Bastard had been running for a short while through the forests on the outskirts of the city near the home… he weighed his options on if he should try to lose his pursuer in the woods or use the town to hide from him. He decided that was the moment to caution a look backwards.

He saw the knight effortless catch up to him. This wasn’t the problem.

The issue was that he wasn’t moving, yet was gaining on Bastard.

The ground gently rumbled and dust was kicked into the air behind the Magic Lord, he looked like a floating tank to the unaware.

The gap was getting smaller and the white warrior simply crossed his hands, the chains dancing playfully and the light chuckle leaking from his visor showed he was having fun with this.

“Of course. The Magic Lord sent after me would be the type to get off from chasing down those weaker than him. Reminds me of those head in their butts nobles who would go out hunting and torture their prey instead of just ending it.”

Bastard could not help but think that every single noble he met were sick sadistic bastards.

He then laughed and almost bit his tongue at the last word that formed in his mind.

“Fucking magic! Cheating bizzaro bullshit that comes straight from dickheaded plonkers.”

His decision was made. Bastard’s feet began to curl up and then release in bounds and leaps towards the town gates which were wide open as they always were in the morning.

As his feet touched the ground of the lands he was all too familiar with, he could feel them again. Coming from every direction, like pins trying to pierce an insect, the gaze of those who simply couldn’t stand him. Muttering, muddy, slander drooling from the lips of hate.

The usual crowd of fools were now focused on the high speed chase between peasant and lord.

The knight in white was a stone's throw away, still as cool as ice as he magically followed the mundane child who could not do anything but run.

Then his ears were filled with rattling hisses.

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Dust and mud was kicked up into the air around Bastard as the chains in the white knight’s right arm launched themselves and landed all around the boy, falling like a volley of arrows.

In a blink of an eye a cage had been forged, a ring made for battle.

They turned, weaved and came together to form iron walls, a meshed fence of metal blocking all routes except forwards and backwards.

To the front was a brick wall. To the back was the knight.

There was no running away from this.

That’s what every single person watching this thought as the metal giant slowly advanced towards the rascal who was out of options.

His eyes scanned the wall as quickly as he could and after a second his lips moved into a light smile. He turned towards the knight and lifted his fists while lowering his general mass.

“Okay then. If that’s how it’s going to be, I guess, I ain’t got no choice, do I?”

Bastard inhaled deeply and closed his eyes before releasing that same air.

"Take off that armour and fight me like a man!"

The crowd is stunned for a good minute from the sheer audacity of the words and then for another minute simply processing the meaning.

It was like a single ant challenging a lion. They would laugh if it wasn’t so absurd and the words weren’t yelled with such conviction.

The knight pauses for a moment and seems surprised by the declaration and responded in a frank and honest voice, not a single waver within it.

“This armour is not for protecting me from you. Its purpose is to protect others from me.

“I have no wish to sully my hands with any more blood than necessary.

“To ask me to remove it would be to ask me to take your life.”

Bastard wanted to call bullshit. He wanted to say that it was a ridiculous lie.

However… he couldn’t sense even a whiff of a lie from the Magic Lord.

It wasn’t a bluff. It was pure truth and that just terrified him and those around them even more.

However that didn’t really matter to him right now.

In the small moment where the knight had started his little speech, he had ran back and begun scaling the wall in front of him without waiting.

The clear contrast between his words and actions had caused a very small but momentary blindspot which he took advantage of.

And then Bastard stood on top of the wall. He turned to face the knight and looked down on him, the people and the cage of metal with a satisfied smirk.

For a brief moment he wanted to thank the Creator but then remembered that he’d much rather not do such a pointless thing.

Bastard raised both his arms and hands upwards.

He curled back his thumb, index, ring and pinky fingers until only the middles stood upright.

Then he leaped off the wall, not breaking his gaze to those below and with a smug expression thrusted his hands up and down rapidly so that all who looked up to him were cursed with his foul manners.