Dalinar rides Gallant into brutal melee, the Thrill surging as he fells Parshendi in pairs. He notes beardless fighters with slighter builds—possibly women—and decides to collect bodies for study. He keeps ahead of his line to inspire troops, then sends Gallant to safety when enemies press too close.

Dalinar surveys the field: Adolin’s banner fights to the south and Sadeas anchors the west. The alliance’s hammer-and-anvil tactic works until a second Parshendi army appears and leaps a northern chasm directly into Sadeas’s rear. Climbing a rock for sightlines, Dalinar realizes Sadeas will be overrun before infantry can reinforce.

Dalinar summons Gallant and, without his honor guard, sprints around and then straight through the Parshendi ranks. He skirts a spear wall, bursts free near Sadeas’s chaotic back lines, and dismounts. Finding Sadeas downed and surrounded, Dalinar drops his Blade, seizes Sadeas’s fallen hammer to hurl enemies back, then resummons Oathbringer to hold a shrinking circle as his Shardplate cracks under relentless blows.

Adolin arrives in brilliant Plate, cutting a path with the Cobalt Guard. Their breakthrough routs the attackers, Sadeas is pulled from shattered Plate but lives, and reports confirm the gemheart is taken. Dalinar, exhausted and leaking Stormlight, yields command back to Adolin and checks on the wounded Gallant.

Sadeas praises the rescue yet calls Dalinar’s honor reckless. Dalinar cites the Codes and The Way of Kings; Sadeas scoffs at “that storming book,” but admits curiosity. Afterward, Dalinar surveys the trail of bodies he carved and, instead of triumph, feels nauseated revulsion, unsettled by his dependence on—and reaction to—the Thrill.