Bowser grew a bit concerned when he saw the sky above fall into overcast and the land around him become slightly darker. It was hard enough not knowing where he and Junior were. But not being able to tell the time of day would only make this journey even tougher. Still, the clouds had cooled the air around him and Bowser was appreciative of this as it helped his shell cool down a bit and eased his back pains to a more tolerable degree for now.
Junior was now up and about as he ran around freely; straying from Bowser's side every so often to explore a little. Bowser was grateful that his confession earlier cheered his son up slightly, even though he was certain there was still much work to be done to truly repair their relationship. But for now, Bowser enjoyed watching Junior wander about and try to make some fun for himself as if his energy was limitless and his injuries were nonexistent.
"Whatcha doin', kiddo?" Bowser called out to him.
"Mmm…nothin'," Junior replied casually. Bowser gathered that Junior was growing bored and restless since there was nothing to do at the moment besides walk. Bowser still had no clue where they were or if they were even still in the Mushroom Kingdom anymore. The farther Bowser walked, the more unfamiliar the world around him became. Clearly the journey was far from over, so Bowser sympathized with Junior's need for entertainment. He wished there was something to distract the little Koopa with in order to pass the time. Bowser's heart nearly stopped when he saw Junior suddenly fall face first to the ground with a thud.
"Junior!" he shouted as he ran to help pick his son up. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Junior assured him. "I think I tripped on something." The two looked back and sure enough, there was some piece of white material sticking out of the ground. Junior ran over to examine it. He tugged on it with his only good hand and with a little effort, he was able to pluck the object out as he fell backwards.
"What is it?" Bowser wondered aloud. Junior examined it carefully. Then his face lit up as he gasped.
"No way!" Junior exclaimed. "I don't believe it!"
"What, you know what this is?" Bowser questioned. Junior turned to him and nodded.
"Dad, I know this type of metal. This is a piece of my clown car!" Bowser practically did a double-take.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. This was part of the bottom exterior. It must've fallen here after the explosion," Junior theorized.
"All the way out here?" Bowser repeated. He was pretty skeptical of such a probability given how far away the two of them likely were by now from the platform in the sky. Junior gasped again.
"Wait a sec, this is great! You know what this means!? All the other pieces might be around here too!" Junior guessed. He quickly scoped out his immediate vicinity for additional evidence. "If we can find all of them, I can rebuild the Junior Clown Car and we can fly home!" Bowser looked at him with concern. He didn't want to rain on his son's parade, but he also wasn't willing to let the little Koopa get his hopes up.
"Junior, look at how small that piece is. There's no telling how much searching we'd have to do to find all the pieces; assuming they're all even still intact after the explosion," Bowser explained. "Besides, they probably all flew off in different directions so I doubt we'll find everything we'd need right in this spot."
"Come on, Dad! You never know!" Junior argued. "Maybe we can find enough parts for…something!" the little Koopa proposed optimistically. Bowser looked away in hopes that his skeptical eyes wouldn't completely destroy his son's hopes.
"Even if we find more, Junior, who knows how long this will take," Bowser countered. "I think we'd be better off saving our time and energy for walking." Bowser turned and started to resume his trek. Junior scurried around in front of him.
"Or, it could be faster this way! Come on, Dad! We gotta at least try!" Junior begged. Bowser rolled his eyes and sighed.
"Alright. We can go off the beaten path a little bit," Bowser declared. "But let's not get too side-tracked with this." Junior beamed in excitement and hurried off into the distance; still within Bowser's view.
Bowser and Junior ventured across the seemingly endless open terrain. Junior found a few more pieces of the clown car along the way, and Bowser was quickly becoming more convinced that they were actually just that as he saw more. However, Junior had yet to really discover anything substantial that would sway Bowser into believing that the pair could actually use this junk to get home faster somehow. The farther along they journeyed, the more plentiful the small boulders scattered around the area became. The boulders gradually grew larger in size the farther the pair traveled. When they finally came across rocks that were almost as big as Bowser, Junior made a noteworthy discovery. He ran around the other side of one of the rocks.
"Awesome!" he exclaimed. Bowser waited for Junior to return in a moment, holding whatever it was he'd just found. But when he was gone for more than a few seconds, Bowser followed Junior around the rock to see what had happened. Junior was examining an object that was slightly larger than himself resting against the rock. It was a long, black, cylindrical piece of metal that vaguely resembled a warp pipe. "This is the cannon!" Junior polished it with his tiny hand. Bowser couldn't believe it was still in great condition in the aftermath. "I wonder if it still works," Junior pondered.
"Well, it doesn't have any of the tech to fire automatically," Bowser pointed out. He walked over to it, searched around, and found what he was looking for. He held in his claw a short chain attached to the cannon. "You'd have to pull this to shoot it manually," Bowser explained.
"Cool! I never knew you could do that!" Junior commented gleefully.
"Well, this is a pretty old-school method. Nobody operates cannons with this anymore," Bowser described. He took some mild pleasure in giving Junior a little history lesson and being given some genuine enthusiasm in return for his efforts. Junior peered inside the opening in the front of the cannon.
"Wow! It's even still got some ammo left in it!" Junior pointed out. The little Koopa tried to lift the cannon, but he had a feeling it would be too heavy for him to move it, even if he had both of his arms. The two exchanged a back and forth about whether or not it was worth it to lug around a heavy cannon with them, but this ended when Bowser suggested they leave it in favor of finding more useful materials. After reaching this decision, Bowser and Junior walked back around the rock to where they came from previously. They halted however, when the earth below them suddenly began to violently quake.
Three tall stone structures emerged from the ground in front of them and came to life. The objects unfolded and towered over Bowser and Junior as they grew and expanded. Three bipedal anthropomorphic rock creatures stood together. The middle one prominently had some kind of crown-like carving attached to its head. Junior cowered behind Bowser when their soulless crimson eyes glared down at the duo.
"Mortal creatures," one of the golems spoke. "State your purpose for invading our lands." Junior gulped. Bowser stepped in front of him and approached the three rock gargantuan courageously.
"Don't act like you don't know who I am!" Bowser retorted confidently. "I'm King Bowser and I rule over all of these lands!"
"Your tongue speaks with pride, but your mind is deluded," another of the golems replied. "Our race has dominated all that you see for millennia. We would never bow to a mere mortal such as yourself."
"I'll make you grovel if you don't start showing a little respect!" Bowser threatened. He may have grown a tendency to act a little more soft around his son, but that didn't mean he had forgotten who he was to the rest of the world. Bowser attempted to walk around one of the side creatures, but was immediately blocked by one of their arms.
"Brave words lined with misguided arrogance," the third of the golems responded. "Your destruction will hardly be worth remembering."
"Destruction? Cool your jets, rocky," said Bowser. "All we want is to get home. My kid is hurt and I could go for a cold shower right about now. So step aside and we can forget this little meeting ever happened." The golems were unfazed. Instead, one of them extended a fist up to Bowser's face in a threatening manner.
"Your request is eternally denied. None are permitted to travel on our sacred soil."
"Hey, if there was an easier way to go, we'd probably take it. But there isn't. So I suggest you and your pebble pals hit the road before I make you a part of it." Junior was trembling at this point. The creatures were much taller than his father. Did he know what he was doing? Junior was horrified that this was all about to end badly.
"I will admit," the lead golem spoke. "It has been ages since we have encountered a being so bold such as yourself. If you are indeed determined to cross us, then perhaps you would not be opposed to betting your life against our's?"
"What do you mean?" Bowser asked.
"Put your courage to the test, mortal creature. We will permit you to pass. But only if you can best each of us consecutively in combat," the rock creature elaborated. "If you cannot, your life is forfeit." Bowser cracked his knuckles with a cocky expression plastered across his face. Even if there was an easier way to get around them, Bowser could never back down from a challenge.
"So I just have to beat each of you chumps into the ground, huh? Then we can go? I can live with those terms. Bring it on!" Bowser challenged.
"Very well," the lead golem acknowledged. It motioned for one of its accomplices to step forward while the other two stepped back. Junior hopped up to Bowser's side.
"I'm gonna help too!" he declared. Bowser's eyes widened.
"No way. You're already hurt enough as it is," Bowser denied.
"B-but you can't take these guys on all by yourself!" Junior argued. "Please, Dad! I don't want you to get hurt either."
"Relax, kiddo. I've faced worse odds than this," Bowser assured his child. "You just stand back and let your old man take care of this. We'll be on our way again before you know it!" he punctuated his promise with a wink. Junior sighed and admitted defeat. He walked slowly away a few paces and watched. The other of the lead golem's underlings slammed its fist into the ground, triggering another mini earthquake.
A circle of tall rocks protruded out from the ground and enclosed Bowser and his opponent in a mini arena. They were spaced just close enough together that squeezing through them was impossible. There was no escape. No turning back now. Junior watched from the other side of the rocks; his nerves running rampant. Bowser rotated his arms in circles to loosen up and prepare for the fight at hand.
"You may begin when ready," the lead golem announced. Bowser's opponent raised its hand up into the air. Instantly, it transformed into what Bowser and Junior perceived to be a giant mallet in shape. Bowser smirked; flashing his sharp teeth as he smashed one fist into his other hand. Oh, this should be good! he thought.
In a flash, the golem charged straight at Bowser as it unleashed a deep, menacing roar. Bowser sprinted forward as well to meet his opponent. With mallet and fist ready, the combatants were set and the first match began.
The golem slammed its mallet down directly towards Bowser. The Koopa King side-stepped out of the way and delivered a straight jab directly into his opponent's face. Bowser's sheer strength caused the golem's face to crack, but not yet break. The creature was also sent backwards a few inches before regaining its balance. Bowser smirked menacingly.
The golem charged forward and prepared to attack again in a similar fashion as before. Bowser resolved to dodge and counterattack once more. But when he moved to deliver the second jab, the golem caught him by surprise and slugged Bowser clear across the face with its free hand. Bowser was sent flying backwards as he tumbled along the ground. What the heck!? Bowser thought to himself. This guy hits almost as hard as me! Well, good….Maybe he won't be such a push-over after all! Bowser stood up and charged forward to meet his opponent once again.
Meanwhile, Junior was growing increasingly nervous watching from outside the arena. He had noticed that his father was already heavily damaged from his fight with Mario earlier. Not to mention the pain he was likely experiencing from being in the lava for so long. What was Bowser thinking? Did he seriously have the strength to take on three of these monsters in a row? The little Koopa felt as though he were going to throw up from his anxiety.
The golem raised its mallet arm into the air, and prepared to clobber the Koopa King with all of its might. Bowser was preparing to dodge again, but something went wrong this time. He felt a paralyzing jolt of pain surge through his lower back. It was too late. His body couldn't get out of the way in time. Panicking, Bowser caught the mallet with both hands as it reached him and tried with all of his strength to stop it. It was working, but only temporarily.
Bowser was giving his all to stop the mallet from crushing him, but he was feeling much weaker than usual all of a sudden. He couldn't move his legs and attempt to get out of the way. The pain in his lower back was too much and it had him locked in place. He had to think fast. His arms were giving out fast and the mallet was getting closer. But Bowser wasn't one to go out with a whimper. The second Bowser felt his back pain subside ever so slightly, he summoned all of his remaining strength to shove the mallet back up into the air. However, this did not give Bowser enough time to get out of the way. The mallet came rushing back down and crushed Bowser under its tremendous weight as it pounded him into the ground. The golem was not prepared to let up. It pulled the mallet back up and wasted no time in hammering down again.
Bowser stopped the mallet from flattening him by thrusting it back with his feet. If he had no upper body strength left, he would just have to rely on lower instead. Luckily, the pain in his back was gone for now, so Bowser was able to push the mallet back with enough strength to send it up into the air and give himself just enough time to roll out of the way. Bowser sat on the ground for a second as he gasped for air.
"What's wrong, loud-mouthed moral?" the golem taunted. "Is that all the strength you have?" Bowser gritted his teeth in anger. He couldn't let himself go down this easily. He'd faced much tougher opponents than this in the past. If he wasn't injured and exhausted, Bowser was confident he would've thrashed this golem easily already. But, there was nothing he could do about it now. He had to find a way to win under these circumstances.
Bowser glanced over at Junior, whose terrified expression nearly broke his heart. But at the same time, it was just the reminder Bowser needed of what was truly at stake. I can't lose here. Junior needs me… Bowser thought. What kind of a leader….no…what kind of dad would I be if I gave up now just because of a few bruises and aches!? How could Bowser ever expect Junior to be a strong and courageous leader one day if he couldn't set a good example himself? Alright, kiddo. Watch this….
Bowser rose to his feet and glared at the golem. The Koopa King raised his fists close to his face and took a fighting stance as he braced himself once more. This time, the golem leaped into the air and prepared to pulverize Bowser into the ground with his mallet as it rocketed down towards him from above. Time slowed down as the golem approached. Bowser pulled back one of his arms in preparation like an arrow against a bow string.
Just as the mallet was about to reach Bowser, he smashed the weapon head-on with twice as much strength. The mallet flew straight back, but gravity pulled it down once more. Bowser met it with a second punch, then a third. He jabbed the mallet repeatedly as if it were a punching bag. The golem was jerked forward and back by the constant shifts in momentum as it had no control over its arm.
Finally, Bowser concentrated all of his strength into one final punch. When it was delivered, the mallet rocketed up and collided directly with the golem's face. The sheer force shattered the creature's head into pieces! With no head, the stone creature immediately fell apart and crumbled into a pile of rubble. The dust settled with only the sound of Bowser's heavy breathing cutting through an otherwise pin-drop silence. The two remaining golem were speechless, as was Junior.
"Yo, rock-heads!" Bowser called out. The two golem turned to look at their enemy. "That was only round one, right?" The creatures did not respond immediately. The intimidation radiating from Bowser's eyes was something they had never experienced before. "So….who's next?"