Mirroring Swordsmen

"How did he survive that?!"

Yui, pacing around in her makeshift base of operations, was fretting over Hegemaniac yet again.

"He just beat twenty opponents at the same time! That's another achievement that would get him a skill, if I keep more skills from him then I'll get punished!"

Turning towards the screen showing Hegemaniac floating in the water, with the girl, Silica, staring at him, she was about to throw another fit.

"He'll probably kill this girl as well! And why is she here in the first place? How - how unlucky is she?!"

Sitting down in her chair with a sigh, she thought about what would happen next.

"He has to clear all the trials ahead of him, hopefully that will slow him down enough for the other players to get stronger. Once they are stronger, then maybe I can lure them over to kill him... I can't give him any skills though. I refuse!"

Putting her hand over her face, she continued.

"Even if I get punished, I have to keep his skills away from him. He'll just use them to kill more. Why is he getting all of the good achievements?! His generated skills would demolish any other players at this point in time, why can't they go to someone like her?!" she said while looking at Silica.

"How many more achievements will this STUPID RICE FARMER get while clearing this damned dungeon?! He already has enough generated skills!"

Turning to the screen again, she just hoped for the trials ahead to slow the bastard down.

To finish her tantrum off, she began jumping up and down.

POV Switch - 1st (MC)

Taking the initiative, I asked, "How did you get here?"

"I fell through the trapdoor, same way as you. Hello! My name is Silica."

I sincerely doubt she faced all those skeletons like me.

Ignoring her name's proclamation since I can see it anyways, I asked her, "How did you deal with the skeletons?"

I need to know whether or not her strength can rival mine. Very doubtful, but it never hurts to be careful.

"I just went around them and tried to escape - also, aren't you going to get out of that water?"

That confirms it; she's weaker than me.

Swimming towards her, I got out of the pool and realized: I didn't die from that fall.

Even if I landed in water, from a high enough place, there's no difference between falling on water and falling on concrete. They'll kill you either way, so how am I not dead?

Maybe it's some sort of game mechanic, like the respawning NPCs?

Interrupting my internal questioning, a display screen from the UI popped up again.

[Requirements Met.

Quest Beginning: Clear the Trials Ahead.

Penalty: Death.]

As that screen came up, the room, which formerly had no way out, opened up a hole in the wall.

The girl's eyes brightened at that. "F-finally! I've been stuck here for hours and there was no way out until now!"

Judging by the fact that she has still not brought it up, she hasn't seen my duel.

I'll check on that later though.

And there hasn't been a way out until I stepped on land and the quest triggered? Are the "requirements" mentioned in the message to have two players to trigger the quest?

Wait… if two players are needed to trigger the quest, wouldn't that mean two players are required to clear it?

Ugh.

[Quest Details: Clear the trials ahead. Two players are required to start this quest, and to end it. If one player dies, so does the other player.]

…

So I have to carry around dead weight while making sure it doesn't die?

I can't even use her as a meat shield if that's the case, though using her as a distraction isn't off the table.

Turning towards her with a neutral face, I asked an important question. "What level are you?"

I don't expect a level higher than three if I'm being honest.

Puffing out her chest, she exclaimed, "I'm level one!"

…

So she's completely worthless. Great.

And why does she sound so proud of that?

...How did she even get here if she's just level one?

"That's alright!" I said while offering her a handshake with a smile. "We'll just level you up while clearing this place."

While I would normally berate her for being Japanese and worthless (though they're essentially the same thing), I need her to clear the trials. I don't want a "partner" that hates me, fostering hatred between us would be the stupidest move I could make.

She's dead weight. So I need her to trust me to get all the work done. She won't trust me if I make her hate me.

Prejudice can be discarded when it ruins my survival chances.

Even if that means I'm stuck carrying a useless Jap through this quest.

"You really mean it? Thank you!" she exclaimed while bowing flamboyantly.

…

How socially inept are Japanese people? This imbecile just ignored my handshake.

"Let's go see what's through that passageway."

"Alright!"

Starting to walk towards it, the girl hurriedly followed, and once we stepped through the passageway, another UI display screen came up.

[Trial #1: Defeat the Copy-Cats.

Details: You will be pitted against an exact copy of yourself, and you must defeat it to clear this trial.]

So, there's a clone of myself I have to defeat?

Wait… there's a clone of me?

While I'd be glad to have another righteous person around to help with executing justice, I'll have to kill him.

Someone like me can't be allowed to live another day to get in my way.

But how will someone win the battle if we're exact copies of each other? It'll be an exactly equal match, unless one side has an outside advantage against the other. The only other things I can think of are growing stronger in the middle of the fight, or the opponent making a mistake.

Actually, nevermind. No need for questions. This isn't some anime, even exactly equal opponents will kill each other soon enough while fighting, all it takes is one mistake, one push for the other to take advantage of.

One thing is worth asking though; is this "clone" inferior to me somehow?

I'll have to see, but this is a dire situation. And it's a pity, because, in this place infested with the Japanese, a fellow-Chinaman would generally be a welcome source of further aggravation for the Japs. Instead, this clone will only attack me, and will fight to kill just as I would. Only one of us will survive. So one must die.

"Wait… clones of ourselves?" questioned the girl. "I don't want to fight myself though."

Simpleton.

"We'll have to if we want to progress through this place and survive. But if you're worried about killing it, then don't worry. The quest details don't say anything about 'killing', only 'defeating'. You could try to knock it out?"

"Yeah! You're right," she mumbled. "Can't believe I didn't think of that."

"It's fine. Now," I said while gazing towards the large arena, reminiscent of the colosseum I had done my duel in, "time to clear this trial."

"Alright!"

She doesn't have anything to worry about if the opponent is an exact copy of her, since she's too soft to do anything too brutal like killing, but I have every reason to be distressed. I'll be facing another level fifteen, and rather than the inherent advantage I'd usually have while fighting other people, I won't have that here. The inherent advantage is doing whatever it takes to win. I can't imagine any gamers in here have the guts to be brutal.

[TRIAL STARTS NOW.]

Being suddenly teleported to an arena, I saw an exact copy of myself facing me.

Sword-like eyebrows, a muscular body, silky black hair that reaches the shoulders, a chin that could slice a mountain; the works.

A true young master was facing me.

Rather than exchanging words, I prepared myself, and he seemed to have the same sentiment.

Words are useless. Action is required in this situation.

Apparently, there wasn't a countdown, and a second after he started running towards me, I started as well.

Grabbing my sword out of my inventory, I noticed that rather than using the spear we formerly used, he also had a sword.

Facing myself, any strategy I could come up with wouldn't survive contact with him.

No plan would.

So rather than coming up with a plan for the whole battle, I just ran towards him, and would come up with strategies and tactics while fighting.

He seemingly shared the same sentiment.

We truly are copies, and that's what worries me.

Swinging my sword horizontally towards his gut, rather than blocking it and wasting energy, he jumped back and narrowly avoided the strike.

Key word is narrow, because it sliced his clothing.

Close.

As he took the initiative to attack me, I got a lunge directed towards my chest.

With his foot thrust towards me, giving him plenty of range, I couldn't dodge easily. With the angle of the strike being a stab, I couldn't block it.

As expected of me.

Deciding to take what I could get, I fell to the floor, and managed to avoid the strike.

His sword followed me ferociously, since it was still thrust out, but I rolled hastily out of the way. However, in the process, my sword fell loose from my grip.

Once again, I was in a fight without a weapon.

Sprinting away and stopping once I was far away enough, I looked back to see my sword in the bastard's other hand.

Should I try to go barehanded or use the lance? While usually the lance would be the obvious choice due to it being a battle with weapons, I can't maneouvre a lance well. Facing a sword with a lance would be stupid at my current skill level with the lance. A sword is easier to use, meanwhile a lance is extremely difficult to maintain full "control" over due to its weight and size, and a lance is meant for cavalry anyways.

My best choice is facing a dual-sworded swordsman with my fists, which is a testament to how limited my options are.

I'll need to retrieve my sword if I want the best chances of winning.

But, for now, I need to try and fight like a brawler.

Though rushing him while he has two swords to defend himself with would be dumb, it's not much worse than letting him take the initiative and slaughter me after cornering my options in close ranged combat.

At least when I come to him first I can control the battle's pace and direction.

I ran towards him, but he was no idiot.

We literally think the exact same. He wants to take advantage of his dual blades' range and corner me while restricting my tactical options.

Not wanting to let him do so, I ran even faster, and he had the same idea.

Facing a version of me is annoying enough, him having an advantage over me is even worse, and me knowing that he already knows I want to take my sword back and knows everything I know is infuriating.

Engaging him in close combat, I grabbed a watermelon out of my inventory and threw it at him.

He cut it in half before it reached him, but I saw that temporary confusion on his face which showed me all I needed to know.

This clone's AI didn't expect non-weapons to be used in combat!

But a narrowing of his eyes, seemingly in realization, just made me curse inwardly again.

Since he already knows all the good options I could and would take, I won't take those optimal actions.

Playing stupidly will throw him off until he gets used to it, especially when a main aspect of combat is predicting your opponents moves.

As the saying goes: 'The greatest swordsman does not fear the second-greatest swordsman; he fears the idiot, for he does not know what he will do.'

However, this is still a double edged sword, because, in the end, I'm playing like a dumbass. Who throws watermelons in a sword fight? That'll do nothing, it's the equivalent of a stalling tactic. It won't do anything.

Since it won't do anything, I need to take advantage of its effects while the tactic works.

Willing a carrot out of my inventory, I threw it towards his eye, and tried to sweep his feet out from beneath him.

He didn't bother stopping the carrot, and stabbed towards my leg, which was going through a sweeping motion trying to knock him down.

Stopping my leg from moving any further and grabbing yet another watermelon, I let the sword impale the fruit while in my hands, then threw the melon away to the side. It didn't knock the sword out of his hands, but it diverted his attack.

Taking advantage of the diverted sword, I swung my fist towards his groin.

Victory over valiancy.

He had a few options in this situation, especially with an extra sword. But I was prepared to retreat as soon as he managed to direct his second sword towards me.

In some ways, it was almost useful that swords were not my favoured weapon, and I didn't have any spear in good condition. It meant that he was sluggish to take advantage of his two swords, since without much sword skill it was complex to dual-wield.

Still, he moved his knee to deflect my wrist, and deflected my fist until it flailed in the air uselessly. This would be difficult. He could also fight without weapons, and he still had two swords.

Jumping backwards before I got skewered by the sword in his free hand, I saw him fully retrieve his sword from the watermelon and wipe the fruit remains off it.

He walked towards me slowly, feeling some pain in his knee.

To delay him, I blitzed him while throwing multiple food items.

He dodged, cut, and avoided all of them.

Eventually, he caught up with me.

He swung the sword in his right hand diagonally, trying to slow down my momentum, and then stabbed towards me normally right after I dodged it.

While having a sword would be preferable in this situation, I don't know how to use a sword extremely well, so he doesn't know how to use a sword extremely well either.

Admittedly, this fight doesn't reflect well on me. If my clone can't even kill me with two swords, then it makes me look like a complete moron. But whether I survive or not is still to be seen.

Since he doesn't know how to use a sword extremely well, his blade was committed forwards and he had trouble using both at once.

I dropped to the ground quickly, dodging his sword, then grabbed a hold of his legs. Leaping to my feet behind him, I saw him fall down forwards as he tried to muster both of his swords to attack me. The swords clattered against the floor, but he managed to keep hold of them.

I swarmed over his right hand while he was down, stepping on it, punching it, and biting it until he let go of the sword.

When I tried to pick it up, he sensed this and leapt into a crouching position, preparing to swing his other sword at me after tightening his grip on it.

But I got a strike in first.

Punching him in the gut while crouching down, his iron abs kept him from keeling over like most would, but it's not like my punches did nothing.

He bent over for a second after the punch, and I took advantage of that temporary mishap to pick up the sword with one hand and punch at him with the other.

Swinging my fist towards his face in an uppercut motion, I sent him flying along with the two swords, while I leapt up and grabbed from the air...

…Is what would've happened, if he wasn't just overplaying the effect my gut punch had on him.

Dodging my uppercut before it hit, the uppercut motion left my right arm in the air and my left arm to my side, while also leaving my chest and body defenseless.

And just like I would've, he took advantage of that.

He sliced one of his swords in a vertical motion on my chest, and actually cut open my skin.

He cut a heavy wound - my organs and intestines would be leaking out if he went any deeper.

The first person that has dealt meaningful damage to 'Hegemaniac' was Hegemaniac.

Alright, I suppose a skeleton did. But I won't count that, because, well...

It's fitting that the first person to deal real damage to me would be me.

I returned my arms to their proper defensive places and retreated as quickly as possible, but his other hand hadn't been idle, even though it now didn't have a sword.

He threw his sword on the ground behind him, and then socked me in the face with that free hand.

The punch had no real build up to it, so it wasn't a super punch, but it came from me.

Of course it dealt damage.

He made faint cracks in my very skull, and as I stumbled backwards, trying to keep the blood away from my eyes to make sure I didn't get blinded, he grabbed his version of my lance from his inventory.

He hurled the lance towards my stomach, and even with a fractured skull and a critical wound, I avoided it.

He drew out his sword again and rushed me.

What am I supposed to do with a fractured skull, brain damage, a critical injury in my chest, and no weapon to depend on except for a shitty lance?

There's a reason he threw the lance rather than using it - it's impractical to wield.

But I still fight. Even if I am just delaying the inevitable, I fight.

Curse these Japanese.

Crawling to my feet and making as much distance between us as possible, I waited for him to reach me. As he did, I waited for his sword to strike towards me, then swung my own sword at an angle which blocked off his adrenaline-fuelled strike. I felt somehow calmer than he was, almost lethargically calm.

My sword slashed across his neck, and I followed up by thrusting it through his neck. His fist flailed at me, but I had already leapt forwards and grabbed him by the shoulder, biting and clawing at his neck wound until it had opened into a large, bleeding gash. Since I was close up, and had a grip on his shoulder, his fist wasn't able to get anything more than a weak glance on my cheek before he fell heavily backwards.

While his sword still, stubbornly, slashed towards my knee, I used my momentum and jumped forwards until I was crouching just next to his neck. His sword swished through empty air, and his numb hands lost control of it, dropping it skidding on the ground where I managed laboriously to pick it up. Raising it, I prepared to behead him.

However, I moved slowly now. It made me think, what had happened to the adrenaline I usually felt in these fights?

I felt my reflexes slowing down soon enough, then bleeding coming from my ears, then feeling nauseous, then starting to taste vomit in my mouth, then almost fully succumbing to unconsciousness.

Ah.

Of course.

When he was wiping the watermelon off of his sword, he was really lathering it in poison.

And he opened a serious injury with that same sword.

As expected of myself.

But he was also on the ground now, unmoving, barely alive. As I gathered my remaining energy, I smiled at the thought that I would finally get to kill myself. Perhaps this feeling of satisfaction is why the Japanese enjoy seppuku? Although I think that seppuku is just the last vestiges that the Japanese retain of what other people call a 'conscience.'

POV Switch - 3rd

"The real Hegemaniac has taken his opponent's sword and is now about to kill his copy."

Yui, checking back up on the match, saw the current state of things.

And it wasn't good for her.

"WAIT WAIT STOP STOP STOP DON'T GET MORE EXP AND STAT POINTS PLEASE! END THE MATCH END THE MATCH!"

Yui frantically commanded the system to end the duel, and it did, right before the villain harvested more Experience Points and stats.

The injured, pitiful looking clone disappeared in a flash of white, and only the true version was left, with his sword cutting the dirt where the clone had disappeared.

"Fuck."

"Phew… good thing he didn't kill his copy, otherwise he would've gotten a stat increase so large that his stats and strength would double… Do I seriously need to watch over his every move throughout these trials in case he gains too much power during them?"

She sighed to herself. Who was she to deserve all of this labor, Hercules?

(A/N: Alright, so the original form of chapter was a mess. Like, wow. But it's slightly less off this time.)