Ottar

Shoutout to my new patrons:

Deeznon

ItsDragonking

Andruw Atkinson

You are legends!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(General POV)

As the silhouette came closer, Lyze began to recognize specific shapes within it. The figure was tall and well proportioned, and he saw the handles of two swords on their back. The figure raised one arm and lifted one of the swords off their back. Pausing for a moment, they swung the giant blade sideways, generating a massive shockwave.

The shockwave immediately blew out all the fires in the area, as if parting a sea of flames before just extinguishing them all together. The gale caused Lyze to shield his face as his cloak whipped around in the wind, while dust clouds and bits of debris were kicked up as all the smoke and flames cleared away from the area.

The figure walked through the smoke shield and Lyze lifted his face to finally see exactly who it was that had caused this phenomenon. And he immediately recognized them as someone he'd anticipated meeting but had hoped it would not for some time yet.

Ottar sheathed his greatsword on his back as he approached the young boy, his gaze fixed on the odd monster lying on the ground near him. This time, he was dressed in his signature outfit which consisted of a sleeveless top drawn up tight to a choker on his neck which revealed the outlines of his extremely toned body.

He was wearing his red gloves and a pectoral piece of armour that covered his heart, both of which matched the colour of his red headgear. Clad in grey belted pants with heavy work boots, he looked a little more modern to Lyze in this medieval world. Had they met on earth without the Boaz wearing the armour or carrying the swords, Lyze would have thought him to be a construction worker or perhaps a gym trainer.

And of course, the Boaz carried with him that ever present sensation of power which immediately filled Lyze's senses again. The boy shivered at the immense pressure this warrior gave off. Here in the dungeon, alone with no one around them, the captain of the Freya Familia looked more intimidating than ever.

Ottar finally came to a stop as he inspected the scene before him. Honestly, all he was seeing was a child he'd taken an interest in clad in a shiny and expensive golden chainmail standing next to what looked like a giant monkey or the dungeon's mistake in creating a Silverback. He cocked an eyebrow beneath his headgear as he asked the only other person around who could explain this scene to him.

"What is this monster?" He asked in his quiet yet deep voice.

Lyze shrugged.

"Something that is definitely out of the ordinary, even when you exclude the fact it appeared on this side of the safe zone." The boy replied.

"Well, why haven't you taken the core out yet?" The boar man gestured to the monster.

"I'm not sure it has one." Lyze replied. "Normally they're just supposed to disappear when you kill them, and I've cut this one's throat. He's dead, that's for certain but it seems it's not ready to go yet."

Ottar tilted his head examined the boy's state. He looked rough and winded, and Ottar recognized the lack of injuries despite clearly looking like the boy had come out of a difficult fight.

'He must have healed himself with a potion or with his healing magic.' Ottar concluded.

"Well let's make sure he's absolutely dead." Ottar said as he placed a foot on Claw's skull. The ape's actual skull creaked for a brief moment before Ottar stepped right through it, sending blood and brain matter everywhere, The mess was accentuated even more before the body just disappeared into a smoke along with all the blood and sludge, and even the barb lying some ways off, leaving behind Cupid to clatter on the ground. But that appeared to be all that dropped on the ground.

"No core. You were correct it would seem." Ottar said. "You are aware of what you must do in this situation, correct?"

Lyze gave him a confused look.

"No. What do you mean?"

Ottar faced him fully and held up a finger as he explained.

"Consider this a lesson in adventuring. An unknown type of monster has appeared in the dungeon, correct?"

"Yes."

"As the first adventurer to fight one and defeat it, you have to report it to the guild along with your description of its abilities as well as it's weakness and it's strengths. That way, adventurers will be aware of its existence and will be prepared in case they encounter one like it."

"I see." Lyze said. "I'll be sure to do that."

Lyze doubted that anybody else would encounter Claw again. Although if Nekros had not been the one to bring this monster here, and the dungeon had learnt how to create this monster through some means, then there was the chance that another Claw may show up in the future. In which case he supposed it made sense to give a report to the guild. Something about the whole situation still seemed off though.

Ottar examined the golden chainmail and silently marvelled at its beauty.

"Where did you get that Lyze?" Ottar asked, his tone betraying a small amount of his intrigue. Lyze saw no reason to lie, at least not completely.

"I guess it was a drop item from this monster. I obtained it after I killed him."

"Hmm." Ottar nodded. 'That chainmail looks like it would be worth a fortune. And if a person obtains it from simply killing this ape monster, then there will certainly be a rush from other Familias in trying to find one of them again.' Ottar lifted his head to meet Lyze's face again and noticed the helmet.

"I see you are wearing Alfrigg's old helmet." Ottar commented.

"So I've heard." Lyze said. "Don't worry. I'll be rid of it soon enough once I've commissioned a helmet of my own."

"I didn't take you to be the type to wear this much armour."

"I bought what was convenient for these floors. I will obtain more specialized pieces when I decide to finally descend past the safe zone." Lyze said before he narrowed his eyes under the blindfold. "Let us not dance around the subject Ottar. Why are you here?"

"Why would you assume I have a particular reason for being here? This is the dungeon, where adventurers belong right?"

"Not this particular place, where adventurers of your calibre just loiter." Lyze said grimly. "Don't play mind games with me...I can FEEL her staring at me even now. So there is no point in you trying to hide it."

They both stared at each for a bit, complete silence overtaking the conversation. The only sounds to be heard were some of the charred trees and branches collapsing from being burned through too much to hold their weight. Gentle plumes of smoke rose from some still glowing embers. Ottar finally sighed.

"Very well. At the behest of Lady Freya, I have come to fulfil my promise."

"Your promise?"

"Yes. The one we settled upon during the banquet." Ottar said as he pulled a familiar red greatsword from behind his back. He tossed it in front of Lyze and Grigor sank deep, blade-first into ground. "You said you had the power necessary to back up your ambitions and I have come to verify. Now, will you fight, or will you decline?"

Lyze looked down at Grigor before looking back up at Ottar.

"Where did you find this?" He asked.

"That does not matter. Are you going to pick it up, and accept my challenge?" Ottar challenged. Lyze tilted his head at the Boaz as his tone became quieter.

"Is this to be a challenge to the death? Just like every other duel that happens down here?"

Duels to the death were pretty common down in the dungeon. It often resulted in one side losing a member, hence why they were such a serious subject. Lyze knew he was no trouble for Ottar to kill, but the question was necessary. Ottar narrowed his eyes in response, his down-turned mouth not changing in the slightest.

"I have no reason to kill you, for you are not worth killing as of now." If another adventurer said this, it would sound more like an insult, but Lyze knew Ottar's character well enough to know that the higher level adventurer was just saying the truth, no malice involved. Ottar stood straight with his hands clenched into fists by his side. "I am ready when you are."

Lyze stood straight up as well. They both eyes each other up and down. Lyze shifted his feet before he suddenly disappeared and the ground shattered where his feet were. At least this would have seemed that way to a normal person, but Lyze moved at a slow pace to Ottar's experienced senses. He easily saw the boy crouch and then leap at him with an outstretched fist in the blink of an eye.

Lyze's fist hit the pectoral part of Ottar's chest which was not covered by his armour and a shockwave exploded from the impact, blasting away bits of dirt and pebbles outwards in every direction. Even Grigor was ripped out of the ground and thrown away by the gust of wind. But Ottar stood still and unmoving, not even twitching from the blow.

Lyze hovered above the ground for a few moments before pulling his fist back and unclenching his fingers over and over again as he stared at the man.

"It's like you're made out of adamantine." Lyze said. "I hurt myself more than you."

"It was not quite the smartest thing for you to do as an opening act in a duel." Ottar said. "What if I had attacked you?"

"Oh, I knew you wouldn't." Lyze said. "Nothing I could do to you right now is really worth you fighting against. I put all my power behind that punch and you didn't even notice it."

Ottar narrowed his eyes. "Perhaps so. But we both know that you lie when you say you used your full power."

"What?" Lyze cocked his head. "What do you mean?"

"Just as there are things I can't hide from you, there are things you can't hide from me." Ottar closed his eyes and continued to speak. "I do have to say though, I didn't expect that much power to come out from you at your current level. I have not known any level 2 capable of putting that much force behind a simple punch. In fact, it was more akin to the strength of a level 3." Ottar opened his eyes. "But I know there is more to you than what you like people to see."

Lyze spoke with a suspicious edge to his tone. "What have you seen about me that nobody else has?"

"I know you are hiding another kind of power, one that only Nine Hells has seen do far." Ottar replied. "An ominous, rather dark looking power you used to save yourself from being crushed underfoot by Goliath the first time you came into the dungeon."

"How do you know of that!?" Lyze asked a little harshly and alarmedly. He'd been trying to conceal his demon form. In fact, he hadn't used it since that day with Riveria, so how did Ottar know? Lyze's brow rose as he figured it out.

'Freya...and that damn mirror of hers! That's the only way she would know about this.'

"What game is your goddess playing Ottar?" Lyze asked. "What does she seek to gain from this? Holding my secrets hostage against me?"

"I assure you, nothing so malicious or demeaning." Ottar said firmly, not liking this turn of the conversation.

"I know she wants something from me Ottar. Have you any idea how it feels to have someone's gaze constantly following you wherever you go? Moreover knowing exactly who it is looking at you but not having the foggiest idea of what they want? If that does not at least seem malicious, then I don't know what does."

"You have a bad habit of expecting things to just come to you, Lyzof Keele." Ottar said disapprovingly. "You appear to be quite impatient, and overall not so likeable a character in both an adventurer's approach and a personal approach. Such an attitude reeks of arrogance, unbefitting of someone who claims they have the potential to surpass me. It makes me wonder if there is any element of truth to your claims at all."

"For too long I have been denied the answers and solutions that I am OWED." Lyze said, gritting his teeth before laughing slightly and shaking his head. "How will you lot understand? This life I'm living right now...it's just entertainment for another overpowered arsehole..." He said the end bit quietly, but Ottar still heard him.

"What does that mean?" Ottar asked.

"Never mind." Lyze shook his head. "My point is, I have lived nine years now being expected to just shut up and put my life on the line without even being given the right to question why. And when people are clearly messing with me, suddenly I am arrogant for demanding an answer." Lyze held his face, or rather the visor as he looked at the ground. "It just isn't fair! All of it...all of it is just...just...absolutely effed up! I never wanted any of this!"

"Who are you talking to?" Ottar asked, confused.

"Oh don't worry about me." Lyze waved it off. "I'm just lamenting about the fact I was given a life I outright refused nor did I deserve, yet when I am being difficult or angry about the fact it was just forced upon me, suddenly I am the bad guy and everyone hates me."

Ottar's jaw hardened and he gripped his fists tighter.

"I would not claim to know of what you speak." Ottar said as he drew his sword. "But I am disappointed that as promising as your capabilities are, you see fit to act like a child."

"WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?" Lyze shouted. "I am a child! A child forced to become an adventurer when all I wanted was a peaceful life!"

"And you are just going to lament about your woes, while you carry a sword in your hands." Ottar said. "You disgrace it. Even if this life was forced upon you, you are now an adventurer! If your situation is out of your control, become powerful enough to take it back!"

Lyze was silenced as the force behind Ottar's harsh words. Nekros had said the exact same thing to him once before. The older man continued.

"If you have the energy to complain, and to be childish, then you have the energy to fight!"

Ottar rushed forward with his sword drawn, limiting his speed to a point where Lyze could see him but still have difficulty avoiding it. Lyze flipped backwards and picked up Grigor before swinging it upwards to meet Ottar's attack. Lyze felt as if the weight of a house just fell on him as the two blades collided, sparks flying off of the interaction.

A small crater was formed underneath the two of them as Lyze's legs buckled, trying to push back against Ottar. Lyze began to feal a very chilled sweat run down his spine and his heart began to beat faster as his fear amplified.

"I believe I understand you now." Ottar said. "You look to be an unfortunate child that has found himself in a situation he did not want himself in. But regardless of his wish, he found himself in it anyway." Ottar pushed down harder as Lyze gritted his teeth, fruitlessly trying to push back. Ottar's blade came ever so closer to his visor. "What the most disappointing thing is however is that though you clearly possess the potential to become so much more powerful than most adventurers around, you just focus the bulk of that precious potential into self pity!"

Lyze pulled Grigor away, making Ottar's sword sink into the ground. With the momentum of that pull, Lyze brought Grigor around to slash at Ottar's face. Ottar simply turned his face in a certain direction as Grigor's edge glanced over his face before he kicked out with his boot, catching Lyze in the stomach. The boy went sprawling on his back, gasping heavily as the wind was knocked out of him. He coughed up a bit of blood which dribbled down the side of his mouth. Ottar didn't stop speaking.

"Even if you are a child, you are in MAN'S world now. So man up! I don't claim to know the full contents of your circumstances, and frankly I couldn't care less what they are. What infuriates me is that someone like you who has so much potential for growth wastes his energy by acting like a spoiled child, and fights akin to a natural disaster." Ottar levelled a glare at him. "Each time you come down here, you fight with such appalling recklessness, I'm surprised your Familia even let you down here. Not only do you endanger yourself, you also endanger other adventurers down here. At this point, you're no better than the monsters."

Lyze flipped onto his feet and rushed towards Ottar Brandishing Grigor. The little boy became a blur as he slashed continuously at the Boaz with the greatsword. But to the boy's indignation, Ottar was parrying each attack with his bare hands. Lyze leaned backwards and launched a blue fireball point black at Ottar's face. He backflipped away as an explosion rocked the ground around them, throwing up another smokescreen.

But Ottar just walked out of it, uncaring and unscathed with the only evidence of the attack landing on him being his hair slightly blackened. Ottar leapt forwards and swung the greatsword deliberately too fast for Lyze to react. The first swing struck Lyze across the face, ripping off the helmet and throwing it off into the distance. The next swing cut a gash into Lyze's shin as the boy instinctively reach down in pain. Ottar flipped his sword into a reverse grip, and butted Lyze's chin upwards with the handle blunt.

The boy's body flipped over and over again in the air before he crashed into one of the fallen trees dazed and shocked.

'He's moving to fast for me to even see him!' Lyze thought panickily.

"I suppose I do have some sort of personal stake in this." Ottar commented. "Now that I have seen the content of your character, it is up to me as your elder to open your eyes to reality. Let me be honest, I HATE weakness of any kind. You resolve in a fight is truly commendable. But simply having great strength and gaining levels on your Falna is not the most important kind of strength." Ottar held a hand to his heart. "One of the things that make an adventurer strong is a good strength of character." Ottar pointed an accusatory finger at Lyze. "And out of all the people I have met, you have the most despicably WEAK character!"

Lyze gritted his teeth as his head rang with pain. He shakily got up to his feet and spat out the contents that had built up in his mouth. His face now fully revealed showed blood pouring down from somewhere in his hair, and his face scrunched up in horror as he realised he'd spat out a tooth with the mouthful of blood.

"Now that I have identified this weakness of yours, I shall take it upon myself to teach you how to get rid of it." Ottar levelled the greatsword at Lyze. "And if you still persist in being difficult, then I'll just beat it out of you. To let someone of your potential walk around with such a hideous flaw would be an affront to adventuring itself. With this flaw, you will never come out of your zone and discover the true essence of adventuring. I am not like those who believe that you should not take a large step out of that comfort zone just so you can protect yourself from death. No, because that is what adventuring is! To know your strengths, your weaknesses and most importantly your enemies. And to you Lyzof Keele, your biggest obstacle, your true enemy is not those like me, but yourself!"

Lyze oddly felt like child being scolded by his father. Which was strange because he'd had no father figure in both of his lives. As much as Ottar's words were angering him, Lyze knew that the older man was right. Somehow, he just felt that every word the man was saying was true. Slowly but surely, Lyze's eyes were being opened to reality and he finally realized where he had been going wrong.

'Is this how normal kids feel like? I never had an older male figure in my life to beat me down like this. In my past life and in this one, I've always been stronger than other people my age. Was that true? Or was that how it seemed because there was nobody to give me a reality check?'

(A.N. No offense to anybody, but that's why kids need their dads around, especially boys.)

"So now what will you do?" Ottar questioned. "Are you going to honour my challenge and give it your all? I know very well about your numerous magical powers and how destructive they can be, and I also know how good you truly are with the sword. You could still never hope to defeat me even with all that however. But fighting something so powerful even when there's no chance of winning is what tempers you to be a true adventurer!" Ottar picked up Grigor. "So are you going to be a coward, run away instead of facing true difficulty and learning a proper and valuable lesson? Or are you going to fight?!" Ottar tossed Grigor in front of Lyze.

The boy stood there frozen, silent and pondering as blood dripped from his face onto the ground. The silence continued as Ottar appeared to heave his shoulders in disappointment. But unseen to him because Lyze was looking at the ground, Lyze smiled.

He picked up Grigor and placed it into his hammer-space. Ottar raised an offended eyebrow, seeing this as an act of refusal and was ready to admonish him. But Lyze followed by pulling a different sword out of thin air. This new sword was unfamiliar to him, but he'd felt like he'd seen it before. Excalibur in its original from gleamed in the crystal light as it boasted its sharpness.

"Please teach me what it is that I lack Ottar." Lyze said, still looking down. "I won't hold back my techniques and my powers. But if you want to see that particular power of mine..." Lyze lifted his head and smiled a full toothed one as he wiped away some of the blood with the back of his hand. "...then you'll have to make me!"

Ottar stared at his audacity before he huffed in approval, inwardly smiling. "Perhaps you are capable of learning after all. "

They both settled into their respective stances before Lyze heaved a heavy breath and spoke loudly.

"Holy Sword Excalibur, release!"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Comment and Review!

Read a few chapters ahead on my Patreon:

Patreon/ Vulkizaro_Zoromi

For commissions:

Ko-Fi/ vulkizarozoromi