T.R.Jester

Writers Jam 2024

Prompt: Showdown

Final word count: 3200 words exactly

The Loss of The Undefeated

“And once again, the undefeated champion, Valeria wins another duel!”

The emperor shouted out as the crowd of peasants went wild. In the middle of the Colosseum stands I, the tall, the strong, the amazing Valeria. I drop my arms to egg on the crowd and cheer for me more. Like always, they do right away.

“Haha! Better luck next time Man Bender”

“It’s Man Ender! I swear on Fortuna's name, I will best you one of these days!” I help him up, and as I do so, I see a nasty gash on his hand.

“No god can best me! Why… You can send Hercules himself down here to face me! I’ll even get you an autograph after I send him crying back to Jupiter!” The crowd erupts into more cheers and laughter, while there distracted, I lean in close to The Man Ender. “Hey, I didn’t get ya too hard, did I? If you need attention look for Vita, she should be in my quarters shortly after the match”

“This?” he whispers back, “No it's not that bad, I got my guy to bandage me up though, thanks. Good duel.”

“Good duel, Aulus, also sorry about this.”

“About what?”

I push my former opponent to the ground. He looked back at me with shock and betrayal. I shoot him a wink as he catches on. “Stand down you fiend! You lost! Unless you want to ask the crowd…” I put my hand against my ear, waiting for all my fans to scream my name like they are thanking a god for a bountiful harvest. My name can be heard from the entire empire as they shout for me, and only me. I grab my weapons off the floor and flex for my fans as I exit the Colosseum.

I return to my room and place my weapons, a Scythe named “Thorn” and a buckler named “Rose” on the wall near my door. After taking off my armor, I make sure no one is around, no adoring fans, no Vita, and no caretakers. When I’m done making sure the coast is clear, I pull out a small piece of cloth with a sickle on it and whisper “It's safe… for now”. A flash appears before me, and low and behold, the god of time, Saturn, is before me.

“Soooo…” He says leaning in close, “How was the match?”

I recline on my bed, getting comfortable: “Well, Aulus is improving, but not enough for me to worry. I did have to use your gift against him once or twice though.”

“Whaaaaat? You of all people had to use my divine power to rewind time… against Aulus?” He looks shocked and plays the dramatics. He fakes fainting on a chair with his hand on his forehead. “Is our unflinching champ, our unstoppable titan, my personal champion…” He pinches my cheeks as he says that last part. I swat his hand away. “Going soft?”. I Jolt up and point right into his eyes.

“You listen here Saturn, the next time you think I go soft, I’ll fight you myself and show you who is really the soft one here.” He starts laughing… at me? The nerve! I stand up and reach for my scythe, but he puts his hand over mine.

“We both know that won’t be needed, Val. I have no question about your ability to turn me into a puddle of divine grace and guts. I must know; however, do you remember why I decided to make you my champion and give you powers?”

“Yeah, it was to teach me humility or something. I mean a lot of good that did you, seeing as I haven’t lost a fight in years. Even getting challenged outside the arena is a cakewalk, they attack me, I rewind, and stop them before they land a punch. It’s great! I am undefeatable! Incredible! I’m like the god of war!”

“Minerva or Mars?”

“Both! At the same time!” I let out a hearty laugh and pound my chest. I feel a slight tinge when I'm done, I look under my shirt and notice I have a small bruise. “…Yeah, I won’t be beat.”

“I don’t know why you’re trying to upsell yourself to me, I already have my goals for you, my champion.” He picks up my scythe, examining it like a prized artifact

“Hey! Most people pay good money just to look at it!”

“And yet here I am, like I said to you before, my goal is to keep you humble.”

“So, you give me the power to stop me from losing? Real smart of you.”

“The gods work in mysterious ways. Don’t you have another battle coming up? I'll get out of your hair… but we will talk again soon. Don’t call me I’ll call you!” He disappears, leaving my prized weapon to fall to the ground. I spring to stop it from falling, putting me right next to the door. The same door that just so happens to open to reveal a smaller woman, carrying bandages and crushed herbs. She looks at me like I went crazy.

“…Hello Valeria. How was your match today?”

“It was um…” I put the weapon away and lean against the wall. “Great, thanks for asking Vita. It wasn’t much.” I start flexing my muscles in her direction. “I’m unstoppable as you know, a real Mars… or was it Minerva? Wait who is the god of war again?” She leans in and kisses me on the cheek.

“They both are, dummy. Now, where are the injuries? I need to work quickly, you're on again soon.” I take off my shirt to show her the bruise. She blushes for a second.

“C'mon Vita, nothing you haven’t seen before, let's keep it professional.” She shoves my arm.

“What do you know about professionalism? Weren’t you flirting with me just moments ago?”

“Oh, that? It was professional flirting. Still full of professionalism.” She applies a cold powder to the bruise. It hurts but I can’t let her see that. She rolls her eyes at me. I blush, looking at her take care of me, and advert my gaze. Subtlety, however, isn’t my forte.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with you. Oh! Before I forget, who were you talking to before I came in? I heard plenty of commotion from down the hallway.”

“Oh, that? I uh, no I was just giving myself a pep talk.”

“Uh-huh, and I thought you were unflinching and could take down Hercules and- “I panic trying to think of a way to stop this line of questioning, I kiss her right on the lips.

“…You talk too much”. She giggles and softly pushes me back.

“Stop it, you! One of us is actually trying to do their job!”

“Then give me the kiss of life to cure my wounds.” I lean in for another kiss. She puts one hand over my mouth and shoots me a mischievous glare.

“Let me finish this bandage. You're going to fight again soon. How about this, I’ll give you the kiss of life when you win, ok my warrior?” She ties up the bandage around my back and hands me the shirt I was wearing before.

“Can I get more than a ki-“

“I’m leaving. Stay safe my love.”

I kiss her on the cheek and watch her leave. I grab some grapes and lay back down. I try to drape the grapes into my mouth, but my nerves are causing me to miss. I eventually pluck them into my mouth like a commoner. The damned god has gotten into my head… But I know I am Undefeatable. I haven’t lost a duel in… I stop to look at my hand, I look at my fingers, going from my thumb to my pinkie, or rather, where my pinkie should be. I lost it ages ago before I was The Valeria… when I was just Valeria… Before I met Vita, or Saturn, for that matter. I Cannot go back to that life. I won’t.

“Ladies and Gentlemen!” The emperor yells out to the crowd, “We have for her second match of the day, the woman who wields a scythe so deadly, she can’t tell if she is chopping heads or wheat! Give it up for Valeria!” The crowd goes wild yet again. It really is just music to my ears. I spin my scythe around and stance up. They eat it up as they should.

“And her challenger, an up in comer who has nothing but promise! It's Neades!” A larger part of the crowd than I would like starts to cheer for him, I look at him, he is more armored than most of the others that I face. He has a large axe in one hand and a Cestus on the other. He also has this helmet… it almost completely covers his face. I can't even see his eyes.

I don’t even hear the emperor yell for the match to begin before I’m forced to dodge an axe swing from above. If I didn’t have my helmet on, I would have lost some hair. I dash back and try to slice his chest. One solid wound at the match is over, that goes for either of us. He quickly grabs the blade of my scythe with his gauntlet. He pulls it in and slams my head with his, before I realize what happened, I notice that I don’t have a weapon, and his axe is at my neck. This is not how it's happening. Not like this. I push his blade back with my buckler and sock him in the face. I slide and grab my scythe from under him and aim for his heel. As I aim low, his axe comes down again, the unstoppable force that it is severs the blade of the scythe, leaving me with a glorified stick. He kicks me in the nose hard enough to push me back. I wipe my face… Blood? This can't be. My vision is going blurry, I listen to the crowd… It's silent… they are just as shocked as I am. Don’t worry fans, this isn’t how it's going to go down.

“…has nothing but promise! It's Neades!” I stare him down. I know he is going to go for blood as soon as he can. He goes for the overhead chop again. I rush him and get close. I tackle him to the ground and use my buckler to start whaling on his head. I don’t let up. I can't. I got a taste of what this guy can do, and I won't let him do that agai- before I'm able to get past that helmet, he pushes me to the side and kicks my scythe out of my hand. As I reach for it, I already realized what I had done wrong. I took my eyes off of him for a second too long. He kicks my hand to the side and gets on top of me like I was. His Cestus is doing more damage than my buckler though. Before I get a chance to retaliate or block, I see one of my teeth fly through the air. Every time I try to block, he shatters my face again. Eventually, he gets up and positions his axe towards my gut. He reals his axe back, positions it over his head, and as he brings it down-

“…has nothing but promise! It's Neades!” I know what to do this time. I have to act quicker than he does. The takedown worked last time, and I can use that to my advantage. The second I see his axe come up, I tackle him down again. This time, I stand over him, pinning that cestus arm under my foot, I start making slashes all over his body, anywhere that isn’t armored I try to make a wound. The second I start aiming for the legs, he grabs the back of my ankle with his other arm and pulls me to the ground. I quickly turn and kick him in the face and try to make some distance. It barely stuns him, but it's just enough time to get back to my feat. I need to take every opportunity I can. I try to take a slice at his head. He is looking down, the shot is perfectly lined up, this is it! I can see the blade coming down, time slows down for me, but not in a way that I control… As the blade was about to pierce his helmet, I see that cestus block my attack. Before I know what hits me, I feel something sharp hit my leg. He landed a deadly chop on my ankle with his axe. I go down on one knee. I look up at my enemy… The winner again… I stare up at him. The crowd is once again silent. I know that he wins this version of the battle. What can I do different? I have to keep trying.

“…has nothing but promise! It's Neades!” I go for a slice at his arms. He hits me with an uppercut and scars my hand.

“…has nothing but promise! It's Neades!” I punch him with my buckler. He punches me harder back.

“…has nothing but promise! It's Neades!” I try to pull him in with my scythe to try to choke out his range. He then chokes me out.

“…has nothing but promise! It's Neades!” Damnit.

“…has nothing but promise! It's Neades!” Damnit!

“…has nothing but promise! It's Neades!” Damnit Damnit Damnit!

I feel mentally exhausted. I have tried everything I can think of, I go in to attack, he attacks harder. I try to defend; he breaks me down. Again, and again. It's “…has nothing but promise! Its Neades!”. Those words have drilled their way into my brain. I feel like I have heard those words more than my own name. Every strike gets countered. Every dodge gets predicted like he can read my mind. Honestly, I lost count of how many times I tried this fight. Every time, I feel like I’m getting sloppier and sloppier… I don’t know what I can do. I barely can even hide it anymore, every time I see him at this point, I feel… Fear. I have never felt fear in another man in… what feels like forever. What is this? Am I becoming weak? Was Saturn right? No. I have to win. I have to win this time! Let's take it from the top.

“…has nothing but promise! It's Neades!” I ready myself, steel my will, or at least try to steal it from my own nerves, but something stops him. His axe stops moving mid-attack. I look around me, the crowd has stopped. The birds in the sky have frozen. I hear a faint chuckle.

“Like I said… I’ll call you!” I turn around and Saturn, open arms and ready to hug me… I take a step back.

“Saturn! What’s going on? I didn’t do this!” He slides around and puts his arm around my shoulder.

“I did, don’t worry. You didn’t mess up or anything.”

“So… What’s going on? Why did this-“

“I did this, Val, don’t worry. I needed to talk to you. Woman to man-God-me.” I take a step away from him, trying to figure out what game he is playing with me.

“Okaaay… Look. Unless you have a secret to how I can beat him. I don’t want to hear it right now.”

“I do have a secret involving this.”

“Wait… you do?” I almost fell over from sheer relief. My scythe catches me. “Well don’t leave me in waiting! Tell me!”

“The secret is…” I lean in, waiting for his every word. I can tell he is eating this up, but I can’t even care right now.

“There is simply no way you win this!”

Any look of Joy I had immediately drained. “What do you mean there is no way for me to win!? I'm undefeatable! I’m unstoppable! Im- “

“Going to lose… Val, I have checked every realistic timeline and in just about all of them, you lose.”

“Wait! Just about isn’t all of them! That means there is a way! Right?”

“In those timelines, he accidentally kills you and is disqualified, thereby technically making you the winner. And that’s ok.”

“What do you mean that’s ok?! I can’t lose! I have never lost before! I refuse to lose! I Won’t!”

“Val.”

“What would Vita think? What about the fans? I am your champion!”

“Val...”

“How can you be ok with me- “

“Val! It's ok! Just because you lose in most of the timelines… You don’t lose anything in most of those timelines. In most of them, you are still famous, you are still with Vita, and I promise you, you are still my champion.”

“But… Why?”

“Because it happens! I’ve lost before and I’m the god of time! You aren’t the lesser because of it, you are only human.”

“haha…” His words pierce me like… well an axe I suppose. “No wait… I'm not just a human. I have your powers!’

“And I'm still telling you ya lose. You gave it your best shot. Just take the hit, get a cool scar on your arm, and walk away alive.”

I pause for a second, Am I considering? No, wait… “I am undefeated… My reputation will be in-“

“How many times have you beat Aulus?”

“About three or four times now.”

“And he still comes to fight you, again and again, getting better each time. Take the loss. Ok? Trust me for once.” And like that… He’s gone. And the world comes back too. Before I realized it, I take a nasty hit in the arm from an axe. I look at the gash on my arm and realize that this is it. I ready a counter, but he puts his axe at my neck… and I know that’s it. Defeat. The crowd goes silent, but eventually, it's broken by-

“And here you have it folks! Neades is the first man to ever take down the champ!”. The crowd roars his name. It stings harder than the wound.

“Hey…” I look at him, he turns to meet my gaze. “Next time I’m winning. No questions asked.” Without making a noise, he nods and walks off the stage. I go back to my room to see Vita, I was scared of my opponent, but now I’m more scared to look at her, I can’t imagine what disappointment she must feel in me- She walks towards me and gives me a kiss. She sees the gash on my arm and starts applying medicine to it, I stand there confused. It’s the same as if I won, she watched the fight, right?

“Vita… I’m sorry that I-“

“You did great, Valeria. Be sure to take it easy for a bit, this looks like a nasty wound, you have to relax with me for a bit, ok? Doctor’s orders. Also, you have another battle in a couple days”

“I do...? Good.”