Bjorn and Freya race from the docks back toward the great hall as enemy ships approach Halsar's shore. Bjorn explains that the attackers aren't ordinary raiders—they've come specifically for Freya, because rival jarls across Skaland want to kill her before Snorri can use the foretelling to unite the land under his rule. Bjorn directs Freya to warn Snorri through the escape tunnel, then sprints to join the defense. Freya crawls to the trapdoor and alerts Snorri and Ylva, claiming she heard warning shouts. The attackers are identified as forces of Gnut Olafson, the jarl whose territory borders Freya's home village. Freya demands a weapon and the chance to fight, but Snorri refuses, ordering Ylva to keep her inside the great hall with the noncombatants.

Frustrated and furious, Freya sits among frightened women, children, and elderly as screams and battle sounds filter through the walls. She retrieves her father's sword and a bow and quiver left behind by a warrior, then climbs to the upper level under the pretense of defending the hall from within. When Ylva's attention is diverted by refugees flooding through the doors, Freya scales the rafters and escapes through the smoke hole in the roof. From the rooftop, she witnesses Bjorn fighting alone against multiple warriors with devastating skill, his flaming axe cutting through weapons and armor alike—far beyond what he showed when sparring with her.

Freya then spots a second, larger force of Gnut's warriors approaching the great hall silently from the south, realizing the naval attack was merely a distraction. She shouts a warning down through the smoke hole to Ylva and screams toward Bjorn, but the noise of battle drowns her out. A guard Ylva sends to warn Snorri is shot by an archer and then killed. Freya manages to wound the archer with the oversized bow but cannot stop the advancing force. One of Gnut's warriors threatens to burn the great hall unless Freya is surrendered, and the enemy assembles with torches at the building's entrance.

Knowing rescue won't arrive in time, Freya decides to leap from the great hall's roof to the neighboring building so she can climb down and warn Bjorn directly. She sprints along the roof beam, jumps the gap successfully, and lands on the adjacent building—but the thatch roof collapses beneath her.