A True Warrior

Thors wades into Askeladd's raiders alone, dodging their strikes and downing them barehanded while refusing to kill, even tossing an oar to a drowning man. His restraint impresses the watching Askeladd. Bjorn, having swallowed a berserker mushroom, turns on his own allies in a mindless frenzy until Thors halts his charge with a punch and then an uppercut that sends him flying. When the pirates try to board using planks to reach the terrified boys, Thors hurls Bjorn's body onto them, leaps back aboard, and severs the last plank, dropping raiders into the sea. Leif restrains his own men from joining, arguing that only Thors knows how to handle warriors of this caliber and that the archers on the cliff make interference suicidal.

Realizing these pirates will not simply flee, Thors points his blade at Askeladd, names him the leader by his smell, and challenges him to a duel in Odin's name: if Thors wins, the crew withdraws. Askeladd accepts. Boarding, he recognizes Thors as the Troll of Jom and deduces Floki sent him. The two clash, Askeladd landing an early sneak cut with the dropped sail before Thors overwhelms him with relentless blows. When Askeladd shatters Thors's blade against his armor and goes for the kill, Thors disarms him with a strike to the arm and holds a sword to his throat, but Askeladd refuses to concede before his men. Bjorn then seizes Thorfinn as a hostage, forcing Thors to throw down his weapon. Declaring himself the duel's winner since Askeladd broke its rules, Thors accepts the volley of arrows that pierce him. Dying, he makes Askeladd swear on his ancestor Artorius to withdraw, asks Leif to carry his head to Sigvaldi to spare his village, and orders Bjorn to release Thorfinn, who clings to his father as he falls. That night Thorfinn stows away aboard the captured ship, confronts Askeladd, and vows to avenge his father by killing him, while Askeladd expects the boy to perish on his own.

Thors defeats Bjorn's berserker rampage and repels the boarding attempt, then challenges Askeladd to a formal duel to save the boys. He wins the duel but surrenders when Bjorn takes Thorfinn hostage, and is killed by a volley of arrows after securing the crew's withdrawal and his village's safety. Thors's dying declaration that a true warrior needs no sword becomes a defining mystery for his son. Thorfinn stows away on his father's captured ship and swears vengeance against Askeladd, setting the revenge that drives the entire series.

Broadcast July 28, 2019, this is the fourth episode of the anime, produced by WIT Studio during the first season. It adapts chapters 12 through 16. Michiru Itabisashi directed, with storyboards by Tetsuhito Saitou. The title comes from Thors's dying assertion about what a real warrior is, a line whose meaning Thorfinn spends years trying to understand. The episode's soundtrack cues include the opening theme MUKANJYO and the ending theme Torches.