General Forge stood with his back against the wall. Next to him was his shortened halberd, the one which had yet to be repaired since the two last fought.

He stared directly across him, at the armored Hero that stood right at the gate of the Palace Spire. The Healer stood next to the Hero. She was silent.

“Sire Ronn. You’re here already?” General Forge asked. “I thought we had a good head start on you two. After New Frontierland, of course.”

“General Forge?” the Hero asked. “I expected to see you with the Second Coming. Are you not accompanying her?”

“I’m glad my presence was a surprise,” General Forge said. “Though, you’re probably hardly as glad as I am.”

Ronn’s armor creaked as he moved his head to get a good view of the Demonfolk General. “Please step to the side, General Forge. I must tend to my duties.”

“Unfortunately, I’m not letting you through here,” the General stated. “If you want to, you’ll have to fight me.”

The Hero stood there, motionless. He seemed to be assessing General Forge’s words.

“You don’t want to fight,” Ronn stated.

General Forge remained still. What other response could he have expected? The Hero was great at figuring out lies from the spoken word.

“Congratulations. What tipped you off?” he asked.

“I do not need to disclose my methods. Regardless, lay your weapon down. I can tell that you do not want a fight. Neither do I.”

“You say you don’t want a fight, yet you’re still carrying that sword of yours that weighs half a millstone. Make up your mind.”

Without speaking a word, Ronn stabbed his broadsword into the ground before him. The weapon cleaved through the stone bricks beneath, embedding the sword a fourth of the way into the ground.

“I am now disarmed, as per your request. Not wholly; I am capable of retrieving my weapon at any moment. But it is slightly more difficult for me to retrieve. Will this suffice?”

General Forge sighed.

“Of course, you’ll stab your sword into the ground like the most chivalrous knight in the world. Because you are.”

“That is my job. It is also my job to ensure the safety of this city,” the Hero stated. He held a hand out as if to invite the General to his vision. “Let us end this madness once and for all. Convince the Second Coming to turn herself in, and I will ensure you will receive a fair trial despite the fact that you have aided her operations.”

A silence punctuated the air between the two. The only sounds they could hear otherwise were the shouts of rioters and the occasional explosion from a fire-based spell. Even Junil dared not to say a word, for fear of breaking the tense silence.

General Forge closed his eyes after the Hero gave him the offer. He seemed to be considering it.

“What I dislike most about this is how reasonable your offer is,” General Forge admitted. “If I had nothing but my self-interest in mind, I should absolutely take it.”

He pushed himself forward. No longer leaning on the wall, the Demonfolk general brought his Mandrel up to his shoulder, and allowed it to rest there.

“And, I have to admit, I’m not getting out of this one. The Capital’s garrison is currently overwhelmed, but they’ll be able to quell the mobs by sundown. And the harbormaster likely has closed the port to all but incoming troop ships to put down this uprising.”

The Hero nodded. “Your assessment is reasonable. But, even if you were to escape from the Capital, you are a wanted individual now. Any Demonfolk who would otherwise help you will be charged with assisting a criminal. You will find little assistance from your own kind.”

“Well, I’ve been a wanted individual ever since the War has ended, so nothing will change there,” General Forge replied. He kicked some dust up from the stone brick floors below. “But what will happen to Lady Sollar?”

“The Second Coming?” Ronn asked. “Why do you ask?”

“My final decision depends on your answer to that question. Be truthful with me.”

Ronn’s response was immediate.

“She will be placed in shackles, like the Demon Lord, and her magic will be drained to compensate for the immense damages she has caused. She will share the burden of her brother’s sentencing.”

It took General Forge approximately five seconds to make up his mind.

“I reject your offer of surrender. I refuse to allow you to treat Milady like that.”

He swung his half-Halberd down to point at the Hero. Despite the threatening display, Ronn did not grab at his own weapon yet.

“Please see reason, General,” Ronn appealed. “You said it yourself. Nobody can escape the Capital in its current state. What hopes would the Second Coming have in attempting to free the Demon Lord?”

General Forge frowned.

“That is where you’re wrong. Not about the escape part, I’m content with the fact that escape is now impossible from here. No, you’ve misconstrued why she’s here in the first place.”

“You’ve spoken no lies to me so far, so I’m intrigued as to why you tell me this now.”

“Because you’re literally incapable of seeing the actual reason with that hard head of yours. She just wants to meet her brother.”

The Hero stood there and stared at General Forge.

“You are delusional.”

Ronn grabbed his broadsword from the stone bricks he had stabbed it into. General Forge, meanwhile, tightened the grip around his halberd in response.

“But you know I’m telling the truth. Right?” the Demonfolk General replied.

“Preposterous. I refuse to believe this.”

“If you refuse to believe it, I guess we have no choice!”

General Forge kicked himself off the wall, making a beeline for Ronn. He angled the halberd to point it directly at the chest plate of the Hero.

Immediately, Ronn pulled his broadsword from the ground and held it up in front of him, the end still pointing down, to immediately parry General Forge’s attack.

“You’re so obsessed with a ‘complicated’ truth that you refuse to believe the simplest explanations right when it’s in front of you—?” the Demonfolk General asked.

General Forge’s halberd blocked a sudden counterattack from the Hero. Sparks flew off their weapons the moment they made contact.

“I cannot reason with the insane,” Ronn stated.

General Forge grimaced. He leaped back, to put distance between himself and the Hero. “And what is insane about what I’m saying?”

“I can tell if someone’s word is truth,” Ronn replied. He had gotten into a combat stance, his broadsword held in both hands right in front of him. “But if someone is spouting obvious falsehoods, and I can tell that they believe it to be true, that is little more than insanity.”

The edges of Ronn’s armored boots glowed. He kicked himself forward over the ground at a frightening speed. General Forge swore that he could feel a gust of wind from how fast the Hero was moving.

He recognized this. Knowing what was about to happen next, the Demonfolk general threw himself to the ground and rolled right underneath Ronn’s blade, which had been swung horizontally. The blade, the edge of which was now glowing white, cut clean through the stone brick wall that was just behind General Forge.

General Forge barely stumbled back to his feet. He was now behind the Hero.

“And I cannot reason with the insane,” Ronn finished. His armor creaked as he turned back around to confront General Forge again.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The General took this opportunity to swing at the Hero with his halberd. With the degree his weapon had been shortened, however, he had to get uncomfortably close to Ronn to make contact.

Ronn saw this coming, and pivoted on his heels to narrowly avoid the strike.

General Forge halted his attack, skidding to a stop while staring directly at the eye slits on Ronn’s helmet.

“Call me insane?” the Demonfolk General asked. “Look who’s talking! I’m telling you the truth, yet—”

General Forge had readied himself for a strike from the Hero, seeing that Ronn was raising his broadsword. And ready he was, deflecting a blow with his halberd.

“It has to be calculated. It all has to be!” Ronn exclaimed. “There is no way that the Second Coming has been doing all of this without forethought!”

General Forge parried another swing from the Hero’s blade.

“That’s where you’re wrong,” General Forge responded. “You’re dead wrong! Sollar’s been making everything up since the beginning—”

He grunted as another blade impact struck his halberd. But he continued talking, despite the interruption.

“—She can’t even make a coherent long-term plan, if anything I was the one behind the planning!”

General Forge finally found an opening for him to slip back, away from Ronn’s strikes. The broadsword that was swung down in his direction hit the ground, chipping a good chunk out of the stone brick ground.

“Then why has she foiled me every single step of the way?” Ronn exclaimed. “I demand to know.”

He raised the blade again and swung it parallel to the ground.

“Because you’re a genuine idiot when compared to her!” General Forge replied.

The Hero’s sword made contact with the General’s halberd, which had parried it. General Forge skidded to the side on his shoes due to the impact.

“Don’t get me wrong,” the Demonfolk General continued. “You’re one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met. Sollar ain’t smart, she struggles with even basic math.”

His halberd parried another strike aimed at his side. Sparks flew off their weapons. Despite this exertion, General Forge continued to speak.

“But when you’ve done nothing but think hard for the years you’ve fought, I can only guess that you now outright reject the simplest answers that come to mind. Why is this? Ego? Pride?”

Sweat was beading up on the Demonfolk General’s forehead.

“Either way, you’ve got nobody to blame but yourself for making you look like a fool!” General Forge exclaimed.

This struck a nerve with Ronn.

“I am no fool. The Second Coming is the one who has made a fool of me!”

General Forge gave an angry grin as it began to click for him as to why Ronn was getting so angry.

“I see it now! You’re mad! Mad that you’ve been foiled for the first time in forever! And you’re refusing to believe that the person who foiled you has the intelligence of a child! Imagine the reactions of everyone if this got out, oh-ho-ho!”

“However you wish to frame it, this will not change my mission of apprehending the Second Coming!”

General Forge was torn whether he should laugh or feel mad at the Hero’s line of reasoning. So he chose to be mad.

“Call her by her name, you good-for-nothing—!”

The Demonfolk General brought his halberd down on Ronn. The Hero’s quick reflexes blocked the halberd immediately, rendering the strike useless.

General Forge’s tricks did not stop there, however. He channeled magical energy through his arms, swiping the end of his halberd back in one swift motion, aiming it right at the center of the Hero’s breastplate, and using even more force to push it forward.

The halberd struck the breastplate — and proceeded to glance off, sending sparks in all directions. A dent was all there was to showcase General Forge’s risky attempt.

His eyes flickered up, to look directly into the Hero’s eye slits. The Hero had both hands on his broadsword, which was raised over his head.

With the angle that Mandrel was now pointing at, he wouldn’t have the time to effectively block Ronn’s strike. So, he ducked, buying him a few fractions of a second more, before bringing his tail around to block the broadsword.

The metal end of his halberd, which he had earlier tied around his tail, proved to be useful. Another hail of sparks scattered onto both Ronn and Forge as the glowing shoe of his halberd stopped the broadsword in its tracks.

General Forge’s tail now hurt from the impact, but that was better than getting cleaved in half.

He began to crawl back from underneath the massive blade that was a finger’s length away from his face. General Forge knew that this was not good; he was far too close. He needed to get back before a repeat of last time happened.

General Forge scrambled away, out of the reach of Ronn’s hand.

Almost.

The Demonfolk General could feel the moment something grabbed on his head. He attempted to pull away, but stopped when he felt a dull pain at the base of his one good horn.

Namely, the horn that the Hero was holding onto right at this moment.

He struggled, twisting and turning with what limited mobility he had, but Ronn’s iron grip remained. The struggling stopped, as General Forge peered up at the now suddenly more imposing Hero.

“Ronn... let’s be reasonable here...” the General started.

The Hero chose not to be reasonable, and instead flung the Demonfolk General by his one good horn directly into the stone brick wall of the Palace Spire.

The next few things that General Forge could feel was blinding pain of all types. Physical pain, from being thrown directly into a wall and having said wall crumble on him. Magical aches, he used up a good chunk of his magic, and while he was used to the soreness that came with magic use, the compounding effect on top of everything else wasn’t pleasant. A dull, throbbing headache was emanating from where his horn was grabbed, that one was obvious. And, to top it all off, the burning anger and humiliation was foremost in his mind.

This situation was all-too-familiar, because this was the exact same situation that led up to his defeat in his final battle with the Hero! Except at that time, he got close and was about to strike, but the Hero sliced his halberd in half and then tossed him at the wall by his left horn. Which led to said horn snapping.

Well, getting one hit was at least an accomplishment over last time. Even though the strike did practically nothing.

General Forge never knew the Hero’s armor was that tough.

As he laid there, half-buried by stone bricks, he could hear the sounds of footsteps approaching where he was thrown. He opened his eyes to see the Hero standing over him, menacingly.

“I have defeated you,” Ronn stated. “What other outcome have you expected?”

General Forge coughed out some brick dust.

“I knew, Ronn. I knew. If I couldn’t defeat you when I was at the peak of my strength, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to beat you with my exhaustion and my halberd in the state that it was.”

General Forge glanced over at the wall, to see that his halberd was also partially stuck into the stone wall.

“Then why fight?” Ronn asked. “If you knew you were not likely to win.”

The Demonfolk General looked back up at Ronn. But he felt far too ashamed to try to hold eye contact, instead allowing his gaze to fall back down.

“I wasn’t looking to win,” General Forge muttered. “I was trying to send a message.”

Ronn, who was still holding onto his broadsword, stuck it into the ground right next to him. He then crossed his arms.

“You are still so intent on convincing me of that ridiculous notion about the Second Coming?”

General Forge scoffed. “Even if you’re not convinced, at least call her by her name. Sollar, her name’s Sollar. Surely you can do that?”

“She is a threat,” Ronn replied. “I see no issue confronting her in the same manner we confronted the Demon Lord. Your words will not convince me.”

The Demonfolk General shook his head. “You’ve got it all wrong. She can’t fight... she’s not a threat at all! Stop this, I demand it!”

The Hero said not a word in response to that. He merely stared down at General Forge, then fetched his broadsword and began to step away.

“Ronn, dang it, please—”

“Junil. We are departing now. Let us go.”

“Ronn, don’t you dare—!”

General Forge tried to reach out with his arm, but winced at the soreness from his shoulder.

The eyes of Junil and General Forge made contact.

“Please,” he rasped.

Junil’s gaze averted from his, at an almost disheartening speed. She, too, talked away, her footsteps fading as she followed Ronn up the steps.

General Forge sat there, as his gut sank. He was too pained and injured to move, and even if he was in peak condition, the best he could possibly do was stalling the Hero. For how long? He wasn’t even sure anymore, due to his shattered self-confidence.

It was a terrible situation. But he still needed to make the best of it.

“Sollar needs to get out of here before the Hero gets to her...”

General Forge started to tend to his own injuries. He raised a bruised arm up to the horn that was grabbed by Ronn, and sighed in relief when he felt that it was still intact.

One broken horn was bad enough. At least his other horn was still undamaged, despite the toss.

Now to get out of this rubble pile... which was easier said than done. He shifted his body, and could feel a few of the stone bricks shift around. They were somewhat heavy, but if he could knock a few off...

“What in the world happened to you?”

A familiar voice greeted his ears, and he immediately snapped his head in the direction of the speaker.

“General Seis?” General Forge asked, in surprise. Sure enough, the Second Demonfolk General was standing before him.

“Yes, I’m here,” Seis replied. “And I’ve got the other Demonfolk organized right behind me, too!”

She gestured behind her, where General Forge could see dozens upon dozens of the Demonfolk indentured servants who had organized with various tools and makeshift weapons.

“...How did you manage this? They were all just rioting earlier—?”

General Seis held up a finger. “Shhh. We can talk about that later. You look like you’re in a pinch, do you want some healing?”

General Forge was about to say yes, but stopped himself.

“You’re worried about me?” he asked. “No, go up those stairs right now and stop Ronn and Junil from getting to Sollar!”

The expression on General Seis’ face dropped immediately. “You’re saying they’re up there with her?”

“Why else would I be in this predicament? Do I toss myself at walls for fun?” General Forge grumbled.

“This is... Regardless, we cannot leave you behind, even if I have to dig you out myself.”