The third guard pulled out a short bow and tried to load a shot, but was immediately hit by an arrow, which pierced his neck, causing it to fall to the ground lifeless.

Reidar, who along with the other two team members was about a hundred yards away from Dag, still managed to help him.

Dag grabbed the chain from the ground and pressed the Giantbane's red-hot blade against it, breaking it in the middle of the prisoner's two arms, which could move her hands again.

Her hands and feet, the only visible parts of the body, were decidedly feminine.

"Forgive me... forgive me, my love, if I didn't come sooner..." Dag whispered, touching the strand of red hair sticking out of her hood and beginning to cry like a child.

As Reidar and Karl rushed to his aid, Gridd stopped, noticing suspicious movements in a hut nearby.

A kind of vertical door on the roof opened and an enemy warrior sprang out, pulling out a bow and setting fire to the tip of an arrow, loading a blow towards them.

"What...?!" thought Gridd aloud, who immediately turned to the other side, where the same thing was happening on another hut.

Within seconds, from the roofs of each hut in the village, lots of warriors sprung up, with fiery arrows pointed at Dag, ready to fire.

"Hey! Heeeey! Get out of there! It's a trap! Daag!" shouted Gridd, who was caught with a sudden sense of bewilderment, unable to move, fearing she would lose all his teammates in seconds.

Meanwhile, Dag slipped his hands on the girl's hood in front of him, slowly.

He pulled it back, continuing to cry, unable to hold back the emotion of finally seeing his woman again. 

"I love you, Freydis. I'll take you away from this place and we will..." 

When he saw the girl's face, Dag stopped talking, realizing that under that hood there was not Freydis, but another young woman, with red hair and fair skin, just like her beloved.

"Fr... Freydis..." he continued to whisper, dropping the tuft of hair he was clutching in his hand and stepping back, while the girl in front of him looked on the ground, embarra.s.sed.

"Get away from there! There are archers everywhere! Dag, Reidar, Karl! Go awaaaay!" 

Gridd's screams finally reached their ears, including those of Dag, who, with his gaze lost in the void, seemed to be back with his feet on the ground.

"I love you, Freydis! We will be together forever, I will take you away from here and we will live happy and content in Jernhest, on my beautiful farm! Hahahaha! What a pathetic scene! Puh!" exclaimed a man as he slowly exited the door in front of Dag, spitting on the ground in disgust.

Dag knelt on the ground, his eyes down.

"So you're Dag, the warrior so strong that killed the leader of the Renegades, the mighty King Hjalmar?! I can hardly believe it! Hahahah!" the man continued to chuck, continuing to walk toward Dag, trampling the muddy ground.

He was a tall, unathletic man in his 70s.

A p.r.o.nounced receding hairline hid the few hairs, gray and dirty, dangling behind his back like pieces of a torn dress.

His face was thin and wrinkled, with his cheeks hollowed out by age and his physical condition, which did not look the best, giving him a sick old man look.

His small mouth, surrounded by a short, bristly black beard in gray spots, showed his yellow and broken teeth as he spoke.

He wore a long cloth dress, holding a wooden bracket, on the top of which was carved the head of a ram.

"That man doesn't look like a normal warrior... that bracket hides magical powers, I feel it. Being surrounded by hundreds of archers, I think this time we won't make it, it was a gamble to come here!" thought Gridd, who panicked, standing still in her position, a few dozen yards away from the others.

"You were less intelligent than I thought... It was enough to set a simple trap and... here you are! Hahaha! But don't panic, Dag, I won't kill you right away, I have questions to ask you before..." the man chuckled, pleased to have captured Dag and his team effortlessly.

The fake Freydis in front of him ran away, afraid.

Dag looked around as blood boiled in his veins: the rain was beginning to decrease, making even more visible the lights of the arrows set on the roofs of the huts, which formed a kind of semicircle around him.

"Where is she?" he asked, his voice very low and full of hatred towards the man, who looked down on him, while he was still kneeling in the mud.

"You will please me, answering my questions and I may have you see your little friend again... what do you say, earthling?" answered the old magician, looking at Dag with mocking and devious air.

He looked up at his opponent, being astonished by those words and not expecting Freydis to still be alive.

"Maybe this piece of s.h.i.+t is just lying. Maybe he killed Freydis even before I got to the island... how did he know we were here? How did he manage to set up such a well-designed trap without warning?!" he thought, clenching his fists in anger.

"Wow, it's amazing! Look at that eye! It's magnificent, sublime! Here's my first question, earthling... how did you manage to get the powers that everyone talks about so much?! How did you do that?! Tell me!" the man continued, in a tone of insane voice.

Reidar and Karl stood motionless near their Captain, fearing the worst and lowering their weapons, which against that mult.i.tude of enemies ready to strike them from a distance, would be useless.

Dag put his hand on the ground and stood up, his legs completely dirty with mud.