I'll admit, it has been WAY too long since I last updated this story.
By now, it has been more than a month since I posted the last chapter, and all I can say is that because of the many things that are going on in my life right now, and the slight trouble that I had typing this chapter out, I was unable to get it up and out there as early as I wanted to. As such, I am very sorry for the extremely long wait.
Aside that however, I would like to give note that this chapter is the beginning of a three-part battle. And as with any battle chapter, I heavily recommend listening to cinematic/battle music while reading through.
And with all of that out of the way, I hope you guys enjoy!
"IT IS TIME! YOUR END HAS COME!"
As Drago's voice bellowed from the ruins, the sound of thunder suddenly cracked the skies like a massive whip, and in that moment, large chaos portals began tearing open at the base of the northern cliffs, each large enough to send groups of warriors through at once; even trolls.
As soon as the rifts were fully torn opened, the largest of the dark vikings that stood next to Drago, presumably the captain, gave a nod to the warlord. To that, he grabbed a hold of a large battle horn that hung on his back, and brought it forth to his beardless mouth - the only part of his horned helm that was uncovered.
Drago grinned wickedly, and once more raised his bullhook.
"CHARGE FORWARD, LEGIONS OF CHAOS! CHARGE!"
With a mighty blow, the horn bellowed out a deep, frightening sound that filled the vikings, elves, and dwarves down below with dread.
And then, it began.
Scores of orcs and goblins began pouring out from the large portals at once, and not even a moment later, their scores had amounted in the hundred. They rushed towards the vanguard in one massive wave, raising their blackened weapons outwards as they roared and laughed like an army of crazed barbarians.
With his now heart racing, Hiccup grabbed Inferno and pulled it from its sheath, lighting the blade aflame with fiery magic. To that, every viking, elf, and dwarf present did the same, drawing their weapons.
"ALL OF YOU, LINE UP WITH ME! NOW!"
Responding to the young chieftain's command, everyone quickly ran to Hiccup's side, and formed a battle line that spanned half of their numbers. Yet despite its length, it was simply not enough to close the gap between the nearby arms of the mountain.
Even with his friends beside him, and their dragons looking over their shoulders from behind, they all knew that they were too vulnerable.
"Five hundred isn't going to be enough against these beasts!" called out Astrid. "With a line like this, they're going to surround us!"
"...Then we'll have to bend the line!" replied Hiccup, catching the attention of the riders, captains, and dragons. "Bend it outwards! Make an arc so that they can't surround us! MOVE IT!"
Immediately the ranks began to shift. The bulk of the line moved forward so that it stood like a bulge, whilst the flanks backed up and formed a curve, from which the sides could be defended. Soon enough, the arc was formed, and the defenders made ready...
Simultaneously however, the enemy had begun to close in. By then, three thousand orcs and goblins had gone through the rifts, and they were ready to get into the thick of it.
"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" they roared maniacally.
With instinct, the vikings, elves, and dwarves standing at the front raised their shields, forming a firm shield wall as they glared down the enemy coming ever so closer towards them. Shivers went down their spines, yet at the same time, they refused to break. They knew that it was only a matter of time before their ranks collided.
"EVERYONE, GET READY!" shouted Hiccup, with his hand-cannon now pointed forward at the ready, and his blade right by his side, watching as the tidal wave of orcs and goblins closed in...
...But before they could clash…
BOOM!
All of a sudden, the cannons from atop the gates' ramparts open fired, launching flaming projectiles that struck the Dark Legion lines with explosive bursts of fire. In just a single volley, more than a hundred orcs and goblins fell dead; the charge became a front-line massacre.
"GET BACK, YOU MAGGOTS! GET BACK!" shouted an orcish captain. Yet his voice could not be heard amidst the chaos, and as such, the orcs and goblins merely continued their near-suicidal charge.
But the cannons were only the beginning of this onslaught.
Soon after, the great stone gates of the mountain began to open, prompting the vikings, elves, dwarves, and dragons to turn their heads and look back. A moment later, they heard a series of battle cries...
"FER THE WHITE MOUNTAIN!"
From the gates, Beldrak came charging out with his great axe in hand, yelling out chants along with an aspiring call to arms. Behind him, a large number of dwarves followed, carrying axes, hammers, spears, and shields as they roared out in unison with their leader. Altogether, the mighty thane brought forth a thousand dwarven warriors, all of whom were ready to fight to the death.
"KHAZÂR! KHAZÂR!" bellowed Beldrak.
"Finally!" cheered Snotlout in relief.
As the dwarves of Khaz'dalgard sallied out to group with Hiccup, the young chieftain spun his attention back to the orcs and goblins, who were nearly on top of them. Like so, the lad fired his hand-cannon, shooting down a random orc.
Then, he raised his voice.
"CHARGE!"
"GRAAAAAAGH!"
Without hesitation, the vanguard immediately broke formation, and with Beldrak and the dwarves right behind them, they charged straight into the enemy with a mighty roar. Upon collision, a hundred of the enemy's numbers were instantly taken down, but not before the dragons let out a volley of fire that took dozens more with them.
With that, the battle had commenced...
As the orcs and goblins were thrown back by their opponent's sudden push, the vikings, elves, dwarves, and dragons began cutting a swath through their front lines, and with Beldrak's army fighting alongside them, their efforts were made all the more easier.
Hiccup, with the other young vikings by his side, fought as an elite unit against the enemy; more so however with Astrid and Heather, of whom displayed their polished skills towards the orcs and goblins, fighting with advanced maneuvers that the brutes were simply unable to counter in that moment. In addition to this, Hiccup and Astrid made valuable use of their fiery and icy magics.
Nearby, Snotlout and Fishlegs battled with swift yet brutal force, displaying their strength to the enemy as they attacked their foes with lightning-lit weapons. Every successful strike they made against an orc or goblin resulted in a burst of stormy magic, which in turn zapped down several more nearby. At one point, the two vikings even began calling forth lightning from the skies, dealing even greater damage to the enemy.
As for the Twins, although they were not the best of fighters in that moment, their cunningness made it possible for them to swiftly and effectively pick out their enemies one after another, and this made the goblins in particular look like target practice. With Tuffnut's spear lit aflame, and Ruffnut's imbued with ice, the Twins stood back-to-back and stabbed at the enemy with deadly efficiency, either setting them on fire, or freezing them into blocks of ice that shattered into a consistency similar to that of snow.
...Together, Hiccup and his friends were like a meat-grinder, yet as the young warriors continued fighting beside each other, elsewhere, the captains fought their own battle alongside their warriors.
Olof and the Alsworn vikings sliced and diced through the orcs and goblins like a sickle through wheat. The black-bearded viking captain, with his dual-wielding axes in hand, hacked and slashed at the enemy's ranks like an angered berserker. The warrior grunted and shouted, feeling nothing but satisfaction as his weapons struck through his foes, lobbing off their limbs and heads.
"COME ON! BRING ME MORE!" he screamed, now surrounded by twenty dead orcs and goblins. "YOUR BLOOD WILL BE A GLORIOUS GIFT TO ODIN HIMSELF! AAAGH!"
Nearby, Valara and the light elves battled the enemy with blazing speed, swinging their swords and spears with extremely quick precision. The blonde-haired ranger in particular however struck far more wildly, cutting down her foes left and right with her long yet unnaturally-sharp elven sword, whose curved-edge blade was covered in a green mess.
"Is this the best you can do!?" she growled, slashing her blade upwards towards an orc.
Yet even as these two captains continued their rampage against the orcs and goblins, their hate for the brutes could not compare to Beldrak's, for he ran wild.
The dwarf thane was in the thick of the fray, fighting alongside his dwarven brothers around him, who gave the orcs and goblins a brutal battle. His great runic axe, made from midgarite, chopped through the enemy's armor as if it were puncturing glass. It went from orc to orc and goblin to goblin, striking constantly, and through it all, the thane continuously shouted one word;
"KHAZÂR! KHAZÂR! KHAZÂR AIV KHAZ'DALGARD!"
...Thus far, the forces of the Dark Legions were slowly being pushed back. Out of the three thousand that came through first, nearly two thousand had fallen to the defenders. But even then, they merely kept coming, and this time, they came not as a giant wave, but as organized groups, each with a hundred orcs and goblins.
From above, Drago could see the damage that the defenders had dealt to his forces; but the dragons in particular caught his eyes. With Toothless at their head, they managed to fend off hundreds of his warriors as if they were but wild cattle. Their attacks, whether by flame or claw, dwarfed the ferocity and strength of his warriors, yet at the same time, these losses were insignificant. He was barely shakened...
...And with that, the time came for him to tip the scales.
With a slight glare, the warlord turned to the dark viking captain. "The monsters! SEND THEM FORTH!"
With the command given, the captain once again sounded the large horn, sending out its startling blare. Simultaneously, this caught the attention of the young vikings and dragons, whose eyes briefly gazed back at the ruins where Drago stood.
"He sounded the horn again!" called out Ruffnut, pulling her spear from a goblin's corpse.
"What does that mean, though!?" questioned Snotlout.
"...I don't know about you," began Toothless. "But my senses are picking up something big, and it's coming this way!"
"Wh- What is it, Toothless!?" asked Hiccup.
Within that moment, their answer was given.
From the portals, ten large trolls came stomping forward, cladded in black plating, and armed with great maces and axes that were fitted for smashing down walls. Yet as large as the trolls were, they were not the only monsters that appeared…
Two chaos giants crawled their way through the portals, and upon standing to their feet, they bellowed out in anger. Unlike the jötunn that the group faced back in Votunheim, the giants they saw before them were equipped with large sets of weapons and armor, and along with that, they were even slightly larger.
...But yet again, that was not all that Drago had to show. Suddenly, Hiccup and the others heard a screeching sound emanate from above, which caused their dragons' eyes to widen with horror.
"RAAUUGH!"
From the skies, five black dragons descended. Alongside their terrifying roars, all it took was a mere glance to understand that these winged figures flying above were not the noble nor awe-inspiring dragons that much of the world knew of; these creatures were beasts of darkness, whose scales were as dark as night, and whose eyes and flames were as green as the Legions' wicked magic. They were dragons that could not be identified by a mere class, and nor were they anything that the young vikings had ever seen before. The mere sight of the winged monsters petrified them, freezing them in place out of seemingly unnatural fear.
But thankfully enough, Toothless's sudden roar was all it took to snap them back to reality.
"Hiccup!" called out Toothless, shouting over the loud sounds of battle. "If we don't take those monsters down, this battle will end before help can even arrive!"
"...So uh… what do we do!?" questioned Snotlout. "Shouldn't we come up with a plan-!?"
"There's no time for plans!" responded Hiccup. "Astrid, Heather, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, you guys will battle the trolls! Toothless, lead our dragons into the skies and take down their own! Fishlegs, Snotlout, you're with me! We're going to fight those giants!"
Fishlegs arched his brows. "But… how-!?"
"No hows or buts, Fishlegs! Let's get moving!" glared Hiccup.
There was no time to waste. Both groups made their move, with Toothless rallying the dragons beside him as he led them up to battle in the skies above, and Hiccup hastily calling down bolts of lightning to form a gap in the enemy lines, before leading his friends into the fray...
As the young vikings traversed across the fields of battle, large regiments of orcs and goblins passed by, marching in unison as they carried forth their black banners, banged their war drums, stomped their feet, and chanted loudly. Yet to their utter surprise, the vast majority of the Dark Legions' forces ignored them, for their attention was seemingly diverted onto the gates of Dalgard. However, only a few dared to break out of line to take them on, but even then, they stood no chance.
After traveling a well enough distance, the vikings came to a stop...
Hiccup tossed his friends a brief glance. "We split up here! Whatever you do, try not to get yourselves killed. Good luck!"
And thus, the seven vikings parted.
...
To the northeast of the battle, Hiccup, Snotlout, and Fishlegs approached the giants. The three Wings of Midgard lined up in front of the oncoming jötnar, with their eyes and hands now glowing with the power of lightning and thunder. For a short moment, they began recalling the fight against the giant that they faced back in Votunheim, remembering how the large jötunn fell to the same stormy magic that now crackled across their fingertips.
And once more, the outcome would be no different.
"I guess one giant wasn't enough for me," sighed Snotlout, stabbing his sword into the ground as he cracked his knuckles. "Time for round two…*
Hiccup gave the lads a nod. "Snotlout, you'll go for the right giant! Fishlegs, you and I will take out the left giant!"
"Sounds good to me," nodded Snotlout, pulling his sword from the ground and back to his side.
And to that, they went at it.
The three vikings charged at the giants, their hands and eyes crackling intensely with powerful storm magic. And like so, they engaged the large jötnar.
As Snotlout approached the right giant, the great brute attempted to bring down his gigantic mace upon the young warrior. However, using his magic, the Jorgenson suddenly dashed backwards like a bolt of lightning, as if he were thrown back. As a result, the giant only succeeded in striking the ground, and upon impact, Snotlout made his move.
Enhanced by his magic, the young viking made a powerful dash towards the giant's right hand, striking it with his storm-lit sword. The giant in turn roared in pain, and attempted to grab ahold of Snotlout with his other hand. However, this would be a mistake.
In that moment, Snotlout's hands and eyes luminated brighter with storm magic, and as his gaze fell upon the giant's head, he suddenly found the strength to jump towards the jötunn's jaw, and to that, he proceeded to land a punch so great and powerful, it sent the brute falling back. Simultaneously, a large purple lightning bolt erupted from the Jorgenson's fist, striking him.
Upon landing on his feet, Snotlout gave a wicked smirk at the site of his injured foe.
"I think I'm gonna enjoy this," he said, before once again continuing his assault...
As Snotlout continued his brawl with the first giant, Hiccup and Fishlegs had already begun fighting the second giant...
When the two vikings engaged the jötunn, the large brute charged them, and in an immediate response, they started to channel their lightning magic in unison. Once their spells were charged, the two of them combined their powers and let out a large beam of lightning onto the brute. As a result, the chaos giant was sent hurling down flat onto his back, just as Snotlout had done with the latter.
With the giant on the ground, Hiccup and Fishlegs started running as fast as they could towards it, with their intent on climbing his body and going in for the kill. But to their dismay, he had begun to stand back up on his feet.
"Uhh- he's getting back up!" called out Fishlegs, sliding to a halt.
"In that case, we'll need to get him down again!" said Hiccup, flurrying his blade in a readied manner as the giant straightened himself out. "Go for his legs and feet! Force him to the ground!"
With a bellowing roar, the jötunn raised his giant mace and brought it down between Hiccup and Fishlegs, causing the two vikings to split off as they began running around the large brute, casting different spells at his legs and feet while also they striking their weapons against them. But even then, this did not stop the giant from swinging and slamming his great mace down again and again, all in an attempt to stomp the vikings into the dirt...
...
To the northwest, Astrid, Heather, and the Twins confronted the trolls, and upon spotting the four vikings out of the corner of their eyes, they immediately turned their attention onto them.
The rampaging brutes began storming over to them with horrifying speed. The stomping of their feet was louder than the sound of the orcish battle drums, and as they came ever closer, the young vikings' hearts raced with intensity.
Astrid glanced back at Ruffnut, with her eyes and hands glowing with ice magic. "RUFF! ICEWALL!"
Her voice instantly startled Ruffnut, but without a moment of question or hesitation, she too conjured up her icy magic; and thus, both lasses unleashed beams of frost that quickly manifested into a long wall of ice.
Soon enough, the wall was assembled, yet it soon became clear that it would not stand long. As soon as the trolls approached the wall, they began smashing it down as quickly as it was built up, until there was nothing but icicles left remaining.
As the front-most troll caught gaze of the vikings and let out a bellowing roar, Heather, whose breath was racing, responded with a berserking battle cry.
"GRAAAAGH!"
To that, the Berserker tightened the grip on her double-bladed axe, and charged at the troll swiftly and furiously, so much so that it caught the others by surprise.
"Heather, wait-!" yelled Astrid.
However, it was no use. As Heather closed in on the troll, she raised her weapon and made a high leap at the large brute. To the shock of the others, her blade managed to find its mark. In a gap between the plates of armor, Heather's axe plunged itself into the troll's chest, sending the monster back with a violent fall.
The other trolls, upon seeing one of their own fall to the axe-maiden, immediately turned their raging focus towards her, letting out a series of growls and roars as they began to rush at her with greater haste than before.
"Come on! COME ON!" she exclaimed with a guttural voice.
"Looks like this is where our spear-throwing comes into play," said Ruffnut. "Shall we, brother?"
"That we shall, sister," nodded Tuffnut. "HRAAAGH!"
The Twins suddenly raised their spears, causing the glow of their fiery and icy enchantments to intensify, and with wicked grins, they ran at the trolls with ear-piercing war cries.
"GAAAAAGH!"
Astrid let out a sigh, embedding her axe into the dirt as she began to rub her hands together. "Looks like I'll have to make a more... magical approach."
As Ruffnut and Tuffnut charged the trolls, the sound of their deranged shouting managed to catch the attention of four of the armored oafs. As such, they turned their backs on Heather and counter-charged the Twins, responding with their own bellowing battle cries.
"YEAH! COME AT US!" laughed Ruffnut maniacally.
In unison, the vikings brought their spears above their shoulders, and aimed them at the nearest troll. Then, with a mighty swing, the Twins threw their weapons forward, striking the troll in both shoulders. The impact was so great, an explosion of frost and fire bursted outwards from both spears, causing it to hurl down onto its back with a loud slam. To their utter shock, the beast was killed in a near instant.
"TWO MEADS FOR US!" cheered Tuffnut, running atop the troll's corpse as he pulled his spear from its left shoulder. "Ahh! That felt good!"
"Don't get too ahead of yourself, brother!" exclaimed Ruffnut from behind, pointing her finger towards the other oncoming trolls. "After all, THAT WAS JUST ONE!"
Upon glancing back at the remaining trolls, the lad's expression suddenly became as pale as snow. The sight of the armored monsters bolting towards him from a mere several yards caused him to let out a loud yelp, yet as they raised their large maces and prepared to strike, Astrid's voice suddenly filled the air.
"THOR, GIVE ME STRENGTH!"
In that moment, the skies above boomed with thunder, and from the clouds, a great bolt of purple lightning came crashing down upon the three trolls, blasting two of them back in an eruption of stormy magic, while utterly annihilating the troll that was struck directly. It collapsed with a stagger, as if the lightning had completely drained the life out of it.
The Twins were jaw-dropped, and as they spun their heads back towards Astrid, they saw the lass with her arms extended outwards, as well as her eyes and hands crackling with lightning.
"Geesh!" called out Ruffnut. "What the Thor was that!?"
"Shut it!" responded Astrid breathily, pulling her axe from the ground as she gripped it in both hands. "Those two oafs will be on their feet at any moment. So finish them off!"
"Heh," chuckled Tuffnut as he spun his spear, before looking back at the trolls. "Don't mind if I do…"
From there, the fight against the armored brutes raged on. As Astrid, Heather, and the Twins fought on against the chaotic monsters, they found themselves slowly gaining the upper hand. With every troll that they befell, their confidence surged, and with that, they further amplified their efforts.
However, the same could not be said for the action that took place in the skies. Above the battlefield, Toothless and his fellow dragons struggled against the enemy's black winged beasts.
...
The Dark Legions' drakes were much stronger than what the dragons had anticipated, as well as much larger. They were the size of Titan-Winged Monstrous Nightmares, if not slightly larger, and though their ability to maneuver was deterred as a result of this, it barely changed a thing.
...Yet, there was something about the black dragons that terrified Toothless and his group. It was the tongue that they spoke in; a distorted and warped form of Dragonese that sent shivers down their spines. With every word they roared and uttered, the Night Fury and his companions felt a horrific and outlandish evil take hold, filling their minds with fright and horror.
"PAIN!" the black-wings bellowed. "PAIN! TORTURE! CHAOS! AGONY! ALL MUST BURN! DIE!"
As Toothless fired bolt after bolt of plasmic fire towards the black beasts, the other dragons let out all they could against them. Stormfly launched volleys of spikes from her tail towards their large wings. Meatlug spewed molten lava like a dwarven cannon. Hookfang set his body aflame and shot out great streams of fire. Barf and Belch released large clouds of gas and erupted them into an inferno. And Windshear hurled bright blue flames onto them as she struck their bulks with her razor-sharp tail.
Yet despite the effort, their attacks dealt little to the black dragons. They merely continued to fight on, striking with their sharp claws as they let out powerful streams of chaos fire from their gaping maws. So wicked were their green flames, that any ordinary man engulfed by them would be incinerated in an instant.
"Th- This is too much!" roared Hookfang, intensifying the heat of his flames across his body. "Our attacks are doing too little to them! We can't stop them!"
"How can the enemy have such powerful dragons!?" questioned Stormfly. "They're as large as Titan Wings!"
"And they're stronger than Titan Wings!" exclaimed Toothless, launching a barrage of plasma blasts towards the head of one of the black dragons. "Nothing we do seems to pierce them! We can't-"
"PAIN!" screamed one of the beasts. "THERE IS ONLY PAIN!"
Windshear let out a screeching roar. "I can't take it anymore! We need to find a way to put them down, and now!"
Smog steamed from Toothless's nostrils. As the Night Fury flew around in the skies, continuously dodging the attacks of the black dragons, he took the moment to consider what other alternatives they had in taking them down. With the situation they were in, victory now seemed shallow, and the dragon knew that as long they continued fighting the way that they did, they would never achieve it.
Yet as Toothless watched as his friends battled the black dragons in a spread out manner, an idea soon came to mind, and as such, the Night Fury smirked.
"...If we cannot take them down at the same time," he began. "We'll just have to pick them off individually!"
Barf and Belch gazed back at Toothless as another gas cloud erupted behind them. "What do you mean!?" they asked in unison.
"Let's combine our attacks and take them down one by one!" answered the Night Fury. "We'll force them out of the skies with immense force, and send them falling! That should-"
"END IT!" one of them screeched. "END IT ALL, END IT ALL, END IT ALL!"
"Let's just do it already!" growled Meatlug. "I don't want to hear their voices any longer!"
Toothless nodded. "EVERYONE! ON ME! Ready your attacks!"
The dragons gave no question and instantly flew to the Night Fury's side, following his lead as they began flying around the black-wings with their mouths alight.
The flight was unlike any other that they had ever attempted before. With every second that passed, they performed constant maneuvers that tested their limits, dodging rivers of chaos fire that continuously hurled towards them. They knew well that if either of them broke focus, it would be the end of them. But their will to press on, along with their draconic instincts, helped keep them alive.
"Just… hold… on!" exclaimed Toothless.
Eventually, the opportunity came. For a brief moment, the black dragons ceased their fire, and with that, the Night Fury gave the word.
"NOW!"
The seven dragons all aimed towards one of the black-wings, and in unison, they fired upon the evil creature.
...The result of their combined attack was far greater than they anticipated. Upon impact, a great explosion of fire erupted outwards from the beast, causing their surroundings to tremble and quake with violence. The blast was so powerful, it was felt by everyone who fought below.
"AUUURRGGHHH!" the black dragon screeched as its body and wings scorched in orange, draconic flames. Like a candle blowing out, the chaos fire in its eyes and maw slowly began to fade.
And like so, the beast fell from the skies like a meteor from Muspelheim, and as it struck the ground, it landed atop a marching regiment of orcs and goblins, crushing many of them under its weight.
"That did it!" roared Toothless. "Let's keep at it! We've got them where we want them!"
Once more the dragons lit their flames, and with their newfound method, they proceeded to unleash great barrages of fire upon the black beasts. One by one, they plummeted out of the skies, seething and burning as they came crashing down atop scores of orcs and goblins, and in their dying breaths, they let out terrible, piercing screeches that echoed across the battlefield.
...As soon as the last black dragon fell, Toothless and the others roared in victory.
"Seems like they weren't so mighty after all," grinned Hookfang.
"Indeed. But don't celebrate yet," replied Toothless. "This battle is still far from over, and our riders need us."
"...Actually," said Windshear. "I don't think they'll need our help. Look!"
At that very moment, the booming sound of Hiccup's hand-cannon firing caught their attention, and as the dragons looked down below, they saw that the young vikings had already dealt with the other monsters.
The chaos jötunn to the northeast were utterly crushed. One had been shattered into thousands of icicles by Snotlout after being beaten down, whilst the other received a slag of steel through the chest as soon as Hiccup and Fishlegs brought him down to the ground. And as for the trolls to the northwest, they had all been taken down by either spears, spells, or Astrid's and Heather's axes. The brawl was so intense, the ground around the four vikings was burnt, frozen, and charred, and the bodies of the fallen trolls that surrounded them merely added on to the desolation.
"Well then," said Stormfly. "I guess that makes things easier..."
"Quite so," replied Toothless. "Everyone! Secure your riders!"
With a series of nods, the dragons split off and flew down to pick up the exhausted vikings. The moment they stormed by, Hiccup and the others mounted up on their saddles with all due haste, before flying their way up above the battlefield.
Upon closing in, the group slowed their dragons to a halt, and tossed looks to one another.
"Is anyone hurt?" asked Hiccup, to which the other vikings shook their heads.
"Ya should've seen Heather, though!" said Ruffnut. "By the end of it, she was standing on a hill of trolls!"
"At least half of 'em!" added Tuffnut.
"Yeah, and you two nearly got yourselves killed!" replied Astrid. "However, that's completely irrelevant!"
"Aye," nodded Hiccup. "Right now, our priority is the battle. Now, where do our forces stand?"
"Well…" said Fishlegs. "It looks like we have the upper-hand."
As the group gazed down at the battlefield below, they saw the great effort that the vikings, elves, and dwarves had managed to make against the orcs and goblins.
The combined forces of the vanguard, and of Dalgard's dwarves, had pushed the enemy back a significant distance from the city gates. Though the defenders had more than a few dozen casualties, it was nothing compared to the thousands of orcs and goblins that now laid dead across the ravaged fields.
With the main front pushed out, it seemed as if they had the advantage. And yet, that was far from the truth...
From the ruins above, Drago gazed down upon the battle with a wide grin, for this was exactly what he had hoped for. By having the vikings, elves, and dwarves ram his forces outwards onto the field, the gates of Dalgard were left vulnerable for his taking.
"Let us make things interesting..." chuckled Drago as he lifted his bullhook into the air, to which it then began to glow brightly with chaos energy.
In that moment, the lightning and thunder from the clouds above the ruins started to amplify. Flashes of green crackled across the skies as loud booms filled the air, and as the young vikings and their dragons leered at the sight of it, they felt dread sink into their stomachs.
"Wh- What's going on!?" called out Astrid.
"This is Drago's doing!" responded Hiccup. "Everyone, brace yourselves!"
All of a sudden, a large blinding emerald light erupted in the east, causing the riders, the dragons, and any and all who caught notice of it to avert their gaze. Though Hiccup and the others knew not what it was that Drago was doing, the utter worry within them only worsened. However, as soon as flare faded out, the group opened their eyes to see what it was that Drago had done.
And what they saw nearly frightened them...
Three thousand dark vikings stood in the distance, as if they had appeared out of thin air, and they were all armed and at the ready. Their black-armored plating flickered from the faint sunlight, and their dark banners and cloaks of black fur blew against the wind as they stared up at Drago, with their green eyes burning brightly from beneath their horned helmets.
The warlord cackled with laughter, and with his bullhook, he pointed towards the gates of the mountain, and bellowed out one word;
"MARCH!"
Once more, the enemy's malevolent horn was sounded, and with it came a loud voice, echoing from the dark viking ranks.
"MARCH FOR MALDRAGOR!"
Almost immediately, all of the dark vikings turned in perfect unison towards the gates, and began to march with frightening discipline. With every fourth step, the sound of war drums could be heard thundering, and as they marched, the riders suddenly turned their eyes back to the exposed gates, and thus realized what they had done.
Hiccup's voice rose up. "We need to stop their advance. NOW!"