The Son Of Ragnar

Erik against Asmund, round two. Kjell watched because he did not mind if Asmund died in this battle. He was aware of how huge a blow the death of Erik The Berserker would prove to be.

He entertained the bout, not making a single move to interfere with the battle because this was the day he was waiting for, the day that Signy would be recognized as king as he had already conditioned him to a certain degree.

The death of Asmund would prove beneficial to him, but he had more important things than politics right now and that was surviving the war.

"King Asmund, what happened to you?" Erik asked, he did not like the fact that he was fighting him when he was not at his prime and even in a weakened state.

Erik swung his ax in a bid to take off his head but Asmund barely avoided it while simultaneously rupturing a vein in Erik's wrist, forcing blood to spill like a water hose.

It was impressive that in this state he could still best Erik and Erik was satisfied with this too.

"I am not interested in killing, you are spoiled good," Erik said, sheathing his blade and walking away, this was the first time Askild had seen Erik walk away from the battle.

Kjell clicked his tongue in irritation but he still did not give the charging signal, the silence was deafening and instead, it was Askild that gave the signal for his men to charge at them.

Whatever he was waiting for, he was not interested in seeing it, forcing a full-on attack.

"Die for your king!" Askild screamed and the roar of his soldiers felt like they were being possessed by being not of this world. A slash was not enough to kill them, they fought like beasts with 9 lives and the sheer intimidation was overwhelming but regardless of their motivation and strength, Kjell was an Earl when it came to it and was easily on the same level as the commanders of Kattegat, if not greater.

He cut down the soldiers in his path with ease and grace, it looked like he was fencing and not slashing and hatching like a madman.

This was a sword technique that no one in Kattegat had seen and he killed them like he was dancing, Askild knew he could slip his troops past them, as they were busy engaging.

It looked like Tyr had succeeded and the tricky thing about this was, Askild had no way of telling that Vestfold left the gate opened and it was not because of Tyr at all.

If he knew, he would not have taken the action he just took, charging right past Kjell, who was engaged with part of his forces, with Vestfold being his target.

Kjell did not try to stop him, why would he? They wanted Askild and his men to take this exact action.

-

Vigar had taken command of the remaining troops within the walls, he did not know what was going on because he did not know what Signy nor Kjell spoke about.

Earl Aksel was within the walls, but he left Vigar to handle things because this was not his forte.

Vigar had taken it into his hands to align barrels around the gate but Tyr noticed the muddied ground had been disturbed. What was inside those barrels?

Tyr knew he had limited time to stop Askild but he did not how or what was going on at this point.

Hakon had fooled him into trusting him and Tyr felt so foolish that he did because it looked like Hakon used the fact that he was a kid to manipulate him into doing just what he wanted.

"Men of Vestfold!" Aksel shouted and they beat their shield to welcome his chant.

"Are you afraid!?" Aksel asked with a resonating scream and they all shouted.

"NO!" The aura their voices carried sent shivers down Tyr's spine.

"The enemies will come through that gate! I can not say we won't die but I can promise one thing and that is we will all meet again!" Aksel screamed, he had to rally the troops because he knew how important morality was for battle and he was not about to take any chances.

"Roar for Vestfold! Roar for victory! Roar for Odin!" Aksel said and they all took a defensive stance with their shields up.

Vigar watched from the wall to monitor their advance, and he gave the coordinates to Aksel so they could prepare how they would engage the incoming forces.

Vigar knew they may very well die but he was glad that they were fighting back, he was glad that they were not just going to allow Asmund to die a dog's death.

Askild had charged with his main force but they noticed there was a small company around Asmund, this included Erik because he knew that Kjell might attempt to get him.

He stood as a buffer, but everyone else was with Askild, he needed all the men he could muster for this final battle and would do everything in his power to snatch victory.

Askild reached the walls and made their way into Vestfold, the soldiers were far less than he thought they would and he heard a warning scream.

"King Askild! It is a trap!" Tyr shouted and Vigar's head shot in the direction of the scream but it did not matter. This was where what Tyr did to the gate came in handy as they could not shut the gate to trap them inside.

"T-The gate is not lifting!" A warrior complained and there was Bjorn, on the verge of tears that his brother was alive, he felt a huge weight off his shoulders.

"Slaughter them all, including Signy." Askild commanded but this was not part of the plan.

Tyr now understood that this was Askild's plan from the start and that was the complete conquest of Vestfold in blood.