The two went out of the Silver-Peace Hall; the little dragon showed his true form, mounted a cloud-head, and did battle with the demon there in the middle air.

本相, true form, takes the first 相 as xiàng; 相殺, fighting each other, takes the second as xiāng, "mutually" — one character, two jobs, in the space of a single line. Both instances of 那 are pointing nà; 半空中 takes 中 as zhōng.

This was a fine slaughter, waged in the black of night. How may it be told?

The lead-in to the battle verse. 黑地裡, "in the black ground," sets the fight against a lightless sky. 怎見得, "how may it be told," takes 得 as de, and is one of the standard announcements that verse is coming.

The one, a monster bred of Bowl-Son Mountain; the other, a true dragon cast down from the Western Ocean.

The verse opens by setting the two origins against each other exactly. 罰下, banished as punishment, recalls the dragon-prince's crime — the novel does not let you forget that the rescuer is himself a convict. In 那一個 the 那 is pointing nà, and in 碗子 the suffix 子 is zi.

The one shed a fine radiance, like spat white lightning;

毫光 is a hair-fine light, a thin subtle glow, here likened to lightning.

the other bred a keen force, like bursting crimson cloud.

The dragon's 銳氣, keen force or sharp spirit, answers the demon's radiance across the couplet. Every line in this verse is built as a matched pair.

The one was as a white-tusked old elephant walking the world of men; the other as a gold-clawed wildcat flying down to the mortal realm.

好似 takes 似 as sì; 人間 takes 間 as jiān. 狸貓 is a wildcat. Each fighter gets an animal to stand in for him — an old elephant and a gold-clawed cat, mass against speed.

The one, a jade pillar propping heaven; the other, a golden beam bridging the sea.

擎天玉柱, a jade pillar holding up the sky, and 架海金梁, a golden beam spanning the sea, are both set phrases for a mighty champion — normally applied to one man. Here they are split between the two so that neither can have the upper hand even in the imagery.

The silver dragon soared and wheeled; the yellow fiend tumbled and reared.

銀龍, silver dragon, and 黃鬼, yellow fiend, name the two by colour and kind and match movement to movement.

To left and right the treasured sword never slackened; back and forth the "hall-filler" swung without cease.

The closing couplet leaves the two weapons in perpetual motion — the captured sword against the iron lamp-stand, neither giving way.