Carrying their respective gifts, Vargarr and Ulfric embarked on their return journey. Strangely, they could no longer find the small path the old man had taken earlier, so they had to swing their daggers and sickles, cutting through the bushes in front of them to carve out a path.
"Have you thought about what you're going to lose?" Vargarr asked Ulfric, turning his head as he cut off branches blocking their way.
"What?" Ulfric was focused on using the sickle in his hand to trim a small cluster of bushes blocking their path.
"I've already decided to cut off your nose or an ear, but to reward your bravery, I'll let you choose." Vargarr laughed loudly and said to Ulfric.
"Heh heh." Ulfric thought to himself that this guy was truly reckless. Telling him these things now was practically inciting him to stab him in the back.
"No need to thank me, I'll spare your life." Vargarr, however, thought he had granted Ulfric immense favor and said triumphantly.
But what they didn't know was that in the dense forest, several pairs of ill-intentioned eyes were watching them like tigers. Grünn and the others hadn't expected to encounter them at this time, but the sharp-eyed Grünn had spotted the two earlier.
"It's them." Grünn's face showed a look of joy. He reached out and pressed his hand down firmly, signaling the others to crouch and hide in the bushes, so they could launch a surprise attack.
"Caw caw." Just as Grünn and the others were quietly approaching, a crow suddenly flew over their heads, sweeping past Ulfric and Vargarr.
"Be careful." Ulfric saw the crow flying overhead and immediately became alert. He thought of the birds suddenly startled in the forest, indicating something was approaching. His warning made Vargarr immediately turn around.
"Kill them!" Seeing that they could no longer hide and achieve the purpose of a surprise attack, Grünn and the others stood up. They grabbed the swords in their hands and charged towards Vargarr, shouting battle cries.
"Ah ah ah ah." Vargarr immediately gripped the dagger in his hand. He turned to face the charging men head-on, showing no sign of retreat. But in an instant, he and Ulfric were surrounded. These fierce North Warriors pointed their swords at the two, forcing them to stand back to back.
"Grünn, what are you doing?" Ulfric gripped the sickle with both hands. He glared at Grünn in front of him and angrily shouted at him.
"No need for nonsense, kill them." Grünn didn't bother to talk to the slave Ulfric. He simply tilted his head and ordered his subordinates.
A North Warrior immediately swung the Viking iron sword in his hand, striking at Vargarr. Vargarr agilely dodged to the side, grabbed his arm, and then, with a powerful tug, used the momentum to deliver a headbutt to the opponent's nose bridge. His hard head broke the opponent's nose, and blood instantly sprayed out.
"Pfft." The sharp dagger sliced across the North Warrior's throat. A small trickle of blood appeared on his throat, and soon the trickle grew larger, with blood flowing out like a waterfall from his neck.
"Cough cough, oh woah, oh." The North Warrior's eyes stared blankly at the ground in front of him. He weakly reached out to cover his neck, but blood quickly seeped through his fingers. Then he knelt on the ground and fell with a thud.
Seeing Vargarr's bravery, the other North Warriors began to hesitate. They looked at each other, and some couldn't help but lick their dry lips.
"Everyone, attack! Think of the bounty, attack!" Grünn saw their timidity. He immediately pushed them, reminding them of the high bounty.
"Oh oh oh oh." Stimulated by the bounty, this group of North Warriors finally mustered their courage. They charged recklessly towards Vargarr, attempting to overwhelm him with numbers.
"Oh oh oh." Ulfric watched Vargarr, who was about to be surrounded, and immediately swung his sickle, joining the fight. However, because he hadn't received any real combat training, his attacks seemed haphazard, but they disrupted the Norse warriors' encirclement.
"Damn slave bug." Grünn furiously charged at Ulfric with his sword. His large belly jiggled, but the sword in his hand grazed past Ulfric several times. If Ulfric hadn't dodged quickly, he would have been cut down.
"En humph." Just as Grünn's sword was about to strike him, Ulfric raised the sickle in his hand. The iron sword and sickle collided, sparking fire from the metal-on-metal impact. Ulfric felt a jolt in his hand and let out a muffled grunt, surprised that the despicable Grünn's strength was actually comparable to his own.
"You and all your ghost stories can go to hell together." Grünn's face contorted into a ferocious expression. Ulfric's existence had shattered his prestige among the slaves, and he had even captivated the Lord's heart with those strange stories. This made him feel jealous and resentful, now wishing he could immediately dismember Ulfric.
"Hey, it's a pity those stories will still be passed down for thousands of years." Ulfric gripped the handle of his sickle, a smile forming on the corner of his mouth as he spoke to Grünn.
"Hmph." Grünn pressed down on Ulfric with all his might, attempting to overpower him. The sharp edge of the iron sword gradually approached Ulfric. He could even smell the rust.
"Damn it, am I going to die here?" Ulfric thought to himself, watching the approaching sword blade. Suddenly, a scene from the Kingdom of Heaven flashed through his mind. He quickly moved his left foot slowly backward. At this moment, Grünn's sword was perfectly wedged in the curved part of the sickle. He slightly relaxed his resistance against Grünn, and the sword blade moved closer and closer to his neck.
"Praise Odin." Grünn watched as his sword blade pressed against Ulfric's neck. The sharp blade drew a fine line across Ulfric's neck. Feeling the burning pain on his neck, Ulfric's eyebrows twitched uncontrollably, and Grünn grinned ferociously, shouting loudly.
"Hah!" But at this moment, Ulfric took a deep breath. Using his backward left foot as his center of gravity, he rotated his body, sliding the tightly gripped sickle. He shifted his body to the side, causing Grünn to suddenly lunge forward into empty space. This greatly surprised Grünn; he hadn't expected a slave to use such a move, and he couldn't help but stumble forward a few steps.
Just as Grünn lunged forward into empty space, Ulfric, from his side and behind, fiercely swung the sickle, striking him hard on the back. The sharp sickle immediately cut through his rough linen clothes and flesh. Grünn screamed, falling to the ground, but his layers of fat saved his life. However, this blow also caused him to lose the will to fight. He dropped the iron sword in his hand and laboriously crawled forward.
"Hoo, hoo, hoo." Ulfric's heart was pounding like a startled rabbit. He looked at the sickle in his hand, blood flowing from the blade onto his hand. His palm was already stained red with blood. "So this is what it feels like to cut someone."
A strange emotion surged in his heart. As a modern man, this was Ulfric's first time experiencing such a feeling. He couldn't help but take a few deep breaths to calm his violently pounding heart.
"Slave, Ulfric, come help me!" Just then, Vargarr, who was struggling in battle, shouted loudly. Although he was a brave Viking, two fists are no match for four hands. Under the siege of the North Warriors, his left arm was already injured, and his right hand barely gripped his dagger. His body leaned against a large tree.
Ulfric no longer paid attention to Grünn, who was crawling on the ground like a maggot. He picked up the iron sword from the ground, holding both the iron sword and the sickle, then turned and charged towards one of the North Warriors who was besieging Vargarr.
The opponent seemed to have seen Ulfric charging over. He turned and charged as well, his braided beard stained with Vargarr's blood. His shaved head and eyes smeared with black dye made him look particularly fierce and terrifying.
"Clang~." Sword clashed against sword, producing a deafening sound. After cutting a person, Ulfric's entire body seemed to be invigorated with hot blood. His adrenaline surged rapidly, and his eyes were fixed on his opponent.
"Oh woah." Suddenly, Ulfric heard Vargarr cry out in pain. A North Warrior's sword had pierced his leg. Vargarr grunted, but at the same time, he grabbed the neck of the North Warrior who attacked him and, with a strong squeeze, choked the opponent into unconsciousness.
"Oh oh oh." But another North Warrior raised the sword in his hand, aiming at Vargarr's back as he moved away from the tree, preparing to stab him.
"Vargarr, watch out!" Ulfric, seeing this scene, shouted nervously. If Vargarr were killed, he would certainly be the next target.
"Whoosh~~~." Just then, an axe flew out from the forest. The axe struck the North Warrior's head squarely, immediately splitting his head in half. This sudden attack startled everyone else.
Angr emerged from the forest, like a beautiful and fierce elf. She walked to the corpse of the North Warrior she had killed, placing one foot on the corpse's head. She reached down, gripped the axe handle, and with a forceful tug, pulled the axe out from the skull's fissure. Blood spurted out, spraying onto her clothes and chin.
"Angr, this is none of your business." The leading North Warrior said angrily to Angr.
"Are you permitted by the Lord to ambush guests from afar in the forest?" Angr held the blood-stained axe horizontally in front of her, raising her blood-stained chin, and spoke to the Norse warriors.
"Kill them." Seeing that Angr was determined to intervene, the remaining three North Warriors gripped their weapons and charged at her.
The sound of weapons clashing immediately echoed through the forest. On the lush branches that almost covered the sky, a crow perched, its dark eyes curiously observing the scene below, occasionally tilting its head as if contemplating something.
"Caw caw caw~~~." Several crow calls rang out.