Zoran Chronicles Volume 1 A Dragon in Our Town by Vic Broquard Page B

his feet, while drawing his pair of swords.
                 He was in time to see a pair of arrows strike Emil and Renata squarely in their
chests. His only thought was, “They will be out of the action.” Both arrows merely
bounced off their chests, after punching a hole in their leather tops!
                 At the moment that Zoran attempted to move the tree, two dozen men moved out
from behind the trees. Ten fired off a volley of arrows, while the others raced to close the
distance to the seven who were protecting the wagon. Jarka, Karel, and Bernard both
barely escaped arrows meant for them, mostly because of the haste with which they were
fired. Dropping the bows, the ten headed into the combat as well.
                 Jarka, totally unwilling to go hand to hand with these bandits, cast her Fly spell
and rose above the battle. Karel and Bernard had no choice but to draw their swords and
engage in a sword battle. Their opponents gave them no time to cast a spell. Zoran
seeing Jarka’s brilliant move, ordered, “Zdenka, I’ll hold them off; get up there with
Jarka!” He became a whirlwind of blades, fending of two men coming after him plus two
who were headed for her. He bought her enough time to get airborne. He had no time to
look back and figure out a way for the twins to save themselves. He realized that neither
even had a dagger on them. Surely unless they could Fly out of the melee, they would be
killed outright. He’d have that on his conscience for the rest of his life; he failed to
protect two of his team!
                 Now fighting four men, Zoran focused all his attention on his foes, his twin
swords in rapid continuous motion. Seeing an opening, he lunged, struck, and retreated,
allowing the man to drop to his knees in pain, blood flowing rapidly from a gut slice.
Zoran intended to give no quarter to these men. Another moved in to take the fallen
one’s place.
                 Hovering stably, Jarka fired off a Sleep spell; ten of the men around the central
area dropped to the ground and began dozing. Their respite didn’t last long; another
bandit rushed over and began kicking them awake. Zdenka began shooting her Magical
Arrows at the men who were giving Bernard and Karel a very hard time. Both men
already had blood tricking down their arms and wouldn’t be able to hold on much
longer. Jarka now took her lead from Zdenka, firing off her Magical Arrows at the same
group of men, hoping to give Bernard and Karel more breathing room.
                 While all this was going on, three men each rushed towards the twins, who stood
there unsure of just what to do. At first, they looked at the holes in their tops, annoyed
that their nice leather tops now needed mending. Two men drew up to Emil, while
another two reached Renata. All four men took a mighty swing, intending to cut these
two down right where they stood. Loud cracks of breaking steel resulted. Four blades
broke, although both now had large slices in their tops, not just a puncture hole. Swung
with such force, all four blades simply shattered upon contact with their bodies.
                 “Damn you. You ruined my leather top!” Emil cursed and swung his fist at the
man closest to him. His fist totally smashed in the man’s head and sent him flying
backwards ten feet. On his left, Renata did basically the same thing. She swung her fist
at first one and then the other of her attackers, achieving the same result as her brother.
Now, both were broiling mad and began going directly after other nearby bandits, who
saw two unarmed teens charging them with clenched fists, not even holding a weapon.
None had time to reflect upon what happened to their men behind the charging duo.
One blow and their heads were smashed and their bodies went flying backwards.
                 Three minutes later, Zoran had slain three of his opponents and was dueling the
last one, when Emil