Bloodlines of the Ancient Pantheons 134 CXXXIV. The Ruse

But Kjetil was already opening the doors, heedless of what his men were saying behind him.

As soon as he opened the doors of the wagon to savor his new prey, the only thing he saw in the dim light was a figure crouching at the bottom of the wagon.

Reidar fired an arrow into Kjetil's neck, which fell to the ground, losing rivers of blood.

"Aaagh! Chief!"

"Kjetil!"

His men panicked.

At that moment, Dag turned to Karl, who promptly threw the hammer at him.

It took a few seconds for Kjetil's men to extract their weapons.

During this short time, Reidar loaded and fired another arrow, which hit a bandit in the chest, killing him.

Dag instead hit a man next to him in the head, without even wondering who he was.

He was a bandit, even if unarmed, he deserved to die.

Karl got out of the wagon with shield and tomahawk and began to fight.

Dozens of enemy warriors ran towards them and the guards entered the village to help out.

Some men took Kjetil from the ground and dragged him to the shelter, while he continued to squirm, running out of his last energies and bleeding to death.

Reidar remained inside the wagon and closed one of the two doors, using it as a shelter, to cover Dag who was facing multiple enemies at the same time right in front of him.

Karl, as soon as he got off the wagon, raised his shield and parried a sword shot, then another.

He deflected the second shot, unbalancing his enemy, and hit him with the tomahawk on his shoulder.

The weapon stuck in the enemy's body, and Karl looked at the other warrior, who tried to hit him again.

He pulled the tomahawk towards him, and the bandit hit his own ally on the head, who was dragged from the shoulder towards Karl.

The blow was so strong that he broke his skull and all the blood splattered in Karl's face, which slipped to the ground, blinded, leaving his tomahawk stuck in the body of the bandit who had just been killed.

Only with the shield in his hand, he began to crawl backwards, wiping his eyes with his other hand.

The enemy warrior continued to attack him while he was on the ground, and Karl parried the shots with the shield, but he was unable to get up.

The bandit continued to hit Karl's shield with fury, trying to break through his defense, but the shield was really strong and it repelled all the blows.

When he could see again, Karl turned a moment to Dag, seeking his help.

But Dag was in a worse situation: tens of warriors had surrounded him, and with Reidar's help, he was killing them one by one.

The bandit in front of Karl stopped to catch his breath and he could take advantage of him, kicking him in the ankles, unbalanced him and causing him to fall to the ground on his back.

His tomahawk was still stuck in the other warrior's shoulder, he wouldn't have time to retrieve it to kill the man in front of him.

Karl rose from the ground and hit the bandit with the shield as he tried to get up, stunning him.

He hit him again in the jaw, causing him a lot of damage.

On the third blow, the bandit lost his sword and his eyes began to see nothing, due to Karl's shield blows.

His face was disfigured: on his cheek, he had a cut so deep that let his teeth visible through it and one of his eyes was so swollen that blinded him.

Karl placed his foot on his enemy's chest, pushing him to the ground and put his shield on the bandit's throat, trying to suffocate him.

The warrior began to squirm, grabbing the shield with both hands, but he had exhausted his strength.

Karl screamed, with tears in his eyes and the adrenaline running through his body.

When his enemy lost consciousness, he removed his foot from his chest and placed it on the edge of the shield: after violently stomping on the shield towards the enemy's neck, his trachea shattered and his head detached.

Karl raised his shield again, totally bloodied, and breathed heavily.

He had never fought like that. The fights to survive in real life were different from those of the Arena: he had to show no mercy, to kill his opponents in every way and without rules.

With his eyes clouded by blood on his face, he approached the other corpse and detached the tomahawk from his shoulder, walking toward his comrades, after making sure there were no other enemies ready to ambush him.

Meanwhile, Dag and Reidar had managed to kill five men but had lost sight of Kjetil's body.

In front of the wagon, there were ten other enemies.

"Your boss is dead! Surrender! There's no reason to keep fighting!" exclaimed Dag with his breath, as Karl positioned himself next to him, ready to start again.

Dag looked at him, making sure he was safe and sound, then turned back to the group of bandits, ready for attack.

One of them lowered his axe and stepped forward.

"Your fellow archer hit Kjetil and now he is about to die. Relinquish him to us and we will let you out of the village without killing you" he said, addressing Dag.

To those words, Reidar charged another arrow.

"Your leader got the punishment he deserved for assaulting several times the farmers' village behind that hill... for raping and killing innocent women and children" Dag said, pointing to the hill behind the village.

"We want the archer" replied the bandit, who continued to stare at Reidar with a menacing look."

"I see you can't understand... I thought so. You will all die then" Dag continued, pulling the flask out of his pocket.

Chapter end