The soldier exited the fight ring with Daisy on his shoulder, to find a small battalion of heavily armored knights waiting for him. Squinting, he realized that he actually recognized these knights - most of them were the same ones that had 'escorted' him into the city. Some distance away, Eld and Isabelle were watching curiously. He barely noticed Daisy's grip tighten on his shoulder, but he clearly heard her mutter, "Those guys let the slavers that used to own me into the city for a bribe. That thin one in the middle? He used to... rent... some of the women."

The soldier's eyes narrowed, and he started walking forward. The knights immediately raised their various weapons, and the man the soldier had his eye on shouted, "Halt, fiend! Approach no further or face the consequences!"

Lots of talk, the soldier noted. Words tended to have very little effect on how a person fought. He continued regardless of their warnings.

The thin man raised his spear over his head and shouted, "We gave you fair warning, Doom! Stand down or die!" His words were beginning to have a trace of hysteria in them, and the soldier felt a distinct sense of disgust. In terms of appearance, he had the soldier outnumbered sixteen to one, and they all had shining armor to contrast his own rust-colored, blood-coated power suit. With such a visible (albeit utterly false) advantage, this man was still terrified of him?

Finally, weapon trembling, the misnamed knight charged forward, yelling, "You leave me no choice! !" The spear came up and shot downward faster than most men could see, its point glittering in the evening sun like a bloody teardrop. In response, the soldier simply held one hand out, palm forward. The moment the spear struck his palm, it bent like a toothpick in the hands of a giant. As it snapped, the soldier sidestepped, extended one arm, and plucked the knight out of the air with all the ease of a man picking up his cat. Which is to say, the knight immediately began scrabbling at the soldier's arm, screaming frantically, "Set me down, demon! I am a Knight of the Ro-"

He didn't make it any further. The instant he called the soldier a demon, the temperature of the air rose a good thirty degrees. Eyes flaming, the soldier spun around, still holding the knight by the back of the considerable armor around his neck, and face-slammed him into the ground. Daisy nearly went flying, but managed to jump off of the soldier's shoulder. Arcing through the air, she bent her body into a backflip and landed on the ground, stumbling backward. Checking herself over as if to make sure she was truly all right, a grin crossed her face. "Whoa, forgot I had some levels!"

Ignoring her for the time being, the soldier eyed the knight face-down in the small crater caused by the impact. Kneeling, the soldier wrapped one hand around the knight's helmet and lifted it so that the soldier could glare through the eyeslits, staring at the wide green eyes inside. "I am not a demon."

The knight trembled, raising his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay! Just set me down!"

Obliging, the soldier let go, and the knight scrambled away on his hands and knees. His armor was covered in dirt and grass now, and featured several new dents from striking the cobbles. Brushing the worst of it away, the knight raised one arm. "!"

A gout of red fire erupted from the knight's hand and harmlessly enveloped the soldier in a wreath of flame. The soldier didn't so much as get hotter in his armor. Were all of the so-called knights this stupid? Perhaps Galbaer was the only one with an ounce of sense.

Before he could appropriately react to the useless attempt at an attack, Daisy sailed over his head. Rotating midair, she locked her legs around the neck of the knight and curled up abruptly, heaving herself backward. Hands going to his neck, the knight was hurled to the ground for the second time in as many minutes, and Daisy acrobatically rolled to her feet, ending in a leap that left her next to the soldier. Breathlessly, she excitedly told him, "This is friggin' awesome! I've never felt this strong!" She flexed a lean arm, grinning at him as a small bump rose on her tricep.

Getting back to his feet again, the knight spluttered, "You're both under arrest!" The soldier snorted loudly. He hadn't landed a single good hit on either him or Daisy. How exactly did he expect to arrest him?

"Who's getting arrested?"

The soldier's eyes widened incrementally. The fifteen-foot tall mountain of silvery plate armor and muscle approaching, curious passersby moving out of the way in alarm, made the ogres he'd seen in Hell look like a child. A single mace swung heavily from one hand, but the ease with which the giant held onto its eight-foot handle spoke volumes of his strength.

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Pointing at the soldier, the knight shouted frenziedly, "Admin! This menace tried to kill me, and he stole that slave from a good friend of mine!"

Daisy yelled furiously, "Liar! I'm gonna kill ya personally for that!"

Admin turned his completely covered helmet in the soldier's direction and rumbled, "Good reason for arrest. Ya might wanna stand down, bud. I don't wanna hurt ya."

The soldier lowered his center of gravity, his knees bending as he spread his arms wide, hands outstretched in a ready-to-fight stance. He'd just gotten over sixty levels from that demon, and his stats were higher than ever. Not to mention, he had a new Perk that was he was just dying to test on something. This thing, whatever it was, was definitely not human. That took it off the infinitesimally minute list of creatures that the soldier avoided killing.

The tension in the air began to build, and Admin sighed. "Have it your way, bud. Sorry about this, bunny." He added apologetically to Daisy, who glared at him.

Stomping forward, the monolithic paladin brought his mace down at the soldier, its spiked end shining as it blurred downward. The soldier didn't bother dodging. Due to along with the bonus from the Praetor Suit, the soldier was reasonably sure that he could take a hit from just about anything.

His theory proved correct as the mace crashed into his head, and he sank a full five feet into the ground as the dirt and stone shattered underneath him. Daisy sped to one side, a smear of brown color streaking away. She really was remarkably fast, the soldier noted calmly.

Grabbing onto the mace's end, he waited for Admin to inevitably pull his weapon back. As the giant did, the soldier yanked himself forward, capitalizing on the momentum, and drop-kicked his opponent in the face with a grunt of effort. The crushing blow smashed into the thing's head with an almighty clang, and even with however much the armor weighed, the opponent was launched off of his feet.

There was a breathless fraction of a second as the monstrous giant soared through the air, and then smashed into the ground, digging a trench as he skidded backward. It was obvious to everyone present that he was completely knocked out.

The soldier was disappointed. One hit? It only took one hit to knock something as big and tough as this thing out!? How was he supposed to have fun against any normal opponents when they just up and died on him!?

The thin excuse for a knight stared, flabbergasted, at the slowly rising and falling chest of the Admin. "Wha... you... how...?" He turned to look at the soldier, backing away as he did. "What kind of monster are you?"

Before anyone could respond, a glittering meteor fell out of the sky and exploded on the ground, sending a dust cloud sweeping through the area. The soldier's eyes narrowed, and he sensed Daisy sprint back to his side, nervously putting one hand on his leg. But as the dust cleared, the soldier relaxed somewhat.

Rising to his feet and dusting his hands off, Galbaer looked around quizzically. "What's going on?" Noticing the unconscious Admin, he whistled loudly. "Who knocked the Admin out? I want to shake his - oh, it's you." The surprise in his voice changed to an amused tone as he saw the soldier, and he walked over with a ready grin. "I leave you alone for five hours and you go and pick a fight with one of the elite guard? If it were anyone, it'd be you."

Stuttering over his words, the thin man pointed an accusing finger at the soldier and shouted, "Champion! That thing tried to kill me and was about to execute the Admin!"

Galbaer raised an eyebrow, turned to look at the soldier, and then snorted loudly. "Captain, I assure you that Doom said he wouldn't kill anyone while he was - wait, did you ever actually say you wouldn't kill any innocents while you were here?" He interrupted himself, turning to the soldier with a frown. The soldier merely shrugged in response, and Galbaer winced. "Oh. That's - well, that's a bit embarrassing. Wait here just a moment, will you?"

Walking over to the shaking knight, Galbaer pulled him aside and began intensely whispering into his ear. The knight glanced over at the soldier several times, and the soldier noticed that the man's knees were beginning to tremble in terror. Patting him on the back, Galbaer ambled back over to the soldier. "Right, got that all taken care of. Please don't kill anyone here, by the way. There are certain precautions in place against murderers in Keldren."

The soldier wondered if that demon he'd slain a few hundred times (in increasingly creative ways) counted as murder and decided that no, it probably didn't.

Roughly shoving the soldier in the shoulder, Galbaer added with a grin, "Oh, and I might have a way for you to get back to Hell."

The soldier's interest was immediately piqued, and he tilted his head curiously. Nodding, Galbaer continued, "Yeah, the castle is hosting a ball to celebrate Aliss' safe return tomorrow evening. It's not every day that the Champion's daughter goes missing, after all." He chuckled darkly, then added, "Anyway, there'll be plenty of nobles and rich men attending the event. It should be fairly easy to convince one to sponsor your return to Hell."

The soldier considered the prospect. One hand, he'd have to go to a ball, which sounded like a horrific idea on a number of levels. On the other, he'd get to go to Hell.

When he put it in those terms, the soldier reflected, it was a pretty easy decision.

Giving Galbaer a ready thumbs-up, the soldier nodded. The Champion laughed richly. "I thought you'd say that. Oh, and by the way - it's a black-tie event. Do dress for the occasion, if you don't mind." Patting him on the shoulder once more, Galbaer headed off, rounding up the obviously nervous knights and heading away.

The soldier nearly considered being furious. Black-tie event? He wasn't going to take off his armor for anything, Hell or not.

An idea occurred to him.

Galbaer had never specified any clothing aside from the tie.