The Son Of Ragnar

Ragnar stood against Grjötgard, he had no intention of backing down. 

Grjötgard heard tales of Ragnar and the warrior in him wanted to test this hypothesis.

But now was not the time, before they could go any further, armed individuals barged in. 

It was just as Grjötgard predicted, Ragnar was a target and he knew that even more men would come. 

Ragnar might be strong but ultimately, he is just a man. 

With the right amount of men, even he could be overpowered.

Grjötgard sighed as none of this would have happened if Ragnar just came with him but now he found himself surrounded by armed individuals numbering five in total. 

His men attempted to fight back but they were cut down, these were not normal warriors but warriors handpicked by the King himself. 

They ranked above these men in that sense. 

"Step aside Grjötgard," The man that seemed to be in charge of these men, commanded but Grjötgard stood in front of Ragnar. 

Ragnar realized at that moment that Grjötgard was not a threat but he knew that he could not let his guard down.

"You have really grown some balls, Sander The Bear Killer," Grjötgard said, he might not have a weapon but he knew that he could take these men on. 

"King Ragnar, you must forgive me but I will have to ask you to leave…" Grjötgard muttered to Ragnar. 

Ragnar wanted to stay and fight with him because he did not think that Grjötgard had it handled but he needed to find his sons. 

"Get him! Do not let him leave!" Sander commanded and the warriors by his side charged towards him with intent to kill.

Ragnar could not believe their arrogance, these men were no doubt warriors that belonged to Tryggve.

"All this because Tor was killed?" Ragnar asked but Sander was confused by this statement.

"Tor? King Ragnar, it is not only one weapon we found… We found a weapon that very well resembles yours!" Sanders said and Ragnar raised a suspicious brow. 

He did not believe that Sander knew what he was talking about because what was this absurd accusation?

"Watch your tongue…" Ragnar warned but Grjötgard\'s body language told the King of Vestfold that this was not as absurd as Ragnar initially thought. 

The murder could have taken place at any time during the night, so just because Ragnar was present in the hall during the celebrations did not mean he could not have killed Tor after the celebrations were over. 

"King Ragnar, you cannot kill them!!" Grjötgard commanded and the moment he said this, Ragnar dodged the attacks, aborting his initial intention to kill them. 

"Why can I not?" Ragnar asked as he casually evaded their barrage of attacks.

"Trust me and leave it to me!" Grjötgard warned and this tallied with Bjorn\'s warning. 

Bjorn was not scared of Ragnar\'s safety but rather, making sure that his father did not kill anyone while protecting himself. 

Grjötgard knew he had to stop the attack but Sander was a man that he could not turn his back to.

Sander was a man that could kill bears bare-handed with minimum effort.

Ragnar sighed, he did not know what was going on but he had no intention of letting things get worse than they needed to, he knocked each of them out with a firm blow to their jaws.

Grjötgard and Sander looked a little surprised by this, they knew Ragnar was strong but it should not be this easy regardless.

"Let us go, Lagertha…" Ragnar said and Lagertha followed behind him quietly, she looked irritated that these men had ruined their fun because if they never came then this would have never happened but she also did not regret it, seeing Tyr was worth every trouble. 

"Why are you protecting a foreign King?" Sander asked Grjötgard.

"Protecting? If Ragnar falls, it will open up a box that none of us is ready to deal with at the moment…" Grjötgard warned. 

"You have gotten soft, what happened to the man I met many years ago?" Sander asked 

"He is still here, you will find out if you raise your blade at me," Grjötgard retorted and for a brief moment, they stared each other down but Sander eventually stood down. He knew he lacked the power or ability to beat as things stood because he would need to expend more energy than he currently had. 

Sander also could not let Grjötgard go because he would prove a threat to his men.

"I have no intention of awakening the man feared to be a god of war but I cannot let you go either so you see, I am caught in a bit of a dilemma here…" Sander said and the moment he said this, Grjötgard lunged at him but he was without a weapon. 

Sander knew that he was strong but the fact that Grjötgard was unarmed naturally swayed the battle to his advantage.

He dodged Grjötgard\'s attempt to grab his face by simply side-stepping it before twisting a full 180 degrees with his blade in a bid to decapitate the giant but his sword met no mass. 

Grjötgard had dodged the attack like expected and Sander felt a blow that ripped through his body originating from his lower torso. 

This single punch sent Sander to his knees as Grjötgard stood above the much smaller man. 

He watched him struggle to breathe for a moment or two before sending a kick right into his jaw, knocking Sander out cold. 

This battle was over before it even began but just as Grjötgard expected, more came flooding in.

"This is looking like it will take some time…" Grjötgard thought to himself. 

-

Rogaland was in a chaotic state, King Rugalf lost control of the situation when the weapon was found with a few of his men killed, Rugalf feared that this might be a lot bigger than he initially thought and he was right. 

The wedding of his family was ruined by senseless vendetta, he hated that he could not do anything about it and did not even know where his daughter was.

But he was aware that there was no way Tyr would leave her to her devices as she was his wife. 

If she\'d died, Tyr was as good as dead himself as Rugalf entrusted him with this responsibility.

That was the purpose of the handing-over ceremony.

Vegard and Thorgard were nowhere to be found and Rugalf only hoped that they would be safe. 

He knew he could easily squash the little revolt in his kingdom but he did not want to spill blood. 

If he killed the King, the new King would simply inherit the rage of the previous one and new enemies would be made. 

Right now, Rugalf needed all the allies he could get and an order to bring King Tryggve back alive had been issued but also to bring King Gryting considering that his son was missing and there was evidence that someone had absconded 

He was the only one missing as everyone else could account for their numbers. 

"Salgard…" Rugalf commanded as Salgard appeared from behind one of the veils concealing the window. 

"Yes King Rugalf," Salgard responded with a smile. 

Rugalf knew if he sent Salgard outside, the casualties would be insurmountable as he was a radical individual that would take the life of anyone that threatened him in the slightest.

Rugalf was hesitant but he had no choice, he needed to make sure that Vegard and Thorgard were okay. 

"Go out and bring your brothers to me…" Rugalf commanded and Salgard nodded in compliance right before walking out of the door. 

Rugalf recalled how things got this bad; shortly after his meeting with King Tryggve, the bloodied sword of Ludvig was found alongside a trail that someone had left. This made the situation look like it was a closed case seeing as the evidence to support this was kind but then came a problem that opened the door to a whole new possibility. 

Ragnar\'s sword among others was found, begging the question of knowing just how many were involved in this planned assassination of Tor. 

King Tryggve was not going to take it sitting down and forcefully overran the armoury where their weapons were kept and began killing the people whose weapons were found and this made King Ragnar the target. 

Rugalf had already called a lockdown and he knew that he could not lift it, not yet because, in the end, Tor was killed. 

This was why Rugalf attempted to "confine" these men so he could better protect them or draw Tryggve in but things were not looking good.

Everything had backfired as the men he sent to bring these Kings were either locked in combat with Tryggve men or the men that he thought to protect as everyone saw each other as an enemy right now. 

King Rugalf knew at this rate, the death toll would be on the high side if he did not personally interfere.

There was another way to make Tryggve submit and that was by force.