Chapter Nineteen: We've Got One Shot

Hiccup took the longbow off his back and readied himself. Astrid did the same and held up her crossbow in front of her, her axe in her other hand in case she needed it. She was briefly distracted by an axe poking up from the seabed – it looked familiar but she decided not to dwell on it. Moments later, both teens nearly jumped out of their skins as the now gargantuan Weedsnake Elder burst from the wall of ocean, drenching them in saltwater that stung Hiccup's stab wound like Hel.

Wavewing no longer had an appearance that invited trust from those who saw him. The lines of wisdom that had been etched into his brow had deepened to form angry wrinkles that stretched all the way across his head. His eyes, once the colour of liquid amber, had darkened to the brightest shade of red that anyone could imagine from absorbing his own kind's power and sent chills down the spines of any human or dragon to have the misfortune to see them. His hide had darkened from twilight blue to pure black and his scales were rimmed with venomous red. His build was no longer serpentine but more muscular and his limbs were the length of ten Night Furies standing on top of each other from tail to nose.

Hiccup could no longer believe that this was the guardian he'd once trusted with his life.

"So glad to see you could come, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III," Wavewing hissed. Astrid shuddered next to Hiccup, wishing she knew what was being said. "Although I'm surprised to see you bring along another to die with. It's not like you to waste a life."

"Astrid's here by her choice, not mine," Hiccup growled back. Astrid nodded firmly, standing her ground now having gotten the general gist of the conversation.

"And that choice isn't changing any time soon," she snapped in her usual angry tone. She kept her fearsome glare plastered onto her round face even as Wavewing stared her down, his red irises burning against his dark face.

"A fine choice for a mate, Hiccup, I must say," he taunted. "No doubt she'd provide the backbone you so desperately need." Hiccup growled and his eyes narrowed into slits – no doubt if he had his sister's powers he would have entered the Shifter State by now. "Of course, that is why you brought her with you, is it not?"

Hiccup finally lost it and fired an arrow straight into Wavewing's nostril. The monstrous dragon reared up in agony and Hiccup yelled at Astrid to run.

"Follow me!" he cried, dragging her by the wrist towards the caves where the school of Weedsnakes, including himself, had once slept. The entrances were huge but not quite big enough for Wavewing in his current form to fit through so it gave the teens some cover at least. However, most of the inner cave entrances were out of immediate reach so Hiccup and Astrid darted into the lowest one they could find as Wavewing let loose a river of violet flames.

"Okay, so what's the plan now?" Astrid yelled over the crackling of the fire.

"Step One, get down here and find cover," Hiccup replied worriedly, ducking behind a boulder. His boot was already full of sand and he was starting to get irritated.

"What's Step Two?"

"Honestly, I didn't think we'd make it in here before he lost it..."

"HICCUP!" Astrid shrieked as Wavewing threatened to break through the entrance to the caves.

"Uh...split up!" Hiccup decided, darting in one direction out of his cover. "I'll distract him – when he opens his mouth, empty your crossbow if you have to but whatever you do, DON'T MISS!" he yelled back. Astrid scrambled to her feet and clambered up the slippery rock to find a better vantage point, barely avoiding Wavewing as he crashed through the entrance to the caves. His eye came into view and she quickly shot a bolt into it, blinding him in one eye before she scurried to safety.

"You can't hide forever, boy!" Wavewing roared.

"Hasn't that line been overused a gazillion times?" Hiccup shouted from his hiding spot. Wavewing let out an angry squawk, giving Hiccup a chance to fire an arrow straight into the back of his throat. Wavewing contorted slightly but the one arrow clearly wasn't enough to down him. Hiccup ran to find a better area to shoot but upon seeing Astrid ran circles around the giant dragon, unsheathing his dagger and driving it into the deadly hide without hesitation. The dagger proved nothing more than a pinprick to Wavewing but it was enough to keep his attention on Hiccup. Astrid knelt down and readied herself to fire as Wavewing opened his mouth, flammable gas forming in the back of his throat.

Astrid shot five bolts in rapid succession, interrupting Wavewing from toasting Hiccup but it also brought his attention to her. He made a bite for her but she barely tumbled further into the cave. Wavewing's snout became stuck in the entrance and Astrid fired the remained of her crossbow bolts into his mouth but it still did little to weaken him. She was starting to doubt Hiccup's claim of oak being one of the things that could kill a sea dragon when her last bolt hit the roof of Wavewing's mouth. Wavewing screeched in pain and completely blocked the cave, leaving Astrid trapped. She abandoned her crossbow and began using her axe to try to create an escape route. She screamed when she saw the gas building up in Wavewing's throat again.

Hiccup heard Astrid scream and rammed an arrow as deep as he could into a gap in the otherwise diamond hard scales. The oak's essence began spreading like venom through Wavewing's veins and the pain it caused him was enough to send his head ripping through the roof of the cave. Hiccup raced into the opposite direction to avoid getting hit by the resulting debris but his left leg still ended up getting hit. Upon seeing her fiancé stumble. Astrid raced from her spot to help him, barely shoving him out of the way as Wavewing swung his head down in an attempt to crush them both.

"Step Three?" Astrid asked despite herself as Hiccup slowly got to his feet.

"Run," he replied.

"Good idea."

The teens ran for the nearest cave which Hiccup recognised as his old sleeping quarters. The entrance was far too small for Wavewing to fit through and it gave the teens enough time to escape through the hole in the rock Hiccup had called a 'window' when he'd resided there (he refused to say 'lived'). They stumbled away onto the damp sand just as Wavewing annihilated the caves entirely, leaving the pair out in the open with a pile of rocks laying behind them.

Outside the caves, the heat of the flames was balanced by the spray from the ocean walls meaning that Hiccup and Astrid were in a constant state of getting wet and drying out. Salt clung to their clothes and stung their cuts from the fight so far. The spray also got into Astrid's eyes and she stumbled around blindly for a while until Hiccup grew so concerned for her safety that he had to shove her out of the way as Wavewing made to crush them again.

Hiccup knocked another arrow to the string of the longbow and waited for his chance. His leg was throbbing painfully and his stab wound was barely holding together as he could feel his skin threatening to tear apart. His breathing was shallow and quick and he was barely able to think straight. Then again, keeping his head on his shoulders in dangerous situations was what the seventeen year old did best – he just had to use his unusual ability to its full potential if he wanted to save both his world and the dragons from the monster in front of him.

"Why did you risk it?" he panted as Wavewing turned his attention to him. "There was no guarantee dragons would win the Gods' War if it happened – why would you chance it?"

"Why did your tribe chance going to an island they knew to be infested with dragons where they first sailed to your home?" Wavewing bit back. Hiccup couldn't help but shrug – the Niflheim he knew. "You're right – dragons aren't so different to humans. We fight for dominance over what we know is rightfully ours – that is why we take chances when we can."

"Yeah, but it was just you," Hiccup pointed out. "I don't see any other types of dragons trying to get me to kill Kyra."

"Don't play dumb with me, boy! I know full well that your sister told you about my kind," Wavewing spat. Hiccup remembered too well – Kyra had mentioned that Weedsnakes were a breed of dragon that would do anything for power. "It makes Weedsnakes the closest to your kind, wouldn't you say?"

"Maybe some – and I can name a few – but at least my people don't turn against their own family to get what they want!" Hiccup bellowed, firing an arrow into Wavewing's other eye and completely blinding him. Nearby, Astrid regained shook the sand and rubbed the salt from her eyes, regaining her vision and picking herself up from the sand. Nearby she could make out the shape of two axes, one of which was her own. The other one, however, was one that looked strikingly familiar. Shaking her head clear and deafened by the torrent of water close by, Astrid examined the axe and instantly recognised it.

The axe had two blades made of solid iron – a relatively old one compared to the stronger alloys Hiccup and Gobber had designed a few years ago. The handle was simply carved with dragons designs all the way along the strong wood. One of the blades took Astrid's interest in particular – there was a distinct crack all the way down the blade as well as a large chip in the metal where the rest of the blade had been sharpened to razor thinness. It was Astrid's mother's old axe which Astrid had given Hiccup to sharpen all those years ago.

"It ended up all the way out here?" Astrid wondered aloud. Examining the handle further, she suddenly remembered what it was made of – oak.

/\

Kyra winced as she heard the cries of Wavewing from the boat and the shrieks coming from Hiccup and Astrid. She'd tried following Hiccup and Astrid out to the basin, as had the other Defenders of Berk, but every time they tried, the wall of fire blocked their path, preventing them from getting further than sixty yards from the boat. Astrid and Hiccup were holding out but Kyra knew that even if they did win there would be no way for them to get out of the basin – even Kyra couldn't fly fast enough to get to them in time and she couldn't risk being seen by Wavewing out of fear for their safety...not that it was there in the first place.

"This isn't right!" she cried out for the nth time running. "We shouldn't just have to sit here!"

"Hey, if it wasn't for the fact that we can't actually get any closer than we already are because of those flames, I'd be down there with them," Heather snapped from Newtsbreath, although her fingernails were now bitten so much from nervousness Kyra was amazed there was anything but the cuticle left. "But we need to trust Hiccup to know what he's doing – we've done so in the past and we need to do the same now."

"It's not that I don't trust my brother, Heather," Kyra moaned, gripping her dark auburn hair so much it was on the verge of being torn out. "There's no way they'll be able to get out – we'd never get there in time!"

"Uh, guys..." Snotlout called. "Since when did we have another Night Fury on the team?"

Kyra squinted to where her cousin was indicating and spotted the familiar black shadow of a Night Fury. For some reason she hadn't sensed it and she quickly saw the reason why as the Night Fury snapped its head round to look at her. Instead of the usual bright green, the dragon's eyes were the same colour of emeralds. It regarded her for a moment before vanishing into the clouds.

"Hey! WAIT!" Kyra screeched. "Come back! They need...!" Too late. The Night Fury had gone. Kyra couldn't help but feel slightly betrayed – Ivor had promised he'd come back but now where was he going? The eighteen year old stared after the dragon with tears brimming in her eyes. "Please...help them..."

/\

Hiccup was running out of arrows fast. Off the eighteen that he had been able to make coming out here, he had five left. The others had either stuck in the back of Wavewing's throat (he'd managed to stick eight of them and they had weakened the Weedsnake Elder if only slightly), one was buried in his left eye socket, three had missed their target and one was stuck in Wavewing's hide.

He's too strong, Hiccup thought to himself. If the arrows and bolts haven't done the job already, he's gonna have to swallow something to kick the bucket... He rolled out of the way to avoid Wavewing's tail swipe when the dragon suddenly screeched. Hiccup shook his head clear to see Astrid pin the Weedsnake's tail to the ground with her axe – Hiccup would have called her crazy if he hadn't seen the other one strapped onto her back. Astrid quickly dodged Wavewing's flame attack as he tried to roast her (Hiccup was grateful he wasn't using curses) and legged it over to Hiccup where he repeated his thoughts as Wavewing's attentions were focused on dislodging his tail.

"Well, if that's the case, I've got a plan," Astrid panted, indicating the axe on her back. Hiccup recognised it as her mother's - the one he'd left in the sand all those days ago during his gathering trip. Astrid whispered to him that the handle was oak – if they could get a piece of wood that big as well as the rest of Hiccup's arrows down Wavewing's gullet, they may stand a chance. Astrid helped Hiccup to his feet and they ran in the opposite direction as Wavewing sent another stream of violet flame their way. Astrid was amazed he still knew where they were after being blinded.

"You two are so noisy it's a miracle I got any sleep with you around, Hiccup!" Wavewing snapped when Astrid voiced this aloud. But we're quiet enough to keep planning, Astrid noted silently to herself. Wavewing made a snap for her but Hiccup got in the way and fired one of his five remaining arrows straight into Wavewing's tonsils, the shock from the longbow rippling through his arm and into his body. The oak shafts were affecting the dragon a lot more now that he'd been weakened and his thrashing around had become a lot more violent so the teens had to work a lot harder to avoid getting hurt.

"Four left!" Hiccup yelled to Astrid and he somersaulted over Wavewing's claw as well as getting another irritating stab at the beast's foot.

"Just hold out a bit longer, okay!" Astrid yelled back. She had to admit she was impressed with Hiccup's combat skills – it was hard to believe that the young man she was fighting with now was the same boy she'd once despised for beating her in Dragon Training. She was gripping her mother's axe so tightly her knuckled had turned white and her bright blonde hair was darkened by the salt water. Hiccup's already messy mop was stiffened with salt and his brow was glistening with sweat and spray (not to mention he was starting to regret the leather armour). However, despite their weariness and the difficulty of fighting in soft wet sand, the determination never vanished from their eyes.

Before long Hiccup had shot the last of his arrows straight into the back of Wavewing's mouth. The Weedsnake was now significantly weakened as the oak's toxins ran through his body – his scales had reverted to their old twilight blue and he'd shrunk in size to resemble a more serpentine creature once again but his eyes were still bright red, albeit glazed and scarred from the arrows that had blinded him, and he was still more than strong enough to take down anyone in his path should he choose to. Hiccup stood his ground, panting with the longbow in his hands and looking almost in pity at the dragon before him. This was the first time Hiccup knew that he had to kill a dragon the old-fashioned way...he'd never felt the need to do this before.

"There's still a chance to turn back, you know," he sighed sadly. Wavewing's eyes, scarred, crimson in more ways than one and full of hate, glared in his direction, not quite being able to focus on him. The wrinkles on his face no longer looked evil or wise – Hiccup felt a pang of sorrow as he saw the dragon and how old and tired he looked. "You don't have to do this."

"Hiccup, tell me this," Wavewing huffed as he recovered slightly from the last arrow. His breathing had gotten heavier with each shot and now he was barely standing. "What was the first thing that I ever taught you when you came to the school?"

Hiccup scrunched his face in an attempt to remember. In all honestly, he couldn't recall anyone teaching him anything during his time as a half-dragon. He'd just tried to fit in the best he could at the time.

"Something in the back of my head tells me that you never really taught me anything," he replied dryly.

"Really?" Wavewing noted tiredly, slowly getting to his feet. Astrid circled the two nearby, her mother's axe gripped in her hand. "Because as the Elder of my school, it was my duty to get at least this lesson into every youngling's head as soon as I could from the moment they were born." He paused before he seemed to remember something. "I at least told you that day on the beach – the day I gave you that necklace."

"Remind me," Hiccup couldn't help but reply sarcastically. Honestly, he wasn't too bothered with remembering every detail of conversations and his memory wasn't exactly at its best in the middle of battle. Wavewing's tail suddenly swung round, catching the young man in the side and flinging him onto the pile of rock that had once been the caves. The force was so hard that Hiccup fell through the rocks into what remained of the main chamber.

"HICCUP!" Astrid yelled, racing over as Wavewing bashed her into the chamber as well. She fell on top of Hiccup and he cried out in agony as his stab wound reopened at the surface and blood began staining the bandages once again. "Hiccup – stay with me! We can do this!" Astrid begged. Hiccup winced and tried to staunch the wound but it was proving difficult. Astrid glanced around them and noticed that there were no escape routes save for where they'd just fallen in. And that route was blocked by the shadow of an almost expired Wavewing.

"That my species is one that will do anything to get what they want," Wavewing hissed in reply to Hiccup's question. "Once a Weedsnake is set on a goal, they stop at absolutely nothing to achieve it!" Hiccup and Astrid held each other close. Astrid still had her mother's axe – they had one shot at this. If they failed, the entire Archipelago was likely doomed. "So don't even think that I will seize any opportunity to back out now, Little One!" Wavewing continued hatefully, spitting on the two teens. "My time in this world may be short but let me assure you that every last human shall bear the brunt of my power!"

"Yeah, yeah – cut the clichés," Astrid snapped although the fear was still clear as crystal in her voice. This only served to rile up the Weedsnake Elder further and he reared his head up for what the teens knew would be the final strike...and their last chance.

"Wait for it, Astrid," Hiccup grimaced as Astrid helped him to his feet. Astrid readied the axe in one hand and supported Hiccup with the other. Wavewing glared down on them.

"You've cheated Death one too many times, boy," he hissed. Hiccup couldn't come up with a witty remark to that one and simply glared back as Wavewing charged down, mouth open wide ready to end their existences once and for all.

"NOW!" Hiccup screeched, pushing Astrid out of the way as she threw her mother's axe straight into the Weedsnake's gullet. The double-bladed weapon stuck fast in the beast's throat and Wavewing could only swallow to remove it.

That action proved fatal as Wavewing's body finally lost its tolerance for the toxin that the oak bolts, arrows and axe handle had delivered. His body began contorting in ways thought impossible and his screams could have been heard from Rome. Hiccup and Astrid scrambled up the fallen rocks to the exits as Wavewing, the Weedsnake Elder, shared the fate of his school and fell still on the ocean floor, his face frozen into one of pure agony.

/\

Everyone waiting for Hiccup and Astrid had to cover their ears at the sound of the shriek. Kyra had heard Hiccup's signal – for what it had been for, she did not know – but she could only hope they were okay. The Defenders of Berk began cheering, knowing that finally the threat of the Weedsnakes had been fully eradicated. Kyra on the other hand, couldn't celebrate. As soon as the shrill dying scream of Wavewing had pierced through the air, the ocean walls of the basin had begun to collapse in on themselves. Now that the flame barriers were gone, despite knowing even she couldn't fly fast enough, Kyra leapt off the boat and began racing to the area as fast as her wings could carry her.

She was so focused on this that she failed to notice a Night Fury dive into the waves behind her.

/\

Hiccup and Astrid sprinted as fast as they could away from the water falling in on them out of pure instinct. The area of sand was getting smaller and smaller and they could no longer find the strength to run. Hiccup collapsed onto the sandy floor of the sea bed and Astrid fell not long after. Watching the dark green ocean closing in on them, they pulled each other into an embrace and waited for the inevitable.

What they didn't see was another giant dragon bursting through the wall of water just as the basin filled once again.

AN: Yes, the axe used to deal the final blow was the axe from the 'Axe to Grind' deleted scene from HTTYD. As I said before, I liked that scene so I decided to make it canon for this story - I can imagine it taking place maybe just before the movie does (maybe a week or something?).

We're so close to the end now! I'm amazed with how well this has gone. Just a quick heads up, there is one more story in the Adventures of Valkyra Horrendous Haddock II series (couldn't come up with a better name) but the original was so poor I'm making a complete re-write of it, meaning a different plot and everything! So don't expect anything to come up for a good time to come but I'll be posting updates on my profile. In the meantime, I've got some other completed stories I can share with you guys until I get it done. Until then, reviews and constructive criticism welcome but no flames!