. However, despite the ale calling to her, she was here on business. Oanna was looking for the head of Kelvron, once a criminal of Blundervoss, but now he was her target. His head was worth double that of her last target, and for good reason too. According to the description on his bounty, he could level entire neighborhoods with his essence manifest.

  Oanna waited adjacent to the tavern’s entrance and waited for Kelvron to leave. She  stood vigilant for any others who may try to come and snatch her prize, but no one was foolish enough to fight a man with his particular affinity, and anyone who could wouldn’t bother with looking for him amongst the scum of Blundervoss…well, anyone except Oanna. Most bounty hunters looked for glory in their captures or kills, but she wanted only one thing, Money. While listening, she could hear Treyun yelling at someone. Perhaps he’d recognized Kelvron’s face and didn’t want the trouble of a bar fight tearing down his business, or maybe Kelvron just pissed him off. Whatever it was, it finally got him out of the bar.

   She could hear a man yelling expletives as he walked closer to the door before throwing it open with enough force to shatter it. He stood at least 6 feet tall and had a beard that would rival that of a dwarf. Oanna’s silhouette was visible from the lights within the tavern shining near her, but Kelvron was far too angry to notice.

   As he stormed away, Oanna followed him in silence. Kelvron walked to the outskirts of Blundervoss, where fields ran wide with few buildings between. He turned around, “I know yer there. Come on out so I can show you why money isn’t worth your life.”. She walked out into the open, the streetlamps illuminating her long silver hair. “What kept you from attacking me earlier then?” She said looking to Kelvron. “I may be a criminal but I ain’t stupid, we both know the Vossian military would rain down on us if I went blowing up buildings left and right.”

   “Yeah?” Oanna said as her essence began to materialize around her. “Then what was different before when you didn’t hesitate to raze that poor village?” She said as she pointed her signature flintlock essence pistol toward him. “The women there didn’t give me what I wanted… So I took care of them.” He said letting out a low chuckle as his essence began to form an aura around him. “You’re disgusting.” Oanna said as she pulled the trigger of her flintlock releasing a piece of her essence in a concentrated shot at Kelvron’s chest.

   The bullet hit Kelvron’s essence aura and spun deeply before being stopped short of his chest. “A barrier!?” Oanna said phasing the pistol from her right hand. “I guess those bounty reports didn’t tell you much huh?” Kelvron said as he rushed towards Oanna. He moved much faster than he looked and caught Oanna off guard with his speed, he reeled back for a punch and swung at Oanna. Kelvron was fast, but Oanna was far more Agile.

   She dodged the first punch and it made contact with the cobblestone of the road they stood on, blasting it apart. Oannas hair moved, revealing the eyepatch she hid beneath her hair. Kelvron’s essence aura now concentrated around his fists. Oanna knew this was her chance to wound him. She created two more handguns and fired both simultaneously at Kelvron, the first bullet hit his shoulder before his essence moved to block the second.

   He winced in pain as his left arm bled profusely. “Argh, you bitch! Do you have any idea what I will do to you!?” He said as his essence began to expand to cover more than his body, but also the area around him. The air surrounding his essence began to ripple as if it were being super heated. “Hmph, I guess this is that explosion ability the paper mentioned.” Oanna said as she took a deep breath.

    Kelvron smiled “You knew about this and you still came unprepared? What a joke. To think someone like you actually wounded me.” The aura surrounding Kelvron began to fluctuate. “Oh?” Oanna said as the hair covering her eye patch began to blow back revealing an outpouring of essence from behind the covering. A rifle the length of her body formed before her, she snatched it from the air as if it weighed nothing at all. She kneeled down and took aim at Kelvron’s head. “I never come unprepared.” Oanna said as the essence from her right eye began to pour into the firing chamber of the rifle with a magenta glow.

  “I guess you didn’t learn from the last time. You can’t hurt me as long as my essence blocks your shots!” Kelvron’s aura began to fluctuate violently as he began to laugh as if he’d already won. “Goodbye, Kelvron.” Oanna said as she pulled the trigger. A great magenta light erupted from the rifle as the shot fired. Before Kelvron could react, the shot impacting his skull with a precise force, as to take the head away with the shot itself. The aura surrounding Kelvron’s body began to fluctuate even more erratically before finally imploding on itself spectacularly, vaporizing the body leaving only ashes to the wind.

   Oanna stood up and refixed her hair to cover her eye patch. The rifle she used vanished into the air as she began to walk towards what remained of Kelvron. She grabbed his head with a glove on and placed it into a opaque pouch. Oanna looked back towards Blundervoss, eyeing its city center with the intent of confirming her kill. “ I really hope there isn’t a price deduction for lack of body…”.  Oanna said as dawn began to break. She walked back towards Blundervoss to collect her bounty, leaving the devastated landscape that was once Kelvron’s standing ground behind.

The End

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