A/N

I recently finished playing Far Cry 5 while writing this story, so I still hear "Set Those Sinners Free" or "Keep Your Rifle by Your Side" and the game gave me some inspiration for the story. And the story will be at the end longer than I originally planned. So more than just 12 chapters.

Hiccup made a different impression after encountering a young insurgents and his former boss.

He was back in shape. And in a place where these teenage rebels had a base, he had a chance. It had been a week since he was out of prison and torture, so in addition to enjoying his freedom, he tried to come up with a plan to free Toothless and defeat the enemy.

The situation was quite complicated. He did not know how these young insurgents would stand in battle, and he believed that his friends were in captivity. So he tried to come up with a plan to free them.

But he was training at the moment.

Instead of prison clothes or his uniform (which was also a flying suit), he was dressed in an amateur-made linen leather suit, which was to serve as armor.

However, the emblem of the juvenile resistance movement was sewn on his left shoulder on the suit. The emblem that served the applique was the symbol, which was on their flag.

Like a handyman, but he improved the suit more to himself. It was also the turn of non-flammable gloves made of metal. That is, at least from the middle part of their construction.

Inside the metal gloves was a layer of leather to make it more comfortable to wear. The skin was on both sides inside the gloves. Upper and lower.

Otherwise, the metal itself was externally attached to the mined obsidian, which was mined in the area from time to time with the help of both human and dragon labor.

Similar equipment was to serve as his knee pads. There was no time to make the whole armor quickly and with the most suitable materials. But that was enough.

He wasn't wearing gloves right now. His hands were bare.

It was a beautiful day. It was warm outside, the birds were singing, and the sun was warming pleasantly.

Under the leadership of a former dragon hunter, now the platoon leader, the juvenile resistance fighters were preparing for a counterstrike. When the alliance that fought against them failed, they had to take matters into their own hands, even if it meant using a shovel as a murder weapon.

Hiccup was at one of the outdoor workshops, which was hidden under a fallen tree, and he practiced throwing knives.

A cold wind blew through his hair and he heard some of the young insurgents grab handmade wooden musical instruments and play traditional music.

While training with throwing knives, he tried to hit the center of a wooden round target a few meters away.

Different thoughts raced through his head. One memory of captivity in particular kept him awake.

He knew he had been drugged against his own will when tortured, but what the hell was the hallucination of the Valkyrie and the paradise between Asgard and Midgard meant to all the gods?

What was the explosion of an expanding white glowing sphere in the middle of a forest, directly belonging to the religious ideas of the end of the world? What was it supposed to mean that he will be a king? The king of what? Wasn't that meant he was soon to take over the chief scepter from his father?

After the torture, healing wounds and scars remained on his body. Unfortunately, he was calibrated, leaving a scar on his body in the shape of his enemy's emblem.

His body still hurt in places, but he tried to get out of it as soon as possible. The situation was very serious and he could not afford to intervene too late.

"Are you training killing enemies with a knife?" Viggo asked, when he came to Hiccup.

Hiccup at the moment with a slight grunt threw the last knife he had on hand at the target.

The flying knife spun in a wheel in the air and flew quite fast. The blade of the target eventually hit the target right in the middle.

Hiccup breathed and rubbed his sweaty hands.

"I don't think it will work Viggo. They are heavily armed. They scatter them with one blow." He replied.

"I've been training them for a while. They should be able to set something free." Viggo said pointing at the outdoor training ground, where teenagers were practicing fighting.

"No, when they have Toothless." Hiccup replied in a grumpy voice.

He grunted and threw the knife once more. The target was hit by the knife in a few seconds. Hiccup was angry, because he was looking at the situation realistically.

"Did you forget what happened when I lost my leg at eighteen in failed attempt to capture him? He glowed bright blue, and if it was to demonstrate strength, I'm afraid they will make a weapon out of him." Hiccup continued.

"You forget that the Northern Alliance is divided due to the civil war between leaders? Drago has his hands full at the moment with Grimmel the Grisely. He will not attack Berk straight up." Viggo said and he continued "You can use it and weaken him by my side. Then free Toothless and the second big player in the Civil War falls easily. Plus there is more dangerous people who wants that Night Fury. Drago has to deal with them as well."

Hiccup in response to his friend's answer, he threw the throwing knife again, and this time the knife did not hit a wooden target, but a wooden wall of the workshop.

"If you want to carry out the plan, you will need to arm yourself first. The last combined army was easily defeated because it went into battle unprepared Viggo." He said and began to try to pull a sharp metal knife from the wooden wall. He had to push against the wall with his prosthesis while trying to pull the knife out, and it seemed that the young man will fall to the ground when he pulled out the knife.

"Friend, I think you're relying too much on technology to fight. With people about the same age as you, it will work without technology. They are set on fire by the liberation of the Barbaric Archipelago."

Hiccup at that moment successfully pulled a sharp knife from the wooden wall. However, he fell to the ground and the knife fell to the ground next to him with a sharp blade.

"But if the technology does not correspond to the period of combat, you will easily die." Hiccup said, back again standing with a throwing knife in his left hand and wiping the sweat running down his face with his right hand "With the gas attack on the Defenders of the Wing, I think the Royal Alliance needs something, which will protect people and it will help them breath in the deadly gas like enemies had."

"Are you going to invent it?" Viggo asked and he watched Hiccup putting the throwing knife on the table, which was here in the workshop and starting drawing something on the paper, apparently technical drawings with a local pencil.

"Of course. If people like me have to fight, they have to be prepared for danger." Hiccup replied to Viggo, "scratching" on the paper.

"I wonder if you can make it. There is very little time for a week before the operation takes place." Viggo said looking at Hiccup, shrugging.

"You can come up with a plan in the meantime, I'll take care of this."

Viggo was about to leave to let his colleague work, but when he left, he looked at him and announced another important thing.

"Trader Johan stops here. Weapons will be bought from him. He wasn't the only one who had anything against Drago. He sold before on Berk if I am right."

But Hiccup didn't replied, he was too busy inventing something to protect people from poisonous gas, moreover, under time pressure to make these products more for more people. He grunted a little and scratched his forehead. There wasn't much time to imagine all the patterns or whether the plants would serve as filters enough. Even so, the cheerful mood he had gained after tasting the freedom again and recovering from the cruel treatment which, as a prisoner, his realistic view of the situation had ruined his mood, even though his colleague assured him that the plan will work.

Angry, he slammed his left hand on the table, muttered something to himself, placed his hands on his cheek, and began stroking his face and partially scratching his brown hair, leaning against the table.

"What am I lying here to myself..?" He sighed and with a flick of light impact, he tossed the pencil back on the desk "I was able to invent a weapon, which spits fire, but I am not able to invent something, which will help people to breath in a poisonous gas. The closest to that was a scarf with stupid plants under my helmet."

While he was still leaning against the table, in response to his inability to invent anything, he began banging his head on the table. He cursed at himself.

"You're such a dumbass Hiccup!" He said loudly to himself, while banging with his head on the table "You can come up with something that makes gas more dangerous, but you can't come up with protection against the gas itself and fumes! I'm such an idiot."

But then something occurred to him: When plants have proven themselves against narcotic gas, it means that if he wants protection against poisonous gas, something much more effective will be needed. But the question is what exactly. What raw material, what substance.

Then he noticed a helmet hanging on the wall here in the workshop, which also covered the fighters' faces. It immediately lit up in his head because he had an idea of what the protective invention might look like. Like a mask.

He immediately made a sketch and compared it to the helmet posted here. But then he noticed the shortcoming of the helmet. It was possible to see from the helmet through the eye sockets, but since there was no transparent material on them that would allow the wearer to see and at the same time protect his eyes from the irritation of the fumes, he got another idea. Why not just put slides in that mask in empty holes? Yes, the wearer will be fogged from exhaling the slide and it will slightly worsen his eyesight, but he will still not have irritated eyes and will not be disoriented with the toxic gas in which he is located.

The young man immediately made another sketch in addition to the sketch of the helmet, which was to serve as the basis for the future protective mask.

Hiccup no longer grumbled, now he worked with energy on the technical drawings of the protective mask here in the outdoor workshop and walked around with paper and pencil in his hand.

He wondered if the mask could be merged with the helmet, so that the wearer would wear it practically all the time, just attach an oxygen bag to the helmet and breathe like this in combat without removing the necessary face and head protection. This was concept number one. Another concept was that the mask would be leather and would be worn over the entire face. This would mean that the fighters would first put on a mask and then a helmet, protecting only the head.

He was still satisfied with the concepts, both ideas were usable.

He carried a pencil and paper with concepts and the first technical drawings with him. He decided to come out of the hut and look around for the materials that the young insurgents had here in an effort to find one that would produce oxygen.

He walked over to a wooden table outside and noticed various materials placed side by side in small piles. There were both plants and several minerals that were mined in this area and served the Northern Alliance in all branches of industry, especially war.

He thought for a moment about what to write, but first he decided to sniff the materials while leaning toward them while standing. The scent of flowers brought him back to that mystical paradise on the border between heaven and earth, while coal and coke reminded him more of the smell of the battlefield.

But then he was startled when a girl passing nearby him deliberately punched him in the back

"Guy, don't you know there's inventory planning going on and these are just samples?" She said with a simel, while Hiccup jumped in fright and the young freedom fighter left where she was supposed to have a job.

He turned around for a moment and saw the young insurgents working. Some were in the woods, others were in charge of the aforementioned supplies, or were listening to the advice and plan of the veteran who had trained them. Another young insurgent walked past him, but this one with the cutting weapon in his hand stopped over him when he saw him searching for something among the samples of material.

"Excuse me, what are you looking for?" The young man of his age asked and Hiccup immediately fixed his gaze on him.

"I am working on protection against poisonous gas and trying to find a suitable material that would serve as a filter and that would provide oxygen. Do you have any idea?"

The young insurgent shrugged and answered.

"I have no idea, but maybe you could try black coal instead of plants. Black coal does well on the stomach when a person is ill, so why can't it produce oxygen?"

The young man left back to his work, while coal producing oxygen sounded kinda as a nonsense to Hiccup. Plants are producing oxygen, not coal. But from the chemistry view it had logic, it was only needed to find how to make coal produce oxygen.

"I'll try it.." Hiccup murmured for himself and he took a small amount of black coal from a small pile here on the table and returned to the workshop.

"Something will probably have to happen here to make it work as a filter, but how?!" He asked himself back in the workshop, looking at the technical drawings and concepts of his new invention, a pen and a very small pile of black coal he putted on the another, clean paper on the table.

But the young man wondered what he should do to activate the coal as a filter, but he pulled was pulled from it by the sound from the outside.

"Most importantly, it must not be destroyed.." Hiccup bit his lip and he decided to hide his work-in-progress on other technical drawings of cutting weapons, which were supposed to have part of the ability of his flamethrower, which he called a fire spitter. A cutting weapon combining the power of a cutting weapon in combination with a kindled flame, which, in addition to an ugly bloody wound to the enemy, would probably set it on fire, was also his idea.

The young man finally went out to find out what was going on. Fortunately, there was no enemy attack.

"It's calm. The trader I told you about just arrived." Viggo said looking at Hiccup.

The businessman or how do you want, the trader who was supposed to supply the movement with with weapons didn't look very nice. In name, it seemed that he was not a Northerner, but a German who, on the one hand, resembled a trader from France and, on the other, from Turkey.

Hiccup didn't find him sympathic for some reason. When he was a dragon hunter he had seen many buyers and merchants and traders, but this one looked insidously for some reason. Probably the face and the long black mustache was to blame.

"I like to meet my customers again." For Hiccup an unsympathic trader tried to act sympathetically "I'm bringing new goods. From Asia, from faraway China directly from Beijing."

When Johan said that with his German accent, Hiccup who was watching him and his stagecoach with a dark brown horse only smirked. Supply operations began, and when an elderly German set up a booth here a few minutes later, the young insurgents were the first to gather for new weapons or their modification.

Hiccup in the end, despite his distrust of this man, he decided to find out what the trader was selling.

"Grüß gott young man, what you will buy?" Johan asked at his booth, when he saw Hiccup looking at the weapons he was selling, starting saying him "Good day" in German.

"I will not buy anything from you. You won't see a dime from me." Hiccup straight up said.

"You talk about me like some people about Jewish merchants. And how many times do they sell quality goods." Johan immediately objected.

Hiccup didn't lose the grin on his face, something just didn't fit the man.

"Do you see that cannon?" Johan pointed out at Viggo trying with a few young insurgents a weapon he has brought "They had this in China a long time ago. Now they're going to put gunpowder in there and fire a metal ball. Several trees will then be destroyed."

"Thanks, but I really don't care." Hiccup replied and left suspicious trader and he went to the Viggo and a few young insurgents, who were ready to fire from that weapon.

"You are here just in time Hiccup, the cannon is about to fire." Viggo replied, looking at his younger colleague.

Hiccup approached his colleague, about a metre from an unknown invention to Europe. At first it seemed that nothing would happen to the cannon, but after the gunpowder inside met the spark from the flintlock, the cannon immediately fired an iron ball that was inside with such a strong blow that it moved itself a few inches back. Smoke was smoking from the cannon after the firing, while one tree in the firing area was destroyed by a cannonball.

"Looks like it works." Viggo added "It doesn't have on dragons spewing fireballs, but this will work, too."

Hiccup approached his colleague and destroyed his mood by what he said.

"There's something wrong with that trader." He replied watching the firing area.

"Because Johan trades on both sides?" Viggo replied, while he was getting the cannon ready for the next fire with young insurgents.

Hiccup prefered to shut up.

"Or because he is a foreigner from Central Europe?" Viggo added.

Hiccup smirked again watching his colleague putting with one of the young rebels gunpowder inside the barell of the cannon.

"There's just something wrong with him. Do you really think it's a good idea for this person to supply the insurgents?" Hiccup replied.

At that moment, one of the young insurgents shoved another iron ball into the barrel of the cannon. All that was left was for the gunpowder to ignite.

"I came across him when I started training these young insurgents, and the weapons situation was not very good. For the price of the gold mined here, I was able to pay him for the equipment because I was out of money and the Northern Alliance considers me dead." Viggo explained.

"When I'm back, why just stop wasting precious metals on that scumbag? I can make better equipment than he sells at those prices and for free." Hiccup fenced off.

"But the problem is that the production of one such weapon takes a long time and I'm not sure if the boys who are here could produce it."

"They could handle it. Personally, I would first train them how to work properly."

"Well, you can try it, and if you succeed, I promise to end the business with that German and look only for supplies for cutting weapons and materials for the production of weapons."

"Deal."

At that moment, the cannon fired again.

"I think you could also use that gunpowder in your war inventions Hiccup." Viggo said, when the cannon fired again "For example, to make a cutting weapon that could fire small lead balls with the help of gunpowder."

"Thanks for the idea. However, I am currently working on protection against toxic gas. I haven't given it a name yet, but it looks like it will be a mask in both concepts."

"So it will be a gas mask?" Viggo raised his eyebrow, giving the invention straight up name according to what Hiccup said.

"Yeah. That's what it could be called. In the first version, it is possible that it would be part of the helmet that covers the entire face, in the second, it would be a leather mask with glasses in place of eye holes to see."

Viggo patted him on the shoulder, saying "I will let you work. In the meantime, I'll take care of supplying and testing the new weapons, and I'll discuss the plan with you tonight."

Hiccup decided to go back to the workshop and try to figure out how to chemically activate the coal as a filter.

Mathematics, chemistry, physics. He had to deal with all this when he had to invent such things, but when it came to production, he had to switch from a scholar to a craftsman. He wouldn't have said that to himself two years ago, at that time he was able to sharpen his knife and make an amateur carving from a piece of wood.

He wasn't in the mood for all the samples at the moment. He needed to come up with a simple idea of how the coal could be used in the filter.

A few hours later he spent making the first mask, followed by the first test of the mask and filter.

The production of a leather mask corresponding to the size of his face took him 2 hours, the filter for crushed coal 30 minutes.

He asked to be taken to a place in the area of the mine in the cave for an attempt number one with testing mask and filter. The place was famous for frequent leaks of hallucinogenic gases that could kill a person, so he understandably heard that it was a suicidal idea.

As he went down, he immediately put a leather mask on his face and attached a wooden filter with crushed charcoal, which was hidden under a layer of cow skin.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? There is talk of this place, and many people left the normal world due to hallucinations and subsequently died here." Said one of the young rebels who were here with him.

"I won't be too far from you. If something goes wrong, I'll be close and you'll be able to get me out of here." Hiccup replied in the mask.

The two young insurgents who were here with him, a boy and a girl, watched as he voluntarily went to a darkened place, which was lit by fire from time to time.

For Hiccup's surprise, from the inside of the mask, it wasn't darkened here. Only the local gas was either invisible or light green like Hideous Zippleback's gas and there was surprisingly more light here than he expected.

The place was lit by several ignited invisible gases, which had a lifespan of only a few seconds before repeating themselves.

He began to breathe deeply in the mask. The slides immediately blurred inside the mask after the first exhalation, and he could see poorly for a moment.

He began to look around as he took a deep breath. He almost swallowed as he began to notice the remains of the people who had died here. One white-colored white skeleton of an adult rolled on the ground here in a cave not far from him.

But then his mask started to get hot and his head began to spin. Probably because he wasn't used to such breathing yet, as is usually the case with gas masks, but this was something else.

He began to tremble and hear straight to the demonic voices that began to speak to him, as if they had come from the Nordic hell itself.

He began to notice the walking shadows in this place, and one of them ran past one of the fires.

Hiccup started feeling fear. Even the voices he heard made him nervous, it was all the more disturbing to hear the laughter of children playing. The demons spoke to him both in his mother tongue and in a language unknown to him.

"Looks like this man entered our territory here. Come tear him to pieces!"

Hiccup then knew he was in a very big trouble, when he heard one of the voices saying this. He wanted to reach for his weapon, at least a knife, to defend himself against the Nordic demons, but then he remembered that he hadn't taken any weapons with him.

At that moment, however, he was knocked to the ground by a bloodthirsty monster that looked as if it had fallen from stories about the Nordic gods that Viking parents tell their children. Just the difference was that they actually looked horror, not like those illustrations for children where they still looked like from a fairy tale.

He heard the demon snort. He got up immediately, but a lithe monster resembling a skinny man threw himself at him, trying to bite his neck with bloody teeth to the bloody clumps of blood, skin, bones, flesh, blood vessels, veins, arteries, and his tendons.

The demon pulled him back to the ground, and with his bare hands Hiccup tried to keep the drooling mouth of the dark blue demon from his face.

But then he noticed that he was very close to the bones of a man who died here. He immediately decided to reach for one of the bones and use it in self-defense.

Keeping the demon apart with one hand was very risky, but then he stabbed him in the dark blue blood with one rib of a man who had died here.

He had dark blue, slimy, sticky blood on his clothes. When he immediately got to his feet with a bone like a weapon, he cursed loudly.

Another demon, who lunged at him rather than a walking corpse, resembled a mostly naked strong man wearing only armor on various parts of his body and a black sword in his hand stained with red human blood.

He was about to make an assault, because it was clear to him that the monster would kill him immediately.

But ... suddenly the golden arrow flew through the demon's head and killed him. The corpse fell to the ground with a strong thud and immediately melted into a dark blue dust.

Hiccup, who wasn't knowing what was going on at the moment immediately turned at the one, who saved him.

"I said that every king has a protector."

It was that Valkyrie, he had seen in that mythical paradise. But he could already see him being lifted by another monster, which began to strangle him. He suffocated. And soon after, he fell unconsciouss. His sleep was short and sleepless. He was awakened by the voices of two young rebels, about the same age as him, who had gone to the place with him to oversee the number one attempt.

He woke up without a mask on his face, outside the cave.

He began to breathe deeply when he felt the fresh air again, the sun forcing him to open his eyes, and the fact that he was lying on the grass didn't bother him.

"W-what h-happened?" He murmured, laying on the grass, waking up. It was about 15 meters from the cave, where it all happened.

"You have succumbed to the hallucinations we warned you about. You shouted something about demons." The young woman said.

"So I did something wrong with that filter ... damn it!" Hiccup cursed, when he sat on the grass "I will have to improve it!"

"Try to calm down. You almost suffocated there." Said the woman's partner.

So our young man decided to return to the country workshop with a sigh. This experiment confirmed to him that crushed coal as a mask filter could not work without activation, without a chemical reaction. But then he remembered the smithy. He got an idea. What if he heated the coal first (not ignited it) and then let the crushed coal heat up with steam?

And that's what he did. So experiment number 2 came on the scene in the same place. He decided to go alone, saying that if he hallucinated again, he would simply escape from the cave before being killed by hallucinations and poisonous gases. At first he was afraid that it would end just like the first attempt, with the only difference being that he would actually die.

"H-hello?! Is someone there!?" He shouted, wearing the leather gas mask with a new filter at the entrance to the cave.

He heard only the echo of his own voice. Nothing special. He stepped inside.

After his past experience, he didn't feel comfortable inside, let alone safe. He looked around again at the inside of a cave full of poisonous fumes. He took a deep breath, hoping the filter would finally work. He remained standing inside the cave, where gas entered the airways if one had no protection, near the entrance and also the exit from the cave. He counted down before the time passed when he began hallucinating on the first try to see if it would happen this time as well. But nothing happened this time. Nothing. The only living creature that was here was only him.

With a deep exhalation, he was relieved and began exploring the cave known as the grave of humans and animals. He didn't need a torch, the burning flammable gases that came out of the holes in the ground from time to time provided him with light during the survey.

He began to notice that there were more of the remains of humans and animals here. There was also a skeleton of a soldier leaning against a wall holding a sword, so that the blade pierced the man through when he was alive. For Hiccup, it was easy to imagine the story. That person stabbed himself, when he was fighting "demons" as well.

There were also offerings from very ancient times with religious objects, most of which were used to perform rituals. Probably before the cave became dangerous. You better not even think about what the ancestors or religious fanatics did here during those rituals. There must have been blood flowing.

Through this survey, he himself tested how long it would take for oxygen to know how exactly it would take to change the filter of the protective mask after use. Exploration of the "cursed" place continued.

But there was one thing that caught his attention. There was also the skeleton of an old man holding a bag of scrolls. Hiccup didn't expected anything and he took the scrolls. He read them on the spot. There the old man wrote about how a cave dedicated to the gods became a cursed place killing anyone who entered it. A group of armed men allegedly released the pet of the gods themselves into the cave, and the subsequent bloodbath, which took place here with the help of that animal with supernatural abilities, resulted in the cave becoming a cursed place. The description of the situation was the last words of the old man who did not even write what he had done that they were after him. Well, at least it wasn't in this scroll, but from old age it seemed like very old documents of the conflict between people that had taken place here a long time ago.

He didn't run out of oxygen, so he continued his research. The deeper he went into the cave, as if he were going deeper back in time.

At another small shrine, he came across masks dedicated to Nordic warriors from mythology. They were originally gold, but there was already some deposit on them.

Then he began to find the remains of dead men who had taken part in the bloody skirmish he had read about in the scroll. There were rusted very old helmets, even in pieces after being destroyed by time, and cutting weapons as well.

But a moment later he came across an old painting on a canvas that was hung out there, which took his breath away. There was a picture of a night fury on that old canvas. And not any. The image did not depict the animal as the creature of all evil with the power of Odin, as he heard as a child, but as the dragon of the Norse god Thor himself, who held a protective hand over the territory and the local people.

Either he came across the remains of a disintegrated sect dedicated to dragons, or a historical artifact saying that many basic things in history had been kept secret from him. It was no surprise he grew up in an adoptive family in a territory where tyranny ruled and reigns.

At that time, however, he began to run out of oxygen. He was here for about an hour. At the first signs of shaking his head caused by the poisonous gas, the young man immediately ran out of the cave, removed his mask from his face, and took a deep breath. He said nothing. Instead of rejoicing that the invention worked, he was in a mixed mood after exploring the cave.

He returned to the workshop. The supplying was still not over. He preferred to hide the functional prototype gas mask in his bag and sighed. He placed the used filter on the table. He felt that after what he had experienced in that cave, he would like to close his eyes at least for a moment and think of nothing. He brought a wooden chair to the table, leaned against it, placed his head and hands on the table, and closed his eyes for a moment. He wanted to fall asleep at least for a while.

Unfortunately, he did not enjoy his sleep much. He was awakened by the footsteps that were right here in the room. He squinted as he began to wake up. The footsteps tore him from a brief, yet dreamless sleep. But then he was startled. He immediately turned to see a masked man about to stab him with a dagger.

Hiccup immediately dodged before the dagger could stab him in the neck, and the attacker refrained from trying to get the cutting weapon from the wooden table where it was stuck. The attacker, however, managed to pull out his weapon, and because only he and the unknown person were here, so in the end it looked like a duel between two men.

Hiccup had no proper weapon here. So it was clear that it would not be an equal fight. But then he got the idea. He threw the knives in the morning. So why wouldn't take out one of them and harm the attacker? In the end, there was no time for that, so he let the attacker trip over his prosthesis. But the assailant was about to get to his feet, and he noticed a piece of unfinished wooden weapon rolling there. He pulled the attacker with a "bat" with such force that the unfinished wooden weapon immediately shattered and the attacker fell unconscious.

"What the hell happened!?" Fell out from Viggo, when he and several insurgents rushed to the rescue due to the sounds from the workshop.

"Someone tried to kill me. I harmed him myself." Said Hiccup standing nearby the body and the shattered weapon in progress.

"So, I'm very happy to find out who it is." Viggo said and he came to the body, came in a captivating dark red scarf that obscured the identity of the unknown.

There was only a surprised sigh.

"Trader Johan!?" Fell out from Viggo because he thought that he ran trades for the movement with the right movement.

"I said that the German was a bad man to supply the insurgents." Hiccup added.

"It looks like he's still alive." Viggo said after checking the heart rate "When he wakes up, he will have to sing like a bird and then return to Germany in Bonn, where he came from."

"Take him away, please. I don't want to see him today anymore." Hiccup said and rebels at the behest of their superior, they took the body of a German trader who was unconscious to the local prison.

But then another unpleasant question arose: If he worked for the Alliance and was a spy, it is possible that there were other people with him. Even so, after this finding, a tense atmosphere prevailed, because it meant that the German trader who supplied the movement was actually working for its end. However, this was confirmed a few seconds later, because this part of the insurgent base came under attack by a group of armed men who showed their authoritarian intentions.

"Surrender as long as you can! If you give up, nothing will happen to anyone! This territory is no longer yours, but belongs to the Northern Alliance as it belongs and has belonged!" The commander of the unit that secretly accompanied the scout shouted, and to the disbelief of the insurgents, they also had military dragons with them.

"Commander, what do you want to do? They have dragons and we don't even have the proper equipment." Whispered one of the young insurgents, a young woman second in command to Viggo.

"I'll try to come up with something. I doubt the guy will know me." Viggo replied.

The armed men were standing nearby, preparing for the massacre.

"I have an idea, I'm just not sure if it will work, but it will definitely stop them before they call in reinforcements and reveal the location of the territory." Hiccup replied and both, Viggo and the girl second in command turned at him with surprise in their face.

"What's the idea?" Viggo asked.

"Go to them there and try to play a theater. I think there's something that dragons will listen to more than to them."

Viggo ecided to go unarmed very close to them, waving his hands, saying: "I understand that the capture of the spy you accompanied annoyed you and that the cage fell with it, but we can solve it even without weapons. For example, by a classic chat with beer in a pub."

Hiccup came up with the idea of causing confusion among the enemies, when he will begin to lure the domesticated dragons to raw fish, which he will throw to them. He had known all along with these animals that they would prefer food before orders. While there was an awkward conversation between his colleague and the leader of that group, he, with the help of several other insurgents, crept in for the nearest fish net and tossed them while hidden in the bushes.

"You know very well that this will not be solved. The rebel base is ending, and you know it." The man replied.

"I would really like to believe that in your place." Viggo replied and the commander looked at him with a confused smirk.

But then the first swearing of confused soldiers began to sound.

"What the hell is wrong with those animals?!" The first man shouted, when the dragon he had in charge started behaving as if it had free time.

One of the animals looking for food noticed that he was hidden in the bushes and Hiccup made a gesture indicating that 'come to him as a response.

"That's enough!" Shouted the angry commander, watching the kinda hillarious situation with the dragons between his men and he pulled his sword from his scabbard and aimed it at Viggo "Plunder it here, burn it here, rape as many girls as you want!"

At that moment, the insurgents were preparing for battle. All they had to do was rely on strategy. There were fewer of them and they were not so well equipped either. Unfortunately, Hiccup had a bad luck, because when the animal stepped to him, one soldier noticed him. The soldier looked at him with a surprised face and Hiccup ironically smiled.

Fight broke out between the two groups immediately. The enemies were very well organized, while the insurgents were not. Even a few insurgents did not have time to arm themselves until the situation began, until someone came up with the idea of throwing stones at enemies, and those few people remembered the slingshots - the weapons of the common people. So the few people began to bomb the enemies with stones from hastily made slingshots, while the others threw themselves into direct combat.

Hiccup at the moment the soldier noticed him found himself a few seconds later in the battle too. The only one in the middle of the fight was unarmed and had to take cover. But he managed to get back to one of the animals he had lured with fish.

Meanwhile, the other animals continued to cause confusion in an effort to find food. The confusion due to them was such that it even seemed that the fight would end.

The soldier on the side of the enemies who caught our hero in the lure of the animal screamed shortly after seeing Hiccup trying to saddle the animal.

"Catch the animals immediately!" Shouted the commander and the men on his side had to bring the animals back to violence in combat, specifically the whip.

"I recommend you give up or I'll scatter you to pieces here with this dragon!"

The enemy's struggle and attempts to get the animals back to them with violence ceased by when the loud threatening voice of a young man appeared, visibly saddling one of the enemy's military dragons in front of both fighting groups.

"Surrender. Men who fight against their will here will be able to return to their families. If it doesn't go well, it will go bad." Hiccup continued.

Half the people from the enemy looked confused, while those who were completely passionate about the tyrannical ideology of the Northern Alliance grinned. Even the insurgent people were nervous about what was going to happen.

"Dare to listen to the boy!" Spoke an angry commander, who had this entire accompanying mission in charge "Don't you want the Alliance to prosper!? Remember the catastrophic state of your territory before the Alliance was formed! You live on it and you will fight and die for it! I accept you, return to the fight and do not spare them!"

Instead of answering, however, several men deserted in the front of the commander.

"Wait, I'll find out your names, you cowards! Your families will not fare well for your betrayal of your own state!" Commander shouted at the desserting soldiers. He then turned at the rest of his men and shouted "What are you waiting for!? Back to the fight! This is an order!"

There was another war cry, and the rebels, whatever they were holding in their hands - whatever cutting weapon, slingshot, or stone, were reluctantly preparing for the second part of the skirmish with the unit was discreetly accompanying Johan.

Hiccup wasn't so much happy from that he will must in a non-violent way, order the military dragon to start spitting fireballs at the soldiers.

But suddenly the first arrows began to fall, unknown from where. The first arrow hit the commander himself directly in the head. His bleeding corpse immediately fell to the ground, and tensions began to rise between the soldiers who were still willing to fight for the Alliance. The arrows also hit several other men. They flew into their bodies as if striking only an apple. Each time a hit, blood splattered before a man killed on the spot fell to the ground.

Others preferred to flee, others continued their allegiance to the "kingdom". Some were indeed fanatics, believing the ideology of the tyrant who ruled the empire.

Hiccup preferred to descend from the calm animal and begin to cover himself, as did his colleague Viggo, because it was possible that the arrows would hit them both. Instead, no arrow was aimed at them.

"Does anyone have any idea what the hell just happened here?" Viggo pointed out "First there is a threat of revealing the position of the base, then the former sergeant, whom I used to boss, comes up with a comical idea, and finally here fall arrows that look like they were shot from the bows of the Valkyries, and I don't even know who shot them."

But then everyone heard an unknown woman's voice accompanied by a fluttering sound.

"Valkyries? Almost, but women are here."

They all turned to where they heard an unknown muffled female voice and saw an unknown woman and other similarly dressed people with quivers on their backs and bows in their hands. Everyone wore masks on their faces, which added to the mystical impression of divine archers.

"Hey, Hiccup!"

Hiccup turned his view at the sky, where he saw twins on their dragon and Tuffnut speaking to him.

"While you were gone, you should have seen how it looked like in the Great Hall and how your father was yelling!"

"And the guy who almost killed you is really nice!" Ruffnut added.

"Thanks, I'd love to hear it all!" Hiccup yelled in reply watching the sky.

He then turned. The sound of flapping wings stopped. He heard dragons landing here and their riders descending saddles.

In addition to unknown masked archers and dragon riders from the Cavalry, there was also a group of soldiers-explorers with their trained dragons.

Hiccup watched for a while until he felt the touch of a soft woman's hand on his own. He slowly turned, knowing very well who it was.

"I admit that the new equipment suits you. You look like a real resistance fighter, a real freedom fighter in a war like this."

When he turned at her, it was not possible without a flirting tone.

"I'm glad, milady, that you like it that way. If I still look like a little harsk for you, I took something from prison." Hiccup said and he kissed Astrid, holding her hands.

"I like you the way you are. Cute, kind and melancholic." She replied.

He started stroking her cheek and kissing her in a French kiss, murmuring "I love you.."

The two of them kissed for a moment while standing and stroked. Both lovers, however, had to stop because they were disturbed.

"Ehm, I hate to interrupt your reunion, but there are a few more things about retaliation."

Hiccup and Astrid stopped kissing, when they heard Viggo's voice. Hiccup turned at his colleague.

"And what exactly is it about?" He asked, still helding her hand of his love.

"It's rather bad news. It looks like the situation will be more complicated than my people originally expected."

Hiccup swallowed and after this short reunion with the woman he loved, he knewed it's time to go.

"Looks like I'll have to go again, Astrid." He said, looking into her face with a kinda sad voice "I'd still like to be with you, but this has to be resolved."

But Astrid punched him to stomach as a her response. Hiccup gasped, because it hurted.

"Ouch!" Fell from him but Astrid only giggled.

"That's how I like it." She said while Hiccup was recovering from the unexpected punch.

"I don't want to disturb, but it's really time." Viggo reminded.

Hiccup then kissed Astrid on the cheek, saying "Do not worry, I'll return milady." before he left with his colleague.

They both headed to the underground part of the insurgent fortress. Stairs or doors here used to be wooden in most cases, and torches attached to stone walls were lit.

"What's happening? We didn't even have time to say what all happened." Hiccup said, while walking with Viggo in the underground fortress.

"You'll have plenty of time with that." Viggo replied.

"Plenty of time!? They tortured me, beat me, kicked me, I was starving, drowned me, drugged me, whipped me, calibrated me and this is your reply!?" He barked.

Viggo, who meanwhile led him to the rebel command room, but replied with a smile, "Should I have said that you will have plenty of time for each other in bed when I saw you kissing?"

Hiccup only looked at him smirking.

"So you see. Now calm down, I'll have to explain to you why the situation is bad." Viggo said looking at Hiccup, opening wooden door of the command room.

The two men entered a lighted room with various maps on the walls, and in the center was a table with a large map of the area and wooden figures of soldiers and dragons.

"When you joined the resistance fighters, I didn't want to tell you, because it would probably break your idea that people are standing together in the war. It's not so." Viggo started explaining, showing Hiccup described map.

"I know that robbers exist, as well as informants. What do you mean?" Hiccup asked examining the map and the figures.

"There are both resistance and separatist movements fighting for freedom. They mostly work together. But then there are movements on the scene fighting for their turbulent ideology, which is by no means free. This also applies to certain separatist movements. They are often led by lunatics who want to be the Alliance's top bosses or have their own state where they will rule cruelly. Those who fight for freedom often fight them, and therefore the resistance is generally weakened, because this situation is used by some maniac."

Hiccup figured out the rest.

"You're not trying to tell me they want to win Toothless as well?"

"That too, but in the case of your dragon, I'll have to deal with the archers who flew here with your people. They seem to know about it and that it will probably be an even bigger trouble than what it looks like if nothing is done."

Hiccup while looking at the map, had noticed that one such unfair separarist movement was based in the same area as the young resistance fighters he had joined.

"Who are Týr's warriors? From what it says on that map, it looks like they're fighting your people." He said then.

"It is a non-free separatist movement that dedicated its name to the god of war. Their leader is a madman who wants to create his own unfree state throughout this territory and longs for divine power, which, after gaining, would confirm that he is not only a ruler who must obey but also a god of war. It may sound like a sect, but it's not."

"From what you're saying, it looks more like he took inspiration from the Roman tyrants who ruled them. They also claimed to be gods before the Roman Empire fell." Hiccup added after he heard what Viggo said.

The two men were alone for a few minutes before being interrupted by one of the mysterious archers, the leader herself. Both, Hiccup and Viggo were still not used on the mask she had with her people, so they were kinda startled when she suddenly opened the door.

"I have come to speak for my people and to talk to you about the seriousness of the situation. It's worse than you think." She said looking at Hiccup and Viggo, holding the bow in both her hands. She looked then only at Hiccup and she said "Your friends already know, you don't."

"And what is it all about? It's not what Viggo just told me, is it?" Hiccup shrugged looking at the unknown leader for him.

"I'll introduce you both first. I'm the leader of the archers who came here alongside your friends. Call me Freia." The armed lady introduced herself to both men.

"And whose side are you on?" Viggo asked looking at Freia but she didn't reply. Viggo only shrugged saying "Ah, it's a secret."

"Viggo - you leader of this resistance group, please leave for a moment," Freia asked "I think Hiccup has the right to hear the information first."

Viggo wanted to stay and listen, too, but the masked woman began to glare at him uncomfortably.

"My people are here, so don't even think about it. Just leave the room." Freia said with a serious voice and Viggo had to get up and leave the room even if he didn't want to. He wanted to work out a plan with his colleague, and the woman kicked him out of the command room!

Hiccup began to feel a little uncomfortable as the woman began to walk around him.

"Can you take off that mask, please? I feel like I wouldn't even share a room with a human." Hiccup said with a nervous voice and to his surprise the woman removed the mask in his presence and laid it on the table.

She had brown hair and brown eyes. She was as young as he was and she was attractive too, and after living in a mystical world, he hoped it wouldn't look like a flirtation again, because he was in love with a girl.

"Even your friends don't know what I look like. In your case, however, I decided to make an exception." Freia replied looking at Hiccup.

"Maybe you're trying to get me to bed. I already love one and I say in advance that I am not interested." Hiccup straight up said, while Freia putted her bow on the table.

"Don't worry, I don't want to sleep with you. I just decided to reveal to you my face, which I normally have to hide in this job, because of the role you play in all this. It's about your dragon."

"Toothless?"

The archer began to walk around the room, telling a story in which our young man's blood froze in his veins.

"..And that's why people have been trying to eradicate night furies ever since."

After telling the story and explaining the situation Freia looked at Hiccup and she noticed that he was silent.

"Are you trying to tell me that here it will literally fall to the ashes if nothing is done? That everyone will burn alive?" He said with a pissed tone.

Freia only nodded.

"I need to be alone for a while and recover from everything that's really going on." He said and he left the room.

Back in the workshop where he worked here, he went to the wheel and talked out loud to himself.

"That can't even be true. There is enough of those complications, and now suddenly that the Northern Alliance wants to make from Toothless a weapon because he has power of Thor! What should I do!? What should I do!?" He was saying to himself, not knowing what he should do now. He also remembered what he had seen in the cave and wondered if it was worth telling when he already knew from the leader of the allies' archers the story of what humanity's coexistence with dragons looked like before a millennium. And if is it worth mentioning at all about the story that revealed the scrolls of the old man who died there.

How to plan it all? There is very little time and a separate resistance does not help.

The young man remembered his invention of the gas mask, which was confirmed to work today. Maybe the resistance in combat would not be completely in hell? He sighed for the last time and decided to go back to his friends.

"Cousin, is the depressed mood over?" Hiccup as first heard Snotlout's comment.

"Stop it, I'm really not in the mood to be provoked today." He replied looking at his friends and their dragons here.

"While you were away, your dad started working on the plan, arguing that the island and the allies must remain strong even in your absence. He sent me to keep an eye on you all, kids." Gobber added.

"After I raged up in the workshop, I'm in a slightly better mood, but I'm still afraid that the occupation of the island has already begun since they have Toothless."

"No, she didn't. Your mom must be doing them a lot of damage with her alpha." Gobber replied again.

Hiccup went to the river that flowed here. His love was sitting here and maybe thinking about current situation as well.

"How are you milady?" He said with a flirting tone when he came to her. He sat down next to her and pulled her close in love.

"All right, I just get wrinkles out of it just like you." She replied.

"I was upset that I couldn't even talk to you when we met again." He added helding her hand.

"There was hell at the place of the conquered base before liberation." Astrid said in a similar tone corresponding to the mood he was in before "They threw injured or dying soldiers from the Royal Alliance alive into pits and then burned them in those pits before burying them again. They used dragons for that."

"When they captured me, they tortured me. I woke up in jail. It was part of the interrogation. I didn't get food, nor did I get water. They branded me, flogged me, I don't even know what else they did to me when they drugged me. When they drugged me, I had a kind of vision."

"Which?"

"I found myself in a place that could be called a paradise, and there was a Valkyrie who claimed to be king and that he was my guardian. She showed me a giant explosion in which entire forests fell to ashes."

Astrid sighed.

"This corresponds to the story that Freia told."

"I also noticed."

The two lovers clung to each other. it was beautiful here, almost like in the paradise he had seen when he was drugged.

"Will you be with me tonight? I could show you what I've made here in the meantime, and I think you could fall asleep with me tonight." He said holding her hand.

Astrid nudged him saying "Everyone on that battlefield will be afraid of seeing you. You will be the lord of fire." and they both smiled at each other.

"The lord of fire? Really?" He asked looking at her.

"Look at what you invent. Lord of fire and rightly so."

"If I am to be the lord of fire, you will be the lady of fire."

Astrid nudged him again and they both started giggling, when Hiccup started tickling her.

"So together?"

"Together."

"Deal?"

"Deal."

They both ended their love affair in nature with a passionate kiss on the mouth. They were both lying on the grass, and now that they were back with each other, they felt happy. But the question is how the war will eventually take place and whether history will not repeat itself with a huge catastrophe as it happened once a thousand years ago.

A/N

Yep, Johan is German in the story according what I learned about him in RTTE. I am writing longer chapters, so to write this with the delays I had this took 10 days. I had inspiration not only in Sabaton, but in Powerwolf in the music I was listening as well during writing the story. I think Hiccup and Astrid have luck in this story, since I am a Hiccstrid shipper who loves tragedies. See you in next chapter, historical HTTYD AU will be in the future!