Bounty hunter

"Dang it!! Where's the ruby anyway?!," Jason whined as he continued his search for a red ruby.

He wandered through the forest canopy for about 30 minutes until he got tired and decided to rest on a tree branch.

As he was falling asleep, a bright red light illuminated on his face, which caused him to shield his face to avoid damaging his eyes.

"This is way too bright!! I need to stop it!!," Jason decided as he moved towards the source of the light.

As he approached, he noticed his skin was getting hotter and slightly burning.

It was a painful encounter like he had never felt and he was in a lot of pain.

"Ughh!! This hurts so bad!!," he groaned in pain.

But as he continued walking towards the light, he saw a log with a hollow opening.

Inside the opening was a diamond apparently the source of the bright light.

Then it hit him and he said," That's the red ruby!! I found it!!"

Despite the pain he was experiencing, he advanced towards the bright light and reached out for it.

As he tried to grab the ruby, his hand got severely burnt as the intensity increased as he drew nearer to it but he managed to get hold of the ruby and pulled it out of the log.

The light suddenly diminished and Jason was on the ground, holding his injured hand.

As the bright light completely died out, he opened his eyes and in his bloody hand was a beautiful bright red ruby which he smiled as he saw it.

"Now that I have it, I have to get back to the others!," he said as he was admiring the precious rock and got up.

As soon as he got up, a gigantic snake towering over him lunged towards him and slammed on the ground, aiming to crush Jason.

But Jason reacted quick enough to avoid the deadly strike.

"What the hell is that thing?!," Jason yelled as he realized the size of the monster, which towered about 50 meters tall and had a pair of horns above each eyelid and was dark green with black patches in color.

"This is my pet snake Tlecaxo! Respect yourself, child!!," a tall man covered in a brown cloak and wearing a brown hat replied to him.

"Who are you and what do you want from me?!," Jason asked the mysterious man.

"I'm Endo Naosuke, a bounty hunter! I hunt targeted people for a price—," he paused and looked at the red ruby before continuing,"—but that stone's on my list!"

He continued, "I will say thank you for finding the red ruby for me!! Now kindly hand it over and no one gets hurt."

"No way!! I need this ruby and besides, I found it first!!," Jason retorted back to the man.

"I'm not asking you. I'm telling you!! And in that case—"he paused and patted his snake which hissed and lunged towards Jason again.

Jason quickly dodged the snake but Endo appeared him and thrusted his sword towards Jason, who avoided that attack easily as well.

Jason landed far away from the pair and observed them closely.

"It seems this guy is not willing for me to leave with the ruby at all!! And that snake seems to rely on his touch before attacking!! I have to either run or face him!!," he concluded to himself.

"And my answer is—," he said before making either the best or worst decision at that moment.

"—run!!," he yelled before dashing away from the bounty hunter as quickly as possible.

"No one can hide from the Bounty Hunter Endo for long!! I will find you and retrieve the ruby, either alive or as a corpse!!," he said before patting his snake which hissed again and slithered after Jason.

————————-/——//————————————

Meanwhile, Vincent —about 200 meters away from Jason's confrontation— heard a loud rustle coming from that direction.

"I wonder what's going there," he wondered and went towards the direction of the rustle.

As he was approaching nearer to his destination, he saw Jason leaping through the canopy as fast as he could.

Jason also saw from above Vincent and yelled, "Run!!!"

Vincent wondered what was happening until he heard the rustle getting louder and saw Tlecaxo rushing in his direction.

"Oh snap!! That's a huge one!!," he exclaimed and turned in the opposite direction and was behind Jason immediately.

"What the hell's going on, Jason?! And why are you late and your hand all bloody?!," Vincent questioned.

"First off, don't appear behind me like that!! And second, that snake belongs to a bounty hunter who apparently wants to kill me because of this!!," Jason replied as he showed Vincent the red ruby, who was surprised largely about Jason's success.

"I'm surprised you didn't start crying out for help or actually picking up a fake ruby," Vincent mocked Jason, who was not happy.

"How about I beat you so bad you end up as snake food?!," Jason retorted before the snake appeared behind them, poised to strike.

"Watch out!!," Vincent pushed Jason aside before the snake struck in the middle of the boys, missing them narrowly.

The young pair landed at the same spot together, facing their gigantic opponent which flicked its tongue in their direction.

Enzo finally appeared and as he glanced at the pair, he exclaimed, "Finally, it seems my prey has appeared before me at last!!"

Jason yelled, "What the hell do you mean by "prey", Endo or whatever you name is?!"

But as he mentioned Endo's name, Vincent became pale and stood in shock.

Vincent then recovered and said, "Jason, this man is bad news!! We have to find a way to escape as soon as possible!!"

But Jason asked, "Why are you suddenly scared of this man and his snake?," which irked Vincent.

He grabbed Jason's collar and yelled, "Are you crazy?! That's Endo Naosuke, a renowned bounty hunter and he's super dangerous!!"

Jason asked pointing to Endo, "What's so dangerous about him?"

To which Vincent replied in fear, "Because he hunts monsters, that's what!! Specifically vampires!!"

They both looked at Endo who licked his lips and said, "Well done, Vincent, son of Count Maximus!! Unfortunately for you, this chit-chat is over because my mission is to claim your head!!"