The night was dark and long, the weather was cold and the wind furious but no one expected this path to be easy. They knew that this was what it meant to journey into an unknown land.
Birger's help was pivotal and the allies he made, so they could cross over, was a welcomed move despite it being suspicious.
They used the darkness to their advantage but they encountered something hours in, it was the forces that the patrol slain had said, the information he gave was accurate but the numbers he gave were nowhere close to what they were seeing.
"How many men do these people have!?" Skarde asked Ragnar because the numbers they saw were easily more than a thousand, as opposed to the two hundred the man had told them.
This was misleading information, the man managed to hide a subtle lie in his truth and Askild looked indifferent to this development because if these many men were here, there was no way they could leave them as they could prove troublesome much later in the war.
Askild liked that they had the cover of the night and this was a good time to test the Vikings he had gotten, he did not care if they died or lived but the men before him had to be slaughtered.
"Men of Vingulmark, this is where you will prove yourselves worthy of being under my command," Askild said with a stern tone, he knew that they needed to chip away at the forces of Vestfold and this was the perfect opportunity for that.
"Yes sir!" They all said as Askild looked at Ragnar Lothbrok and grinned.
"Ragnar, you will lead them," Askild said, and everyone was surprised because they thought he was sending them to their death but by attaching Ragnar, this meant that this was not the case.
Ragnar was confused but he could not deny a command from his king so he had no choice.
This meant he was the leader of the forces for this charge, Askild had no plan of putting forth all his warriors and wanted not only to test the strength of Vingulmark but also the ability of Ragnar to lead. Skarde took notice of this strange call and he muttered to himself.
"King Askild, so this is your plan…" Skarde said like he just had a premonition.
Ragnar stepped forward but he did not do anything for a good minute and just watched the movement.
"They are on guard…" Ragnar muttered, he was surprised that they were this alert, it was like something had set them off and Ragnar introduced a possibility to the situation.
"Archers…" Ragnar said, raising his hand and the archers removed their arrows from the quivers strapped to their backs and readied their shots.
Bjorn looked in admiration, this was his first time seeing his father take a leadership role.
Ragnar looked like he was born for this, but he did not let them let loose first.
"They know we would come…" Ragnar said, and everyone looked confused. Everyone but Askild as he was glad that Ragnar caught onto this. The movements were not natural, he understood it was a war but their movement was far too cautious for it to be just an overnight watch.
"That is why he was on a horse… It was not to alert them of intruders but to report back to them at a specific time interval. Time must have elapsed…' Ragnar said and this once again did not shock Askild because he knew the element of surprise was gone but what if thinking the element of surprise was the element of surprise?
Askild was having fun with the mind games as he knew the main battle would start the moment the sun rises, these were what he considered warm-ups.
He knew Ragnar had been out of it for years and this was why he gave him this role, to get the juices flowing once again and remind everyone why he was such a prominent warrior in Kattegat.
"Hold…" Ragnar instructed, before instructing roughly 20 warriors to take positions around the camp, and they did just that in minutes as he instructed them to shout in exactly 30 seconds, excluding the warriors in his position as he did not want the enemies to think they had no escape route should they dare think of running.
The 20 men sparsely placed around them was to give them the illusion of being surrounded and the silence in his position was to give the illusion of that being the only way to escape as a messenger will be sent to try and alert the capital of the enemy's advancement.
This is what he would do at least, and that is exactly why this was so effective.
Then it came, the scream thundered as it echoed through the air, alerting them of an enemy attack, but they did not have time to compose themselves as the volley of arrows rained down upon them, killing scores but it was not as much as Ragnar would have liked.
They had armor on, this showed that these warriors were not your everyday walk-in-the-park fodder, further emphasizing the need to eliminate them.
They looked around and waited for the enemy attack but they could hear noises around them.
They heard it from everywhere but the position the main forces were stationed in.
"Ragnar, what are you doing? This will not work…" Ulf whispered to his brother but Ragnar did not blame his brother for not understanding the basics of war for he had always served as a footsoldier and never as one that was in charge of a battle plan.
And then it happened, a man on horseback rushed in the only direction that they perceived to be vulnerable but they could not be more wrong.
The horse was abruptly brought to its knees with the messenger captured because capturing a messenger in the war was like getting a glimpse into the mind of the enemy.
"Charge!" Ragnar commanded the forces staying dormant to charge, but those that surrounded and screamed earlier remained in the bushes.
The moment the forces charged from the direction Vestfold had sent their messenger was the moment they knew their message did not get through and they did not know how many were waiting for them in the darkness as they had the misconception that they were surrounded despite it being a person or two in each position.
This was all mind games and nothing is as sweet as when a plan comes off perfectly but the armors they had on proved to be a problem.
Kattegat was losing this battle as they could barely chip away at their forces. These men from Vingulmark were strong but these men here were a level above that.
"So the rumors were true…" Skarde said, upon witnessing their strength firsthand.
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