When morning breaks, I have been hiding and harrying him for hours. From my hiding spot, from which I observe Cochar while catching my breath, I spot him stalking a deer. Immediately I spring up and call to him, "Here is your prey and your honor, Slowfoot! Or do you stop for lesser goods?" As I run I look back quickly to ensure he is following; the deer has escaped.

Through the day this continues, and the next, for six days and nights. Always I elude and evade, but I keep watch on him. Always I lose him, his mind turns to food, he starts for a meal, and I reveal myself to delay his meal again.

The lenten practices of my new faith have prepared me for this challenge in a way that this barbarian could not expect. The fast I have imposed upon him finally begins to take its toll on the seventh day. On the fourteenth day, I need only walk briskly to elude him. On the sixteenth, he begins to grab roots and grass, and my tactics change again. Now he is stationary, and I am literally running around him, taking food from his weak hands until finally it is I who hurl myself at him. Though bigger, he has no energy to balance himself and he falls. Leaping atop his chest I let my blade tickle his throat. "You are defeated" I tell him, "by your own lack of discipline. You must learn to deny the body, so that the soul may grow, and only then will your defeat your arrogance and learn the humility that the true warrior, secure in his own strength of mind and body, enjoys."

I step down, thank my God for granting the victory, and leave, but not before one parting shot. "I will be happy to teach you more, if you would be my student!" I leave him on the ground, eating his grass.