Warning: the next few chapters may, and probably will, contain blood and graphic deaths

Chapter 21

Black Ash stood there, completely shocked as he looked around at the rows of different Dragons, all prepared to risk their life's to help the Dragon King. Black Ash growled, and said, "Come to face me at last, Freak? Or are you going to turn talk and run, like last time?" Marko didn't retaliate, but lifted his sword into the air, and shouted, "Dragons! Take up Arm's!" Like a chain reaction, all the Dragons started to light their fires, ready to attack. While the Dragon's readied their fires, the humans started pulling out their weapons; some pulled down crossbows while others pulled out sword and small daggers. A stand-off started, the Dragons and Dragon Rider's looking down upon Alvin's tribe, who was slowly starting to back away. While the stand-off continued, Hiccup felt someone come up behind him and started cutting the ropes around his wrists. "Who's there?" whispered Hiccup, turning his head to try and get a look at their supposed saviour. But the figure didn't answer, and once he finished cutting free Hiccup, he quickly moved to cut Rachel's rope, and once he was done, the figure ran off before Rachel or Hiccup could get a closer look at him.

"Who do you think that was?" whispered Hiccup as he and Rachel quietly slipped off the opposite side of the stage that Black Ash was facing. Rachel shrugged and slowly, they walked around the Vikings and hid behind what remained of a burnt wooden pillar of a house. Hiccup cautiously peeked around to see if any of the Vikings had spotted them. Thankfully, none of the Vikings saw them: they were too busy starring down the Dragons. Suddenly, they heard Black Ash scream, "ATTACK!" and soon the air was thick with the sound of pounding footsteps the ground, along with Dragon's roars and firing their fire balls. Taking a deep breath, Hiccup and Rachel made a run for it across the battlefield, and they immediately had to duck quickly to avoid their heads being cut off by one of the Vikings of Alvin's tribe cutting their heads off. Thankfully, they saw one of the people that were amongst the Dragons sneak up behind the Vikings and stabbed a sword through his back, sending it so deep that it sliced through to the front.

Gagging heavily, the Viking keeled forwards, causing the sword to be pushed up when he hit the ground. As the member of the Army pulled out his sword, he asked, "I take it that you're the 'Hiccup' that the Dragon King's always on about?" Surprised, Hiccup quickly nodded, and started looking around, thinking that he was a primary target. Their saviour slid his sword back into sheath, he said, "Quickly, if we hurry, we can still get to him before he goes after that Demon." Nodding, Hiccup, Rachel and their saviour started to run straight through the battle, hoping to find Marko before he found Black Ash. As they ran through the thick of the battle, already, they were having to avoid stepping over bodies: the air around them was thick with the smell of blood. Along the way, Hiccup spotted two Vikings standing back-to-back: one of them was facing off a purple-scaled Deadly Nadder, while the other was trying to fight off a Monstrous Nightmare, but they were failing badly.

Finally, they managed to run out through the battle, unhurt and started looking around until they saw Marko: he was standing on an angled rock, looking over the battle; looking for...him. "Marko!" shouted Hiccup, and Marko immediately snapped his head to find that Hiccup, Rachel and one of his soldiers were running towards them: a surprised smile broke onto his face. He jumped down from the rock and started walking towards them. When the met, Rachel immediately flung her arms around him, crying into his shoulder. Surprised and feeling slightly awkward, Marko tried to gesture to Hiccup to ask what to do, and Hiccup gestured for him to put his arms around her. And so Marko did. Suddenly, Rachel pulled herself away from Marko and slapped him across the face. Hard. Gasping in pain, Marko, rubbing his right cheek, asked, "What was that for?" Pointing a finger at him, Rachel replied angrily, "That's for making us leave without you!" Marko looked at Hiccup for advice, but Hiccup merely shrugged. "And this," continued Rachel, placing both her hands on Marko's face, "is for coming to save us." She started to slowly move her head towards Marko's, and they were almost touching...

Suddenly, a Viking wielding an axe came out of nowhere, screaming, and went for Marko. Marko and Rachel split, letting the Viking run down the middle, until Marko caught him around the neck. He then twisted the Vikings neck, and a distinctive SNAP! Indicated that the Viking's neck had been broken, causing Hiccup to shudder. "How about we fight now, then do this stuff later?" asked Marko, pulling out one of the sword on his back and handing it to Rachel. Marko then handed another one to Hiccup and said, "You try and find your sword: until then, you can use mine." Marko then ran off into the thick of the battle, flinging a Viking over his shoulder in the progress. Suddenly, Hiccup and Rachel were surrounded by a group of Vikings, sniggering and slowly circling them. But before any of the Vikings could move, two White Fury dragons and a Deadly Nadder landed behind the Vikings, hissing and spitting small fireballs at the Vikings. It wasn't long before the Vikings, screaming and flailing their arms about, ran away with the Dragon's chasing after them. "Thank you!" called Rachel, and the Deadly Nadder chirped in response. "Come on! Let's try and Marko!" shouted Hiccup, and the two of them ran off towards the direction where they last saw Marko.

Unknown

Meanwhile, in the cells where the rest of Hiccup's friends were being held, the mysterious figure that cut Hiccup and Rachel free was running towards the wooden building. Once he entered the building, the reached into a pocket and pulled out a small, metal key: the key to their cells. As he walked towards Ruffnut and Tuffnut's cell, Ruffnut said, "What are you doing here?" The figure didn't answer as he slid the key into the lock, twisted it and opened the door. When he walked in, he immediately started unlocking Ruffnut's cuffs. "Wha?" she asked, as the stranger finished releasing her and moved on to her brother, upon who he did the same. "Why are you doing this?" asked Tuffnut, rubbing his wrists. The stranger didn't answer, and exited their cell and moved onto opening Snotlout and Fishleg's cell.

Once they were all out, the stranger walked away, but was knocked to the floor when Snotlout tackled him, and once he had flipped him over onto his back, Snotlout held him at the throat and asked, "Why are you doing this? After all the things you did to us, why release us?" The figure didn't answer, but instead he grabbed Snotlout's tunic and flipped him over, so that now Snotlout was flat against the floor and the figure was kneeling above him. "I'm helping a friend," muttered the figure, but all Snotlout heard was a load of grunts and hisses. After a few moments, the stranger got off of Snotlout and walked out of the building, calling, "What are you waiting for? There's a battle going on!"

Marko

As the mysterious figure walked away from the prison cells, Marko walked through the battle, blocking random attacks and occasionally, stabbing his sword through the backs of Vikings or slicing the windpipe out of Viking's necks. But he wasn't concentration on the Vikings surround him: all he cared about was finding and killing...him. Suddenly, he spotted a flash of black ran across the battlefield. Eyes fixed on where he last saw the blur of black, Marko made a bee-line straight towards it, pushing people, both ally and enemy, who got in his way. Then, he saw it again, only this time, it saw him: those blood red eyes were staring back at Marko. Then, before Marko could move, Black Ash ran towards the forest and out of sight. Tightening the grip on his sword, Marko started running through the main Battle, and into the forest, like a hunter, chasing after its prey...