Defying The Rules

Fighting the Gronckle

Thalos stood beside Hiccup. The skinny Viking looked either very nervous or just like he was dreading being here. Thalos wasn't sure why. Hiccup had always wanted to kill dragons. He would have thought he would be at least a little more excited.

"Behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight!" Gobber said, gesturing to one of the pens. "The Deadly Nadder."

"Speed eight; Armor sixteen." Fishlegs, the nerdy, chunky Viking said. He looked ten times more nervous that Hiccup did. That didn't surprise Thalos though. Fishlegs was always that way.

"The Hideous Zippleback." Gobber said, walking to another pen and gesturing to it.

"Plus eleven stealth times two." Fishlegs added smartly.

"The Monstrous Nightmare." Gobber continued the list, gesturing to another pen. Thalos could tell by the banging and moving of the door that the dragon wanted out.

"Firepower fifteen." Fishlegs continued to list stats of the dragon. It was starting to get on Thalos's nerves. It's not like they were helpful. No one even knew what the statistics meant.

"The Terrible Terror."

"Attack eight; Venom twelve!" Fishlegs was starting to get excited now. Maybe he was actually getting excited for the training. Either that, or he was just getting impressed with himself and his dragon knowledge.

"Can you stop that!?" Gobber shouted, obviously getting annoyed as well. Thalos was glad he wasn't the only one. "And.. the Gronckle." He said, grabbing the leaver that controlled the door to the pen.

Fishlegs whispered something to Hiccup, but Thalos didn't catch what it was. He guessed it was another dragon battle statistic. That seemed like something he would do. Thalos watched Gobber grab the leaver. Wait, were they fighting it right now? No battle tips first!?

Appearantly Snotlout was thinking the same thing, because he spoke up in a panicked tone, "Whoah, whoah, wait! Aren't you gonna teach us first!?"

"I beleive in learning on the job." With that, the two-limbed Viking pushes down the leaver, removing the barrier holding the doors closed.

Almost instantly, an ugly Gronckle burst through the metal doors. It was brown and chubby. It had four sections in its body-a head, body, and two for the tail. The beast was hideous with small wings and ears, large, crooked teeth, and multiple large warts on its body. The Vikings all scattered around the arena. The dragon quickly swallowed a few rocks after flying into a wall. It was clear the dragon was excited that it was let out. It started heading towards the teens in training.

"Today is about survival. If you get blasted, you're dead. Quick! What's the first thing you're going to need?" Gobber said as he watched the teenagers get out of dodge of the dragon coming towards them.

"A doctor!?" Hiccup said in a stressed tone.

"Plus five speed!?" Fishlegs said, panicked. Thalos kind of rolled his eyes at that.

"A she-" Thalos started, but Astrid beat him to it.

"A shield!" She said.

"Shields! Go! Your most important piece of equipment is your shield! If you must make a choice between a sword or a shield, take the shield!" Gobber said hastily, shoving Hiccup a sheild and pushing him into the fight.

The teens and Thalos all went to grab a sheild. They all grabbed the nearest sheild, aside from the twins. The twins stood there, fighting over one sheild, even though there were like five left. He sighed and kept a hold of his axe. He had brought it with him, and the other Vikings had brought their preferred weapons as well.

As the twins were bickering over the sheild, the Gronckle blasted at the sheild, destroying the peice of wood and metal and leaving the twins dazed on the ground. Thalos heard Gobber say, "You're out!" as well as a few other words. Thor.. sometimes those twins really lacked basic intelligence..

"Noise! Make lots of it to throw off a dragon's aim." The teacher yelled.

The Vikings did as they were told, banging their weapons against the metal part of the sheild. Thalos did it as loud as he could. How did he never know about this? Sure enough, the Gronckle started shaking. It was clear the beast was getting disoriented. Perhaps this would work on the large blue dragon if it ever attacked him? Either way, this was a good tip to know.

"All dragons have a limited number of shots. How many does a Gronckle have?"

"Four?" Thalos guessed, avoiding a charge from the dragon.

"Five?" Snotlout said afterwards.

"No, six!" Fishlegs said.

"Correct, six!" Gobber praises.

Fishlegs grinned and held up his sheild, quite pleased with himself. "Fishlegs!" Thalos called as he saw the dragon coming up behind him. The boy must not have heard him though, because the Gronckle shot at his sheild, and Fishlegs ran off screaming, obviously horrified.

Thalos hit his sheild with his axe and came up behind the Gronckle. He hit the animal with his sheild and fell back when the beast turned around and hit him in return. He quickly got up and stepped back. He looked over at Hiccup, who was hiding behind a plank of wood. He had come out for a second or two, but the dragon blasted a lava ball, and Hiccup recoiled back into the safety of his tiny "shelter."

Thalos looked at Astrid. Her face was covered in determination and concentration. She looked like she was getting ready to throw an attack. Snotlout, on the other hand, was focused on Astrid, not the flying reptile that was coming towards them. Thalos could tell the he was flirting with her. Thalos groaned and rolled his eyes. He saw Snotlout mouth something, then Astrid ran, just avoiding the Gronckle's blast, leaving Snotlout to get hit by himself. Luckily, the sheild blocked him, but Gobber still called him and said he was out.

Thalos made another attack at the dragon from behind, but he quickly jumped back when the dragon fired. He looked at Hiccup, who was now chasing after his rolling-away sheild. "Hiccup!" Both Thalos and Gobber called in unison as the dragon started chasing him. Thalos immediately started running towards the dragon. Hiccup fell, and it didn't take long for him to be pinned by the dragon. The Gronckle started charging up a blast, and Thalos's heart raced. He sped up, but luckily, Gobber got there first and just barely averted the blast to the wall, instead of at Hiccup, by grabbing the dragon's mouth with his hook. Hiccup flinched and covered his head.

"And that's six." Gobber said, trying to get the beast under control. "Go back to bed ya overgrown sausage!" With that, he threw the dragon back into its pen and shut the door.

Thalos stopped running and was breathing hard. He looked at Hiccup, who looked absolutely traumatized. "Are you oka-" Thalos started to ask if his friend was okay, but Gobber spoke over him.

"Remember.. a dragon will always, always.. go for the kill." Gobber said, lifting Hiccup up and walking away.