Lost In Fatal Existence

The air was thick with tension. The newly recreated world stretched before them, unfamiliar yet eerily similar to the one they had envisioned. It wasn't their doing. Something—or someone—had acted first. The gods of life had noticed, and now, their servants had begun to move.

Roy adjusted his coat, feeling the weight of responsibility pressing against his shoulders. His partner, Merlin, stood beside him, a deep frown on his face. They had been sent out to scout, to gather information, and now they had stumbled upon something much worse than they had expected.

Two figures stood before them in the dim, misty forest. One, a man with a perpetual, eerie smile, his eyes gleaming with mischief. His words were laced with humor, jokes that made the skin crawl. The other, clad in dark robes, holding a deck of tarot cards that seemed to float around him like specters.

Roy and Merlin exchanged glances. These two were clearly dangerous, but they had no idea who they were dealing with.

The smiling man chuckled. "Oh, look, someone wandered too far from home. Say, did you hear the one about the two scouts who thought they could win?"

The robed man smirked, fanning out his cards. "Fate has drawn you two to us. What a shame—you should have stayed hidden."

Roy took a deep breath. He and Merlin hadn't awakened their powers yet. That meant this fight would be purely skill-based. They couldn't afford to lose.

"We need to be smart," Merlin murmured. "They're underestimating us."

"I know," Roy replied. "We use that to our advantage."

The smiling man lunged first, his movements erratic yet controlled. He feinted left, then right, before twisting mid-air and aiming a kick toward Roy's head. Roy barely managed to duck in time, rolling backward as the man's foot cracked against the bark of a tree.

Merlin moved to counter, stepping in close to the robed figure, aiming a precise strike at his ribs. But the man had already drawn a card, flicking it in the air. It landed between them, and suddenly, Merlin's vision blurred.

"A distraction trick," Merlin realized, shifting his stance defensively. He couldn't see his opponent, but he could hear him.

Roy, meanwhile, was dealing with the unpredictable attacks of the smiling man. Every punch, every kick, came at an angle Roy hadn't expected. He was fast—too fast. But Roy had something his opponent didn't: calculation. He let him overextend, dodging at the last moment and delivering a brutal counterpunch to his ribs.

The smiling man coughed, staggering back with a grin. "Oh-ho! Not bad, kid! But I've got another joke for you—why did the fighter cross the battlefield? To get hit, of course!"

The robed man snapped his fingers, and the tarot card's illusion lifted. Merlin barely managed to dodge as the figure lunged forward, striking with surprising force. Merlin blocked, redirecting the energy, using the attacker's own momentum against him. The man stumbled, giving Merlin just enough time to counter with a brutal elbow to his stomach.

The fight was evenly matched. Every move calculated, every strategy countered. But Roy and Merlin were on the back foot. They had no powers, only skill and determination. Their opponents were playing with them, drawing the battle out.

Roy wiped the blood from his lip. "We need to change the pace," he muttered to Merlin.

Merlin nodded. "Follow my lead."

Suddenly, Merlin took a step back and tossed a handful of dirt at the robed man's face. In that split second of blindness, Roy surged forward, landing a crushing kick on the smiling man's knee. The sound of bone shifting echoed.

The man fell, laughing even as pain laced his voice. "Oh, you clever little—"

Before he could finish, Merlin grabbed the robed figure by the collar and slammed him into a tree. "You're not invincible," he growled.

The robed man chuckled despite the pain. "Neither are you."

Before the battle could escalate further, a presence filled the air. A pressure so immense that the forest itself seemed to tremble. The deities of life were watching.

The two mysterious figures grinned.

"This was just a test," the smiling man sang, stepping back despite his limp. "And you passed. Barely."

The robed man retrieved a final card and tossed it onto the ground. A portal of swirling energy opened behind them. "next time, you won't be so lucky."

And just like that, they vanished.

Roy and Merlin stood in silence, their hearts pounding. The battle had ended, but the war had just begun. They needed to return to their friends. The deities of life had been alerted. Time was running out.

The real fight was about to begin.