[Yoshitsune]

I dropped into a dense jungle. Humid air and wet heat coated my body while the warbling of birds and screeching of insects greeted my ears. With [Sensory Meditation] not revealing anything important, I pushed deeper into the trees. Wide-leaved plants brushed against me and dumped water on my sandals.

I hacked at the foliage in front of me to clear a path. I used my sword unceremoniously and without proper respect to its creator. It was something I would apologize for later.

An object whistled through the air above me and I dodged preemptively out of the way. A sizable rock smashed into the ground behind me, spraying me with soil. I hopped to my feet and lowered my posture. I slipped between the trees using the wide trunks as cover until I could figure out exactly where the rocks were coming from.

Another rock bashed into a nearby tree with a mighty crack. A treetop toppled to the ground while a third rock followed right after to bounce between even closer trees. I could feel a splash of dirt against my feet.

I lowered myself further to the ground to the point I was nearly on all fours. I moved slowly through the foliage, trying my best not to disturb any of the plants to give away my position. But, it was ultimately pointless. If anything, I made myself an easier target for my attacker. The rocks were getting more accurate. I was also detecting new energy patterns upon them.

An orange-hued rock came crashing through the trees to cause a fireball upon impact and set part of the forest ablaze. I hustled to separate myself from the fire to see a light blue colored rock create an ice field in front of me.

As I weaved my way through the forest at speed, I reached the conclusion that my opponent moved in between attacks. Their position was difficult to track. I knew that they were to my north, but that was all the useful information I could glean. Firing back with this little information would only be a waste of mana and laying low only seemed to make me an easier target. I would need to charge their position directly to find them.

I broke into a full sprint, faster than I could ever ride on horseback. My vision in the corner of my eyes grew blurry as I continued to accelerate.

The rocks could not target me at all. They fell well behind my position and flared into ineffectual spells. I could feel the attacker begin to panic. They threw rocks down well in front of me. Sharp rock formations exploded from the impact, uprooting trees and creating a natural barrier. A volley of flaming rocks made the wall all the more imposing.

But, it was meaningless to me. I hopped into [1000 Bleeding Eyes] and emerged in the sky beyond the barrier. I fell to the ground, into another portal and then fired myself out at a full sprint to maintain my speed.

A new rock emerged and with it, I finally saw a frightened energy hop between the trees. I summoned my lightning bow and took a shot at the tree top. The tree exploded with light and fire. Howls of surprise echoed out over the forest to confirm my hit. I did not see where the silhouette had moved to, but I continued to sprint towards the target tree.

I didn’t see the attacker there, but I did sense them. Nearby, a chimp-shaped demon climbed a tree. I pulled out my bow and shot them. There was little that they could do to dodge and the light arced directly into their back. A scream of pain pierced my ears and a scent of burning fur rose into my nose.

In a panic, the chimp scrambled up the tree to get away from me. I summoned another portal and hopped into it.

I emerged from above the chimp. Their aura spasmed erratically in response to my sudden appearance above them. I dropped down upon them with my sword fully extended. They pushed away from the tree to leap away from me. But, I saw two grisly red lines cross their exposed wrists.

Their appearance didn’t cause me to hesitate this time. This time, I dutifully sliced along the lines given to me and saw the chimp’s hands fall away from their form.

With another pained shout, we both fell down to the soil. I landed on my feet while the chimp stumbled and fell onto their back. They pressed their blood arm stumps into the ground and pushed themselves to their feet.

Ragged breathing assailed my ears and an energy of pure fear shrouded the chimp. They raised their stumps in a feeble attempt to block me.

“You’re weaker than me,” I said in surprise. But, that surprise quickly soured to more anger and frustration. “After all the words and looks you exchanged at my expense, and you’re weaker than me.”

“Wait, I didn’t say anything!” The chimp pleaded. “Let’s talk about it for a second.”

“No.”

My sword swiped along the chimp’s neck. Their health prevented it from being the clean kill that I was intending to give them. Blood poured from their neck as they mashed their stumps to their wound to put pressure on it. But, it was a fool’s errand. The bleeding stacks on their health bar would not be stymied by such poor attempts. Quivering eyes looked at me fearfully as they ran out of life. Their head dropped to the ground and disappeared into a flash of light, leaving just a puddle of blood behind.

The jungles started to morph into the landscape of the car I started in. I was standing next to the same fire on the same slope of the same mountain. It was a pointless marker of my success if it only followed behind my battles.

I chose to ignore it since it would only cause more unneeded frustrations. Feeling more confident in how the first battle went, I quickly issued my challenge to the car ahead of me, but was denied. They were already engaged in a fight. I tapped my foot against the ground impatiently, not interested in participating in a rematch against that chimp.

But, when I had arranged my next challenge, I noticed something interesting.

Your current car: 19/19.

“Why did they get eliminated?” I asked myself. I was still in the last car. There was still no cushion between myself and oblivion.

“Rematches at the back are boring,” Smiles' voice echoed throughout the car. “We’ve had cases where the demons at the end just trade victories back and forth so neither can be eliminated. Obviously, that’s bad entertainment so we got rid of that possibility altogether. All of your matches are elimination matches.”

“I see.”

I sat atop the grass and controlled my breathing. My game had grown exceedingly simple. There would be no setbacks or throwaway deaths to determine the skillset of the enemy. All that existed for me was victory or elimination.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

This wasn’t how it should be. In this perverse world, the meaning of death had disappeared entirely. There was no beauty left to see in it. Even now, it wasn’t death that I feared, death is a consequence that I would gladly accept for my failures. The true dread dwelled within what I would experience when I came back to life.

“Tell me, Smiles,” I said to the vast world I was placed in. “You saw my match with that demon. I overpowered them easily. I couldn’t have been assigned to the final car if it was based on the weakest of us. So, what was the reason?”

“What is strength and what is weakness?” Smiles asked.

“There are a lot of different ideas of strength or weakness,” I replied thoughtfully. “The strength to lift a boulder or endure through pain or not to waver when a charging line is about to crash into you. Any of those people could claim strength and would be awarded it. But, in the end, it’s whatever you viewed as strength or weakness. And I think that your idea of strength needs work.”

“Oh, I agree that they were inferior to you in almost every single way,” Smiles agreed with a laugh. “There was only one thing that kept them ahead of you, and that was your fault.”

“My fault?”

“You, for whatever reason, believed that you deserved to be assigned to the final car in the game and that chimp thought they were one above the bottom. Obviously, we now both know that it was a mistake, but how was I supposed to know what you are capable of?”

“I see,” I spoke, mostly to myself, and lowered my head.

So, it was an internal weakness that the others sensed as soon as I arrived in the car. Liscio saw it on my soul like a rotting wound and assumed that I was on his side. Not just Liscio, everyone saw it and feasted upon it.

“Look, I don’t care what you do and for what you are doing it for. I just need you to make it entertaining, okay?”

“Okay,” I said with a nod.

I faded into the light and moved forward. I was deposited onto an even steeper slope. The dry heat of the fire by my sight was replaced with suffocating snowfall. My feet sank quickly into the snow and my clothes grew wet and cold.

I could feel a release of energy to my side, inviting me onwards. I kept my sword unsheathed with a feeling of distrust in my heart.

Over the snowy inclines I marched. Ice and loose rock constantly challenged my footing while dense snowfall and wind buffeted me. Each uncertain step threatened to send me to the bottom of the mountain in a bloody pile. And, the incline grew steeper. At some points, I had to dig my fingers into the snow to gain traction. Stinging pain ate at my hands until my fingers grew numb and my teeth clacked together.

But, there was no peak on this mountain. My hands hooked onto a lip and pulled me over into a crater on the other side. The rocks on this side were even looser and I lost my balance several times navigating my way down.

The deer-headed creature awaited me at the bottom of the crater. This opponent was unlike the chimp. They didn’t cower in the treetops or wait in ambush. Instead, they sat patiently in the center of a frozen lake. Their sword was plunged into ice and their hand wrapped around the weapon’s hilt.

“So, you are the last one?” The deer asked as I grew closer to them. They rose to their feet and pulled their sword from the cracked surface. “I knew that chimp was weak. No one else but a coward would beg for a lottery like he did. The only question is, how much better are you?”

“You have left yourself with many openings, I hope that you are not discounting my skills considering how far back the both of us are.”

“I have allowed myself to be defeated until I reach the bottom,” the deer stated. “It was my intention to showcase a perfect victory by defeating every single one of you. However, it seems that someone was already defeated by your hands. A pity. I hope that my sponsors will approve of a nearly perfect victory.”

Their muscles tensed and I used [Ride the Lightning] to dart forward with a jolt of electricity. My extending sword met theirs and a shower of sparks flashing in every direction. I redirected my energy and spun my body around to deliver another blow, but my sword only met snowfall.

I lowered my stance and slowed my breathing. The thick snow obscured their energy. I stepped in a small circle, blade facing forward to intercept anything immediately.

I heard the flapping of a cloak nearby. A prickle along my neck whispered of death. I turned my attention skyward. The deer plunged from above. I took a step to the side while using my sword to redirect their blade. I was able to draw back my arm and quickly snap forward with my wrist, scratching the flesh and removing a portion of health.

Their sword plunged into the ice and formed large cracks. Cold water leaked out and soaked my feet. The ice rumbled and groaned from ice rubbing against itself.

My sword lunged at the deer only to find that his body had been replaced with a snow dummy. Before I could pull back, the bite of steel drug across my armor. The hit sent me skidding along the ice. My ribs ached from the blow and my mouth tasted of metal.

I counter-attacked into another lump of snow, but quickly turned my weapon to intercept the attack that was coming from behind.

We danced through the blizzard. Each of my attacks left a pile of snow until I was left surrounded by a small army of snowmen. While I was growing sharper at anticipating their patterns, the sheer cold dulled my senses and made it more arduous to track my opponent.

A sword plunged through a snowman and I had to bend over backwards to avoid being disemboweled. I kicked with speed and eviscerated the snowman. There was nobody waiting behind it. But, I already knew that they were somewhere behind me. I swung my sword in a wide arc to destroy as many snowmen as possible. I imbued electrical mana into the blow to chain lightning between the snowflakes.

I heard a muffled grunt of pain before the sound disappeared. I could not be too pleased with the success. In the course of the battle, I was still the loser, the prey.

There was no attack for the moment. Just as I was frustrated, the deer surely must have been bothered that he had failed to land a decisive blow despite the overwhelming environmental advantage he possessed. If I were to win, I needed to anticipate how he would plan out his next attack.

Attacks from behind were too predictable. His rigid patterns told me that he was a fighter that won quickly and was inflexible in times that he wasn’t. The attacks from above were not used frequently. There must be a risk to it that I hadn’t yet figured out.

As I thought, I felt the cold water lap at my feet. I looked down towards the cracked ice. There was one direction that he had yet to attack from.

What if I made him believe that below was the best chance?

I slammed my blade into the ground at speed. The ice cracked further. Long fault lines spread over the lake like the web of a spider. I slammed again and the ice groaned more, now the whole thing was breaking apart. Pieces began to sink and roll and smash into each other, leaving large gaps of freezing water.

I ducked as a blade passed over me. But, I didn’t bother checking the location where the strike came from. He was already gone.

Then, a swing came from the same place. I got my sword up in time to keep it from splitting me in half as the force sent me backwards. It was not the end of the assault. Whatever the deer did during their retreat had reinvigorated them. Savage attacks were levied against me and constantly pushed me backwards. My retreat only inspired them to press harder atop me to force me closer to the water.

Closer to where I wanted.

I made my defense more firm now that I was at the water’s edge. Attacks did not move me and did not appear to take me off guard.

I swung back and he disappeared into a wad of snow. The howling wind blew most of the pile into me, lowering my body heat further. But, there was no follow-up attack. Not from the front or from the side.

But, my back remained exposed to the water behind me.

I heard bubbles surface from behind me. I waited a single second; long enough for him to be confident in his approach and commit to his course. My sword accumulated lightning and thrummed with power.

I spun around and plunged my sword into the water. All of the current stored in the blade and all the mana that I had to spare sparked into the water. A booming sound rocked beneath the ice and shattered it further. I was lifted off of my feet and I had to use my portals to redirect myself safely back onto more solid ground.

A motionless form plopped up to the surface face-down. I knelt down and leaned as close as I could to them.

“I told you not to discount my skills.”

The cold died down and the body glowed white before disappearing. The same fire, the same scents, and the same discomfort greeted me.

I sat down and waited for my mana to slowly replenish before I opened the menu and challenged my next opponent. Before I left, I looked towards the sky where I believed the viewers belonged.

“I am going to show you all that perfect victory. And none of you will profit from it.”