"Hahaha! Get her!"
"No! Please don't hurt me!"
*Bam!*
I kick in the door to a farmhouse outside a small town in Mercia.
Inside I find a group of five men surrounding a little girl. One of the men has his pants down at his ankles as he was getting ready to r*pe the poor child.
Off in the corner are two corpses, an adult male and a teenage boy, probably the girl's father and brother.
The men look at me and immediately reach for their weapons, while the fifth man pulls up his pants.
Without hesitation, I cut off the head of the man standing closest to me.
The second man thrusts his sword at me. I parry it to the side and as I step forward I run my blade across his neck, severing his carotid artery.
As blood is gushing out of his neck like a fountain, he quickly loses strength and falls to his knees.
I take my sword in a reverse grip and stab it behind me, through the man's brainstem, out his mouth.
The two men who were watching this take a step back as they see their friends die so suddenly. The guy who was pulling up his pants takes out his sword and then notices two of his friends dead on the floor.
The three men look at each other and nod, seemingly coming to an understanding.
They immediately rush at me all at once.
Despite my sword being a two-handed greatsword I take my right hand off the grip as I stomp my foot down on the handle of a sword of one of the dead men.
As it twirls in the air, I catch it and run at the three assholes.
The first raises his sword and tries to swing it down on my shoulder.
I swing my own sword upward to meet his and it cuts his sword clean in half.
I then immediately lower my sword down on the top of his skull. As my sword cuts all the way down to his lower jaw, I leave it in as the man drops to the ground.
As the second man approaches with his sword raised, I jump past him, thrusting the second sword down through his collarbone, between his ribs and into his heart.
I leave this sword inside the body as well, facing the last man without a weapon.
Deciding not to rush at me like the others did, he takes his time, looking for an opening.
I kick the pommel of his sword, launching it up into the ceiling where it cuts into the wood leaving it hanging.
As he looks at his sword I grab him by the throat with one hand and hold him up.
I hold out my other hand for a few seconds until the sword falls back down and into my hand. I swing the sword across his lower abdomen, cutting him in half.
I watch as his intestines fall out. I then throw him to the side and walk back to the corpse that has my sword stuck in its skull.
I take the sword and tear off a piece of the man's sleeve to clean off the blood and brain matter.
I look to the corner where I see the little girl crying over the corpses of her father and brother.
I approach the girl and kneel down next to her.
I touch her arm to find out if she has any other family.
An aunt and uncle living in town. Judging by the memories she has of them they seem like good people.
A few minutes later I'm walking towards the town with the girl, unconscious in my arms.
I approach a small house and knock on the door.
"Yes?" A man opens the door and looks at the girl in my arms.
"Rhosyn?! What happened to her?!" Only now does the man look at me and notices my size and armor.
Before he reacts, I start talking.
"Her father and brother are dead. I'm sorry for your loss." I then put the girl in his arms along with a pouch filled with gold coins.
'Why did I ever think this was a good idea?
They call it the dark ages for a reason. Only two weeks raiding churches and monasteries in England and I've stopped seven r*pe attempts and about a dozen murders.'
A few minutes later, as I walk through the woods I enter our camp, where vikings are doing all manner of labor. Some are sharpening weapons and mending armors, while others are preparing food. There's even someone cutting people's hair.
I walk up to the biggest tent and enter. "Haraldson. What's wrong?" I ask as he seems troubled.
"Ah, Fenrik. Good to see you. King Offa of Mercia wants to negotiate with us. His envoy also said that to ensure peaceful talks, we need to exchange hostages.
He's willing to send us his own brother but only if we send someone of equal value."
"I'll go myself."
I walk out the tent and go to the side of the camp where my beast men have secluded themselves.
After gathering a few of them, we start making our way to King Offa's stronghold.
When we get there, a gate opens up and six men walk out with another on horseback.
I walk up to them as the man on horseback joins my people.
The gate closes behind me and I notice a lot of people looking at me, most of them in fear, while some strangely enough with admiration.
Even though I'm unarmed, the men around me reek of fear. They've probably never seen someone as tall as me.
They lead me through the village, to a large building that clearly belongs to the king.
We enter the place as they lead me to a dimly lit throne room.
There are noblemen standing to the sides while King Offa is sitting on the throne. His son is sitting next to him and his daughter is standing by his side.
As I look at the kids I notice the boy, no older than ten, looking me up and down with his mouth agape and eyes wide open.
Whereas the girl, about six or seven years old, looks at me with empty, lifeless eyes.
'That girl's seen some shit. Those aren't eyes belonging to a little girl. Those belong to war veterans with serious PTSD.'
"Do you speak our tongue?" The king asks.
"Yes."
"Good, I asked for a hostage of equal value to my brother, so who are you?"
"Earl Fenrik. I am the leader. I figured we might as well negotiate right away. So, what did you want?"
"Straight to the point, I like it. What will it take for you to leave my lands?"
"Gold and silver. Twice my weight of each."
"That's all?"
"Maybe you haven't noticed but I'm pretty big."
"Oh I've noticed.' Offa looks to the side and snaps his fingers. Immediately a man steps forward. 'Prepare the gold and silver.
We'll need some time I'm afraid, Earl Fenrik. Would you be willing to stay here tonight?"
"Sure, why not."
Over the next few hours we had dinner and talked. King Offa seemed very interested in Norway and the Norse gods so I told him about it, meanwhile I was also reading the minds of the servants around us.
It's more difficult to do it without touching someone, but much like the titans, Aro never really bothered to try and improve his ability, whereas I did and succeeded.
It's late in the evening now. I'm in a room with four men standing guard outside.
I've taken off my armor and replaced it with a pitch black, lightweight armor I modeled after the Nightingale armor from Skyrim I had stored in my storage space.
I also take out a set of throwing knives, some daggers and a pitch black short sword I made that has a soul gem inbedded in the blade to power the enchantments I placed on it.
I made it to be the ultimate assassin's tool. Anyone in close proximity of the blade, except for the wielder, loses their senses completely if the wielder wants them to. They also lose the ability to speak or produce any sound whatsoever.
It also allows its wielder to temporarily fade into shadows.
It took some necromancy and seriously dark magic but I think the end result is a pretty cool blade.
Two men are standing on either side of the door, while the other two are standing at the other end of the hallway.
I open the door and immediately throw two knives into the throats of the two men furthest away from me.
The two men now standing beside me, spring to action as they grab for their swords.
I take a knife in each hand and stab both men once in the chest and once in the throat.
I walk out of the hallway towards the other side of the estate, where King Offa is currently about to r*pe his own daughter.
The things I saw in the minds of the servants made me sick to my stomach. I wanted to kill the bastard right then and there, but I decided to hold back until he had gathered the gold and silver.
Unfortunately he decided to do it again tonight, which is why I'm playing assassin's creed right now.
Using my senses, I had already mapped out the entire stronghold.
I easily make my way to King Offa's room unseen.
There's another four guards standing outside his room.
Not wanting to waste time, I slip into the shadows and get right next to them.
I stabbed two knives into the throats of the first two from behind and immediately slip back into the shadows.
Even though they didn't hear anything, the other two still saw the first two guards fall to the ground.
They brandish their swords as they approach the two corpses.
I slip out of the shadows behind them and cut their throats the exact same way I did the first two.
I open the door and see Offa the child molester on his bed, naked, while he's undressing his daughter, Kwenthrith who has tears streaming down her cheeks.
I walk up to him and deactivate my swords' enchantments.
Hearing me approach him, he turns around. I grab him by the throat and slam him against the wall.
I cover his mouth to stop him from screaming and stab my sword through his shoulder and into the wall.
I start slamming my knee into his balls again and again, causing him to cry from pain.
I keep going until his pelvis is shattered and he almost dies from internal bleeding.
I then use Mothra's light to heal him back to perfect health and start all over again.
After six rounds of torture, only when his eyes have the same cold, lifeless expression as his daughter's, do I let the cunt die.
I turn to the bed where to my surprise, Kwenthrith hasn't moved at all. She's just been watching the entire time.
I take off the hood and face mask and approach her.
"Don't worry. I won't hurt you."
I touch her temple with one finger and put her to sleep immediately.
I take the girl in my arms and make my way outside unseen.
Along the way I also steal the silver and gold they had already collected, which is about half of what we agreed upon.
As I'm about to disappear into the woods outside the stronghold, the warning bells start ringing.
I get back to the camp, where I immediately order everyone to pack up and get back to the ships.
"What happened?" Haraldson asks.
"I left early. I stole plenty of gold and silver. And now we're going back to Fenrikshavn."
"Alright, but what about him?" Haraldson asks as he points to Offa's brother.
"Blood eagle."
A few days later we're back in Fenrikshavn where Haraldson and I are sitting in the longhouse.
"Are you sure about this?"
"Yes. I never really meant to become Earl. I'd prefer to travel, so I'm giving you control of Fenrikshavn and all the surrounding lands. If Roric comes for you, you'll at least have a chance now. But I won't be there."
"Thank you Fenrik. For everything."
'I'm so done with this time period. I'm just going to send my beast men and Kwenthrith to Danmachi and take a long nap so I can wake up in a more enlightened world with better people... maybe, sort of... almost?'