This takes me back to when we were battling the hunters or flyers and their ships with Viggo or Johann or the nearly countless other enemies we've faced over the years. We've sure come a long way as a people, as a group, as a couple. Flying high above, obscured just enough by the clouds that we could barely see the ships below, we glided, waiting for the sounds of an explosion. The clatter of iron and roar of dragons as our fellow riders begun their attack.
And as if on que, there is a massive explosion, and the two ships seem to be encircled by rings of fire that plum into a dark smoke. Taking our que, we dive down. I can see Hookfang's silhouette burn its way through one of the sails on the ship Fishlegs and I were dropping towards as the twins tore through the one on Hiccup's. The ships were easily a few hundred feet apart and as we get closer, I can see a massive net connecting them like they were trying to haul or catch something in the water. It only confirmed Eret's intelligence.
The roar and yells of the men as they rushed to the ballistas was echoing across the sea followed by an explosion of one of them being removed from play. We were lucky that the hunters did not seem to share their dragon proofing methods, otherwise raids like this would be much more challenging. I see one of the men on deck reach a net gun and aim it towards Fishlegs. Tapping Stormfly on the back of her neck she releases a single, pinpointed Spine Shot that punctures through the net gun, destroying it and sending the man backwards.
"Take out the Nadder and its rider!" I hear another one shout as we reach the deck. Fishlegs drops on one of the men rushing towards me with Meatlug and all we can hear is a groan of pain.
"Thanks." I say, looking to the cages on deck. They were full of various dragons. Several tidal class dragons but there were a couple strokers and even boulder class dragons. This ship had a large empty cage left, likely saved for the Doomfang and then they would be returning to their employers. Well, we'd see them return empty handed.
Fishlegs and I started on opposite corners, our dragons as our allies. These full-grown Viking men were duly displaced by a young Viking woman barely into her twenties and a moderately over-weight Viking man with the heart of gold. Running towards one, I leapt into a slide and slid past him as his axe attempted to cleave my head off. Brandishing my own axe, I hooked his leg and flipped him. Letting his own weight carrying him to a hard impact on the deck. One thing Hiccup was always sure to tell us that, while we were saving the Dragons, we were not trying to kill the trappers. If they died of their own accord, so be it, but we never went for the kill.
Bringing my axe up, I quickly thrust it forward and into the gut of another running towards me with a sword. His groan of pain as he keels over proof that we don't need to kill to win. The two on my side of the deck dealt with, I begin lobbing off locks in the dragon cages. First one belongs to a Nadder, then a Nightmare and a Changewing. I was quick to get out of their way as they flew out of their cages.
Fishlegs rounded the corner and shouted. "Nothing below deck!" I nod and he moves on to the other cages on his side.
I suddenly hear the heavy footsteps of another and turn to see a large but lean Viking approaching me with a pair of weapons on his back. Rolling back his shoulders, he unslings a single bladed axe and a sword and scowls towards me.
"Pfft. A frail woman like you besting my men. I will see this end, now." He says coldly. He reminds me of Drago but is far less boastful and much more to the point. Roaring, he rushes me, and I dive past him, tumbling and now standing behind him as I level my axe to block a blow from his. Hooking his axe with mine, I kick him in the side and yank his axe out from his hand. Looking at his axe as it spins across the deck, he laughs.
"Humph, apparently you're worth something after all. Let's see you keep it up." He scowls and attacks. I've learned not to engage them in verbal parlay, it usually was a means of distraction from the fight and I would not let this man best me.
He comes down with his sword hard and nearly knocks my axe from my hands as he grips the shaft of my axe and hefts it out of my hands. I feel a powerful kick impact my stomach and send me rocketing back.
"Humph, short lived. Imagine that." He taunts as I struggle to stand. Stormfly quickly appears and launches several spine shots at him which he parries as I climb on her back.
"Fishlegs, get out of there!" I call out as Stormfly takes off.
"Way ahead of you!" I hear him answer as Meatlug takes off. We had gotten the dragons off this ship, so we were clear, and I didn't want to tangle with that guy more than I had too.
"Shoot the dragon down!" I hear him call out from below me and Stormfly barely dodges a net that is catapulted up to us. I hear the twins laugh as they swoop down, leaving a stream of gas in their path that quickly ignites, sending the man back a dozen feet onto his back.
"Who in Thor's name was that?" Fishlegs asks as he pulls Meatlug up to me.
"I've no idea, but he is good. He acts like the leader of this group." I answer him. "He's a good fighter." I admit.
"No kidding! Where's Hiccup?" Fishlegs asks and suddenly my heartrate spikes as I look over to the other ship. I see the Monstrous Nightmare crawling on the main sail and a sudden explosion of fire followed by the appearance of his fire blade.
"There, he's on the deck!" I call out and rush over on Stormfly.
Hiccup is back to back with Toothless and surrounded by what seems to be a dozen men. They seem to be led by another larger man who Hiccup is talking too. The scorch marks of his flaming sword are circled around him. My breath finally recovered, I land next to Hiccup and Toothless.
"Ah, more Dragon Riders. You guys wouldn't happen to be the ones who ousted old Drago, would you?" The larger one asks and Hiccup glances to me and nods.
"He had it coming." Hiccup answers.
"Oh, no he did. Made our jobs easier to be honest. Drago was always a pain in the ass. With him out of the way, reorganizing our forces was easier." He answers.
"And who are you?" I demand, taking a step closer as Hiccup moves with me.
"Name's Ragnar. You've lost us a good bit of property on the other ship, but you'll not be doing that with me." He says coolly, almost jokingly.
"Why are you hunting the Doomfang?" Hiccup asks and I can almost see the look of surprise in his eyes.
"Who told you that?" He pauses and glances to his men. "We have a leak, boys, kill these kids and take their dragons. Then we have a leak to plug." He says sounding almost joyful as his men start laughing and getting closer.
"Be careful." Hiccup whispers and I nod. Then chaos erupts.
They were prepared, not as though they expected us but as though they expected trouble. I guess traveling near Hysteria, one would need to be ready for trouble. We had little problem taking out their sails and most of their emplacements. Snotlout busy at work wiping out various net cannons while the twins, Fishlegs and Astrid were on the other ship.
The shriek of the Night Fury fills the air as Toothless dives and unleashes a pinpoint shot on an emplacement before we strike down and go for a landing. This ship didn't have any dragons above deck, which means it was either a support ship or the dragons were below deck. We were not leaving until we knew for sure. Racing across the deck, I see a large silhouette appear from below deck with what seems like dozens of men. Suddenly, Toothless and I are surrounded.
"Easy bud." I say, patting him on the side as I draw my Dragons breath blade. I do a quick spin, releasing the Zippleback Gas then ignite it for effect, stopping their advance. The bigger one just laughs.
"Cute toy, kid." He says as he draws a large axe.
"It's more than a toy. Where are you keeping the dragons?" I demand and he crosses him arms with a shrug.
"You'll have to find 'em. And You'll have to get through me first. We're not to fond of having our operations interrupted by kids." He says coolly as I hear the Deadly Nadder caw from above as Astrid lands next to me. I smile inwardly, here she was, at my side.
The next few minutes seem like a blur as suddenly the men level various weapons at us at his order to kill us.
"Hiccup!" Astrid calls out as a crossbow bolt is unleashed towards my face. It felt like slow motion as I heard her call out and watched the bolt barrel its way towards me. Bringing my blade to bear, I barely manage to deflect its path up and over us as we hear the roar of the men. They were charging us.
Astrid had no weapon, but she was able to dart out of the way of one of the trappers and take his. I parry the blade of another as I feel a powerful gust of wind as Toothless whiplashes his tail and knocks several of them over. Whomever these guys were, they weren't prepared for organized offensive between human rider and dragon as I hear the cry of Fishlegs as Meatlug barrels through another half dozen of them behind us and lends next to Astrid and I.
"Fishlegs! You and Astrid, go below deck and see that any dragons captures there are freed!" I shout out and see Fishlegs nod, but Astrid pauses and looks at me. I can see the look in her eyes, the apprehension, the fear. I feel it too; these guys were organized, and we were splitting up again. I smile softly and nod and she does the same.
"Come on, Fishlegs." She says and runs past me with him, and they head down below deck. I hear a hearty laugh come from behind me and Toothless and I turn to see the large one called Ragnar.
"Always dangerous to go into battle with a loved one, eh, kid?" He challenges, kicking one of his fallen trappers and taking his weapon, now duel-wielding a pair of axes. "You think it makes you stronger, but it only makes you weaker. More careless. Susceptible to mistakes where once you were a unit, you are now a couple within a unit. You know what that means." He says with a grin, slamming one axe head to the other making a loud ring that honestly hurt my ears a little bit.
Toothless must've agreed as he growled and prepared a pinpoint blast to lob at the man. "I agree bud, let's shut this guy up." I say and he only laughs.
"Oh, please. Try." Ragnar says as he rushes towards me. Toothless lobs one of his blasts but Ragnar is surprisingly quick and tumbles under it before standing tall in front of me. Coming down hard with his axe, I block the blow, barely, as the axe blade hooks with my flaming blade. "It's hard to believe Drago let himself lose to you." He snarls before I feel a deafening impact in my stomach from the head of the other axe that staggers me back to me knee.
Toothless uses his wing to parry the next Axe blade and then whiplashes his tail, knocking the man back again before following it up with a blast, blowing a hole in the deck from below.
"Hiccup!" I hear Snotlout shout from above and I shake my head.
"Take out the net!" I say, pointing to the net latched between both boats. It's odd, but I can even see a brief look of concern from him as well, but he does as told and starts dismantling the net with Hookfang. The Twins still visibly wreaking havoc on the other ship with Barf and Belch; since they didn't need to land anymore, all they were doing was walls of fire across the deck
I hear Ragnar groan and come to a stand as a gust of wind is felt near the hole in the deck. Astrid darts out with Stormfly followed by half a dozen more dragons they had kept below deck with Meatlug bringing the rear. I smile but my smile is short-lived as I hear a roar of frustration and feel the impact of another blow to my abdomen.
"You. Think. You. Can. Take. Our. Dragons?!" He bellows as I struggle to stand, barely dodging out of the way of each slice. Toothless was as taken aback by his display as I was as he tries to parry the axes and get closer to me so I can hop on but with how close Ragnar is, it's impossible for him to do anything without hitting me too.
"Yes." I gasp, parrying another hit. "I do!" I finish and let an entire canister of Zippleback Gas go before igniting it, engulfing both of us.
"HICCUP!" I hear Astrid's voice between the explosion and smoke as I find myself flying backwards. Toothless catches my fall and puts me on his back, but I can barely see. I feel another jump on Toothless's back and wraps my arm around their figure, it was Astrid.
"Come on, Toothless, let's go." She says and he grunts in acknowledgement and takes off.
"Wait.. What about the dragons?" I stammer, my eyes still partly closed from being fogged up by the explosions.
"We got them, Hiccup. You distracted that man long enough and his men for us to get them un-challenged." She says lowly and pats my hand. "SNOTLOUT, RUFF, TUFF! Let's Go!" She calls out.
"What—about Ragnar?" I ask again.
"You're blast sent him over the edge. Now hush, Hiccup. We'll get home soon, please just save your strength." Astrid says softly, squeezing my hand as she flies Toothless. I feel the pain from the multiple impacts and explosion finally creep in and my eyes go dark. I just needed to rest now.