(Berk, Arena)
"Today we will train with the Deadly Nadder. This dragon is fast both in air and on ground. You must be faster!" Spoke Gobber to the 7 teens.
Maximus looked at the others and nodded, telling them to follow the plan they made. The others nodded back and they set on getting their equipment. When the door to the Nadder pen opened, Maximus started talking to the others.
"Astrid, you go with Fishlegs and Hiccup. Snotlout, you are with me. Ruff&Tuff, you distract the dragon, if you get cornered, stay right in front of the dragon, in the blind spot. Fishlegs, break it up."
"Tracker Class. Attack 10, speed 8, armor 16, firepower 18, shot limit 6, venom 16, jaw strenght 5, stealth 10. The Nadders are proud of themselves, so insulting them gets them angry. Stay clear of the sides where it can see you. The tail shoots spikes that are poisonous. Pick a shield and try to stay in the blind spot."
Maximus nods and replies. "Sheilds up, if the dragon starts shooting spikes, break up the formation and find a safe spot while the others get its attention. If it shoots fire, you better start running. Now!"
He takes a bola and binds the dragon`s wings together so it can`t fly. The Nadder squeaks and starts going after him. He and Snotlout run in different directions and then the Nadder shoots spikes at Maximus. He gets his shield up in time to defend himself while Astrid comes at the dragon with her axe up. The dragon dodges and the axe cuts the bola keeping the wings together. The Nadder starts flying and shoots fire at Astrid. The girl runs and the twins come in to distract it. The twins fint the blind spot and stay in place. Of course it doesn`t take much before they start arguing and because of the noise, the dragon hears then and turns its head to see the 2 teens fighting.
Maximus sees the Nadder about to shoot them with the spikes and he drops his shield while running to save them. The dragon shoots the spikes already, so he does the first thing that comes to his mind. He puts himself in front of the spikes before they hit the teens.
The spikes hit Maximus in the shoulder and the pain makes him start screaming. The other look in shock at their friend and then towards the dragon. Gobber starts coming in the arena shouting Maximus`s name, while Gothi gets some healing herbs for the teen.
In that moment, Maximus starts ignoring the pain and he gets enraged at the dragon. He stands back up and with a shout, he charges the dragon. The other teens get together in a corner of the arena and watch how Maximus jumps around the dragon, slashing everything he can.
He then backs up and glaring, he shouts. "I know the Nadders are too proud of themselves. Just know this dragon, I saw over 100 different Nadders, and you are by far the ugliest one!" That makes the dragon go into blind rage and charging the teen. Maximus charges too and the fight starts again, with both combatants fighting to the death. When he decides he had enough, Maximus lifts his sword and cuts deep into the Nadders neck, making the dragon squeak in pain and start bleeding. He then cuts off its wings, grabs a spike and plunges it deep into the neck wound, making the dragon give one last scream, before falling to the ground, obviously dead.
The other teens stare in shock and amazement as Maximus comes towards them and then takes out the spiked lodged in his shoulder. He looks at the twins and says. "Fight the dragon, not each other. The spikes could have hit you."
The others still stare for another second before Fishlegs asks a question.
"How are you still standing. The venom from the spikes should at least have made you blackout. But you still fought and killed a dragon!"
In that moment the gate opened and Gobber with Gothi come in to check the wounded teen. After bandanging his wounds and making sure the venom is not going to kill him, they go to the Great Hall for lunch. There, Gobber starts berating the twins about fighting each other when a dragon is near them. After that, he says. "I observed that you all were organized. You protected each other and didn`t fool around like the first time. You are starting to learn to work as a team. Good job!"
The teens all smile and high-five and then Hiccup replies. "Well, it helped that we chose a leader for the team and discussed what we need for training for the next days. But now, it looks like we will have to get another Nadder for training."
"Ah, it won`t be that hard to catch a dragon, they pass around here often and we can find some in the forest."
The next day, after Hiccup fed Toothless -the Night Fury he tamed- and finding out he hates eels, the teens end up back in the arena, minus Maximus, who is recovering from the injuries he got from the Nadder. But he insisted to come at least to watch.
Today they are fighting the Zippleback, trying to get the sparking head wet so he can't light up the gas.
After the show, Maximus sighed and went to talk to the others.
"Okay! That didn't go as well as I hoped, but you still survived. Now let's see what you did wrong.
Fishlegs, you panicked and threw it on the wrong head, you need to see which one is which before throwing the water. Snotlout&Tuffnut, you threw the water on the girls and after getting them wet you tried to joke your way out. Tuffnut, you commented on a girl's butt and said they start looking like dragons, you don't do that. And Snotlout, if you try to flirt, don't add wood to the fire by saying that the figure of a dragon is not that bad. It's disgusting!"
"If you want to flirt with a girl, tell her she is beautiful, but without overdoing it. Tell her you like what she does, she is powerfull, courageous, take interest in what she does, not take her for granted. Some girls like to be treated like queens, but some are more warriors than the others. You can't treat all girls the same."
"Astrid&Ruffnut, you could have kept the buckets to use against the dragon, not your friends. And Hiccup, I will make you a training program to make sure you get some muscles on those arms. The dragon practically laughed at you."
"You can go home and do what you want now, If you need me, I'll be in my hut."
A few days later, Hiccup is flying Toothless and the teens had another training class the day before. In this one, Maximus participated, but couldn't give commands, so he gave signs to the others on what they should do. It took them a bit, but at the end they cheered when it ended.
Hiccup looked at the teens around the table in the Great Hall and stood up. "Listen guys, I have a secret plan that could either help us end this war with the dragons or throw us off the island. If you can keep it a secret, come with me."
The others looked at each other nervously, but got up and went with Hiccup. They promised they would stay together through anything.
Hiccup got them to the cove and showed them his dragon. At first, they were nervous and scared with Astrid thinking of killing it. When she pulled her axe out, Maximus grabbed it by tha handle. "Astrid, if what Hiccup is true and we can stop the war, we can't kill the dragon. But I still think we must be on guard around it. Until the dragon shows no intent in killing us, I am not going around it much. Even better, considering it's been growling at me. Probably smelling the blood of the 2 dragons I killed. And you have a weapon. In rest, he's docile." Astrid sighed and said he's right.
Hiccup, seeing they are still not accepting the dragon very well, asked them to fly with him. They reluctantly agreed and they started to fly. (You know the story, they end up at the nest, see the Queen, head back and make a plan. This time, it involved the other teens.)
A day later, a boat is coming towards Berk, looking worst for the wear. The boat docks and off come the men and women that left for the nest. Apparently, it was another fail. As the Chief came in the village, Gobber went straight for him and told his friend everything that happened that week that he has been gone. The training, the Nadder incident, everything. Stoick's eyes widened at the information and said that they all need to watch the next training session as it is the final one and the one that fights the Nightmare will be chosen.
Now, the teens were eating and drinking in Maximus's house. They talked about the Queen and Hiccup's dragon. Then they talked about training.
"You know, one of you will have to kill the Nightmare." Stated Fishlegs. They started thinking about it and Maximus came up with a plan.
"If I win, I could try to tame the Nightmare in front of them. Show them the dragons are not so bad. But if it goes sour, let me talk. You stay silent and stay back. We trained a few terrors, it's going to be a little harder with a bigger dragon, but it could work." The other teens agreed and decided to help Maximus get to be the one to "kill" the Nightmare. But do it without making it obvious.