(2 xp to Mnemon Aliki)

It is unseasonably hot. The sun beats down mercilessly, and the sounds of battle fill the air. The bandit's goremaul goes flying over your head, a glancing hit from your saber turning it aside easily. These guys obviously don't know what they're doing. Still, 3:1 odds are 3:1 odds....

Damien the Daring is a firm believer in leading from the front. His sword shines brightly as it cuts through those who press against him, and he calls out orders to the rest of the Mighty Men as he strikes down yet another foe.

The guy with the goremaul is an extra. As an extra, he has 3 HL, tops. Therefore, a shining blade of materialize sunlight slices though him like a hit knife through butter. Like I said, these guys aren't really any kind of challenge for you-- and one-on-one, they're probably not even a match for your men. But they're not fighting one on one. Do you plan to just cut through them one at a time?

Damien the Daring will cut through them one at a time if necessary, and his strategy has him out in front, anima blazing, daring the enemy to strike at him as the rest of the mighty men's battle line herds the foes his way. These are bandits, not trained professionals, and the sight of his sword striking down man after man, as arrows and blades bounce harmlessly off his conspicuously unarmored chest from those few foes with the strength of will to even strike at him, is the sort of thing that routs are made of.

And we're going to fast forward for about a minute, as your unworthy foes fall before you like tenpins. There are only a couple left, one is menacing one of your men, a youth named Redor, who's new, and hot to prove himself. About a foot shorter than this guy, though.

"I said, surrender or die!" Damien roars, Essence behind his words and demeanor to drive his words home to Redor's foe and any others with in the sound of his voice still harboring the will to fight.

The bandit quails in fear and begins to raise his weapon in a gesture of surrender. Redor is flush in the face, angry, he's still going-- he stabs at the man with his spear. Do you choose to intervene?

"Rador, stand down!" Damien orders, moving to block his thrust if needed. "He's surrendered, and we respect that - that's the difference between us and them, remember?"

"I *had* him!" the boy protests, petulently. "He was mine!"

"And he surrendered," Damien replies. "If you can't handle that, then maybe you don't belong in the Mighty Men."

Rador says, "I just wanted to do SOMETHING, dammit!""

As you look back across the battelfield, you realize that... at least 2/3 of the casualties fell to your blade.

"And you did!" Damien says. "You were on the front line! You held through the worst they could throw at you!"

"Held!? I didn't even get a hit in!" the boy protests.

Damien the Daring looks at the boy. "All right. Go tell Sextus what you just told me," he says. "And once he's done smacking you around the ears, I want you to listen to what he has to say about war."

Some of your men are disarming the bandit; the rest of them have gathered around you in something of a circle. Sextus is among them. He clears his throat at the mention of his name. When the solar looks around, he says in a quiet, gruff voice "Damien? A word, if you please?" and twitches his head in a sharp 'come this way motion'

Damien the Daring plants his sword in the ground, knowing it will leap to his hand at a thought if he needs it, and follows after his old friend. "What's up, Sextus?" he asks, once they're a little distance away from the others.

-= OOC =- Mnemon Aliki says, "What kind of hair does he have? I'm picturing a gruff bald guy, grizzled but not old-old...."

"Damien, I'm not sure you saw what happened back there." Sextus says, scratching the back of his head.

-= OOC =- Damien the Daring says, "That works. He's older than Damien - probably the closest thing Damien has to a father figure."

"What happened?" Damien repeats. "We cut down a bandit army that outnumbered us three to one, with hardly any casualties, is what happened. That's what we want, that's what we were here for!"

"YOU cut down a bandit army, Damien. Not we, YOU. That wasn't a battle, that was a slaughter!" Sextus barks, looking Damien straight in the eye.

"They could have surrendered at any time!" Damien says. "I didn't strike at a soul who wasn't raising their blade at me or one of ours first."

"And they DID surrender, Damien! The instant-- the INSTANT you told them to. You could have just walked up to them and demanded their surrender at any time!" Sextus counters.

Damien the Daring is quiet for a long moment at that. "You're right," he says finally, his voice quiet. "This was a slaughter."

Sextus lowers his voice, his point having been made, and turns to conciliation "... I'm not saying you were wrong. About the boy. There does still need to be a difference between us and them."

"Thanks, Sextus," Damien says. "I didn't realize what I was turning into..."

Sextus arches an eyebrow. "Turning into?"

"I was turning into someone who didn't notice," Damien says. "I know what I've become, and I make no apologies for that."

Sextus crosses his arms. "And what, exactly, do you think you've become?"

"One of the Solar Exalted," Damien says. "Someone who can change the world. And someone who's just seen a way that it needs to be changed."

Sextus isn't quite sure he follows-- but he's also not sure he likes the direction tis is going "What way do you mean?"

"Syme's right - no man should be able to do this with impunity," Damien says. "He's just wrong about what needs to change." He looks at his old friend. "What would have happened, if it had been you in the ring that night, instead of me? Might this be Sextus the Mighty's band of fighters, instead of mine?"

Sextus scowls, perhaps sadly, definitely crotchety, but affable. "Yeah, well, I can still take you down a peg or two, when I have to, whippersnapper. Whatever destiny throws at you, you'll never be too big for that."

Damien smiles. He knows that's not true, but that's all right - it will be soon enough, if he has anything to say about it. "And I'm damn grateful for that," he says. "Now, we've got work to do - Virtuous Cho'll be too busy tending to the wounded to keep Some-Virtue Chang from looting anything that's nailed down."

Sextus laughs heartily, his smile returning as he clasps an arm around Damien's shoulders and they turn back towards the camp "That's alright. No-virtue Chen beat him to it, and I know where he keeps his stuff."