Tuff Love (A How To Train Your Dragon Fanfiction | Astrid x Tuffnut)

"I thought we weren't going to kill each other!"

In a panicked jerk, Tuffnut immediately rose his arm that was braced to his shield when Hiccup swung at him. A thunk! boomed once before his face, darkened by the shadow of the old wood. Tuffnut's platoons shuffled backward on the arena floor and he felt like he was balancing on rubber feet from the adrenaline spiking through his veins.

I thought we weren't going to kill each other!, Tuffnut's thoughts raced in a panic.

Hiccup's voice fused with uproarious power at every blow he directed at Tuffnut. Over the cheering of the Hooligans, Tuffnut could hear his toes scuffle the gravel of the large rock bed of the arena in frenzied squeaks as he desperately tried to create a starting distance from Hiccup so that it was easier to think of his next move. Tuffnut grunted and threw his shield outward to guard himself from an incoming spurn by Hiccup's weapon. His body rattled with the force he met. Tuffnut succesfully spun from Hiccup's weapon, and the axe gonged on the ground. Hiccup growled and Tuffnut heard the iron of his opponent's weapon whistle towards his shield again. Tuffnut yelped and ducked from Hiccup's attack, upholding his shield again before his jaw would be shattered.

Dunk! Thwack! Bam!

"Hah!" Hiccup yelled as he launched his heel in the air and twirled his body once. The landing would double the force and speed of his weapon's blow. His axe sawed the air where Tuffnut's shield had narrowly missed.

The rules of the duel were straightforward: whoever submitted was the winner. From the way that Hiccup was swinging his axe, it seemed to Tuffnut that Hiccup would pin him after he was diced into firewood.

"Hugh!"

Tuffnut jerked his shield before his body again and raced to meet Hiccup's downswing towards his kneecaps to topple him over. Tuffnut clenched his sword's handle with white knuckles. Tuffnut's palms had started to condense with the heat of his grip and his panicked sweat, and he feared he would soon drop the sword from the speed that Hiccup sliced the air with his axe. When did he even get this good?!, Tuffnut questioned himself frantically. He and Hiccup had both attended the same lessons when they were much younger that progressed from an ordinary crossbow to spears and then to the coveted swords and axes. Hiccup, apparently, had been modest to a lethal fault at his proficiency with basic weaponry and tact. It dawned on Tuffnut suddenly that he was battling one-on-one with a chief from a bloodline of legends. No matter how much more of a dragon nerd Hiccup was than Fishlegs, Stoick's priorities for his son to be a battleram in any war that came the tribe's way had clearly been set first in his upbringing.

Get a grip, Thorston!, Tuffnut said to himself. His frustration at his body's refusal to stop reacting in survival-mode came out in a gritty cry that blurted from him when Hiccup's axe striked his shield again. Tuffnut clamored for an idea to create an opening to dominate Hiccup. One thought that kept on his mind from his elementary teachings on swordwielding was to never lose his form, at any cost. He kept the angle of his wrist in mind and was careful to not let his sword's apex point south. If he let it, his natural reflexes would cause his fingers to release the sword at his opponent's front. He instead kept his wrist directly in his line of sight, and when he was affronted, he rose his blade laterally in front of his eyes and imagined his sword was lined on an imaginary horizon from his left to his right.

"Ungh! Hagh!" Hiccup voice barraged as he kept trying with his axeswings, unsuccessfully, to overwhelm Tuffnut by quickly overpowering his sense of balance. Flaming hell!, Hiccup said in outrage to himself. Tuffnut had still managed all that time to stay on his toes, and he was being stubborn about keeping his hilt forward so that it wouldn't be kicked from his grip.