Together we stand.

Fred flashed with anger. Nobody dared to disobey him in combat, especially someone who was not a trained soldier. He stood his ground, aggravated by the insubordination.

The orcs made no alms for their fallen comrade. These were orc regulars. They carried schimitars and had greater experience than their club- weilding fellow. They had just finished plundering a village the night before, and pressed forward ahead of the main body on a scouting mission to find their journey's goal--the dragon and his armies. Their primitive minds were a little surprised to find humans here, but the thrill of combat blocked the curiosity out.

They marched forward in a broad line, weapons drawn. Two of them ventured after the girl, while the other four concentrated on the knight.

Fred wiped the sweat from his brow as he saw them coming. His tried to draw off the bunch from his female companion, but succeeding in drawing attention of only about half. He ran up a path on a steep embankment hoping the orcs would have to approach one by one, but they divided and two came up one path while the other two came up another path twenty feet down. Siezing the opportunity, Fred jumped off the short cliff and landed behind an orc. The orc instinctively swung it's blade as it turned to face its foe. Fred, however, had ducked and now rammed his blade through a hole in the orc's leather armor. The next orc rushed forward, hoping to catch Fred off-guard, but the knight side- stepped the oncoming monster and smashed its head with the hilt of his sword. A third leaped off the cliff toward him, but he caught it across the torso and impaled it on his sword.

The fourth orc shrugged off the loss of his companions and watched the knight struggle vainly to free his weapon from its lodgement. Fred looked up and saw it coming quickly. He picked up a schimitar from a dead orc. He deftly parried the first blow from his adversary. Suddenly, he felt blood running down his thigh. He rolled away toward the cliff and saw that one of the orcs against Diana had joined the fight against him.

Both were closing in on the warrior when a rock came from nowhere and struck one in the back of the head. [WHACK] The orc shrugged the blow off as it would a hangover. Then came another. [WHACK] This time the orc turned to see Diana hurling rocks at it. [WHACK] right off the forehead. It stepped forward, but realized too late that it had just been slain from behind.

The remaining orc's attempts to block Fred's renewed thrusts were futile. It was soon caught across the throat from a well-placed blow.

Diana rushed to his side. "What happened to the remaining orc?" asked Fred.

"He got his weapon stuck in a tree, so I clubbed him," replied Diana with a slight smile. "Not bad, eh?"

"I'll see if it dead in a moment," said Fred, sitting on a rock to check his wound.

Diana sat down beside worrying about her hero. "So, how is your leg?"

1. Fred checks his leg and finds it is only a slight graze. He walks with Diana to the village.
2. Fred decides it isn't bad, but realizes he won't be able to walk to the village on it today.

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