"What are you doing?" Nightmare asked once he had reached the place where the bandits were panicking. He was quite annoyed and confused on why the group of bandits was trespassing on his territory. Everyone in the region knew that Spearhead was Nightmare's territory, and no one was allowed on his territory. That is the reason why Nightmare always met the people who would come to him at the foot of the mountain. "You're not supposed to be here." He added with a growl. Noah shivered when he heard this which confirmed his prediction that Nightmare was going to kill the group. To be fair, this was the easiest prediction one could make considering how Nightmare operated.
"We're here to find someone who has stolen from us." A bandit said, bravely taking a step forward towards Nightmare. Noah saw that the bandit was the same bandit that had been leading the group.
"Why would that person come here if they had stolen from you." Nightmare aggressively asked, not believing what the bandit had said.
"The person had only stolen food from us, and then immediately came over here. It's probable that this thief is planning to steal from you, so if you let us be we will take care of this problem for you." The bandit intelligently responded. Nightmare paused and thought about the bandits proposal which frightened Noah as if Nightmare and the bandits were to team up in order to look for him would be the worst case scenario for him. 'Even if that were to happen, I will not falter. I will not stop until I kill Nightmare and get revenge for my town, its people, my friends, and my parents.' Noah calmly and clearly thought.
"Why would I need your help in order to kill one person, do you think I am weak?" Nightmare asked after thinking for a small while. "And besides that disrespect, I don't recognize you or anyone in your group, so how do I know you haven't created a scapegoat in order to distract me so you can steal from me?" Nightmare accusingly asked the bandit.
"Why would we steal from you? We're bandits not idiots. We just want to get our revenge on the person who stole from us." Another one of the bandits shouted at Nightmare. Noah and the bandit that has previously been talking to Nightmare facepalmed at the idiocy of the bandit who had just spoken. Nightmare just stayed still where he was, exuding an intense murderous intent as he registered what the bandit had just said.
"You idiot, you've doomed us all!" The intelligent bandit angrily shouted at the bandit who had just spoke.
"So you are bandits after all." Nightmare maliciously spoke after he had registered what the bandit had said. "I have nothing more to say to a bunch of thieves who are trying to steal my treasure!" He roared and began to suck in air. The intelligent band put their head in their hands while squatting down, and they waited for their death to come. The bandits who had previously tried to hide quickly realized that this wouldn't work, and they began to run away as quickly as they could. These efforts were in vain however as the bandits who had not already been running when Nightmare first appeared were instantly turned to ash as soon as he released his flame. Of the bandits who had survived the initial attack, the majority of them were as good as dead as the majority of their bodies had suffered third degree burns. This didn't matter to Nightmare as he began to hunt down each and every bandit who had survived no matter what injuries that had received. Noah quickly moved back into the cave in order to hide as soon as Nightmare had begun his attack. He already knew what the result would be, so he didn't need to watch it unfold. He also didn't need to risk being seen by any of the running bandits, or get seen by Nightmare as he still needed to get the legendary spear in order to kill him. Once he reached the end of the cave, he sat down and waited for the screams to stop and for Nightmare to leave.
About half an hour later, the bandits' screams had stopped, and Noah had begun to hear the flapping of Nightmare flying away. He began to think of his current situation, 'So Nightmare doesn't think I exist, so he isn't going to be looking for me which is good. I still have to be careful however as he may still stumble across me as I get closer to his lair which he is probably at currently. Speaking of his lair, I know that I am at least close as Nightmare has stopped flying now, but I don't know how close or the direction of where it is on the mountain. He is probably quite paranoid about someone stealing from it right now, so he is probably going to be guarding it for a while before dealing with the bandit camp. Wait, how did I forget that he is a tyrant dragon, so he has at least one dragonoid that is probably going to be with him at his lair.' He walked towards the mouth of the cave as the flapping had already stopped, so he didn't need to worry about being found by Nightmare right now. Once he had gotten to the mouth of the cave, he looked out towards the path he had created to avoid the bandits. 'So now that I no longer have to worry about the bandits, let's see how I can change this path to make looking for the lair faster. Well I should keep this going on this current path until Nightmare leaves.' He thought before heading out of the cave, and he instantly began to run towards the next hiding spot on his path.
It was early in the next morning before Nightmare left his lair. Noah knew this as the sound of Nightmare's wingbeats had instantly woken him up from his slumber. He had made it further up the mountain, but he didn't feel like he was any closer to finding Nightmare's lair. However, when he woke up, he saw the direction Nightmare had come from, and he immediately made changes to his path, so he could head towards the area where Noah estimated is where Nightmare took off from. He quickly ate his breakfast while he was making changes to his plans, and, once he had finished his breakfast, quickly took off on his new path. This new path was a lot more vertical than Noah's previous path and there were even times where he had to climb at some very steep angles.
It took about an hour for Noah to get to the area where he estimated Nightmare had taken off from, and, sure enough, there was a large hole in the mountain. There was a flat area in front of the hole, and the hole itself was at an angle. He could tell just by looking at the hole that it was an entrance to a cave, and, by extension, was the entrance to Nightmare's lair. He walked over to the hole, and he peered into it. He first saw that it headed down at an angle steep enough that if he lost his foot, he would slip and side down. He looked to see how far down he would slide if were to fall down, and he saw that the cave went about 50 meters down before transitioning into a flat area. As he was looking down into the cave, he saw that there were scratches and claw marks on the slide, and, as the morning sun was beginning to peak over the horizon, he saw a glint of something shining in the cave. 'Bingo, I'm in the right place. I've finally found his lair.' He thought with a smile.
Noah looked over his shoulder to where Nightmare was going to make sure he wasn't coming back to his lair. He saw a black dot flying around on the horizon. He watched it for a small while to make sure he wasn't coming back back, and then he saw it stop before it began to spew fire. Once he saw this, he quickly entered the cave. When he did, he almost immediately fell over as he was almost running. He quickly regained his balance before carefully making sure he didn't slip and fall down. He maneuvered so that his feet were on the scratches and claw marks so he had at least some traction.
It took a small while for Noah to reach the area where the cave flattened out. Once he did, he looked around and saw that there were a few gold coins on the ground, and he could see that the cave acted as a hall as he saw that one of the walls opened up into a larger cavern. He slowly began to creep towards the cavern, and he almost reached it before a monotone voice spoke out behind him.