6 Chapter 6 : Naba

Lyte reached the source of the screams in no time, most probably due to the fact that he was a young guy and had a lot of energy thanks to the breakfast he had a moment ago. Before he knew it, he had arrived near a small cabin in the middle of a clearing among the tall trees of the forest. He was facing the front of the cabin as he arrived. The little cabin was made out of wood. There were all sorts of flowers planted around the cabin.

After further observations, Lyte saw what might had caused the screams. He was stunned seeing the creature in front of him but he knew he should not have been, it was the Dead Forest after all.

A few feet to the cabin's northeast was a huge red ogre, banging at what seemed like nothing. But Lyte knew better, he knew whoever was or were living there had set a barrier around their cabin to ward off foul creatures such as the one in front of Lyte. A smart move but it would have been way smarter to not live there. Lyte thought to himself.

The ogre was almost as tall as the cabin and had six packs. Lyte was not going to lie, he was a little jealous of that. But that was not the fact that struck fear into Lyte's soul. What made him shiver was the ogre's appearance. Its fiery red skin seemed to originate from a bonfire. The ogre's fingers ended in claws that seemed like surgically attached daggers which were sharpened to the point. It seemed to have two smoky black horns originally, but the left one was broken off near the base, leaving the right horn standing tall and alone. Razor sharp teeth that were very similar to those of sharks which were like thick needles are packed in its mouth.

Usually, a monster's eyes were the ones that could stuck fear into anyone's heart, but that was not the case here. The ogre's eyes were violet which usually belonged to nice ogres which do exist, though rare. But the ogre slamming its fists at the barrier protecting the cabin was anything but nice. Its eyes gave Lyte a calm feeling as if the ogre was not doing something bad at all, which did make Lyte shuttered a little. The thought that such an effective deception could even exist was scary because it reminded Lyte that appearance was a mask for the good and the bad alike.

Lyte heard more screams coming from inside the cabin. They sounded feminine and there was more than one voice. He knew there was at least two maidens trapped in the cabin, too scared of the ogre to come out. He decided he had to do something about it and help the people inside even though it was none of his business.

"Hey! Ugly!" Lyte yelled at the ogre in an attempt to draw its attention away from the cabin towards him, it worked too well.

"What? Were you calling me?!" the ogre yelled back as it turned its head to look at Lyte in the eyes.

"Well, you responded, so I guess I was. But let's not talk about me. Let's talk about you instead. Did your mother never taught you any manners? If you are not invited somewhere, you are not invited and you should just leave, not bang at the air," Lyte mocked the ogre unintentionally. The regrets and dread he felt as he finished his sentence was indescribable.

"Well, well. You puny human dared challenge me? Do you even know who I am?!"

"Don't know, don't care. It is not my priority right now. My priority is getting you away from whoever you are terrorizing, "

"I am Naba the Deceitful, son of-"

"I told you I don't care,"

"How dare you! Fine! But you have no business here, mortal! Leave!"

"Seriously? You should really pick on someone your own size instead,"

"Oh? Are you the perfect size perhaps?"

With that, Naba turned its whole body towards Lyte and prepared to charge at him. It held its claws out to its side as if it was about to scoop up the dirt around it. The sharp claws glinted in the sunlight.

It was at that moment, Lyte knew, he messed up. He did not have any weapons on him even though he was on a dangerous quest because he thought he would not be placed in such danger. Technically, he would not if he had listened to Snow.

"Hahahahah! This will teach you to challenge me!" Naba said as he charged towards Lyte with full speed, head first.

Lyte tried his best to calm himself down as panicking would not help him at all. As the ogre charging at him got close, he swiftly ducked to the right, barely but luckily dodging the attack. Naba was not as lucky as it slammed its head into a huge tree that was behind Lyte. Leaves fell from the tree onto it, a scene that would have been romantic if not for the circumstances.

Lyte watched in awe and almost laughed at the ogre, but decided against it. As he stood up, he was thankful there were no injuries on him. However, his moment of relief lasted a second as Naba got up and charged at Lyte again with rage. It was furious that it missed and embarrassed itself in front of a small human.

This time, Lyte was prepared. When he fell on the soft grass, he remembered that he had learnt a few simple attack spells that did not require any other items from a skilled mage. He thanked his teacher under his breath and immediately prepared a summoning spell to attack the ogre.

Summoning spells allows one to summon anything out of thin air to be anything. It could be for defence, entertainment and for this case, attack. All one needed was to know the words of the spell, have a good imagination and an unbreakable concentration. But Lyte was a little too nervous and he made an embarrassing blunder that he swore he would bring it to his grave.

He summoned a swarm of pink butterflies towards Naba. He meant to summon a swarm of wasps but his mind faltered with fear and he messed up the spell. The butterflies flied quickly towards Naba.

"Buahaha! Is this the best you can do?! Butterflies?! Oh, boy! You are so dead if you thought a dozen or two of fragile butterflies could save you! Wait, what the?!"

One second, Naba was making fun of Lyte. The next, it was blinded by the butterflies. The butterflies flew into its eyes, mouth, ears and nostrils. Naba was distracted and he slightly choked on the butterflies. But it quickly recollected itself and swatted the butterflies as if they were mosquitoes. It spat out the ones inside its mouth and exhaled deeply to remove those in his nose while the butterflies in its ear had already left. Dead butterflies scattered around its feet and poofed into clouds of nothingness a minute after.

Lyte, seeing Naba was delayed due to the distraction, immediately concentrated and summoned attacks after attacks at it. A bunch of fireballs to Naba's left, ice spears thrown at it from the front, a rain of daggers on it, thunder bolts and so on. Attacks after attacks struck Naba from all directions and all it could do was try its best to dodge them all and not die.

After about twenty summoning spells, Naba surrendered, all covered in cuts and burns.

"F-fine! You win man! I-I am out!" Naba covered its head with both its hands and ran into the deeper part of the Dead Forest, not daring to look back at Lyte.

Lyte was very stunned. It was his first ever real fight with a monster, and he won. He was hit with a wave of emotions. He felt relieved, proud, happy and heroic all at once. He decided it was the perfect time to praise himself.

"Alright! Woohoo! In your face, stupid ogre! That will teach you to mess with me! Do you know who I am?! I am the great and brave Lyte!" Lyte did a celebratory dance as he faced the direction Naba ran away to.

Lyte did not noticed that the screams in the cabin had long ceased and the doors slowly creaked open.