CHAPTER 16: Battle of the program
"Guys, look at this..." Snotlout said, just as he, alongside Hiccup and the rest, were making their way forwards in a formation.
They all walked up a slightly steep point before seeing what Snotlout was referring to. It instantly made Hiccup's heart ache.
"What the..." Hiccup, gulping with shock, uttered, as he walked up besides Snotlout to glare at the dead, but also wingless, Monstrous Nightmare.
"That's not Hookfang, is it?" Snotlout feared.
"It can't be...but...it's dead, and its wings are gone...what did they do to it?" Hiccup weakly asked, removing his wing suit face cover.
"We can do this to them if they've done it, maybe they should try and pick on people they're actually similar to? what do you say?" Eret suggested, feeling angered at the sight of the Monstrous Nightmare's body, after acknowledging that the Mentranians caused it.
"I would've thought that you'd expect this, Hiccup. They've been working on phase one of their defence program...part of that is inflicting their venom into the dragons, making them wingless afterwards to make the next part easier, and then they...you get it." Blavery said.
All of the Hooligans on the task gathered around the Monstrous Nightmare's body. All of them were as taken aback as the other. Fishlegs was especially. And it seemed to be the case now that the twins were shut up, at the sight of the reptile.
"They...did this? it looks so...coordinated, like, they literally chopped the wings off of it...the poor dragon must've been in tremendous pain after that. The absolute fanatics. The...these guys aren't human, I'm gonna say that right now. If they're doing stuff like this to dragons...they're more than fanatics. They're murderers and cowards." Hiccup, enraged with anger, said.
But this was also like a sadistic preview for Hiccup, of the Mentranians, because if they're doing stuff like this to dragons, god knows what they must be doing, or are doing, to Astrid whilst they've got her imprisoned in the camps on Mentra?
It's the fact that the Mentranians have seemingly killed this dragon in a thoroughly detailed manner, unlike anything he's ever seen before, that prompted him to worry about Astrid's treatment.
"We have to move, Hiccup." Blavery insisted, as Hiccup dove into another maze of apprehension, thinking about how they're treating Astrid/what they're doing to her.
Hiccup knocked himself out of those types of thoughts, for his own good. He was at least trying to combat those dark thoughts about how the Mentranians are potentially treating Astrid, combating them in his head with his intent of driving the Mentranians off of this island to put an end to whatever deterrent they were working to acquire.
At that, all of the Hooligans, Hiccup & co in front, continued their forward march. All of them planted their face wing suit covers back over their faces. Hiccup couldn't help but think about Astrid as he led the guys to where the Mentranians were, but again, he was trying to combat the thoughts because he didn't want to be in a weakened position whilst on the same land as the fanatics of Mentra.
"Hold on a minute..." Snotlout said, once again causing everyone to stop.
"What is it now, Snotlout?" Hiccup asked, sounding agitated.
All of the Berkians seemed to sigh in frustration collectively; they just wanted to confront the Mentranians and drive them off this island to put an end to their cruel actions. But there was yet another delay.
Snotlout was glaring up at the steep, hilly formations of the rocky island not too far to his right.
"We came with these suits for a reason, right?"
"To defend ourselves from their venomous arrows. Stop wasting time-" Blavery said, sharing Hiccup's agitation.
"I've got a good idea..." Snotlout interrupted.
Guddorn, with his fellow Mentranians, with their allies in the Berserkers, in their entirety around the area of the wooden tables with their acquired dragon eggs, were taking a brief break. They were intent on resuming phase one shortly after their break, but in the mean time, they were able to boast about the progress.
Some were leaning against the tables, others were sat on the rock hard surface, and some were simply standing in groups of three or four, chatting amongst each other, whilst Guddorn and some others primarily spoke amongst themselves near the shores.
"Look at all of these eggs. There's gonna be plenty of deterrent dragons to our use once they've grown up after phase two." one of the Mentranians said.
"Definitely. This is quite possibly going to be an unprecedented creation. When we have that deterrent in its full strength, nobody will dare try to destroy the paradise." another Mentranian stated.
A couple of Berserkers, looking more archaic with their primarily steel and spiky gear, were speaking with their Mentranian allies. All of these vikings, who were the ones at work within phase one, were all simply chatting to each other like a huge group of friends, with the boats near them since they were all stood near the shores.
"Alright gents, five more minutes and then we'll get back to the phase." Guddorn echoed.
As chuckles and chatter ran rampant in their groups, in the distance directly ahead, where the fog seemed to be closer than it actually was, a huge collection of figures seemed to be emerging from the fog; they all looked brownish and dark in their appearance and seemingly gear-looking armour.
It wasn't until Guddorn himself looked up that he spotted them. As soon as he saw the huge line of strangers, seemingly in enormous numbers, make their way from the fog, he looked around.
"Wait a minute..." he uttered, walking beyond the tables, directly in front of his Mentranian & Berserker colleagues, as they too caught sight of the dangerous-looking folks ahead
They instantly halted their talk and chuckles, as the majority of them stood up to glare directly in the distance in front of where they were; specifically, near the dead bodies of the dragons. The numbers in which these strangers in the distance were in seemed to be increasing, the closer they emerged, and the more they moved away from the fog.
Larick rushed up to stand besides Guddorn, who was as taken aback as him. What were these people doing here? Guddorn reached into his gear and pulled out a spyglass. He pulled it out and held it directly against his right eye.
Glaring into it, he caught a much clearer picture of the strangers; they had different gear to that of any Mentranian gear or Berserker gear; they were foreigners.
"I don't understand, who are they?" Guddorn said, briefly removing the spyglass from his eye to ask Larick.
"I've no idea sir." Larick said.
The Mentranians behind Guddorn loaded up their crossbows, for a potential striking at whoever the strangers in the distance were. The Berserkers very quickly stepped in line with the Mentranians, to potentially do battle on their behalf as apart of the pact signed between the two by their leaders, Fludgeon and Hawkon.
"Sir, they're foreigners, and they're closing in on us with weaponry. What are we gonna do?" a Mentranian asked, running over to Guddorn from the group he was initially with.
"Why don't you resume your position and wait for me to give the order?" Guddorn said, glaring with fierce eyes at his fellow Mentranian.
At that, the Mentranian defender quickly ran back to his group, as Guddorn returned his eye sight towards the approaching vikings in the distance.
"DOWN WITH MENTRA, UP RETURNS BEERKKK!" the foreigner group chanted.
Guddorn stumbled, as his solemn expression maintained itself at their chant, and that chant confirmed it to him; these vikings approaching in a march formation were hostile foreigners.
The chant started giving anxiety to the Mentranians, because they feared that if they were allowing it to happen, they'd be severely punished by the leadership back on Mentra; they wanted to attack as a result.
"DOWN WITH MENTRAAAAA, UP RETUURNSSS BEEERRKKKK!" the Hooligans, (unknown to Guddorn still), chanted, their combined deep voices making for an intimidating roar in the chant.
"Load yourselves up." Guddorn nodded, gesturing for everyone to load up their venomous crossbows.
Anyone strictly hostile to Mentra is instantly killed. That was no different here. But the Mentranians had a problem, because they never anticipated coming across a foreign viking group like they were now. As the Hooligans chanted, sending more anxiety into the Mentranians, Guddorn stared up into the sky at what appeared to be flying bodies, bodies that were in various colours.
"STOP WHAT YOU'RE ALL DOING!" Hiccup yelled at the hostiles below, as his wing suit allowed him to be glided up into the air as smoothly as a kite, as he glanced directly down at the Mentranians and Berserkers, surrounding the colour table because of the amount of eggs.
"Sir, there's a flying foreigner?!"
"I know there is. FIRE!" Guddorn yelled.
At that command, a couple of Mentranians raised their crossbows up and pulled on their triggers, sending venom arrows directly up towards Hiccup as he glided. The arrows were sharply charging upwards like a missile, but they were way off the mark, completely missing Hiccup.
"I SAID FIRE-" Guddorn was cut off from the emergence of MORE flying foreigners; two which seemed to be fighting with each other, one wide one, one big, strength-filled looking one, and one short looking one, but also another one that seemed to have a basic colouration to it.
Hiccup, alongside Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout, Eret, Blavery and Fishlegs, had all climbed up to a high point on the rocky mountain of this island, to glide over the Mentranians and to make a good use out of their flight suits. Snotlout's idea that he proposed was for this exact thing, and for the chant to be made by the Berkians on the ground to catch the Mentranians off guard.
The Mentranians were indeed caught off guard with anxiety by that anti-Mentra chant, but they were also caught off guard by the sheer numbers of flying viking foreigners in the sky.
"YOU OUGHT TO STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING, RIGHT NOW!" Hiccup yelled at the Mentranians and Berserkers, as he, Eret & co, looked to make a landing to the point they'd be circling the Mentranians and Berserkers all around.
"SIR, DO WE FIRE OR NOT?!"
Guddorn had no time to respond, because just as he was about to, Hiccup, Eret and Blavery made a firm stomp of their landings, landing smoothly from the air as they adjusted their leather wings on their flight suits to land in between the Mentranian boats and the Mentranians themselves, whilst Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Fishlegs with Snotlout made a landing directly in between the Berkians that were in the fog and were now directly behind them, and the Mentranians and Berserkers themselves.
All the Mentranians held up their crossbows; one side raised them up towards Blavery, Eret and Hiccup's direction, another side, Guddorn's side, raised their crossbows up towards Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Snotlout, and Fishlegs, and now, the 20+ ground Berkians who were initially seen by the Mentranians in the distance.
There were only two Berserkers here, and the Mentranians weren't anticipating any sort of encounter of this manner.
Hiccup kept his face cover on.
"Here's what you're going to do, you're going to back off and leave, and then we're going to take all those eggs and keep them out of harms way..." Hiccup, in a threatening tone, stated.
Guddorn shoved his way through his colleagues to talk to Hiccup, who he had no idea that was who it was.
"Are you looking for a quick life, boy? we'll make it quick right now?" Guddorn asked, as numerous Mentranians raised their crossbows up.
"I'm looking for my wife, and I'm also looking to put a stop to your cruel, grotesque actions...you may be in charge of my father's old generational island, but out here, we're the Hooligans, we're the Berkians, and we're here to take back our island..."
"Oooh, so it's true gentlemen, the Hooligans have returned...and for what cost? he's clearly asking for a quick life, because when we kill you boy, you won't ever see your loved ones again. The foreigner's audacity though, gentlemen, is quite brave, wouldn't you say?"
"You can mock me all you want. You guys need to understand that Berk isn't your island...it's mine, and I'm gonna prove that point by ending your little program here, right now."
"And suppose if you were to actually succeed, do you Hooligans honestly expect us to take that sitting down? I doubt our father, Hawkon, would. I might even admit to you that you shouldn't have confessed that you guys are the Hooligans, because when I return home, I'm gonna brief my father on your emergence, Mentra will come down on you like a boulder."
"STICK TO THE POINT! YOUR EMPTY THREATS DON'T SCARE ME! NEW BERK IS HIGH UP, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO DO A DARN THING! HAND OVER THE EGGS OR WE'LL TAKE THEM BY FORCE!" Hiccup yelled.
"He's right buddy, if you don't surrender and back away now, we'll shove through you, by any means necessary, to get those eggs." Eret said.
"I'm with these guys as well, I'm no longer apart of your heartless, cruel regime system..." Blavery revealed, retracting his face cover, much to the amusement of Guddorn and the Mentranians.
"Ohhh, so that's where you ran off to. The incompetent has joined the group of incompetence, men, wouldn't you believe it?!" Guddorn chuckled, alongside his colleagues.
"Laugh all you want, Mentra is a regime situated upon an island that doesn't deserve to be the foundation of such cruelness, a system where you starve your own vikings, and for what? all to worship and maintain the power of a young, heartless dictator viking?! this, right here, is HICCUP HADDOCK, HE WAS AND IS THE CHIEFTAN OF BERK, AND NOW, NEW BERK. MENTRA ISN'T MENTRA, THAT ISLAND HAS ALWAYS BEEN BERK, AND THAT HAS APPLIED FOR THE PAST DECADE!"
"Hiccup...Haddock?" Guddorn said, recognising that name, raising an eyebrow, out of pure surprise that he'd come here and even dare to disrupt and interfere with Mentra's sovereign objective, "the father and our overseers party talks about you all the time. The so-called former chief of our paradise? pathetic. Mentra has always been on that land, there was never a 'Berk'. Luckily, we eradicated that poisonous aspect from its history upon our arrival."
"I'm warning you, hand over the eggs...you know who I am, I can only say the opposite about you..."
"Well since you're so eager to do battle and open up a whole new scale of hostilities, whereby you want to take back the land that was never yours, why don't we get started? it's in our interest to keep our defence program alive, after all. FIREEE!" Guddorn yelled.
At that, the Mentranians fired their crossbows of arrow venom at all sides, and as soon as that commenced, the Hooligans rushed in for a full on physical battle. Luckily, Hiccup and co had their wing suits on to block the venom arrows.
Very quickly, the Hooligans overpowered the Mentranians as they flung swords, crossbows were shot, and generally a full-on battle was commencing around the wooden tables. The Mentranians were very quickly starting to retreat into the waters, not their boats, to swim away; they just didn't have the equipment necessary with them because they never expected to encounter the Hooligans at all, or a battle of this sort.
Eret, in the midst of the battle, grabbed the head of a Berserker and sent his forehead pummelling directly into the head of the Berserker, knocking him out and temporarily eliminating one of the few Berserkers on the island.
Hiccup was fully covered and arrow-proof in his flight suit as he brawled. Using his agility, he rapidly went back and forth with a couple of Mentranians at once, kicking them on the floor in the head directly with his metal leg after taking them down, by their shoulder pits.
"KILL THE HOOLIGANS, GENTLEMEN, KILLLL!" one Mentranian yelled, keeping his venom arrow in his crossbow until this very moment, hiding near the background as he, like a predator, awaited an opportunity to strike a Hooligan with venom.
He fired his crossbow into one of the Hooligans with his venomous arrow, prompting that Hooligan to instantly collapse in the midst of the battle. About three of them instantly charged towards that Mentranian, flinging their swords up into the air at him, before striking the Mentranian with a deadly fling, blade first.
The remaining Hooligans who were on the ground were quick to charge forwards with their swords, completely causing the Mentranians to retreat into the shores, abandoning their boats to swim back to Mentra, as did Guddorn. Quite instantly, the numbers and the readiness of the Hooligans and Hiccup were too much for the Mentranians, who weren't ready at all for that type of battle, because they only expected to work on the defence program, which was, now, unfortunately, ruined and lost because of the Hooligans.
"IS EVERYONE OKAY?!" Hiccup yelled, as he attended to everyone.
"God, my head hurts...those Berserkers really do pack a punch, let me tell you..." Eret said, both his palms on his head.
"The important thing is, we've managed to drive them off, now we can collect these eggs and that'll be their defence program lost. Good job, guys!" Blavery said.
"So uh...was that it? it only took us charging towards them and getting to them in our full numbers for them to retreat and swim away like that?" Snotlout said.
Everyone suddenly walked towards the Hooligan who was inflicted with the venom arrow, totally blacked out, including Hiccup and co.
"It's like he said, after this, we're sure to get a response of some sort, but considering your new island is as high as a mountain, they won't do much?"
"Are you okay?!" Hiccup said, ducking down to the Hooligan who was knocked out; very gently, Hiccup pulled out the venom arrow from his arm, and as a result, a bit of blood started coming out.
"No..." Hiccup said, tired and without breath, "that won't be the last time we see them...I just hope they don't do anything to Astrid after this..."
"Look, Hiccup, we've just driven them off of this island, you never said the name of your wife, you only said just that, 'my wife', so they won't know that it's Astrid. But trust me, this is the first step to bringing down that regime."
As the Hooligans gathered the eggs, with Hiccup once again having uncertainty after the physical encounter with the Mentranians, Guddorn, keeping himself a float in the seas as he swam back towards Mentra, with the other dozen fellow Mentranians, had a message to reveal.
"THEY THINK THEY'VE WON...THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'VE STARTED ONCE OUR FATHER HEARS ABOUT THIS...IT'LL BE THE END OF THEIR TRIBE, THEIR HISTORY, AND THEIR CHILDREN!" Guddorn raged; he couldn't embrace his anger fully until he was back on land.
That was it. Mentra's defence program was over and lost, in thanks to an interference from the Hooligans. One thing, however, that is quite clear, is that this is going to lead to something far beyond anything Hiccup's ever had from Drago or Grimmel before. He may have easily won against the Mentranians just now, but that was in their unprepared state; when they're ready for battle and prepared, in their true numbers, it'll be a whole different story.