Sorry about the delay guys! I have been having to deal with school for the past week, but because I am now on break I can finally get back to this with hopefully a better upload schedule.
Also just as a quick note, there will be somewhat of a cliffhanger at the end of this chapter, and some of you may probably question it. Personally, it is something I myself would not have seen coming.
Anyways, with that out of the way, let us begin! Enjoy!
"Troll!"
As soon as Hiccup yelled out the word, a patch of trees before them were knocked down, and out of the woods came a large, fifteen foot tall troll. But upon first glance, they could all immediately tell that something was off.
The troll had a weapon in its hands, and it was not a mere tree log like most trolls would use - rather it was an actual weapon. A giant spiked mace.
Along with that, the troll's skin was darker than usual; nearly a grey rocky color that made Hiccup remind him of something… the orcs.
But it was the troll's eyes that gave it all away. They both glowed with the same evil green magic that Arn spoke of. Chaos; which meant the troll before them was corrupted by the orcs...
Trolls were not creatures that were at all fonded by the races of Midgard. There were many types of them; forest trolls, mountain trolls, cave trolls, and even stone trolls - who were the only types of trolls that would turn to rock upon the sun touching their skin.
Unfortunately for the vikings, the troll that stood before them was a mountain troll. A very angry corrupted mountain troll.
As the brute glared Hiccup and the group down, it tightened its grip on the mace as it slowly began its advance, causing them to back away from the fire.
"I knew one way or another I'd fight a troll sooner or later! It's tainted with chaos magic," said Arn as he unsheathed his sword.
"Arn! You never mentioned the orcs having trolls with them!" nervously spoke Fishlegs, taking out his hammer and shield.
"I told you before that the Dark Legions have other races with them! What did you expect? Goblins?!"
"Guys, now is not the time right now!" replied Hiccup who steadily began to back up. "Spread out! And get ready to fight! It won't be able to hit us all if we-"
"HICCUP!"
Astrid's voice bellowed loudly as the troll made its first move and charged Hiccup. It roared like a maniac, bringing it's large mace upwards and then down in an attempt to crush him. But due to its large size, it was not quick enough.
Hiccup swiftly leaped backwards, and just feet from him the large weapon pummeled itself into the snowy ground. It was a miss.
At first he let out a breath in relief, but then realized that the fight was just beginning.
Once again the troll lunged forward at Hiccup, and this time began making a flurry of heavy but slow diagonal swings. With each attack it gave, Hiccup did his best to back up, duck, and leap out of the way - but it would not let up no matter what.
At one point the troll once again struck its mace into the ground, and quickly Hiccup managed to strike his blade Inferno into the troll's hand while it was trying to bring its weapon back up. The cut looked small, but it was deep enough to make the troll roar in pain.
But the pain became anger.
The troll raised its mace from the ground and prepared to again bring it down on Hiccup, but then it suddenly felt something strike it in the side of it's chest - small but sharp.
Astrid still had her bow on her, and shot an arrow at the beast to get it's attention. She became certain that now its attention would turn on her.
And surely enough, it did.
Dropping the bow to the side, Astrid unsheathed her axe and glared at the troll as it charged her. Like with Hiccup, it brought it's mace up in an attempt to bring it straight down on her.
But rather than standing still and defensive, she went onto the offensive and charged back at it - but did not exactly attack it directly.
Instead, the swift shieldmaiden slid underneath the troll in-between it's legs which were spread out wide, and with a lob of her axe she chopped into the troll's left leg.
Now standing behind the troll, Astrid heard it roar louder than the last time. The pain of the wound she inflicted must have been more than the last attack by Hiccup, and that meant it was more furious than before.
It turned around to face her, bringing it's mace around and down to crush Astrid - but like Hiccup she lunged backwards and dodged its attack.
And it was during this moment that the others ran to Astrid's side to help her. The troll now reached it's left arm out in an attempt to grab her.
"We've got your back Astrid!" called out Hiccup. "Arn! Get it's attention on us, will you?!"
Arn firmly nodded, unsheathing a throwing dagger from his belt before hurling it towards the troll's left arm, catching the beast off guard as it turned to it's right to see the others rushing towards it.
But before it could even make a move, Hiccup with the use of much of his strength leaped onto the troll's right arm and began to climb him. It attempted to reach for him, but Arn again threw one of his throwing daggers at it.
Instead of going for the left arm reaching for Hiccup however, he went for the right arm, and the dagger made a wound which was enough to where the troll dropped its mace and turned its attention back on the others.
Fishlegs and the Twins on the other hand tried to climb the troll like Hiccup, but were immediately shaken off before being smacked down flat on their backs by a swing from the beast with it's hand.
It was not a fatal blow, but it definitely hurt them badly as if they were bruised, making them feel like they were hit with a hundred fists.
"Oww…" groaned Tuffnut in the snow. "I... I think I may need a pillow."
Meanwhile, Hiccup was crawling all over the troll's back and stabbing cuts as deep as he could into it with Inferno. The combination of fire and metal cutting into the troll made his stab wounds easy to make, like a knife going through butter, but they just made the troll more arrogant by the moment.
It started moving around like a crazed person, shaking itself to try and get Hiccup off of its back, but it was unable to. He held on for dear life, and even as the troll reached its arms back to try and grab him, it could not reach him.
But Hiccup knew he could not stay like this forever. So he called out for Astrid.
"Astrid!"
"Yeah, Hiccup!?"
"Get your bow, and get ready to shoot it!"
Without question or another word, Astrid ran towards where she dropped her bow and picked it up. Thankfully she still had her quiver of arrows on her back, and she immediately reached out for an arrow and aimed at the troll.
"SHOOT IT!" Hiccup screamed. "Just shoot it already!"
"Where?!" replied Astrid.
"IN IT'S JAMBAGS!"
"Ugh, it doesn't HAVE ANY JAMBAGS! Why can't you-!?"
"JUST SHOOT IT!"
Astrid growled as she pulled her arrow back and shot it at the troll, successfully hitting it in the chest. But even with that, it still would not stop moving around.
With Fishlegs and the Twins too exhausted and unable to move, only she, Hiccup, and Arn could turn this around, thus she knew they had to improvise.
But how?
She could not think in time however as Hiccup was eventually shaken off the troll, knocked down into the snow on his back a few yards to the right from her, and it seemed there and then like he was going to be stomped on to death.
The troll marched towards Hiccup who struggled to get back up, but the large creature suddenly stopped in its tracks as it once again felt something jump on its back. A blonde-headed viking in particular.
"You've screwed up now, big fella!" shouted Arn as he began stabbing his blade into the back of the troll like Hiccup did before, going through it's flesh like butter.
The troll screamed and roared viciously as it struggled to get Arn off him, but it's wounds were becoming more and more as the lad continued stabbing, and the beast started to slow down in its movement.
Hiccup watched this from where he laid, mustering the strength to get back onto his feet, or rather foot, to help Arn out. He looked at Astrid and gave her a nod.
"Continue shooting the troll! I've got a plan to take this beast out!" he told her as his eyes then looked up at Arn who struggled to keep himself on as he kept stabbing.
"Arn! Keep that troll distracted! And try to hold on!"
"Hold on to what, it's back?! How long do you even need!?"
"As long as we need so we can kill it! Just hold on until it faces me!" answered Hiccup.
Arn did as he was told. He kept holding on as the troll struggled to get him off of it, all while Astrid kept firing her arrows without trying to hit Arn. So far however, it seemed like they were getting nowhere. The troll just kept moving around trying to get Arn off of his back…
Until it was finally facing Hiccup.
He wasted no time, and with a fierce rush he charged the large creature and stabbed Inferno as deep as he could into its chest, making it let out a roar that caused the ground beneath everyone's feet to vibrate even the slightest.
Hiccup pulled out his blade from the troll, which in response roared again in his face, and then he turned back to Astrid. "Aim for the mouth! NOW!"
Astrid did as she was told, pulling out an arrow from her quiver as she aimed for the mouth of the roaring troll and shot her projectile accurately and precisely into it which then travelled slightly down it's throat and…
The troll felt a sharp and spreading pain in its neck as the wind began to escape it. The arrow with its successful shot managed to slice open the windpipe from the inside. The air then started to escape it, and there was nothing the troll could do as it felt everything go black before falling straight over onto it front.
Arn immediately jumped off the troll, rolling upon landing on the ground as he stood to his feet and wiped himself off. The three of them looked at the large brute, and let out a sigh of relief.
It was dead.
And as it died, the large mace which the troll wielded was suddenly engulfed by green magic, before it disappeared. Hiccup assumed it was conjured.
"Excellent work, Astrid!" he complimented her.
Although the troll landed on its front, Hiccup saw that its head had in fact landed on its side, allowing for him to see it's face, and it was then that he noticed the green magical glow in it's eyes leave it like snow blowing in the wind.
He looked back at Arn with concern. "The troll's eyes, they're no longer green..."
"Well, that's what's supposed to happen when someone corrupted with chaos magic dies. The magic leaves it's host and returns to wherever it originated from, though I do not know where."
"I hate to interrupt," said Astrid, pointing her thumb back to Fishlegs and the Twins who laid in the snow. "But shouldn't we help them?"
Hiccup and Arn looked at each other, responding with a nod as they rushed over to help up the Twins and Fishlegs. Though they were bruised, they were alive.
Fishlegs groaned as Hiccup helped him to his feet, and felt a light waking slap against his face. "Fishlegs, are you alright?"
He rubbed his lower back, narrowing his head up to face Hiccup. "I- I am fine," he responded. "But... did you kill it?"
"It's dead alright," said Hiccup, motioning with his head towards the corpse of the dead mountain troll.
"Ugh, why didn't we get to have any fun?" asked Tuffnut as he nudged Arn away after being helped up. "We could have wrecked that fat muttonhead like a herd of yaks! Like a..."
"That is a bold way to describe my pet…"
Everyone lightly gasped at the sound of a voice echoing through the air. But Hiccup could judge by the guttural sound of the voice that it was an orc. The question was, where was he?
"Show yourself, orc!" he shouted.
"As you wish," laughed the orc.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a green vortex of fire bursted upwards in the center of the camp where their campfire was - which in turn destroyed it as well as the small area around it as it was conjured.
Hiccup and the others covered their eyes, and as soon as the green fire doused itself out, they looked back and saw an orc standing there - but it was no ordinary one.
The orc wore black robes that were covered in green runes, along with a tattered hood. His eyes glowed more green and fiercely with chaos magic, and in his right hand he held a staff with a stag-skull at its head. The skull's eyes also glowed with chaos magic.
"A- a shaman?" asked Hiccup in a shaky voice. He had never seen an orc spellcaster before.
"A warlock," answered Arn, stepping forward in defense of the group. "I have not seen one come this far south before. What are you doing so far away from Valnr, fiend?"
"Hm, brave words I must say. Regardless of what you think, know that I have come to deliver you a message from my warlord," said the orc warlock with a chuckle. "After seeing you fight my troll, I can see now that he was right when he told me that you would survive, even without your dragons... though it was necessary."
"Warlord?" asked Hiccup. "How would he have known that? Your beast was close to killing us, orc!"
"This troll was but one of many that we have. I simply managed to have found this one up in the mountains and decided to use it for good use."
"Good use!? By corrupting it and using it as your pet?" asked Astrid. "That is just slavery!"
"You may say what you want about it, but my warlord insists that you receive his message - one way or another…"
The orc slightly raised his hand up as he conjured up chaos energy threateningly, which made Hiccup realize that he had to hear the warlock out willingly, or it would lead to a fight he could not win.
"What do you want…"
The orc grinned wickedly as he lowered his hand and dismissed the green foul magic. "That is more like it," he replied, satisfied.
"Now," he began. "Down to the point... On an island to the northwest from here, larger than this one, an army of the Dark Legions is amassing, readying to sail and strike your home. Judging by the defenses of your village however, there is no way that you can survive the onslaught if it comes here… but if you want to stop us, by all means, my warlord wants you to come to our fortress on the island and fight us there. See if you can... best us."
"And what is this island called?" asked Hiccup.
"Ahh… it is the Island of Tomorrow," grinned the warlock, to which everyone gave off surprised gasps, especially Hiccup, whose fists began to tighten up.
The Island of Tomorrow was the ancestral home of all Berkians, whom were formerly called the Wilderwestians because of Hiccup's ancestor, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock I. He was the first who ruled the Vikingdom of the Wilderwest, which back then united much of the Archipelago under a single ruler.
And now the orcs had taken it. But how? Was it not cursed?
"Out of all the islands, why did you…"
"Our warlord knew you would react this way," smirked the warlock. "Still, if you seek to fight us, come to the Island of Tomorrow with whatever force you can muster, and face us… Warlord Drago Bludvist gives his regards."
"Drago Bludvist!?"
More questions rose up for Hiccup, and as he was about to speak the warlock snapped his fingers and quickly disappeared in a burst of green chaotic fire.
It soon came to everyone's attention however that what remained of the area around the orc from where he stood was desolate ground, corrupted with patches of chaos magic that seeped through the blackened and disgusting dirt, rising up in the air like smoke.
This was what Midgard would become if the orcs were not stopped.
Hiccup all the meanwhile was at a loss of words. Their hunt had turned into something more, and his questions about the Wings of Midgard now piled up with Drago Bludvist being alive. Was he somehow revived, or did he just survive? And the orcs and their army... how big was it? Perhaps it was twice or thrice the amount than from the raid the night before?
He turned to face the group with a lost look. But instead of saying a single word, his gaze fell towards the path they came from, and as such, he began to make his way along it, back to the village.
"Hiccup, where are you going? Aren't we going continue the hunt?" asked Fishlegs.
"The hunt is over," Hiccup replied with dread. "Get our cart moving. We're returning to town with what we have. I want no excuses."
As the group readied the cart full of meat, Hiccup just kept walking down the path, all while deeply thinking to himself on the new matter.
"Drago, leading the orcs... how in Thor's name is this possible? How is he even alive!?"