What Magna was seeing was still quite far off, on the opposite bank of the flowing river. Yet, he could clearly make out its crimson scales, glistening under the eerie glow emitted by the moss.
There was a problem, though.
No matter how he looked at it, the creature had nothing "mini" or "man" about it.
To Magna, it looked more like an overly evolved Komodo dragon.
It didn’t make it any less dangerous, though. It looked exceedingly lethal, far more so than any goblin he had encountered.
Before the overgrown beast could detect them, Magna pulled Faye behind a large boulder to take cover.
"This mini-lizardman you talked about," he whispered, finally releasing his grip. "What does it actually look like?"
With Magna’s hand finally off her mouth, Faye could speak freely again as she began drawing something in the muddy ground.
"Hmm, I’ve never seen one with my own eyes, but it’s supposed to be something like this."
After finishing her sketch, she looked up proudly, staring right into Magna’s eyes as if expecting high praise for her masterpiece.
But Magna’s thoughts were far away from any kind of praise. ’What is this, a sheep?’
Her drawing skills were downright atrocious.
"Can you just describe it with words?" he asked, suppressing a sigh.
Faye pouted slightly at his lack of appreciation, but she puffed out her chest and began to explain anyway.
"Well, from what I saw in the picture books, they’re huge beasts covered in thick red scales, crawling low to the ground on four legs, with a mouth full of sharp teeth and a long tail."
Magna listened to her description, getting more confused by the second. "Why do you even call it a mini-lizardman when there’s nothing mini or human about it?"
The moment the words left his mouth, he regretted asking.
"Because it sounds cuter."
She was probably the only person in the entire world who called them that.
"Why are you asking anyway?" Faye asked, a sudden look of suspicion crossing her face.
"There’s one right over there."
Her eyes went wide. Before Magna could even react, she scrambled to her feet and tried to bolt back the way they came.
"Hey!" Magna grabbed her arm in a flash, yanked her back behind the rock, and held her down.
"Are you crazy?" he hissed through gritted teeth, barely daring to breathe as he peeked around the rock to make sure the lizard hadn’t spotted them.
Thankfully, it was still lying there, completely oblivious.
He let out a long breath and turned around, ready to chew her out. But when he saw her face, pale and practically on the verge of tears, the words died in his throat.
He squeezed his eyes shut, forced himself to calm down, and softened his tone. "Don’t make sudden moves, okay? If you run, it’ll spot us instantly. Got it?"
She nodded frantically, but it didn’t seem to help much. Her whole body was shaking like a leaf.
’Great. She’s completely useless. ’ Magna pinched the bridge of his nose.
What was her mother thinking, sending a kid like this out to hunt goblins? She was even more of a coward than Magna used to be.
"Look, why are you so terrified of it?"
Sure, the monster was scary. Even an adult would probably wet themselves seeing one up close, but Faye’s sheer panic felt like there was something more to it.
And as she opened her mouth to speak in a trembling whisper, Magna realized he might be really cooked.
"Mini-lizardmen... they never stay alone. My mom always said if I ever ran into one, I had to run immediately, or they’d eat me alive before I could even scream."
Her mother clearly wasn’t someone who believed in sugarcoating things, considering how deeply that warning was burned into Faye’s brain.
And now, Magna was starting to panic too.
He immediately poked his head out again, scanning the surrounding area for any other movement. But there was still just the one, lying lazily in the same spot.
For a second, he wondered if her mother had just made up a scary story to keep Faye away from the swamp, much like parents telling their kids that sitting too close to the TV will turn their eyes square.
Then came a faint, wet splash from the river behind them.
He whipped his head around and saw the sight that proved her mother right.
Coming right out of the water was a second red lizard, just as massive as the first, dragging a huge fish between its jaws.
Reacting on instinct, Magna dragged Faye down alongside him into the dirt, ducking behind the rock to shield both of them and the mother goblin’s corpse from view.
’This is really bad.’ He bit his lip, trying desperately not to lose his cool.
Trapped between one monster blocking their path ahead and another cutting off their escape behind them, they were completely pinned down.
"What’s wrong?" Faye whimpered, her face buried against him, still not having seen the second one.
"Nothing. Just thinking." Magna couldn’t bring himself to tell her the truth.
She was already terrified, and any more than this, he feared she might break down into loud, hysterical crying that would draw the lizards’ attention.
He had to quickly find a way out of this situation.
He had no idea how good these creatures were at tracking, whether they relied on scent, vision, or vibrations, but if they just stayed here, it was only a matter of time before they were sniffed out.
Just as despair was setting in, a sudden thought hit him, making him shift closer to the trembling girl and whisper urgently, "That invisibility spell you used earlier. Can you cast it on both of us?"
Faye looked at him and slowly shook her head.
Magna closed his eyes for a second. "Fine. What else can you do?"
"Um..." She shifted her gaze, biting her lip as if trying to remember her own spellbook. "I can do... Ice Mist? And Freeze, I think."
She didn’t sound confident at all.
Magna sighed internally. Yeah, he was definitely on his own.