Chapter 42 - Bears In The Sea

When the dawn sun lit up the sea, and the cold north wind could be felt, Max saw the stunning snow-capped mountains of northern Iceland and the incredible fjords that had formed thousands of years ago.

"Father, have you ever checked to see if there is any place in these fjords that can be used as a possible point for a settlement."

Sven, who was biting a piece of dried fish, nodded. "Most fjords have small valleys that can serve as settlements.

But the main problem is that they do not have hot springs or a large number of trees, not to mention how you can feel.

In this place, winter can be felt much harsher. "

Sven's hand went to Einar's shoulder. "In this land of ice, there are many places that could be a settlement.

But what we need is to have a population. "

Max stroked his chin and looked at the beautiful landscape "The population will not be a problem in the future as long as there are Christian kingdoms and our people remain Viking.

We will have enough manpower available; the only thing we would have to worry about is training enough people.

The wealth that we will have will bring us too many problems in the future. "

Sven just laughed and drank some liquor from his canteen "Your grandfather used to say that problems are just opportunities in disguise ..."

Sven could see in the distance in the sea a piece of ice in which there were some white figures "Although speaking of opportunities, I think it is our lucky day."

Sven's hand grabbed his crossbow and shouted, "Prepare your crossbows and change the course; we have a family of bears in a Jeukul north of our ship."

All the crew members turned their heads to look at the north as they took their crossbows from the boxes as well as the steel-tipped bolts.

Max, who was already loading his crossbow, was surprised as the boat approached the small piece of ice in the sea; the figure of two white bears was more and more visible.

This caused Max to sigh as he felt his hands sweat a bit; even a smile formed on his face.

'It's been a long time since I hunted a dangerous animal; the last time I did, it was a jaguar with a shotgun.'

Max rested his crossbow on his shoulder as he took his position and shouted, "Prepare the ranks to shoot when we are a hundred meters; turn around the boat so we can shoot."

Eskol, who was in charge of the troop order, used a horn so that everyone will take positions "Remember to aim at the eyes, mouth, and stomach of the bears.

But under no circumstances do you stop shooting; we can only stop when the bears are dead. "

Sven, who was already formed and had his crossbow ready, exhaled a little air "Don't worry about damaging the skins; in our hunting place, there will be even more bears to hunt.

These two bears will be used as shooting targets with legs; we can't risk our lives until we fully know the power of the crossbow. "

Everyone on the ship, when hearing Sven's words, felt a weight lift off them, so they just aimed their crossbows and waited for the firing order.

The ship slowly approached while the two bears that were resting on the ice chunk could only see something strange approaching them.

One of the bears raised his head with some curiosity, and it was at that moment where he could see how that thing that was approaching turned around, and a horrible noise could be heard.

After this, he could only see some things that were going to where he was, and then everything turned black; he could only feel something entering his eyes while depriving him of his sight.

To later feel how innumerable things were buried in his body, in a desperate act, he tried to get up on two legs, but he could only feel how his body was pierced.

So he just staggered and fell to the ice where he could feel his life coming to an end.

After firing constant rounds of bolts, they all lowered their crossbows and looked at the lifeless bodies of the two bears in the ice, so Sven gave the order to approach the ice drum.

When the ship reached the ice drum, Max, Eskol, Sven, and two other warriors got off the ship, shouldering their crossbows, slowly approaching the bears' carcasses.

Max, who was balancing a bit on the slippery surface of the ice, was the first to reach the body of one of the bears.

The bear's body gave off an iron scent from the blood it had lost, but its entire body was also full of bolts from what looked like a porcupine.

Although the bear appeared to be dead, Max took his iron dagger from his chest and, in the most careful way possible, pierce it in the neck of the white bear.

He could feel the dagger sink into the bear's skin until it touched something hard where his dagger got stuck.

'It's a shame the skin is too damaged, but maybe it can work to make some gloves, scarves, or socks.'

Sven, who had come to the side of his son, removed one of the bolts and looked at it carefully. "It seems that a hundred meters are a safe firing range for the crossbow.

Although looking at the corpse of the bear, I can say that perhaps only 10 bolts are enough to the head to kill one of these beasts.

But now, let's see a bolt to the head. "

Sven's hand-pulled a Bolt out of the head, and he realized that grasping that the metal had some small scratches, the wooden structure of the Bolt was completely useless.

"Thank goodness that the only thing that is damaged when piercing the skull is the wood, although we will have to see the other one ..."

The noise of two small cubs began to be heard along with the laughter of Eskol and the other two warriors.

"Jarl, underneath this bear, we found these two bear cubs that he wants us to do with them."

Before Sven could give his verdict, Max approached the two little cubs who appeared to be no more than three months old.

When he got to where the bears were, with some curiosity, he took them in his arms.

"Father, I think I can raise these two bears, they may not be pets, but we can make a little place for them to grow.

They will be good study material so that our people know how dangerous white bears are. "

Sven just laughed, "You'll have to take care of them until we get back from the expedition."

Eskol just looked curiously at Einar before turning and starting to use his knife to peel the skin off the bear's corpse.