The trail was quiet... a little too quiet. The insect calls were all but absent as I ascended the stone steps. Call it intuition, but the hair on the back of my neck started to stand. A rustle in the leaves to my left confirmed my previous suspicions. At that split moment, I had realized that I was being followed. With barely enough time to draw my trusty saber, a black-clad assasin...referred as "Ninja" in these lands, jumped out of the woodworks with the prowess of an acrobat. His razor sharp steel had already been drawn. With every intention of knocking me backwards upon the stone steps to stun me, the Ninja flipped himself through a couple of backflips before executing a flying sidekick towards me with catlike grace. Narrowly dodging the thunder of his foot, I pivoted to face my adversary as he landed at the foot of the stone stairway. The moonlight did nothing to reveal his identity, which was hidden behind a cloth facewrap. All I saw were his ill intentions behind a set of cold brown eyes. His brow furrowed as he switched his stance and pointed his sword towards me. Readying my own blade, I awaited his retort....all the while wondering who could have sent a ninja after me... and why. All of a sudden, the reality hit me...here I am, standing toe to toe with an embodiment of death itself. Ninja are infamous for their cunning and are quite feared indeed. Behind every shadowy mask is a lifetime of hard training. Should I meet my end here, I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful place to fall. The moon itself seemed to watch with great interest as two warriors, both himself and I, geared up to engage each other in the game of death.

Winner takes all... and losing is not an option.