Stuck at Verona...

[basis]

Hi all, playing my first game in KB:AP.

Playing normal difficulty, mage, leadership about 3.2K
army setup: normal bears, polar bears, 15 or 16 black beholders, 1 dragon (black? the first dragon unit we find I think on Bolo island), 2 cyclops.

I think my attack is 1, defense is 5 and intel is about 9. I know it is pretty crappy stats. my pet dragon is level 16. I cannot remember my level.

I cleared most of Rusty except for 2 units, Zig-zag and a group of Thorns that are guarding some treasure. When I right-click on Zig-Zag it says Lethal to me. And the Thorns that guard the treasure on Rusty is also Lethal.

I can go to Verona, but the units there are also Lethal to Invincible as well. I think I cleared most of the Strong units in Verona, but they town is protected by Very Strong or Lethal units.

I didn't know about map kiting until I read about it in this forum, but is there any other way to defeat those units on Rusty Island? Or advise me what I maybe doing wrong. Or should I be learning some spell that I may have missed? I have Order at lvl 2, Distortion at lvl 1 and Chaos at lvl 1.

Thanks in advance for any advice.