Keep your guard up

Never wait. That was what Vigo had always told him. Erik stepped into the ring, more mentally bracing himself than physically bracing himself. It wasn't winning he was concerned about. It was the pure savagery of it all. Father says it's the only way, he told himself.

"Are you ready opponents?" a voice called from overhead. Erik glanced upwards, shielding his eyes from the sun. The unique silhouette of Vigo was all to obvious. Erik sighed, and turned to face his opponent. He was a young man. Maybe 25. At the time, Erik was only 12.

The young man stared into Erik's eyes, pleading for mercy. He had no idea how desperately Erik wanted to give it to him. But he had a job to do.

"What are your crimes?" Erik demanded, in the thundering voice his father had taught him. His opponent shrank further back, almost dropping his sword. Vigo answered from overhead.

"He was stealing documents from the guards quarters." Erik turned back towards the supposed traitor, narrowing his eyes.

"This will be your last chance traitor," Vigo said, obviously enjoying the spectacle.

"You can either fight my son, and try and win freedom, or simply take death right now. If you beat Erik, you will be let go." The traitor looked at Erik, sizing him up. Though, given certain death, Erik had found that most people had chosen the sliver of hope that they might survive this battle.

"I'll fight," the man said, in a timid voice. Erik nodded, readying his sword.

"If you kill him, you will be given a slow and torturous death," Vigo warned, before raising his arm.

"Let the battle commence!"

Erik immediately went on the attack, sprinting across the arena with ease. He jumped upwards, bringing his sword down with tremendous force. Much to his surprise, the traitor could take the force of the blow. Erik had found that if someone could withstand that blow, it usually meant they were a good fighter.

"Let me guess, you thought I was weak, and couldn't fight you?" the man asked. On fact, those were the exact thoughts passing through Erik's brain right then.

"Well, Vigo also underestimated me. And when I kill you, my mission will be compete. You are nothing but scum, dragon hunter," the man spat. Erik struggled to maintain a check on his anger. Instead of lashing out with words, Erik swung an expert strike, almost breaking his opponent's bone. The sword was dropped, as Erik almost broke his opponent's wrist. He knew he had to finish this one. If he called for help, Vigo would shame him.

"You come in here, and infiltrate us, and the try to kill me. And now you think you'll get away?" Erik asked, preparing for another strike.

"I'll take my chances." In one quick movement, the intruder had grabbed his sword, and was striking back. Erik jumped upwards, but the tip caught his torso. Pain lanced through him, and Erik momentarily back off. The wound wasn't deep, wasn't going to threaten his life. But it stung fiercely, and only heightened Erik's desire to beat this guy.

Erik did relish the thrill of battle. But then, so did most vikings. That wasn't the bad part. In fact, that rush of adrenaline was about to save Erik's life. During his brief lapse, his opponent had advanced, ready to end the battle.

But Erik wasn't going out that easily. He forced himself to wait. Every instinct was screaming at him to move from this death blow, but he didn't. Instead he waited for the downward strike to start, and using his extra energy, rolled away, and into safety. Then, with lightning fast movement, he popped back up, and shoved his sword into his opponent's unguarded back. Blood flew, and splattered onto his shirt. Erik had angled his shot so it would go directly into the sword. The body now sagged, half held up by his sword.

Cheering erupted above him, as the dragon hunters celebrated their victory. Erik was still staring at the body, and surprisingly, wasn't satisfied. The traitor hadn't felt any pain. The stab had killed him instantly. To his absolute horror, that wasn't enough for Erik. He'd wanted to make the invader pay for his crimes. He looked up, his eyes clearly showing his horror. Vigo looked at him, recognizing that look.

"This is who you are," he mouthed, and if the day wasn't bad enough, Erik realized Vigo was right.

"Toothless?" Hiccup had seen the rapid fire of plasma blasts, and had gone searching for his dragon. All around him, vikings were running around, trying to put out the tree that had caught on fire. There was no way Toothless would be that reckless. There had to be a reason.

"Toothless?" Hiccup called again. He began weaving through the crowd, going towards the shots' point of origin. It had come somewhere from the edge of town.

"Hiccup?" he heard a voice call out. Astrid.

"What's going on?" Astrid asked, in a worried voice. "Why was Toothless firing?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," said Hiccup, taking off again. Astrid followed, easily weaving through the large crowd. They came upon the spot, where two fish baskets were knocked over.

"I saw Toothless eating here earlier," Astrid put in, trying to figure what had happened. Then she saw it.

"Hiccup," she said, slowly walking towards an object lying on the ground. It was an arrow, probably from the attackers. She carefully picked it up, instantly recognizing what it was.

"Is that?" Hiccup asked, praying that it wasn't.

"Yup," Astrid said. "It's a dragon hunter arrow." She examined it more closely.

"And there's blood on it." Hiccup raced forward, and snatched the arrow, holding it close to his eye.

"What does this mean?" Astrid asked, already half knowing the answer.

"It means one of my worst nightmares has come true. The dragon hunters have a new leader." They stared at each other, realization sinking in. Their troubles weren't over. They had let their guard down. Somehow, the dragon hunters had found a new leader. I let my guard down. And now Toothless is gone.

Erik looked at the unconscious dragon before him. He had seen the devotion Hiccup had shown for this night fury. He would go to the ends of the earth to find him. But Erik would make it easy. Because he had other plans for Hiccup than wild goose chase. Plans that were far more sinister.

Hello guys. Thanks for waiting. I'm thinking this arc will lastfor maybe another 10-15 chapters. Maybe more, maybe less. And if you wantit, I do have an idea for a 3rd arc, probably much shorter. Appreciateevery one of you.

NightLightning21