It started on a quiet night, in the middle of nowhere, a spark ignited, a boy opened his tearful eyes, all he could see was darkness

"Where am I?"

he muttered, his arms and legs were trapped in the roots of a tree

"What is this place?"

he said as he was trying to free himself, but he couldn't do anything scared and confused he tried one more time to free himself as hard as he could, he did it he freed himself, as he was falling to his knees he felt warm water

"Is anybody here?!"

he screamed, but the only thing he could hear was his own echo

"Please someone help me!"

but there was no answer he started to panic and started to find a way to get out of this place, it was hard for him since he couldn't see but with time he regained his sight, then he realized.

"Is this a dead tree? How did I even end up here?"

he tried to recall it but nothing would come up to his mind, he was clueless, he had lost his memories

"I have to get out of here fast, this place could collapse at any time"

he searched for an exit, but as he was going farther and farther from his original spot he realized that this tree was built like a maze. Even though he didn't give up he kept looking for minutes and finally, he found it, an exit, he felt great relief and started to run in the exit's direction, the light of the outside world was blinding to him since he was trapped there for who knows how long. The first thing he saw was a forest, a huge forest with trees over 50 meters, as soon as he saw them he was stunned

"What is this place? It's a complete forest there is no sight of a town nearby, what am I supposed to do in a place like this? I am in the middle of nowhere!"

he said to himself in a disbelieve

"It doesn't matter right now I have to find a safe place fast before it gets dark, who knows what dangers this forest hides"

he then started to look for a shelter to pass the night, he was searching for multiple hours but couldn't find anything

"There is no way that I came this far away and not remember a thing, there must be someone around here"

He continued to search. He slowly notices the area around him, the trees were blooming, there were a large number of fruits on the branches and there were berries on the bushes too, That surprised him because he thought that the forest was dead because of the really dark color the logs of the trees had. Plenty of time passed  by  and he decided to take a break, he took a seat under a large tree, picked berries from a nearby bush, and started to eat them

"They have a really bad taste but as long as it keeps me alive is fine"

he thought to himself, after his lunch he started to hear a weird noise coming out of some bushes, the boy went to check up on what it was and to his surprise he saw a wolf, a wounded wolf, the wolf had bright red eyes

"Are you alright?"

He asked the wolf, as he helped it walk, suddenly the wolf bit his hand, the boy tried to push the wolf away but it was no use, the animal was stronger than him

While trying to get it away from him a hole opened up on the wolf's stomach, there was no sound, it just appeared

"Lone wolfs never change... the bad ones of the group and will even try to bite the hand that feeds them, stupid isn't it?"

A strange man asked the boy, he had an intense purple aura surrounding him

"W-Who the hell are you!?!"

he said to the man

"Oh where are my manners? Greetings I'm Tokkou, traveler it seems that you have lost your way home, I recommend that you follow me so I can take you to a safe place"

he replied

"When did you get here what the hell are you trying to do!?"

he answered in an aggressive tone as his hand continued to bleed

"As a said I know a place you can stay before the nightfall I'm not someone that you should be afraid of sir I'm just a guy trying to make some money by working as a crier, plus right now I'm pretty sure you need a helping hand"

Tokkou replied calmly, the way he spoke helped him to calm down

"And how do I know you are not trying to attack me, you look shady plus who would come this way? There is nothing past the "place" you are referring to right Tokkou?"

he said to him

"You suspect people too much you know that? I didn't come to this place hoping to find someone I just do a random cycle around the place once in a while, hoping to find customers since a lot of them get lost in this forest and here I am finding you so you should be a little more glad"

he replied with a smile on his face

"Augh, fine take me to this place of yours but if you try something funny.."

"What? You gonna kill me?"

Tokkou interrupted him, at this moment he realized how powerless he was. He had no weapons on him and he also had no idea where to go if he somehow managed to kill or immobilize him, plus he was injured so things surely couldn't turn out good

"Hahaha, don't be so serious god damn it"

Tokkou said while laughing

"Just follow me and I will guide you to the place"

the guys were walking to the place for about a 20 minutes, the atmosphere was lit of bit awkward between them since they had nothing to talk about, Tokkou kept whistling an unknown song for him on their way but it sounded kind of familiar

"From where is the song you are whistling!"

he said in a surprised tone

"Oh this? it is a homeland song of mine my mother always used to sing it for me when I was much younger than you, I don't remember the lyrics so I just whistle to its melody"

he replied with a big smile on his face

"By the way you haven't told me your name yet"

Tokkou told him

"My name?"

he replied, he tried to recall it but didn't know his name, he started to panic so he made up a name for himself

"My name is Teras"

"Hmm, it is a really rare name, in fact, I have never heard of it, so I take it you are not from around here are you?"

"You are correct, actually, I  am from far away"

Teras replied

"Oh, are you from the heart kingdom?"

this question caught Teras off guard because he had no idea what the heart kingdom was, actually, he didn't know anything about the kingdoms, so to reply was something really hard for him, but he felt like he had to come up with an answer quick

"Actually I come from a village, not a kingdom"

he recklessly replied

Tokkou stared at him with a blank expression, that terrified Teras so he quickly broke eye contact with Tokkou

"Stop saying stupid things you are from one of the four kingdoms, even if you are from an enemy kingdom I wouldn't really hurt you since this has nothing to do with me, I'm just here to make a quick buck..."

his response sent a wave of happiness towards Teras, so now he felt like he could answer with no consequences

"Is that so, then I will answer your question, I come from a village in the heart kingdom and I came here for exploring and got lost"

"See pretty easy question to answer, another thing I wanted to ask you is are you good at combat?"

this question made Teras anxious because he himself doesn't know what he is capable of doing so he naturally said

"I know as much as I need to survive"

Tokkou didn't reply he just had an awkward smile on his face, Teras tried to ignore the man's smile and kept on walking, eventually, the 2 men reached the place it was huge from the outside you couldn't see the other side of it and it was build like a big circle

"This place seems like an ar..."

before he could finish his sentenced Tokkou quickly stroked a vital point of Teras making him fall unconscious

"You bastard! how cocky of you to follow such a suspicious man like me, did your parents didn't teach you how to act around strangers?"

he said to Teras's unconscious body while bursting out laughing. After moments Teras slowly began to wake up, he  woke up in a big room that was like a prison cell, the only exit that this room had was huge steel bars that lead to the arena  obnoxious, and what made him completely wake up was an obnoxious high pitch voice

"Heeeello laaadieess and gentelemeeeen!!!!!,  welcome  to the greatest underground fighting club of the kingdom of heart, the kingdom that every other kingdom sees as a beautiful little kingdom with a lot of sightseen, for you, we prepared a special match thanks to our lovely we accomplished to find a subject to fight our great champion before his title match and his name is the great Potinkoooooo!!!"

the crowd cheered like crazy and Teras could hear a lot of people yelling some kind of a battle cry

"And on the other side of the arena is a brand new fighter making his debut match here is Teeeeeeeraaaas!!!!"

the cell doors opened up to the arena, Teras didn't seem to notice them but 2 guards were standing behind him

"Move your ass"

said one of the guards, without any seconds to spare the guards pushed Teras outside the cell to the arena, on the other side of the arena he saw Potinko, he was a muscular man with a big-sized hammer looking him dead in the eyes

"What is this? what is happening?"

he thought to himself

"Get reeaady to fiiiiight!!!"

said the obnoxious voice

"Wait!!!! I don't have a weapon how is this a fair fight?"

Teras said

"I see it appears we made an error, one of these could do the work here, take one "

one of the guards threw a medium-sized sword at him

'are you serious? This is still not fair!'

he thought

Potinko started to charge at him, Teras decided to charge at him too, since the arena was surrounded by steel blades it wouldn't be wise to stick to a corner. Potinko swigged his hammer towards Teras he barely reflected it and scratched Potinko at his right arm, Potinko didn't let that slide he punched Teras on his ribs, he broke 2 of his ribs, Teras screamed because of the pain

"Cheap play you bastard!"

he said to Potinko, Potinko then tried to strike again but in a flash, Teras cut 3 of his fingers on his left arm, Potinko was furious he scream while swinging like a beast, but it wasn't really effective because Teras had a strategy on his mind, the strategy was to keep a distance with him and when he closed the distance strike him he could easily achieve that because his blade was lighter

'turns out a small sword is actually pretty useful against something like this'

he thought as he was trying to keep a distance, but Potinko wasn't having it he was humiliated in front of a large number of his fan

"Now things get serious, I will activate my card !"

the moment he said that an aura surrounded him, his muscles were pumping out like nothing Teras had ever imagined they could

"Here it is!!! Potinko's card 2 in action"

'card 2?'

he asked himself, in a flash he launched himself in Teras's direction, he attacked, Teras barely managed to dodge the attack

"He fights completely different now what the hell? "

before he could ask another question to himself Potinkos was launching a barrage of attacks at Teras, thankfully because of his crippled hand he didn't manage to connect a single hit, he just managed to inflict some minor injuries to Teras, in the heat of the battle Tera decided to take a big risk, he retreated  to the corner of the arena and waited there

"Hahaha what are you even doing in this situation you should just activate a card or simply kill yourself just so you make it less painful you have lost already"

"Then why are you holding back? afraid of a weak little boy like me?"

Potinkos once again lunched himself at Teras attempting to squash him with his hammer, then an opening showed, Teras threw his sword like a spear aiming for Potinko's head, He barely dodge the sword but his ear got cut off then Potinkos swung his hammer from as high as he could, he attempted to kill Teras, but Teras quickly closed the distance and grabbed Potinko's arm and used Potinko's own strength to throw him on the spikes, as a result, he pierced his whole body then Potinkos slowly died of bleeding, before he could say something Teras passed out of exhaustion after this hard fight. He once again woke up in a strange room, it seemed like it had everything, a luxurious bed, massive windows, and furniture

"Good morning boy"

said a familiar voice

"So it's you who planned all this? Tokkou!!"

"Calm down the beating you got wasn't for free obviously, here is your reward"

he handed Teras a bag full of gold coins

"This should be enough to cover your expenses"

Teras shockingly took it and thanked him

"So what happens now that I went through all that?'

Teras asked

"Simply we part ways is not that complicated really, to be honest, I didn't believe you could make it out alive without the power of cards "

"This power of cards what does it mean?"

he asked

"Are you for real asking me that or are you playing a joke on me?"

he replied while laughing

"Please just answer me will you?"

"Actually I will not, I won't bother explaining this to a boy that doesn't know anything about him"

that answer shocked Teras a bit

"How did you kno.. , it doesn't matter, can you teach me the power of the card?'

"Of course not, are you taking me for some kind of teacher kid? I don't have time to play with kids like you so just get out of this room and screw off I have better things to do"

"Or what you gonna kill me?"

he replied

"You are not even worth making a mess of so just leave"

Teras had spotted a sword on a desk while he had this whole conversation with Tokkou so when he had the chance he run for it, Teras grabbed the sword and tried to jump off the window, in a blink of an eye Tokkou kicked Teras across the room

"Are you suicidal or something kid?"

he said with anger in his voice

"So you use the power of the cards too huh?"

he said with a cracking voice

"Which card was this? because this can't be the same that the one fatty used, your aura is more ominous "

"You got good eyes I'm gonna give you that kiddo"

he replied with a smug face

"Look I don't use that stupid sword anymore so let's make a deal if you can even touch me in a minute this sword is all yours plus I'm gonna tell you about the cards, fair deal, isn't it?

Teras looked him in the eyes and said

"BRING IT ON!!!"