No matter how much advantage one thinks to have, the tables can always be turned, and more than once.

Hundreds of men marched through ragged, icy plains, their boots worn down by the long march but mostly holding together. They wore thick furs,, armor against the weather to ensure that none of them would succumb to shameful death without combat. Supplies were carried in carts dragged by horses and manned by thralls. Wind howled and howled, but they paid it no heed.

Their target was no more than one day of marching out, yet at this very moment, another storm raised its ugly head. They'd needed to stop many times already, and they prepared to dig in yet again.

Their new chief, however, had other plans.

Stormfly was on patrol, lazily scanning the ground down below. A shawl bearing the Berk Guard's emblem, a raised hammer, was snug around the base of her neck.

There were other dragons as well. All the packs that agreed to this little exchange were meant to send their patrols, but as one of this nest's designated defenders, she still had to perform this duty.

She whirled in place and glanced back at two night furies carefully moving through the air. Flight lessons, pha! They really expected her to believe this nonsense about Lump being tuned into a Quirk?

Shaking her head, Stormfly turned back to her route. It would take her a fair distance from Berk, but nowhere near other human nests. Her eyes were peeled to the ice of the frozen sea below for hours on end, her wings getting more and more tired with each sweep, snow, snow, snow...

Shapes. Many shapes. Small and big, all moving straight towards Berk in more or less organised columns. The dragoness was tempted to dive lower and take a better look, but she recalled her drills.

When you see an enemy army, and you are alone, do not take any risks, inform us that they are incoming. Dead scouts don't provide information, no matter how much they knew before death.

She still was well-masked against the skies though, and she was far beyond the range of any weapon even if they spotted her, so she took a while to observe; to see how many of 'carts' they had and how many of them were in a column, and how many columns exactly. Her head spun from the numbers.

She sped up to Berk, breath rattling and heart beating frantically, barely able to keep up with demands put on it. This looked bad, really, really bad. Her new alpha needed to know it as fast as possible.

Blue-yellow deadly nadder landed in front of Stoick the Vast as he prepared his subjects for incoming storm, panting, wings slumping.

"Chief, I spotted trespassers!"

Stoick immediately turned to her. "How many?"

"As many as all your subjects at least. They're coming from the northeast, near the edge of my patrol range. They have a Skrill emblazoned over everything!"

Stoick frowned. "Go to the Great Hall, you can rest there until we question you further." Then he quickly started shouting orders that she couldn't hear through the blood flowing through her ears and overall fuzziness coming from over-exertion. On short notice, too short for her liking, she was joined by group of humans and one particular Quirk. She sent him a glance, but went ignored. It stung a little, but he had better things to do, and was higher tier regardless…

"Big group from north-east? Berserkers? But why?" muttered Spitelout. "Our treaty—"

"Treaties have power to devastating winter of its signing," Herring interrupted, beating Hiccup to the answer. "We are at devastating winter."

Stoick was drilling a hole deep in the map with his gaze. "It is not Oswald."

Sven made a questioning noise. Stoick shook his head.

"Oswald would never do it. We are friends. He must have been overthrown."

"Or he is dead," remarked Herring with a deep frown. Stoick cringed.

"Whatever the case," Stoick said, "there's an army heading in our direction. We must prepare. Herring, I want to know how much equipment we have in our stores. Spitelout, get every able-bodied man and woman combat-ready. Sven, prepare Monstrous Nightmare gel to be dropped on the docks. Bjorn, take some dragons and melt ice to move ships to the other end of the island, we will not lose them again."

Hiccup exclaimed incredulously. "Wait wait wait, aren't we going to even try talking with them?"

Stoick shook his head solemnly. "It is not an entourage, Hiccup. It's not even a raiding party; it's an army greater in number than our whole tribe! There is only one thing they can be here for, and considering Berserkers' reputation I doubt any envoy we sent would be returned. He grimaced. "Not in one piece, anyway."

Spitelout cleared his throat, shooting a glare at Hiccup in the process. "Stoick, we may melt ice to stop them from reaching us in the first place."

The chief nodded. "Good idea. Storms always take more than a day, so dragons will be able to regenerate their shots before the battle. Let's focus on melting the ice around village islet itself; I doubt we will manage the whole island shore. That way, the docks will be safe and they will have to come from the main island."

"What about the dragon ranges on the main island?" inquired Sven.

"They can come to the village. All places away from the main island will be completely safe, and we could use them as reinforcements in melee after they spend their shots if the need arise," replied Stoick. Then he added:"Take Monstrous Nightmare gel to the square; dragons will be able to drop it on Berserkers and set it on fire."

Toothless spoke in a level, emotionless and flawless Latin. Hiccup translated, their little antic forgotten for the moment.

"The enemy has left themselves exposed on their homeland. Any dragon, even gronckles, can make a trip to their homeland and back multiple times a day. Therefore I suggest sending dragons to exterminate their homeland, depriving them of the ability to regenerate their strength and forcing to fight over scraps that are left, eliminating this threat permanently."

Hiccup abruptly stopped mid-word at 'extermination', winced, and twisted latest part of translation. "To get high-ranking captives so army will head home without fight."

Stoick nodded, seemingly oblivious to what Toothless just said, while Toothless tilted his head and sent a confused glance at Hiccup, Fishvoice meanwhile had a hollow look in his eyes that Hiccup did his best to avoid.

"Yes, though in this case to make it before the storm, dragons need to go right after using their shots on the ice. They should be able to return two days from now, if Thor will be so lenient." Said Stoick.

Spitelout frowned. "What if the storm takes more than two days?"

Herring huffed. "Then they will return after more than two days. It isn't like the enemy could attack before the storm ends."

They nodded and went off to perform their tasks. Hiccup and Toothless skyrocketed away, and others took a lift by dragon or went on foot to their destinations.

And Toothless obviously had to touch this topic. "Why you translated so wrong? I thought you understood this language very well."

Of course he had to be so innocent with it as well. Not even thinking he suggested something wrong, not even considering that Hiccup may have intentionally misinterpreted.

"I understood you perfectly, but you suggested to- to exterminate them. I thought you put that all behind you!"

Those last words came out harsher than he intended, but he couldn't feel sorry for it. Toothless just continued fly calmly. After few seconds, he replied.

"Will they leave it at that if we force them to turn back how you suggested? Or will they try again, with another approach?"

Hiccup tightened his lips and shook his head. "It doesn't matter if they do. What you suggested is not justifiable, no matter what."

The dragon huffed under him as he landed in the cove, Hiccup not having even realised where they were heading until now. "It would be sure way to get rid of the problem."

Hiccup dismounted. Then he kicked the Night Fury as hard as he could. Dragon barely budged, taking it in his stride and moving to his rider, who realised what was happening just a moment too late.

"No! Don't you dare!"

Toothless dared to make Hiccup stumble onto his rear. Then he dared to lay his head on Hiccup's chest, pinning his rider in place.

"Hiccup, it is a sure way to get rid of the problem."

Hiccup responded only after ten seconds of heavy, hostile silence.

"If I killed you back then, cut out your throat and then your heart, that would have been a sure way of getting rid of the problem. Wouldn't it?"

There was no argument. In the next few moments Toothless stepped back and whined, avoiding his friend's gaze..

"I am sorry, I am very sorry. You are right. I am just a mindless killer. The first thing I think of when faced with a belligerent group is to mercilessly destroy it, despite that you showed me mercy when I was your enemy, when you were taught that I am nothing but a monster your whole life, I- I never did it. I never showed mercy to humans. You are so far a better person than me."

Hiccup hugged Toothless's head and scratched him behind the ears soothingly as the dragon trembled.

"You are not mindless killer. Did you forgot that you spared me as well, and even when you realised it was me that took your tail-fin away, you didn't as much as took a slight?"

The dragon grumbled and Hiccup continued, looking him straight in the eye with a warm smile.

"You are amazing bud. You just forgave me for all I did to you from sheer selfishness, and then you became my best friend! Don't ever dare to speak like that about yourself."

Dragon snorted humorously, light returning to his eyes.

"Or what?"

Hiccup rested his hands on his hips. "Or you will get no cod for the next week."

Toothless gave justice to his name with a mischievous glint in the eye.

"And what will stop me from getting them on my own?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe this!" Hiccup took out rope from the saddlebag and threw it at dragon. Toothless sliced it with his claw. Hiccup groaned, and was suddenly pinned to the ground with a surprised yelp.

"Know your place biped! You will be punished for this misbehaviour!"

"Nooo!"

A whole lot of spit was meticulously placed over the little human despite his vocal protests and kicking. After a few minutes Toothless finally let him up, his playful expression turned serious. "We have things to do."

Hiccup went to mount up, but stopped. "Bud… sorry for the kick."

The dragon blinked several times, then chuffed, amused. "I thought you wanted to tickle me."

*Go.*

Pebble looked at her fellow Quirk — night fury, they called them here — in bewilderment as they lazily circled in the air above the main island near cloud cover, the storm looming on the horizon and getting closer by the minute. His rider nodded.

"This is your best chance to get away with noone the wiser," Hiccup said. "There is a dragon nest on Dragon Island though, so you may be better off on one of the islets around Bog Burglar Island. They don't venture onto those this time of the year." He gestured at the thing around her neck. "Tell me where you'll go, and I will get there after this is over to get it off of you."

She gulped. *But I would be alone, without a nest.*

Toothless huffed. *You can fend for yourself. I already taught you how to break the ice and fish, and you managed well enough to survive. If something attacks you, you can fly away, and if you are not fast enough, then you still have Star. It is going to hurt everyone far more than you. There is no reason for you to stay here.*

She only fidgeted anxiously, they waited patiently, and finally she blurted out. *I will be alone.*

Toothless bit back a curse. *Of course. You weren't a night fury. You are thinking this way. But you don't need to. Go, fend for yourself. It will be far better than what you got through both with Hungry One and this nest.*

Pebble was still uncertain. Toothless sighed. *Just try it.*

With that, she said that she will go to islets of the island straight west, and she was off to the skies above the clouds and safe from incoming storm.

They dived down to the gathering dragons and riders; the original nine that battled the Red Death with them, save for the exhausted Nadder still too tired to make the trip and her rider. Alongside them were the ex-alpha, Spitelout, the entirety of Berk Guard — two dozen warriors — and dragon after dragon returning from the mist-filled shore of the islet.

There were nearly one hundred dragons in total, force so great that each tribe faced such overwhelming odds but a scant few times in their whole histories.

Spitelout waved the duo closer, and they obliged. "You will do what you did best back during the dragon war; blow up fortifications, except this time, those will be the ones I designate. Understood?"

Toothless nodded firmly and took place at the head of the gang, He saw that there were no coherent formations to speak of: the dragons carrying Berk Guard generally kept close to each other, but everyone else seemed to fly wherever they felt like.

"You! Back! Don't splinter! We travel together!"

It was easily the dozenth time his dad had yelled it, likely more; Snotlout wasn't paying that much targeted dragon flew back to their semi-coherent cloud of wings and tails and got thoroughly scolded for racing ahead.

Snotlout snarked. "Yeah, don't go away, it's not that we need an element of surprise to win, but it sure is nice."

Spitelout looked up at him with a frown from the back of his brown-blue deadly nadder, part of a flock that had fallen directly under Stoick's lead.

"We need surprise boyo, we will still be outnumbered at least ten to one by their free folk men. We go in, destroy their catapults, barge into clanhouses, take spoils and captives, and go away. Otherwise, we are screwed."

Snotlout rapidly nodded. "Yes dad, like you said, stupid me!" To signify his words, Snotlout hit his helmet with a hand, cringing from pain for a while.

Spitelout only huffed and locked his eyes on horizon, minutes went in silence, until he suddenly perked up. "Stop! Down, landing!"

After a while the dragons obeyed and went down to the ground in wide descent, Spitelout jumped off the saddle, stumbling but avoiding plopping head-first into the ice.

"We will rest here until nightfall, then we will strike. Aksel! Alf! Erik! Ival! To me right now!"

Four men rushed up to him, with one of them falling onto the ice in the process. Spitelout scanned them up and down, before nodding, seemingly satisfied with whatever he looked for.

"You will go to scout, check if anything changed from our last visit, look up how much movement there is. I want dragons that are grey or grey and blue!"

Two dozen scaly candidates stepped closer, and most of them got promptly rejected, leaving only a grey-blue Nadder, a Zippleback almost fully grey with only patches of blue at the back, and a Monstrous Nightmare with a blue belly but otherwise grey.

"Fly slowly so you can get away with looking like part of the cloud cover. And do not come down to the point where you can see individual humans, because then they will see you as well."

Soon they left, and the rest settled down to rest and eat. The twins chewed on smoked meat and drank water obnoxiously loudly, slurping and lapping without care in the world, which prompted two heads to snatch up their meal and swallow it themselves, to their vocal displeasure, but surprisingly they didn't bicker.

"That is good, actually. When you are hungry, your senses work better," said Tuffnut, only to have his sister snicker.

"And you?"

"I meant it generally, it works this way for everyone."

She just nodded and brought up one of her six spears, tucked away in the bag in the saddle, for sharpening. Tuffnut in turn polished a mace made out of a new batch of steel, muttering 'Macey' all the while.

Snotlout groaned. He expected some entertaining fighting, but no luck here.

Toothless and Hiccup were being insufferably chummy. Uh, did they even knew how real warriors should behave?

Snotlout yelped when a sword poked at him lightly, and he turned to face his father.

"So, are you ready for your first real battle, boyo?"

Snotlout quickly nodded and got up, shield and battle-hammer in hand. "Yes dad! Those Berserkers will not know what hit them!"

"They will think they know when they see dragons. Until they will see us. That ought to give us an edge, but remember, we are not facing newbies, but old, grizzled man, they know how to fight better than you could imagine, don't be careless, unless you want to say goodbye to your head."

"So I need to tire them out!"

Spitelout shook his head with disdain. "What was I saying before?"

"You, um…" He had it on the back of his tongue, but his dad raised a hand and spoke.

"That we are going and going out fast. There is no time for that. Gang up on them, isolate them, don't allow them to get together, but don't pursue them either, we are not there to kill them, but to get captives and spoils."

Snotlout nodded, cowed, and his dad sat down by him and they ate in silence. The scouts returned some time after, their expressions matching the darkening sky.

"You remember that entire district filled with non-vikings? It is all rubble now. There are new barracks on the opposite side of the town too. I bet survivors got enthralled," Aksel reported solemnly. Alf continued: "The watchtower that stood in that district is destroyed, otherwise it mostly seems to be fine. One clanhouse is gone though."

Spitelout nodded several times. "Seems that the transition of power wasn't smooth at all, good, that will make it easier for us. Plan isn't changed. Night Fury, come here!"

Toothless and Hiccup trailed closer, and the teen heir scrunched his brow. "We can't just leave their thralls when we are at it."

Spitelout glared at him. "We can and we will. And you are not questioning me, kid."

Hiccup opened his mouth again, but Night Fury spoke instead. "Suden rhebelion whould be a ghood dhistraction."

Spitelout scowled. "At least you finally try to learn our tongue." Toothless glared.

"Dad, we can do this," Snotlout suddenly blurted out without thinking. He patted Hookfang on the nose, giving his best impression of confidence.

"Hmm, fine. You can go there, hopefully those weaklings will take a few real warriors with them before dying."

Hiccup was frowning hard when Spitelout turned to him. "Now, I don't want you breaking down those towers immediately, wait until the enemy man them and then strike."

"But—"

Hiccup was interurpted by his dragon. "If whe desthoyed them, all Beherhers whould ruhs to fhight in clhose, tih wah, they whill dihert forceh to those fortihications."

Hiccup was visibly perturbed, but his dragon managed to coax him away. Spitelout called after them mock-cheerfully. "Good hunting!" Toothless just nodded in acknowledgment and turned back to Hiccup, who only tensed more.

Glancing up, Spitelout remarked. "Looks we have around an hour before it gets dark. Don't get drunk, triple-check everything."

With that, Vikings and dragons dispersed, trying to kill time until the battle.

He wanted to kill something already. His claws, fangs, and stoker-bones itched to be used. Time wasn't flowing fast enough for his liking.

Finally it got dark, and they took off towards the enemy nest, towards the fight he itched for so much.

They swerved away from the main formation, nearly one hundred dragons splintering in half and racing to their targets: half to several different locations throughout the town, and another half to the true target.

Hookfang dived but Snotlout yanked at his horns. "Hey! Not yet, dad told me to wait a while, until they move somewhere else. This way-"

Whenever he tried to sound smart, he was just dumber. Hookfang yanked his horns from him and batted him on the head with one of them, but ceased his dive begrudgingly.

Snotlout grumbled and complained, but eventually settled down and looked around, then finally decided.

"Okay, that should do, Hookf-"

The Monstrous Nightmare dived before he could finish, landing hard outside the biggest barracks and stalking to its entrance, not even giving Snotlout a chance to come down from his back…neck… .

Surprisingly, he could fit. The entrance, along with the corridor running the length of the building, was wide enough for him to walk comfortably through.

Unsurprisingly, humans in cages backed away from him in fear. They weren't howling, or crying, but stayed eerily silent, as if thinking that any sound would prompt him to attack.

Snotlout leaped from his seat and spoke. "Fret not, because we are here to free you!"

To signify his words, Snotlout banged on the lock in the nearest cage with his hammer. It broke off and doors slided open. Humans inside didn't made a move.

"C'mon, we are raiding this island, and most Berserkers warriors are a week of travel away. This is your chance at revenge!"

That stirred them all, including all of the ones still in cages. Snotlout rushed to the next one, only for them all to freeze as footsteps sounded from around the corner.

The thing the guard spotted was a dragon. The thing he did not, was Snotlout's hammer coming straight at his skull. There was no scream, no alarm raised, only his dead body slumping to the floor.

The freed thralls left their cage and swiftly went to others, trying to help their brethren. Meanwhile Snotlout stood in the middle of the corridor, paralyzed, looking at the bloody mush in place the guard's face.

Hookfang nudged him lightly, and the teenager patted him on the nose absent-mindedly. One of the thralls interrupted them. "Mas- Mister? Where exactly are you attacking? Whatshould we do?"

Snotlout took a deep breath and shook himself. "Around clanhouses and in few other places on the other side of the city." He frowned, hesitant and shaken, and Hookfang took over to the humans' bewilderment.

"Free others and take over, what else."

Seeing their difficulty with opening the cages, he grabbed metal in his jaws and tore it away with a series of mighty pulls. The caged humans spilled out, a speaking dragon having much less of an effect on them than it would under normal circumstances.

No one stood in their way in this barrack, or the next one, or the one after that. Their mob accumulated without resistance, filling dirt roads and grabbing anything they could use as a weapon. They took pebbles from the ground, breaking apart fences with those to make crude spears. A few lucky ones managing to get tools like shovels, pitchforks and few kitchen knives.

The nearest houses were a few minutes on foot away and slightly uphill, and they were swiftly overrun. Hookfang heard the screams as he launched into the air and smirked. So far, they were winning, though Snotlout was grappling his horns very tightly; was something wrong?

Then he spotted the nearest watchtower's catapult turning to face the incoming threat, lit up by houses on fire around it, only for the air to screech in the wake of a shadow and for the tower to crumble from an iridescent blue-purple explosion. Hookfang's mood soured. He hadn't gotten into a fight yet!

Thankfully, and opportunity presented itself in the form of a few dozen Berserkers blocking alleyways between the houses and slaughtering anyone coming near in makeshift chokepoints. His unexpected stream of fire sufficed to kill one group off, and he rushed to the other—

A bola met his wings and tangled them, he fell from the skies with a shriek, reflexively igniting his fire-coat and yanking at the bonds. Snotlout leapt from the saddle and faced the oncoming enemies — five of them — and Hookfang sent a stream of fire right at them over his friend's head.

The berserkers were forced to stop, except it didn't stop them from attacking. They flung spears Hookfang's way, most hitting their mark, one piercing and pining finally freed wing of Monstrous Nightmare in the most unfortunate of moments, another injuring his paw. Yet another struck right in the shield of his friend, forcing him to backtrack and then abandon his protection, the shield now far too unwieldy.

The Berserkers charged r with battle-cries, iron and steel weapons glinting from his flaming scales. His next stream of fire missed, shot in panic. Snotlout scampered back to him, as if he could help, but his wing was pinned, he was going to tear it apart if he—

Those thoughts left him when enemies swung their weapons mightily. With one agonizing step and turn, his tail sent them all flying back. He fell down in the very next heartbeat, blinded by agony, shooting randomly and being rewarded with screams.

After several blinks he could see again, his fires turned enemies into screaming and running torches, clingy nature of his flames not letting go, exacting vengeance in name of their master. Master that felt his chest tighten at the thought of friend he could hit by accident in his frenzy.

At the very next moment, darkness rushed to engulf his vision. His hearing felt muffled, but one scream spiked before his consciousness faded to the last.

"Hookfang! Please stay with me buddy...please..."