Whispers from the Abyss

As Luke opened the door, he saw nothing but instead heard a voice saying, "Come to the center of the room."

Luke started to make his way to the center of the room, and after he did, a dark beam of light came down on him and scanned him. The beam disappeared, replaced by some sort of dark liquid coming from the floor. A cold, harsh-sounding robotic voice told Luke, " Scanning complete. Initiating copy of challenger. The trial difficulty was raised by two. Clone may now deviate and use faints. The trial starts in 3, 2, 1."

An alarm went off, signaling the start of the trial. As soon as the alarm was rung, a weapon rack rose in front of each Luke.

On the rack, there was a wide selection of weapons, including but not limited to spears, mace, swords, pole staffs, daggers, staff, and even gauntlets. Luke wasn't expecting the racks to rise, and it shocked him, but he knew he needed to grab a weapon to stand a chance.

Luke grabbed the dagger because they were the closest weapon. Luke had never felt anything with a texture like this. Its blade was as dark as the void, and the handle felt as freezing as the depths of the abyss. While Luke was distracted by his newfound daggers, his clone took the chance to attack him.

Luke noticed it at the last second, and his already shaking legs gave out, making him stumble back. Even though he stumbled and fell back, he didn't completely dodge the sword swing. So he got a cut on his arm, which sent him into the worst pain of his life.

Luke screamed, "FUCK ME, THAT HURTS SO BAD!"

Luke then saw another swing of the sword coming down on his neck, but at the last second, he rolled out of the way. Luke's situation was so serious that the instincts of all humans came into play—fight or flight. Luke hesitated for a second, which felt like an eternity, but eventually, he chose to fight. The adrenaline pumping throughout Luke's body made him forget about the pain that he was experiencing from the cut.

Now that Luke had regained his calm, he started to try and fight back. Luke tried to use his dagger to swing at his clone, but he realized that the clone using the sword could give it much more control over his space. The clone knocks out one of the daggers from Luke's hands.

Luke was taken by surprise, not expecting to lose one of his daggers. Luke's already wavering mind finally gave in, and he was left stunned and open to an attack from the clone. The clone didn't let this opportunity go to waste and closed in on Luke. The clone slashes down on Luke's shoulder, leaving a deep wound. Luke lost all control over his left arm after that attack, but the pain snapped him back from his daze.

Luke, now back from his daze, backed up as much as he could, and put up his remaining dagger as a guard. Luke had no control over his left arm, leaving it in his way, dangling by his side. The clone, not giving Luke any time, rushed up and swung right across Luke's chest, but Luke, now aware and ready, dodged left and tried to get an attack on the clone's right leg.

The clone noticed what Luke was trying to do, so it jumped back to try and avoid it. The clone's attempt to dodge the attack wasn't fully successful; he got a cut on the back of his right leg. The clone's movement slowed down after it got cut. Luke saw this and started to move on the offensive, but the clone still had a longer reach with its sword. Luke tried to get as close as he could to the clone, but every time he tried, he was met with a swing by the sword.

Every one of Luke's attempts ends with a failure, leaving him confused about how he should win this. Luke's thoughts at this moment were, "How the hell am I supposed to beat this thing."

The clone stayed on the defensive, countering all of Luke's attacks. Luke was starting to lose his breath, needing to catch his breath. The clone noticed Luke was starting to let up on his attacks, which led him to counter his last attack and go back on the offensive. Once the clone regained the attacking position, it didn't stop attacking Luke, leaving no chance to try and counter-attack.

Luke needed an opportunity to catch his breath, but he knew the clone wouldn't let him. At this moment, Luke's mind was thinking at light speed, trying to think of any way he could survive this. Thought after thought raced through Luke's head; after what seemed like an eternity, Luke finally thought of a plan. It was super risky, but Luke was willing to take any risk at this point to escape this hellhole. Luke tried his best to counter the clone's attack, but after he messed up, Luke got grazed but used his already disabled left side to take the attack.

After the clone attacked, Luke went for a counterattack on the clone's right leg. Luke successfully hit the clone's leg; now the clone couldn't put too much weight on his right side. The clone started to put more of his weight on his left leg, but he still didn't let Luke off. Luke jumped back to make distance and regain his breath. Luke watched as the clone started to rush him. He started to rush the clone back to try and make up for his dagger's short range. The clone swung on Luke, but he dodged to his side, rushed up on the clone, and got a swing off his back.

The clone counterattacked but missed, and Luke took this chance to stab into the back of the clone's neck but missed. The clone used this chance to knock Luke back. Luke rolled back, knocked out of breath again from the clone's attack. Luke noticed that the dagger he lost was right next to him. Luke hid the one he didn't drop behind his back and picked up the one he dropped earlier.

The clone rushed to attack Luke while he was on the ground, out of breath, but before it managed to reach him, Luke got up. The clone still rushed in to try and stab Luke in the chest or stomach. Luke tried to counter the attack, but Luke, being inexperienced, missed the counter and got stabbed in the stomach, dropping his dagger. The clone's pitch-black face held a hint of mockery for Luke after he missed his counter…