The bounty went live at dawn. By sundown, the first hunters were already moving.
Rose-Metal walked through the shattered alleys of Dresden-4, a forgotten colony-planet where half the skyscrapers were skeletons and the other half were claimed by gangs. The skies bled rust-red, and the air smelled like old smoke and ozone.
She wasn't hiding. She never hid. That wasn't her style.
Her steps rang metallic against the broken asphalt, her cannon-leg heavy but fluid, balanced with the grace of a dancer who had learned rhythm through violence. Her left hand flexed around her blade — a jagged shard of crystallized obsidian, stolen from the corpse of a dungeon-wraith. Her right hand stayed loose, fingers twitching with raw mana.
The streets were silent. Too silent.
She didn't care.
From the rooftop above, three bounty hunters crouched.
Jhene — sharp-eyed, with hair shaved on one side and tattoos glowing faint green down her throat — sighted her bow. Not wood, not steel: her arrows were light-forged, able to pierce mana-shields and bone alike.
"She's smaller than I expected," Jhene whispered, drawing the string back. "Don't even look like a threat."
Beside her, Verma, an enforcer with cybernetic arms humming low, snorted. "Doesn't matter how she looks. Her kill feed lit up half the guild boards. She's blood-drunk. Dangerous."
The third, Kai, only smirked. His power shimmered — distortion, the ability to bend space in short bursts. "Dangerous is good. Means the prize is real."
They nodded once. The hunt began.
The arrow flew first. It screamed through the air, cutting the silence in half. Rose-Metal didn't look — she tilted her head a fraction and let the shaft graze her cheek, sparks flying as it ricocheted off the rose-metal plating that ran along her jaw.
She stopped walking.
Then she smiled, slow and cold.
"Finally."
The ground cracked beneath her as she launched forward.
Jhene cursed, firing again, rapid volleys raining down. Rose's cannon-leg blasted once — a boom like thunder — propelling her high, the obsidian shard flashing as she cleaved the arrows mid-air. Splinters of pure light exploded across the street.
Kai warped in front of her, grin sharp. He swung his blade, distortion rippling the air. Her body flickered — then reappeared behind him.
"Too slow."
Her shard pierced his shoulder clean through, blood spraying like ink in the wind. She yanked it free with a twist, and Kai collapsed with a howl.
"Shit!" Verma roared, leaping from the rooftop. His arms split open, barrels locking into place. Twin chainguns. He opened fire, the alley filling with lead and lightning.
Rose laughed. Actually laughed. The bullets tore through her clothes, ricocheted off rose-metal plating, and when one did bite into her stomach, she grabbed it with her bare hand, pulled it out, and swallowed it whole.
Her mana surged. The bullet melted inside her chest, fueling the fire in her veins.
"You just made me stronger," she purred.
Then she moved.
She vaulted off her cannon-leg, slammed into Verma mid-barrage, and drove her shard into his throat. Blood gurgled, hot and metallic. She didn't stop — she dragged the blade sideways until his head snapped back at a wrong angle and he collapsed.
Level up.
[+2 Strength]
[+1 Stamina]
Her eyes flickered, momentarily glowing like molten silver.
Jhene screamed from above, loosing a storm of arrows. They fell like rain, each one burning bright enough to split concrete. Rose spun, cannon-leg firing. The blast shredded half the volley, the rest burying into her arms, her side.
She didn't care. She grabbed one arrow lodged in her ribs, yanked it out, and hurled it back with impossible speed.
It pierced Jhene's chest. Dead center.
Her scream was short, cut off as she toppled from the rooftop, hitting the ground with a sick crack.
Silence.
Rose exhaled, blood dripping from her side, her hands, her mouth. She wiped it away with her wrist, streaking her cheek.
"Pathetic."
She glanced at Kai — still alive, barely. Crawling, one hand clutching his ruined shoulder.
Rose stepped toward him. He gasped, "Y-you don't have to… it's just the bounty… I just—"
Her cannon-leg whined, charging. She leveled it at his skull.
"Wrong answer."
The blast turned him into ash.
Level up.
[+1 Dexterity]
[+2 Endurance]
Her wounds stitched themselves shut, muscles knitting back, skin sealing with a faint metallic sheen. Every kill wasn't just survival — it was fuel. Growth. Limitless.
But the Outerverse was watching.
Every hunter with a holo-link saw the kill feed. Three names wiped out in seconds. Level gain recorded. Footage leaked across guild networks.
Nutasi tilted her head when she saw it, the black butterflies of her smoke swirling around her lips. "Mm. She doesn't hesitate."
Shinzoo's third eye narrowed. "She's feeding. She'll only get stronger with every body."
Nutasi smiled wickedly. "Then we'll make sure she feasts… right before we carve her open."
Back on Dresden-4, Rose-Metal stepped over the broken corpses, licking blood from her fingers.
Her eyes were flat. Her heart was steady.
And deep inside her, a whisper she couldn't place echoed:
More. Keep killing. Keep rising. The levels are endless.
She tilted her head back, staring into the rust-red sky.
"Good," she murmured. "Let them come."