Sturla and company journeyed, they were close to the camp but Sturla could not shake the feeling that something was off.
"Skaði, I want you to hang back. I fear they are prepared for our arrival. My men, follow me…" Sturla said; the thing about this attack was that it was not a product of his father's strategy so he did not have the advantage of a fail-safe plan that he had grown so accustomed to.
"Why? Would it not be more effective if we hit them together and hard?" Skaði questioned, this was a strange move by Sturla because this would not only divide their forces but make her susceptible to a counterattack.
"No, we cannot risk losing men carelessly if my instincts are right. We need to be as cautious as we can be…" Sturla was surprisingly calm, and the number of men he had with him was equivalent to the army around the camp, Sighvatur was a cautious man and did not commit too many men for this task.
Skaði reluctantly accepted this proposal, she knew he had the strength to conquer these people.
Sturla was equivalent to a small army but one thing about this was, Sturla was human.
Even he would fall if he charged in there alone hence the existence of an army.
Sturla knew he was strong but he was not conceited and understood that he needed a plan to win.
This camp might have been their weakest but to think it fell in such a short amount of time and no one was spared was nothing short of impressive.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtA feat that made Sturla want to put an end to their momentum.
He advanced with half the army, the other half hanging back with Skaði.
Sturla advanced and what he saw in front of him was Finn alongside ten other men standing in his way.
It was a strange approach considering they lacked the numbers or strength to hold their lines.
Sturla knew he could run through them with ease but he was curious as to what they intended to do.
He stared Finn down, Finn was visibly shaken but he had to hold his nerve.
He had anticipated they would come and had taken preemptive measures by laying multiple traps throughout the night, this was a task that left his body feeling fatigued but he knew they needed his help more than ever right now.
"I do not want to fight a battle I do not have to. Drop your weapons and I will spare your lives." Sturla said bluntly, he wanted to try to negotiate with Finn but Finn could not speak properly so he chose silence seeing as he had no intentions of accepting whatever it was that Sturla proposed.
"Very well then, you have sealed your fate with your silence," Sturla said as he raised his hand, and about twenty men charged forth.
Sturla was smart, he did not know what Finn had in mind but he had no intentions of underestimating the enemy, this was why he was testing them.
Sturla would soon be glad he did because the men that advanced would soon be met by a tragic fate.
They stepped on a boobie trap that Finn had laid beforehand.
Spikes immediately shot up from beneath the snow, impaling them but the spikes did not stop there, they kept rising and eventually surrounded Sturla and his men, it was like they were trapped in an entrapment.
Unfortunately for the men that died, they were at the genesis of the spiked parameter.
Sturla was fascinated, to think that they had erected this at such a pace was nothing short of impressive.
"I see, so you are one full of tricks…" Sturla said but he noticed something else, the ten men that were with Finn drew the bows and began firing away.
Now this was a problem, Sturla had to use one of his men as a human shield to survive the onslaught but his men were not so fortunate.
They could not leap over the entrapment because then they would have no way to defend themselves.
This was a clever trap that worked in delaying them but Finn underestimated something.
That was just how much Sturla wanted this.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmHe ran towards them with the dead body acting as a shield, the rest of his men had formed a shield wall and began advancing towards Finn and co at a steady pace, they had managed to kill a few of them but now it seems that was over.
Sturla hurled the corpse right at them, forcing the archers to momentarily take cover.
This lapse was all he needed as unlike his men, he had the muscle strength to leap over it with no difficulty but even Sturla could not defend himself effectively while in mid-air hence why he took preventive measures.
Sturla was out of the entrapment with a single move and with everyone's attention now on him, the arrows stopped raining as Sturla made quick work of the archers before they could draw their bow, Finn tried to defend himself but Sturla easily disarmed him.
Grabbing him by the neck and raising him off the ground.
Sturla was choking him, his hand constricting as he had every intention of snapping Finn's neck.
While he had not lost a lot of men, he was still ashamed that they could cut down their numbers with such a small army.
"You… I need to get rid of you now or you will become a problem later…" Sturla said and Finn's eyes slowly rolled to the back of his head.
He was on the verge of death but Finn felt a rush of oxygen entering his airway as he dropped to the ground.
Sturla had let go of him, Finn looked up to see why and he saw Gissur and Tyr standing right in front of him with an army at their back.
"I cannot let you kill our little genius here, Sturla," Gissur teased, he was the one that forced him to let go of Finn or he would have lost his hand this time.
Tyr and Gissur were about to face off with Sturla.