Here's one you almost certainly haven't heard of. An early Irish epic poem in which our hero, Cú Chulainn, a teenage Irish demigod, singlehandedly fights off an entire army. To make a long story short, Ulster decides to go to war because they want a magically super-fertile bull which is owned by Cooley. When they attack, a curse causes everyone in Cooley to be sick for months. Everyone except Cú Chulainn, that is. But how do you stop an army on your own? Apparently by invoking the right of single combat and fighting them individually, one after another, for months on end. So now you know. You don't mess with Cú Chulainn.
This sounds like a mini-game that you could find in a dark cavern in a video game. One of those "fight enemies until you die, but you can't heal or replenish items or anything" ones. And in the end, you always get some item that you don't particularly want.
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