Hi guys! It had been a while since the last update, I just want to say thank you to all readers. This is my first fanfic, and I know I messed up during writing a lot. I was glad to see people reading my story. Please leave a review below.
Chapter 16:
"Wait, is that Dagur?" before Hiccup could operate the crossbow, Astrid pulled him back and pointed at the battleship which crashed into the one they were on.
Astrid was talking about a muscular Viking holding a double-bladed axe in his hand. Another tall figure and several Berserker soldiers armed with long spears followed behind him. They walked toward the Berkians who got pushed to the end of the deck.
"Greetings! My friends from the Island of Berk," Dagur raised his hands, "That's very easy to tell who you are… Gobber the Belch, Hoark the Haggard, Starkard, some other Berkians, and Stoick the Vast. I wonder where are the rest of the Berkians. Oh, hang on, they are all dead. Haha!"
Dagur laughed while he made fun of the names. Apparently, Dagur's plan was to provoke the Berkians, and it worked. Stoick wasn't a man who could withstand the unfriendly words that directly offended himself and his ancestors. His body leaned forward when he was preparing for a charge, but Gobber held his arm, trying to pull him back. The Berserkers were using extra-long spears that could bring down a Viking from seven feet away. The Berserkers knew that they wouldn't stand a chance in front of Stoick and Gobber, so they decided to take them out at a distance that the Berserkers could reach their enemies, but their enemies couldn't reach the Berserkers. Stoick was using maces, which didn't have a long combat range.
"Yeah, you should control your temper and use some strategies during a sea battle," Dagur raised his axe to his front and studied its blades while talking to Stoick, "You see, right now you've been surrounded, and you can't do anything except jump overboard into the ocean and drown from death."
"Then how about I chop your head down and use your skull as a teacup?" Stoick shouted as a counter to what Dagur had just said.
Dagur, surprisingly, did a good job in self-control. According to his behaviors in the past, he should be smashing things and insulting the Berkians right now. Even Savage and the Berserker soldiers held tight their weapons with anger.
"That's not gonna happen, because you won't have a hand to chop my head down by then," Dagur said, then he abruptly pointed at Stoick with his axe and shouted, "Rush them, lads!"
"Ahhhhhh!" Both Berkians and Berserkers bellowed at the top of their voices and raised their weapons, charging at each other. The Berkians were outnumbered but they showed no fear while the Berserkers had totally gone berserk.
Before the leading Berserker could stab his spear into Stoick's chest, an arrow appeared in his throat, fresh blood splattered out from the cut. The soldier who charged besides him was shot by another arrow in the head, and the following soldier's right leg got penetrated by an arrow as well. A mysterious archer who was using a high firing rate crossbow picked the Berserkers out one by one with incredible accuracies. Just in a few seconds, the Berserkers had already lost six men.
Hiccup was standing at the stern of the ship, operating a ballista which the Berserkers mounted there before the battle. The ballista that the Berserkers invented used box magazines as its ammunition and each magazine could load twenty arrows. This fearless weapon could empty a magazine within twenty seconds.
Arrows flew towards the Berserkers like raindrops and forced them to use their shields or take cover. Astrid was helping Hiccup switching the mags so that they could constantly firing at the Berserkers.
Dagur ran towards the port of the ship with Savage and a few soldiers holding large shields to protect him. Another ballista was located at the port, so Dagur could counter Hiccup and Astrid without running all the way from the bow to stern while risking his life.
"Hiccup!" before two arrows could land on where Hiccup was standing, Astrid dove down at him and pushed him away, right before the arrows could drill into Hiccup's body.
"This is our chance," Stoick said as the Berkians attacked the Berserkers while they were still avoiding the arrows.
Stoick picked up a Berserker and threw him overboard, and picked up the spear that a soldier dropped on the deck, and stabbed it into another Berserker's spine and tore it apart. Savage was hit in the chest by Gobber's hammer when Savage tried to attack Stoick from the back. Under Gobber's great force, Savage fell to the deck and created some cracks on the wooden platform.
Savage was a true elite sword-fighter comparing to the other Berserkers. He stepped up quickly and successfully blocked Gobber's hammer when it tried to break his torso.
"You are good at this, lad," Gobber said sarcastically as he threw a punch at Savage.
"Thank you for your comment, old man," Savage gave a sly smile even though he just got hit in the face by Gobber.
Savage took a step to the side while Gobber charged towards him, caused Gobber to lose his balance. Savage stroke Gobber's stomach with his knee and brought him to the ground by hitting Gobber's jaw with his elbow. Gobber's head flipped back and he backed up in order to recover his injury. He twisted his neck and placed his only hand on his jaw, trying to release the pain.
"How does that feel?" Savage laughed as he spun his sword in the air, "I thought Berkians should be…"
Before he could finish his sentence, someone picked him up from behind and threw him across the deck. Savage smashed into the mast and landed heavily among a pile of barrels.
"Better than the Berserkers," Starkard said as he spat on the deck, "Damn, he smells."
"Thank you, Starkard," Gobber said as he switched his prosthetic hand into a hammer, "Let's do some cleaning."
The two Vikings pounded toward the Berserkers. Now the hunters became the hunted. Under the protection from a few heavy-armored Berserkers, Dagur tried to gather up his men and push the Berkians back.
"Ok, that's it. Give me my spear," Dagur said as he took off his armor.
A soldier put a seven feet long metal spear into Dagur's hands. This weapon looked more like a harpoon than a spear. Its head was curved in order to cause maximum damage when pulling it out from the victim's body. Dagur's blacksmiths made this weapon based on the Gungnir, Odin's spear.
"All right, someone takes out the two pathetic haddocks at the stern, and I will finish the Berkians," Dagur penetrated his spear into a Berkian's chest and pulled it out instantly, carrying a small piece of a limb. Gore spilled out from the fist-sized hole as the Berkian fell down on the deck.
Two soldiers turned a catapult towards the stern where Astrid and Hiccup were operating the ballista. Without hesitation, they launched a Viking-sized boulder.
"Incoming!" Astrid shouted as she and Hiccup jumped away from the ballista.
The boulder completely crushed the ballista into pieces and even went through the ship, created a large hole on the keel and sank into the ocean. Water started rushing in and the ship started sinking slowly.
"Odin's beard, I didn't say sink the ship," Dagur bellowed at the two soldiers as he sliced a Berkian's head down.
"That was just a mistake," a soldier replied.
Astrid and Hiccup started running towards the bow while the water was chasing behind them.
The sea stack was captured by the Riders and Nadder team, at least that was some good news because they didn't need to worry about arrows coming from the sky.
"Stormfly, get us out of here!" Astrid yelled towards the sky, "Leave Dagur here."
"No, dad and other Berkians are still on this ship," Hiccup picked up a shield.
"Very well," Astrid thought for a moment, "How about we summon all the Riders?"
"Summon is a strong word."
"Who cares. I thought we are the commanders of the Riders."
"All right, but I don't feel right when I'm bossing people around."
"That's what you always do in the bedroom!"
Green Zippleback gas covered the deck, and they burst into flame when a spark of fire landed on the deck. The explosion spread across the deck and pushed some Berserkers and barrels on the deck into the ocean.
Barf and Belch hovered above the deck, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were launching arrows by the two crossbows that they took from another ship.
"Sorry that we are late for the party," Tuffnut shouted as he head-shot a Berserker who survived the explosion, "This is Valhalla Express!"
Hookfang landed beside the port among some new arrived Berserkers. Snotlout jumped down from the saddle and swung his hammer and knocked over a Berserker who was trying to pick up a crossbow.
The lower deck was already filled with water and the ship continued to sink. Some Berserkers were trapped beneath the deck and were drowned to death. Stormfly ignited the deck on fire when she flew across the ship.
Dagur's men started retreating to the starboard as more and more Riders boarded this half-sank ship. Stoick picked up one of Dagur's guard and threw him into the ocean.
"Sir, we need to abandon this ship, otherwise the Berkians will kill us all!" Savage shouted as he blocked a spin shot from Stormfly with his shield.
"All right, but before we leave, I need to give them a warning," Dagur said slowly as he pointed at Stoick, who was crushing the Berserkers with his maces, with his spear, "I want Hiccup to remember me that one day, Berk will be mine."
Dagur took a step back, took off his helmet and armor, brought back his spear, and threw the spear into the sky towards Stoick the Vast. The spear spun at a high speed when cutting through the air It flew over the deck like a comet traveling across the sky. The iron head of the spear was reflecting the bright goldish light of the sun before it penetrated through the chest of its victim. The tip of the spear destroyed the heart and cut its way out of the body with blood dripping down from the curve.
"Stoick!" Gobber yelled as the giant body of his old friend fell to the wooden deck of "Thundercloud" with Dagur's spear buried in his chest. Stoick's helmet detached from his head and rolled to the side.
"Dad! No!" Hiccup cried and ran towards Stoick's body with both furious and scare flashing on his face.
"Bullseye," Dagur murmured as he jumped onto the small boat which a new team of archers was waiting for him.
Astrid picked up a bow on the ground and launched an arrow at the leaving boat which carried Dagur. Dagur blocked the arrow with his axe as the boat sailed away, "You need to practice more, young lady!"
Following Dagur, the Berserkers retreated back to their ships and headed back to their island across the fog, leaving debris and bodies floating on the sea. Some ships' decks were still burning with flame and black smoke ascended into the sky. The rest of the Riders and Nadder team landed on "Thundercloud" with cuts and wounds on their skin and dragons, marking the great battle they had come through.
Berkians gathered on the deck of "Thundercloud" and around Stoick's body while they dropped their helmets and weapons on the deck. Hiccup knelt beside his father's carcass and put his arms around his cooling body, tears mixed with blood on his face dropped onto his father's clothes.
"No… Please, dad…" Hiccup wasn't ready to take something like that.
He remembered that his father was always pushing him to prepare for becoming a chief, and that really annoyed him, But when the person who pushed Hiccup a lot was gone, Hiccup didn't feel any better. Right now no matter what Stoick was going to say, Hiccup just wanted to hear his father's words again, at least a good bye.
There was no need to check Stoick's heartbeat because Dagur's spear already tore apart Stoick's heart and some limbs the moment it went into his chest. Gobber stood behind Hiccup while Astrid made her way through the Berkians.
Through the blurry fog, the Berkians could still hear the vicious laugh from Dagur the Deranged.