Rise of Rurik

Visby has been a place of worship for generations of Gotland Islanders, and the sprawling settlement has grown around their stone boat altar.

They built a solid building of stone called Thing, the so-called council.

Only when faced with major events do all the wealthy families on the island send their chief patriarchs to discuss things.

A capable Ross army landed on the island and backstabbed the coastline north of the island, which the brothers had worked so hard to maintain. Although not many families feel that this passive method of building earth walls is very useful, it is hosted by the families of Baisha Port. The White Sands port in the north has been occupied, and those who escaped are simply spreading horror rumors - the Rus burned the city and killed everyone.

These things are to be believed. There was indeed a group of refugees from the north of the island who arrived in Visby by boat, and the refugees who fled by land were all telling the same thing.

They were still arguing that the battle was normal, and the mound near Visby actually flashed a blood-red light.

Arik and his brothers were still sleeping on the mound, and the birdsong in the early morning woke the sleepy people.

When the early morning mist dissipated, the Ross warriors were bathed in the holy light of the rising sun, and they could clearly see the vast sea and the huge settlements.

Arik witnessed all this from the tree, and now he is no longer shocked.

"Rise up, brothers! Come and see the Gotlanders' lair."

The soldiers gathered one after another, looking at Visby and couldn't help sighing.

"Boss, the leader will take us down here and burn it down again? It's a bit difficult to do."

"Yeah, maybe the enemy can assemble more soldiers than us. We have to fight them decisively, and I'm afraid we won't be able to win soon."

The Ross looting team, who burned and killed all the way, was worried and feared by the huge scale of Visby at this moment. After all, there were only fifty of them, and many people were really afraid of the crazy Arik really asking his brothers to follow him down the mountain. It was not brave, but simply reckless. No matter how weak the enemy is, even if only fifty people are exhausted, they will still be besieged to death by the enemy.

Suddenly, someone saw the abnormality under the mound, and pointed and shouted: "Boss, look, there are a bunch of people there, actually moving towards us?!"

Hearing Arik's instinctive vigilance, he bent down slightly and narrowed his eyes to focus on the details of the distant world.

The subordinates were right, after just a bit of identification, everyone saw armed men approaching this hill covered with pine trees.

Those guys are from Visby,

They wore helmets and round shields on their backs.

They are not farmers or shepherds, they are true warriors!

However, from Arik's point of view, this is just a group of fat meat delivered to the door. Thinking of this, his eyes showed murderous intent, and his laughter became more and more wanton.

"Haha, brothers, you are tired of killing mortals! Come on, let's find a way to vote again. Let's kill these idiots."

No one refused at this moment. The brothers hoped to fight against the enemy's warriors in the sun, defeat the powerful enemy, take away the weapons and money from the corpse, and gain the glory of a man in the fight.

Whether Arik accepts it or not, the way of fighting has been drastically changed by more powerful ranged weapons like the crossbow.

It's a complete idiot to not use a good weapon, and it has nothing to do with the glory of shooting the enemy with a crossbow. They are all fighting, what are you talking about when you are fighting? A wise warrior wants to save his life, but also to take possession of the wealth, the woman of the enemy, and the honor of the warrior, they all want it.

At present, this scout of Ross has excellent geographical control, and it is really suitable to fight an ambush at leisure.

Arik organized his own subordinates. Thirty people wore the soil-grey burqas of the peasants with the word looting, and lay on the ground with swords and shields in hand. Under the burqa is the blue-and-white robe that represents Ross. It is said that when the fight begins, they will reveal their identities.

That's how warriors are, and they must fight with dignity. No matter how stupid the Gotlanders are, they also know the signs of the Rus people, showing the pattern of their robes, and they also save the link of self-reporting their family.

Twenty other warriors, armed with crossbows, also lay in ambush on the ground.

They naturally put their cheeks on the wooden support, and stared at the rear sight of the carbon steel reed (lightly stuck the arrow to prevent it from falling), and the front sight established at the front end, achieving three points and one line.

They just held the crossbow in a lying position in the same way as a rifle. The steel-armed crossbow is really an artifact for killing enemies on certain occasions. Arik has already realized the wonderful use of the weapon, and now he will use the Gotlanders.

Nearly 200 Gotland explorers, led by an old soldier named LaVine, were asked by Thing to climb over the mound to see the situation in Bridge Village, and to discover the secret of last night's red light.

Among them were the armed Bridge villagers, who were also in Visby spreading the horrific news of "Russ entering the village". Since the people who gathered in Visby already knew the news that the Rus had landed and exported the destruction, the new news did not surprise everyone.

The men were armed in an instant, and as long as each family reached a consensus in Thing's stone house, such as giving an order to fight, the men would be able to assemble the army in an instant.

LaVine's 200 fighters were just a bunch of scouts, mostly capable fighters, many of them men who had experience fighting at sea or had struggled to harpoon a whale alone.

There are also Danes from Jutland. When they were young, they rowed boats to loot the territory of the nearby Oberrits (Slavic Wende tribe). They have full experience in hacking people. Now they are old and still fighting spirit. High-spirited as a mercenary for the merchant family in Visby.

Only the fifty-odd farmers and shepherds of Qiao Village were in a state of slack. After all, they didn't live by selling force, they were just ordinary people. This time, the men in the entire bridge village took up arms and wanted to go back to the village to check the situation. People hoped that nothing would go wrong.

LaVine knew nothing of the dangers ahead, and none of the people who traveled with him thought they would encounter any danger near Visby.

They swagger up the soothing mound with the final slope ahead.

Pairs of eyes are hidden in the withered grass under the tree, and the Rus people are not deliberately camouflaging. It can only be said that the inherent color of the linen from which the burlap is made is a typical "autumn color".

It is extremely difficult for people with sharp eyes to suddenly see the hidden enemy, not to mention that Lavin's sense of vigilance has been worn away by non-stop walking.

Arik laughed in his heart, but he was very serious on the surface. The crossbowmen were lying beside him, and the sword and shieldmen also jumped out to fight after seeing his orders. It is not advisable to chaotically climb the mound. Lavin took his people on a path that climbed the mound. This was a shortcut, and it just became a dangerous place.

"Right now, guys, shoot," Arik ordered in a low voice.

In an instant, twenty arrows flew in with the whizzing sound of whirling feathers, hitting LaVine's column in a concentrated manner.

In order to facilitate their movement, these Gotland Pathfinders did not wear chain mail. They all wore hardened cowhide armor and iron leather helmets. In addition, the most useful defense equipment was a round shield with a copper hoop. .

However, these defenses are of limited use, not to mention they are unprepared.

Those who operate the crossbow are all veterans, and Arik tunes the elite warriors he loves. With twenty shooters at sea, he trained to shoot the Gotland fishermen with precision, and what he is doing now is all too familiar.

The brothers have a tacit understanding with each other, basically everyone is shooting their own targets, and there is limited overlap with each other.

In the first round of shooting, as many as fifteen enemies fell to the ground with arrows.

There was only a fifty-meter ambush, and the Gotlanders didn't even see the enemy, only a swish in their ears, followed by the wailing of the fallen.

A very capable soldier, who was hit in the chest and waist by an arrow, lost his ability to fight on the spot, and was doomed to die quickly in the non-stop blood loss.

"Ah! It's the Russ! It's them!" Lavin, he thought of the horror of being worthy of the damn arrows of the Rus at sea.

The panicked Gotlanders hurriedly took off their respective round shields under the command of LaVine, and then lined up in a circle. A pair of eyes stared at everything around, trying to find the attacker.

Just as they were in chaos, the crossbowmen who were lying in their nests turned around and lay down on their backs, with steel arms on their feet, leather-gloved hands and strong arms and thighs, working together to pull the seal oil-soaked bowstring to the trigger. out. This is a very physically exhausting and violent winding behavior. A sturdy fighter can do it five or six times at most, and then he has to rely on the winch to wind it.

The second round of arrows is coming!

The sharp quenched rocket clusters have a very good armor-piercing ability. The Gotlanders' shields have limited defense, and the arrow clusters will pierce through them, then penetrate the human's leather armor, and finally pierce into the flesh.

The damage caused by this round of shooting is far less than that of the first round. The soldiers who have the enemy are hit by arrows, and they can still stand with axes and short spears while clenching their teeth.

It was also in this round of shooting that the position of the Ross people was exposed.

Raven, whose face was almost scratched by a cluster of arrows, shouted with an iron sword: "It's the grass under the tree in front. Brothers, follow me and kill this group of Rus."

In an instant, the Gotlanders ended their panic, and they split up and started a frontal onslaught.

The five quick-moving Ross shooters had already drawn their bowstrings for the third time. After shooting casually, they drew their steel swords one after another.

There is no need for any disguise.

Arik suddenly appeared without shouting any strange Demacia slogans. He stuck his two swords on the ground, grabbed the hat of the burqa with his right hand, and tore off the cloth, revealing his white tunic and the blue X-shaped stripes stitched across his chest.

The boss is like this, and the Rusian warriors have appeared one after another.

Their condescending appearances startled the attacking Gotlanders, and couldn't help but stunned.

The Rus people lifted their burqas one after another. Even though they were not many troops, they were blessed with a completely uniform attire, which really worried their opponents.

The Rus people present were all veteran fighters. In fact, they were all about the same age as Arik and had rich combat experience.

Arik seemed to have eaten poisonous mushrooms and turned into a berserker. He gasped for breath and looked like a wolf, and the commander seemed to be a large group of wolves.

Without any nonsense, he directly took the lead in the charge with his double swords raised. What was even more terrifying was that today's Arik even threw his shield. He only had a light leather armor and led the team into the melee.

This is what he hopes, and what the Rusian warriors are willing to do.

The archer dropped the crossbow and instantly became a sword and shield player. Because the distance between the enemy and us is too close, organizing a shield wall is a waste of fighters, and the two sides soon fell into a melee.

"Kill! Kill the warriors of the enemy and pay homage to Odin with their blood!" Arik shouted.

LaVine, the old Gotland warrior, is not to be outdone. "Brothers, it's time for these Rus people to pay for their lives, kill me!"

The arrows are followed by hand-to-hand combat. The two sides in the melee will never judge the wrong opponent. The robes of the Rus people are too obvious.

Arik's twin swords slashed an enemy's arm cleanly, then stabbed him to death.

He stabbed another person, and before he could draw his sword, the enemy rolled his eyes and knelt at his feet.

However, a short spear thrown by a Gotlander almost leaped against Arik's face, almost causing a cut, but accidentally hit the arm of another Rus warrior.

The angry Arik was running wildly, and his swords stabbed the proud Gotlander who was throwing the spear fiercely. The martial arts he has cultivated have created this moment of unparalleled beheading.

"Hey! That warrior with two swords, duel with me!" Lavin raised his sword and cursed with blood on his face.

"You?!" Arik vigorously wiped the blood sacrifice on his face, his arms full of muscle texture throwing off the blood sacrifice of his swords. "Who are you? A humble bug?"

"I am LaVine, the LaVine loyal to the Blisnos family, the man destined to cut off your head!"

"You?" Arik was greatly enraged, "I am Aric of Ross, the brave man who commanded the team to destroy your fishing boat, and the man who beheaded you. You stupid groundhog, I will kill you today. brain!"

After all, Arik rushed up.

The melee on the mounds has been going on for a while, and the Rus's troops are small. Their ambushes greatly dampened the spirit of the Gotlanders who had traveled a long way, not to mention the armed villagers of Bridge Village, what about the brave?

The Rus had quietly gained the upper hand in the melee, even if they were killed.

Arik couldn't care less, he was an enraged bison, raising his sword with brute force against the warrior Raven.

With such a terrifying aura, LaVine regretted his idea of ​​a duel on the spot.

It's a duel! The people in the melee are based on tradition and just spontaneously give up space.

They were both Vikings, and there was no shield wall to fight against each other at the moment. They were more like dozens of small-scale duels, which seemed to have a more glorious meaning.

This is the battle of the two commanders, the two-swords Arik against Laven who holds the sword and shield. Neither was wearing iron chain mail, so any negligence was fatal.

Arik was almost undefended, and seemed to be full of flaws.

However, Arik, who personally hacked and shot up to 100 people, immediately discovered the opponent's flaws with his full combat experience. He used his steel sword to open Raven's shield, turned slightly, and hit his opponent in the waist with his father's sword. This is the first round to decide the winner, and the elite duel is the moment to decide the winner.

LaVine leaned in pain, and Aric cut off his sword-carrying arm without hesitation.

Holding the two swords in his hands was like a pair of scissors, Arik easily cut off LaVine's head, then raised the hideous head high, and roared at the melee Gotlanders: "This is your bravest man? Now he's dead!"

At this point, the morale of the Gotland Pathfinders completely collapsed!

The leader is in a different place, and then look at how many corpses are lying on the ground. Even if there are also fallen Rus, the most dead are not Gotland?

The peasant in the bridge village killed many people, the bravest teenagers who cried out for revenge, and they ended their very short warrior careers for their bravery.

The men of Bridge Village fled, and the rest of the Gotlanders left the battle one after another.

The Russ also launched a counter-charge to cut down several people, and were finally ordered to stop by Arik.

"Boss, we can rush over and hack them all to death!"

Arik, panting, threw the LaVine's head: "Fuck the cowards! Now we know exactly what the Gotlanders are like, as you've seen! They're all idiots. "

The blood-stained faces looked at the backs of the fugitives, and the Rus stood in the mound of corpses, ushering in a victory.

"This is the end," Arik ordered. "Assassinate the dying enemy and take our people away!"

A dying Rus warrior asked Arik to reward him with a happy one, but Arik, who was helpless, took the sword and made it happen.

In the end, the Russ managed to restrain the fifteen corpses of their own people. Such a loss made Aric who had calmed down shouted at a loss.

However, the Gotlanders have nearly 100 people lying down this time, so what kind of a disadvantage is the Russ?

Wait a minute! Arik looted at sea, and his subordinates rarely suffered losses. Today's ambush battle can be described as the most terrifying single-day loss in recent years. The brothers of the warriors were all capable warriors, and now they died in honor for the Rus.

Leave the corpse of the enemy here to feed the vultures!

The corpses of the Rus were wrapped in sackcloth and dragged away from the battlefield by the warriors. Having figured out the enemy's situation, Arik felt that it was time to evacuate. He estimated that he would be able to meet the large army soon after evacuating, so the decisive battle would be in the next few days. A larger-scale battle is waiting for you to become a hero on the battlefield!

"Let's go, brothers! Take our brothers to that village, and let their souls go to Valhalla."

Arik, he piled up twigs and firewood at the burning houses in Qiao Village, washed the bodies of the dead with streams of water, and burned them to ashes according to the Rus' funeral rites. Before the completion of this matter, he and the surviving warriors will watch the flesh of their comrades turn to dust, and their souls will soar along with the smoke and dust to the temple.