Defying The Rules

Fighting The Deadly Nadder

"Hiccup, move!" Thalos shouted, pushing the boy as he himself ran forward. The Deadly Nadder was right behind them, and Hiccup was trying to talk to Gobber about Night Furies! Unfortunately, Thalos's efforts proved futile, as Hiccup only stumbled forward. The dragon blasted, destroying Hiccup's weapon, and barely missing him.

Thalos dove behind one of the tall, wooden walls of the maze, pulling Hiccup with him. The Deadly Nadder passed them, looking around. The dragon squawked and stalked around the maze, it's bird-like eyes peering out. Thalos held his axe and sheild tightly when he heard the twins bickering, yet again. It wasn't long before he heard a blast and the twins scream. He groaned and rolled his eyes. The dragon may have a blind spot, but it wasn't deaf. Those two were going to get each other killed.

He moved around, trying to look for a good opportunity to strike at the dragon. Everyone's hearts were racing. Well, everyone except Hiccup's. He had somehow managed to leave Thalos's side and was now trying to get information from Gobber about that black dragon, again.

Thalos hid behind one of the wooden walls. Astrid and Snotlout we're both with him now. They turned around to look at Hiccup, only to see him still trying to talk to Gobber.

Astrid turned a corner, only to come face to face with the Deadly Nadder. She quickly got into the blind spot in front of its nose. This confused the dragon, causing it to panic.

Suddenly, Snotlout jumped out from behind a wall next to the blonde girl. "I got this babe." He said, trying to be impressive. Astrid went to move, but Snotlout's sudden appearance got in her way.

"Snotlout!" She shrieked, pushing passed him, avoiding a fire blast from the dragon. Snotlout barely lifted his sheild up in time to block it himself.

He looked at Astrid as she ran down the maze. "What? The sun was in my eyes, Astrid! What do you want me to do, block out the sun? I can do that, but I didn't have time right now!" He called after her, following.

Pretty soon, Astrid, Snotlout, and Thalos all gathered behind a wall. They crouched down, and Astrid was out looking about.

"Psst. Hiccup." She said quietly, a bit of irritation in her voice, yet trying to avoid alerting the blue Deadly Nadder. When Hiccup turned and looked at her, she mouth "get down" and made downwards movement with her sheild. Hiccup actually abliged to the command and got down with the rest of them.

Astrid peered around the wall and counted. When she got to three, she did a forward roll to make it behind the next wooden wall. Snotlout went next. Hiccup tried to, but the weight of the sheild he carried pulled hos small body down, causing him to just fall on his back.

Thalos's eyes widened when the dragon quickly turned and blasted at Hiccup. Before the fire could hit him, Thalos ran and dragged Hiccup out of the way, getting slightly hit with the flames in his shoulder. After that, it didn't take long for things to turn into caos.

The dragon started blasting its magnesium flames at any Viking it saw. Most of the time, that was Hiccup. Stressed and threatened, it jumped onto the wooden walls, squawking and flaring it's wings. Hiccup shouted in fear as the bird-like dragon chased him. The dragon got so worked up, that it started plowing through the wooden walls, not even bothering to jump over or go around them. It instead started knocking them all over. This only made things more hectic, for now the Vikings had to dodge falling walls.

Astrid almost got crushed by one of the walls. As she ran from the blue beast who was now chasing her, hardly avoiding the attacks, she, and the dragon, knocked over the walls, causing more and more caos. Everyone else hid off to the side and watched, not being helpful at all. Fishlegs was screaming.

"Hiccup!" Astrid shrieked as she jumped from one of the falling walls that she had managed to get on top of. He was right where she was about to land, and if he didn't move, he was going to get crushed by the weight of her body. Hiccup, being dazed, hardly had enough time to get out of the way. She landed hard, slamming Hiccup to the ground. She growled under her breath as the teenagers mocked her saying things like, "Ooh... love on the battlefield."

Her eyes widened when the Nadder came into view. She stood up in a panic, but as she grabbed her axe, she saw it was stuck in the sheild Hiccup had been carrying. She pulled and pulled. Hiccup groaned in pain as his arm got tugged on, because he wouldn't let go of the sheild. He shouted "ow ow ow ow" every time she pulled.

She finally ripped the axe, and the sheild, out of Hiccup's grasp. The sheild was stuck on the axe, but Astrid didn't care. Just as the Deadly Nadder was about to make an attack, she swung the axe-sheild at the dragon's face. The impact hit the dragon hard, causing it to throw its head back.

The blue beast made a defeated squawk and walked away, sulking, and shaking its head.

"Well done, Astrid." Gobber praised from above the arena where he had been standing.

Astrid breathed heavily and looked at the aburn-haired Hiccup as he stood up. "Is this some kind of a joke to you!?" She asked angrily. "Our parents' war is about to become ours'. Figure out which side your on." She held the inward arc of her axe at Hiccup's neck.

It was pretty easy to tell she was angry. Thalos couldn't blame her. The boy almost did almost get her killed. Thalos walked up to Hiccup and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Even Snotlout does a better job at dragon fighting than you do!" She shouted.

Thalos walked in front of Hiccup and stared at her. "You need to calm down. It's called training for a reason. You weren't always the best dragon fighter either." He said firmly.

Astrid widened her eyes and huffed before walking away. Her face was red and her blonde hair was now slightly ragged.

Thalos turned to look at Hiccup. "Hey, don't listen to her. You are still learning."

"No, she's right. I'm useless." The boy said sadly.

"No, you arent. Don't say things like that." Thalos put both his hands on Hiccup's shoulders and looked him right in the eyes. "You are the smartest guy I know. You are smarter than anyone in this village. You are NOT useless, and you never will be."

Hiccup sighed and nodded, but Thalos could tell he wasn't buying it. "I better get going." He said. "I've got stuff to do." With that, the skinny Viking walked out of the arena.

Thalos stayed behind and helped Gobber clean up all the mess. By now, the big Viking had put the Deadly Nadder into its pen. He just needed to deal with all the walls. The two of them spent around an hour moving them and putting them away.

Once everything was packed up, Gobber said his thanks and left. Thalos left as well. He went to his hut and grabbed his journal.

He did want to check out the Xeno'jiiva again. He wanted to see if the loud sounds messed with it, like Gobber says it does with all dragons. He even wanted to get to the point of drawing the dragon. Hiccup had done it, so he figured he should too.