030

The woman started thanking us, but we didn't have time to talk. It was less than a kilometer to Kattegat, and the forest border was coming to an end, we will have to walk in the open space a few hundred meters, and then hide behind buildings.

- Lagertha, listen to me carefully and do what I say. No matter what you see, you attack when I sign. To die stupidly and courageously are two different things.

She didn't speak, but nodded her head. We moved towards the settlement, Kattegat didn't have a decent wall or palisade, I noticed that long ago, but not my monkeys, not my circus. Jarl will have to think about it seriously when he gets back.

We managed to sneak into the back of one of the houses, I told Lagerth to wait, and I went to scout myself.

The people of Kattegat were gathered in the square and sat on the ground with perhaps twenty men guarding them. I came closer to listen to what they are talking about. Apparently, Jarl took the rest of his men, kidnapped Siggy, her two sons, a daughter, and headed north. When he returns, they are to kill the inhabitants and burn the settlement.

I personally would have killed the residents sooner, but maybe Jarl wanted to send the message.

I returned to Lagertha and told her what I had learned. I ordered her to sneak up near the prisoners and when the time is right she has to free some of them, and I was supposed to attract the attention of the guards.

- You said there were twenty of them, you can't beat them alone.

I kissed Lagerth on the forehead.

- A little more faith in your husband.

- When will I know the time is right?

- You will know.

Two warriors stood near Jarl Harald's house, and I chose them as my target. I sneaked between houses and after a few minutes I was behind their backs. I quickly killed one with an ax blow and took the other hostage.

For the performance that I was preparing, I cut the tendons in his knees and only now, holding him in a grip by the neck, we went out into the open space.

- Now start screaming, or I'll make you scream.

Fortunately, the hostage turned out to be cooperative. He started yelling and attracted the attention of the people watching over the prisoners. Only five at first, but after a while, four more joined.

- If you give up and drop your weapons, you will die quickly, if you want to resist ... your choice !!!

- You're alone, you can't beat us all.

There was no point in talking any longer, I wanted to give them a chance. I grabbed the knife I had at my belt and stabbed both eyes out of my hostage, pushed his body to the ground. He was screaming and writhing in pain, unable to walk because of the cut tendons, but he tried to crawl as far away from me as possible.

Four who were closest started running towards me, the rest were waiting, they probably thought four would be enough. The first three die immediately, two axes and a spear did their job, the last of the runners hesitated a bit, but seeing that I no longer had a weapon, he felt more confident. Unfortunately, he forgot about the knife, when he tried to stab me with a cut from above, I dodged to the right and took advantage of my opponent's exposure ... I stuck the knife in his neck. I took his sword and looked at the other five.

- There were nine and only five left. Any of the ladies want to dance?

They did what I wanted, called for backup, then five more guards appeared. Now was the chance for Lagerth to free the captives.

There were four dead men near me and a fifth crawled a few meters away. The next ten walked slowly towards me, but one was bolder and started to run, maybe he was hoping that the others would follow him ... Life is a bitch.

I hit his shield with the sword, he didn't expect such a force because he immediately jumped back and the shield fell to the ground ... I'm not sure, but he might have a broken arm or it just went numb.

I noticed that a dozen prisoners were moving towards us, apparently Lagertha freed them and they decided to join the fight ... let them do what they wanted.

Now I could only focus on my opponent who was circling around me ... I pretended to lose focus for a moment and looked in a different direction to provoke him to attack. He was careful, he launched the attack, but trying to keep as much distance as he could. I blocked him, my opponent took a few steps back.

I didn't feel like wasting my time playing cat and mouse. I picked up his shield and started charging towards him, he struck the sword, the blow hit the shield, I stabbed with the sword and it pierced his stomach. The man fell to his knees ... I stood behind him, grabbed his face, my fingers dug into his eye sockets ... and I tore his head almost in two.

Apart from the inhabitants who had already defeated the rest of the warriors, this was also witnessed by Lagertha and Mira who was standing next to my wife ... I approached them.

- You did well, I told you more faith in your husband.

I looked at Mira, she had a cut eyebrow, a lot of bruise under her eye ... actually it was a bruise instead of an eye and a cut lip. I asked her how she was doing and if they had done anything else to her. She gave me a few signs that they hadn't done anything more to her and that she was fine. I patted her head saying she did well.

- Take Mira home and clean her wounds. I'll be back later, I still have some things to do in the north.