I Own Nothing
All Rights Reserved
A lot of times when I'm stuck on how to write something, I watch certain clips to get inspiration. In these next two chapters I watched four different types of footage: the battle of Helms Deep from Lord of the Rings, a tiger fight at a zoo, a ship blowing up, and many of the lightsaber duels in the Star Wars movies. Not to copy or plagiarize, but to get me in the right mood and mindset.
Chapter 31
The Battle
Drago's army was a motley collection but fighters to the core, and as soon as the giant ramp was low enough they charged out of the Czernobog screaming loud battle cries and waving their weapons wildly. Through the shallows they splashed as quickly as they possibly could. Meantime, on Berk, the crossbows were loaded and ready. On Bertha's command they opened fire.
A fierce volley of arrows cut through the air. It was followed by another and another. Arrows were flying thick as rain in a downpour. The defenders could feel them whipping past their hair, a bit too close for comfort. None of the attackers stopped to fire back; they only held their shields in front of them and continued the charge. Some shields in the front were literally pierced with a dozen arrows. Drago was in the lead, roaring like a lion, with Alvin not far behind him. Dagur had yet to disembark. More volleys were let loose, but the crossbows took time to load, even when there were rows of archers. The attackers were being pinned down but slowly and surely began to make their way up the beach.
"Spears at the ready!" Stoick roared, "Fire!"
The only attackers in the front ranks who were standing now were those who had shields and knew how to use them. But there was still a multitude coming out of the Czernobog. Too many to drive off with just arrows. The new waves pushed right through their cut up comrades and kept coming forward at full speed. Still, they were paying heavily for it, much more than the defending Vikings were.
The first rank of attackers came rushing forward and at last got off the beach. They charged forward eagerly over large piles of sand—and fell screaming into a deep trench they had not seen until it was too late.
"Hurray for Boar Pits!" Tuffnut shouted from his position on top of a house.
"That's not a Boar Pit, stupid!" His sister shouted back.
"Well it should be! And it would've been if Stoick had let us dig it!" He threw some rocks at the men trying to climb out of the trench. "I tell ya, Sis, if I was in charge of defending this place, those guys would never know what hit 'em!"
"You mean the guys on our side or the enemy?"
"Good point! I'll have to think about that one."
By this point everyone had disembarked the Czernobog. For Stoick, Bertha, and Gort, that was a sign of relief, for it meant Drago had no more troops except the Dragons. But the Dragons remained on top of the ship and showed no sign that they were going to attack Berk—with one exception. With a loud roar a Razorwhip swooped down right behind the defenders and swung its spiked tail at them. Adoncia was on its back and was screaming hysterically, ignoring the arrows that shot past her as they plunged into the back ranks of the Berkians. Her Razorwhip was flinging spines and shooting fire at every opportunity, and anyone who got too close got hacked up by Adoncia's sword and axe, which she was swinging like a murderous lunatic. Then, before the Vikings could organize and bring them down with overwhelming firepower, the Spaniard and her dragon jumped back into the sky.
"See? Told ya them dragons are danger to us!" Spitelout shouted to nobody in particular.
"Yeah, and I'd feel a lot better having them on our side!" Someone, possibly Snotlout, it was hard to tell, shouted back.
Dagur was near Alvin at that stage of the fight and he looked confused. "Why aren't those dragons joining the fight?"
"Who cares?" Alvin jeered, "We kill Drago an' Dancy an' survive an' we've got it made!"
The problem with that was Drago and Adoncia were both in the thick of the action. It would be hard enough just getting over to them. Drago had seen that Adoncia had disobeyed his direct orders not to bring the Razorwhip into battle, but there was nothing to be done about it now except fight and win.
Now that every soldier had exited, the remaining crew on the Czernobog raised its great ramp and put its engines into reverse. Most on Berk were too busy fighting to notice it move out to sea. Two people who did were the Twins. As they were not very good fighters, they had taken up a position on a rooftop where they could throw things at the attackers, but they became preoccupied with watching the Czernobog.
"Look at that amazing monster of a boat, Sis," Tuffnut said reverently,
"Yes indeed, Brother, it is truly amazing."
"If only we could somehow blow it up!"
"If only indeed!"
"If only we had some more of that powder Hiccup gave us," the plan to collect that combustible powder had been ruined when Hiccup had gone missing, for it was stored on the Sanctuary and only Hiccup had known the island's location. And though nobody knew it, the point had become moot not long ago.
"If only we had some means to get there,"
Their longing eyes fell on a row boat tied to one of the deserted side docks and an evil grin came to their faces.
"After you, Sis,"
"Why thank you, Brother,"
By this point out on Berk any sense of tactics had been abandoned. Now it was simply a matter of stabbing the nearest enemy and moving on to the next one, and whoever held out the longest would be the victor.
Adoncia had dismounted the Razorwhip and was dancing around the field waving her sword like a baton. She had thrown the axe into a Viking and had been unable to retrieve it. For Astrid, who was already covered in sweat, such a sight was more than she could stand and she forced and fought her way towards the Spaniard.
"Ah!" Adoncia laughed as she blocked the Valkyrie's axe and countered with a swing of her sword. "You must be Astrid!" It now occurred to both of them that even though they knew each other all too well by reputation, they had never actually met before. "Hiccup will be so upset to hear of your death, Mi Hermana!"
Instead of despairing at this or feeling intimidated, Astrid felt a surge of hope that Hiccup was still alive. It must have showed, for Adoncia scowled at her.
"Oh, are you in love with him? That's so sweet! Too bad you'll never see him again!"
"Then why haven't you killed her yet?" Camicazi came out of nowhere and leapt onto Adoncia, sending both of them into the ground. Astrid raised her axe, but the Razorwhip suddenly appeared and shot spines at her. She ducked in time, but thanks to the distraction Adoncia had managed to roll away and get up. Astrid threw herself in front of Camicazi, who was getting to her feet, and blocked the death blow Adoncia had been about to deliver. Her sword scrapped against Astrid's axe. Astrid threw it off and kicked Adoncia hard in the chest.
The children of Berk and those who could not fight had been sent to stay in a cave on a beach on the opposite side of the island. A handful of warriors to protect them and a few moored ships were ready in case they had to flee. For most it was even worse than being in battle, for they while they could hear the fight raging they had no idea of how it or any of their loved ones were managing. Some wanted to join in the fight, and that included Astrid's students, especially Ase and Peer.
"I wanna help!" Peer shouted, but his mother was restraining him.
"You can help our warriors best by not getting in their way!" his mother scolded him, as she tried to not cry. She had fallen down some stairs and broken her leg two weeks before; otherwise she would have been in the battle herself alongside her husband.
Ase meantime was running around frantically asking everyone if they thought her parents were all right. Everybody was reassuring, but nobody believed for a moment they were telling the truth and everybody prayed to every God they could think of that they were telling the truth.
Stoick had been fighting with all his might. Even at his point in life few men had such strong arms, as the heads and bodies of a fair amount of Berserkers, Outcasts, and Hysterics could attest to. Then he spotted Alvin the Outcast striking down a Bog Burglar. His temper flared and he ran towards him.
"'Ello, Stoick!" Alvin cackled gleefully as he brandished his axe, "Wanna die?"
Stoick's response was to hit Alvin in the face with his hammer. Alvin at once dropped the humor and a vicious fight began between the two men. Both were evenly matched in terms of strength, and it showed, for neither could get an advantage over the other.
That all changed unexpectedly when the position they maneuvered into had Alvin facing the ocean. Something out at sea caught his attention and he stared at it in astonishment for a second too long.
"Wot the—?" was all he got out before Stoick landed a terrific blow to Alvin's stomach. Alvin rolled onto the ground. Stoick could have killed him then, but his own warrior code forbade killing an opponent like this, and, more to the point, he now saw what had distracted Alvin and was equally astonished by it. Toothless the Night Fury was dragging himself out of the sea and onto the beach.
Not far from the shore Toothless had let go of the eel, thanked it as best as he could, and made his way onto Berk at last. "I challenge! Where's that Razorwhip? Where's that—A-HA!" He spread his wings and rose to his full height. "I challenge you!"
The Razorwhip heard the challenge and flew over to him, ignoring Adoncia's protests. "Come to die like the Skrill, flightless one?"
"You're dealing with me this time, tin lizard! Me, the Unholy Offspring of DEATH!" He shot plasma at his foe's face and charged at it. His words had already had the desired effect.
Far over on the Czernobog, the massive flock of dragons had been sitting like statues, barely reacting to anything. It had been the orders of the Beta. But now that the Beta was challenged its mind power had no effect on them any longer. It was as though they were all snapping out of trances or waking up from a heavy sleep.
Then one dragon looked towards Berk and shrieked. They had all known that a battle had been raging this whole time, yet it had not really registered in their minds. But now it did. Now they could see with outrage what was happening to the humans the Hatchling had tried to get them to be friends with. Now they could remember with horror what they had done to their nest and their own hatchlings. Loud screams and shrieks rang out. Others began roaring furiously. The eyes of many blazed with rage. And, with Stormfly and Midnight in the lead, they leapt off the ship's deck and flew for Berk. And this was exactly what Toothless had been hoping for when he challenged the Razorwhip.
It was amazing how determined the Twins could be when they had a fixed purpose in mind. In this case the plan was to get to the ship and find a way to blow it up. Oh yes, and possibly find Hiccup if they could, but they had priorities, and the prospect of destroying that monster of iron was so appealing to them they rowed their stolen boat with great power and swiftness. And yet the Czernobog was still quite a ways away.
As they got closer to the ship they looked up and saw the dragons above them.
"What do you suppose they're doing?"
"No idea," Ruffnut prayed it was not Drago's doing but feared deep down that it was.
At that moment a Zippleback dove down towards their boat.
"Barf n' Belch!" the Twins shouted. The dragon chortled in delight to see its humans again.
"How about a lift?" Ruffnut asked, "Get us to that big monster and let's destroy it!"
The Zippleback was more than happy to oblige.
A few hours ago Dagur had once again been thinking of the simple life, but now that he was in battle his deranged side took over. He reveled in battle and bloodshed, he went around laughing, and he swung his sword at anything that came his way, friend or foe. One of the foes he came upon was Spitelout. In his battle state of mind Dagur did not recognize him. Spitelout was in a similar mindset and the two lunged at each other like maniacs before Dagur got him in the chest.
As the ship came to a halt at last, Hiccup crawled along the floor. Undignified, perhaps, but since he only had one foot, it was easier and faster for him to move on his hands and knees. Dagur had mentioned his equipment was in the armory, so he would have to find it. He just prayed he would not be caught.
A sudden noise made him freeze. He heard footsteps approaching in his direction and groaned while trying to calculate how many he could take with him.
"Well, well, well," Ruffnut grinned, poking him in the back with her sword, "what have we here?"
"Boy am I glad to see you!" Hiccup laughed, weak with relief.
"The feelings mutual," Ruffnut replied, "So what's the plan? Can we blow stuff up?"
"First could you help me up?"
She at least knew when to be semi-serious, "where's your leg?"
"In the armory with the rest of my stuff. We need to get there now."
"Can do—and then?"
"Then we—is Tuffnut here?"
"Of course, he's right—!" She looked behind her and then realized that Tuffnut was not present. "Oh no where'd he go?"
"We'll look as we make our way to the armory, come on!"
"Do you even know where this armory is?" Ruffnut asked,
"Haven't a clue,"
"That's the way to do it, Fellow Disciple of Loki!"
Tuffnut had somehow gotten separated from his twin sister and was wandering around the ship, lost but not duly concerned about being lost. The way he saw it, since he did not know where he was going, he could not be lost, because being lost implies you cannot find your way to your destination and he did not know his destination, ergo, he was not lost. At least, that was how it worked in his mind as he wandered around the dark and narrow corridors.
He became aware of a loud squawking noise down at one end of the corridor and impulsively went over to investigate. He entered a room and saw a man at a table with a giant cleaver in one hand and an equally large chicken in the other. Clearly the man was in the middle of preparing a meal. Tuffnut had no idea why he was eating at a time when everyone else was in the middle of a battle, but that did not concern him. He had taken one look at the chicken in the man's grip and suddenly he knew he could not let the man kill it. Something in its eyes, its expression, its giant fluffy feathers…the Chicken was not going to be a casualty today! Not the Chicken!
With an impressive roar he charged at the incredulous man and head-butted him in the stomach. He seized the cleaver, threw it into a corner, and grabbed the Chicken. "Nice try, you monster, but as long as Tuffnut Thorsten is around, nobody will go around murdering innocent chickens!"
"Hey, you come back here! That's going to be my lunch!" The man chased after him.
"Never, coward who hides behind trying to murder chickens whilst his comrades are locked in the heat of battle!"
"I'm the ship's pilot! I was ordered to stay here by Drago Bludvist!"
"Bludvist, Dudvist, crud fist!" Tuffnut suddenly stopped in his tracks, shouted "catch!" and threw the Chicken at the man's head. The Chicken at once began pecking and clawing at his face.
"Argh! Get it off me, get it off me!"
Tuffnut whipped off his helmet and banged it onto the pilots head. The man staggered a minute, and then fell onto the floor.
Tuffnut pointed his finger at him. "That's what comes from trying to assassinate poor innocent chickens!"
Toothless roared like a lion and lunged for the Razorwhip's neck. There was no talking between these two opponents, just cries of rage and pain. Some kinds of battles have a perceptible grace or art form to them, but it was lacking here. This battle was two full grown monsters savagely trying to kill each other. The blows dealt were hard, vicious, and grisly. Nobody came to help either of them. The humans were too busy fighting each other and many were too scared or sensible to get involved with such a battle.
The Razorwhip tried to take to the skies, where it would have the advantage over the grounded Night Fury, but Toothless never allowed it the opportunity to open its wings without them becoming damaged. The black Dragon was relentless in keeping on the offensive. Neither dragon used fire much, mostly for fear of missing and hitting their own side by accident. Toothless did so out of his own morality, the Razorwhip did so because it feared it would be punished later. So they only fired when they could not possibly miss, which meant the shots they did fire were very painful. The hides of both dragons opened in numerous places.
In pain, the Razorwhip went for the same tactic that had worked in the past: its spiked tail. But Toothless proved to be usually too fast for it, and his own tail had a spike of its own: the metal remains of his prosthetic tail fin. It was not much use against a dragon with metal armor, so Toothless aimed for the Razorwhip's wounds and eyes. Toothless also found he had another advantage: his neck was a considerably smaller target.
Not that the Razorwhip was hopelessly outmatched. Its armor was stronger than Toothless's, and while its tail swings missed mostly, it still scored some painful hits, especially on Toothless's unprotected underside. And it had less reason to fear shooting fire than Toothless did, and for every blow Toothless made to its neck or face, it paid back with fire bursts aimed for Toothless's head.
While the contest remained undecided, the dragons from the Sanctuary, the army Drago had been keeping offshore, had reached the island. With the question of the Beta still being settled they were freed from any mind control and were taking full advantage of it. Not one of them took Drago's side. Much like Toothless, most dared not use fire much for fear of burning their own side, but they were still swooping in, grabbing enemy soldiers in their claws and flinging them away or dropping them. Others landed and viciously attacked with claws and teeth, and the occasional burst of flames. Despite all the care some took, homes and other buildings were soon blazing. The dragons blamed the blazes on Drago and his people for making them so enraged in the first place, and the results were even more vicious attacks. It was as though each dragon hoped destroying Drago's army more utterly would somehow wipe out their actions at the Sanctuary.
Fishlegs found himself suddenly alone beside a house and for a brief moment he looked around. Houses were up in flames once again, people were screaming and hacking at each other with a mad frenzy, dragons were swarming around killing people, blood was everywhere, and smoke was turning the sky almost black. And all this was happening to his home and to the only people he had ever cared about. He wanted nothing more than to crawl away, be sick, and pray this was all just a nightmare.
But he did not do that. He swallowed, raised his sword and ran screaming back into the hellish pandemonium that is war.
"You know, having a missing leg is a real pain at times," Hiccup said as he attached his prosthetic. With Ruffnut's help he had hobbled and hopped all the way to the armory. It had taken a while to find the room, but thankfully they ran into nobody. The entire ship seemed deserted. Ruffnut was delighted by all the dangerous weapons that had been left behind.
"Oh, imagine what damage I could do with this thing!" she shouted as she held up a flail with a spiked ball twice the size of her head.
"By all means take it. Now, what's the situation on Berk?"
"Very destructive," Tuffnut announced as he entered the room.
"There you are!" Ruffnut shouted,
"What happened—and what's with the chicken?" Hiccup asked, not certain if he wanted to know the answer.
"A survivor of a most deadly game involving meat cleavers and pilots," Tuffnut said dramatically,
"OK…so, how is our side holding up? What are the dragons doing?"
"We don't know. The dragons deserted us, when we were rowing here they were all sitting on this ship for some reason, and then they flew off towards Berk, and Barf n' Belch came back! We don't know what's going on!"
Hiccup felt a sinking feeling but tried to ignore it. He could speculate later. Strapping on his armor he said "Ok, here's the plan. Suit up, and then you two find the helm, make this ship point at Berk, and then disconnect the helm so the course can't be altered." That last was an important thing to prevent from happening, especially where those two were concerned. He could easily imagine them playing around with the helm for the fun of it. "And I don't care what you do about any guards you come upon."
"Got it—I think. Sis, have we got it?"
"Yes, now where's the helm?"
"Probably somewhere at the stern and on the top deck."
"Ok, then what? And what will you be doing?"
"Once we get moving, you'll be on your own. Do whatever you need to ensure your own safety, and be sure you're not on board when we hit land."
The Twins were delighted. "Hit land?"
"Yes, guys, hit it. This ship is about to make its final voyage. Let's give it a spectacular ending."
Tuffnut raised his new friend and announced the Chicken was pleased. Ruffnut kissed him on the cheek. "You are truly a Disciple of Loki! A man after my own heart!"
"Um…thanks?"
Olaf Hofferson was fighting furiously. Like most warriors he fought without thinking about it, his body instinctively doing what it had been trained to do. He fought his way through a small group of Outcasts and found himself face to face with Drago Bludvist himself.
There were no exchanges with words. Drago simply saw Olaf as his next target and he slammed his pike into Olaf's shield. Olaf was the more nimble of the two and slipped around him, giving Drago a sharp blow on the back and then stabbing an Outcast who had gotten too close.
Elsewhere along Berk the dragons were causing devastation to the opposing side and a little bit to Berk as well. Fires were spreading but nobody could stop to put them out. Astrid looked in vain for Stormfly, but the smoke was getting thicker and the heat of the battle offered little time to look. She might have seen the Nadder flying overhead several times but had no time to be certain.
Adoncia had run off into some other part of the battle and unintentionally ran right in Camicazi again.
"Adios, Mi Hermana!" she shrieked as she tried to stab the Bog Burglar.
"Same to you, you dirty little—" Camicazi swore and slammed a hammer she had stolen into Adoncia's head. Adoncia at once decided it was better to move to another part of the battle and ran for it. Camicazi attempted pursuit but it was no good in the chaos of the battle.
Unfortunately for Adoncia, she ran once again into Astrid. In her dazed state it took her a moment to realize this and she did not react when Astrid threw a knife into her eye until it was too late to dodge it.
Toothless finally got the Razorwhip's neck in his claws and pinned the dragon to the ground. The Razorwhip tried to get up but it was too tired, whereas Toothless seemed to grow stronger by the minute as he smelled victory.
"Yield!"
"No!" the Razorwhip gasped.
"I'm going to count to three. If you haven't surrendered by then I bite your head off! One…Two…" He ran his teeth against the Razorwhip's neck.
"All right, all right, I yield, I yield!" The Razorwhip screamed.
Toothless looked the dragon squarely in the eye. "You're mind belongs to me now,"
"As you wish, Beta,"
Toothless looked around triumphantly and called to his dragons. "All right everyone! I'm the Beta once more, and I order everybody to wipe out this army of murderers!" He turned to the Razorwhip, "And as for you…" he grabbed one of the Razorwhip's wing joints in his mouth and bit into it. Ignoring the Razorwhip's screams of agony he bent the wing bone until it snapped off from its socket. This was one dragon that would never fly again. And as Gobber once observed, a downed dragon was a dead dragon.
Since the ship was based on his design, he guessed the engines were in the bowels of the ship. He hoped he was right, for it would waste time if he was wrong and he had no idea how much time he had now.
He was relieved to find the engine room was indeed where he thought it would be and now he understood how they were making the ship move. There were 5 Monstrous Nightmares, each one chained to what looked like a massive metal barrel with knobs sticking out. Even in his current situation, the fact that this design had been taken from his ideas still outraged him.
There was only one person in the room: the man whose job was clearly to keep the Nightmares at work. The sight of the whip in his hands outraged Hiccup further. This was not what he had had in mind when he'd designed this ship. He could see long scars on the Nightmares and marks from where their chains had dug into their flesh, and his temper snapped. He ran right up to the man responsible for this work, and without warning hit the man in the head with all his might.
"Hope you've got something for a headache, because you'll need it later." He commented as the man slumped to the ground unconscious. Hiccup first shut the door and bolted it, then turned to the Nightmares, who were staring at him incredulously. "Right, listen up! You have one more job to perform and then you'll never be slaves in this place again. And to prove it to you, I'm going to free you all first." He was already rushing around picking the locks to their bonds. The Nightmares were both thrilled and confused.
"But who are you?" one asked.
"And how do you speak Dragonese?"
"I wouldn't expect you to know about it, given you've been imprisoned down here, but I'm the one they call 'The Dragon King'," Hiccup replied, "Drago's least favorite person. And now you guys are free to go, but first I need to ask you for a big favor."
"Name it, Sire," one of the Nightmares said, and they all bowed their heads.
"Ok, two favors: first of all don't call me that and don't bow to me. More importantly…actually, give me a minute."
He walked around the room, trying to understand the workings. A mistake could be fatal for all of them. He noted the Nightmares were forced to crouch under the giant metal barrels, or whatever they were called; he would just call them barrels for the moment. Upon command the Nightmares would light themselves on fire. This would heat the large cauldrons of water in the barrel and in time turn it to steam. Other pipes were present to allow unwanted gases and smoke to escape. Then, the steam would rise into large copper pipes that eventually led to the wheels that would turn the ship's propellers. So how was he going to destroy this?
He had a look at the device again.
"Obviously if I close these valves here while the water is boiling, there would be nowhere for the steam to go. That would make the pressure build like a volcano and then…and what's this part for?" he peered through a small observation window in one barrel. "A sheet of metal in the water. That must be where most of the heat rises to. So the water above it is what will boil the most. All right—and what happens if the water level gets too low?" he scratched his head. "Think, Hiccup, you've always been good at destroying stuff. The water above the metal surface cools it so it never overheats, so if the water was gone the metal would overheat and that would—?" He suddenly smiled. "Oh. Yes. That would do it."
He turned to the Nightmares. "All right, everyone! I need this ship to go the fastest it's ever gone." He ran over to each barrel and turned a valve to remove some of the water from the upper section, praying he would have enough left. "Start heating the water! Let's see how fast this bucket can go!"
"With pleasure!" the dragons burst into flames and the water began to heat up. He closed the valves only part way. He dared not risk going all out yet.
There was a long opened pipe in one corner. Hiccup shouted some words into it and was relieved to hear somebody shouting back.
"Hiccup, was that you?"
It was as he had thought. This pipe communicated with the helm, allowing the pilots to shout orders down to the engine people. "Good to hear you, Ruff—are we heading for land?"
"Yes! Oh yes, we are heading for land!"
Unexpectedly, there was a loud pounding coming from the door.
"Hey! Is anybody in there? Open up!"
"Why hello, Marva!" Hiccup said loudly, "How's the head? Sorry if I don't let you in but the door is jammed and I fear it will take a while for me to fix it!"
"Darn it Hiccup, I know perfectly well you blocked it on purpose! Now open up so I can kill you!"
"And why on earth would I do that?"
"What are you even doing in there? You can't escape by hiding in there!"
"Oh I can't, can I? Well we'll just see about that! And to show how nice I can be, I suggest you jump overboard! It's the only chance you've got now!"
"What? What do you mean?" He was pleased to hear how nervous she now sounded.
"I mean, Marva, that in a handful of minutes we are going to be on dry land again!" He glanced at the engines and muttered to himself "very good, keep it up guys!"
"Dry land—Hiccup, you're crazy!"
"Maybe I am!" He laughed so loudly that he sounded as though he genuinely was. "But honestly, Marva, I think it's my ego! I just hate having my designs stolen and used for purposes I don't like!"
By now the speed of the ship was noticeably getting faster. The pressure in the giant barrels was getting so great they were beginning to shake. Hiccup closed off more of the valves to increase it, and he noticed the water levels were getting lower.
"Keep it going, boys! If nothing else we'll make a nice big explosion! The Twins will be so happy!"
Ruffnut's voice came from the pipe again, shouting "Hiccup, we're getting closer!"
"Hiccup, please!" Marva was starting to panic.
"Too late, Marva! Nothing is stopping us now!"
"Hiccup, please, I'm begging you, stop! Open this door and I promise to Odin I won't kill you!" Marva screamed. "Wait—remember what happened in those cells, remember the whip on your—"
"La-de-da-de-da and Caesar cried 'seize her!'" Hiccup sang loudly "That's not going to work this time, Marva! And if I don't do anything I'm dead as soon as Drago gets back! Isn't that wonderful? Hiccup the Useless will be dead! Oh happy days, I wonder if they'll have a library in the afterlife, then I'd have all the time in existence to read! Ha, ha, ha! So sorry Marva, but you have nothing to offer or threaten me with anymore! And if this is my end, then I'd rather die trying to save my family, so for once in your stinking life, SHUT YOUR BIG FAT MOUTH!" He paused, "and I'm glad I've lived long enough to say that!"
Out on the beach, as he and Olaf continued to fight, Drago suddenly froze in his tracks and starred out to sea.
"What are they doing? They're—ARGH!" He shifted his gaze to block another blow, but in his mind was reeling. He understood what had happened. He had no idea how it had happened, but somehow the Dragon King had gotten loose again.
Now more and more people on the beach began to notice the ship heading directly for them. As soon as it became apparent that it was not going to stop nobody wasted anymore time but began running as fast as they could to get away. Suddenly sides did not matter any longer; human or dragon, on Drago's side or with the Three Tribe Alliance, it was not a matter of consideration now. All that did matter was not to be on the beach when that ship crashed into it.
Drago let out yet another roar. Olaf swung at him and Drago dodged it. Olaf held his position for a split second too long and Drago, channeling his fury to fuel his strength, lunged with his pike and pierced Olaf's chest. He pulled the pike out and moved on to his next target as Olaf fell to the ground.
"Hiccup, we're taking off! The ship's about to crash!" Ruffnut screamed into the pipe.
"Right, let's get out of here!" Hiccup shouted as he scooped up the unconscious slave driver. He was not going to let him die like this. The Nightmares pushed their way through the opposite door with him right behind them, scrambling like mad to get on deck. Hiccup grabbed a dragon and they were in the air a split second before the ship hit land. He had cut it closer than he had any way of knowing.
The ship collided with the beach at full speed. As it did so the sudden shock made its metal plates buckle. A tremor ran along the whole structure and was felt on parts of the island, as if an earthquake had struck for a few seconds. The bow was driven into the beach while the stern went into the air and then back into the sea.
The Nightmares had left their posts but the residual heat of the metal was enough to keep the pressure going with virtually no escape, for Hiccup had turned the valves almost all the way to the closed position. And as the residual heat worked its power on the barrel, the water level dropped too low. Add to this the sudden shock of running aground and the barrels could not take anymore.
With a sound more deafening than a Thunderdrum's roar the sides of the ship were blown off. The decks were sent into the air, though it was hard to see due to the massive cloud of smoke and fire that went into the air with it. People on shore dove for cover as pieces of hot and twisted metal flew at them. Drago's army got the worst of it, for they were the closest to the explosion. Some homes took hits as well. What remained of the ship's infrastructure could not support the weight above it. The Czernobog lurched on the beach, as if making one final effort, and then the hull collapsed in on itself.
A Zippleback with two people on it flew overhead.
"And that's how you blow something up!" Tuffnut shouted.
"Awesome destruction forever!" Ruffnut sang.
"LOKI'D!" They cried together.
Author's note: I would like to give special thanks to Nutzkie for providing a great deal of advice and explanations on how to make a boiler blow up. If I have gotten anything wrong in that matter the fault is mine for not understanding the subject enough—or how about we just blame it all on Drago Bludvist? At any rate, thank you very much for your help, Nutzkie!