Hello, I'm finally back again, after a multiple week-single month break! ...Ahh, I'm sorry! Things got in the way and...I may or may not have almost forgotten about this.

But, fear not! I promise this chapter has enough action to make up for the deprived time gap!

Also, about the Hiccup versus Fishlegs mistake, I got mixed up because Ruffnut and Fishlegs had recently fought (I think). My bad, sorry.

Hiccup swallowed. No, he wasn't going to loose. But...if he won, what would they say? He hoped they'd take it as an unpredictable series of luck. That'd be perfect.

And he wasn't going to back down. He was tired of it. He reevaluated his stance, narrowing his eyebrows and swallowing once more. It wasn't a nervous gulp, like before, but now it was one that had a sense of finality and victory to it. His lips turned up at the ends in an attempt of a confident smile.

"Let the battle begin!"

He paused for a moment to let himself catch up. He had been thrown into the ring, but luckily he had been given a wooden sword; they though he couldn't bend. He could use that to his advantage. But, at the same time, he couldn't use too much of his power; he didn't want to attract any more attention than a helpless nerd could when he suddenly beat a waterbender who had been training her entire life. Not to mention the extra training she had received from having to put out her brother's fires constantly.

That is...if he won.

He looked over to Ruffnut to see her practically invisible. She had created a cloud of dust as he was watching, watching but not paying full attention. He clutched the sword nervously, tensing his muscles. He could feel strength and anxiousness surging through his body in waves of heat. He took a deep breath, then tried to imagine himself transferring that into his legs.

Ruffnut was growing ever closer. Now, she wasn't even 20 feet in front of him. He could see her clearly now, she had launched herself forward, but he wasn't sure how she was going so fast. If she had kicked off of a wall of water, she would have simply sunken into it.

No! This was something to think about later. He had to move, now! Tire her out with defense, then surprise her with offense; it was bound to succeed!

He waited, ignoring the feeling of fear and worry and panic and sickness that was flaring in his stomach, it's icy tendrils reaching into his limbs attempting to assert themself in and take control. No, he wouldn't let them. He had to wait.

Hiccup stared at her. Only ten feet or so now. Eight feet. No, six, about his height away. He had to move, now...

He leaped out of the way, using his bending to push himself, almost like jumping into the air then jumping again on an invisible shelf. He soared through the air sideways, not too high, but at a height he doubted any of the teens could reach without bending.

Ruffnut stared at him as he did, water engulfing and distorting her hands. A look of disbelief on her face and being portrayed with body language, the momentum kept her going forward. He looked on further to find the others staring, open mouthed. No, this wasn't what he wanted, he had to stop! It would only lead to pain and suffering for him and others!

But...it felt so amazing to have them praising him, in a way, for once. Well, it wasn't really praising, but... thinking more of him.

It was fine as long as he didn't go overboard.

He let himself fall, landing with two feet just in case it was too tall of a height for one. He switched to the left, then the right, then both again, staring at Ruffnut with renewed ambition. He would win this, and he'd do it right.

He would win, and he'd do it right.

To his surprise, it didn't take long for her gaping mouth to change into a smile of determination. Perhaps she was enjoying this? A good fight? In her position, he would have expected a waste of time, too.

She launched at him again, this time curving at the very end and coming at him from the left. He raised his sword, and in a flash, he had penetrated through the water with the side of the sword, and was holding against her own hand. His arm was trembling. Right, he needed to remember. He hadn't really gotten much stronger physically, but he had become stronger because of the air bending. He was many times faster now, and he could even attack.

Ruffnut narrowed her eyes and pressed against the sword harder, sweeping it away. He could tell she was caught a bit off guard, though, as her stance was different now, looser and less defensive.

Hiccup leapt backwards a few feet, then a few more. He drew back his foot in an arch, readying himself. His sword was flailing this way and that, and his knees were anything but bent. He could do practically nothing more in the area of physical combat. Sure, he knew a catalog of techniquies, but he couldn't think of all of them and which would be best in the moment and which he would use if she attacked, and so on. Heck, he didn't even know how to properly hold a sword; he was pretty much self taught, and because of that, it'd take a miracle to reteach him how to hold a sword the right way. The way he was holding it, he'd be better off using a book or a slab of wood!

He narrowed his eyes in return, launching to the side. He could get a good look at what she was doing with the water without having to fear for his life now.

There was her hand covered in a layer of water about a foot thick. Actually, if she wasn't chasing someone right now, he wouldn't be surprised if it was more of a projection of her hand with every detail intact. It was rippling right now, though, from the movement of her hand. See, if he was a waterbender, he'd have a layer of air inbetween the hand and the water at all times, because that way he could have more force in the water, it wouldn't be being torn backwards and sideways and forwards all over the place.

No, it wasn't the time to analyze and comment on trivial matters, there was nothing he could do right now! He had to focus.

She looked like she also had water going up her arm. At the shoulder, it was almost billowing. Rippling, but not in the way water usually does. More like a cloth being shaken, but the effect mirrored all the way around the limb, almost like a puffy sleeve of sorts.

Ok, so that was almost surely the source of power and force, where she was gathering momentum from. Spider-like legs (he shivered mentally at this) were coming from there, not the hand. They would then shoot her forward, and she could punch Hiccup.

..And she was upon him before he knew it. And, just like that, Hiccup jumped away, gasping. She had swatted him and knocked the air out of his lungs. He was already 10 feet or so away by reflex, but he obviously hadn't been fast enough. Honestly, what was he thinking? It was a stupid thing to think a brand new rookie could defeat someone who had trained their entire life.

The element of surprise, though, made them near equals. She still had no idea what was going on, and if she did, she was probably still trying to grasp onto the idea he had been training.

Okay. Water was hard to fight. You couldn't really punch it, and only fire could turn it into steam. So, the only logical thing he could do would be to blow it away. But...how? She was bending it; was it even possible to blow it away? It was practically part of her when she was bending. Plus, he had to remember to keep pretty much invisible. He supposed he could just try in really thin streams and use it almost like a blade, to slice of pieces of water?

Blade! He had dropped his sword. When she had grazed him, it had slithered out of his grasp and spun away on the ground. Curses!

This was fine. He'd make do! He could still fight fine, and he could easily get his sword back!

...That is, if it would stop...before..it slid right behind Ruffnut...nevermind, yep, he'd go without his sword.

No, he needed the sword. How was he to fight without it? But, Gobber had said it himself; blocking was pretty much the only thing he could do with the swooden sword. Sure, in a sword battle, you could do some offense, but against a waterbender? No, he'd stick to defense, lest he wanted to be picking splinters out of his palms for days.

Hiccup readied himself as Ruffnut flung herself at him again. This time, she was approaching with a different stance. Her feet were closer together as they pounded back and forth, and she was holding her arms further down and closer. The way she wobbled side to side as she ran reminded Hiccup of some kind of nimble dragon built with a thin frame.

Stick to defense, he had to remember. Offense would only lead to him failing.

As she got closer, the screaming of his instincts got louder and more frantic, it repeating for him to run away, unbelieving he was just standing there.

Hiccup narrowed his eyes once more, planning to jump at the very last moment. It was almost like Ruffnut was an angry yak charging at him, and he was taunting it for sport. Except he knew that instead of impaling him with horns or throwing him 20 feet with force, she'd rip him limb from limb with claws.

Okay, not really, but it felt like it!

He leapt away, slightly yelping as he started to make a running motion midair, loosing his balance. He fell onto his chest, his head being carried forward and onto the ground with the momentum. He laid there for a second, then swung his legs in a circle motion and stood up simultaneously.

~.~.~

Astrid wasn't sure about this at all. Hiccup, who had been absolutely terrible at everything and anything all his life and had had nothing was suddenly holding his ground against a warrior who had trained her whole life. Heck, he was making a fool out of her, treating her like some mindless brute! How dare he?

Pretty good for a nobody.

Too good, in fact.

She watched as he leapt out of the way of Ruffnut once more, who, at the moment, was practically letting smoke out her ears and nose with anger. She had fought with Ruffnut many times before. No, she had trained her often. So..how was this happening? A week ago, Hiccup would have been gone within the first few seconds, only taking more than one second because Ruffnut had to get over to him.

Observe, she told herself, and you'll find the answer.

So, observe she did. She could feel Snotlout's breath somewhere near her, and even if she couldn't feel it she could smell it. Astrid could subconsciously recognize him saying something to court her, but she could care less.

Ruffnut was tiring out; that was obviously his plan. On a side note, she'd never seen Ruffnut act like this. Maybe she was so unbelieving, she had forgotten all about her form and counter-plans and everything, a blind rage.

Hiccup kept dodging, but something about it was off. Astrid watched him dodge a couple more times, and she realized he was jumping really far. That made sense, seeing as he had leaped way higher than no-bender-ly possible earlier, at the start. Before, she had just thought maybe he had jumped off of something, or maybe had used a trick or cheat, but now...maybe he could bend, and this entire time he had tricked everyone. Maybe he was so powerful, he had decided to hide it from everyone to protect them, and Stoick was just overselling it.

Hmm, that seemed like something Hiccup would do.

No, he must have learned how to firebend, maybe. She couldn't see anything, so he must have just generated a small flame and used the heat-

No, that doesn't make sense.

Astrid shook her head angrily. None of it made sense.

So, she'd just find answers for herself, and for now, she could just watch and use clues later.

Hiccup kept doing this, and eventually, Ruffnut caught on. In one of such exchanges, she finally curved at the very end to confuse Hiccup, but he simply leapt backwards as if he had seen it coming. It was then that she truly caught sight of his expression. His eyebrows narrowed in clean lines. His mouth was curved in a frown, his tongue slightly out in determination.

What was he doing?

Ruffnut stumbled forward, loosing her footing and falling face first. The stadium went silent behind her except for a couple late whisperings of Fishlegs.

Astrid felt bad for Ruffnut. She could tell it would be hard to beat Hiccup...but, still, it couldn't be that hard.

As Ruffnut lay struggling to get up, Astrid was surprised. Hiccup was drawing his sword. When..when had he picked it up? She thought he had lost it. He must have picked it up so quickly and smoothly she hadn't even noticed.

Hmph. Impressive.

He drew it, shaking visibly from where she stood, and held it to her neck.

Hiccup had won.

Hiccup had won a match against a formerly un-defeat-able foe.

She felt like she should cheer, but..she felt like she should roar in fury.

Astrid sighed.

~.~.~

Later, Hiccup received showers of attention. Ruffnut was reassured by Tuffnut, a rare thing, but Snotlout teased her angrily and Astrid simply gave her the cold shoulder, as she knew she had to, sustaining the leader role.

Gobber had complimented and pretty much worshipped Hiccup afterward, and paired pummels of questions with it. As they returned to the village in a bunch, Fishlegs chattered at Hiccup, asking hundreds of questions. Tuffnut and, surprisingly, Ruffnut did the same, but less. They were curious as to how they could get so much better so fast, too. Hiccup was simply replying with avoiding answers, only making it more obvious he was hiding something.

Astrid was glad Ruffnut was being a good sport, but..

..She wished she could say the same for Snotlout.

He had been pouting and throwing insults at Hiccup whenever there was a silence or when Hiccup got remotely near him. Astrid was keeping up the head of course, so he wasn't able to really go ahead without fear. It wasn't that he was worried she'd beat him down or anything, it was more of a dominance thing. She was like the alpha, and he was only second in command. He knew to stay back.

She was keeping an eye on Hiccup. She figured she'd follow him again tonight, as it was worth a shot.

That is, if he went anywhere interesting.

Eventually, Astrid noticed he was carrying something wrapped up in his vest. It was hard to see, as she had to look back, but at first she had though that he was just carrying his vest instead of putting it on, but now she saw there was an oddly shaped bulge. Something long. And it looked like it grew at the bottom or top, whichever was facing upwards at the moment.

She'd have to figure out what he was finding, and she knew it'd be soon. She wasn't one to give up in the past.

And she wouldn't now.

Let me know what you think in a review, I promise I don't bite! If you're new and binge-reading, welcome, any errors are probably because I broke my spell checker app and STILL need to fix it...

If you reviewed, I'll respond next chapter, I wanted to get this out tonight/whatever time it is in your time zone so that it'd be out earlier.