#deadlynadder

Even though she couldn’t see them yet, she could hear the bustling coming from an upcoming armada, the second one this week. Only this time it would be a different sort of mission. Below deck was meant to be cages filled with dragons so Valkyrie had to take a different approach to get them all out before she could sink the ships.

The process took longer and was rather more dangerous–or disastrous. Each ship would have to be infiltrated and checked for dragons. If the ship had dragons she had to try and safely release each one of them. Leading up to that though she had to try and sneak onto the ship and try and go undetected and if found out try to silently take the dragon hunters out. So by the third or fourth boat, it became rather clear that something was going on that the rest weren’t aware of. It was a lot of extra work Valkyrie had to deal with when she didn’t get to the fleets before they got to the dragons.

When the armada was in sight, Valkyrie tapped her dragon–Stardust–on the back of her neck twice, a signal that told Stardust that she needed to cloak the two of them. A dark pink shot of plasma was fired in front of them. It came fast approaching as Stardust dived through the flames. Valkyrie tried to hug low on Stardust’s back, the reflective light bouncing off her scales to the armour that hugged Valkyrie. Because the same scales that were on Stardust littered Valkyrie, the same cloaking took over, rendering them both invisible until Stardust decided to turn visible again or Valkyrie left her back.

Diving low, Stardust flew close to the water’s edge, a small ripple breaking as they flew. The first ship that came up wasn’t heavily fortified, making Valkyrie question if there was another ship that stole some of this one’s hunters, needing the extra number of men to take care of something.

Not one to complain about the easier workload, Valkyrie steered Stardust to the side of the ship. When she was close enough, Valkyrie stood from Stardust’s back. Pulling a small dagger from her belt, she dug it into the side of the ship. There she crouched on the side of the boat, watching as she became visible once again and the ripples of the water showed Stardust leaving Valkyrie’s side.

Pulling herself up and over the ledge, she landed softly on the wooden deck, eyes scanning for any hunters. There were two placed on the other side of the deck, one on a platformed strip where the steering station stood. She could hear the bang of metal below deck as well with spines rattling and talons scratching.

Before the two hunters could look back, Valkyrie stalked across the boat, heading for the hunter in control of it. Valkyrie paused on the stairs as she came up behind the man. He stood unaware as his eyes tracked the other boats, following them as he was led through the water. The same dagger that she had used to climb the boat rested steadily in her hand. Launching forward, Valkyrie wrapped an arm around the man’s neck as she wound herself around him, her knife digging into his shoulder before she flipped him over and onto his back. A grunt erupted from the man as he hit the ground hard.

Valkyrie wasn’t done yet as she twisted the knife from his shoulder, a hand coming down to muffle the yell he let out before she was plucking it from his shoulder. The blade was lightly coated with the man’s blood. Valkyrie tsked at the sight of the blood before the hand covering the hunter's mouth moved to grip his shoulder instead, pulling him up to stand on his feet before dragging him to the railing of the boat and throwing him overboard. The hunter fell with a yell, alerting the other two hunters onboard.

“Great, look what you’ve done,” Valkyrie complained as she rose both her arms, staring down at the hunters that were coming towards her. Spreading her shoulders out, she readied herself before throwing herself forward, skipping the steps as she jumped from the other deck. Raising her knife, Valkyrie threw it down into the first hunter's shoulder. The woman that she landed on tumbled to the ground with her, fighting to try and push Valkyrie off of her. The other hunter came up behind her, hands landing on her arms as she tried to tug her backwards. Valkyrie let herself be pulled backwards, using a little kick off the fallen hunter to knock her head back into the man’s nose. A groan left his lips as blood began to spill from her nose. Valkyrie offered the man a warning as he fell to the ground, “If your smart you’ll stay down.”

She only got a whimper in return, making a crooked grin dance across her face. With quick steps, Valkyrie fled from the fallen hunters, headed to the lower parts of the boat. The door was left unlocked as she pushed it open, finding two guards working the dragon. The both of them took notice of Valkyrie quickly. The one closest to her left the other hunter behind with the Deadly Nadder they were plucking spines from, leaving the hunter to fend for himself with the dragon.

Valkyrie dived into a roll as she popped up at the hunter’s feat, arching her small dagger upwards. The blade sliced through the man’s shirt as she jumped to her feet, sending the hunter staggering back. Valkyrie didn’t waste a second as she pushed forward, digging her shoulder into the man’s stomach before hitting him on the temple with the handle of her knife, sending him tumbling to the floor as he fell out of consciousness.

As Valkyrie’s eyes fell on the next hunter, she could see him busy with the Deadly Nadder, trying to fend off spines that were launched his way. While he was distracted, Valkyrie made her way over to the back of the boat, unlocking the dragon cages as she dug her knife into the locks. As she worked her way through the cages, a Monstrous Nightmare that she had just let free spat a burst of flames towards the side of the boat, making an opening for itself as he set itself aflame and flew through the hole. The next few dragons that Valkyrie let free followed after the Monstrous Nightmare, alerting the other ships of their breakout. “So much for trying to go unnoticed."

When it was just the Deadly Nadder left, Valkyrie unlocked the cage with more cation than she had with the others. Rightfully so as she spiked dragon came barreling out of the cage, forcing Valkyrie to fall to the floor out of its way as it stormed out of the boat, taking the stairs like the other dragons had to before the Monstrous Nightmare left its mark.

Valkyrie quickly followed after the Nadder before the hunters could come back to their senses. When she got to the deck of the boat, she could see hunters looking her way, trying to decipher what had happened.

Pursing her lips and whistling, Valkyrie waited for Stardust to come and find her. The steady whistle that she got in return, was caused by the wings of a Lightfury as she plummeted down to the ship. A pink ball of plasma lit up the sky as it was shot towards Valkyrie’s ship. As it hit the deck, a wave of power ripped through the wood as two pars dug into Valkyrie’s shoulders, pulling her from the boat’s deck as it was in the progress of getting destroyed.

“Cutting it a little close, don’t you think?” Valkyrie asked her dragon as she was carried from one ship to the next before being dropped into a swarm of hunters, a rumbling running through the sky as Stardust disappeared into the night once again.

A woman lunged for her as soon as she landed on the deck, her fist connecting with the side of Valkyrie’s head as she stumbled back. Valkyrie held in a grunt as she used the momentum of falling back to push herself forward and barrel back into the woman that had attacked her. She was able to push her back and into another hunter, the both of them stumbling over each other as they fell to the floor.

Valkyrie didn’t need to ponder over what happened to them as she swivelled around to take on the next hunter that was trying to jab a spear her way. Valkyrie ducked down at the poisoned tip that sailed past her head. Using her free hand to grab the handle wrapped around her waist, the broken-down blade from her waist and snapped into a proper functional blade that arched upwards and cut through the wood of the spear.

As half of the spear fell to the ground, a hidden smile danced across Valkyrie’s face, concealed by her helmet. The hunter let out a loud grunt at the sight of the fallen spearhead. Using the half he had left, the hunter tried to charge Valkyrie, not getting far, as Valkyrie sidestepped him before using the hand that still held her small dagger to throw into the hunter’s side. Valkyrie stepped up to the man and pulled the blade from his side as he staggered away, gargling on blood that started to twist in his stomach and rise to his throat.

Looking away, Valkyrie moved on. She fought her way through the hunters on the ship, making her way to the lower deck where a singular dragon rested. The Gronckle seemed startled by the girl in white scales, the scent of a Lightfury wafting off of her. Valkyrie didn’t try to stay long, jamming her blood-coated dagger into the lock until it unlocked. She pulled the cell door open, urging the dragon to follow her as she led the dark orange dragon to the sky where it could fly away.

Again, a whistle rang out that was soon matched from above, a similar blast lighting up the ship as Valkyrie was swooped from it. Now that she was in the air, Valkyrie could see that some of the other ships had already been destroyed. Stardust must have been checking them herself, searching for a scent of a dragon and determining from there if a ship should be sunk or not. “Someone’s been busy.”

That earned a purr from the white beast that she couldn’t see. Valkyrie’s eyes passed over a few of the ships before they landed on the boat leading the armada. There she could see a line of Vikings bound, caged dragons behind them and an army of hunters in front of them. Pointing her dagger at the boat, she wrapped her sword back around her waist as she said, “Take me over there girl.”

Valkyrie didn’t have much of a plan as she was dropped onto the deck of the boat, the girl quickly lunging forward into a dive. She rolled forward, using her knife to slice through the leg of an upcoming hunter as she rose to her feet. “Looks like our masked rider has come to rescue her crew.”

Once the voice rang out and registered in Valkyrie’s ears, her eyes narrowed, turning her head to see Ryker standing tall with a smug grin on his face. Valkyrie didn’t move from her spot as her eyes flickered over the bound Vikings and the hunters that stood all around her. Dropping her voice so it sound deeper than it already was, Valkyrie said, “I’m not associated with these riders.”

“Pity,” Ryker said, pulling the sword from his back and pointing it at Valkyrie’s head. “Your about to suffer the same fate as they are.”

Valkyrie threw the bloodied dagger at Ryker, using the few seconds it bought her to pull the sword from her waist as Ryker deflected the blade away from him. Valkyrie didn’t set the sword into place, letting it hang at her side as it dangled back and forth. “Great! She doesn’t even have a working sword!”

Not acknowledging the yell from one of the trapped Vikings, Valkyrie ran forward. Ryker met her heal way as he threw his sword down. Valkyrie’s own sword flew up to meet it, the slices of the blade wrapping around his. The two of them stood there for a few seconds, a battle of strength as they waited to see who would break first.

As Valkyrie’s arms began to shake, she threw her arms to the side, forcing Ryker’s arms to follow along. Valkyrie was quick, but not quick enough as the tried to whip her sword forward so the blades could wrap around the neck of Ryker, only for her blades to be blocked and wrap around Ryker’s arm cuff. A conniving grin spread across Ryker’s face as he tugged his arm back, ripping the sword from Valkyrie’s grip and tossing it down on the deck of the boat. “If I were you, I would invest in a working sword.”

“It works plenty,” Valkyrie stated, ticking her head to the side as she backed up a few steps from Ryker, circling him until she found the dagger she had lost on the floor, crouching to pick it up. “If I remember correctly, last time we met I was able to send you overboard with that ‘broken’ sword.”

She rose to her feet quickly, launching the dagger away from her. Instead of sending it towards Ryker, the blade landed in front of one of the bound Vikings. Valkyrie hadn’t bothered to check who Ryker had on the boat, her attention caught by the man in front of her once she had figured out it was him in front of her.

Ryker’s head snapped towards the blade as it was seized by the Viking, the boy cutting through his ropes before beginning to work on the person next to his. Ryker’s face twisted at the sight of the free Viking, “Seize them!”

Valkyrie ran forward in the chaos, dropping so she could slide along the floor and grab her sword. As soon as her hand locked onto the handle, and with a flex of her wrist, the blade locked into one piece, straightening into a useable sword. Ryker’s face twisted at the straight-standing blade in Valkyrie’s hand. “What’s wrong Ryker? I thought I needed to get a proper sword?”

The man let out a yell as he charged forward, swiping his sword forward which Valkyrie met with her own. Unlike before the two blades bounced away from each other, sparks flying from the metals as their sharp edges sliced against one another. 

Valkyrie made sure to block out the noise of all the commotion going on behind her, her eyes lit ablaze as she fought to keep up with the speed at which Ryker was striking. It wasn’t until a third sword was thrown into the mix that Valkyrie’s mind short-circuited.  

Head turning to face who had joined in, her eyes landed on the boy who had found her at the Nothern Markets. Hiccup.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” Valkyrie exclaimed as the boy faced Ryker with stone eyes. But at the sound of her voice, Hiccup’s head swivelled to face Valkyrie. He didn’t recognise her with the mask on, and Valkyrie was hoping to keep it that way.

Both Valkyrie and Hiccup pushed back on Ryker, making the man throw his arm to the side and stumble back. “You two say you aren’t in allegiance with the other, but here you are working together.”

“Desperate times call for desperate needs,” Hiccup muttered, offering Valkyrie a glance before the sword in his hand lit to flames. “Now, Ryker, you’re going to let us go or this isn’t going to end very well for you.”

A deep frown settled its way onto Ryker’s face as his eyes flickered between the two dragon riders. Valkyrie could already tell that Ryker would rather go down fighting than willingly let his cargo go free. Before Ryker could answer, Valkyrie let her sword fall once more, unlocking it from its still position. “Good thing we aren’t giving you much of a chance.”

Valkyrie shoved her sword forward, betting on Ryker throwing an arm up to block it. When he did exactly that, Valkyrie wrapped her sword around his arm cuff once again before using her body weight to swing Ryker down. Hiccup helped her in pushing Ryker to the ground as he used his flaming blade to trip Ryker to the ground.

Pushing forward and away from both Ryker and Hiccup, Valkyrie ran towards the edge of the boat. As she ran she let her whistle ring out, waiting for the returning call. When it came, she ran up to the ledge of the boat, jumping from the side and placing her faith in Stardust as she fell from its side.

With a swoop, Valkyrie was picked from the sky as Stardust began to fade back into light. Stardust swung Valkyrie forward, throwing her higher into the air so she could fall onto her back. At the rough landing, Valkyrie was jostled forward, her body knocking forward as she tried to catch herself on Stardust’s back. In the midst of that, her helmet fell from her head, plummeting to the water below.

A similar whistle rang through the sky but this time it wasn’t coming from Stardust.

“I think you dropped this, ”A voice called out, offering the white helmet up to Valkyrie as he flew up beside her. But as Valkyrie’s head turned to face Hiccup, the half of a smile on his face fell. “You?”