Bullseye vs the Amberites

[Shai-Hulud]

616 Bullseye accepts a contract to kill all the Princes and Princes of Amber (era: post Zelazny short stories, so immediately after Hall of Mirrors).

Bullseye is given a magic tattoo that enables him to travel in shadow as a novice Pattern initiate but has no Amber-capable gunpowder, so largely must rely upon weaponry and hand-to-hand. He has basic knowledge of the Amberites.

Amberities have no basic knowledge of Bullseye starting out, unless, possibly/maybe, if they have visions/precognition and so forth (ie. Vaille, Tir-na-Nogth experiences, etc).

NOTE: This is "standard issue" peak Bullseye, as he is/was at his archetypal, goes toe-to-toe with Daredevil, level of performance, regardless of his current state in continuity. So if he's currently crippled or hulked out, ignore that.

Apparently, Bullseye has some admantium in his skeleton (?), so if that meets the requirements of standard equipment, include this. Not sure why it wouldn't slow him down or kill him, but just assume "magnets" and run with it.

How does this play out?

[Shellhead]

In the post-Hall of Mirrors time frame, the most likely Amberite to be home when Bullseye comes calling is Random. I really like Random, but there are probably at least 10 Amberites would fare better against Bullseye.

Random and Corwin once lifted a Mercedes-Benz out of mud and carried it a short distance. Nine Princes in Amber was published in 1970, so I arbitrarily assume this was a 1969 Mercedes-Benz W111 280 SE Coupe (the first thing to pop up in my google search), which weighed 3,329 pounds. I think even half that weight indicates that Random is at least somewhat above CBPH strength. Amberites can regenerate lost limbs, but the process is so slow that it won't matter in this fight. I think Random's trump picture includes a dagger, so that would be standard equipment, along with possibly a fancy ceremonial sword when in Castle Amber. Otherwise, various rooms in the castle had weapons mounted on the walls for display and probably convenience.

The really significant difference is going to be experience and possibly skill. Bullseye is about as skilled in combat as a non-superhuman can be. But Random is over 1,000 years old, and once fought a recreational duel with Corwin that lasted about 24 hours. So I think that Random has sufficient skill to prolong this fight to a point where his superhuman stamina will allow him to continue fighting normally while Bullseye becomes exhausted. On the other hand, Bullseye is very quick, and his acrobatic moves surpass anything we have ever seen from the Amberites. I could see this fight going either way. Maybe Bullseye can sneak up and one-shot Random, but Random grew up in a very Machiavellian family that plays quite rough. One time Corwin pulled on a boot and got a metal spike in his foot because Random pranked him. Another wild card will be Vialle. Because of her proximity to Random (physically and emotionally), she might very well get some kind of precog warning and tell Random.

If Bullseye manages to kill Random, he may or may not be able to pick off a couple more Amberites who happen to be in the castle, like Florimel or Martin. But then he may be hindered by a death curse or two. And there are going to be other Amberites who aren't present and will be warned before they come back. Bullseye is screwed if he is facing a prepared Benedict or Fiona. He doesn't want to get anywhere near Gerard, and he isn't ready for a devious bastard like Caine. I don't think that Bullseye will live long enough to complete this contract. He can flee into Shadow, but even Benedict can track people through Shadow.

[The MunchKING]

I thought Bulleye's deal was super-accurate sniping even with thrown weapons and stuff? So yeah, the Amberites aren't inhuman enough to shrug off having a knife chucked through each eyeball.

The problem is if he's hunting them down, most of them hang out with lots of ablative meat shields. Random and anyone else in the main castle has guards and soldiers all over the place, Julian has his car-eating hellhounds and his invincible train of a horse, Benedict is probably hanging out in some army or another, using it to conquer overwhelming odds, Gerard's in the middle of a boat in the middle of nowhere with the Navy, etc. LOT of people to see and alert people about Bullseye before he gets close to one of the VIPs.


The other thing is post-books, means Merlin and Ghostwheel are also running around being all quasi-omnipotent all over the place, and they are WAY outside Bulleye's paygrade.

[Sharpandpointies]

I'm pretty much down with the basics of above. Bullseye's feats are good enough that if he catches the correct Amberite off-guard in the right situation, he'll kill them.

Once the word gets out, though, his chances against ANY of them plummet drastically (due to prep, traps being set for him, they'll be hunting him as well and using powers/abilities far beyond his own). And there's some that will just murder him regardless of the alert or not. We don't need to go as high as Benedict; if his first target is Fiona, for example, she likely senses him coming then unravels him (or something equally horrible - Amber attack magic tends to be as appalling as it is spectacular).

We also need to consider a certain amount of Bullseye's personality, given this is a scenario and he basically has some CIS with regards to ''is sadistic'. If he doesn't go for the kill from ambush on his first target, it could backfire spectacularly on him or even give a badly wounded Amberite an escape.

I feels his odds are non-existent for 'killing all of them', and not so great for getting even one - he needs to choose the correct one to kill first (like...Flora, maybe? But he'd better kill her or she'll stuff a grenade down his pants while he's gloating), then go straight for the kill from ambush without being detected or the like.

And even if he gets one, he's likely not getting two. Especially if the one he does get hangs on long enough for a blood curse.