I think it's about time I use third person POV again. Not that I can't see this specific chapter happening in first person POV, but I just would like to have a go again in third person POV, since it's been too long since I used it. I will shift to different POV's later on.
Third person POV
The couple ran out to the deck and looked behind to see what the fuss was all about. Upon seeing the giant silhouette of ship behind the waterfall, they immediately ducked behind the barrels to hide. Both Anna and Hiccup drew their weapons out to face their enemy in silence.
Hiccup turned around to Fishleg, "Fishleg! Tell the others to prepare their swords and arrows and hide behind anything. We are going to ambush them! Wait for my command." He emphasized on the word 'arrows' to convey just what he had in mind.
"Aye, Hiccup," Fishleg nodded. With that, he dashed to the others to spread the message.
"I think we're the one who's ambushed here, Hiccup," Anna suggested. "No offense. We're cornered here!"
The Viking took his lover's advice into account and pondered for a moment. As he pondered more, the bowsprit of the ship entered the waterfall, which was noticed by the two.
"Anna! Hiccup!"
Elsa came rushing to the two and ducked as well. "What do we do?" she half-whispered, eyeing at the incoming threat behind the waterfall.
Her appearance triggered an idea inside the chief's mind. "I have an idea. Elsa, listen close."
The ice queen nodded and leaned in to hear better. After listening to the plan, both sisters suggested the same idea but with different approach, which led the trio to argue even more. However, the clock was ticking. The sound of water crashing upon wooden deck was soon heard from the waterfall. The trio looked at the ship again, and half of its body had already gone through the waterfall!
The trio kept arguing to each other to really determine which approach would be better. Eventually, they reached to the point where the three started nodding.
"Okay, okay, once they have beached, wait how do we know if they've beached?" Elsa asked in a low volume.
"Hear! There are rocks on the bottom of this water!" Anna replied.
"Captain! I see two unrecognized boats! One is Berkian, that's for sure!"
The trio turned to the source of the call. They spotted a crewmate standing near the bowsprit and scanning the environment from there. That's when they noticed the entire Therondian ship was inside the cave. Even with the cave's tall ceiling, the ship's tall masts still scraped against it, causing small rocks to fall down.
"Be prepared! Grab your swords!" Another voice called. Soon, swords were drawn out. Its distinctive sound echoed in the cave.
The trio watched the ship getting closer and closer. The sheer size of the ship was not helping them in coping with the nerves of what danger they were facing. Hiccup had cold sweat running across his back, his hand was shaking as well. It was too noticeable by the queen of Arendelle, so she firmly grabbed her lover by the arm and gave a reassuring nod.
Soon, the Therondian ship's hull scraped against the rocks on the bottom of the water, a sign that the ship had beached. It was only a couple of meters away from their boats.
"Uhh… Oh! HEY! OVER HERE!"
The trio turned to see behind them and spotted the Therondian sergeant they had kept as hostage wiggling inside the tie of rope he was inside.
"Shit! Elsa, now!"
The ice queen came out of hiding. She walked to the other end of the boat. Inevitably, the Therondians noticed the sight of the walking ice queen. The ones holding their crossbows aimed for her, but with a wave of hand, Elsa summoned a giant ice pillar from the portside of the ship, hitting the ship with an incredible force that caused it to tilt to the right drastically. Everyone onboard lost their balance within an instance.
"WHOAAH!"
"WHAT IS THIS WITCHCRAFT?!"
The goal was to tilt the ship so drastically, it would throw the men onboard of it offboard. However, the force was not big enough as all of the men onboard were still onboard. Elsa was going to summon another ice pillar to tilt the ship even more, but a torrent of water shot out of the water from underneath the ship's hull, causing the ship to tilt. From the torrent of the water gracefully jumped out Nokk.
"Nokk!" Elsa called. "Good job!"
The water horse nodded and headed over to where Elsa was. From there, the two watched men falling into the water as their ship was taking water. There could not be a better moment to attack.
"Everyone! Fire your arrows!" Hiccup commanded, coming out of hiding. With that command, every Berkian emerged from their hiding, aiming their arrows onto their targets. Almost simultaneously, the Berkians let loose of their arrows.
Hiccup approached the railing of the boat to really determine whether the attack was effective or not. Anna followed his lead, watching the scene with both hatreds and nerves, unsure of which was bigger. She watched arrows piercing through the water seamlessly since the Berkians aimed the arrows upwards. That, of course, hit some of the targets, judging the tints of blood surfacing on the water, even though it was quite dark.
Despite watching a large number of arrows raining death on the Therondians, Hiccup had another idea out of the blue. He rushed his way back to the workshop. Anna, on the other hand, could only raise a brow at his sudden leave. Later, he returned with a circular object on his hand.
"This ought to do something," Hiccup smiled. The Viking aimed and threw the object into the area in which the Therondian men were drowning. Water took the object, and seconds later, an explosion followed.
BOOM!
The Berkians stopped raining their enemies with arrows afterwards. There was only the sound of the ship taking water, which stopped doing so since the water was shallow, only half of the ship was underwater. Everyone simply watched the water, which weirdly had not even a body floating nearby. However, a random one came afloat, followed with another one, and another one. However, the number didn't quite satisfy the chief of Berk. He counted only seven bodies.
"Elsa," Hiccup called. "Just how much men does it need to man a ship like this carry?"
"Uh… thirty? Minimum. So, expect… fifty?" Elsa guessed.
Every eye kept watching the dead bodies reaching the surface of the water, not realizing the fact that not-so-dead bodies had reached dry land from the other side of the beach. Fortunately, Mrs. Hoffman was there and alerted the others.
"THIS SIDE! More of 'em!" She warned. Right away, the ones near her charged at the men with their melee weapons.
Hiccup rushed over to the other side of the boat, seeing the sight of Therondians in their shining armor initiating a fight with Berkians. More and more appeared out of the water, very much in the same attire. They barely had a scratch!
"How could I forget?! Their thick armor!" Hiccup smacked his head, drawing his hatchets out afterwards. He glanced at the royal sisters, "Let's go, ladies. We're missing the action."
The trio jumped off the boat, but only to meet two men coming out of the water near where they landed. They drew their swords out and charged at the trio.
"Elsa, Anna! Join the others! I'll deal with these goons," He readied himself. Anna rejected the idea.
"No! You can't handle—"
"This is no time to argue! GO!" Hiccup barked. Hearing the sternness, Anna nodded and followed her sister to the more crowded side of the battlefield.
Hiccup's POV
Unlike the usual duels I've had, the Therondians didn't take their time to walk in circle while glaring. Instead, they charged to me, swinging their swords from above. I leaped backwards to avoid the incoming attack, and even had to cover myself with my hands from the flying rocks caused by the impact of the swords against the ground.
These men were buffer than my fishbone-like size, so every dodge and swing I had to perform had to be more powerful and agile. One man charged at me, his sword pointing right at me. using the crook of my hatchet, I directed the sword away from me once it was close enough, and directed the momentum of the wielder itself away from me. He collided against a big rock and took his moment to recover. That's the cue for the other man, as he leaped forward to me with same move; pointy bit aiming to my chest. I did the same maneuver to avoid it, but this time, the man continued swinging his sword at me. I blocked and blocked, until his sword was caught on the crook of my sword again. This was my cue to throw his weapon off of his grasp, but the man's muscles were too strong; my attempt to do so failed.
"Clever one…" He complimented in a deep voice.
With a pull, he threw my hatchet away from me into the water. I was now only wielding one hatchet.
My opponent took advantage of this and immediately swung his sword at me from the side. I barely blocked that. Before I could even analyze what move he was going for next, a ram hit me from the side, sending me into the air and into the water.
I recovered myself quickly by standing up and clearing my vision from the water. That's when I realized that the other Therondian rammed me. The two laughed cockily at me.
"HYAHH!" One Therondian cried, once again leaping towards me. With a heavy swing, he swung his sword from above. I blocked the attack by holding both ends of my hatchet to really suppress the force. However, upon making contact, I lost my footing on the rocky floor. My entire weight collapsed, and my head was now underwater. I never had the chance to take a breath. His sword kept my head pinned down underwater, and soon, both of his foot on mine to prevent retaliation.
I was going to be killed either by suffocation or a slash of a sword upon my neck, but the odds of by suffocation seemed to be more likely. To make matter worse, my right hand lost grip on hatchet, making the handle bar press against my neck, as if being chocked by water was not enough. The Therondian clearly knew this and applied more force on his sword right away.
I tried breaking free with my right hand. Almost as if Odin pitied me and my current fate, my right hand sensed a familiar feeling on my right. It was my previous hatchet! I grabbed the weapon and immediately planted the blade on my opponent's neck. The attack broke his pressure on me, as he desperately tried to cover the cut with his fingers. His blood inevitably dropped on my face as I breached the surface to regain breath. After doing so, I deepened my blade into his neck and pulled it off recklessly.
I stood up again on my feet, noticing his other mate watching the possible death of his mate in horror.
"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!"
He ran towards me, his sword about to give a sweep from the side. Before he could even come closer, I aimed for the man's head and threw my hatchet. I could see him noticing me initiating my throw, so he ducked to avoid it. He didn't entirely miss, as the blade landed on his left shoulder instead. This stopped him in the middle of the track, so I took this opportunity to charge to him. When he was about to pull out the weapon out of his shoulder, I jumped into him, collapsing my entire weight onto his. My left hand immediately applied more pressure onto the hatchet.
"AGHHHH!" The man screamed in pain.
I was about to slit the throat of the man with my other hatchet, but he blocked me with his sword. He took a good grip on my head and smashed it with his own. The impact stunned me. I lost grip of both of my weapons. I couldn't really figure out what was going on for a few seconds. All I felt was the man's blade sweeping me off by the chest, throwing me away. Since I was still recollecting myself, my feet were never able to keep my balance right. I fell into the water again. I opened my eyes and saw the blurry sight of the man approaching me. Using his right foot, he kept me pinned down on the chest. I barely saw it, but he attempted to plant the tip of his sword on my face. I, again, barely avoided it by tilting my head to the right. Seeing the failed attempt, the man began another one.
He swung his sword down again to me, or at least, I thought, he was.
Out of nowhere, he collapsed on top of me. Having myself freed from his grasp, I got rid of the body off of mine and breached the surface again to breathe. I noticed the cut on the back of his neck and the one who made the cut. Anna!
"You okay?" She knelt down and inspected me swiftly.
"I'm okay, I'm okay…" I said, panting heavily. My heart was racing more than ever.
"You can handle it, huh?" Anna frowned. She was very much irritated. "Come, this is not over!"
Anna's POV
I took his hand and pulled him up. After retrieving his weapons back, we ran to the busier side of the beach. Everyone was involved, and I mean everyone. The Terrible Terrors, to which I never knew we even brought along, the Berkians, Elsa, even Nokk! He was doing his best in distracting the enemies by ramming them with torrents of water.
On the corner of my vision, I spotted Fishleg being pinned down by an opponent. His dear life was only supported by the mere shields between them. Seeing so, I built my momentum by charging at the Therondian and rammed the man with my shield. After I got him off of the Viking, I gave the man no break and swung my sword at him from above.
CLANG!
A force sent me several steps backward. I was not entirely sure what did so for a moment, but when I saw a slash mark on his shield, that's when I learned that he parried my attack, while still regaining his composure.
The man stood back on his feet, about to come for Fishleg. However, the Viking already dashed away from the scene. It was a no brainer for him to come for me. He walked casually to me, and out of the blue, he picked up a sudden speed. I didn't have enough time to react as he rammed my shield with his. Since his posture was bigger than mine, I inevitably flinched backwards several steps, and at the very last one, I tripped.
The man was really not giving my plenty of time to really take my whole situation in. He took advantage of my current position and swung his sword at me. My shield blocked me, but its loud clang was really killing. He swung again; another loud clang followed. Countless more followed, as if he intentionally did this to simply intimidate me.
I needed to get out of this. Therefore, before he could land another attack, I rolled away to avoid it. It was pulled successfully as he swung the rocky floor instead. I took the window by planting the tip of the handle bar of my inferno blade on his side. With a press of a button, the blade came out, piercing his side through the gap of his armor, though not entirely. Flame ignited afterwards to add more agony.
"ARGHHH!"
I stood back on. I attempted to give the man another sweep with the tip, but his incredible reflex protected him as he parried it with his shield. I nearly lost grip of my inferno blade due to the immense impact.
"Fancy weapon…"
With gritted teeth, he slowly stood back on. This was my window! I was going to stop him from doing so but a flying bolt cut the skin open of my leg. Right away, I knelt down.
I hissed in pain, looking up the source of the shot. I spotted it, a man, reloading his crossbow. But he was quickly knocked out by Valka who hit him on the head from behind. Utter bad luck!
For my opponent, the table had turned. He lunged to me. I simply raised my shield to welcome his attack and braced, but nothing hit it. when I heard a neigh, I took a peek from my shield only to see Nokk next to me and my opponent lying unconsciously on the rock to my right.
"Nokk!" I called. "Good boy!"
The water horse disintegrated into water again to fetch with the others on the other side of cave. Just when I thought I could catch my absent breath, three men charged to me with their swords up. This was no match for me, so I quickly turned around to run. However, I heard crashing noise behind me after doing so. I glanced behind me and saw the trio already on the ground, with a patch of ice on the floor just a meter away from them. It was Elsa's doing, who was in the middle of a fight with other men! Talk about multitasking.
Having the trio vulnerable, I walked, almost limping, forward to end these men with this opened window. Eret and Astrid joined me, each attempting to planting their blades into the spines, but the thick armor made it harder for them.
"Ah, screw it!" Eret stripped the man's armor with a reckless pull, exposing the less protective layer of armor under it. Eret took his chance and impaled his opponent on the back. He turned to the other Therondians to get on them before to me. "Run, Queen Anna!"
"If you mean to the other enemies, sure!" I walked my way to the other actions. Of course, it was not what he exactly meant, but who was he to tell me what to do in such crucial moment where everyone's participation was a must?
I looked for the selections of actions and stopped on one which seemed one sided; Hiccup, once again, facing a duo of Therondians. It was a no brainer for me.
Elsa's POV
After giving my sister a breathing room, I turned my attention again to my portion of enemies.
"She's a witch!"
"No, idiot! She's the Arendellian queen! What is she doing in here?"
I raised a brow at the chatter. "Perhaps you gentlemen want to sit down and talk through this?" I offered.
The quadruplet shook their heads. "Nah, I mean, might as well put an end to you, Your Majesty," one man with the most different armor replied. His statement drew my curiosity as to what he really meant with his statement. As I walked in circle with my hands ready to summon ice, I studied the armor of this very man. Soon, I spotted his rank on his chest, a lieutenant.
"Attack!" The man commanded, and the other three men charged to me. It appeared he was right; he was a lieutenant. Countering the men, I summoned a curved ice wall and pushed it against them. As the wall captured these three, some Vikings captured their vulnerable state and began fighting them.
However, I was so focused with these three, I forgot about the lieutenant, to which I only realized his whereabouts on the corner of my eye at the very last second. I leaped backward to avoid his massive battle axe that landed hard on the ground. With a hand, I sent a blast of ice to him. Almost seamlessly, he blocked it with his arm piece.
"My, my, you really shouldn't be here, My Queen," he taunted. "Hyah!"
He swept his axe upwards, to which I avoided by changing its course with a blast of ice. Just when I thought he needed at least a moment to prepare for another swing, he swung his axe from the side. This time, I summoned a roughly-made ice shield to block the attack. However, this was one heavy axe. The impact shattered the shield into pieces, and I was almost certain the bone of my arm as well. I was sent spinning.
After regaining myself, I looked up to my opponent who was approaching me with a face full of hatreds. I stomped the ground and ice spread across the ground and under his feet. However, his move to cope with my tactic made me gasp; he cleaved the ice with his axe, shattering it into pieces.
Gritting my teeth, I was about to send a blast of ice head-on, but some more men charged to me from other directions. It was too much for me, so I knelt on the ground and created a small dome of ice around me.
Soon, blades began to clash against the dome, attempting to break it open. Not one, not ten, hundreds of them. The clanging never stopped. Under pressure, I kept the ice as thick as possible by planting my hands onto the wall and flowing my energy through it.
CRACK!
"AFFT—"
I sensed a stinging pain on my right hand, and discovered the blade of an axe planted on it. The Lieutenant's axe. Blood began to flow from the cut caused by the blade, a critical indication for me to pull my hand off of it. However, as I was about to do so, the axe pulled out of the gap made by it, causing my wound to open even more.
"Agh…" I examined the wide cut on my hand and looked up to the gap on the dome. There I saw one of the thirsty for blood eyes of the Lieutenant. He lifted his axe up again, about to break the ice more. I tried patching the gap with my wounded hand, but no ice came out. I used my left one and ice came out, patching the gap. I patched the gap quickly enough to prevent the Lieutenant's axe from breaking in.
Once again, I thickened the wall of the dome, but only with my left hand. While doing so, I tested my right hand again by summoning an ice blast to the ground. The result was negative. My right hand couldn't summon ice!
Soon, a crack appeared on top of my dome. I pressed against the crack in attempt to patch it. However, I could feel it, the swords and axes banging against the dome. It was almost like every Therondian was onto me.
"H-Help!" I screamed.
I tried my best flowing energy to my dome to strengthen its defense, but whatever weapons the Therondians were using were eating my ice like it was nothing. With my left hand being the only functioning hand to cast magic, I was cornered.
CRASH!
The part of the dome in front of me crumbled down, revealing three Therondians and their heavy battle axes. On the middle was the Lieutenant himself, smirking dirtily. He pointed the blade of his axe to me confidently, but only to have a Terrible Terror grabbing his face. I used this opportunity to run away, but one man grabbed me by the foot. I met the ground instantly, and when in the process of getting back up with my hands, the pain of the right hand halted me. I desperately kicked the man in the face to break free, but he caught my kick and crawled up to me with a smile.
"Gotcha…"
I was about to summon ice with my working hand, but he had it quickly pinned down by stomping it. He lifted his axe upwards. I looked away and sealed my eyes afterwards
CLANG!
Thud.
I opened my eyes and saw my own reflection on the blade of the axe. Next to me was the man himself, whom I thought was going to kill me but had died to a hatchet on his forehead. I had never seen so much bloodbath before, so I looked away from the sight.
I noticed Hiccup pulling out the hatchet from the corpse and walking past me. Other Berkians, Terrible Terrors, and Nokk followed his lead. His direction gave me an understanding of the current condition; we were winning! There was only the Lieutenant left, alone and possessing no weapon.
"Wait, Hiccup!" I called. "He's a lieutenant. He may know more than the sergeant."
Hearing so, he signaled the others to lower their weapons. However, a figure dashed to the Lieutenant from the crowd. Anna!
"HYAHH!"
"Anna, wait!" Hiccup called.
She rammed the man with her shield, which the man incredibly parried with his bare hand, throwing her shield to the side. However, there was an opening, and Anna used it. She forcefully planted her blade's handle to his chest, and not even a second later, the blade came out of it, impaling the man's heart.
The man collapsed on her, but Anna threw the body off of hers before it could bring her down as well.
She turned around to all of us, who were merely watching her with dropped jaws.
"Why did you do that?" Hiccup asked. It didn't take an expert to tell that he was disappointed.
Neither of us genuinely thought we could stand a chance against the Therondians. The chances of winning were small, if not, next to nonexistent, but we achieved victory. There were no casualties on our side, but of course, there were wounds to treat.
Here we were, patching my sister's cuts and bruises as she was patching mine in our cabin. We could patch ourselves outside, but the medicine was inside and we had no desire to make our lives harder by walking outside where there were corpses of our enemy. It was not the most pleasant sight in the world.
Anna was done with the cut on my hand. She finished it with a kiss on the bandage itself. "There. Don't forget to eat your apples."
I giggled slightly. "Thank you. Now let me do the one on your leg."
"All right."
I gently positioned her wounded leg on my lap. I pulled up the trouser to reveal the wound fully. In the process, Anna grunted in pain as the trouser made friction against the wound itself.
It was a rather severe one, but luckily it was not on her shin bone. It would've been worse.
"Right…" I applied alcohol on a piece of cloth. "This will sting… brace yourself."
She nodded. With that, I pressed the cloth on the wound. With gritting teeth, Anna quietly hissed in pain.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Yeah…" she breathed. "Been through worse. Recently."
That inevitably reminded me of her very last kill, which was very much against our wishes.
"Anna… we need to talk about—"
I was cut as the door of our cabin opened abruptly. Hiccup came in, looking irritated. He had patches on his left shoulder, his cheek, and his neck.
"Anna, don't you walk away from me again like that!" He warned. "Why did you kill him?!"
"You saw what he did! He almost killed my sister!" She barked back.
"Oh I know what he did!" he scratched his hair. "But Elsa said he was a lieutenant! He might know something that the sergeant does not!"
"I bet all my money that he will be much harder to crack through. He's a lieutenant, for fuck's sake! He would've told us nothing, if not, false information!" She argued.
Hiccup turned around, hiding his face with his hands. "Oh my goodness… you don't know that!" He replied, his voice sounding muffled.
"I do."
I looked to her. She looked very serious and confident with what she had said. "Anna… you do not know that."
She turned to me. "Elsa, you too?"
CRACK!
We turned to the male, who apparently had thrown his hatchet to the wall in front of him. He turned around, looking as stern as ever. "What… did I tell you… about letting your emotion control you?"
"Asks the one who just threw a hatchet into the wall emotionally," Anna replied nonchalantly.
"I AM SERIOUS, ANNA!"
The statement silenced her well. It was small, but there was a hint of fear on her face.
"… I've been taught how to kill, Hiccup! This was just another one on the pile!" Anna defended.
"WE'VE BEEN TEACHING YOU HOW TO SURVIVE!" Hiccup replied harshly. Both of us were taken aback by his volume, and so was he. In an instance, he collected himself and cooled down with a deep sigh.
"Anna… He was a potential intel… we could've learned about…" he shrugged. "The man whom the Therondians used to control the dragon! The black dust! Their shipment details! More! But he's now dead! Had you not killed him brutally, we could've learned something! For Thor's sake, we have Nokk who is literally a master in interrogating! You still wanna place a bet on whether or not the lieutenant would've broken?!"
The hint of fear and guilt was becoming more and more visible on my sister. She could only look down to the floor in the entire time. Hiccup walked over to her and knelt down to meet her eyes.
"Anna, I beg you…" he placed two fingers on her chest, specifically the area in which her heart resided. "Never let this consume you again. You will not survive out there if this controls your actions."
Anna remained silent.
"Temper it with this," he placed two fingers on her right temple. "And I guarantee you, even without me, or Elsa, you will survive."
She gasped slightly, tears forming on her blue eyes. "P-Please don't leave me…"
"We won't," Hiccup and I replied in unison. We shared a glance afterwards.
The Viking sighed, cupping his lover's cheek once before standing up. "Patch yourself up… Dinner's ready within an hour… or two. I dunno."
He walked and left the cabin.
