Wow, what a cool concept! It's kinda like you're supposed to be in a tug o' war with yourself. Though, I feel like the execution falls a little flat since there's nothing to stop the player from sitting still and purposefully dying to continue moving in one direction (though I suppose purposefully failing makes the game fall in line with the jam's theme). Maybe you could add some sort of gameplay reward for winning a fight just after losing one or add something to disincentivize the player from purposefully dying. You could also try making it so the enemy will never try attacking you unless you are actively trying to attack them, so you can't just sit still.