Refuge: Kurt's Quest by Doug Dandridge Page A

assault the wall between the towers.  Then,
possibly, break through that door and into their third level room.”
    “Then get a move on and get men up here,” said
Jackie, flashing him a smile.  “In the meantime, I’m going to jump on over and
stop them from pouring that evil stuff on the heads of our men.  And take out
that bastard,” she finished, looking at a man in robes who was releasing
lightning to strike the troops at the bottom of the wall.
    Jackie moved to the far side of the tower,
looked at her target area once again, then took off in a short sprint, dropping
into a crouch at the last moment and springing up and out.  Several arrows flew
at her, barely missing as the archers underestimated her speed of motion.  And
then the wizard turned toward her, wand in hand, and sent a black ball of
energy directly into her.
    *     *     *
    The men tried to scramble back over the top of
the wagon, while Garios, due to his lower height, went under.  Fenris starting
cycling arrows from his bow, one every three seconds, each a hit.  Still, it
did not look like everyone was going to make it in time.
    Kurt had been a strong man on Earth.  Standing
over just under two meters, with a heavily muscled body of one hundred and
eighteen kilos, he had always possessed greater strength than anyone he had
known.  Since coming to Refuge his strength had increased to fantastic levels. 
He didn’t know how much stronger he was.  He estimated four times stronger,
maybe more.  And now he used that strength to snatch up an armored body from
the ground and throw it at one of the charging horses with every muscle in his
body cracking.  The hundred kilos of body and armor smacked into the horse with
the clang of metal, and the horse fell back and to the side, interupting the
charge of two other mounts.
    With another quick grab and swivel he had
another body on its way, then jumped up and back, spinning around on the way
until he landed on the top of the wagon.  He turned just in time to swat a
lance head away from Fenris, while taking another in a glancing blow from his breastplate. 
Fenri backed away while fitting an arrow, then releasing a point blank range at
one of the horsemen.  Kurt brought his blade overhead in one hand, then
immediately brought it down on the head of the nearest enemy knight.  The blade
crushed helmet and skull, and broke the man’s neck in an instant, and he fell
off of his horse, knocking another man from his own.
    Three more lance heads thrust in, two bouncing
again from his breastplate.  One sought the gap between his pauldron and upper
arm armor on the inside of his again raised arm, pushing through the chain and
into the muscle below.  Kurt grunted in pain, forcing himself to concentrate on
keeping a grip on the sword that his hand wanted to release.  More lances
thrust in at the only target they could reach, and he backhanded them with his
other arm, then dropped back from the wagon to the ground.
    The horsemen were milling about on the other side
of the wagon, having no way to get through.  A horn sounded, and the horsemen,
after a moment’s hesitation, turned their mounts around and trotted away.
    “What the hell is going on?” yelled Fenris,
staring at the wagon, then over at Kurt.
    Kurt was about to answer that he didn’t know,
when the wagon started to move.  “Shit.  They’ve gotten footmen to the wagon. 
They’re moving it.”
    He took a step forward, getting ready to jump
back onto the wagon, when, with a clatter of wheels, it started to roll forward,
away from the alleyway entrance.
    “Form up,” yelled the Duke from behind him. 
The men started moving into a shield wall, spears and lances pointed out,
archers and crossbowmen behind them.  Kurt tested his arm, still surprised at
how fast he healed.  The arm was fine, and he reached down to pick up a shield
that had been dropped by one of the dead among their soldiers.
    “I’ll take the middle,” he told