By the time they arrived, The Island of Berk was in flames. Atlantian warships were beached on the island and unloading troops to attack the Viking settlement. Automatons ran rampant through the city, destroying anything in sight. Fishlegs, Hiccup, Astrid and her father sat on the back of Stella who was flying them into the battlefield. Stoick and Snotlout were riding in on Zoey, While Tuffnut and Ruffnut were atop Billy bob.
"Set us down as close to the frontlines as you can." Astrid said over the chaos of the fighting below.
Stella dropped her altitude and began flying just above the rooftops of the village. Astrid`s dad dropped a rope that they would slide down in order to reach the surface. Hiccup went first, then Fishlegs, Then Astrid`s dad and finally Astrid herself. Then a bolt of energy struck the Gronckle in its right wing, the dragon began spinning wildly out of control.
"Cut the rope!" Fishlegs yelled.
"The fall is at least 100 feet, we`d be lucky if we survive!" Astrid called back.
"We don't have much of a choice!" Hiccup shouted.
Astrid nodded pulled out her knife and sliced the rope that connected them to the dragon. Hiccup felt his stomach go into his throat as they crashed through the straw roof of a small house.
Hiccup struggled to keep his eyes open as he tried to stand up. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his fuzzy vision. He saw an Atlantian warrior run in with a large scythe; he swung it at Astrid who came at him with a knife. The Atlantian hit her in the gut with a punch, causing her to drop her knife. The two wrestled for control of the scythe as two more Atlantians entered the room. They prepared to attack but Fishlegs but a crossbow bolt into each of their guts. Astrid regained her knife and slide tackled the Atlantian man, and then drove the knife into his neck. Then she ran over to Hiccup.
"Come on Hiccup, don't pass out on me." She pleaded.
Hiccup eyes shut for a brief second then opened again.
"Come on, talk to me." Astrid grumbled. "Should I start CPR, give you mouth to mouth, what's going on?"
"Mouth to mouth would be nice." Hiccup teased.
"Oh, I don't think so." Astrid`s dad said limping over.
Hiccup staggered to his feet, feeling woozy. Then when he saw the look on the man`s face, adrenaline woke him up fast.
"I was just kidding." Hiccup stammered picking up his long swords.
"You ok?" Astrid asked.
"Besides the fact that I won't be able to sit down for a month," Hiccup said as he pulled a fairly large sliver of wood out of his butt. "I`m fine," He replied.
Astrid`s dad scowled at Hiccup one last time then went off to join the fight.
"What`s his problem?" Hiccup murmured.
"Oh, he just doesn't like you the way I do." Astrid replied.
"That guy is impossible to please." Hiccup grumbled. Astrid punched him in the arm.
"Man up and challenge him to a sword fight. He might respect you better if you beat him." She snickered.
"So how about that kiss?" Hiccup asked.
"Um… hello," Astrid said knocking on his head like it was a door, "your home town is under attack. We can swap da yucki later." She said with a faint smile as her face turned bright red.
"Well," Hiccup said looking at the battle, "better late than never."
A Monstrous Nightmare swooped down a little an entire battalion of Atlantian Automatons ablaze. Gronckle's were working in synchronization with the catapult salvos, bombarding the advancing army into dust. But the Vikings were still losing ground fast. Hiccup, Fishlegs and Astrid, after running through the chaos of the battle had found Stella.
"Stella?" Fishlegs asked dropping to his knees at the sight of the wounded dragon.
"STELLA!" He screamed.
The Gronckle was severely injured. According to a Viking healer, the dragon's wing bone was broken in several different places. But they assured a paranoid Fishlegs that she`d be ok after a few days of rest. Then a strange whistling echoed across the battlefield. A dark figure swooped down from the night and with a single blast of blue fire, destroyed the Atlantian flag ship.
"Steady yourselves men, we`ve got a Night Fury in the skies." A Viking commander shouted to his battalion. They all cheered as Toothless destroyed another warship.
"I`m sure glad he`s on our side." Another Viking muttered.
Toothless was a lot like an arrow while in combat, Deadly, precise, and silent.
The Night fury continued striking at the heart of the Atlantian Navy until the fleet of over 200 had been reduced to ashes on the ocean floor. Then he landed next to his rider, grinning with satisfaction.
"Nice job, bud." Hiccup told the dragon.
Then his father, Gobber and Astrid`s father walked by them.
"Gobber, such an attack would destroy over a third of the village." Astrid`s dad protested.
"But it would almost completely eradicate the Atlantian army." Gobber shot back.
"Do you know how many times this village was almost burned down?" Astrid's dad growled.
"I don't know exactly, I stopped counting after 46." Gobber said with a shrug.
"We`ve rebuilt before, we'll rebuild it again." Stoick murmured. "I`m calling it."
"Gobber get everyone to start falling back to the village square." Stoick said with a serious look on his face.
Gobber nodded and went off as instructed. Then Stoick turned to Astrid`s dad.
"Get the Nightmares into a firing line. I want them to incinerate everything south of the green smoke. Astrid, Hiccup you two help Gobber spread the word. Then get to safety." Stoick said to the teens.
They nodded and went out to complete their orders.
"Hey, Incineration strike in 10 minutes!" Astrid yelled to a battalion of Vikings who began falling back to the safe zone.
Billy bob swooped in and began breathing green gas over the target area. This also impaired the Atlantians; because of the thick green smoke they wouldn't see the attack until it was too late.
"Man, are they in for a surprise." Tuffnut said as he watched the Zippleback spray green smoke across the target area.
"5 minutes, everyone get to safety!" Hiccup shouted to the retreating Vikings.
Then Hiccup noticed that off on the horizon at least 3 dozen Monstrous Nightmares were flying in to destroy the Atlantian invasion force, Paul led them. The dragons quickly got into a wedge formation and then in a single coordinated blast began their attack.
The air surrounding the Atlantians burst into flames as the flammable gas that surrounded them exploded. The resulting fireball shot 250ft into the air. Hiccup rushed up hill so that he could get to safety before the flames reached him. Then off to his left he heard of cry of pain.
He looked over and saw Astrid`s dad with an arrow in the back of his leg. Hiccup knew that with an injury like that he`d never get to safety. He rushed over to aid his fellow Viking.
"Come on," Hiccup told him, "on your feet."
Then with the older Viking leaning on him for support they slowly made their way up hill. Then a small group of Atlantian warriors began to pursue them. Arrows flew past Hiccup often just barely missing him. Astrid, who was 50 yards uphill, ran into Gobber shop and grabbed one of Hiccups new inventions from the wall. The "Crossbow" he`d called it. She loaded an arrow into the firing mechanism at shot it at Hiccup's pursuers. The arrow sailed past his ear and went clean through the chest of an Atlantian soldier.
"Move it!" Astrid yelled as the wall of fire got within 25ft of their left side.
Hiccup urged the Viking to hurry, when somthing went wrong.
"My leg, it's cramping." Astrid's dad groaned.
"Surely you can't be serious." Hiccup grumbled.
"Yes," Astrid`s dad continued, "and don't call me Shirley."
The wall of flame was about 15 feet away now.
"Oh gods," Hiccup murmured, "come on lets go." He said trying to get Shirley moving again.
Soon the duo was fast walking to the safe zone.
"HURRY!" Gobber yelled.
The wall of flame was about 10 feet away and they still had about 20 yards or more to go.
"Almost there." Hiccup murmured to himself.
The flames were about 5 feet way, 10 yards to go. The duo started sprinting as the flames prepared to engulf them. Then the two dived into the safe zone as the air behind them burst into white hot flames.
"Thank the gods." Shirley muttered, and then he turned to Hiccup.
"Why did you save me, you could of been killed?" The Viking asked.
"I`m your daughters' boyfriend, it's an occupational hazard." Hiccup replied.
"Well it doesn't change anything." Shirley grumbled as two healers carried him off to the sick house.
"You know my dad would be a lot more appreciative." Ruffnut said to Hiccup.
"I`m not going out with you." Hiccup told her.
Meanwhile Snotlout walked up behind Astrid and smacked her butt.
"You know, I`d at least try and get along with your dad." He told Astrid.
"Oh look at that my hand is bleeding." He murmured.
"Yeah," Astrid said punching him in the face, "so is your nose."
Then she heard the sound of war drums. Everyone looked to see a small Atlantian marching back to their boats.
"They`re retreating!" Fishlegs shouted.
The Vikings cheered as they watched the Atlantians leave. Then the mood became very solemn as everyone began searching for the fallen. The dead were wrapped in black blankets and taken to the village square. Hiccup walked alongside his father as they looked through the scorched remains of the lower village. Cinders filled the air, black plumes of smoke rose high into the sky. Ash fell from the heavens like snow. Home repair Vikings were already working on rebuilding the destroyed section of the village. Then they saw the charred black corpse of an Atlantian teen. 15 years old, dead at their feet.
"This could have easily been me." Hiccup murmured.
"Yes," Stoick replied, but that's war. "It's not a pretty thing, but sometimes there's no other choice."
Hiccup shook his head at the fallen ten before looking up at his dad and asked:
"Mind if I go see Astrid?"
"Not at all." Stoick replied.
Hiccup ran off to find his girlfriend.
Hiccup ran through the scorched remains of the lower village. Then off in the distance he saw Shirley, Astrid and Snotlout in the midst of a conversation.
"Nice try, Snotty." Hiccup murmured to himself and picked up speed.
He rounded the corner and stopped so fast he almost fell flat on his face. Toothless landed next to him quietly and the Night Fury`s jaw dropped open in surprise. Thoughts buzzed around in Hiccups' brain like honeybees in a jar. Astrid and Snotlout were in the middle of a deep kiss, longer than anyone Hiccup had with her before. Shirley watched from afar a grinned when he saw Hiccup.
"ASTRID!" Hiccup shouted
the tone of his voice was sharp and full of anger. Astrid pulled away from Snotlout, who had a dreamy look on his face.
"It`s not what you think!" She stammered.
"Yeah right." Hiccup growled.
He turned to run off when Astrid ran up and grabbed his arm.
"Hiccup, just listen for one second." She pleaded.
"NO!" He snarled, causing Astrid to back away.
"JUST STAY AWAY FROM ME!" He screamed hopping on Toothless and flying away.
Tears rolled down Astrid`s face.
"What have I done." She murmured. Then she ran off to get Thorn.
"I`m looking forward to calling you my son in law." Shirley said before he left as well.
Snotlout's grin quickly disappeared as Tuffnut walked up to him.
"What`s wrong? Dude you just got a kiss from the girl of your dreams." Tuffnut said grabbing him by his shoulders and shaking him.
"You should be doing cartwheels." He grumbled.
"Tuffnut, I just ripped a perfectly happy couple away from each other. I just did something involuntary and messed up." He replied.
"I feel like…like… THAT!" He shouted pointing to a donkey that was walking by.
"Yeah, that's a pretty good comparison." Tuffnut said with a devilish grin.
Astrid finally found Hiccup on the walkway overlooking the docks. There was a minute or two of dead silence.
"Why?" Hiccup asked.
"What?" Astrid murmured.
"WHY WOULD YOU GO AND BETRAY ME LIKE THAT?" Hiccup yelled turning to face her, his eyes full of pain and anger.
"You just went and turned your back on me like. I trusted you, Astrid." Hiccup murmured.
"I TRUSTED YOU!" He yelled again.
"I swear it's not what you think." Astrid said in a small voice.
"WHAT ELSE COULD IT POSSIBLY BE!" Hiccup screamed.
Astrid remained silent.
"It's over, good luck with Snotlout." Hiccup said sarcastically before turning around and walking away