As soon as King Kay Kavus stamped his royal seal upon the warning letter, Rostam leapt onto Rakhsh and took the perilous road toward Mazandaran. With his heavy mace hanging from his saddle and a sixty-fold lasso at his pommel, the elephant-bodied champion rode forth like a moving mountain. News of the Iranian envoy's approach reached the King of Mazandaran, who dispatched a warband of chieftain demons to intercept the legendary hero.
When Rostam spotted the oncoming ranks, he reached out and effortlessly uprooted a massive tree, holding its trunk like a light javelin before hurling it into the midst of the warriors, crushing many beneath its leafy branches. When one chieftain stepped forward to test the hero's strength by grabbing his hand, Rostam smiled, tightened his grip, and severed the demon's veins, sending him swooning from his steed. Terrified by this omen, the demon host fell back, and word reached the king of a messenger possessing cosmic power.
The King of Mazandaran sent for Kalahur—a fierce warrior famed for his panther-like violent nature—and commanded him to humble the Iranian envoy. Kalahur rode out, met Rostam, and gripped his hand with all his strength. Rostam met the challenge: he squeezed Kalahur's hand until the demon's flesh turned blue and his fingernails withered and dropped like dry foliage to the earth. Crippled and weeping in agony, Kalahur stumbled back to his monarch, warning that no warrior under the sun could withstand such a titan, urging peace and tribute over utter annihilation.
Rostam then strode into the court of the King of Mazandaran with terrifying majesty. Though the king treated him with feigned honor—questioning him on the arduous journey and marveling at his heroic physique—Rostam delivered Kay Kavus's unyielding missile. Upon reading the letter's fierce threats, the demon king turned dark with rage, boasting of his golden throne, vast legions, and terrifying sorcery. He warned Rostam that if his armies mobilized, Iran would be trampled into oblivion, advising the champion to turn his reins back home.
Rostam listened with a clear soul, measuring the realm's military strength and disdaining the monarch's arrogance. When the King of Mazandaran offered lavish robes of honor, Arabian horses, and chests of gold, Rostam rejected them with utter scorn, deeming it a disgrace to accept gifts from a doomed foe. Leaving the court under a dark star, he galloped back to the Iranian camp, presenting Kay Kavus with a complete account of Mazandaran's forces and reassuring the monarch that these demon warriors were nothing more than dust beneath his feet.