23. Drastic Measures
Thuggory was having the time of his life. Boltbite swept over the cluster of ships, snarling and gnashing his teeth. The Meathead heir zeroed in on a medium-sized ship—dragons ravaged the traps littering the deck, tearing them open with claws and fire to free those trapped inside. Soldiers on the deck tried in vain to stop them, swinging swords and maces or shooting crossbow bolts at the beasts raining down on them from the sky.
Thuggory clenched his hands around the handlebars on the saddle. "Alright, Boltbite, let's give 'em a piece of Thor's wrath!" he called. Boltbite snarled beneath him and opened his maw. The skin beneath his deep green scales shined with a luminous, bright blue glow, and tendrils of electricity crackled into existence in the back of the dragon's throat, burgeoning and sizzling in the air around Boltbite's open jaws.
The Shockjaw unleashed a jagged bolt of lightning from the surge, subjecting the ship below to its wrath. The electricity lashed across the wooden deck, instantly igniting it in several different places as the bolt scrawled a lethal line across the vessel. Fire erupted from the points of impact, shaking the ship as if a Jötunn had taken a club to its hull. Men shouted as the vessel broke apart and dragons immediately abandoned the ship, and Thuggory let out a victorious whoop.
"Great shot, Boltbite!" he praised and patted the Shockjaw's neck, feeling a harmless tingle from residual electricity that made even his toes wiggle. Boltbite trilled, lapping up the praise. They zipped past Mogadon, who was endeavoring to paint an entire ship in his Monstrous Nightmare's gel-like fire as men fled with their tails between their legs. A few even jumped over the side of the deck to save themselves.
Thuggory looked down again. It was absolute chaos, dragons falling on various ships and doing their worst. He saw a lone Zippleback somersault onto a deck, igniting a wheel of gas around its narrow body and wheeling across the wood. A long line of flame materialized in the beast's wake, catching the sails as the Zippleback tumbled over the edge and took to the air again. There were so many more ships, but dragons took to them in packs, besieging them with fire and claws. Some dove and snatched up men, dropping them over the edge into the roiling harbor water.
And then there was that… thing. Hiccup and Astrid's descriptions had formed a particular picture in his mind's eye, but this Alpha managed to shatter even those projections, so gargantuan that Thuggory wondered if there were even enough fish in the entire world to truly fill its belly.
Its ashen scales must've numbered in the millions, so large was the beast before him. Even in the weak early morning sunlight, its blood-red-tipped spines and pale blue eyes flared. Its two tremendous tusks boasted a pair of dark shackles, preposterously large chains tying the beast to Drago's flagship. Men appeared to be working hard to cut the chains, probably simply to prevent the Alpha from making a sudden move that would send the ship on its side and drown everyone aboard. More than a dozen dragons circled the godlike beast, defiantly pelting it with fire. The Alpha tried to fight back against them, letting out small (which still managed to sound ear-rending) growls before inhaling and breathing out a great pike of ice at the Stormcutter that appeared to be leading the group.
"C'mon, Boltbite. Let's go lend a hand," Thuggory said, leaning left to steer the Shockjaw around and then leaning back to guide the dragon straight up at the Alpha. Boltbite built up speed as he advanced, hissing and preparing another electrical blast.
"Get 'im!" Thuggory howled, and Boltbite loosed a brilliant bolt of white lightning straight at the colossal dragon's face. The Alpha's malevolent eyes pivoted as it spotted the incoming thunderbolt, but it was too large and too slow a target to do much of anything in response. The lightning bolt struck home right between the Alpha's eyes, churning up the very sea as the titanic dragon staggered backward. Its sudden jerk yanked the flagship around, the vessel's bow tearing through an unfortunate nearby ship.
The Alpha gave a few desperate, exhausted heaves, enormous eyelids blinking closed across its pale blue eyes several times to dispel the apparent blinding glare obstructing its sight. The resulting pause let Boltbite continue climbing until he crested over the Alpha's head, immediately pivoting down to fly over the apex of its skull and back around.
Thuggory spotted a flash of red scales as they rounded the Alpha's titanic body. Cami waved at them and hollered from atop Thatch's back, the Changewing spewing scalding green acid over a few bloody tears in the Alpha's flesh. A great hiss came from the Alpha as the acid spilled into the wounds.
"You diabolical Bogger," Thuggory chided her, wearing a sarcastic smirk. Cami beamed at him.
"All I'm hearing are compliments, Thug. You should save those for the impressionable girls chasing your tail in that rotten village of yours," the Bog heir said. Thatch sneered and Cami steered him away, putting some distance between them and the Alpha so that the Changewing could muster up another store of acid.
"Ah, true. They work much better on them," Thuggory said. He jerked Boltbite to the right to avoid a wild Whispering Death spiraling through the sky. The Alpha shook its tremendous head, loud, furious breaths hissing out from its nose and mouth. The Stormcutter he'd seen earlier was flapping all four of its wings in front of the godlike dragon, its rider standing tall atop its back. Hiccup's mother. He hadn't ever really gotten a good look at the newcomer—her armor, for one thing, was beyond interesting.
"It's finally getting fed up with us. Things are about to get a lot harder," the masked woman warned. As if to prove her point, the Alpha raised its head and roared, a manic bellow that rattled Thuggory's ears. The air crystallized in front of its mouth, hardening into shimmering ice. Some of the ice froze and then melted upon climbing into the sky, but other parts remained frozen and hurtled downward, boulders of ice plummeting and crashing into several ships in the harbor. The boulders smashed through the ships' decks, capsizing the vessels. Thuggory didn't even have it in him to snort—from what he knew about Drago Bludvist, he doubted the man cared about friendly fire.
Boltbite whined, succumbing to a tremor as he stared at the furious Alpha towering over it. Thuggory placed a loving hand onto the dragon's skull, softly stroking his scales.
"It's okay, Boltbite. I won't let him take you. Stay with me, pal." The Shockjaw crooned and Thuggory steeled himself; for all his bravado, this gigantic dragon scared him, too. He looked to Hiccup's mother, looking like something straight out of the sagas in her unusual armor, and fixed her with a hard look. "What would you have us do?"
The woman pointed one end of her staff at the Alpha, the club-like hook gleaming in the morning light. "Keep distracting it. We need to give it less targets, so its strength is divided on specific dragons. As long as it can't command them all, we'll have the upper hand. I just hope Hiccup's close to finding Drago down there."
As if to answer her question, a black shape streaked across the sky, a telltale snarl carrying on the wind. About a half-dozen dragons were close behind giving chase, dogging the Night Fury.
"That's troubling," Thuggory blurted.
Valka gasped and leaned forward on her dragon, "Come on! Go, Cloudjumper!" she shouted. The Stormcutter spread his wings and flapped, following Valka's commands to fly closer to the other dragons. A Hideous Zippleback emerged from the group and fired a missile of burning gas that exploded against the Alpha's head, those mad Berk twins hooting and jeering at the gargantuan beast.
"We need to split up—Dagur, Heather, go help Hiccup shake those dragons," Valka ordered. The Berserker siblings nodded and steered their dragons away, the Triple Stryke and Razorwhip rapidly shrinking into similar dots in the sky.
The rider on the Thunderdrum cut in, wobbling on his dragon's flat back. He did not look like a seasoned rider—didn't they say he was a dragon trapper like a week ago? What was his name again… Eret? Or was his father's name Eret? Bah, there was too much else going on for Thuggory to remember.
"Hiccup's by himself—where's Astrid?" the newbie rider/possible dragon trapper said. Thuggory cocked an eyebrow.
"I don't know," Valka said curtly. "The rest of you, keep—"
"I'm going to find her," Eret—yes, that was definitely his name, now that he thought about it—insisted.
Valka's head snapped around and she snapped at him. "Eret, we need you here."
"And Astrid could need me. If Hiccup's not with her, something's up." Valka's voice rattled out from behind her helmet like she was about to say something, but Eret held a hand up. "I owe those two my life. If something happens to one of them and I could've helped them—well, I won't allow that. Thorönd, move!"
Eret wasn't willing to let anyone get another word in and he tugged on his Thunderdrum's horn, steering the sea dragon around and driving it forward. The dragon let out a great bellow and flapped its wings, and the girl twin on the Zippleback hollered after him.
"Yeah, you go get 'em, you son of an Eret!" the young woman bit on her nail, grinning almost scandalously. Oh, she was infatuated. Thuggory looked over his shoulder at the retreating Thunderdrum. He supposed the man was attractive. He spotted Snotlout looking offended, and Thuggory smiled inwardly. He'd never let anyone know it, but Thuggory adored a good love triangle.
The Alpha let out another low growl that jerked him from his stupor. The titanic beast zeroed in on the group of dragons and inhaled, generating a deafening vacuum in doing so.
"Move!" Valka howled, and dragons scattered. Thuggory sent Boltbite veering to the left and felt the air at his back freeze, making his hairs stand on end as the wind instantly froze behind him into thick ice.
"We have to keep pouring it on!" Camicazi yelled.
"Barf's almost out of gas!" the girl twin shouted. Her brother snickered and earned a smack to the head, his helmet clanging as the girl crammed it tighter onto his head.
"So is Thatch, but we don't have a choice!"
"She's right, there's no time!" Valka raised her voice, "Cloudjumper!" The Stormcutter unleashed a whirling vortex of fire, spreading the blaze across the Alpha's eyes. Thuggory saw the great dragon shut its eyes and recoil, smartly protecting itself.
"Boltbite, now!" The Shockjaw heeded Thuggory's call and sent a wicked bolt of lightning ripping across the Alpha's scales, tendrils of the electricity coiling through its red-tipped spines and carving into its flesh. Thatch flew in from the side and spewed a glob of acid straight into the Alpha's open and unsuspecting eye, and it was like pulling a lever. The Alpha recoiled and erupted with a deafening roar, squeezing its right eye shut as acid leaked in and boiled the flesh both within and around the eyelid. Bits of ice formed in the air as the Bewilderbeast's frigid breathing became haggard.
"Oh, no!" a voice squeaked from behind Thuggory. The Meathead heir looked over his shoulder to see the husky Berkian boy (Fishlegs, right? They hadn't seen one another since Hiccup and Astrid's wedding, and before then, since the last Thing on Berk. It sounded right. Thuggory remembered his name being ironic) fussing over his Gronckle. The burly dragon was bristling and shaking, the black pupils of her golden eyes flickering back and forth between narrowed and rounded.
"Meatlug?" Fishlegs cooed, "Daddy's here—answer me, girl!"
Valka and her Stormcutter flew in next to Thuggory, and judging by her voice, he imagined that surprise was streaking across her face, hidden from view by her rather absurd mask. "The Alpha is getting to her," she said with an obvious shiver.
"She's run out of shots, too!" Fishlegs lamented, applying desperate rubs and scratches to the Gronckle. The dragon was wearing the special earmuffs that Hiccup's people had been crafting, but they didn't seem to be working. He did say they weren't going to be foolproof.
"Then she's at her weakest," Valka asserted. She shook her staff at the boy, "Get her out of here and ground your dragon. If she stays much longer, the Alpha may take her fully, and you'll both be in danger! Go, now!" Fishlegs yelped at Valka's aggressive shout and tugged on his dragon, steering her around and getting her to flap away as quickly as she could.
"The rest of you," Valka called, gaining everyone's attention. "Don't let up!"
"Get 'im, Boltbite!" Thuggory howled, and the Shockjaw picked up speed. The Alpha growled, its pale blue eyes following them as it tried to control his dragon. "Not today, you ugly-ass Jötunn!" Thuggory railed, and Boltbite loosed another bolt of crackling lightning, an electrical tongue lashing against the Alpha's body again. The enormous dragon flinched, but otherwise shrugged off the blast, its growl only growing.
"He's getting stronger!" Thuggory reported. He didn't know how it was possible. The beast had spent the whole battle being bombarded by fire, surely that would have worn it out. But as the fight dragged on and their dragons grew more and more tired, the Alpha had only grown stronger. Its icy breath was powerful, sending the temperature around itself plummeting with only an exhale, and its movements were confident and more blistering, like the beast had woken from a long nap and merely been still waking up while they'd peppered it with fire.
"Keep firing! We have to keep it occupied until Drago can be stopped!" Valka shouted. A few dragons blitzed by, snarling and grappling with one another. The woman's Stormcutter breathed a vortex of swirling flames into the Alpha's face, the fire spreading across its gargantuan head as the Alpha roared in agony.
"What if we can't?" Thuggory asked.
Valka whipped her arm over her head, leveling the hooked end of her staff at the Alpha. A cluster of nearby dragons flapped in and dished out a barrage of fire at the godlike beast, pelting it. As the Alpha snarled and diffused the resulting smoke with a shake of its gigantic head, the woman murmured, "Try not to think about it."
If he'd had the headspace for it, Thuggory would've scoffed at her dismissal. As it stood, he was too focused on the beast in front of him that was surely straight out of the sagas.
"We're going in! Come on, Barf!" the girl twin crowed. She and her brother guided their Zippleback closer, the head she was sitting on releasing a cloud of green gas from its gullet.
"Let's blow this place, Belch!" the brother seconded. The head beneath him started to conjure up a mouthful of sparks, but the Alpha released a low groan and moved toward them—and by moved, Thuggory meant lurched, deliberately surging at the Zippleback as it flew close.
"Woah, woah, woah!" the girl twin shrieked. The Alpha didn't care for her cries and spat a burst of freezing air that instantly hardened into ice, the blast building itself up as it went. "Move!" the girl yowled, and she and her brother both tried to jerk their dragon out of the way. The Zippleback scrambled to evade, but it failed to get its entire body out of the way in time, and the ice snagged around the two-headed dragon's tails, freezing them together in a block of ice. The dragon thrashed, flapping its wings pathetically as the ice weighed its twin tails down, sabotaging its flight.
"Uh, is that bad?" the boy twin blurted, looking over his shoulder at the ice. The Zippleback was fading fast, and the only thing beneath it was open water. If it met the sea, the dragon would drown.
"We've got to help them!" Cami shouted. Thuggory fastened his hands around Boltbite's saddle, but before he could speak, Snotlout and his Monstrous Nightmare surged forward.
"Don't worry chumps, we've got this." The black-haired Berkian and his dragon blazed down after the flailing Zippleback and its twin riders, catching up to them with ease. The Nightmare extended its claws and grabbed onto the Zippleback, halting its fall. Snotlout, surprisingly, said nothing as he carried them out of harm's way… was he posing on his dragon's back?
"My hero! I really wasn't looking forward to drowning next to Ruffnut, so this is such a relief," the boy twin rambled. The Monstrous Nightmare raised in the sky back toward them, flying close to Valka.
"Get them out of here. Find somewhere safe and then come back," the woman ordered, and Snotlout tipped his helmet before snapping his fingers at his dragon. Thuggory noticed that the girl twin was staring up at Snotlout with… something like admiration? She lifted her fingers to her lips and bit down on one of her nails, giving the boisterous young man a curious look. But, wasn't she interested in that trapper riding the Thunderdrum? Perhaps there was some drama in store on Berk, provided they didn't all die in the next few minutes.
"Uh, hey, guys?" the male twin interrupted. Thuggory blinked and glanced at him, frowning at the sudden fear in his eyes. "I think we made it mad," the blonde-headed man said, pointing a bony finger.
The Alpha's growl filled Thuggory's ears, the great beast staring down the Monstrous Nightmare carrying the Zippleback. It blinked its massive eyes, and its pupils narrowed again, the rims of its piercing eyeballs red from damage and the scales around its face fractured, the skin beneath them tattered and bleeding. And yet, still the thing looked fine, in the grand scheme of it all.
The Alpha braced itself and let out a deafening bellow, shattering the air with its call. Boltbite wilted in the air, dipping its head down as his movements suddenly grew erratic. Thuggory latched his hands around the handlebars on his saddle to hold on.
"Boltbite?" The Shockjaw gnashed its teeth, snarling pathetically and shaking its head.
"Thatch?" Cami inquired. Thuggory glanced over, noticing that her Changewing was doing much of the same, faltering and erratically flapping his wings to stay in the air.
"Hookfang, snap out of it! Can you not hear me?" Snotlout shouted. He beat his hands together, but the Nightmare seemed confoundingly conflicted, like it didn't know where it was.
Valka's voice on his other side caught his attention, and a spike of fear zapped through his blood. "Oh, no. No, no, no, it's too soon," she stammered. She looked over her shoulder and screamed, "Snotlout, go! Now!"
"Hookfang!" Snotlout yelled, grabbing the Nightmare's head and the mufflers covering its ears. The dragon softened and started to flap toward the village, but its movements were still noticeably erratic, like it was fighting off a bug crawling all over its skin.
Thuggory returned his gaze to the Alpha and realized, in a way, that was exactly what the Nightmare was doing. The Bewilderbeast's pupils were so narrow, so devoid of the love and kindness Thuggory had grown used to seeing in dragons ever since Hiccup had opened his eyes. There was no goodness in this dragon, not anymore. It had been purged by an abusive hand, and it sought only to control, now. They had made the beast angry by defying it for long enough.
"Loki's stinking shit," he cursed, "We're in trouble now."
Astrid was starting to get really tired of being shot down. This was, like, the third time in two weeks it had happened to her. With how high of a standard she held herself to as both a Viking and a dragon rider, that was a few times too many for an entire lifetime, much less half a month.
Stormfly's shrill wail ripped Astrid from her contemplation. The world blurred from underneath the net, Stormfly spinning out of control as she fell from the sky to the ground. Astrid placed both hands on the Nadder and tried to keep her calm. "It's okay, Stormfly! Just stay focused!" she shouted and heard her dragon squawk back. Good, she was still with her.
Astrid was actually thankful for the net when Stormfly crashed into the ground—it kept her from being slung forward and injured. That gratitude evaporated almost instantly, though, and she unlatched her axe from her back and swiftly carved through the ropes, carving a gap large enough for her to slide through.
Astrid slid off of Stormfly's back and felt her feet sink in the ground. They were on a hill on the eastern side of the village, not far from her preferred training grounds. She dashed the thought and turned back to Stormfly, leveling her axe again to begin cutting through the rest of the net. The iron balls on the ends of the ropes kept her Nadder grounded, but the beautiful blue dragon remained surprisingly calm.
"C'mon, Stormfly, we've gotta get out of this and back in the air, before—" Astrid saw Stormfly's head turn at someone's approach, but the subsequent voice still caused her breath to catch in her throat.
"My, my, look what I have found."
Part of Astrid had hoped that she'd never hear this asshole's voice again. He grated on her like no other. She kept her axe leveled up and rounded past Stormfly's head. The panicked Nadder screeched indignantly and suddenly spat a beam of white-hot magnesium fire, sparks dancing off of the blast in waves. The intruder lifted a shield to block the flames. Fire spewed in every direction as it reflected off of the reinforced screen, and once the blast subsided, a familiar face peered over the lip of the shield, all too familiar to Astrid.
"Krogan," she spat.
"Astrid Haddock," the man replied with equal venom. He put on a smarmy smile. "How delightful it is to see you again. We've missed you."
"Wish I could say the same," Astrid snarled. Stormfly hissed beside her, parting her maw to show the building fire in the back of her throat, but only sparks came out this time, the embers dying before they even hit the dirt in front of the Nadder. Astrid tensed. Stormfly had used up her last shot.
The Nadder knew it too. She hissed twice as loud in an attempt to appear threatening. Fire wasn't her only option, but the weighted net that had downed them was large and steadfastly wrapped around both her body and her tail, keeping her from lifting the muscular appendage and firing a few tail spines. She'd be immobilized for as long as the net covered her.
"Stormfly," Astrid croaked, her grip on her axe lessening a bit.
Krogan recognized the threat of her dragon was no more and chuckled, completely dropping his shield to the ground. Without a word, he brandished a thin blowpipe and loaded it with a dart. Astrid gasped, but it was all she could do before Krogan lifted the blowpipe to his mouth and fired the sleeping dart, burying it straight into Stormfly's neck.
"There, that's enough of that," he said, holstering the blowpipe as the Nadder whimpered and succumbed to the toxins in the dart. Astrid collapsed by her dragon, frantically rubbing her hands against the dragon's head. "Come now, Astrid Haddock, your dragon will be fine. I cannot very well kill such a promising specimen. Your Nadder will make a fine addition to our ranks."
Astrid seethed and stood up, raising her axe defensively in front of her body. "You'll take her over my dead body," she hissed, blood pumping violently through every extremity. She could feel it rushing through her neck and into her fingers, clenching around the shaft of her axe. Her toes curled with adrenaline, goosebumps streaking across her body.
Krogan frowned. "That's a shame. I was hoping we might get to know each other. Perhaps grow even closer." His eyes flicked lecherously up and down her shape.
The implication was not lost on Astrid. "Like I'd give myself to you," she sneered. Krogan's lips curled upward in a smirk, as if he were pleased with her fire. A morbid chuckle escaped his throat, and he gingerly fastened one hand around the hilt of his sword, sheathed at his hip.
"We'll see. Now, Astrid Haddock, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way," he said, and then he ripped his sword from its sheath. It was a fine blade, its silver hilt encrusted with jewels and what appeared to be dragon scales. The guards were stylized into a pair of miniature dragon's heads facing opposite directions, forked tongues emerging from their opened maws. "Personally, I prefer the hard way."
Astrid bared her teeth, resolute and unwaveringly resistant. "What a coincidence. So do I."
Krogan charged. Astrid twirled her axe, catching the blade and pushing it away from her. He swung again only to get the same result, and she could tell that he was underestimating her, that he was pulling his punches. He wanted her alive, no more than injured. She could see it in the way he moved.
That would be the difference between them now. He was fighting to capture her. She was fighting to win. She wasn't walking off of this hill with Krogan still drawing breath.
Krogan jabbed at her again and she parried, stepping back to put some distance between her and the general. "Not bad. Not bad at all. You've been taught well," he harassed her and twirled his sword once, following her in a circle. Astrid eyed his armor; light and made primarily of leather. He was overconfident. Her axe could tear through it if she could get close enough.
She was Berk's finest. She would not lose.
"We'll see if that helps you," Krogan hissed, and he attacked again. Astrid lifted her axe to match him and their weapons crashed against one another. Krogan moved faster now, trying to break her defense and putting Astrid on her back foot as she protected herself again and again. She spotted Krogan's discarded shield out of the corner of her eye, resting on the ground behind him. Krogan raised his weapon again and Astrid surged forward to meet him, catching him off-guard and forcing him to block rather than take another stab at her.
She struck with all of her might, smashing her axe against Krogan's sword hard enough to catch him by surprise. He staggered and pulled his sword back, giving Astrid an opening to strike at him with her axe. He saw the move coming and tried to pull back, so she only managed to graze his upper arm, cutting through the fabric of his sleeve.
Krogan saw red as her blade sliced into his flesh, rearing back and swinging his sword again. Astrid sidestepped and spun, feeling the steel whoosh by her and cleave its way into the dirt. In the second that Krogan had given her, she dashed past him, reaching for the shield and snatching it up before turning to face him again. She raised the shield, a round shape like the ones on Berk, but instead adorned with the insignia of Drago's forces.
Krogan raised an eyebrow, another lecherous smile creeping onto his face. "That shield looks rather good in your hands. A bit of foreshadowing, I wonder?"
"Guess again," Astrid spat.
This time, Astrid charged, her axe in her right hand and the shield in her left. Krogan tried to head her off by swinging his sword, so she raised the shield and braced as she felt the force of the blow through the wood. She swung her axe and felt the pressure of Krogan's sword release as he spun it in his hands to deflect her strike, glancing her blade off of his own and taking a quick step backward out of her reach.
Krogan's cruel smile came out to play once more and he slashed at her. Astrid parried and pivoted on her feet as Krogan tried to blaze through her defenses. He was agile, and she had to match his speed. Their weapons danced off of one another, steel ringing against steel. With the combination of her axe and shield, she was able to keep up, using both to block Krogan's attacks. Still, he managed to dedicate enough of his headspace to defense, thwarting her every time she had a chance to get close and wound him.
She shoved Krogan back with her shield, galloping back several steps and breathing a sigh of relief when he didn't immediately advance on her again. She kept her ears open for any newcomers—Hiccup had explained to her how Chaghatai Khan had snuck up on him. Krogan remained steady, switching his sword into his left hand so that he could reach up with his right and wipe away the blood seeping from the gash on his upper arm. The crimson ooze stuck to his fingers, dirtying his olive skin.
"You cannot last forever," he taunted, returning his weapon to the proper hand. His black eyebrows crooked down over his face, furrowing together as the faint scar over his right eye caught the morning sunlight. "Give in now, and I'll be lenient."
"Do you think me so foolish? So soft?" Astrid replied, baring her teeth.
"Quite the opposite," Krogan answered, "I think you're wise beyond your years, Astrid Haddock."
Astrid scoffed, her grip on her axe tightening. "Gee, you really know the way to a girl's heart."
"I repeat my offer. Concede. End this foolish retaliation. Bend the knee to Drago and save your people while you still can. Secure your place in the new world."
"And I make mine," Astrid said, "Leave Berk and the archipelago forever. Release the dragons you've enslaved, and let the Alpha go free. Surrender, and live."
Krogan nearly blew steam out of his own ears, sneering so hard that a vein threatened to burst from his forehead. "You cannot win," he hissed.
"Maybe," Astrid shrugged, "But I am a Viking of Berk. And I will never surrender my dragon, my freedom, or my people." Krogan's eyes narrowed, a hot exhale blasting from his nose. He pointed his sword at her.
"Then you will die."
Astrid lifted her shield over her torso as Krogan charged, rearing back his sword for a powerful swing. The steel met the wood of her shield and Astrid shoved back, knocking Krogan back a step and swinging her axe only to meet his sword with it. Their weapons clanged off of one another and both of them swung again, getting the same result. Astrid raised her shield again to block Krogan's ensuing swing and then pivoted the rest of her body, swinging her axe low from the other side. Krogan compensated perfectly, twirling his sword down so that he could parry the move. Astrid's feet carried through and she drove Krogan's sword up and out, twisting out of their gridlock and pacing backward.
Astrid heaved, eyeing Krogan's sword as he lowered it to hold it below his waist, surging forward a step. Without thinking, she swung her left arm, releasing her grip on the handles of her shield. The disc spun at an angle, the iron band around its body shimmering in the sun. Krogan flinched, his hesitation keeping him from thinking to dodge or raise his sword to protect himself. The shield cracked against his face and Krogan yelled, staggering back as the shield clattered to the ground. He grabbed his forehead, the skin there already starting to bruise, and Astrid broke into a sprint.
"YAH!" Astrid closed the gap between them and swung. Krogan reeled, lifting his sword in front of him to deflect. As soon as their blades clashed, Astrid pulled her axe back to come from the other side. Krogan barely managed to parry, and Astrid lifted her axe for a brutal overhead swing. Krogan lifted his sword to meet hers and her axe smashed against it. She pushed and drove Krogan's sword downward so that their weapons were pointing towards the ground. He was blinking furiously, still in an obvious daze from being unexpectedly struck by Astrid's shield. He regained his composure, though, and started to push back against her, trying to overpower her with brute force.
Astrid reacted quick. She reared up her right leg and kicked as hard as she could, her boot connecting with Krogan's shin. She heard a dull sound that she hoped was the cracking of bone, judging by Krogan's facial expression. The shock that the kick left him with saw his grip go momentarily slack, and Astrid answered by sliding her axe sideways as hard as she could. His sword was flat, so the guards between the hilt and the blade couldn't protect him. Her axe sliced through clean air, riding down the length of Krogan's sword before biting into the flesh of his right forearm.
The blade cut a messy swath into the skin and Krogan snarled, biting back a scream of pain. His fingers extended and his sword instantly dropped from his hand, and he recoiled back a step as Astrid carried through with her swing. She caught herself and leveled her axe near her head, following Krogan with every step as he backpedaled. Blood trickled from the fresh gash in his forearm, dark and crimson, and he was suddenly unarmed. Astrid couldn't contain the sneer as she closed in on him.
"Remember my promise," she bit. Krogan's eyes narrowed and he tried to swing a fist at her, desperate. She easily dodged the errant punch and reared back her axe, feeling the hand of destiny guide her weapon forward. The steel cleaved through Krogan's leather armor, finding the flesh underneath it and carving into his chest. She put her entire body into the fatal swing, throwing Krogan down with the force of the blow and as a result, slinging herself forward. They both fell, Astrid burying an axe into the man's chest, and she only relaxed when she felt the ground push back against her, stopping her from tearing into him any further.
She felt the blood prickling across her face as she finally was forced to stop, specks of fluid that seemed to burn against her skin. Krogan's blood. She glanced up at the general's face, noting his pallid eyes. He was expressionless, stunned into silence. Another jolt of anger coursed through her, reminded of every cruel threat he'd made against her, or Hiccup, or Berk.
She brought one leg forward and pressed her foot into his stomach, gaining a pathetic wheeze from the man, and then wrenched her axe free, worsening the wound tenfold as it shredded the muscle it had just been lodged in. More blood spilled from the gash, staining Krogan's ruined leather breastplate and leaking onto his red tunic underneath it. She stepped back a half-dozen paces, her axe suddenly feeling oddly heavy.
Krogan sucked in a pitiful, choked breath, as if begging for life through panting, and he coughed out the air, his throat convulsing and his cheeks inflating as he did so. His right hand, blood also flowing from the wound just above it across his forearm, came up to hold the fatal gash. He was fading fast.
"You did it," the voice came, but it wasn't Krogan's. The sound was too full of life, too healthy to be the bleeding general. Astrid looked over her shoulder and flinched as she recognized Eret. He was standing another few steps behind her, staring in surprise at Krogan's bloodied body. Thorönd roosted beside him—she hadn't even heard them land.
"Eret—" she started, but he interrupted her.
"I'm not surprised—not really. But… wow," he murmured.
Krogan tilted his head down, his glassy eyes widening just a bit. "Eretson…?" he slurred, drunk on his impending death. He cracked a maddened smile, all inhibition lost as blood pumped from his chest in a way that it was never supposed to. "Look what you've become," he said.
Astrid wasn't sure if Krogan could see Thorönd with him, or how much he could actually see at all, but his continued speech was enough to put her on edge. Enough to afflict her with the impossible suspicion that he would somehow survive when she knew he would not, that she hadn't quite stamped out the venom that this man produced every moment she saw him. He was evil, and she was glad he was going to die. But it still made her skin crawl.
Eret's face went cold at the sound of Krogan's voice. His neck pulsed with blood, and when he spoke his voice was full of a kind of sadness; mourning, but not willing to cry. Like he actually felt bad for Krogan. "Look what I've risen above," Eret said, surprising Astrid in the moment. "All the harm you've done… all the people and dragons you've hurt… look where it's gotten you."
Krogan scoffed, but before he could finish, he slipped into a fit of coughs, hoarse and raspy as he coughed up some blood. When he settled down, there was no remorse in him, no last-minute repentance.
"I've had a good life. I've had the things I wanted, when I wanted them. I've been the master of my own fate." Another round of coughs, and more blood. The crimson fluid was starting to pool beneath him—he had to be clinging to life now. "But you, Eretson? You can't claim any of that. You have always been a servant. I pity you."
Astrid looked over at Eret and he glanced her way for a brief instant, nodding reluctantly. There was no arguing with Krogan. He wasn't worth it. "Say what you will, Krogan. One of us is bleeding out in the dirt, and the other isn't." He immediately turned his back and took a step towards Thorönd, stopping to glance over his shoulder. "Astrid, get Stormfly. I spotted Drago while trying to find you. We have to stop him."
Astrid nodded and jogged in the other direction, where Stormfly was still resting underneath the net weighing her down. She stepped past Krogan without even glancing at him—he didn't make a sound as she did, so he was either dead or knocking at Hel's door. Stormfly cooed at her when she approached, looking dazed as she tried to fight the toxins from Krogan's dart.
"Hi, girl. Let's get you out of here, huh?" Astrid suggested. She yanked the dart from the Nadder's scales and lightly scratched Stormfly's chin, returning some feeling to the dragon's skin. Then, she brandished her axe, its blade still slick with Krogan's blood. Astrid raised the weapon and cleaved through the netting trapping her dragon, and Stormfly immediately spread one wing as the left side of the net fell apart. Astrid carved through the rest and the Nadder gradually stood up completely, letting out a triumphant shriek once she rose fully to her feet.
Astrid grabbed onto the edge of her saddle and leaped up, clawing her way onto the Nadder's back. Without even needing the word, Stormfly winged into the sky, Eret and Thorönd right behind them. Astrid let the Thunderdrum catch up, looking over her shoulder as the Tidal Class dragon drifted in next to them.
"Where'd you see Drago?"
Eret pointed across the village. "On the hill outside the Chief's house," he replied.
Astrid was about to answer when she heard the shriek of a diving Night Fury. Toothless blazed across her vision in front of her, whirling around to fly in on her other side with a precision that only Hiccup could've mustered. Sure enough, Hiccup sat up straight and yanked the face of his helmet up over his head, relief washing through his deep green eyes.
"Thank the gods," he breathed, "Are you alright?"
Astrid shook her head up and down in an eager nod, feeling a tension relax in her shoulders that she hadn't even noticed had popped up. "Fine. Though I can't say the same for Krogan." Astrid flicked her head to gesture back over her shoulder. Hiccup followed the gesture with his eyes, and he must've noticed the bloodied axe strapped to her back, because a little color faded from his face. Not much, mind, but enough for Astrid to notice it and recognize the same reservations he'd always had about killing. Hiccup had never physically taken a life with his own two hands, but he had done things that had impersonally resulted in death, like blasting a ship to pieces with Toothless. None of it ever made him proud or happy. Astrid supposed that was a virtuous thing. It was proof that he was good.
Heather and Dagur winged in beside Hiccup, and Astrid felt another rush of relief seeing her two favorite Berserkers in one piece. Eret interjected on the reunion, calling Astrid back to the scene. "Hiccup, I saw Drago. He's—"
"At my father's house, I know. I saw him on the way in, but I had to make sure you were alright," Astrid noticed he was speaking to her more than he was to Eret. Hiccup looked out to the harbor, where the Alpha was towering over everything. The colossal dragon was still fighting the few that remained around it. "Dagur, go help them fight the Alpha. They're struggling."
Dagur saluted and barked an "You got it, brother!" before breaking off from the group, encouraging Sleuther onward.
"I can go with him," Eret offered, knowing Thorönd's loud voice could be useful.
"Not yet, Eret. I need you down there with us. We're going to need a few pairs of hands on our side to take down Drago. It looked like Griselda was with him, too." Astrid gritted her teeth at the mention of that woman. Eret nodded, deferring, and tightened his grip on Thorönd's horn.
They passed over the town, the hill in front of Stoick's house appearing. Fighting surrounded the rise, groups of Vikings battling with Drago's men. A few dragons joined the fight on Drago's side, enthralled. In the center of the carnage were two figures, on an island of mangled green grass. Drago Bludvist and Griselda the Grievous.
"There they are," Hiccup said, "Ready?"
There was a whine of steel as Heather drew her axe, one hand clenching around the handle as the weapon hung low at her side and the other around one handlebar on Windshear's saddle. "Let's do this," she hissed.
Hiccup answered by pulling his helmet down. Eret adjusted himself on Thorönd's back (he still needed to have a saddle made for him), and Astrid pressed her knees into either side of Stormfly's flank, reaching for her axe as well.
Astrid's head pounded, stringing together a single thought. Everything ends, the voice in her head seemed to say, today.
Toothless practically crashed into the ground, massive paws and black claws puncturing the ground. He extended his bat-like wings and sneered, teeth surely coming out to play. Hiccup glared through the eye holes of his helmet at the two warriors in front of him. Griselda's hand was wrapped firmly around the hilt of her sword, ready to launch into action, but Drago was as expressionless as ever. His weapon hung absently at his side, massive arm still as a glacier.
Finally, Drago smiled, a crude shift in his stone-cold demeanor. "Dragon Master," the warlord's voice rattled, "You certainly are hard to get rid of."
"It's over, Drago. You're going to lose," Hiccup warned.
Drago chuckled, and Griselda smirked at his side. "Is that what you think?" Drago asked, "That because you gathered your allies, you've already won? Scrawny and foolish. I cannot imagine Stoick the Vast's shame."
"The Alpha can't control our dragons."
"No, not yet. But your distraction tactics cannot last forever," Drago mused, craning his neck to look up at the Alpha. It was actively chasing after Valka and the others now. Dagur had joined them, but the others were almost surely out of fire by now. A decent pack of other dragons hovered above the godlike dragon and pelted it with flame.
"It doesn't have to last forever," Hiccup replied. He slid off of Toothless' back and brandished Inferno, igniting the blade and holding it with two hands at shoulder-height. Beside him, Eret stepped out and unsheathed his twin swords, while Astrid and Heather leveled their axes on his other side. "It just has to last until we stop you."
Drago managed another chuckle, more mirth written across his scarred face than Hiccup had thought possible. It didn't bother him; he could take the man's insults. Overconfidence was his weakness, and they'd prove that to him. The warlord lifted his bullhook over his head and twirled it around, carving a wide circle through the air with the long steel shaft. The metal almost hummed, and Hiccup saw the shadows flicker across the grassy hill just before the shapes descended.
Four dragons fluttered to the ground behind Drago and Griselda, flanking them. Shining steel plates adorned their heads, and their eyes were narrow. Hiccup eyed each individual dragon, all the knowledge he had of them flitting across his mind. A Zippleback, a Windgnasher, a Thunderclaw…
And a Rumblehorn.
"Skullcrusher?" Hiccup mumbled, head spinning as he took in the dragon's familiar mottled green and reddish scales. One of Drago's steel plates covered the dragon's face, holes allowing his long horns to protrude. His father's dragon was completely under the Alpha's spell.
"Once a dragon has been broken to the Alpha's will, it cannot resist its command… or its commander. So, he who controls the Alpha…" Drago pointed his bullhook at the gigantic dragon in the harbor, spitting ice as it chased after what appeared to be Cami and Thatch. Sleuther attacked from the other side, dividing its attention, "controls them all."
Hiccup felt a hand on his shoulder—Astrid's hand. She squeezed when he looked at her, not needing to say anything to get her point across. Behind him, Toothless gnashed his teeth in a way that Hiccup knew meant that the Night Fury was speaking to him. He looked down and Toothless gave an assertive nod, flicking his eyes at the enthralled dragons. He knew what his best friend meant: they would take care of the dragons so that Hiccup and the others could stop Drago and Griselda.
Hiccup faced forward again and held Inferno in front of him, glaring at Drago through the flickering tongues of its flames. "We'll see," he said. Beside Drago, Griselda unsheathed her sword completely, spreading her feet to shoulder-width apart as she raised the steel blade. Drago maintained his contemptuous gaze, and in a sudden motion he thrashed his bullhook forward.
"Get them!"
Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Please consider leaving another one for this chapter if you enjoyed it, or even if you hated it. Any and all feedback is welcome. Part 3 will be released on Saturday. Thanks for reading!