Hiccup gone half fury chapter 13
A/N
Hello again
Should I say it, or should I not say it… Thor damn it; "TACTICAL NUKE INCOMING!"
End A/N
Hiccup had suddenly noticed the invading fleet; after a short break in the clouds revealed the many, armoured ships below. They seemed to have noticed them already, non-siege weaponry being pulled up on deck and aimed. Hiccup, therefore, took this as his only chance for surprise.
He tucked in his wings to reduce drag without losing complete control. While he embraced this attack position he frantically warned Toothless and Stormfly of the impending danger "LOOK OUT! THEY'RE RIGHT BELOW US!" hoping that they got the message soon enough. He didn't see whether they did as he passed through the clouds, the trademark whistle building up as the density of supersonic airflow increased.
Eventually he was through the cloud and could see the fleet clearly. He gauged the distance and began preparing his shot.
Unbeknownst to him, his igniting gills had responded to the fast speed of the dive; now they extended small, aerodynamic frills to harvest the oxygen from the air, channelling it into a small pouch near the back of his throat. As his mouth opened for the shot, the air channelling through his gills was also harvested for all its precious oxygen; which was then put into the pouch again.
This process went unnoticed by Hiccup but lead to a strange occurrence on launch of his first projectile; Hiccup focused on aligning his sight with the ships; a small crosshair showing him the point of contact. He pulled off the familiar process of bringing up his fuel and coating the front. He opened his mouth to fire before the shot raced out of his mouth.
It didn't glow blue though,
Or white, or any colour at all.
It was invisible, seen only as a heat haze that gradually fell towards the ship.
It hit the deck with a small "dink".
The ship had no chance of survival.
The blast left no structural part of the ship intact, and the small pieces that did survive were extremely burned. Other ships in the vicinity were also smashed while others further away had holes punched through them due to the shockwave. It was a scene of devastation; and Hiccup wasn't used to it at all.
He suddenly became intensely aware of the extent of his power, but as a pacifist he didn't want any of it. He pulled out of the battle with every ounce of his being, thrusters at full and wings flapping furiously, ignoring the stares of Toothless and Stormfly who had both followed him. Some of the berserkers fired back, but their enraged state did not allow for good accuracy.
Regaining focus, the two dragons began their own attacks on the offending Navy. Toothless performed shot after shot, not bothering to dive for each one in favour of hitting each while flying straight overhead. Stormfly opted for a straight line of fire that seared through the ships. Eventually, after razing the fleet and now looking for any that had escaped previous attention, Stormfly had to recover due to the exhaustion of her shots while Toothless followed, due to his concern as to Hiccup's departure.
He hadn't seen Hiccup's shot. He only thought that the reason 25 or so ships sank was due to precision targeting. In fact, he was going to congratulate him on good shooting.
Or so he thought…
Meanwhile, Hiccup was on the run. His newfound abilities, his special traits had no meaning if it translated to being a killing machine. He found a place to rest and reflect on the shockingly horrific effects of what was meant to be a stun shot. He had barely put any thought into magnifying its power.
But now many, many ships were down, the original target utterly vaporised.
How? He could feel the small frills that poked out near the nubs on the back of his head. It was a tiny thing with a lot of power. Upon reflection he still couldn't believe that such an innocuous part of himself held that much destructive potential.
He sat in silence for a long time; a great thinker, inventor and planner reduced to a lonely boy, guilty of his crime.
Dagur was also in shock; how had one dragon singlehandedly destroyed most of his fleet? To add to his confusion the second dragon didn't show this trait. Although he didn't have time to sit still and think; the other Night Fury was on the prowl and death awaited those who he found.
Dagur used the tried and tested technique for escaping battles unnoticed; find a little boat.
Now safely away from scrutiny of the dragons, Dagur took in the sight of his destroyed fleet. 50 proud and well-armed ships, now his small rowing boat was the only one that escaped. His shock turned into fury, "Damn Stoick, I was going to win until he used those dragons. I guess I'd better stock up on anti-dragon weaponry because I am not leaving until I take you down. You hear that Stoick?!"
Stoick did, in fact, hear.
He had dropped his initial guard as soon as he saw the devastating first strike; Such Ragnarök-scale destruction was not something he could have attributed to the beasts that sometimes attacked his village.
Stoick even holstered his weapons as the other two dragons appeared, tearing anew into the fleet. He was confused that the initial dragon had fled the battle; wouldn't it have wanted a second strike? But still, no need to fight when the dragons were already taking care of that.
He unloaded a fire-ship of its flammable cargo before boarding it and sailing it into the fray. What he saw was a scene of devastation; each ship having been blown apart before it had any chance to fight. He winced, even a man of his calibre could acknowledge the certain doom that befell these attackers, he felt insignificant against the signs of carnage; of dragon-ridden destruction.
Somehow something survived, Stoick heard a small voice shout with obvious displeasure "I am not leaving until I take you down. You hear that Stoick!?"
Stoick was almost speechless, how had the chief managed to escape the carnage? Eventually, as he came closer, he found out. The chief of the berserkers stood atop a comically tiny rowboat. Stoick turned the rudder before striding up to the bow to greet this challenger face-to-face.
As he came alongside, the chief of Berk showed his strength by cleanly lifting the struggling chief by the head with one hand. As he saw the continuing struggles of his captive he acknowledged him in mockery, "be careful what you wish for. Now, as one chief to another, you've got some explaining to do." He said the word with venom and Dagur knew that he wasn't going to escape Berk without a few scars.
The pure dragons reached the cove. Stormfly went and rested, until Astrid questioned how the date had gone. Stormfly promptly chased Astrid around the cove screaming curses. Toothless was sombre to see that Hiccup wasn't here, so he devoted himself to a search. He lifted himself off the ground before banking to survey over the village, in case he had gone home.
Hiccup finally gained enough control to shift back and leave behind the form of his sorrows. To his disgust the frills, as objects of his current attention, refused to go away.
Toothless had searched the entire village, while the occupants were away, and he still hadn't found anything apart from some buckets of fish (now-empty buckets of fish). He took off again and now resorted to searching the untamed woods, no doubt now that whatever kept him from fighting kept him away from both the cove and village.
Hiccup looked crestfallen on top of the rock, unfeeling; even to the weight of the equipment on his back. Suddenly the sound of wings could be heard, and he decided to flee Toothless, until he could recover from this situation. In his desperation to leave he almost fell off an unseen cliff.
The options were slim, running away from the cliff edge he now found himself on straight into the path of Toothless or jump off the ledge and try to outpace Toothless.
Hiccup chose the latter option, jumping off the edge and pulling out his shield to use as a sled for extra speed when going down the mountain.
Toothless caught sight of Hiccup jumping and came in closer to make contact. He was, however, too late; as Hiccup had disappeared into the dense forest and couldn't be tracked from the air. He flared his wings as he came closer to the entrance, before pulling them in to concentrate on ground-borne chase.
Even over the sound of the shield churning over the ground Hiccup heard Toothless land clearly. He leaned further forward to devote himself to a speed advantage over his pursuer.
He paused his panic a moment as he contemplated what he just thought, 'am I really fleeing my friend.' His mind quickly tried to resolve itself; 'yes, he didn't warn me about this, he deserves to be without me for a while' the persistent voice continued; 'he's your friend and your guidance, why would you hate him for the one thing he didn't tell you?"
He re-centred himself, a booming voice of fact quieting the others; 'every ship we sank meant a full crew of deaths. That small thing is nothing but a killer.'
'let him regret this lack of information, for the sake of every person you killed, every death that could have been avoided'
And so, with small tears in his eyes, he focused his energy on evading Toothless.
Toothless was bounding through the trees, desperate for some contact with his quickly-departing friend. He was especially unsure why Hiccup seemed to be fleeing him, what had he done? One moment Hiccup was fine and now it appears he is trying to leave him behind.
His periphery senses were unable to pick up any helpful information. There was sound but, as fast as Hiccup was apparently going, it was getting fainter.
Hiccup was pleased with his progress, He couldn't see Toothless at all, so he assumed he had out-paced him. But when he looked forward again he got a surprise; another cliff, and this time it led to water.
Hiccup had no choice, trying to bale out would kill him at this speed, flying would be unwise, since Toothless was faster than him. He decided to run the gauntlet again and let the shield carry him over the edge.
A sickening feeling of no ground underneath before he fell again.
Hiccup subconsciously pulled out and manipulated his wings until the shield touched down on the slope, Hiccup then pulled his body weight over the side to cause the shield to dig into the rock and slow his descent. Eventually, he reached the pebbles at the foot of the cliff where he pulled back, slowing his movement to a standstill.
Now, with no option to keep on sliding and with flying still being unfavourable, Hiccup decided to blend in with a shadow. He crept into a little cave and transformed to utilise the black colouration of the Night Fury to his advantage.
Toothless was still following what little sound hint of the shield scuffing over soil when it was replaced by the sound of airflow, metal on rock, before eventual silence. Fearing the worst, Toothless felt another burst of energy that propelled him to the cliff edge where the sounds had originated. He looked down and saw nothing dead on the pebbles below, thankfully, although this meant that Hiccup was still lost.
He glided down until he was also on the beach, scanning nearby for where Hiccup could have hidden. He looked in a cave and saw green eyes; a problematic weakness for hiding Furies, as well as the slight blue glow of the frills.
Seeing the obvious desire to not be found, Toothless pretended to miss him, before going out of sight and bringing out his own version of the frills.
He had pre-charged them beforehand with quite a lot of power, which he now used to disguise himself with invisibility. He crept closer to the cave as Hiccup anxiously waited for a sign that he was leaving.
Hiccup found Toothless' glance unsettling, he had almost found him, and may succeed if he looked again. He kept a careful watch, to see whether Toothless had decided to return, he kept seeing nothing. Eventually, he reasoned that Toothless must be searching the entire shoreline. He relaxed and drooped into a lying position, but as he did so he felt something brush past him.
There were a few moments of hysteria, a few of him calming down, before Toothless revealed himself with a paw on his rump. Hiccup backpedalled instinctively and found himself cornered by Toothless as he did so.
Now, with no options left to him apart from hurting Toothless, Hiccup sighed in defeat.
Toothless came closer, his face like a parent who thinks their child is acting suspiciously. Hiccup welcomed this suspicion, he deserved it for such rash actions.
Then Toothless finally, thankfully, broke the silence. "Why are you running? I see nothing wrong with you."
Hiccup motioned to his frills, glowing blue and pulsing slowly.
Toothless wasn't particularly disturbed by the vision "those are just your frills, are you scared that your appearance will offend me."
Hiccup gave a small snarl at the misunderstanding, before giving him the truth. "these frills are not for me. I went down and prepared a stun shot. Do you know what came out instead? A MASSIVE blast that destroyed many ships and killed even more people. I wanted to save the island from invasion, not kill countless people BY ACCIDENT, and these frills are the cause of that, why didn't you tell me before?"
Toothless, now with the extra facts, paled.
Hiccup had a special version of the Night Fury mane (the name for the fully deployed frill) that was optimised for destruction; he would have found other effects, but this would be the most apparent.
Toothless himself only had the one for stealth, "I'm sorry. I didn't know. I had merely assumed you were a stealth variant, not attack. If I had known beforehand I would have told you."
Hiccup processed this information slowly. 'so Toothless wasn't to blame for that tragedy, he didn't know about my condition.'
Toothless then revealed a fortunate factor, "you were lucky that your frill wasn't fully extended, I can see, both from the damage caused and your current state, that it was only one tenth of the full power; also that the power increases out of proportion to the frills deployed; so 5/10 is far more powerful than 5 times the power of 1/10 frills."
Again, it took Hiccup time to process, "are you saying that there's more power than that, more destruction? How much would, say, 5 out of 10 frills be?"
Toothless sombrely continued "that high, Berk would have been eradicated"
Hiccup couldn't believe this, Ragnarök paled to this extent of destruction, he felt astounded that Furies had this much power. For all he knew, Toothless could have simply destroyed the entire village years ago, instead of limiting himself to catapults. "so why didn't you, all those years ago, how Berk is standing when I've heard from you that you could take it down with one shot."
Toothless took this explanation with reluctance, being forced to reveal his emotions about destroying his best friend's village. "Firstly, I am not an attack kind, I am stealth; we have no super-powerful shots, but we can make ourselves invisible."
Hiccup accepted this naturally, since the dragon had proven this to him when he snuck into the cave.
"Secondly, I could… never do it, even if I had the power I am like you; a pacifist. When war comes I try to minimise casualties, not create them. I am seen as weak in the eyes of other dragons for the exact reasons, and it is an embarrassment for me to reveal it to you in this way."
Hiccup consoled his unhappy friend with an affectionate embrace, which Toothless, initially stunned, returned. Hiccup then gave a verbal assurance that this was ok, "I don't care that you can't kill, maim and destroy like other dragons, in fact I'm happy about it. I don't want you to feel so guilty about something I adore about you; your empathy."
Toothless had never been on the receiving end of this kind of praise, so he was rendered speechless as the kindness of the act settled in 'how could I have been lucky enough; the only night fury I know of to have such a companion.'
After a few minutes of blissful embrace, Hiccup and Toothless parted. Although Hiccup now had his curiosity piqued by something he remembered from earlier; "what did you mean by 1/10 deployed, is there more?"
Toothless nodded, doing this for the sake of Hiccup, "I can show you, do you mind me pulling them out?"
Hiccup gestured for him to proceed, so Toothless gently dug a claw in behind the first set of pods (another name for frills) to pull out the next. They slid out on a barely-noticeable track until they surrounded half of the entirety of his head neck, causing a lion-like mane to appear.
Hiccup became lost in his new discovery, "wow, they're so… beautiful, so strange to think of their intended purpose."
Toothless agreed, but continued "they're not fully open yet, I need to pull out the top ones."
Hiccup could do nothing but feel Toothless now push a claw into the crevices alongside the first two, pulling out a new set of pods that covered the top of his neck. Hiccup gasped at the feeling of the new muscles, for retracting and extending the frills, were triggered.
Eventually the entirety of his head was covered, Hiccup took in the feeling, "how does nature create this? I have never seen such examples in any other dragons!"
Toothless nodded, now illuminated by the strong glow of Hiccup's 'mane' but urged Hiccup to put them away, "that's enough for now, you are currently the most powerful weapon on Earth and so I would prefer it if you put those away, unless you accidentally sneeze and kill us all."
Hiccup took in this comment with embarrassed speed, he had forgotten just how powerful his earlier attempt had been and could understand Toothless' concern about being close to such a dangerous being. He used his newfound retraction muscles to pull the frills safely into his own head.
Toothless visibly relaxed. 'why does he even have this? the gods that he refers of must have a really twisted sense of humour to give such a hellish ability to a pacifist.'
Now, with both parties happy and with Toothless forgiven, they headed back to the cove.
Meanwhile Snotlout was not happy. He was still regretting losing in the ring, especially to Astrid in dragon form, she had almost taunted his inability.
Now he decided to show both of the shifters that he was tougher: he put on his own armour, went to the forge to get a bigger hammer, and finally, most importantly, he went to have a tattoo to prove how cool he was.
This was probably not the best thing to do in a village with a duo of tricksters; one look from Ruff and Tuff, and Snotlout woke up the next day with his monstrous nightmare tattoo changed to a terrible terror.
He sighed and got ready to face the laughing faces when he got to the ring.
Astrid still hadn't learned her lesson; Don't think that Stormfly is romantically engaged. This was mainly since Stormfly never told her to stop such suggestive comments, instead Stormfly pursued Astrid with vigour as soon as she let her thoughts slip.
Even now, as she lay down next to a sleeping Stormfly she gave a brief comment about her current rest time, "goodness girl, Toothless and Hiccup sure tuckered you out." Her assumption about Stormfly being asleep was disproved when her tail spikes flicked out.
She ran all the way to the village, before the disgruntled Stormfly broke off the chase.
Gobber had returned to the empty ring after being released from the defence force. He somehow knew that Hiccup was the dragon that took the devastating shot and resolved to find out how, now that dragon training was due to begin.