Alphas dashed at one of the Insidians, which launched itself into him, and its weight overcame his own, flattening him across the floor. It opened its mouth, red smoke collecting within, and then was slammed sideways by Wreckage's tail.
It struggled to get up. Wreckage generally had that effect.
Alphas took advantage of the moment to plunge his sword through the brain. The struggles ceased immediately.
Another Insidian barrelled past him and snapped at Astrid. She dodged aside and slammed the flat of her axe into its head. It staggered away.
"Kill it," he told her. The look of uncertainty told him everything he needed to know. She still believed, somewhat, that because it had the shape of a dragon it had the mind of a dragon, no matter how much of her was fighting to believe what really was.
But he'd have to take care of it himself while she fought that battle, because it had the shape of a dragon but the mind of a human, and that human was a psychopath.
If she waited until she was ready, she'd die while she waited.
So Alphas ran to the one she'd just hit and it died.
Omegas walked backwards by him, gripping one of the wyverns by its mouth to stop it from using its smoke. It growled from within the deep recesses of its throat, which was soon severed from its body.
Snotlout thudded his hammer into another Insidian a little ways away, which constituted an immediate and total shutdown. What else could you expect, with a hammer blow?
Alphas heard pattering steps behind him and whirled. The Insidian caught his sword between its teeth with an iron grip, snickering to itself.
"You cannot fight us, human," it said between Indus steel. "You can reduce us, but you cannot end us. Only death lies that way."
"Death for you, maybe," Alphas replied, and stuck his dagger in its overly long neck. It let go of his sword and tried to step away, gurgling. Alphas held on, and slid the dagger around. It carved easily through the scales and reptilian flesh.
He stepped away and almost got stabbed.
"Sorry!" Ruffnut yelled as she jabbed the spear again at a rapidly retreating Insidian. Tuffnut was hanging on to its mouth, keeping it closed. Loud but indecipherable mumbling noises came from the Insidian. Alphas stepped forward and took care of the matter.
"Thanks!" she said brightly as Tuffnut picked himself up off the floor. He hurriedly let go of the Insidian, or the part of it which he had been holding.
No time to waste. Alphas darted to the nearest enemy he could find. This one was being handled by Hiccup and the Night Fury. Every time it opened its mouth, he would make to stick his fire sword in, and the mouth would be shut with astonishing readiness, or even fear. In the meantime, the Night Fury was snarling and batting the wyvern with paw or tail or wing.
Alphas decided that he could come back to this one later. It was certainly amusing to see an Insidian cower. He could let it go on for a little longer.
A scream attracted his attention, but even as he twisted around, he saw Omegas stepping up to handle it, and so he turned away from the matter. The one called Fishlegs definitely needed some training, if any at all.
He frowned. The Gronckle seemed to be having some trouble. The Nightmare and the Nadder and the Zippleback, not to mention Wreckage and Spiral, were handling it well enough by matter of sheer size, but the Gronckle was smaller, even if it was ferocious enough in its own right, and besides, it was being flanked.
Alphas leaped.
A soldier must be aware of every single thing on the battlefield if they are to fight on another one. This, however, is simply not possible for a human mind, which, while it can handle the influx of information, simply does not have sophisticated enough means to take in all information at once.
As such, while a good soldier can be aware enough of the things happening around them, and can react to the unknown right before it strikes them, only an excellent soldier can achieve a level of awareness near the goal, which is, in almost all cases, good enough for them to handle any threat.
However, a human mind is susceptible to mistakes. While it can see a possible threat, or even one barrelling towards the body at high speeds, the mind may sometimes fail to process the information. Most times excellent soldiers have fallen because they forgot the enemy was holding a spear, and charged.
Therefore, a truly sharp mind can see the chinks in the armour, and wedge their entire being into the crack, prising it wide open.
Insidians have extremely sharp minds.
Alphas went sprawling, crashing through crimson stalagmites until he finally came to rest, surrounded by rubble.
The Insidian which had caught him and thrown him as he leapt forward advanced, grinning. Its eyes sparked. His head spun from where he had cracked his skull on the stone.
"What did we tell you, human?" it said, pleased. "Only death lies this way."
A forked tongue flickered, tasting the air, as he staggered to his feet, searching for his sword.
"You have killed us. We cannot let this pass. You too will die."
The Insidian's tail whipped around.
"It will be slow," it told him as he gasped, blood trickling, rapidly darkening the black material he wore.
Alphas looked at his shoulder. He looked at the gash that travelled down his arm…
And severed the leather.
He began to smile before the Insidian scored another deep cut, this one across his chest. He hissed, pain nearly overriding his senses. Struggling, he pushed it down. Living was more important.
"Still," it said. "You have forced our hand. We use our power against one like you! An admirable feat."
"Could you," he managed to say between gritted teeth, "do the other arm… as well?"
The Insidian cocked its head, surprised showing in those golden eyes.
"You wish for pain?"
"No better way… to go out as… a warrior, eh?" he grinned madly at it.
"You have accepted your fate, then," it mused. "The task of submission was easier than we imagined. Perhaps we should keep you as one of our thralls."
"Over my… dead body," he snarled.
"That would not be very long," it said, amused at its own joke. "Very well. We would honour your wish before you die."
=0=
Hiccup managed to stick the sword inside, and the dragon - wyvern, he corrected himself - before him screamed in agony. Hurriedly, by some reflex, he pulled it out, taking a few teeth with it.
The Insidian glared at him. "You dhae to inzuh uth?" it lisped with fury.
Hiccup winced. "Yeah. That looked painful."
Toothless yowled and slapped it with his paw. The wyvern yelped as some of its teeth met the fresh gaps.
"I'm kind of sorry," Hiccup continued as it just barely didn't scream. "But I don't think I can go all the way. You're evil, from what I've heard."
"You thould noh bewieve eveything you ah thode."
"You said you would enjoy the entertainment. Like watching us rip each other apart is a fun time. Why wouldn't I believe what they tell me about you?"
The Insidian did not respond, as Toothless had bowled it over. Currently it was lying on its back with spread wings. It blasted Toothless in the face with a cloud of red gas, and he scrambled off, rubbing at his eyes.
"Toothless!" Hiccup exclaimed, alarmed. "Are you okay?"
Toothless pawed at his eyes, which were watering.
"We cannoh enthrah them, buh we cah hurh them." The wyvern rose behind him. Hiccup didn't turn, and felt the radiated curiosity, so calm and confident, like nothing could hurt it, as though what had happened just a few seconds ago didn't matter at all.
"Thur anh fathe me, boy."
Hiccup readied Inferno.
"Why zho you noh obey?" it asked him.
Hiccup turned and swung the sword, pointing it right at one of those glittering eyes. The dragon was tall, and he couldn't reach far enough to stick the weapon in, but it scrambled back in sudden fear. Hiccup kept close, keeping the flames right in front of those eyes. To the Insidian, it must have seemed like the sun had descended.
"Shut up," he told it. Carefully, it moved, just a bit, which Hiccup took as a nod. Then its eyes flickered away, despite the fire right there, and Hiccup couldn't help but follow its line of sight, wondering as he did so if he was falling for one of the oldest tricks in the book.
What it was looking at was real, and Hiccup didn't like it.
The cavern was filling up again.
=0=
Alphas almost screamed as the arrowhead on the end of the tail, laced with a dark yet vibrant red, ripped a trail along his leg. He fell to one knee.
The next cut was on his head. It stung, and then it burned. Blood leaked across the fabric over his legs.
The hand he held up, with some difficulty, to hopefully have the other band torn through, was instead rewarded with bloodied fingers.
The scream was small enough that no one else heard, and instead came out as a long whine in his throat.
The Insidian rasped with its horrible laughter. Blood trickled down over his forehead, and he had to close one of his eyes as it streamed down.
"How pitiful you look now," the Insidian hissed at him. "Do you still wish for pain?"
Mutely, Alphas hung his head, the picture of a beaten man.
"All your bravado gone," it said gleefully. "This is your reward for having any at all."
The tail was poised. "We will now give you your last desire. The next time, it will go through your eye."
Unseen by the Insidian, Alphas grinned.
=0=
Omegas dodged a pillar of red smoke, which was blasted at him from above. It hit the ground and curled outwards in a tiny cloud of evil. He raised the shield as the Insidian attempted to score grooves in his head, and grabbed its foot. It tried to shake him off, which ended in failure.
He swung forwards and let go, and right before he fell he buried the axe in its breast.
It screeched, whirling in the air madly, and then fell, crashing along the ground in a trail of dust. Omegas wriggled out from under it, and attempted to pull the axe out, but he'd lodged it in deeply.
As he strained, he felt hot breath over his shoulder, and turned to see an Insidian, which grinned and opened its mouth.
=0=
Astrid ran backwards, slammed an Insidian with her axe as she passed, and then dropped to the ground as the Insidian following her from the air spewed a stream of thick smoke which passed harmlessly over her head. She rolled sideways, vaulted over a downed Insidian that the twins were beating over the head, and ran on, then stopped.
The fog before her was like a wall.
"Wreckage!" she shouted.
The huge black dragon looked up from where he was pummelling an Insidian into the ground, and regarded her quizzically.
She pointed at the fog.
"Wave!" she yelled.
Wreckage cocked his head, then opened his mouth.
The greatest degree of blunt sound echoed in the cavern, and the fog was clear.
When the residual claps of thunder had died down, Astrid got up, and hit her head on the way. She paused, and looked behind her.
She'd been blown away, and landed right next to the eggs. She grasped her axe, looked at the hovering Insidian, which stared back at her in some reptilian imitation of horror, then brought it down.
It crashed.
A translucent orange liquid leaked out from the egg. A momentary glance informed her that there was a stubby pink lump inside which had tumbled out as the shell splintered. She kicked it away in disgust.
The Insidian gave a roaring scream of rage, and dived. Astrid stepped out of the way, allowing it to succeed in smashing another two eggs and knock itself out against the wall. She swung her axe in a straight line, demolishing another five eggs, then yelled as she was caught by the ankle and swung upside down to face not just one, but multiple Insidians.
They looked very, very angry. Their eyes sparked, their teeth had a metallic sheen. Worst of all, their tails were poised.
"You kill us, and that is worthy of death." A tail snaked out and ripped her axe from her hand.
"But to attack our young in their shell is a step further. You will not just die anymore." A tongue flickered, the eyes narrowed, and the arrowheads on the tails ran with liquid light.
"You shall be executed."
All the blood was rushing to her head, so it may have been her imagination, but there was a purple glow behind them.
As they all drew back to pierce her at once, an Insidian, somewhere else, screamed.
And it screamed with fear.
=0=
It was an explosion, although not one that anyone else could have felt. Everything took place inside, and in a place beyond perception.
Such energy! Such power! All coursing out at once!
It roared outwards from the place it had been sealed, so anxious to be out after so long that it manifested in forms other than what its host was used to.
It ran, flaming across paths that had run dry, that were aching for the power to burn its way past again.
It raged through the outlets, and it was delighted to be back.
Magic blazed through Alphas Arcanum, like a river that has finally broken through the dam.
Before, it was a steady stream of power, racing readily across the conduits.
Now, it was an invading flood, and, even momentarily, it took its host for its own.
The Insidian before him was incinerated in a purple flash.
The power blazed around him for a moment, savouring the freedom, before it died down and allowed him to get up.
Bleeding and burning, Alphas stood.
=0=
Astrid was dropped, and the Insidians whipped around to survey the new threat. Stealthily, she grabbed her axe, and when one of them flicked its tail around she cut it off.
It screeched and glared at her with a vengeance. She smiled at it, then hit it in the eye with two stiff fingers.
The screams reached a new pitch, and she found herself clutching her ears as the sound echoed.
Then it cut off, and she looked up.
Another Insidian had its jaws clasped around the screaming one's neck. It pulled and the flesh tore and the Insidian collapsed. The killer turned back without even a second glance, and it whipped its tail around.
A wave of gleaming red light burst forth from the arc, heading quickly towards the purple glow, which, now that she saw it a little clearly, was surrounding Alphas. It was like he was glowing from within, without casting any light at all.
He raised his head, staring calmly at the speedily approaching wave of red. Astrid wanted to shout at him, tell him to dodge, to do something, but she was too slow to do anything but watch as the wave neared.
Alphas put his hand out, far to his side, a single finger curled, then swept it around in a claw.
A massive wave of purple engulfed the red, which vanished with a sizzle, and kept going, aimed directly at the Insidians.
They'd lost all trace of smugness, and scrambled backwards. One of them almost stepped on Astrid, and she grabbed her axe and growled at it. It gave her a terrified glance, and moved aside, shoving the others away.
Astrid turned, and began smashing the eggs again.
The Insidians looked between her, as she killed all hope of their offspring, and the rapidly approaching, roiling wave of midnight purple, and scrambled out of the way, as if they'd forgotten how to fly.
Astrid leapt over the wave as it crashed into the wall with a bang and showered her with bits of egg and orange slime. Thankfully, none of the pink stuff landed on her, but bits of it slapped down in the rapidly spreading pool of orange.
Alphas slowly approached. The Insidians cowered. It took him forever to get there with the speed he was walking at, and the size of the cavern.
As he neared, Astrid realized with a pang of guilt that he was bleeding pretty badly. He walked with a limp, and his torn black shirt looked a lot more maroon now. There was a huge cut along one leg.
The Insidians did not rejoice, as she had expected them to. She frowned, and smashed another egg as she wondered why. Then she realized. They were animals, pretty much. They might not have the minds of animals, but they definitely had the bodies. And didn't most animals have sight and smell better than humans could ever achieve? They'd smelt the blood, they'd seen the injuries, and they were scared because even with all that he'd fought them back and beaten them.
"What can we do?" one Insidian said quickly as he approached. He tilted his head, as though confused.
"What can we do for you to spare our lives?" the Insidian said. He appeared to consider the question.
"Nothing," he told them, and then he brought his ring finger down to the palm of the other hand.
A misty blast of purple energy engulfed the Insidians and Astrid. The wyverns just slammed further back against the wall, but Astrid was blown back sideways, smashing more eggs along the way with her kicking legs.
She landed on something soft yet tough, and blacked out before she could think about what it was.
=0=
"-s a dud. Look, it's been kept aside in some corner, and it's not even smoking. Shows even they didn't want it."
Astrid got up, inwardly groaning, although not aloud, because that wouldn't be proper. She looked around, and saw Alphas and Omegas standing discussing one lone oblong shape in a corner.
She stood with a bit of a struggle, and shuffled towards them. They turned at the sound of her footsteps.
"Ah, hello," Alphas greeted her. She looked at him. He hadn't bothered to wipe any of the blood away, and it had formed a vertical crust along one side of his face where it trickled down. His eye was open, and probably couldn't shut.
He blinked, and tilted his head when she didn't say anything in response.
The tilted head didn't bother her, but the blink did. How could he… when his eye was…?
He noticed the stare. "Oh, this. Don't worry, I've probably been through worse."
This time she blinked. "Probably?" she said hoarsely. She needed water.
"Yes. I can't exactly remember. We'll get you some water once we get out, by the way, so you needn't worry about that."
"How can you close your eye?" Astrid asked, getting straight to the point.
"Made sure to wipe it away," Alphas told her. She thought about this.
"And not anywhere else?" she asked incredulously.
He shrugged. "As long as it doesn't impair me, I don't mind."
Astrid nodded slowly. She couldn't quite see the logic there, because if you did one bit you might as well do the whole thing.
"I say leave the egg," Omegas said. Alphas frowned at him.
"Why leave anything to chance?" he said. Astrid agreed.
"It's clearly a dud! Look, it's not smoking, and it's in this corner, which means the Insidians didn't want it. If they didn't want it, and it's not smoking, that means it's a dud, so not worth smashing!"
Alphas sighed. "If you're doing this because you want a souvenir, I swear." He wagged a finger at Omegas as he said this.
Omegas made a face. "Why would I want that as a souvenir? No thanks, I'd rather take one of the birds."
Alphas looked resignedly at the egg. "If we get in trouble because of this later on, I'm going to make you eat the thing."
"Fair enough, but I'd rather you didn't."
And the two turned to her.
"You may have noticed," Alphas said, "that everyone else is snoring."
Astrid looked back and saw everyone lying comatose in various positions and places. She nodded.
"That's because of the magic I used to put the Insidians to sleep. Somehow, everyone managed to get caught in it," he said. "Overloads systems pretty fast. Those with magic are less affected, and if you have enough magic, you aren't affected at all."
"People like us just get a bit sleepy," Omegas added.
"Yes. So, in the meantime, do you know where to find a good weapon?"
Astrid looked at him, with his sword and dagger in their sheaths. He caught the look and shook his head.
"I need something that isn't made of Indus steel," he clarified.
"Oh." Astrid looked around. "Tuffnut? He had short swords."
Alphas nodded. "That'll work," he remarked as he limped off.
A rustling sound made her turn around. Hiccup was had gotten up and was examining himself.
"Odd," Omegas muttered. "He's up a little early."
Astrid stored the comment for further examination, and hurried over to her betrothed.
"Hiccup? How do you feel?" she asked concernedly.
"'M fine," he muttered. "I feel kind of… rested, actually."
"Oh, yeah," Astrid smiled. "I feel the same."
This was a bit of a lie. She didn't feel all too energised. In fact, it could have been that she felt slightly depleted.
Alphas came back with one of Tuffnut's swords in hand, and regarded Hiccup carefully.
"You're awake, then," he said.
"Oh, really? I didn't know," Hiccup replied, and Astrid had to hide a genuine smile. Alphas gave him a smirk that had somehow been wrangled into the realm of politeness, and sidled over to Omegas, who held out his hands.
She couldn't hear anything of their murmured conversation as Alphas carefully positioned the blade by the leather. Alphas gripped the handle tightly and frowned, and the blade began to glow deep purple. It cut straight through the bracer. Alphas repeated the process with the other arm, then hurriedly stepped back, as quickly as he was able. Omegas gasped and doubled over.
Heated blueness exploded from him, and tiny flashes of lightning crackled along his hair. The blueness expanded and Alphas jabbed the air with his finger. A wall of purple erupted at the same time that the blue flashed blindingly and burst outwards. The purple went violet, then simmered back down to purple.
"Got a handle on it?" Alphas asked him.
Omegas straightened. His eyes glowed momentarily blue before the entire blue flame of his existence shrank back into him. He nodded.
"I think so, yes."
Alphas put his hand down and the purple faded away.
He limped away to the nearest napping dragon, which happened to be Hookfang, and began cutting away at the leather around one of his legs.
=0=
"Glad we're leaving this dump behind," Snotlout remarked as Hookfang flamed through the air. "Man, it feels good to fly again."
"You can say that again," Hiccup said, scratching Toothless as they flew.
"Snotlout, you're supposed to say it again," Tuffnut said in a hushed whisper.
"Shut it, muttonhead."
Omegas was doing loop-de-loops high above them and whooping. Spiral was gracefully majestic. He seemed to have about as much refined control in the sky as Toothless did.
Hiccup closed his eyes to feel the wind on his face, and sighed contentedly.
"Well," Alphas said, grinning with genuine enjoyment as he sat on Wreckage's back, who was releasing streamers of blue fire ahead of him, "time to go home?"
Everyone nodded. "Time to go home," Fishlegs confirmed. There was something unusually determined in the set of his jaw.
"I'll just go tell 'Megas then, shall I?" Alphas remarked. He began to urge his dragon up, then stopped. He turned to Hiccup.
"Want to be involved more in our "magical messes"?"
Hiccup shook his head, smiling. "No thanks. I've had enough for a lifetime."
Alphas laughed. "Well, if you're sure," he said, and swooped upwards, those black wings beating powerfully.
Hiccup looked down at the saddle, still smiling. Then he remembered something. As Alphas came back down, he guided Toothless over beside Wreckage. Alphas looked at him, eyebrow already poised.
"Ah, before we go back, I'd like your opinion on something."
"That being?"
"You'll see."
=0=
Hiccup told everyone except Alphas, Omegas, and Fishlegs to stay back, and charged Astrid with the extremely important responsibility of keeping them both back.
"Why do I have to stay back though?" she grumbled, annoyed.
"Because they'll stay back if you tell them to," Hiccup said. More like threaten, he thought to himself, but didn't say out loud. "I'll tell you everything later, I promise. And no matter what, do not come after us."
She conceded with a sigh, and waved him onwards.
Toothless glided away to where Fishlegs and the Arcanums were waiting.
"Yes?" Alphas said.
"Follow me," Hiccup told them, and swooped downwards.
The roar resounded immediately. Both the Arcanums had their hands out immediately, ready for a burst of magic. Hiccup landed on the sand, and Soul charged him.
Hiccup held his hands out, placating both the sorcerers and the dragon, who skidded to a halt right before he crashed into Toothless.
He glowed with heat. Hiccup had almost forgotten the pure, sun-like power that radiated from him. He was a bonfire all on his own. If it hadn't been for the Mystery qualifications, he was sure Red Ghosts would have been in Stoker Class. Maybe if they learnt enough, the species would be transferred.
Everyone else touched down. The sorcerer twins seemed uneasy.
"And what is this?" Omegas asked, looking up and down at the huge dragon, regarding the empty red eyes, the branching horns, the spike along his snout like the prow of a ship, the wings that seemed to have teeth of their own.
"This is Soul," Hiccup introduced the dragon. "A Red Ghost."
"He looks like a volcano," Alphas said.
"Feels like one too," Omegas added.
"Yeah," Hiccup said proudly, "that's kind of a staple of the species. He's the Alpha."
"Like a Speed Stinger Alpha?" Alphas asked.
Hiccup nodded. "Exactly like that. My working hypothesis is that the bigger the horns and the more powerful the fire, the higher up the ranks in the pack. The flames are the first deciding factor, the horns are to distinguish between the equal flames, sort of."
"I see." Alphas looked at the dragon. "Could you have him fire?"
"Oh, shoot, yeah," Hiccup said, brimming with an unnatural swagger. He pointed at a single rock. "Soul, fire!"
Soul opened his mouth, and Hiccup very wisely got out of the way.
Soul fired.
The fireball was huge, and left a trail behind it like a heat haze on fire. The rock was left glowing not just red, but yellow-hot. Liquid flames leaked from Soul's mouth, dribbling onto the sand, where they disappeared into nothing.
A single breath caused residual lines of fire, streamers of flame, to burn their way out of the mouth through the gaps between the monstrous teeth. The mouth seemed to be full, not of needles, but spearheads.
Alphas looked at the dragon in admiration.
"How'd you find the species?" he asked, still sitting astride Wreckage. Hiccup shrugged.
"By chance, really. I was out exploring and I just saw a little bit of red on the island. I'd seen the island a lot before, but never saw any dragons. So I went down to check it out and… almost died."
"I can definitely see how that would happen," Alphas said. Wreckage lurched forward to Soul, and sniffed him.
Soul stood stock still, unsure of what to do faced with such a direct approach. Usually if anything else saw a Red Ghost, it got out of the way, or it tried.
Wreckage finished the examination, and crooned. Soul brightened up immediately, and roared back. The roar, now that Hiccup had something else to compare it to, sounded like several smaller Wreckages all roaring at once to make a din equal to the roar of a normal Wreckage.
Alphas looked even more astonished. "This thing's like Wreckage from the underworld."
"Which one? I'd say Helheim, Niflheim and Jotunheim don't really fit him."
"What? What are Helheim, Niflheim and Jotunheim?"
"You said underworld, didn't you?"
"I think we have different ideas of an underworld."
Carefully, Alphas got off his dragon and approached Soul, who regarded him curiously.
"You just rub your hand against the horn," Hiccup said, demonstrating the action for him. Soul leaned into the touch, and closed his eyes in bliss. Alphas looked unsure.
"I can feel the heat from here. Doesn't your hand burn?"
"Not really. It's more warm instead of burning around the head area. Don't know why. The only time it gets hot would probably be when he fires, although I haven't tested that." Hiccup grinned at him.
Alphas smiled back. "Yes, I can see that. For one thing, you're not charcoal."
He looked at Soul, who seemed to look back at him, although with eyes like that it was hard to say. He leaned forward, and rubbed the snout. Soul immediately closed his eyes, and began rocking. The enjoyment was clear to see.
"Right," Alphas said, still petting him. "What did you want my opinion on?"
"Oh, right!" Hiccup smiled at him sheepishly. "Soul kind of got us sidetracked."
"There's something else?" Omegas said from beside Spiral. Hiccup's smile faded.
"Yeah. You won't like it."
Hiccup led them through the sand, clambering over boulders where necessary, and they reached the clearing.
By now, the carcass had begun to rot. A foul stench drifted from the bloated body. Hiccup gagged.
The Arcanums seemed unperturbed by the smell. They probably walked across the dead almost every day, Hiccup reasoned. Omegas spoke.
"That," he said, "stinks."
Hiccup looked at him with mild surprise. "You're not showing it."
"Just because we get used to the smell doesn't mean it gets any better."
Hiccup nodded. That resembled sense enough to be an acceptable explanation. He gestured to the body.
"So what do you think caused this?"
"Wreckage," Alphas called. The stony black dragon lumbered over, and Alphas pulled himself up into the saddle, wincing as his injuries were aggravated.
"Taking a closer look," he called as the large wings beat the air. They lifted up.
Hiccup watched him hover around for a bit, then looked at Omegas.
"You're not going?" he asked. Omegas shook his head.
"I'm not suited to this. Alphas knows the signs better, whatever the signs are."
They waited for a few minutes as Alphas got different views of the holes, now dry and shrivelled, then he came back down.
His face was pale.
Hiccup watched him with growing terror as he dismounted and ran, yes, ran over to him. Alphas grasped him by the shoulders, seemingly not feeling the pain in his fingers, which must have been enormous.
"Listen. You can't go back to Berk." He shook him, hard. "Do you understand?"
"W-what? Why?" Hiccup asked, bewildered, and more than a little frightened.
"The holes were made by an Impactor. Myre's expansion division uses them to clear out any major resistance. Do you understand? Myre uses them. If they're in the Archipelago, then he's already spread his control to this region. Whatever you do, do not try to be a hero and rush off to fight them by yourself. That doesn't make you a hero, it only makes you a fool."
Hiccup absorbed the information like a sponge.
Fear morphed into rage.
"How dare someone take over my home. My home! MY! HOME!"
Alphas had to pin his arms to his sides.
"The last time someone tried that, WE DROWNED THEM! WE DROWNED THEM! WE'LL DO THE SAME TO THESE ONES!"
Alphas slapped him across the face. It hit like an elastic branch. Hiccup looked at him, breathing hard, his face red.
Alphas spoke quietly, but his words had all the impact of a meteor.
"You bloody idiot, what did I just tell you?"
The eyes, like midnight, but holding far more to fear.
"I said don't go in alone, didn't I? What gave you the idea that I said don't go in at all?"
Slowly, Hiccup's fury began to dribble away.
Alphas let go of him. Hiccup hissed and rubbed his arms. They were sore where he had grasped them. He pulled up the sleeves to see vivid red markings in the clear shape of hands.
"Sorry," Alphas said, speaking casually now, as though the last minute hadn't held an extinction event, with burning forests and quaking earth, black skies and red seas.
"Now, what I propose to you is this," he said, talking quickly. "We need to get out of the area without attracting the attention of any ships. After that, we head to Nisi."
"Nisi?"
"Our home island."
"Oh. Wow. You'll take us there?"
Alphas shrugged, then winced. "What other option is there? Anyway, we head to Nisi, we make our report, we gather the forces, and then we take Berk and all the other Viking islands back from Myre. Sounds good?"
Hiccup took a deep breath. "Best thing I've ever heard."