The Son Of Ragnar

"This is bad, this is really bad." Karl cussed. What was carrying him at this point was sheer willpower because the arrows that had hit his thighs earlier had handicapped him severely.

He limped and limped; in his path were corpses scattered around.

"Queen Liv! I have to protect you!" Karl thought to himself, barely standing upright.

Karl was helped by a few men that saw him struggling, these were men under Ulrik, and he was glad he did not run into an enemy, or that would have been the end of him because, in this condition, there was no way he could defend himself efficiently.

"What the hell is going on?" Karl asked, hoping for information from these men, his men as command switched to him when Ulrik was imprisoned.

"We are still gathering information, but Kattegat is under attack! We do not know who or why, but things look bad!" The man said, slinging Karl's arm over his shoulder to support his weight with another man doing the same.

"Is Queen Liv okay?" Karl was quick to ask, but the men were quiet.

"We do not know; we have not heard anything about Queen Liv or her father, we have been in the dark, but I know she is the target. This is not just an attack…." The man said.

"... It's an invasion!" Karl helped him complete his sentence, making the situation even direr.

"They are dressing like us. There is no way of telling who is who under cover of night, and by the time they get close, it is too late! They have us cornered; whoever is responsible for this knows Kattegat inside and out. I do not think it is an outsider!" The man said, and Karl kissed his teeth, darting his head left and right as he tried to assess the situation.

At this rate, there might be no Kattegat by the time the sun rises, and Karl knew how disastrous this would be.

"We need to get Ulrik free!" Karl muttered under his breath.

-

"What is the commotion above ground?" Ulrik asked the guard on watch, he was visibly tensed and did not want to divulge the information to a prisoner, but he knew who Ulrik was and held a certain level of respect for him.

"Something terrible is happening; Kattegat is under attack!" The guard said. He gave the information Ulrik wanted without much pressure showing how dire their situation was.

"Attack!? Quickly! Let me out!" Ulrik commanded, but if he was indeed an enemy, it would be foolish to let him out as he would bolster the enemy's strength tremendously.

"I cannot do that, Ulrik. I wish I could, but I am here to ensure you do not get out." The man was resilient and had no intentions of allowing his prisoner out.

"I need you to trust me right now! Why the fuck would I want to destroy Kattegat when I have risked my life to protect it! You know me! If I was a fucking traitor, then why did I not fucking take it when Herfjötur was injured?" Ulrik asked, and the man had to think about it briefly.

"I-I…" The man was hesitant, but they heard something, and it was coming from Arvid's cell.

"R-R-R-R…" Arvid tried to speak for the first time after months of imprisonment.

But the words could not leave his mouth, but the desperation in his eyes told them he wanted so bad to be heard.

"What is it?' The guard asked, inching closer to Arvid, and he noticed that he kept tapping the floor. He asked for something to write on it, and the man saw his condition and knew he was no threat.

This was the first time Arvid had attempted any form of communication with them, and everyone was curious to hear it, Ulrik as well, because it had something to do with this.

The guard quickly tossed him a stick, and Arvid caught it without hesitation despite his hands looking like they could fall off at any moment.

He was malnourished and looked like a skeleton at this point, but he persevered.

Arvid began scribbling something on the floor, and the guard tried to make out what he was writing. It took him a good minute to finally see what Arvid had written.

And what he read at that moment made his skin crawl; it was a warning from Arvid.

"Run!" was all that was written.

-

Herfjötur and Lagertha had arrived in Kattegat, and the only positive thing about the burning building was that it provided light.

"We need to spread out, Lagertha!" Herfjötur barked, and Lagertha agreed they needed to cover more ground even though they would be stronger together.

"I will go and get the Queen!" Lagertha exclaimed, and Herfjötur agreed with her decision.

Lagertha ran to the throne room where the forces of Herfjötur were meant to be protecting. Still, upon reaching there, she saw that every single one of them had been slaughtered, but this was no surprise considering they were just fifteen in number protecting the throne room as they could not risk putting more or less because everyone else was at stake.

"They got in!?" Lagertha exclaimed; she rushed into the throne room without a second thought because their queen was in danger.

Liv was not a fighter; she would quickly be subdued; Lagertha walked in to see the corpses of the two guards always with Fredrik. This told her one thing and one thing only.

They had gotten to Liv, and Lagertha could only lament what they had done to her because whoever was behind this executed it at such a perfect time.

Kattegat fell in less than twenty minutes, which was unheard of as it had stood tall for years prior, yet it fell so quickly.

"Well... well, if it isn't the famous shied maiden…." A voice said, and Lagertha's eyes dilated in horror the moment her eyes met the one that had called her.

"I-IT IS YOU….?!"