Resounding buzzes of steel upon steel rang throughout the void.
Saryn repeatedly clashed with the hologram, which held a broadsword in each hand.
With each clash, new memories of the previous candidates would recall themselves to Saryn's mind.
'This is taking too long, I can't find an opening.' He thought, as he ducked and weaved through the hologram's attacks, struggling to keep himself balanced with the void's effects.
Saryn felt another blue blade fly right past his face, the air around it fluctuating, as he spotted an opening.
He lunged forward, the obsidian greatblade slashing toward the hologram's armpit.
However, his step felt wrong, pushing off his left foot, he could feel it slipping.
…
"Attempt two." Marduk's voice emerged from the pure black around Saryn, as he found himself standing right where he began, facing the same opponent, except holding a katana in contrast to the dual broadswords from before.
'Shit.' Saryn didn't imagine it would be this difficult.
He looked through the foreign memories, for something that could help him, but these people had all taken hundreds of attempts to pass the stage.
'These guys are all bums!' He thought as he reviewed the memories.
Saryn picked up his blade, and prepared to challenge the hologram a second time.
…
The katana whizzes toward him as he attempts to dodge.
The floor tilts beneath him, sending him barreling toward the blade.
"Attempt three."
…
The hologram's warhammer comes crushing down on his head like a meteor.
Saryn lunges backward, but the void has decided otherwise.
"Attempt four."
…
He successfully dodges the lightning quick slash of the hologram's dagger.
In his attempt to counter, Saryn plants his foot, before it sunk half an inch as if stepping into quicksand, throwing off his balance.
"Attempt fi-"
"I get it!" Saryn cut Marduk off, despite Marduk carrying on with his words, making Saryn question whether the person yelling out the attempt number was actually Marduk or just a copy he had placed there to further push Saryn to the brink of insanity.
With every consecutive failure, new memories would appear, occasionally of new people as well. He sat down multiple times to try using these memories to his advantage, but his efforts returned fruitless.
A memory flashes: someone screaming, spinning wildly, blade in hand like some sort of tornado, before they died miserably.
'Great. That was helpful wasn't it?' Saryn thought before dismissing this specific memory.
He looks through the memories again, seeing:
A candidate throw their weapon?
The hologram deflects the sword, and it just so happens that it came flying back at the sender.
The candidate is bisected immediately by the rogue blade.
'Why does Marduk even "bless" me with these stupid memories?!' Saryn was absolutely losing his mind.
In his frustration, Saryn released a long tragic sigh that resembled more of a snake's hiss than an actual sigh.
…
"Attempt twelve."
Saryn had looked through all the memories he had been bestowed so far, and after every attempt, he would both receive new memories, and also get slightly better at handling the floor while fighting.
'Another fruitless try.' His gaze fell deep, as he rested against the void barrier, looking through his new memories like a computer folder.
'Let's see here…'
He sifted through the memories as if looking for gold in a pile of dirt.
Each one flashed past like corrupted recordings… and one by one, Saryn dismissed them as useless.
'No… not this… what about this one?'
He saw a woman lunge forward with the greatblade, weaving through two strikes, landing a hit on the hologram before dying to the impale of the hologram's spear.
'That one's not that bad, considering I haven't landed any strikes, I'll keep it in mind.'
On the next one, he saw a man…
'What the fuck.'
Saryn's expression turned into one of pure disbelief as his cheeks crumpled.
He watched in horror as the man in the memory tossed the greatblade like a javelin, before accelerating and jumping, intending to drop-kick the hologram.
Moments later, the warhammer wielding hologram stood unharmed as the bloody remains of the man splattered across the right side wall.
'Why would you even try something like that.' Saryn dragged a hand down his face.
He quickly tried forgetting that memory, before looking through the rest.
Simply death after death after death, except maybe one or two decent ones, or a couple extremely unfortunate ones, which made Saryn want to peel his skin off out of cringe.
'If I see one more idiot try to put up a circus act, I'm going to lose it.' He thought, forgetting that he had lost it long ago.
Saryn forced himself to keep looking despite how much it made his eyes sore.
A man tried parrying a sword with their bare hand…?
Dead.
A woman attempted a backflip for no discernible reason…?
Dead.
Somebody even tried to bite the hologram.
Saryn shut off that memory so outrageously quickly he didn't even get to witness their demise.
He exhaled, long and slow, letting the frustration bleed out of him. The void hummed around him, the floor pulsing faintly beneath his feet like a living thing. He'd died so many times now that the resets barely fazed him. The shock was gone. The fear was gone. Only irritation remained.
And beneath that irritation… something else.
A flicker.
A thread.
A movement he couldn't quite place.
He frowned and rewound one of the newer memories, not because it looked promising, but because it didn't look stupid. A rare trait among the pile.
The candidate stepped forth like an ancient gladiator, the obsidian greatblade pulsing rhythmically to the man's heartbeat.
He lunged at the hologram with a sort of mastery the other candidates lacked.
No tricks.
No theatrics.
No bluffs.
Just pure skill.
Saryn watched and studied the man's every movement, despite how short the memory was.
The candidate swept his blade gracefully, treating it like an extra limb, as it swung round soundlessly, like the air parted to allow its travel.
The man's steps were powerful yet quiet, the floor beneath him causing no accidents, like he was stepping on regular solid ground.
And right before his sword contacted the hologram, the memory faded.
Saryn shared a moment of silence with the boundless void beneath him to appreciate the fact that out of all those retards, one of them actually managed to pull off something impressive, and not by luck.
He replayed this memory multiple times in his head, trying to grasp the essence of the man's movements, and brand it into his own mind.
Moments later, Saryn stood up, picking up his blade yet again, prepared to torture himself some more against the hologram.
However, for the first time since entering this room, he felt direction.
Not toward victory, but toward progress.