Free The Chosen by Jeremy Laszlo

Both blows ended the battle. Neither would be able to continue. As Sirus’s blade ripped through Garret’s side rending apart flesh and muscle and nearly half of his lower organs, Garret’s blade removed Sirus’s ear and continued down the side of his neck to cleave through the man’s collar bone, several ribs and his lung. Both men released their swords. Garret released his to attempt to hold his organs inside his abdomen before falling heavily to the ground. Sirus released his not of his own volition. Garret’s attack had nearly completely removed his good arm from his body all the way up to his collar bone. Garret blacked out. Shadows filled his vision and all sounds became muted, and he found much deserved rest. Sirus, on the other hand, though his lungs were damaged, yelled for Daniella to come see to their wounds before passing out himself. The battle was a draw. It had not been the victory Garret had hoped to claim, but he had matched a man with years of battle experience, and neither of them had lost or won.
     

*****
     
    Philip and Zorbin stood across the field from where Sirus and Garret began their fight. Zorbin hefted his giant battle hammer in his hands knowing that with this weapon, any blow that landed true would end the match quickly. Philip stood opposite the dwarf and drew from his belt a pair of matching narrow short swords. Barely longer than a dagger, the entire weapons from point to pommel were only as long as the man’s forearm and hand. They looked dainty in comparison to the dwarf’s stout hammer. So much so that Zorbin actually grinned at his opponent’s choice of weapon. The truth was, however, that both of them held an advantage. Though the dwarf could probably end the fight with a single, good blow from his hammer, it was an unwieldy weapon, cumbersome in its size and fairly easy to anticipate. Philip’s blades were indeed short, requiring him to get dangerously close to his opponent to land a blow, but they were light and he was agile.
    “Ready for a bit of fun, Zorbin?” Philip asked.
    “Let us battle, you and I,” Zorbin replied,
    Zorbin raised his large hammer until the head of the great weapon was over his shoulder. Lunging forward at his opponent, the dwarf swung the massive weapon down to crush his opponent’s chest. Only his opponent was no longer where he had been just a fraction of a second before.
    Dancing nimbly aside, Philip stepped out of harm’s way and darted directly behind the dwarf. Philip liked to play games with his opponents and, being so inclined, he pushed the tip of one of his small blades through a ring in the dwarf’s armor and pricked his back ever so slightly. The dwarf spun around immediately, swinging the massive hammer as he turned, building up dangerous bone-crushing momentum. Philip barely had time to leap back out of the path of the large weapon. In fact, it so nearly hit him that he could hear and feel the whoosh of air that followed the weapon’s track through the air. Philip decided quickly that he did not have time to play games with the dwarf.
    The battle continued with Zorbin swinging and missing Philip who nimbly danced just out of reach with each new attack. The massive hammer made the dwarf’s recovery slow, giving Philip plenty of time to retaliate after each swing with a strike of his own. Each time the hammer’s head swung past him Philip darted in. Shoving his pointed blades through the rings of the armor he would not only cut his opponent, but shear small sections of mail off with each blow. They fought on for a great while in this fashion and before long the mail that Zorbin once wore lay in tatters over his shoulders and he bled from dozens of shallow wounds.
    Zorbin needed to change his style of fighting or lose a prolonged battle. He quickly formulated a plan and waited for his opportunity, which came quickly enough as Philip was growing bolder with every strike Zorbin missed. Swinging his huge hammer horizontally to drive