how to defeat a dragon

"Where did Hiccup go wrong?" Gobber asks his students when they meet up for an evening meal at the end of the day.

"He showed up." Ruffnut says.

"He didn't get eaten." Snotlout answers.

"He wasn't were he's supposed to be." Astrid answers.

"He wasn't focused." Hak adds.

"Thank you, Astrid and Hak." Gobber says.

"Now, here you need to live, eat ad breathe this stuff. The dragon manual." Gobber tells the group, throwing a book on the table.

"No training tonight, study up. It has all the information about dragons we know. " Gobber says and leaves the teens to themselves.

All but Hak and Hiccup clear out of the hall, either having read the book or having no intention of doing so.

"How about you? Do you want to take a look?" Hak asks Hiccup, looking through a few pages of the book.

"Nah I'm good. That thing was most of my night stories, chieftains son and such." Hiccup answers with a sigh.

"Well OK then, I'm going to try my luck and see if Astrid can teach me your writing. Cuz I can't read the first thing in this book." Hak says.

"Good luck, you'll need it." Hiccup tells him.

|A handful of minutes later - Astrid's home|

"Hey." Hak announces his presence to the girl standing in the rain, throwing her axe towards a target.

"What? Oh, it's you. I thought Snotlout came to harass me again." Astrid says relieved to see him behind her.

"I have a request. Could you maybe teach me how to read this thing?" Hak asks, showing her the book under his coat.

"I guess. Just let me practice some more." She agrees before turning back towards her target and throws the axe, going to retrieve it.

"Want a training partner?" Hak asks after observing the girl throw her axe two times.

"Hah, why not." She agrees with a sigh and Hak goes over to her target, leaving the book under her shed.

"What now?" She asks, confused why he's standing leaning against the target.

"Just throw." Hak tells her, angering her slightly and she throws the axe, missing her mark and it flies towards Hak instead since she was focused on him.

"Watch out." She yells.

Hak however simply picks the flying axe out of the air like it's nothing.

"Whoa." She says impressed.

"Can you teach me that?" She asks hopeful.

"Another time maybe." Hak tells her, tossing her axe back to her lightly and she catches it with ease.

"So that's your idea of a training partner?" She laughs amused.

"Beats walking back and forth all day doesn't it?" Hak replies with a smirk.

"I guess you've got a point. I just don't see how it helps your training." She remarks.

"It doesn't much. But it improves our teamwork and the thing I need to learn the most is what dragons do." Hak answers.

"Teamwork huh?" Astrid asks amused.

"Yeah, don't you guys train in teamwork?" He asks.

"Not directly, when you're going with the larger groups, it's either follow orders or fend for yourself." Astrid explains, throwing the axe again, hitting the target.

Hak retrieved the weapon, tossing it back to her.

"Why?" Hak questions interested.

"I don't know, it's just the Viking way." She replies before throwing her axe again with it slipping out of her hand due to the rain and flies over the target with Hak catching it before it flies away too far.

Hak goes over to her, saying "follow me."

She huffs but follows him anyways with him leading the two under her shed.

"This is a trick I picked up on the battlefield." Hak tells her, taking off the cloth covering his glaive's blade and wraps it around the hilt of her weapon, trying it to it with the cloths leather straps.

"Battlefield?" She asks.

"Yeah. I told you before, I was a general." He says thinking it'd be obvious.

"I guess I didn't realize that meant you actually fought on the frontlines." She admits.

"Well there are different ways to lead, but I usually peferr the hands on approach. That way I can interfere and control the battle better. Plus why would I order my strongest man to sit the battle out." Hak chuckles.

"Well you certainly don't lack self-confidence." She remarks with s small grin, accepting her new and improved axe, twirling it around a bit to get a feel for it.

"Yeah, this could work, but won't it weaken my blows in close quarters?" She asks.

"No. The only downside to this is the increase in maintenance but judging from your axe's condition that's not a problem. It's in pristine condition even though you can see it's been around for a while. " Hak praises her.

"Thanks." She replies, liking that she at least gets acknowledged by someone, even if Hak is still only a new arrival.

"Let's try it out." Hak suggests, walking back over to the target with Astrid taking her previous spot a couple feet away from the target.

After a couple throws where she hits with more accuracy since her grip on the weapon improved Hak asks, "Hey, want to spice things up a bit?"

"Sure, what did you have in mind?" Astrid replies, twirling her axe confidently.

"How about you try to hit me with your axe before I manage to hit you with 10 snowballs?" Hak suggests, already forming some snowballs, putting them on a tree trunk.

"Hah, you're on. Here, take this. Wouldn't want that pretty face to get hit." She says with a smirk and throws him a shield.

"Fine." He accepts, putting his arm through the shield's leather ring.

The match ends relatively quickly with Astrid loosing without even coming close to hitting him, while her clothes even more soaked from the snowball hits, added to the fact of the previous rain, which stopped by now.

"I guess it wasn't all that fair since you had to retrieve your axe after every throw." Hak tells her, helping her free her axe from a particular hard spot, where it smashed through two boards.

"Thanks." She says accepting the weapon offered back to her.

"So any other brilliant ideas?" She asks.

"Lots. But how about I roll a shield across the street and you have to hit it? He suggests." I guess that's better, since it won't move like a monkey drunk on Met, I still don't get how you climbed the roof like that." Astrid says.

"Haha, first time I've been compared to a monkey, sloth yes. Monkey no." Hak laughs with a grin.

"Yeah, well get used to it." Astrid grumbles.

"Oh, is someone mad they lost a match?" Hak teases her, with her flinging her axe at him in response where he catches it easily before it manages to cut into his coat.

"Wait until I rolled the shield, won't you?" He says with a smirk.

"Ugh, you know I was starting to like you, but now I just want to smash your face in." Astrid growls, throwing her axe at the shield he rolls ahead of himself.

"Feel free to try. I'm always up for a little training." Hak says with a wink.

"I'm gonna make you eat those words." Astrid shouts, running at him and tries to tackle him to the ground, barely passing by the edge of his cost when he dodges.

"Hey I've been meaning to ask, who is the strongest one around here anyways? You're pretty nimble on your feet and have a good head on your shoulders, but I'm sure there's an adult who's the strongest one around here right?" Hak asks.

"Yeah, Stoic. The chieftain, but he's not here right now. He's trying to destroy the dragon's nest." Astrid replies, charging at Hak again, this time stopping herself from jumping at him and instead tries to hit him with some punches, all of which Hak deflects with minimal effort.

"You're making me so angry." She growls.

"Anger is good, if you know how to make it work for you." Hak informs her, dodging a kick aimed at his face.

"Ugh, you know what? Even if I don't manage to hit you now, one of these days I'll punch you in your face." Astrid groans annoyed and slumps over exhausted.

"Come on, let me help you into your house." Hak offers gently.

"Ugh, can't you just leave me alone? A defeated Viking is a dead Viking." She says, accepting his help non the less.

"And I've learned that a soldier learns best through defeat." Hak tells her, helping her to a seat in the girls' house.

"You're weird you know that? I try to maul you for the last 5 minutes and you help me to my house when I'm exhausted."

"What can I say? I like you and I'm only a monkey afterall." He replies with a chuckle, while Astrid fixes her hair over her eye to hide the minor blush on her cheeks.

"So, are you up to helping me learn about dragons?" Hak asks.

"Sure." She agrees with a sigh.

Hak leaves her house to fetch the book from the shed while Astrid's mother peeks in, saying "Does my sweet angle have a suitor finally?" She asks overly excited.

"No! I'm just helping him get used to living here." Astrid bellows.

"Ah, ah, ah. Are you sure you don't have a crush on that handsome young man who saved your life?" Her mother asks teasingly before leaving the room.

"His name is Hak and for Thor's sake no." Astrid groans.

"Thank you again for this. I can't read anything in here." Hak thanks her, putting down the book in front of her.

"I think I should be thanking you instead foe helping me train, because its plainly obvious you don't need the training." Astrid says in reply.

"You can never be too prepared." Hak says, opening the book.

Astrid then spends the next couple of hours telling him everything there is to learn from the book of dragons before they head to bed.

The next day the young Vikings are all back in the arena, where countless walls have been erected while they try to dodge and defeat a deadly nadder.

"You know, I know there isn't anything in the book about Night Furies, so is there a pamphlet or…" Hiccup asks, until his axe gets destroyed by the nadder blasting it to bits.

"Focus Hiccup, you're not even trying." Gobber tells him while the nadder is running towards the teen.

"Today is all about attack. Nadder's are quick and light on their feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter." Gobber informs them while the Nadder jumps on top of a wall and fires her stingers at Fishlegs, who blocks them with his shield while running away screaming.

"Look for his blindspot. Every dragon has one. Find it, hide in it and strike." Gobber instructs while the Nadder takes a turn and stands in front of the twins.

The two then start to fight each other, raising so much noise that the Nadder blasts fire at them, with them dodging the strike.

"Hey, so how could one sneak up on a Night Fury?" Hiccup questions their teacher, hoping to gain more information about the dragon he has trapped on the other side of the island.

"No one ever met one and lived to tell the tale." Gobber replies.

"I know, I know. But hypothetically." Hiccup says.

"Hiccup." Astrid whispers, hiding behind a smaller part of wall in a corridor with Snotlout.

The Nadder walks down their path and stops a few feet away from them. Snotlout and Astrid quietly roll over to the other side of the wall, with Hiccup attempting it as well, but he fails to do so, landing on his back with the shield under him. He quickly jumps up and starts to run away.

The Nadder jumps over a wall and lands in front of Astrid and Snotlout.

"Watch out babe. I'll take care of this." Snotlout brags and throws his mace at the dragon, only to be miles off and hit nothing.

"The sun was in my eyes Astrid. What do you want me to do? Block out the sun?" Snotlout claims, before he gets flung across the arena curtesy of Hak, who pulled him away just in time before he got roasted by the Nadder fire, while Astrid rolled away, taking off in the opposite direction with the Nadder chasing her.

Astrid runs through the corridors at top speed with the Nadder following after her, knocking against the not secured walls and causing most of them to fall over.

"Hiccup!" Gobber warns the teen who was trying to get information out of him again, oblivious to what's happening around him, including a falling Astrid, heading right for him.

Lucky for the brunette boy Hak reaches them and jumps off of Hiccup's shield, pushing him away from the Nadder which was sliding right at him and catches Astrid in the air, setting her down when the two touch the ground, being across from the Nadder, which is lying against a wall, about to get back up.

"Take out the right one, I got left." Hak tells her, tossing her her axe, which fell out of her hand when she was plummeting to the ground and throws his shield at the left support piece of the wall with Astrid throwing the axe at the right support, causing the wall to fall over and trap the Nadder underneath it.

"Well done you two." Gobber praises them.

"Is this some kind of a joke to you?" Astrid questions Hiccup, who's hiding himself behind his shield while lying on the floor annoyedly.

Later that day Hiccup visits the Night Fury again and actually makes some headway with it, gaining some resemblance of trust from it.

That night, after a story from Gobber Hiccup realizes that the reason the Night Fury is trapped in the forest is because its tail is damaged, making it unable to fly, so he builds a contraption which allows the Night Fury to simulate its tail's wing.

"Today is all about teamwork. The Hideous Zippleback is tricky to deal with, one head breathes gas while the other head ignites it." Gobber tells his students, who are grouped up, with Snotlout, Tuffnut in one team, Ruffnut, Fishlegs and Hiccup form the other team and Astrid paired up with Hak, feeling that with him she has the most chance of success.

"There." Snotlout shouts, dumping his bucket and Tuffnut's on the twin's sister, having seen her shadow in the green fog now filling the arena.

"It's us idiots." Ruffnut says and dumps her water on her brother, shortly after which he gets dragged into the fog by the dragon.

"Chances of survival are dwindling into single digits now." Fishlegs says and one dragon head comes out of the smoke, straight for him. The chunky teen stumbles back a bit before throwing his water at the dragon's face, after which it breathes out some more green gas.

"Oh, wrong head." Fishlegs says sheepishly.

The other head of the dragon shows itself through the gas and Hiccup throws his water at it, but is to weak to reach the head and the water falls down without any effect.

The teen then follows Fishlegs, Snotlout and the twins out of the arena, leaving Hak and Astrid remaining.

"Hey, I have a plan alright?" Hak says, seeing the fog of green gas approach them.

"What is it?" She asks, glancing at him.

"Here, take this and you'll know it when you see it. Just wait for my signal OK?" He asks, handing her his bucket as well, getting a nod positive in return while she carries the two buckets.

The two don't have to wait more than 3 seconds before one of the two heads sticks out of the green gas.

"Wait for it…" Hak says, taking a few steps back with Astrid, until he sees the shadow of the other head through the gas.

"Get ready." Hak whispers and runs in a circle at the first dragon head, jumping up while hooking his arm around its long neck and pulls the head over to the other head he spotted through the gas.

"Now!" Hak yells, struggling to contain both heads at the same time due to their massive size.

Astrid quickly dumps the water on the two heads, drenching Hak along with it.

"Now what?" Hak asks, seeing the green gas still filling the arena.

"I can help." Hiccup says, stepping back out into the arena, carrying an eel and raises it towards the dragon, using the fish to push the two headed beast back in its cage, much to the surprise of the others.

"OK, so we're done? Cause I need some things I need to… uhh, see you tomorrow." Hiccup says and takes off, heading back to the forge, where he works on a new version of the dragon tail, building a saddle for him as well.

Over the next few days Hiccup and the Night Fury try multiple versions and tweaks over the next couple of days and Hiccup uses newfound knowledge he gains while interacting with the dragon to stun everyone into silence, like using a few leaves to calm a dragon down enough it almost instantly falls asleep or learning that if you scratch a dragon under it's chin it's like putty in your hand. Something he tries out while facing off against the Deadly Nadder once more.

Everyone is amazed by his newfound knowledge and starts to group around him, even many villagers are observing him now, impressed by his skills. The only two who don't care much for it are Hak and Astrid. Astrid because Hiccup is bound to take her place as the best in the group and gain the honor to slay the nightmare and Hak is too unfamiliar with dragons to know if the interaction is anything special, since he himself could knock out most of the dragons he's seen so far with his bare hands if he wanted to.