Hi all I have FINALLY got the battle of Berk finished. It's a bit shorter than I had intended but I honestly couldn't think what more to add too it. Sorry. Anyway hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 28

The night sky was filled with fire and light as dark shape swooped, dived and duelled. The alarm had been raised and by the time the Haunters had crossed inside the cordon almost all of the Berk Riders were up to meet them. Hiccup, Corvus , Toothless and Sigrid led the charge as they split the pack rolling and dodging return fire. Two of the Haunters dived on the Harbour where Target ships had been repurposed as decoys. Another went for the clouds Piper chased it with Hector. Each Night Fury dogged a Night Haunter.

The two at the Harbour then flew over the village. The Bola launchers fired first and though there were a number of near misses all failed to hit their mark. The Sky Reapers filled the sky with fire and the rest of the dragons on the ground added their shot to the defence. Both attackers were forced off unable to get clear shots at the defenders or the buildings.

Hiccup and Toothless darted after their Haunter, they weaved between sea stacks and cliffs. They skimmed the surface of the dark, ink black sea. Purple shots darted back and forth between the two. Hiccup was pushed to his limits with Toothless, their main advantage was they knew the land and had a better line in the turns.

Corvus and Sigrid weren't fairing much better. The Night Haunter they were fighting was different, this particular dragon seemed to know Sigrid moves, her ticks and techniques. For everything they tried it matched and countered. Sigrid was beginning to tire, she didn't have Toothless' knowledge of the area or how the wind came off the cliffs and rocks. Finally Corvus decided to take a risk. He looked up to the sky to check on Piper and Hector. Hector's Skrill, Stormchaser was utilizing its lighting attack's wide spread to hit the Haunter while Piper and Aileas covered them and drew it's attention.

"Let's get him to chase us." Sigrid was reluctant but agreed. With one last parting blast that came tantalisingly close to hitting it's target, Sigrid turned to aid Hiccup and Toothless with their Haunter. The plan worked within seconds the Night Haunter was on Sigrid's tail firing blasts of deep purple fire at an alarming rate. The white Night Fury ducked and weaved to avoid the torrent of fire from behind them. They pasted by Hiccup and Corvus decided not to shout to him as he was busy with the tail control.

"Ok Girl. We need to throw his aim off a bit. I'll spin round and let some bolts fly. Get ready for a fly over of the village." Sigrid growled her displeasure but understood her rider's plan. Corvus reached behind him and retrieved a crossbow, it had be longed to Gull.

The Crossbow was mostly made of wood from the Nest's island, it was lighter and stronger than anything else they had found. The design had been Corvus' originally, though Gull had 'appropriated' it for 'Testing' she had tweaked it and modified it, added a gas assisted loading and spring loaded priming cog. She had never been a designer but she had an eye for improvement. That had been her best feature in Corvus' opinion that and her wicked sense of humour. It was said you could find cleaner things on the underside of your boot than in her mind. But she had always been in a good mood and had kept the team together on more than one occasion. Now she was gone. Her name engraved on the Hall of the Lost back at the nest. Corvus believed she was causing Odin a headache even now, probably encouraging Loki or something like that up in Valhalla.

Corvus sighted along the top using the Flightmare tipped pegs to line up the shots. He gripped the trigger. Inside the Crossbow the cog began tuning with the spring coil. One bolt, Two. Three. Four and five. All flew the small distance between bow and Haunter, one missed the other four hit. The end of each bolt had been given a dip of Flightmare algae, as each hit a luminous blue splatter appeared on the Haunter. Perfectly timed the White Night Fury zipped low over the village, the Bola launchers and Sky Reapers took aim at the Blue Night Haunter and fired. Two Bolas found their target and with an angered roar the Haunter fell from the sky like a stone. It crashed into an old house that was currently used to store boat materials, all of which had been take to the Edge and stayed down. Several ground troops closed in to muzzle the beast and subdue it. Long thin tipped spears hollowed out and filled with speed stinger venom poked the Dragon and its protests ceased.

Corvus looked back from his victory just in time to see a second Night Haunter diving down to meet him. He didn't even get time to cry out before he was knocked from the saddle and the ground rushed up to catch him.

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