First off. I am sorry for my long long long loooooong disappearance... Heh, remember when I updated this frequently? Me neither. Anyway, I am not gone, My life just got hectic and finding the time and motivation to write was like. Well I'm sure many people can relate. But here I am. With another randomly updated chapter, I hope it isn't too bad for you guys...
Review replies.
silverowlvesarecool: Heheh, things are going to get a lot worse by the end of this story. We're not even at the climax yet. Probably due to my tendency to drag on and on but yeah whatever. Reminder = Hate loki, he's a creep. Thanks for your review :D
BEST OC Maker: Always nice to receive your sympathy and support. Thanks for your review :D
Gaurdian of Azarath: Yes. Yes he would, althouth I haven't written it yet, it's coming up. It does seem like a likely thing to happen as we're getting another villian in RTTE I think it's "Vigo" or something of the like. He's coming in and all. Yeah, Bad guys all round. Thats going to be interesting. I think as well as Drago being involved, I thnk we'll get a little more back-story as to why he wants to destroy/control all dragons, and yeah My feels won't make it through film 3. And yes. The twins do have their moments when they are serious, but they are exactly the ones to crack a joke during hard times as well. Also, didn't they pledge themselves to Loki in RTTE? That makes things.. awkward for my story XD Thanks for your review :3
Rayfe: Yeah, speaking of which, I myself haven't watched HTTYD 1 or two for some time now. I'll get on to that. And also. I'm glad I updated right when you were wondering, And I hope your still there somewhere. (Speaking of wistfully can we go 2 for 2? Did I read your mind?) Thanks for your review :P
Reader: Thats an interesting anonymous name, It's simple... Yet like nobody uses it. Anyway, regarding your review, I'm glad you caught up and I'm sorry for the culture shock of like 55 chapters to get through and then nothing. Thanks for your review :)
Noctus Fury: Do I have any Idea why I'm changing history as I know it? I feel I didn't catch your meaning, and if this is your question I simply don't know. Because it's uhh. part of the story? This question con-fuddled me a bit. And to answer your next question, I can't tell you that :P. Thanks for your review XD
zebraslap: Haha, glad you enjoyed the first chapter, A lot of people comment on the lack of Astrid centred stories in the fandom and I'm like; Guess I did a good thing then XD And yeah, when you wrote has awesome potential I'm pretty sure, considering your on the first chapter, I kinda butchered it but if your still enjoying it thats good to know XD Thanks for your review :)
Targets
Okay, well, there was good news and there was… lots of bad news. The good news is that the enemy had turned their attention away from Valka, It should be easy to sneak around them now. The bad news is that her staff is now broken, leaving her almost defenceless and unable to call the aid of any remaining wild dragons, and also the fire giants had surrounded the mountain pass where the resistance was sure to be.
She retreated from the edge of the tree-line and went deeper into the foliage, she approached her beloved four winged dragon who gave her a concerned coo and a nudge which she responded with a comforting pat. She climbed gracefully unto his back deep in thought and prepared to take off. She took in a deep breath to clear her head of all the disasters that were happening and focussed on what could be done as damage control. She was used to thinking up ideas under pressure, she couldn't do much on her own to sway the battle, but she didn't have the time to carve out a tree branch to make the same call to aid as her other one did, She needed another trick up her sleeve something crazy, something like her son might come up with. Something that would get her some extra fire-power. An Idea trickled into the back of her mind.
No…
It's too risky...
It would take too long...
It could backfire...
It might be fruitless...
It is crazy...
...
It was worth a shot.
On her signal Cloudjumper erupted from the treetops and surged towards the clouds, She would not go down without a fight, after all, this was Ragnarok, the most dire battle of them all, and if Vikings knew anything, it was dire battles.
-0-
The fire giant climbing over the mountain was unaffected by the few stray dragon riders that tried to attack them, being made of fire and fire resistant skin, fire itself would not have much effect understandably. The Gods would probably be able to kill them if they could get a clear shot. Hiccup rallied the Deadly Nadders to his position and got Gobber to do the same with the Gronckles. Many of the Hooligans were already following the trail that the Nightmares had begun burning. The tightly packed units and close quarters a walk in the park for the quick and destructive Monstrous Nightmares.
"Gobber!" Hiccup yelled over the sounds of battle as they circled in the sky, stray arrows barely coming near them. "I need you to keep those fire giants distracted, stay as far away as you can. they can throw their fire-balls further than you, but if you're far away enough you should be able to dodge them."
He finished, Gobber nodded and relayed the orders to his men while flying towards the giants. Hiccup turned to what was left of his Nadders and Astrid, who had been rather silent over the past five minutes flew up next to him.
"Yes Chief?" She prompted still having a little trouble associating the word with Hiccup.
Hiccup gave her a short sad smile before pressing on.
"We need to cover our own men now, Our forces are retreating out of the valley and getting back out onto the plains. Once there we'll stagger out forces and keep the canon fodder off of the Gods backs so they can deal with the fire giants. Considering there are two exits on opposite sides of the valley, we're going to have to split into half."
He declared, some of the riders were looking around at the other dragons cautiously. The Nadders had taken the heaviest casualties out of all the dragons, but there was still a good portion left. Toothless seemed to be making the same assessment, because he cooed in questioning. He understood most of human speech, and knew Hiccup wanted them to split up, despite them being stronger as a pack.
"The Nightmares will join you in the sky once they've cleared their respective paths out of the valley, then, with a mix of Nightmares and Nadders, the ground forces should have decent cover to hold out." He finished. That seemed to grant the riders the morale that they needed. They shouted out their approval as Hiccup drew a rough line with his hand and sent their respective halves on their way. He made sure to bring Astrid with him however.
Unbeknownst to them another figure was watching, out of sight and out of the way, Loki stood smiling at the figure on a Night fury flying towards the plains. He laughed to himself and muttered,
"Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. You may be determined and optimistic now, But what happens when all that surrounds you, is death?"
-0-
Grump buzzed out of the way of a fire-ball that a fire giant tried to hurl at him, Gobber patted the head of his usually lazy dragon for his dodge.
"Thanks Grump, that was a close one."
There were six fire giants that were close too or entering the valley, The other three were keeping their distance for now, it was the big one, Surt of he recalls, which had seemingly two bodyguards at his side. He decided to ignore those ones and focus on the ones that were giving them grief now. The Gods had prepared their attacks and begun throwing javelins and spears at the fire giants. The Javelins were too big for the Vikings to throw very far but the Asgardians had no trouble, And by the looks of it, they were actually doing damage to the fire giants. Much unlike himself and his crew, however, they were a good distraction. He had ordered a group to buzz around the one the Gods were attacking specifically, selectively shooting it near the eyes to cloud it's vision. It threw the occasional fire ball at the Gronckles and swatted at them much like someone would a swarm of flies spitting on them.
After a bunch of attacks from the javelins and spears some of the fire giants began to seem rather weakened. This was when a group of Gods broke free from the rest of the Asgardians and their formation and charged the first fire giant. Among them he could easily recognise Odin mounted on Slepnirr and Thor amongst the group. Once they got near the mountain they jumped upon it and began to easily scale the side of it. Leaping from ledge to ledge with grace and precision. The fire giant, once it knew what was happening, barely had time to react before Thor himself jumped straight at the beast's heart. And then the sky began to rumble... And then without a moment's hesitation a lightning bolt out of virtually nowhere whizzed right past the dragons in the sky and landed upon Thor's hammer, supercharging at the last second before he swung the hammer into its chest. This caused a bright and powerful explosion that sent many of the Gods falling back down the mountain.
Thor however, was somehow uninjured. The fire giant recoiled from the hit and fell straight backwards unto the mountain, the multiple injuries from the gods weapons and the supercharged hit from a hammer forged from the core of a star taking its toll. This gave pause to the other Fire giants climbing over the mountain. Staring at their dead comrade it only took them a few seconds to continue, at a less leisurely pace this time.
Odin helped a blackened and probably slightly singed Thor to his feet and vaulted Gungnir, his spear that never misses, at another fire giants head. The Giant saw the glint of the magic infused weapon and tried to recoil from its attack, but the weapon followed its every move and with a cry of despair from the giant the spear hit it right between the eyes. Its body fell to its knees on the mountain side adjacent to the first dead fire giant. It crashed to the ground earning cheers from all Vikings and Asgardians alike.
This earned a roar of rage from the biggest giant. Surt, And the four remaining began to quicken their pace over the mountain. Gobber was about to instruct his men to charge the next one when the Gronckle riders dragon right beside him suddenly dropped.
He noticed an arrow had pierced its skin, curious, none of the enemies arrows seemed to have penetrated the thick hide of a Gronckle any other time. However, as another Gronckle nearby began to drop from the sky Gobber noticed that these must not be ordinary arrows, he checked over the side of Grump and scanned the array of enemies on the ground until his eyes laid on a particular one as he found what he was looking for, a figure that could easily be recognised as Loki, The trickster God, He signalled Grump to aim at the figure and fire but he didn't see the black shape flying through the air and plunging into grump. It was as quick as that, Grump took two more flaps and then stopped moving altogether.
He didn't make a sound; he just closed his eyes for the last time as gently as a baby, as soft as a sigh.
"Grump!" cried Gobber in surprise, trying to keep the great hulking dragon flying. "What are you doing this is not time for sleeping!" He cried but then he realized the predicament he was in when Grump just kept on falling.
He began to position himself on Grump so he would receive the least amount of damage when he hit the ground, and thankfully for him, Grump was a durable dragon, so when he crashed into the valley Gobber was hovering over, his dragon took most of the fall, Gobber grunted as he fell off of his deceased dragon unceremoniously.
He barely had time to swear revenge on behalf of his dragon before turning around and realising he was surrounded by giants. He readied his mace hand at his opponents.
"Alright then, come at me you lug-headed slow-pokes, I got an interchangeable gravestone with your name on it". He taunted as he got into a battle stance and prepared to take on the multiple opponents.
Just then one of the bigger mountain giant nearby got hit in the neck with an axe and fell to the ground. Gobber was about to file it under a stray axe thrower but the person who had launched the axe came running in to defend him, it took him merely a second to recognise the figure coming to his aid. Gobber couldn't help but smile.
"You know we haven't had time for some mead to catch up yet, what with you being dead and all." He declared carelessly at his old friend. Stoick unsheathed his sword and stared down the enemy, smiling slightly at his friend's remark.
"Yeah well sometimes the meads out, you know how it is." He replied. Gobber shrugged and joined Stoick in a charge of the nearby frost giants who were slowly closing in on them.
Stoick rolled his shoulders in preparation and test swung his sword a few times before picking a target and charging it, and much like times gone by, Gobber was right next to him mace as a hand. Stoick now being an Asgardian had more strength than he ever did when he was mortal, the ice giant in front of him was barely able to parry an attack before he was struck down by a counter swing by Stoick. Gobbers mace sought out the enemy attempting to jab Stoick in the side, his mace managed to hit the giants arm instantly breaking it. The Ice giant roared in agony and anger before Gobber swung back up and clubbed it in the face. It was down and out for the count. Stoick had already charged on and leaving a trail of corpses in his path and Gobber was having little difficulty keeping up.
Stoick and Gobber slowly but surely fought their way back into the Asgardians battle formation. Gobber would have to thank his friend later, another fire giant was coming over the mountain above, and he knew they were big, but from the ground they looked huge.
He looked up to where the Gronckles were and noticed that someone else had taking his mantle as leader, but there was still a problem, Gronckles were still dropping out of the sky, Loki was still firing at them. He growled in anger at Loki and got Stoicks attention.
"Stoick, that Loki fellah is really beginning to get on my nerves"
He commented with reserved fury. Despite his many frustrations with Grump, he was a good dragon, and Loki would pay. Stoick directed his attention towards the figure Gobber was referring too, That figure had a smug grin on his face as he haphazardly shot Gronckles out of the sky, their numbers were beginning to thin.
"Heimdall... Heimdall is foretold to of killed Loki in Ragnarok, We need to get Heimdall."
Stoick pronounced resolutely. Gobber nodded in agreement as they began pushing through the crowd for Loki's downfall.
-0-
Hiccup, the dragons and the ground forces scarcely made it back out onto the plains before he saw the first and second fire giant go down. He cheered with the rest of the Hooligans but the remaining seven fire giants were not having themselves humiliated. The four that were still surrounding the mountains seemed to be to have changed tactics.
They stopped going for the Gods… And were turning towards them.
They were the new targets.
So yeah, That was all I have for you after 2 months of haitus, disappointing I know. But if you can forgive me the next chapter should be up in somewhat less time than it was last update... I hope.
So anyway will Surt the evil fire giant win? Will Heimdall kick Loki's ass, whats Valka up to? Whats Loki up to? Whats Hiccup going to do? Whats with all the rhetorical questions? Find out next time on HBO's. Flashed back. (Hahaha Oh I wish)
Review, Follow, Steal your neighbours mail. Steal your mails neighbour. Mail your neighbour steel. Your neighbour mails steel. Fave, Read and most importantly love dragons!
Cya.
