Me, Hiccup, and Astrid needed to distract the pack giving us chase as the other riders dragons were not as fast. Fishlegs and the twins were falling behind and the pack was closing in on them. A wild Nadder clutched at Barf and Belch's tail and took them into a dive. Astrid used Stormfly's spikes to shoot the Nadder off of them. There was no respite for us as a group of three Terrors were converging on Fishlegs and a Monstrous Nightmare was continuing the Nadder's assault on the twins. Toothless shot the Terrors away from Fishlegs and Astrid continued covering the twins. There were still several other dragons behind them and they were closing in fast.
"Come on, let's thin the herd." I said to Starfire as we attacked the bulk of the pursuing herd. Starfire shot a few plasma balls into the group so we could get their attention. All but a few of the dragons turned their attentions to me.
I quickly shouted to the other riders "Keep heading back to Berk. I'll lead them away.". I quickly dived gaining the speed needed to outrun the rest of the dragons. We pulled up just before the water and I looked behind to see several of the wild dragons crash into the water. We were easily outrunning the dragons but we decided to disappear into a fog belt in some sea stacks for good measure. Starfire flew through them and I took out my bow. Using a special arrow I had made I shot at one of the stacks and attached the rope that followed from it to Starfire's saddle. We were dangling off one of the stacks and we heard the rest of the dragons dart past us in the fog. I took a moment to look down at Starfire and I giggled at what I saw. Her entire body was limp and, with her full weight on the saddle, her forelegs were pushed up to her chin together. She looked up at me with annoyance that I had laughed at her.
"Well, do you want to hang out for a while or should we get back to the others?" I asked jestingly. Starfire responded by shooting a plasma blast at my arrow, destroying all hopes I had of retrieving it. We continued to fly through the fog belt but outside of the sea stacks to make our way back. The fog started to get lighter and I thought we were about to leave it behind. However, the fog continued to grow unnaturally brighter. Soon we broke through the fog only because a large section had been blown away from the wings of the Alpha.
"Move it Starfire." I said in a panic and she gained speed. We dived under it which was a bad idea. With a few flaps of its wings we were completely out of control. The wind howled in my ears as Starfire tried to level out. We finally broke free of the Alpha's downdraft and Starfire began to pick up speed. I looked back to see the massive dragon dissipating whole clouds with the flapping of it's wings. Despite it's massive size it was keeping pace with us.
"Come on Starfire we need to find a way to get this thing off our tail. Up!" I suggested. Starfire kept climbing until the air was too thin for us to stay at this height for long. I looked behind us and the Alpha was still in pursuit.
"This isn't working. We've got to change it up. Dive!" I commanded. We dived through the clouds and then looped upwards. The Alpha seemed to be able to see through the clouds as it leveled off it's own dive. However it lacked the maneuverability to cut us off and we flew above it in the opposite direction. We quickly turned around and followed behind the Alpha. Now that we were chasing it we had to deal with how uncomfortable it was to look at as it was radiating light.
"Alright. Stay behind it and ... I cant look at anything other than the tail for two seconds so let loose at it's tail. Lets see if it will back off like it did in Berk." I instructed and Starfire began rhythmically shooting plasma blasts at the Alpha's tail. I armed myself with the bow and shot at it as well. The arrows would be nothing be but an annoyance as they would bounce off the thick scales and, every once in a while, one would prick the unarmored mussels near the wings before falling down into the ocean. It tried turning around but it was too sluggish to get us out from behind it. After a long barrage that seemed to do no damage to it, what so ever, the Alpha dived to evade us.
"Yes! Now let's head back to Berk." I said excitedly. We dived back through the clouds and I saw the Alpha had landed in the water with its wings stretched out. It was just floating there, glaring at us as we left. Suddenly the large crest on it's head started glowing brighter than the rest of it's body.
"Starfire! Evasive maneuvers!" I instructed as I brought my head forward as Starfire dived and twirled. Seconds later me and Starfire were enveloped in light. Even though I was not looking at it, the reflection off of Starfires scales forced me to close my eyes. The blast wouldn't be hot enough to even begin to melt metal but, against my clothes, it was scalding. After around fifteen seconds of the intense light it relented. My back burned from the heat. I smelled my clothes smoldering and the heat persisted.
"Ow ... ow ... Starfire ... water please ... hot ... ouch." I stated and Starfire dived into the ocean to extinguish my smoldering clothing. I got back to Berk just as they were about to fly back to get me.
"I think you should add a few points to firepower Fishlegs" I said after landing Starfire in the academy. All of my clothes were soaked and steam was coming off of my back.
"Freya what happened to you?" Hiccup asked.
"Well lets just say it can do allot more than just get a little shiny with the sunlight it collects." I said grabbing some ice that was on hand and rubbed it under my shirt on my back.
"The alpha came after you? How did you get away?" Astrid asked.
"By attacking it. I got behind it and started to barraged it with arrows and plasma. It is fast in the air but, without tail fins, it is very sluggish when trying to turn. I guess we got on it's nerves enough because it landed an let us go. But not without a parting gift." I said gesturing to my back.
"That is awesome. Oh ... I got a name for it Lasering-back-big-wing dragon." Tuff said before being hit by his sister.
"Naming it isn't really important right now. What we need to find out is how we can drive an Alpha far away from us." Hiccup said.
"What's the big deal. Hiccup dealt with the Red Death one on one. Just do whatever you did last time." Snotlout stated.
"Snotlout, last time he nearly dyed and he lost his leg. Hiccup is not fighting another Alpha by himself." Astrid dictated. Everyone was silent for several seconds as they let the intensity of Astrid's commands sink in.
Fishlegs then spoke up "Actually I don't think it is as powerful as the Red Death. I mean it can't breathe fire and there were only around a dozen dragons that attacked us. There are many more than just a dozen dragons on Dragon Island and I don't think it could control more than that.".
"Speaking of controlling other dragons, how come it didn't just take control of our dragons" Astrid asked.
I replied saying "I don't think it can take control of trained dragons but I think it can still sense them. When I was trying to get behind the Alpha I dropped through a cloud and I should have been invisible to it. But when I looped around, it already knew what I was doing and tried to cut us off. I don't think we can trick or hide from this thing.". "Oh and Fishlegs, it may not effect dragons but it still has enough firepower to cause some damage to a rider." I scolded, still soothing my burnt back with the ice.
"I don't think we have to fight it. It could have crushed Berk if it just landed but it didn't. It left when Astrid attacked it and sent other dragons to chase us away so it may not be interested in fighting." Hiccup stated.
"Um ... your leaving out the part where it purposely shot at me and set my back on fire." I reminded Hiccup.
"Only after you attacked it." Hiccup pointed out.
"Hiccup are you seriously thinking that an Alpha can be tamed?" Astrid asked him.
"We don't have to tame it, we just have to make peace with it." Hiccup said.
"But you can't just ..." Astrid started but was interrupted by a wheezing roar.
"Everyone back on your dragons." Hiccup commanded and we all mounted our dragons and took off. The Alpha was immediately visible on the horizon and was headed strait for Berk. We were hovering over the town waiting for Hiccup to rejoin us after explaining that no one is to fire a catapult unless it breaks past us. Hiccup rejoined us and we waited for the Alpha to close in. It became apparent that it didn't bring any escorts with it as it got closer and hovered in front of us. After a few seconds of observing us the Alpha descended and landed just outside of town, crushing a few trees in the forrest while doing so.
"Alright, I'm going to go down there and meet it. DON'T attack unless something happens." Hiccup said.
"Hiccup, you don't ..." Astrid started but he was already diving down. Toothless landed far away from the Alpha and Hiccup dismounted him. He told Toothless to stay and Hiccup approached the gigantic dragon. I could see Hiccup doing his usual routine when trying to tame a dragon. First talking it down, then sticking out his hand. We all waited to see if the dragon would meet him. After several tense seconds the dragon began lowering its head. Hiccup was still a ways away from the lowered head of the Alpha and so he began to walk forward until something different was happening with the dragons head. It was shining in an odd way and then we could see something fall off from behind it's crest. It was hard to see with all the light coming off the dragon. The fallen object then grew taller and started to define itself. It had two legs, two arms, and was shining brightly as it's plate armor reflected the Alpha's light. There, standing in front of Hiccup, was the rider of the Alpha.