"Chief Haddock!" The messenger cried out. "Chief Haddock!" Hiccup grabbed the Berserker as he ran by. "What, what is it?" He asked the young dragon rider. The boy started panting. "Attackers...dragons...Berserk...coming." He stammered in shock of the previous events. Hiccup looked at him and rubbed his shoulders. "Woah, woah, calm down, take a deep breath." Hiccup moved his hand up as he took a breath to help the boy visualize the action. "Now, tell me who attacked you," he said. The boy looked at him wide-eyed. "Romans." Hiccup managed to get the rest of the information out of the boy and walked down the island. "Prepare the catapults, arm all warriors, prepare dragons for combat!" He yelled. Toothless screeched out similar commands to the dragons. In less than an hour, the entire village was armed and stood together at the docks.
They waited for another few hours in tension, but there was no sign of any attackers. A few began to doubt the chief and were about to leave when a battle horn sounded. Hiccup climbed up a watch tower and pulled out a telescope. He focused it on the black dot in the distance. His heart sank when he realized that it wasn't a dot. It was a line. A few minutes later, the line was visible. Hiccup estimated that the amount of ships was three times the size of their's, not to mention the large command ship that towered over the rest. Hiccup raised his hand as the catapults were loaded. When the ships were in range he chopped his hand down quickly, signaling for them to fire. A volley of flaming hay bails, rocks, and barrels of Zippleback gas collided with the oncoming ships. A loud horn came from the fleet and Hiccup realized that hadn't been his best idea.
The entire front of the large ship opened up and scores of dragon riders emerged from it in a flurry. That was no battleship, it was a carrier. "Riders to the skies!" Hiccup yelled. A large group of Hooligans and senior academy students shot off towards the enemy dragons, weapons in hand. The catapults continued to barrage the Roman fleet with attack after attack, destroying and immobilizing a large number, but not as many as they should. Hiccup gasped as he realized the fleet was surrounding the island. He ran back to Astrid who was preparing to go up. "Astrid!" He yelled. "Hiccup, I'm going up, and you can't stop me," she said, pretty sure he that's what he was coming to talk about. He smiled. "I know I can't, but I can redirect you. I need you to fly to the other side of the island and destroy the ships that are trying to flank us," he said pointing in the direction he needed her to go. "Take a small group with you." "Okay." She responded. He turned to leave. "Hiccup," she grabbed his arm and turned him around, pulling him into a kiss. "Be safe," she said as they separated. "You too." He responded.
Hiccup looked down at the battle. The Roman ships had stopped advancing towards the docks, but were still moving to circle the island. Then he looked up at the dragon riders. Strangely, only what seemed to be two-thirds of the Roman dragons were fighting, but they were still winning. Hiccup whistled and Toothless bounded up to him. "Let's go bud," Hiccup said as he climbed onto the dragon and pulled out his sword. Toothless bound into the air, and everything changed.
An unusual horn sound came from every ship in the Roman fleet. The ships began to advance again, this time much faster. Several catapults were destroyed by Roman dragons immediately, and all the riders began to focus on the newly arrived duo. Hiccup and Toothless were barraged by rider after rider as they attacked constantly, trying to end the Night Fury as soon as possible. Luckily, this made it easy for the rest of the Berkians to pick them off and pretty soon, only a few were left. The Hooligans then turned their attention to the oncoming ships, taking over the slack of the lost catapults. And then a loud roar came from behind their lines.
Hiccup turned in time to watch a black streak fly over the line of ships that had surrounded the island and disappear within the carrier. Another horn sounded from the ships. The other third of the Roman's dragon forces returned to the carrier and the ships surrounding the island turned back towards the carrier in a quick retreat. Hiccup was dumb-founded. They're giving up? After all that. He shrugged, a win was a win. Toothless roared at the retreating Romans and the rest of the Berkian dragons followed suit.
Romulus stepped off of the Black Death as the dragon tossed its catch onto the deck. She stumbled from the force and fell onto the wood. Romulus kneeled down beside her and grabbed her chin, pulling her face up to see his. "I usually kill dragon riders," he said to her, "But you look stronger than most dragon riders." He threw her to the floor and pointed to her. "Tie her up, make sure she is not injured, I want her in top shape for the arena" He ordered. Several soldiers enacted his request, tying the knots so that they weren't to tight, but still inescapable. "Besides, if you survive, you will make an excellent bartering chip with your fiancé," he said as he smiled at her. Astrid struggled against her new bindings while Romulus' First Officer came down the steps from the third-story stables. Romulus looked at him. "You did as you were told?" He asked. First nodded. "The ship was placed exactly were you commanded." He answered. "Excellent." Romulus responded. "And now we let the plan unfold."