Combats you usually engage on RPGs when you walk on the world map or a dungeon.
Usually annoying, but also a way to become godlike in the game by getting experience, money and items.

When you eat dirt for the first time and leave your family to build a shack in the woods

In some rpg's, this type of battle can be seen by the characters being place in a battle out of nowhere. Usually, they occur when walking around on the world map, in a forest, or threw a field.