Helheim's gate. The name that did not apply to a place so much as a border, as far as Astrid knew. The fog wall stretched to either horizon, unbroken by any landmark. Strange, distant sounds came from within. Calling it the gate to another realm was appropriate, given how otherworldly it was.

Another realm or not, she and her people were here to conquer it. The ships had grouped up, tacking and maneuvering to be in the right positions to enter the gate together, in formation.

From what she had seen of the maze, that formation would soon be reduced to a single-file line, but at least they were making an attempt. On every ship, Vikings crowded the deck. Some were armed with bolas, and others with bows, this being a rare occasion in that any Viking would stoop to such a weapon. It was necessary; a bow was the only way a Viking stuck in the middle of the boat could strike out at the attackers unless they dropped on top of him or her, in which case they were already in trouble. Nothing was being held back.

Except, of course, for the one thing they absolutely had to hold back. Toothless swooped low over one of the Windy Isle ships, giving Astrid a good look at the operational but unmanned ballistae. Thunderguts had probably faced some confused opposition over not using them, but he was not one to take insubordination lightly, so they would go unused in this fight.

Every bolt would be needed for the real battle beyond the maze. Those ballistae were vital.

The sun shone in her eyes, and she flicked the facemask down to cut off the flare. They could not afford to fight in the dark, but it was morning now. The best time to attack, to have as much light as possible. One last, hearty meal had been eaten, weapons were polished, and prayers for glorious victory or death had been said, along with the customary sacrifices, or at least the ones that could be done on a ship.

Now was the time to begin. Their play had been decided, and it was time to see if they could pull it off.

There was no yell of defiance or loud and glorious call to battle. They needed stealth for as long as it might last. Fighting on the ground of the nest was the ideal scenario, as opposed to being attacked while stuck on crowded ships. The scenario no fleet had ever succeeded in taking advantage of, because no fleet had ever made it that far. Astrid knew that for a fact; there had been no wrecked or abandoned ships anywhere on the shore of the nest, not a single sign of prior invaders.

Then again, this was a larger force than normal. They could do it. There would be no searching; she had made sure Stoick and Thunderguts knew and spread the knowledge that the nest was at the exact center of the fog. That, in itself, might be enough to get ships to the nest; they knew where to go now.

Navigating through the fog would be harder, but they could do it. Stoick, if nobody else, had enough practice to be good at it. He had survived more nest hunts than anyone, despite always leading the charge. He could do it.

She and Toothless would fly above, doing...

Astrid wasn't quite sure what they would be doing, actually. A bit like the ballistae, they needed to reserve their strength for the real fight. But if Toothless was willing to take down a few dragons along the way, she wouldn't object.

She also wouldn't object if he refused to kill his own kind in this fight. They were, after all, not fighting of their own free will, and while she had no problem cutting them down if they threatened her or her side, she might feel differently if they were her own species. She would not judge her friend for not wanting to kill them.

They would find out soon whether or not that would be the case. The first of the ships pierced the fog, not really cutting into it so much as sinking sideways, slowly fading. Very much like what a gateway to another realm might look like.

Astrid had no idea how the fog worked. It was probably a natural occurrence, and maybe Fishlegs had some theories, but to her, it looked quite unnatural.

No matter. She had gone in once before, and she would again. This was not new territory for her.

Last time, she had entered this fog against her will, and had barely escaped alive. This time, she came to conquer, not to flee, and she would not falter.

Toothless snarled dangerously, staring into the fog, and angled decisively, flying straight at it. He seemed to understand why they had come, and what they were going to end up doing. He had no issues with it. For him, this was probably a mission of vengeance. Hiccup had died here, because of the monstrosity. The rage Toothless likely felt was one Astrid knew and respected, having seen it before in Vikings. He was at least, if not more, determined that this day would end in the death of a monster.

And then they were through the fog line, the world shrinking in around them.

It had begun.


The fighting did not start immediately. From what Astrid had heard, sometimes nest hunts got unlucky and were ambushed right at the edge, but that did not happen this time. The sea stack maze, eerie and never really silent, echoes traveling far, was devoid of flying creatures in the immediate vicinity.

Aside from Toothless, of course, who circled above the fleet, looking warily out into the distance. Astrid didn't know how far he could see, or what he might be hearing, but she knew it was enough to make him nervous.

This fog made her nervous. She could not see their enemies, but she could hear them. Clicking, growling, chirping, and other odd sounds also rebounded through the maze. For all she knew, they were already hearing the nest itself... or they were hearing an ambush force watching from the dark places in the maze, waiting to strike.

Deeper and deeper, leaving the rest of the world behind. The lead ship kept to a fairly straight course, Stoick presumably at the rudder, guiding his tribe himself. They were on track to reach the nest.

But no matter how quiet the Vikings tried to be, they were not silent, and they were going to attract attention.

An unearthly chorus of screeches echoed towards them, bouncing off of the maze corridors. They had been noticed.

Toothless tensed beneath Astrid, and soared a little lower. Any second now-

A blast of white-hot fire flared out from the right of the fleet, and a Nadder was swiftly downed by bola, falling to drown in the water. First blood, in a sense.

Then it began in earnest. A scene out of some nightmare, dragons leaping out of the maze of pillars from all directions, and dropping from above. Fire flared on all sides, and several Nightmares were swooping in from above, about to rain their heavy torrents of flame down on the ships.

Toothless had been waiting for that. Astrid knew it from the way he immediately shot towards those dragons, firing in their midst. The three large Monstrous Nightmares who had been about to decimate the ships below faltered and changed targets, their glowing yellow eyes angry slits.

Astrid did not even think of taking up her ax. Her entire concentration was on keeping up with Toothless, who was now flying evasively. A week of training for this was not enough; she was barely keeping up. Adrenaline allowed her to match him for the moment, but that would not last long.

Then Toothless dropped and began to slalom through the pillars, and Astrid knew they were going to crash.

"I can't do this!" she yelled, trying to get his attention. Her foot was working like crazy, but she couldn't react fast enough. "Try something else!"

Toothless shot back up out of the pillars, firing into the pack of Nightmares once more, this time from the side. One dropped, a tear visible in its wing, and the other two faltered, obviously concussed.

Toothless used that spare moment to warble apologetically before racing towards the Nightmares, this time moving decidedly less frantically.

Astrid knew she was holding him back, but they had no choice. She could not keep up like that. Death by crashing was not how they were going to go, if they had to die here. Especially not before even getting to the nest.

Another blast, this one downing the other two Nightmares. For dragons with such a large reputation, they went down easily enough to a Night Fury's fire.

On that note... she did not know Toothless's shot limit, or if he even had one, or if fire would help against the real enemy waiting for them. She would just have to hope that would all work out.

Toothless brought them back to the fleet, having in the process of thoroughly outmaneuvering the Nightmares gotten a bit far from the action. The fight was going...

Badly. It was going very badly. Vikings were in the water, and burning on the ships, and dead everywhere, though the majority of their forces were not yet out of the fight. Dragon corpses floated, apparently, and some even blocked the way, slowing progress. Nadders fought on the decks, kicking and spiking in turn. Gronckles bombed from above, far more dangerous than they would otherwise be because one good hit would sink a ship. Terrors swarmed individual Vikings, taking out random fighters. There were only a few more Nightmares, and thankfully none had thought to try the same flaming tactic Toothless had prevented, but they were setting whole ships ablaze simply by landing on the decks. The odd Zippleback could be seen strafing, laying down gas for other dragons to ignite, but most of those seemed to be dead already, taken down because of just how dangerous they were.

There was no way Toothless had enough shots to turn this around, and she would dull her ax before she could make a dent in that horde. Dozens of all the common types were swarming every vessel. This was not going to end well.

But... wasn't there a time in which this entire foggy deathtrap had been empty? These dragons fled when their overlord was mad...

And if there was one thing Astrid wanted to accomplish, it was getting that thing mad.

"To the nest," she requested, directing Toothless forward, away from the fight. "We have to get it mad, so that all the dragons will leave." It might be suicidal on their part, but there was no other way. They would have needed a fleet twice again the size of what they brought to have a chance actually fighting off the enemy. If she wanted any of the ballista to make it to the island, this fight needed to end.

Toothless obligingly powered forward, flying just above the majority of the sea stacks, covering in seconds what had taken their little raft hours to traverse, quickly revealing a foggy mountain that was ominously empty.

Hopefully the monstrosity's displeasure would have the same effect as it had last time. Hopefully the dragons would hear it from the fight they had just left behind. Hopefully they would not just redouble their efforts.

But it looked like the entire nest had gone to fight already, so they could not really make things worse. Toothless dove into a hole in the side of the volcano, following another oddly-straight tunnel, and emerging into the nightmarish inner core Astrid remembered so well.

Ledges everywhere, sulfurous yellow fog, and a horrible breathing sound. They circled once, preparing mentally for what they were about to do.

Waking this thing was probably going to be the end of them, but it had to be done.

Toothless roared defiantly, a screech that even now succeeded in making Astrid shiver. That sound was one every Viking knew and feared. But now there was a hint of fear in it, and that was all the more terrifying. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself was as scared as she was.

A challenging rumble reverberated like thunder up from the depths. A massive, obscenely large head rose from the depths, two tiny eyes looking up at them.

Toothless screeched again and blasted the head, immediately fleeing, flying to the edge of the inner core of the volcano.

A physically painful roar knocked them out of the sky, Toothless slamming down onto a ledge, likely as disoriented as she was. The roar of rage was the same as the one that had driven all the dragons away last time. That part of their plan had gone right.

Now they just had to survive the rage they had brought down upon themselves.

Toothless stumbled to his feet, shaking his head, and leaped off of the ledge, free-falling down into the depths. Astrid gave her concentration over to the tailfin, knowing there was absolutely nothing else she could do to keep them alive. They pulled out and swerved around the large, steaming midsection of the monstrosity-

Just as, Astrid saw by looking back, the ledge they had fallen onto was destroyed, utterly annihilated by a massive, grotesque club of a paw, still dripping magma. The rock crumbled like old cheese, a huge dent in the inner side of the volcano all that was left.

They flew up a little, circling the huge body, staying low. The monstrosity had not seen where they went-

But it knew. A massive torrent of billowing fire passed in front of them, a hundred times larger than the plumes a Nightmare could make, and began to expand, racing towards them.

Toothless flipped and turned in an instant, barely using his tail at all to redirect himself, and they were forced up to flee the boiling inferno behind them, driven back up to where the monstrosity could see them.

They were trapped. They had to get out of the volcano and hope it couldn't follow. But no, that wouldn't work, it had just shown it could crush rock like it was nothing-

Astrid had only an instant to react to Toothless's tensed muscles, but this was a prompt she had understood almost from the beginning, the hitch that meant down. She pulled the tailfin in entirely, and they plummeted, only barely missing another huge blow from a paw, this one scattering massive boulders and carving another huge dent in the rock.

This thing was huge, powerful, and borderline-unstoppable. There was nothing she could do, and nothing Toothless could do.

But... a thought struck her even as another club-like strike pounded the volcano. They might not be able to stop it. Could it stop itself?

A plan occurred to her, the faintest idea blossoming through lack of alternatives. Get it to keep hitting the sides of the volcano, and hopefully last long enough for it to bring the mountain down on itself... and them.

Mutually assured death. That was the best she could hope for now. But they were out of better options, and there would be no more worthy opponent to spend her life on.

"Get it to break the walls!" she yelled, hoping Toothless could hear her over the chaos. "It might not survive bringing this place down!"

Of all times, this was the one where his understanding of her words came into question. He continued to fly evasively, sticking close to the walls, but that could just be coincidence.

Or it could be understanding. Either way, the plan was on for the moment.

Incredibly, they fell into a repeatable pattern over the next few moments, each moment passing slowly but passing nonetheless. Fly up, get in the monstrosity's line of sight, dive, and watch as a new chunk of the volcano was torn out of the walls around them. The massive dragon's paws could only reach so far up or down, so its strikes were all confined to a certain height band of the volcano, meaning that area was rapidly becoming more and more unstable.

It was just slow enough to react that they weren't dead yet. And, Astrid began to suspect, it was too stupid to see the pattern and react to that.

Something about that was horribly ironic. So stupid, but responsible for seven generations or more of war and death. This thing should have been taken down long ago. It would have been, if anyone else could ever have reached it in the first place.

A rumbling sound echoed through the volcano, and Astrid flinched. That was not one of the monstrosity's constant roars. That was different, quieter but deeper and even more ominous, if such a thing was possible. Somewhere, stone was giving out.

She glanced up and saw a few small chunks of rock falling from the distant top of the volcano. They could not fly out there; it was too high, and would take too long. The monstrosity's flame could travel straight up far faster than they could.

Besides, it looked like that exit was about to cease to exist. More and more rock crumbled inward, raining down as a part of the stone began to separate entirely, leaning in-

This place was about to come down on their heads. The monstrosity would never be able to avoid it, but Toothless still might. "Get us out," Astrid begged, knowing it was a slim chance. "If you see a way, take us through it. We're done." There would be no way out, but she had to ask.

Surprisingly, Toothless nodded calmly, swerving to block a half-hearted swing from the monstrosity, which was only now beginning to notice that something was wrong. He dived, aiming down into the fog surrounding the monstrosity's body, to a ledge that looked oddly familiar.

She recognized the faint brown stain on the stone and the circular cave Toothless was diving right at. The ledge they had landed on, the one with a path to the outside, underneath the area the monstrosity had broken.

The sound of cracking stone followed them as Toothless landed and ran full-tilt into the cave, unable to fly because it was too narrow. They could not hide there; magma might splash up and through the tunnel.

Astrid ducked, not wanting to be scraped right out of the saddle by a stalactite or just a low ceiling, suddenly hopeful that they might actually survive this. They just needed to get out before-

Foggy, refracted light had never looked so good, even as gloomy and ominous as it was here at the nest. Toothless leaped out onto the beach of the nest and immediately took to the air once more, banking sharply to get out of the way of whatever might follow them out of the tunnel.

Astrid took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart, watching the volcano intently.

She was treated to an awe-inspiring sight. As she watched, the cone of the mountain began to fold inward, collapsing faster and faster, presumably raining bigger and bigger chunks of rock right onto that horrible monster's huge head, burying it deeper and deeper.

A bright plume of magma shot out of several different caves almost simultaneously, cascading onto the already rocky and lifeless beaches. They had gotten out with only a few seconds to spare.

She could see in her mind what was happening as the volcano finally reached a new stable point, half collapsed and looking like someone had flattened it. The interior would be a mix of magma, rock, and hopefully dead or dying monster. It had done what she and Toothless could never hope to do. It had dropped a good portion of its own home on itself.

They were done. It had to be dead. Nothing moved.

She didn't feel like celebrating. This did not feel over, no matter how obviously dead that thing had to be. She felt like they were not done.

Was there something else? She wordlessly asked Toothless to circle the island, and they did so.

On the far side, she could see-

The fleet! The attack, the one she had originally thought to save by making the monstrosity mad and scaring the dragons off! She had somehow forgotten about them in the hectic moment of immense danger she had just been through.

They were... okay, it looked like, pulling in to land at the nest even as she watched. A Windy Isle ship was missing, and a lot of the other ships were scorched or otherwise damaged, but that was it. Some deaths, but not nearly as many as there would have been.

Toothless flew down and landed on the beach, staring at the nearest ship. Vikings began to dismount, weapons ready... and also began to stare.

A loud rumbling sound echoed behind her, and she knew the mountain was settling into its new position. Nobody but her had ever seen it before now, but it was clear to anyone who looked that it had just collapsed, and now that she thought about it, they had probably heard the fight going on, or at least the monstrosity's part in it.

Okay, so they knew what had happened, more or less. She met their stares, not flipping up her facemask. This still did not feel over.

"What in Thor's name happened?" Stoick asked, leaping off his ship and landing with a heavy crunch on the beach. "And do we need to kill anythin'?" He looked around the lifeless beach, searching for threats and finding none.

"I hope not," she admitted. "We buried the monstrosity in its own mountain. I don't know if it survived or not." She could not be sure. That thing had been living in magma like it was a warm bath, so she had no idea what it could or could not take.

The mountain rumbled again, like the stomach of a Viking who had eaten something rotten. That was not good.

"Let's assume," Thunderguts yelled, "that it's gonna come out fightin'. Ready the ballistae!"

Astrid nodded, turning to look at the mountain. "Aim for the eyes," she advised. "I don't think anywhere else will do any good." Those scales had looked even tougher this time, now that she had managed to get a good look. The eyes were the only thing she had seen that seemed even remotely injurable.

"You heard her," Stoick roared. "Get into formation! Ready your weapons! This fight might not be over!" He smiled at Astrid. "But you've struck quite the opening blow."

"I'd hoped it would be the finishing blow too, really," she admitted. "But the point was to get the other dragons out of here. They won't come back for a while."

"So that was why," Stoick muttered. "Lass, we owe ye quite a bit, but maybe don't tell anyone that. They might get mad that ye stole the fight right out from under 'em."

She wasn't going to argue the stupidity of that, because she could easily imagine everyone doing so. "Got it."

What felt like a minor earthquake hit, the ground shaking beneath them. Rock shifted and fell from the mountain, shattering or bouncing upon impact with the beach.

"Aye, it's not done yet," Stoick asserted, hefting his hammer. "So, how do the rest of us fight it?"

"I have no idea." She could not think of anything for Stoick and the rest to do. "Distract it and try not to die too quickly." This might end up being as big a slaughter as the one she had just prevented, but at least they were fighting the real enemy now.

Vikings leaped off of their ships and began to drive stakes into the beach, pointed outward and prepared for an attack. The effort would be laughably pointless against something as big as the monstrosity, but at least they were doing something.

Then the world began to shake once more. The mountain of rubble shifted, one place facing a ways down the beach beginning to bulge-

Everyone could see what had to be doing that. There were gasps of shock and several all-out screams of terror, though nobody would be able to say later who had screamed. Everyone's full attention was on the fact that something was pushing out of an entire mountain of rock, something big and very, very angry.

"Odin help us," Stoick said quietly, watching the horror push entirely free of the rock. Now he saw what she had failed to truly describe, the thing that was so laughably terrible it could only be believed if it was seen. Too late, but he saw. This was not just another big dragon.

That was as clear as how very, utterly outmatched they were. The monstrosity, now mostly free of its intended tomb, was grey-green in color, and big enough to use a Viking longship like a chew toy. It had large, dark wings folded up on its back, a huge head, four legs, and a club-like tail.

It was also limping, not using one of its front legs, which looked even more misshapen than the rest of it. The tail dragged along the rocks, and for the moment it looked as if it would just collapse and die there.

Then three- three, not one- eyes focused on them. The huge head turned, a total of six eyes glaring down at the pointlessly weak defiance laid out in front of it.

"Ey, at least the thing's hurt," Thunderguts yelled loudly. "Let's finish the job! Ballista, fire!"

Nine relatively tiny bolts soared through the air, arcing towards the monstrosity-

And nine bolts dropped to the ground, shattered and entirely ineffective, having broken upon the dragon's thick scales.

"Alright," Thunderguts yelled, a little less confidently, "Another salvo!"

But there would not be time for another salvo. The monstrosity inhaled angrily, growling so deeply the ground was shaking. Fire was coming.

Astrid vaulted onto Toothless, who immediately took to the sky, barely getting them out of the torrent of fire that scorched the area where they had been standing. It was not nearly so deadly at range in an open space instead of up close in a confined area, but a large portion of the Viking army had to stop, drop, and roll in the painfully sharp shells and rocks.

Then the dragon charged, shambling along, the earth shaking at every step, clearly intending to smash the pitiful resistance before it.

A plasma blast to the head forced it to reconsider its choice of targets. Astrid was almost beginning to think she and Toothless would be doing as well or better if they had come alone, given all they had done so far, they had done without help.

Not to say they were doing well. Toothless flew erratically, keeping in the monstrosity's line of sight but out of range, trying to distract it. This would only last a few more moments, and then it would continue on its path towards devastating the Viking forces.

Said forces launched another volley of ballista bolts, which did exactly as much as the first one had- nothing. They couldn't even hit the head, let alone the eyes!

Then, as if things weren't bad enough, somebody with a strong voice decided to let everyone know about more bad news. "Dragons incoming!"

Astrid, busy keeping up with Toothless's distraction attempts, couldn't even turn to look at the returning hordes. They were done. The dragons coming back so soon was just adding insult to injury.

The monstrosity inhaled, about to scorch Toothless and Astrid out of the sky. They were not fast enough to avoid it this time, their luck having finally run out. Astrid braced herself, hoping that the tailfin wouldn't catch-

Then a small, almost insignificant thing happened. A flaming lump of molten rock struck the monstrosity, hitting its side. It paused, as confused as Astrid and Toothless were. Such a small strike was barely enough to catch its attention, but it had noticed anyway.

Astrid noticed the shouts of 'dragons incoming' had stopped. Had the wild dragons joined the fight, against all reason?

But when she turned to see, she did not see a horde of dragons. A Gronckle and a Timberjack were flying in, alone.

Alone... save for their riders.

She had to blink a few times to be sure of what she was seeing. Toothless wisely flew them out of the monstrosity's range while she recovered, letting the newcomers take over in distracting it.

Fishlegs was riding the Gronckle, buzzing around the monstrosity's head now, yelling at it. He had his hammer, but given he couldn't get close enough on his Gronckle, that made no difference.

The Timberjack was larger and faster but not as maneuverable. Tuffnut, riding astride its sinuous neck, hurled spears, which did even less than the ballista bolts had. At the very least, both teens were keeping the monstrosity confused for the moment.

That would not last. This was still a pretty hopeless fight, but now at least Astrid had something more to work with. Not that the dragons were doing much damage.

She needed a plan.

But she had no ideas. The tools were here, things she could use. Dragons, Vikings, riders, ballista. But she did not know what combination of them was going to somehow do the impossible.

"Get me in close," Astrid requested. "I need to talk to them." They were in the middle of a pitched battle, but she needed a moment anyway. Her mind was not enough, not here and now. She needed ideas, or at least inspiration.

Toothless brought them back into the fight, joining in by swooping in front of the monstrosity's beady eyes, and quickly flying back out of range, dancing on the edge of its reach.

"Fishlegs!" Astrid yelled. "What species?!" He had memorized the book of dragons, and she had skipped the pages that dealt with legends. Maybe he actually knew something.

"What?" Fishlegs screamed back, waving his hammer futilely as his Gronckle buzzed annoyingly behind the monstrosity's head. "Species? I don't know!"

"Call it a Titan!" Tuffnut suggested, tossing another spear. "Or a Death Titan, given it's going to kill us all!"

"Too generic!" Fishlegs yelled right back.

"Well then at least put 'Death' in the name somewhere," Tuffnut argued, gliding closer so that he could aggravate the monstrosity more directly. "Maybe 'Really Big Death' would work!"

Astrid could not take her hands off the saddle, but if she could she would bury her face in them. "I needed to know," she yelled, "if you knew any weaknesses! Not the name!"

"Okay, okay!" Fishlegs directed his Gronckle out to the front of the monstrosity while Tuffnut got in its face and narrowly dodged massive bites in his general direction. Astrid kept Toothless on the other side, roaring at the monstrosity every time it really tried to kill Tuffnut and his Timberjack, keeping its attention divided. The moment it focused on one of the less maneuverable dragons, they were dead.

"We gotta call it something!" Fishlegs yelled.

Really? There was no time to name it!

"Green Death," Tuffnut suggested.

"Fine! For now, Green Death." Fishlegs stared the massive horror he had just named. "Large. Very large."

"We know that!" Astrid screamed, out of patience. "Something new!"

"Hurt, front left leg broken, dangerous tail, powerful armor nothing short of Thor will get through-" Fishlegs looked up at the sky. "Thor? Or a Skrill, maybe?"

"Something we can use." She was beginning to think this was a massive waste of time, but they needed to keep the Green Death, which was just barely a better name than monstrosity, away from the Vikings.

"Eyes! The eyes on most dragons are connected to the brain," Fishlegs shouted. "We need to put something through them!"

Astrid did not want to know how Fishlegs knew that. But she knew one good way to do exactly that. "Ballista bolts."

Fishlegs shrieked quite embarrassingly as the Green Death snapped at him, noticing him despite the other dragons on either side. "Too close! We have to-"

"Trip it!" Tuffnut cut in. "Trip it, and get the ballista to shoot straight ahead!"

That would ensure the ballista could actually hit the eyes at the right angle. Just blinding the Green Death would not be enough; it might even be more dangerous blind, given they were using its sight to distract it. They had to get it right the first time.

But now they had a plan and a method of execution. "Keep it occupied!" Astrid commanded, directing Toothless down to the Vikings. "I'll tell them the plan!"

"What have we been doing?" Tuffnut shouted, waving two spears. "I came with a dozen of these!"

"Keep those, you might need them yourself," Fishlegs advised. "If the ballista fails-"

"Tuffnut, tunnel digger?" Tuffnut asked with a slightly disgusted expression.

Astrid had a strong stomach, but that idea was almost enough to best her, especially when combined with the lightness in her stomach that always came with fast descents. She tried to push that mental image away. It might work, but... gross.

"Oy, what's goin' on?" Thunderguts shouted before Toothless even touched down. "Give us a clear shot!"

"We're working on it," Astrid snapped. "Don't fire until its head is on the ground. We need to drive the bolts through the eyes and to what lies behind them." That should be enough information to both tell the Vikings what to do, and to let them know they'd be dealing the killing blow, which would ensure they didn't complain.

Well, the ballista operators wouldn't complain, anyway. Stoick scowled, running over. "And the rest of our forces?"

"This is not a fight for people who can be stepped on," Astrid retorted. "Chief, there's glorious death, and then there's just being trampled underfoot."

"We'll figure out some way to help trip it," Stoick announced, ignoring Astrid's opinion on the subject. "Also, when did you teach them," and at that he pointed at Fishlegs and Tuffnut, "that?"

"Never," she responded honestly, silently asking Toothless to take them up. That was a question for later, after they all weren't about to die here. A lot of questions for later, really, but she would not look a duo of gift dragons in the mouth.

Back to the Green Death, and back into the line of fire. "All we have to do is trip it and get out of the way," she announced. "Ideas?"

"Fire," Tuffnut immediately suggested. "Burn the good leg." His Timberjack glided out of the way of a plume of fire even as he spoke, only barely avoiding it because the Green Death seemed to be running out. All the fire used in the volcano earlier was coming back to haunt it.

"Against that?" Fishlegs yelled, managing to sound skeptical. "I say we ram it!"

"My dragon's wings are made for cutting," Tuffnut objected. "And we can't cut that!"

Astrid considered the leg, the one trembling with the massive amount of weight it was being forced to support. The Green Death still wasn't using its bad front leg or tail, the latter supposedly also helping keep it upright. She was glad those parts were out of commission; they would need more dragons to keep it distracted if it had a totally free range of movement.

But how to knock it down?

She had to check something. "Toothless," she began, "can you take us under it?" She wanted to see the back of its good leg.

Toothless looked back at her, as if unsure she was serious.

She traced a small curve with her finger, and then signalled for him to follow it. "Down one side and up the other before it can think to squish us." They wanted the dragon to collapse, but ideally not while they were under it.

Now Toothless understood. He dove, moving at a high speed to dive just below the massive, thickly scaled underbelly of the beast.

She only got a brief look, one made even briefer by having to maneuver the pedal, but that look was enough. The back of the single leg supporting the front of the Green Death was just as thickly armored as the front. Her hastily-laid plan of having Tuffnut cut into the back of whatever passed for a knee on this thing, while Fishlegs slammed his Gronckle into its side and she blasted the leg, was at least a third impossible.

But... the wounded leg wasn't looking so good, its scale armor cracked and in a few places missing entirely, revealing a very, very cuttable, leathery skin.

That might work. Tuffnut went for the distraction, Fishlegs rammed the back of the good leg, and Toothless blasted...

No. She changed it again, even as they pulled up and neared the time where she would need to commit. Tuffnut to the injured leg, Fishlegs and his Gronckle to slam into the side of the Green Death, and Toothless's blast to the back of the good leg. One to distract with pain, one to unbalance, and one to force the leg to buckle.

That was it. "Tuffnut, Fishlegs! I know how we're doing this!"

"All ears!" Tuffnut shouted frantically, looking as worried as he sounded. "We can't keep this up forever!"

He was right. All it would take was one unlucky strike on either rider to make it near-impossible to keep the Green Death disoriented. They had been lucky at every turn so far, to stay in so much danger without actually getting hurt. She did not want to push that; they could not afford a single loss.

"Fishlegs, ram your Gronckle into its side, Tuffnut cut at its bad leg from behind. But don't do it until I signal. Toothless will fire at its good leg." That, altogether, should do it.

"Who?" Fishlegs shouted.

"The Night Fury, obviously!" Tuffnut supplied. "Got the plan?"

"Sure!" Fishlegs cast a very nervous glance at the Green Death, which was currently watching him with four of its six eyes. "I can do that..."

"Get to it." Astrid directed Toothless around again. At this point, they were both doing the flying, and he was directing her as much as she was him. She gave the general direction, and he gave the thousands of little changes and details that ensured they would not crash or be struck down. They maneuvered to behind the Green Death-

Astrid did not despair as the realization hit her, but it was not a good one. They were going to leave the Green Death without a distraction for a little while, assuming Fishlegs and Tuffnut could even get out of its surprisingly large line of sight. It might try to torch the Viking ground forces again.

That was just going to happen. Maybe if they had a few more dragon-rider pairs, but they did not. Right now she wished Ruffnut was up here, and anyone else who could do it. Hiccup, for that matter. Hel, she'd take Snotlout. Up here there was absolutely no way he could work towards his own vile goals, and another dragon to work with would be worth the annoyance. But all she had was herself, Tuffnut, and Fishlegs. The Vikings were going to take another fiery wave; there weren't enough dragons to stop it.

Fishlegs reached his spot first, his Gronckle hovering a short distance from the Green Death's side. He was ready.

Then Tuffnut performed a daring maneuver, directing his Timberjack close enough to toss a spear at the Green Death, one that actually stuck in a small gap between scales. He used the distraction to drop down, circling around to come at the injured, vulnerable leg from behind.

This was it. The Green Death shook its head, irritated, and seeing a lack of flying targets refocused on the Viking ground forces, which screamed and shouted their defiance, incapable of anything more.

They all just had to hope enough ballista survived that one would make the shot.

Fire billowed across the empty space to engulf a large part of the fleet-

Astrid yelled "Fishlegs, Tuffnut, now!"

Tuffnut directed his Timberjack's sharp wings into the bad leg, his dragon spinning out of control as its flight was so abruptly stopped, as one of its wings was buried deep within a leg far thicker than any tree.

Simultaneously, Fishlegs had his Gronckle tackle the side of the Green Death, a small but dense weight knocking it off-balance.

And Toothless fired, blasting twice at the good leg that was now seriously shaking under the strain.

The plume of fire was cut off as the Green Death's head flung back in agony, and its body slowly overbalanced, falling like a mountainside to the beach. A huge noise that defied description, a thud too massive to fit the simple sound that word described, rippled out like a wave, an actual wave of air knocking Toothless awry.

The head hit the ground last, on its side, six angry eyes staring wildly. They had seconds, at most, before it moved.

"Fire!"

It was such a quiet sound, everyone's hearing badly damaged at the moment, but it rang across the sudden silence like a gruff, unharmonious bell.

Astrid could not hear the ballista firing. She could not even see which were still working; less than nine, as many of the ships moored just off of the beach were going up in flames.

She did not hear or see the bolts striking. Had one hit an eye?

Toothless flew in circles, far from the fallen Green Death, as uncertain as she was. Was it dead?

It stirred, but did not get up.

"Fire!"

Another round of bolts. Vikings were beginning to run towards the huge head, axes and swords held high, intent on finally getting a part of the fight all to themselves.

Tuffnut's Timberjack pulled itself from the large body, somehow uninjured despite going down with the Green Death, and launched into the air, fleeing the scene. Tuffnut dangled limply from its maw, unconscious or maybe dead.

Fishlegs and his Gronckle were running, on foot, moving at an impressively quick pace away from the fight. They were grounded for the moment, or maybe permanently. There was no way to know.

Toothless flew closer, getting a good position to watch as the Vikings assaulted the still-breathing head. The Green Death did not fight back; something must have been damaged inside it, if not enough to kill. The Vikings, undaunted by the size of their enemy, were coming to finish the job.

They were still too far to see the carnage. Astrid did not want to imagine what those Vikings were doing. They only had one weak point to strike at, or more accurately six. Tuffnut's last resort was now being put into action on a large scale.

Then, after a few minutes of that, the breathing slowed. A ragged cheer went up.

As if morbidly cheering with them, the Green Death's ponderous jaw shifted, the rest of its body settling a little more, now totally dead. A cloud of green gas began to drift out from the open mouth-

Astrid did not know whether she or Toothless understood first. All she knew was that they both flicked the tailfins in unison, turning to fly as fast as they could away from that cloud.

This dragon did not work like a Zippleback; whatever internal lighter it had might not need life to function, not so soon after death. Explosive gas was leaking from it on a large scale, and when it was-

A bright light flared behind Astrid, and a wave of sound finished off her hearing. Then a blast of what felt like solid air hit, and she was falling, Toothless was falling, everything was-

The world went black.

Author's Note: Why yes, I am being cruel enough to leave it there. Also, sorry for the graphic ending, but at least I decided not to show exactly what Vikings tunneling through massive eyes and into the brain looked like. I'm also working on the assumption that they could do that, but I needed some way to take that thing out, and since I was going with the 'shoot the eyes' bit already, but didn't want to repeat myself...

On that note, I think that makes three stories of mine in which the Queen is taken down via the eyes, and three different methods accomplishing it. I need to branch out more in the future. On the bright side, I've got a few more Queen-takedowns up or coming up that are using more... unique... methods, so at least I have some variety.