Monday, 22 December 2014

Stone Warrior
(Part 11)
(Please see my post of 20th Dec for 10th part of the story)

The Captain was fooled by this brave talk of Roock and he decided to attack Eastern Post. It was decided that the attack will begin one hour before sunrise.
Early next morning Brasian soldiers attacked Eastern Post. Talavian soldiers were taken by surprise. Many of them were dejected and demoralised because of the events of last evening. Zoran and Traytur had fought a duel. Both were seriously wounded. Traytur was running high fever. Doctor had administered him strong drugs. He was unconscious under the influence of the drugs.
Zoran was also seriously wounded. He was not unconscious but he could not take part in the battle. A young officer said to him, “Sir, you don’t have to come with us. We are good enough for these coward Brasians. The battle would be over sooner than they think. This time we will not spare them and we will kill all of them. We will show no mercy this time.”
Battle began. It was a fierce battle. Zoran was not with Talavian army. Roock shouted towards the Captain, “You see, Zoran could not come to the battlefield. He is as good as dead. Let us fight like brave heroes of the past and win this battle.”
Brasians were well trained and well equipped soldiers. When they did not see Zoran in the battlefield their confidence rose. They fought bravely. Slowly but surely they started gaining ground. Talavian suffered heavy losses and started retreating.   
When Zoran learnt that his soldiers were on the verge of a defeat his anger rose like hot lava in a volcano. He quickly got ready to join the battle. He ignored the doctor who was saying that it would not be good for him to leave his bed.
“You have lost a lot of blood in that foolish duel that you fought yesterday. If you get wounded in today’s battle you will surely die. We all need you. Even if we lose this post it would not matter. We can always win the post back. But if die in the battle it will be a great loss.”
“No, as long as I am alive we will not surrender the post. You are making too much of my wounds. I had suffered worse wounds in the last battle and still I survived. You don’t worry; nothing will happen to me.”
Thus saying he brushed aside the doctor and left for the battlefield. And what he saw there made him angry; rather very angry.
His soldiers appeared tired and dispirited. They had not yet left the battlefield. But Zoran could sense that any moment his soldiers would be running away from the battle. He felt he was staring at an impending defeat.
Zoran was a warrior who would not accept defeat, not as long as he was alive. He forgot his wounds, he forgot his weakness and he entered the battle like a wounded lion. He moved like a raging storm. One moment he was here, another moment he was there; one moment he was fighting with a sword, another moment he was fighting with a spear; one moment he was thundering like an angry cloud, another moment he was exhorting his dispirited soldiers to fight like tigers.
But brave Brasisans were not to be cowed down. They kept suffering wounds and death but they kept fighting heroically. Talavians were outnumbered. They had underestimated the courage and desire of Brasians to win. They began to retreat.
One by one Talavian soldiers got wounded and killed. Some of them ran away from battlefield. Only Zoran remained on the battlefield fighting the enemy. The numerous wounds suffered by him did not slow him down. He kept fighting. He was unstoppable. No Brasian could match his strength, ferocity and bravery.

Brasians soldiers fought bravely but eventually lost heart. Many of them got killed; many got seriously wounded; many ran away from battle. It was an unbelievable situation, for they had almost won the battle. But Zoran had almost singlehandedly fought the Brasian soldiers and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
                                                                               (To be continued)
                                                                                       © i b arora
                 You can read next part of the story here

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