RECAP: The first day of training has begun, and Morgan's only touched the base of it. His initial task was having to swing a sword of his choice around, in order to see if he could handle the force and speed in which they'd have to be swung, and to everyones surprise, it was actually better than expected. Now, it'll continue into the rest of the morning, and after a quick botch, Morgan has to hide until whatever Hiccup has seen goes away.
Morgan and Snotlout both rushed into the tunnel which led to the exit, but Snotlout made a suggestion that he should hide against the wall, because the actual tunnel was facing the direction of the bridge; and as you know, it's the only way of getting in and out of here, so it seemed logical to do so.
"Ohhhhh" Morgan said, realising why Snotlout made the idea come out of his mouth. "Let's do it" he added, before the two hid against the wall that was right besides the tunnel.
Back at the top, Hiccup looked across the bridge to see the twins come across it. He quickly looked at Astrid through the bars before they fully came over, and Astrid gave the thumbs up to Hiccup to indicate that Morgan's out of sight from the arena. He turned back to the bridge as the twins walked over to the arena.
"Tuff, I said you're not welcome here," he said. Tuffnut would usually come here in the mornings, but after what happened yesterday, he's been indefinitely suspended from it.
"What's the occasion that everyone comes here at this time?" Tuffnut asked.
"That's for me to know and for you to be clueless about" Hiccup subsequently replied.
Tuffnut smiled and quickly glared at Astrid in the arena, and he also noticed the pile of swords and shields behind her. Ruffnut came close to her brother, wanting to peace things up.
"Bro, I think it's best if you leave here" she said, patting his shoulder.
Tuffnut quickly removed his shoulder out of her hand's grasp, and looked back at Hiccup.
"Look, if you don't leave now, I'll have other means to make you do so" Hiccup said.
"Oh trust me Hiccup," Tuffnut chuckled. "I'll have the means to make you retire after I deal with that little disgrace you look all the way up to. It's just a matter of time"
It was remarkable that Tuffnut was allowed to even get away with half of the things he's said to Hiccup.
"We'll soon see won't we?" Hiccup interrogated.
"Yep, we certainly will" Tuffnut blatantly replied.
Tuffnut backed up slowly before turning to the bridge to walk across it, aware that Hiccup's best friend, a Night Fury need I remind you, being the most powerful dragon, could easily end Tuffnut after he threatened Hiccup. Plus, if Toothless killed him, he wouldn't be able to kill Morgan in four days. It seems like Toothless is the only one that could potentially get Tuffnut to stop this entire dark side of himself.
"You'll regret doing this to me!" Tuffnut yelled from the bridge.
This wasn't the Tuffnut Hiccup was used to; the playful, messing around with his sister variant. Now, his personality of wanting to get in trouble to the extent of being imprisoned seems to be the fuel to his new side. Although Ruffnut would never do such a thing, it didn't help she was the brother of somebody who clearly has a thirst to cause more than just trouble.
"Hiccup, just let me explain please, I'm not like my brother, I love everyone here" she scrambled from her mouth.
"I understand," Hiccup said, "Just keep him occupied, because we've got a secret thing going on here that I can't really talk about with you"
Fishlegs only just noticed Ruffnut, and during the conversation between her and Hiccup, he was walking up to the two, and he got close enough to hear Hiccup mention the word secret. "Secret?" he said, "you mean the training we-"
"FISHLEGS, FISHLEGGGSSSS," Hiccup interrupted, "you're thinking about something completely irrelevant aren't youuuu?" Hiccup said, nodding as slowly as possible in a negative manner to Fishlegs with his mouth closed and his eyes widened.
Fishlegs realised what Hiccup was referring to, and also realised that he CAN'T mention anything to people close to Tuffnut about the ongoing training sessions for Morgan.
"Yeah, it was um...Mealtugs training, yeah, she's packing a punch at the moment, haha..." he said. Fishlegs scratched the back of his neck with a worrying expression.
"Thanks a lot Fishlegs, you've had your useless times before but this takes the cake, congratulations. It's too obvious for us to conceal so I may as well tell her, no thanks to you" Hiccup said. He looked at Ruffnut. "We're training up Morgan to combat against your brother, Ruff"
Ruffnut widened her eyes.
"Really? do you think he'll make it? My bro's been aggressive with me when we've had trouble sharing stuff" She lowered her voice tone before leaning forwards to Fishlegs and Hiccup. "Between you and me, he's started all of em, I'm the grown up here and I always tell him this, but we just argue and argue over it" she said, before moving back and returning her voice to it's regular tone. "But yeah, he can be quite aggressive sometimes, and I don't like it when he does that" she added.
Hiccup crossed his arms together. "I mean, what else can we do? he's straight up threatening to attack Morgan. If only the kid had a dragon, he'd be secure" he said. "Also, please don't tell anyone we're training him, because if it spreads all over Berk, your 'bro'" Hiccup raised his hands up and flicked two fingers on them both up and down "will find out about it, we're counting on you, alright?"
Ruffnut nodded speedily. "Don't tell my bro, you've got it!" she said. "I'll see you later then Hiccup, and Fishlegs" She waved before running off like the clappers to catch up to her brother.
"Was that a good idea?" Fishlegs asked Hiccup.
Hiccup sighed before giving his thought. "I dunno, but I see no reason to think that she'd tell him, so uh...".
Hiccup moved back towards the arena and gave the thumbs up at Astrid, indicating that the twins are gone. Throughout the confrontation with Tuffnut, Morgan was essentially given his break.
"YOU CAN COME BACK NOW GUYS!" Astrid yelled.
Morgan and Snotlout stepped out of the tunnel back to the arena. They were discussing Hookfang, and Morgan's fascinating addiction to him. Snotlout had briefly mentioned to Morgan that Hookfang doesn't obey him 99% of the time, so god knows how he'd react to Morgan. They both started walking out of the exit back into the arena.
"Step over here Morgan," Astrid said, pointing to the position in front of herself, "there's some other variations of sword techniques you need to learn"
Snotlout continued walking on as Morgan stopped to stand in front of Astrid. He then turned around to face Morgan from the side of Astrid.
"So you know how to do the basics, and a medium sword is probably as best as you'll get, but to actually dodge the sword attacks from your enemy, that's a different story. Either how you move is based off of instincts or logic, which is what we're going to do next. Because I don't trust Snotlout," she grinned at him right after saying that, "I'll be the one to swing the replica sword at you. We wouldn't use a real sword on you obviously"
Astrid walked over to the pile of swords and ducked down to it. There, she pulled out a long yet plastic sword, in a silver colour from the direct bottom of the pile and walked back over to Morgan.
"Here, this is what I'll be using. What I'll do is just swing my sword at you slowly first, and as we go on, it'll get quicker and quicker" she said, holding it in her grasp.
Astrid took the plastic sword and moved it behind her in her grasp at quite a high height. She gradually moved it forwards towards Morgan, and Morgan in response ducked down to face the floor of the arena. After she withdrew the sword, Morgan stood up straight. This time, Astrid moved the sword away but at a much lower height, and like the first swing, gradually sent it towards Morgan. Morgan moved his body out of the way by skipping to his left, and as a result, the sword was sent straight into the position he originally stood in. Instincts was the key here, and they seemed to be good on Morgan's part.
"I'm adding speed now" Astrid said, unable to help a grin emerging on her face.
Morgan stood back in his spot from where he skipped from after the 2nd swing. Astrid once again moved the sword backwards, but at a much quicker pace, sent it forwards to Morgan, in which he JUST managed to duck down to the floor, emphasis on JUST. He stood up straight, and Astrid once again decreased the height the sword was at, down to the hip level, and as quick as that, sent it forwards into Morgan. Morgan once again JUST managed to sidestep to the left, but it was an absolutely close call. He looked at Astrid, who adjusted the replica sword. "
"Another good shot" she said. "Now, we're going to use your shield this time. It's absolutely important that in the time of battling your foe, you block at the right times to avoid potentially instant killing blades. Let's try that out, and again, these come at instincts, so you don't really need a whole lot of skills. We haven't really emphasised the shield during the training, so now is the time do so. Raise it up and as usual, do your best to block my incoming sword swings"
Astrid once again took the replica sword and raised it up.
"Also, I'm not going easy on you with this one, since you should find it a lot easier to use a shield than to physically avoid a swing" she added.
Morgan was prepared for the attacks. He saw Astrid raise her sword at a high height, and before she could even connect her sword to Morgan, he placed his shield in the position the sword would land at, and it bounced off with great force. Astrid then quickly ducked down and sent the replica sword forwards; Morgan didn't see this, and the sword connected onto his rib. It was only a matter of time before a flaw would be exposed.
"Unlucky," Astrid said. "I guess this is something we'll revisit in the later sessions, but you've still exceeded our expectations" she said, pointing at Snotlout. "If the shield doesn't work out in situations where you have hardly any time to think, just do what we worked on just now; physically dodging the swings. It's a good idea to use a combination of the two, depending on what suits you the best"
Astrid walked over to Morgan as he looked quite down on his performance. Snotlout joined her as well. She raised her hand out to Morgan.
"I'm looking forward to working with you more, now that I've got a clearer vision of how you'll do" she said.
Morgan shook her hand after dropping his sword, and he did the same to Snotlout.
"Honestly Morgan, there's not much to shields and swords other than what we've taught you so far. Swinging, dodging are all crucial to how much damage you'll inflict. It was certainly that way when we fought dragons" Astrid said.
"Except for me being the king of swords" Snotlout interrupted, before Astrid shoved him away.
"You literally try waay too hard, give it up Snotlout"
He laughed in Astrid's face and took a step back.
"That'll conclude our first session, Morgan. It's going to be a pleasure for me teaching you. You can take the sword and shield you chose back to your hut if you want." Astrid said. Morgan's eyes brightened up. "Really?" he asked. "Of course, why wouldn't you?" Astrid laughed. Morgan decided to leave them here, just in case he might lose them for whatever reason. He was rather clumsy anyways.
"So uh.." Morgan instantly muttered, "why did Hiccup tell me to back down or whatever he said?"
"I have no clue, we'll go up there now and ask him. He's always a strange one, and I've known him for five years at least" Astrid replied, chuckling as she made that statement.
Snotlout joined them both as they walked back to the tunnel which lead to the exit. Morgan was curious to know why Hiccup had signalled for him to hide out.
So from what we've learnt so far, these training sessions last as long as how much details there are to the subject in which the sessions are about. Morgan so far has succeeded in shield blocking, sword swinging and avoiding the swings physically. The next thing he'll learn is not until the day after, so pretty much Morgan has the rest of the day to do his thing. But the money question is that was it a good idea for Hiccup to inform Ruffnut on the plan to counter Tuffnut's intentions? now that Morgan's got his own weaponry, he at least has some credibility. It'll all add up in four days.