Chapter 4: The Brotherhood
The meadhall of the village is a wooden house with a big space surrounding the campfire inside. There are a few private rooms upstairs that are normally used for Luke's family and his bodyguards. Today, the meadhall is quite lively, with the women gathering around three women, who are sobbing about their dead husbands. In the corners, a few Rangers stand in silence, with their right hands on their swords, ready to draw at any moment.
- "Why are they weeping?" Erik, sitting comfortably next to the campfire, asks.
- "Their husband just died yesterday, master Erik! Please do not worry too much, my husband and the Rangers will find all the culprits and hang them." Leila, a 30-year-old woman with a charming face, speaks softly to Erik as she brings him a bowl of soup. "You must be hungry, please give this a try. There is nothing better in this weather than a warm vegetable soup."
-"I want to eat meat, not soup." Erik speaks loudly. His voice is a bit kinky, attracting the gaze of the group of women.
- "You will eat what we have, young lord. We need to save them for the elderly and children. Life is hard out here, not everyone has the privilege of eating dried meat while drinking honey mead in a tavern in Frostborn." A man, who is silently eating his soup by the campfire, speaks.
With his face turning all red, Erik looks like he is a volcano about to erupt. The man's face looks young like his. However, the amount of muscle and scar on that man's body shows Erik that he is not someone to mess with. After a few seconds of mentally struggling, Erik silently sat down and started putting soup into his throat.
- "Do not worry about my son, young lord. He just had his first kill yesterday, and he is still very tired." Leila whispers to Erik in a way that her son, Leif, can not hear their conversation. However, the smirk on her face tells a different story.
- "Lord Ingstad is known to be the wisest tactician that has ever lived. I do not expect he will give birth to a soft piece of bread like you." Lief, who just finished his soup, mocks Erik.
The Guardsman who accompanied Erik, instead of helping their master, looks at the young lord with curious eyes. In the Norse tradition, insulting a man's honor is something that can lead to bloodshed. They want to see how the young lord, their future leader, will react to a situation like this. "The weak do not deserve anything." - A common saying among the soldiers.
- "You can not insult me like that, I am your master. I can have you punished!" Erik yells, causing the weeping women to stop. Pulling out his musket, Erik aims at Leif and fires before anyone can stop him. The bullet barely cut his cheek before hitting the wall behind.
-"You little bastard, I will show you how a Norse fight." Pulling out his sword, Leif rushes at Erik. The women are scared and scattered to the corner of the room. Erik collapses to the floor in fear. Lucky for him, the Guardsman manages to stop Leif before the furious young teenager reaches him.
Leila walks slowly toward her son and slaps him so hard that a tooth comes out.
-"You bring disgrace to our family, Leif. No Norse warriors turn their swords to their master."
-"We swore allegiance to Lord Ingstad, mother, not to his son. And look at him, do you really think he is someone who can lead us?" Laughing out loud, Leif points at Erik. Trembling on the ground, Erik has uncontrollably piss himself, wet his pants, and dirty the floor with his waste. If not for the smells from the soup, everyone would smell something strange right now.
- "Riders, we are under attack!" A man burst the door open, shouting to the people inside. There are noises of horses and steel clashing each other outside, along with a few gunshots.
- "Men, follow me. Let us show this kid how true Norse warriors face the swords." Leif shouts and rushes out of the hall, together with all the Rangers who respond to his call.
Husk, a lieutenant, signals his men to draw their weapons. The Guardsman speaks softly to the hostess:
- "My lady, please accompany him highness and the ladies here to the back room. We Guardsmen will guard the door and make sure that no intruders come in."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the darkness, there is fighting everywhere in the village. The village's gate is wide open, with its broken doors lying on the ground. A rider throws a torch on the top of a cottage, causing the thatch to catch fire, which quickly spreads to the nearby houses, even in the cold temperature.
- "For the Brotherhood." A man in fur clothes and a saber yells before cutting off the head of a villager. The second after, he is killed by a thrust from a ranger from behind. The ranger does not even have enough time to react before an arrow pierces his chest, killing him instantly.
- "Gather or get to the watch tower, we can not fight their cavalry without formation." Leif, son of Luke and second-in-command of the rangers, yells from behind a shieldwall of around 6 people. A rider sees them and rushes forward, only to be impaled on a spear.
With Leif's guidance, the remaining rangers form to group of three or four, using their spears and shields to create a simple shieldwall, and make their way to the watchtower. On top of the watch tower, archers rain their arrows on the intruders, driving off the riders, giving the villagers some safe space for haven.
However, the haven does not last long. Around 10 riders circle the watchtower, loose their arrows toward the rangers on top, with incredible accuracy, killing four rangers and cripple the last one.
- "There are nearly 100 of them. How do they even get this number?" A ranger yells before his head is cut off by a rider.
These guys are no ordinary robbers. Leif thinks to himself as he charges forward with his men by his side, knocking a rider off his horse and stabbing him in the neck. The feeling of steel cut into flesh is still strange to him, but it does not stop him from fighting and killing more men of the Brotherhood.
Leif's group is much better-equipped and well-trained compared to the normal rangers. They all come from prestigious families who have a long tradition in martial arts. 7 of them managed to paint the main road leading to the mead with the blood of the riders and their horses.
- "I am Taiga Tsubachi, Eighth Spear of the Tsubachi Clan. What is your name, young warrior?" A rider dismounts from his horse and slowly walks toward the group. His long spear reflects the fire raging around the village. His eyes are as sharp as knives, making Leif feel a cold shiver as he stares into them.
- "You do not need to know, I will finish you soon." Leif speaks calmly. So what father said was right, the Tsubachi Clan is involved with the Brotherhood. He thinks to himself, the reason why they can overrun their village's defenses so easily is that there are Samurai among these steppe outlaws.
- "Take 20 men and surround the watchtower. I do not want Wolf and Luke fighting their way over here. Our targets are the women and Erik in the meadhall." Taiga Tsubachi gave his commands. The riders behind him do exactly what he said, leaving him and 20 other riders facing Leif's group.
The remaining rangers in the area rally behind Leif, the second-in-command of the Rangers. They numbers around 20 men, forming a shieldwall blocking the Taiga Tsubachi's group. Even with an even number, Leif is nervous; he feels a strange aura around Taiga Tsubachi. It is the same aura that he senses from Wolf, the strongest warrior of Frostborn, the aura of death.
- "I can not wait to taste a Frostborn woman, I heard they've got the biggest asses in the world." Taiga speaks while licking his lips. The riders behind him laugh, some use their hands to show what they are going to do to the women.
- "You are not touching our women." A ranger shouts. A few more rangers roar and charge forward. However, Taiga simply lowers his stance and thrusts his large spears forward. Like cannon balls, the large spear blows the heads of the rangers, crushing them instantly into blops of meat, blood, and bones.
- "Norse, always hot-headed." Taiga Tsubachi smiles. The riders draw their bows and loose their arrows toward the disorganized shieldwall, killing half a dozen Norsemen. Leif and the survivors manage to organize their shieldwalls and block the incoming volleys. Each of their shields is impaled with so many arrows that it is frightening to watch.
- "Boom." A thrust from Taiga Tsubachi comes, piercing through the shield of a ranger and his neck. Raising his spear into the sky by one hand, with the Norse impaled on it, Taiga points his fingers forward.
- "Charge, you lazy steppes. Prove yourself to be worthy dogs of the Tsubachi Clan."
As he commands, 20 riders charge forward at once, crushing the shieldwall of the remaining 10 Norse Rangers. The Eighth Spear laughs out loud, his eyes turn red like those of demons.
- "Master Hojo, I will bring the head of the son of your rival back for you. And I will become the first commoner that bear the title of the First Spear of the Tsubachi Clan." He shouts to the sky as his men slaughter the remaining Norse.