Chapter 16: The Death of Thors

Though roughly ten arrows have torn into him, Thors refuses to fall. Bloodied and drenched in sweat, he turns to Askeladd and insists once more that he has won their duel, reminding the pirate leader to keep the oath a warrior must keep. Askeladd relents, swearing in the name of his forebear Artorius that he will call his men off at once.

Thors then addresses the weeping Leif aboard his knarr, asking him to carry his severed head to Sigvaldi, the chieftain of Jom, and to report that pirates cut him down. The lie is deliberate: it lets the chief believe Thors never fled, so no reprisal will fall upon the home village. Turning to Bjorn, Thors says he has surrendered his life exactly as demanded and orders the giant to let Thorfinn go. Bjorn releases the boy, who rushes into his father's arms. Thors rests a hand on his son's head and gives thanks to the gods.

Ari charges at Askeladd in a fury, but the swordsman slips the blade with ease and drops him with a punch. He mocks Ari as a fool who should have learned today to prize his own life, adding that Thors's death is worth more than a hundred untested boys like him.

Later, hidden in the hold, Thorfinn sobs. His father is gone, and he cannot make sense of why Thors laid down his sword and claimed a warrior has no need of one, a notion the boy flatly rejects. He grieves that his father died even after beating Askeladd and winning, and cannot bear that the pirate still draws breath while Thors does not.

Out on the water, Askeladd's ships tow Thors's longship by ropes, the vessel abandoned by its crew who admitted they could not sail it without their captain. The band is glad of the extra ship, having taken on many new hands and needed a third hull. Lying back, Askeladd turns over the day in his mind, struck above all that Thors wounded twenty-eight of his men without killing a single one. A crewman calls him to the stern, where Thorfinn stands atop his father's ship, having concealed himself in the hold. The men jeer at the boy's short blade and pretend to fear him, but Askeladd stays grim and does not join the laughter. Thorfinn screams that Askeladd dared to kill his father and vows, again and again, to end him. The wild fire in the child's eyes sobers the crew into silence. When a man asks whether to throw him overboard, Askeladd tells them to leave him be, certain he will die soon enough. Alone on his father's vessel, Thorfinn weeps.

Thors, mortally wounded by the archers, holds Askeladd to his word and wins the withdrawal of the pirate band. He arranges for Leif to deliver his head to Sigvaldi with a false story that shields his village, then forces Bjorn to free Thorfinn before dying in his son's embrace. Ari's reckless attack on Askeladd is easily turned aside. Askeladd's crew claims Thors's longship as a third ship, and Askeladd notes that Thors spared all twenty-eight of the men he struck down. Thorfinn, discovered as a stowaway, swears to kill Askeladd, who orders him left alone in the belief the boy will not survive.

This is the final chapter of the second volume, released on October 5, 2005 in issue 2005-45 across twenty pages. Its Japanese title is トールズの死, romanized as Tōruzu no Shi. The events adapt into the fourth episode of the anime. The chapter opens on a lament from Thorfinn over his father's death and his own helpless rage. Supplemental material closing the chapter includes a Map of Thorfinn's Travels, with panels on his home village, Jomsborg, the Earldom of Northumbria in northern England, and the Faroe Islands, plus a short piece recounting Yukimura's February 2003 trip to Iceland, an afterword on the weight of Viking armor and weapons, a design sketch of Askeladd and his sword, and the bonus story titled For Our Farewell Is Near.