First Round, facing Bowser. There you go, hey?


The dirt was nearly mud, the trees glistened with water and life, and the wind changed direction. Foliage rustled in a gentle sea breeze.

Nathan Hale gave a small grin, as with the scent of the sea came mixed with water that wasn't salty. There had to be a body of fresh water nearby.

Following the scent through the foliage, he was rewarded with the sound of a running stream. Perfect, running water was usually the safest to drink.

Not that he had to matter that much. One of the many benefits of being infected was a cast-iron stomach. He could eat pretty much anything. Unfortunately, he also seemed to be more of a meat eater because of it, which was difficult, considering he had only seen small animals so far.

Despite that, he still felt his military training kicking in, he would always be careful of the food he took a bite out of. Before he noticed some small animals that looked like squirrels, only a greyish colour, taking a bite out of a red apple with green stripes; he took it as a sign that it was edible, immediately starting to pick them off the tree and gave one a bite. Perhaps a bit sweet, but he didn't care.

Speaking of food, that was a disadvantage. His higher metabolism due to the virus required him to eat more regularly. That meant he should hope for a quick tournament, even if he should try to avoid too many confrontations. He hadn't a clue how many contenders were here.

Well, at least he found water. Here it was, rushing through rocks like a soldier running from the Leapers. He smirked, realizing he needed to come up with new material.

Nathan abandoned common table manners with relish, crouching down and lapping at the water, stopping only to spit out a leaf that found its way from the stream to his mouth.

Eventually, he had his fill. Getting up, he dusted himself off. Idly, he began wondering what Solidus had meant by unnatural opposition. The quick conclusion was that he would have to find out the hard way.

That reminded him, now he was fed and watered, he should probably look for the weapon that "Hits the Mark". The Bullseye, he mused in his head. But half-destroyed bark was a bit more confusing, and this island was big enough, as far as he could tell, to be a long walk around.

But he supposed it was best to get a move on. He began moving towards the sun, west.

He strolled through the foliage, taking a big breath. It smelled rather nice, actually. Most of the plants around exuded a pleasant aroma; A light purple flower that looked and smelled suspiciously like a violet, Some bright red flowers, large trees, a few bearing fruit. Another idle thought, were the people who brought him here also responsible for the plants? As of yet he didn't see any that looked particularly dangerous, and some looked like they were out of their habitat. Perhaps he was just lucky for once in his life and missed all the dangers.

He didn't even halt for a second as he heard a twig snap nearby. Someone was preparing to attack him, looks like the fight was about to begin. They weren't exactly the stealthiest either. They had the experience, but from the feeling of vibrations they weren't skinny to say the least.

Hopefully looking casual, he reached into his bag. Among the apples he had packed in there were four grenades. One was a concussive grenade, another was a hedgehog (named for its appearance, basically a whole bunch of spikes stuck together by some magnetic force), similar to a fragmentation, but without the explosion and a wider spread. The third was an air fuel grenade, releasing fuel into the air and igniting it. The last one was a spider grenade, and to be honest, he had little idea on what it did. The last time he had used one he was already pelting away pretty damn fast. But he had heard some soldiers calling it that, and the name had stuck. Come to think of it, it had been nice of Solidus to allow him to keep them, although it seemed a bit off. Did his opposition also have weapons? Or were the 'unnatural' enemies so dangerous that grenades would do little good against them? Not a pleasant thought.

While his first hand was rummaging to find a useful grenade, his other hand hung what seemed to be loosely at his side, but it was in fact very close to his magnum in the holster. He wouldn't go for the rifle slung on his back, too obvious.

His hand brushed the air fuel grenade first, by the smooth and flat feel of it. He decided against using it. The foliage was damp, but he wasn't willing to take the risk of a forest fire yet.

The second he felt caused blood to start dripping down his forearm. The hedgehog, it would do. Now, was his opposition going to go for him, or…

Almost silent footsteps, but his chimera-enhanced hearing locked onto it like a siren. He turned around, Magnum already in one hand, and fired expertly, his Chimeran-enhanced strength absorbed the recoil with ease.

His opposition seemed to be a turtle, and when his first shot missed by several centimetres to dig into a nearby tree, he aimed for the head. Unfortunately it had vanished inside the dark green spiked shell.

Still, the shot went and managed to dig perhaps a couple of millimetres into the shell before being ground to a halt.

Hale kept firing, attempting to aim for the gap. Unfortunately the shell started spinning at an amazing speed, and each bullet hit the shell, causing a small bump as it managed to barely get a foothold.

Hale dived out of the way as the shell tore past, a head, arms and legs came out and whatever it was managed to stop just before hitting the tree that Hale had been hoping for.

Hale quickly holstered the pistol and unslung his rifle, deciding that a grenade would probably be a tad hard to use against this opponent. No sooner did he start aiming then the turtle thing had once again retracted into its shell, and was once again pelting towards him.

The odds of the rifle's bullets penetrating that shell were only slightly more likely then the magnum he had used before, so in an act of desperation, he fired the 40mm grenade in the rifle.

The explosion was terrifyingly close as the shell covered ground rapidly, but the explosive force was enough to send the shell hurtling back. It tore through a tree like a living chainsaw on steroids and the tree collapsed with a loud crash, blocking the stream Hale had just had a drink from.

Well, he wasn't going to set up camp here. The water source was screwed and that tree falling down would attract unwelcome company.

Speaking of, where was that damn turtle…

The answer came from behind, the creature had attempted to ambush him, but must have still been "shell-shocked" from the grenade, and it tore through bushes and the spikes tore a chunk of flesh from Hale's left arm, the rifle fell to the earth with a soft "Whump".

There was no time to bend down and pick up the rifle, no time to consider the main and the chunk of flesh missing from his arm. Hale tore out his pistol. It seemed that the turtle had to come out of its shell in order to turn properly, so if he just waited…

Hale's hypothesis was proved incorrect. The spinning shell did indeed come tearing back without the turtle inside becoming momentarily vulnerable.

However, the good news was that the shell missed without Hale even having to move, by about a meter or so. The creature didn't have the best sight from within that shell, especially at speed. Good to know.

Even now, a plan formulated into Hale's mind, he charged.

The shell turned a bit, Hale could feel malicious red eyes staring at him. The shell started spinning, and it flew towards him.

It was at that point Hale pressed the switch near the trigger guard; this caused the glycerine bullets from the magnum currently embedded into the shell to detonate.

Hale's gambit paid off, the bullets had hit all around the shell, causing it to go into an abrupt halt, probably stunning its occupant.

Hale dashed forward, magnum at his side. He stuck the magnum inside the hole where the creature's head came out of. But just before he pulled the trigger, the turtle's head shot out and struck Hale's hand. The magnum was sent hurtling away.

The 'turtle' got out of its shell. Hale took a step back as he stared at the face.

It wasn't exactly what he expected. It was difficult to describe. A close one would be mixing a chubby mob boss with a dragon and a demon. A small tuft of red hair on his head was more then made up for with bushy eyebrows of the same colour. Spikes similar to the ones on the shell protruded from its head, and two dog collars were attached on each if it's arms. The creature was also larger then he expected, taller then Hale himself by perhaps three feet. It was a wonder how the creature could fit in the shell.

That wasted second gone, Hale ran for the pistol, but was grabbed by the scruff of the neck and sent flying in the opposite direction, momentarily seeing a malicious grin from the creature, as well as a double or triple chin. Yet another tree received punishment it didn't deserve. Hale grunted, every part of his body screaming for attention. He managed to remain on his feet, but swayed unsteadily.

His opposition took it as an opening, with a roar he charged forward, not bothering to retract into his shell, fist held back and ready.

Hale ducked, feeling a solid fist brush his hair and hearing a loud *crack* as Bowser's fist punched a hole into the tree, sap began pouring out like an open wound, covering Hale's already oily hair and dripping down his face.

Hale shot up, his arm thrusting into an uppercut, striking the turtle's chin with immense force. Unfortunately, there wasn't the *crunch* he had been hoping for, and the turtle merely staggered back, stunned.

Hale wasn't going to give him the chance to recover, his fist shot forward, but the turtle merely retracted his head into the shell and threw a punch of his own. Hale deftly moved out of the way, but he didn't have a wide enough vision to see the other fist coming, it connected with his arm and he grimaced as a bruise began to form. And he swung 360 degrees to get rid of the excess energy. That thing hit like a tank!

'Who would you be? I don't recall you being on the list when I was around.'

Hale was somewhat surprised when the head popped out and started talking to him.

'Suppose I'm a late entry' He grunted, sidestepping a kick from Bowser and karate chopped down on the limb. The creature's thick skin absorbed most of the impact, but the limb retracted and the creature let out a grunt all the same.

'So, do you have a name? If I feel generous, I'll inscribe it into the earth next to your corpse.' Bowser followed this up with fire bursting out of his mouth. Rather shocked at the sudden ability, Hale narrowly ducked, but he could feel rising heat, that idiot may have just started a fire!

Shooting back up, he tried to side-step away from the heat, keeping Bowser in his vision and his fists raised and ready, while trying to see the flames. They were lucky; the fire was unable to maintain its position in the damp grass and died out quickly.

'Name's Nathan Hale, but I was thinking that was the name you could scream in hell.' Nathan hale said casually, deftly moving backwards as the turtle thing slashed out with claws.

'You have a bit of humour, I see.' A glare followed by a kick. Nathan Hale merely smirked and grabbed the outstretched leg, the grin faded as the turtle used his other leg to propel his body, and more importantly his fist, forward, a solid punch struck Hale, narrowly missing his nose. A bruise covered Hale's left cheek. 'I'm Bowser.'

'And what the hell are you?' As Bowser was about to answer, Hale managed to give him a solid punch in the face, a large purple bruise began forming around his right eye. Meanwhile, Hale's bruise had almost vanished, and the chunk of flesh that had been torn out before had nearly completely regenerated, much to Bowser's surprise.

'You're not as normal as you look, are you?'

'Clearly you're not as stupid as you look, either.' Hale retorted, tilting his head to avoid another punch from Bowsers, whose eyes were alight with fury.

'Not a very nice person, are you.' He chuckled, an evil laugh would have been more appropriate, but he needed to keep an eye on this guy.

Speaking of, Hale's eyes shifted, he could vaguely see the outline of his magnum in the grass, still a fair distance away. And Bowser was in that way.

'Now now, let's sort this fight out man-to-man, even if neither of us are truly human. No weapons' He gave a large, spread grin.

Nathan made a noncommittal grunt. He would go for his weapons if he had the chance, but he doubted he would get it.

Bowser took a few steps forward, Hale a few back. He had to keep some distance; otherwise his eyes would have difficulty seeing all four limbs at once.

Another step forward, another step back…

Hale felt the wood in his back, he had been backed into a tree, he tried to feign ignorance, moving as if to take another step back.

It worked; with a tiny smirk, Bowser stepped forward and threw a punch. Hale swayed out of the way, and before Bowser kicked out with his opposite side leg, he had his palms on Bowser's arm and propelled himself forward, managing to lift his body off the ground, sliding around Bowser and held onto his neck for dear life, attempting to squeeze the life out of him.

Bowser's limbs struggled vainly to get a grip on Nathan Hale, who now had Bowsers neck in a stranglehold. Unfortunately Hale was on his back and Bowser's somewhat stubby limbs were too small.

'How does it feel to lose to an underling, huh?' Hale said through gritted teeth.

Bowser responded by dropping down onto his back, exhausted. Hale screamed as some of the spikes on Bowser's shell pierced his flesh, his muscles expanded as he mustered all his strength to keep Bowser from crushing him. The blood from his wounds flowed faster because of it. Hale's bones began groaning with the weight on top of them.

But Hale didn't let go, and Bowser thrashed his limbs, at one point his claw managed to nick Hale's arm, a bead of blood dripped down his forearm.

Hale was barely conscious, the pain perhaps all that kept him holding on tightly to Bowser's neck in a dead man's grip, Bowser kept on bashing Hale's hands against his shell as he attempted to retract his head to no avail.

His body no longer screamed, he felt numb now, and was almost certain his vision was fading.

However, just as his arms were about to drop like a rag doll, Bowser went limp.

Hale felt like he must have sweated out each drop of water he had drunk previously, he panted like a dog. With the last of his strength, he managed to push Bowser off him, and then lay on the ground, his body refusing to do any more.

'Damn, that Bowser guy was tough. Solidus wasn't kidding…' Hale grunted, andd winced as even thinking seemed to strain his body, causing headaches. 'Really should grab my guns, what if some enemy spots me now? I'm defenceless.'

He closed his eyes, trying to stop the pain.

When he opened them, he found his teeth embedded into Bowser's arm. With a muffled cry, he tore his mouth off, taking a chunk of flesh with him. Noting how his teeth had slid through the flesh as he got them out like razors. Something was wrong.

Groaning, he slowly lifted himself up. He staggered towards his magnum. Picking it up, he holstered it and managed to get a little further before collapsing next to his rifle.

'Good thing he couldn't breathe out of his ass like a normal turtle.' He chuckled, wincing as pain lanced all over his body. The pain persisted, and Hale groaned. His wounds had already started healing, and the pain wasn't coming from them. He looked at his hands and his eyes widened as he saw they had changed, ever so slightly. They were thicker, almost reptilian. His nails had become small claws.

The veins began to fade, yet it still felt… unnatural, unfortunately it was also familiar.

Hale closed his eyes, taking deep breaths. It was happening faster. How was that possible?

'Pathetic, and you managed to surpass me?'

Hale's eyes widened. 'Daedelus?'


I'm a bit sad about this chapter...

Not because of the probably numerous grammar, character, and ability errors, not because I didn't even get to the Bullseye in this chapter.

No, what's sad is, I am one of the few people in the first round to have written their character KILLING the opponent.

I mean, I thought most people would do that! But pretty much everyone (heck, even my opponent) has written their chapter with the opponent surviving!

Now I just feel bad...

Aahh well, hope you enjoyed the chapter!