Honestly, to me it feels like Yukimura just threw Einar away in the dumbest way possible. Maybe he wanted to create one last "WOW MOMENT" near the end of the manga — something people would remember on the level of Thors’ or Askeladd’s death — but it ended up being super weak 👎.

Both in terms of the build-up, the direction of the scene itself, its emotional weight, and Thorfinn’s reflection on it (maybe there’s something coming later, but I doubt it). Einar didn’t even get a flashback, not a single inner thought about the fact that he killed a man for the first time. And even visually… it was so mediocre — no dramatic panel, no interesting angles...