"Everyone to go battle stations! I repeat everyone report to your battle stations!" Mimir yelled over the speakers as the alarm sounded.
Hiccup and his team were heading to the Southgate, running as quickly as possible.
"What do you think is going on?" Fishlegs asked, panting heavily.
"We're being attacked, Fishlegs, that's what's happening," said Astrid.
"B-but why now?" Fishlegs asked. "I mean, it's the middle of the day?"
"Testing our defences, maybe," said Hiccup.
"But we're barely operational."
"I don't think Loki cares about that," said Jill.
"If we don't fend them off, that's more or less advertising that our defences are weak and unprepared," said Astrid.
"And the south is probably going to be hit the hardest," said Hiccup.
"What if they tried to go around and attack the North?" Fishlegs asked.
"We don't know the state of the east or west either," Astrid added. "Since we decided it was best to keep everyone in the dark."
"If they have trouble, then send messengers; right now, we need to focus on our defences," said Hiccup.
They eventually managed to reach the Southgate and found that everyone else had arrived and had taken up defensive positions. Hiccup instantly grabbed a pair of binoculars and looked out towards the open field.
"What do you see?" Astrid asked.
"You don't want to know," he said.
Hiccup could see through the binoculars a huge crowd of monsters, orcs, and goblins. He could also see a few dark elves, though not many of them, as well as some humans, who he assumed to be rebel demigods. Every single one of them was armed to the teeth, and they were also bringing war machines.
"Let's have a look," said Astrid.
Hiccup handed her the binoculars, and when she saw the horde, she actually became quite pale.
"This could be a problem," she said.
"Care to share with us what you see?" Jill asked.
"Oh, just a huge army of angry monsters wanting to terrace lame from lame," Astrid shrugged as if it was an everyday occurrence.
"Do you see who's leading them?" Fishlegs asked.
"I don't see any clear leaders, but they could be hiding at the back," said Astrid as she put the binoculars down. "Loki and his inner circle are the kind to sit at the back and order troops from afar."
"Sounds like our mother," Ruffnut nodded.
"Yeah, he hates getting his hands dirty," Tuffnut agreed.
"At least there's no trolls," said Fishlegs. "I mean, it's still the middle of the day. They would turn to stone the moment they were touched by the sun.
"Even still, that is a lot to deal with," said Hiccup.
"What's your plan for tackling this army?" Astrid asked.
Hiccup quickly pulled out a map of the Academy and the surrounding area. "We have to station our arches here and here, at the focused their attacks on the dark elves and the demigods."
"Why not the orcs?" Tuffnut asked.
"Because the orcs won't panic if their numbers fall," Astrid nodded. "The dark elves and the demigods, on the other hand, will cause some panic in the ranks."
"And what do we do with the main board of orcs?" Jill asked.
"Eret was able to play a number of traps, so that should diminish them a bit," said Hiccup. "We still have to bombard them with powerful long-range attacks. Astrid, how much lightning do you think you can unleash."
"Quite a bit, but it will drain me," Astrid pointed out. "I'll barely be able to fight if we engage them in head-to-head combat."
"But it would weaken their force for the rest of us," said Hiccup.
Hiccup then turned to the twins. "Ruff, Tuff, keep launching our catapults no matter what, but focus on the middle line. If we can break their formation, we might stand a chance."
"You got it," they said.
Hiccup looked at Fishlegs. "Fishlegs, I want you stationed on the lookout tower and inform me if there's any strange activity coming from the enemy."
"I'll keep a close eye on them," Fishlegs nodded.
"What about us?" Jill asked.
"We're going to be positioned on the front line," said Hiccup gravely.
Within moments, everyone took up the battle positions, and now they could see the horde emerging from the top of the hills. They just kept on coming, and there didn't seem to be an end to them.
"Here we go," said Hiccup.
Hiccup looked at the rest of the troops and saw that a few were looking rather nervous, but thankfully, they didn't break their formation and stood strong. However, he wasn't certain how long that would hold if the horde reached them.
Astrid immediately went to work and began shooting down lightning directly onto the horde. It wasn't just Astrid as they were other children of Thor shooting lightning, though not as strong as Astrid's. They could hear the yells coming from the orcs as they advanced, but despite all this lightning, they kept moving, no matter how many of them fell.
They kept on going and triggered several of Eret's traps; some of them exploded while others displayed acid all over them. The numbers had dropped a bit, but they kept advancing, though Hiccup noted that leading them were goblins rather than orcs.
"Looks like they're using goblins as cannon fodder," Fishlegs informed them.
"No surprise there," said Jill. "But I have to admit I'm not relishing the idea of engaging goblins. They are quite vile creatures."
Hiccup couldn't agree more; he had encountered a few goblins before. While they were considerably weaker than orcs, they were rather cunning creatures and were very cruel to those they captured, especially women.
"Just don't underestimate them," said Hiccup.
"Hiccup, that's coming into range now!" Fishlegs yelled.
Hiccup nodded and looked at the archers. "Fire!"
The archers immediately let loose a volley of arrows down upon the advancing horde, taking out quite a few. Most were goblins since they were out in front; they took out a few dark elves and demigods.
"Don't let out!" Hiccup commanded.
The archers kept shooting arrows at the advancing horde, not pausing when reloading.
"They're still coming!" Jill yelled.
"Then they're about to have a nasty surprise," Hiccup smiled.
Jill frowned at him. "What you talking about?"
"Let's say I took some inspiration from the Battle of Agincourt."
"They seem to be slowing down," Fishlegs reported.
He was right; the horde was advancing much more slowly than before; in fact, it looked as if they had stopped completely.
"What's going on?" Jill asked.
"Just look at the ground," said Hiccup.
Jill followed his gaze towards the ground at their feet and saw they would be deep in mud.
"Mud?" Jill blinked.
"I had Astrid earlier to conjure up a storm, making it rain buckets over the field," Hiccup explained. "Then all it took was a little bit of camouflage, and no one was none the wiser that that portion of the field had turned into a bog."
"But why didn't you tell us earlier?" Jill asked.
"Because of the spy," Hiccup explained. "We may be working separately with the other Houses, but we still don't know the identity of the spy. To that end, I had to keep this plan a secret, only telling Astrid."
"And your plan worked brilliantly," Astrid smiled as she came over, looking a little pale from all the lightning she unleashed.
"This is what you meant about taking inspiration from the Battle of Agincourt," Jill gasped.
Hiccup nodded. "At the Battle of Agincourt, the French knight easily outnumbered the English and Welsh forces, but it had been raining heavily on the ground. As a result, the cavalry, which were heavily armoured, got them bogged down, leaving them easy targets for the enemy archers."
"Which means they an easy target for us!" Ruffnut yelled as she fired one of the catapults.
The horde was now having difficulty as the mud slowed them down, making them easy targets for the archers. Additionally, the catapults were finally boulders non-stop, crushing the huge crowd, which was now stuck trying to get past the huge jam of monsters.
Surprisingly, they were still rather persistent, and while a few did manage to get past the mud, Hiccup and the frontline forces quickly engaged them. Since they were not being overwhelmed by a massive force, they were able to overpower the orcs and goblins that got through.
The battle lasted at least another half an hour when everything became a blur to Hiccup. He was just so focused on cutting his way through the enemy forces that he didn't focus on anything else until they heard the sound of the Orcish horn.
Upon hearing it, the horde began to break away and retreat across the hills.
"They were retreating!" Hiccup yelled.
Everyone immediately cheered.
"Should we go after them?" said a member of House Tyr, whom Hiccup recognised.
"No, we don't have the manpower," said Hiccup.
"That was brilliant, Hiccup," said Fishlegs, rushing over and giving him a big hug.
"Thanks, Fishlegs," Hiccup choked. "Now, can you go before I suffocate?"
"Sorry," he said, dropping him.
"We may have fooled them this time, but they're not going to fall for the same trick twice," Hiccup warned. "In fact, they might very well attack tonight with trolls this time."
"They might even use wargs," said Astrid.
Hiccup nodded. "Like I said, this attack was merely to test us; I had hoped that we would have more time to make better defences."
"So we should start me fortifying them?" said a member of House Odin.
Hiccup nodded. "Do it while we still have some daylight and restock with equipment."
They immediately went to work fortifying their defences; the archers retrieved as many arrows as they could from the corpses, and the twins began moving some heavy boulders to replace the ones they lost in the catapults.
"At least we didn't lose anyone," said Astrid as she approached Hiccup.
"Not this time, but I don't think we'll be lucky the next to go around. What of the demigods that were killed on the enemy side."
"I recognise a few of them; some of them were deserters, but there were a few I didn't recognise."
"Demigods are no doubt found by their own means."
Normally, the Academy would send people to retrieve the demigods from mortal schools, but there have been fewer and fewer sightings of them. It was clear that the enemy was trying to recruit these young demigods and brainwash them to fight for their side.
"Orcs and goblins I can handle, but demigods," Hiccup sighed.
Astrid nodded. "I know, but if they're lucky, go to Valhalla. They did, after all, die in battle, though not sure what kind of welcome they would get if they did."
"There's not think about it; we need to focus on what we can do here," said Hiccup.
"You have any other plans to be back the enemy?" Astrid asked.
"More like stalling them," Hiccup admitted. "We're not going to win this unless we get more reinforcements."
"And judging from what is going on with Snotlout, that doesn't seem very likely," said Astrid gravely.
"Then we better put our faith in Ragnar and Heather. I'm sure they can convince their people to help."
"Don't forget the dark and light elves have been at each other's odds, thanks to the machinations of Loki."
"True, but let's hope they remember that we helped them out and that a temporary partnership is preferable to the end of the known universe."
"That is a lot to hope for," said Astrid.
"It's all we've got."