369 CCCLXIX. Then Hidden Mercy

"He's a real idiot! How dare he take such an initiative?! He always tries to moralize about the lives of soldiers and how dangerous it is to move blindly... and then what does he do?! Without saying anything to anyone he charges towards unknown enemies?! How unconscious! Because of him, we are now forced to attack blindly!" he thought, hoping within himself that the attack would succeed and continuing to look around.

The first citizens of the village who saw Kjell arrive immediately began to run in the opposite direction, screaming out loud in a desperate attempt to warn their fellow citizens of the looming danger.

But he, without thinking, made a short leap and stretched out his arm forward, firing at great speed one of his chains, which twisted precisely around the ankles of one of the fleeing men.

The victim of the attack, who had a large sack on his shoulders, fell to the ground and his load overturned on impact: a pile of potatoes sank in the snow and as soon as he saw them, Dag realized that they were really merchants and farmers, intent on managing food resources.

Being a long way from Kjell, he tried to scream to stop, but his voice did not arrive in time and the Crows Of Odin's Master Of Offense pulled the chain towards him and dragged the man onto the ground, stubbing him behind his back with the blade of the second chain as he squirmed in fear.

Caught in the fury of the moment, Kjell continued to run forward, killing three other unarmed men within seconds, whose only goal seemed to be to run towards the center of the stone-carved village, in which stood a tower slightly higher than the other buildings with a small bell on top.

"That way! We have to stop that bell from ringing, it's definitely an alarm! Soldiers, attack, and try to be silent!" Gridd shouted, surprising Dag, who looked at her out of the corner of his eye, not expecting to hear such words come out of his sister's mouth in those circumstances.

Because of the hunger and the long walk in the cold snow, Gridd ran forward with a merciless expression, ready to kill dozens and dozens of innocent people in order to put something under her teeth.

Dag kept running, looking around.

He himself had adhered to the plan, confirming his intentions of wanting to plunder the village, but the screams of the people who died one after the other under the violent blows of the axes and swords of his allies entered his head and for a moment he slowed his dash, intending to stop.

At that moment the lugubrious spectacle reached its peak, with his soldiers slaughtering any life form that did not wear armor similar to their own.

A woman ran to the bell tower, holding a child by the hand and dragging him with her, when one of the Sons Of Freya soldiers saw her and walked towards her, who stumbled and fell into the snow.

Dag was paralyzed for a few seconds. 

Clutching his fists, he stood still and watched as the soldier grabbed the woman by the dress and prevented her from moving, dragging her backward.

In a desperate gesture, she tried to kick him in the legs, giving the child a few more seconds to run away, but after being pushed away, he stood motionless to watch his mother being slaughtered in cold blood, with the white snow turning red in front of his eyes.

"Hey!" yelled Dag, unable to stand still and attracting the attention of the soldier, who after dealing with the woman was about to approach the child.

"Help your mates at the warehouses, that way. Leave the brat to me"

"As you wish, Master Dag" the Berserkr replied, immediately heading to the rest of the allied troop.

Soon after, Dag walked toward the child, who looked at him with terror in his eyes, retreating in fear, crawling his feet in the snow filled with his mother's blood.

On his trousers appeared a stain at the height of the pubis, which widened slowly.

Thin tears imbued his eyes, fixed on Dag, which continued to advance toward him.

Dag put his hand in his pocket and approached, turning his back to the rest of the troop, hundreds of meters away, whose soldiers were intent on looting the houses and opening the large wooden doors of one of the village's two warehouses.

"No... no... please...! I didn't do anything... don't kill me!" the child begged, who fell to the ground backward and raised his hands toward Dag.

When he pulled his hand out of his pocket, the child noticed that there was no weapon ready to be pointed at his neck, but only 4 or 5 pieces of dried meat.

"Take this and run that way. Do you see that overturned carriage? Hide there and don't make any noise until we're all gone. When you're out of meat, go to the warehouse and get more food and water, we won't be able to take it all away... do you understand?" Dag whispered, leaning down at him and handing him the flesh, careful not to be noticed by his allies.

The little flickering hand of the boy gripped the flesh firmly and put it in one of the pockets of his leather trousers.

After swallowing empty to dampen the tension, he got up and began to run towards the carriage indicated by Dag, which had just been overturned by his men, who inside found only firewood.

Swiping belly down in the snow, the young boy took refuge under it, becoming virtually invisible.