What's this?

This was the first thought to surface in the mind of a man just gaining consciousness. He laid flat on the ground, his back faced to the open air. The surface he rested on felt soft and powdery. He pushed off the ground and slowly rose to a stand. As he moved small clumps of a white powdery substance fell from his clothes.

The young man gazed onto the scene before him, a grey sky hanging over a vast open space blanketed in similar white substance. Smaller units of this white entity slowly drifted down from the sky, and on seeing this it became clear what it was.

Snow. From every direction, as far his eyes could see, the world was covered in deep snow. Something was strange about this snow but that train of thought was soon overshadowed by more pending issues.

Where is this?

What happened? How did I get here?

I......I? Who am I? Who-

"Aagh." grunted the young man.

A sharp pain in his head like a multitude of needles dancing in his brain, interrupted his thoughts and brought him to his knees. He clutched his head with his hands, writhing in anguish from the incessant pounding.

Who....am....l? I. I. Aaarghhh.

A full minute elapsed before the pain subsided, returning thought and function to him. He released a breath of air, grateful to be free of the horrid pain. But the pain was only half his problems, who was he?

Try as he might have, nothing came up. He couldn't remember who he was. Not only that, he couldn't remember where this place was, how he'd gotten here or what he'd been doing before waking up here either.

He decided to give up trying, it was a waste of time putting any more effort on that end.

Pushing back the plethora of questions plaguing his thoughts he stood up again, ready to face the next issue. What would he do now?

Move. Out of the snow to the nearest shelter he could find. Speaking of snow, it finally hit him what was wrong with the snow. It didn't feel cold when he touched it. To be precise, it wasn't as cold as it should've been. Even the air was strangely warmer than expected. Rather than a harsh, blistering cold, the air and the snow were more of a "lake in the early hours of the day" type of cool. On a summer morning to be clear.

Cool lakes, the iciness of snow, he could remember what these things were. Thankfully, his ability to recall descriptions seemed to be intact.

Returning to the matter at hand- picking a direction to head in. No houses, people or even trees, nothing around him gave any hints on where to go.

As if in reply, a pointer soon presented itself in a rather unsubtle way. From the north came an immense explosion, rocking the earth, peeling off layers of snow and dirt in a huge wave. The young man was knocked off his feet by the tremors travelling through the earth and fell hard on his ass.

The explosion died down and particles settle, unveiling the aftermath. An island of dark earth had formed in a sea of endless white. Two people currently occupied this island, facing each other with a ten meter gap inbetween.

People!. A welcome change in his situation but he had other concerns at the moment. What was that explosion and where did these people come from?

He observed the new arrivals switching his focus from left to right. From what he could tell, both persons were men. They held each other's gazes tightly and an icy tension permeated the air between them. Besides their apparent gender a second feature they shared caught his attention. Both of them wielded long swords in their right hands, tips faced to the ground.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The world held still as they locked gazes and in the blink of an eye both men vanished as quickly as they'd appeared. Following their disappearance, a second explosion rocked the earth once more.

The ensuing shockwave knocked back the young man and his body tumbled across the snow several times before rolling to a stop. Not sparing a moment he quickly got off the ground, turned heel and ran

He didn't need any other pointers, his destination was clear as day, the farthest he could get from whatever calamity was taking place behind him.

.

.

.

While the young man ran for safety an intense battle went on, progressing in his general direction.

The two men raced at each other, repeatedly clashing blades at mind boggling speeds. Every time their swords collided a violent shockwave would follow and the earth would quake from the force of it.

After several exchanges both men halted their attacks, taking a moment to size up the other. They locked gazes once more, searching for openings in the other's defenses.

On one side was a dark skinned man, sporting black hair and dark eyes, garbed in what looked to be a soldier's uniform. In contrast, his opponent donned more casual clothing and had fair skin.

Their deadlock holds till one of them, the dark skinned man, made his move. He rushed at his opponent, hitting speeds much faster than he'd moved at in previous clashes. The sudden jump in speed left his opponent unable to react.

The dark man sliced at his opponent's head, aiming for the left eye but the man dodged just barely and instead took damage to his left temple, a shallow cut oozing bright red blood.

Leaving his opponent no room to recover, the dark skinned man continued with an onslaught of attacks. He slashed at the other man relentlessly, switching aim between vital points, each attack fiercer than the last. His opponent tried his best to keep up, successfully defending against each attack but the continuous rise in power eventually overwhelmed him and one attack sent him flying through the snow.

In the time it took his opponent to pick himself up, the man in uniform had begun preparing for a final attack. The dark man held out his right arm, hand stretched open. And energy, bearing an ominous feel began pooling in the middle of his palm. The moment his opponent was up, he quickly closed the gap between them and thrusted his hand at his chest.

Venerable Lance

The energy shot forward, bursting through the other man's chest, leaving a gaping hole in his torso where organs once occupied.

The course of destruction doesn't end there and the bolt of energy proceeded to obliterate everything in the surrounding area, dispersing snow in a massive wave. The wave of snow grew, expanding in every direction and eventually caught up with the fleeing young man, burying him in a tomb of heaped ice.

.

.

.

Still alive. Buried deep under a ton of snow but alive. He was both surprised and relieved he'd lived through that calamity. What in the world was that? Did those men cause the explosions? How? He might not have had any memories but his gut told him people normally couldn't do that.

Much as he was relieved to have survived if he couldn't find a way out of the current situation it'd be for nothing. On every side of him was snow leaving no room for movement. The cold wouldn't be a problem (for some strange reason) but air was.

He tried moving his hand, pushing against the snow and it gave way with very little resistance. However, more snow filled the newly made space. He tried again, this time with both hands and much faster now. With a bit of effort he successfully dug himself out from the side of the snow heap and rolled down to flat earth.

Supporting himself on his four limbs, he desperately gasped for air, taking in large volumes at a time to soothe the burning in his lungs. After a while his breathing slowed and the volume of air intake gradually returned to normal.

That was....easy. Digging yourself out of a mound of snow seemed like a normally much harder task. He stood upright to observe his surroundings and was stunned at the scale of destruction.

The dark island had grown tens of times in size and was now a massive crater, several meters deep. Right in middle of it was the body of one of the two men, sprawled out on the ground with a huge hole in his torso. He was dead.

The other man was several meters away from the body, already leaving the scene. A small part of him was relieved that someone was still around and he considered approaching him to ask questions, but most of him felt he should avoid the man to the best of his abilities. Deciding on the latter option, he began backing out of the area, doing his best to avoid attracting attention.

His caution amounted to nothing when the man looked in his direction. He'd been noticed. The next course of action was to abandon caution and break for it. He quickly turned around to flee but stopped dead in his tracks before he could take a single step.

!. The man he'd just turned away from suddenly popped into path of escape like the air itself had spat him out. He swiveled his head back and forth between looking over his shoulder and his front to confirm if what just happened was real. No one was to his rear anymore and the man in his front was in fact the same one he'd left behind.

It was a jarring experience, but everything about his situation was already jarring, coming to terms with the unusual would be better in the long run.

The man stared at him intently, eyebrows knit. Dark hair, dark eyes and dark skin too. The look on his face was of a person who couldn't quite understand what it was they were looking at.

Is there something wrong with me? He couldn't see himself and couldn't tell what made the man stare.

No way to avoid him, can't escape a guy who could appear out of thin air. Confronting the man wasn't an option, if he could cause all this destruction ending his life would be a very simple task.

The only option here was to try talking to him. Just as he was thinking this, the dark man spoke first, ".........."

Huh? The man had said something but in a language he couldn't understand. It sounded familiar but completely incomprehensible at the same time. Which meant they couldn't communicate and his only option had never existed. He decided to remain still and wait to see what the man would do.

The dark man's brows furrowed even more seeing as he didn't respond. The look on the man's face had a little more certainty now.

"..........otherworlder.... " the man said.

This time he could make out a single word, "otherworlder".

"Otherworlder, what's that?" he asked.

The man's eyes slightly widened in surprise. He lifted his left arm and tapped something on his wrist and spoke again. This time he could clearly understand what the man said.

"Who or what are you? What is your name?" asked the dark man.

Name.....What is my name?

"I think...... I think my name is.....Yuga. That's all I can remember." he said before he fell to the ground and passed out.