Shadow's roar of triumph was heard throughout the entire village. Even the sick Vikings inside the great hall heard it. They were all terrified for a moment, thinking it was some kind of wild dragon.
Hiccup was terrified most of all. He had seen many Vikings fight, but none had come anywhere near the rage that Shadow displayed. And none of them could do that. Her roar shook through his thin frame and resonated through to his very soul.
The imagined image of the Black Moon dragon flashed into his mind, and he imagined it in her place. Was this what its roar sounded like? Able to rattle your bones and leave you with nightmares of terrifying monsters?
He watched her as she stood to catch her breath. She seemed taller, stronger. And she shouldn't be able to duel wield those two handed battle axes. Even Astrid couldn't fight with two.
She seemed so unnatural and strange. Not to mention wild. And feral.
Her eyes blazed with battle fury, something that Vikings usually only got when fighting for their lives in epic and glorious battles. The fury shone in her eyes bright and deadly, and they seemed to glow silver in the moonlight.
But despite the retreat of the Whispering Deaths, and the strange and ferocious behaviour and fighting of Shadow, something seemed wrong. As if something was still coming. It wasn't over yet.
The ground started shaking. The mountain tremored with the force of an earthquake. Everything shook. Things that were loose or not nailed down began to shape and topple over. Hiccup saw Shadow freeze, her fury replaced with shock and horror.
Somewhere behind them there was a mighty crash and something roared. The bellow had been louder than Shadow's roar of triumph, and it wailed with anger. Then, all of a sudden, something absolutely massive erupted from the ground and flew into the air.
Hiccup had never seen a creature so gargantuan before. Its long white body completely covered in massive, long spikes. The wings, powerful and muscular. But its head – oh god – its head had a jaw so massive that it could swallow an entire army whole, and teeth longer than spears to tear at flesh and rip bodies apart.
The creature's red eyes bore a hole right through his very soul. Its sheer size was in comparison to the Red Death. Undoubtedly a Titan wing.
The creature, no, the monster cast its gaze to the group of dragons and growled. It sensed a challenge. It wanted to fight.
"Oh shit! Not one of these!" Hiccup hear Shadow cry. Her face was a mask of pure horror. She was looking at the beast with some kind of recognition in her eyes.
The thing roared at them and charged. All the dragons rushed to get out of its way.
"Shadow! Have you seen one of these before?" yelled Astrid with shock in her voice. She too had seen the look on Shadow's face.
"It's a Screaming Death!" she howled.
The dragon being mentioned whipped around and attacked. His huge teeth attempting to chomp an unsuspecting dragon out of the air. The long, snakelike body twisted and lurched, sending razor sharp spines at those who moved too slow.
"What do we do?" cried Fishlegs.
"These things are almost impossible to kill. We don't have the firepower!" screamed Shadow as she ran. She was trying to get behind it. Using her long claws, she scaled the sides of buildings and hopped across the roofs of houses.
Shadow struggled to come up with a plan. It had been so many years since she had seen this kind of creature. At the time, she barely came out of it alive after fighting it so long. She seriously needed a way to stop it before too long.
Hiccup and Toothless were trying to distract it while the others fired upon the beast. They flew in circles above its giant head, hitting it with plasma blasts every minute or so.
She could see the anger on its face turn to rage. It would start firing if it got too mad. And those shots were unparalleled in destruction. She wasn't sure how much damage the village could sustain at the hands of that monster.
She watched from the corner of her eye as its spiked tail whipped around and smashed through anything too close. Somehow, she needed to keep its focus on either itself or something small to try and minimise the damage, and it needed to be contained while its focus was on something.
But how to get its attention and not get killed? She tried to think: what were its weaknesses? If she remembered correctly, it didn't have one, not even sunlight. They were stuck.
Ok, how would a smaller dragon survive being attacked by a larger dragon?
Maybe she couldn't kill it, but maybe she can drive it away. She knew she was smaller and weaker, but the little guys and smaller dragons managed to survive somehow.
She wracked her brains for some of the information on smaller dragons that she knew of. She needed to know what helped them survive in this big harsh world.
Terrible Terrors, Speed Stingers, Fireworms and Smothering Smokebreaths were small dragons. Surely there was some secret they contained as to how they survive attacks from bigger dragons.
They all work in groups or packs. Something which they didn't have. Three dragons and a mysterious girl with dragon capabilities were no match for a Screaming Death.
They were fast. Something which she and Toothless had, not the others. And they couldn't use their speed for anything good, except for being shot at. The others may have some speed, but that wouldn't help them. She needed something else.
What were their stats again? Shadow wracked her brains, trying to remember Fishleg's babbling.
"Fishlegs! What are the stats for Terrible Terrors and Speed Stingers?!" she screamed over the noise.
"What?! Why are you asking that?" he shrieked.
"Just tell me!"
"Oh Thor. Terrible terrors: attack 8, venom 12. Speed Stingers: speed 30, venom 15, armour 10."
Venom. That was the answer. Smaller dragons used venom to combat larger foes. Huge dragons like this didn't have any venom, and most likely, no tolerance to it either.
Shadow sneered at the Screaming Death.
With a mental command, she forced herself to change again, and she pushed through it, ignoring the agony that came with it.
She had hated using this technique to fight, and was highly inexperienced with using it, but that just made it better. Black Moon dragons had some of the deadliest venom in the known world, capable of killing a full grown human within hours. Younglings like her were unfamiliar and unused to using venom attacks, so therefore their bite was deadlier.
She had yet to control how much venom she could inject at any one time, so she was likely to poison it with a deadly dose. Shadow wasn't sure if she could kill it, but she could at least incapacitate it.
As the transformation completed and her venom glands finished forming, she stopped to consider how she would get to the white beast.
The closer she was to the heart, the sooner it would take effect, so she had to get near its chest or throat. The throat would be best, she hoped. It might not be able to reach her there.
Shadow ran across the rooftops towards Hiccup, screaming his name. He saw her and directed his Night Fury to fly near her so she could jump on. She jumped and landed with a thud behind him on the saddle, and she wrapped her legs around him to hold on properly.
"I got an idea to drive it away. But I'll need help. I somehow got to get to its throat so I can take it out. Can you help?"
"Leave it to me."
Toothless fired a plasma blast at its face, which seriously pissed it off. The thing opened its fanged maw and screamed. Shadow cried out in pain and covered her ears while at the same time Toothless wailed in pain from the noise and struggled to stay flying.
Finally it stopped and inhaled a large breath. Then it fired. Giant fireballs shot out of its mouth at the dragons surrounding it, catching everyone off guard. Its' gatling fireballs destroyed anything it his, splintering homes apart like stacks of kindling.
Shadow had to act now. "Astrid! On my signal, I need you to shoot that thing in the face and try to knock its head back!" she screamed. Astrid looked at her, wondering what she was up to, but agreed without a second thought. She nodded and flew into position.
"Fishlegs, I need you to keep its eyes on you and off us, can you do that for a few minutes?" she hollered. He looked terrified at what she was asking and his face turned white. Shadow had no time to wait for his answer and trusted him to do the job.
"Hiccup, fly high, right above its head. Don't draw attention to yourself." She ordered. Hiccup placed his trust in her and flew up in a spiral. Shadow waited until they were high enough before she turned to Hiccup.
"I hope this works." She said dryly. "Wait! What are you doing?" he cried. Shadow smiled.
"If I told you, you wouldn't like it."
Then without warning, she slid sideways and off the saddle. And she freefell down to earth.
Hiccup screamed.
The wind rushed by her face and over her horns as Shadow fell. The Screaming Death was right below her, a few hundred meters away. She straightened her body and allowed gravity to pull her down towards her unsuspecting target. Astrid had looked up when Hiccup screamed and watched as Shadow dived towards what she thought was her death. She almost didn't react when Shadow gave the signal.
Praying to every god she knew that Shadow would live after this stupid and deadly stunt, she ordered Stormfly to fire. The screaming Death's head was knocked back – just in time.
The girl cannoned into it at breakneck speeds, and she almost missed the target and let go. Using her claws and teeth, Shadow latched on to the flesh of the beast's throat and tore great gashes in it. Immediately she injected venom from her fangs into the albino dragon, and it screamed. Her jaws clamped around its throat and did not let go, constantly injecting deadly amounts of poison into its system.
The screams of the beast rattled her body, and being this close to the dragon wasn't helping her ears. Soon, everything around her became white noise in the background. She couldn't hear anything.
The spiked tail slashed towards her like a whip, but her grip was strong, and despite the nasty blows she did not let go. Not until every last drop of venom had been injected into the wound in its throat. Shadow was hit one last time in the head, her horns protecting her skull from major damage, and she fell to the ground in a heap.
The last thing she saw out of lidded eyes as she passed out, was the Screaming Death retreating far away from Berk, its blood dripping everywhere, and the faces of worried teens staring down at her in awe. She looked over Hiccup's horrified face before she blacked out.
Woah, big epic shit going down there. how many times will Shadow get into a fight that doesn't involve her blacking out? anyway, that was fun to write. but my hands are freezing, so my typing was horrible, so sorry for any spelling mistakes. that was my frozen fingers. hope you enjoy this chapter. next should be them all just chilling and getting to know one another, all sorts of fluff and chill stuff. i love hearing your reviews, so keep em coming in. please :)