Chapter 144: Dagur Enters the Chat

Out of nowhere, a plasma blast exploded against the Skrill's back, catching it off guard. The Skrill screamed and whirled around, wildly looking for the culprit. Another plasma blast hit from a different angle, startling the Skrill once again. It whirled around and wildly fired a bolt into the clouds, missing its target by a mile. Wall.e and E.v.e. took advantage of the distraction, splitting up and flanking the Skrill before unleashing blasts of their own at the dragon. The Skrill screamed, and dove out of the clouds, nearly diving into the sea. The flock dove after it, Dolly decloaking mid dive and giving Hiccup a friendly chirp before firing another blast to herd the Skrill closer to the water.

Dolly roared, and the other dragons followed her lead. Stormfly fired a group of spines at the Skrill, forcing it to dive between two seastacks. Astrid breathed a sigh of relief and exclaimed, "It's working!" Meatlug fired a lava blast, which narrowly missed the Skrill, and exploded against the side of a particularly thin section of a seastack, sending multiple tons of rock falling towards the Skrill. It dove out of the way with a shriek, and fired a blast at the seastack, causing it to explode. The Skrill continued to dodge and weave through the sea stacks at high speed, the flock giving chase as it absorbed more lighting from the storms above it. Barf and Belch closed in on the fleeing Skrill, and Ruffnut exclaimed, "Time to give this dragon a bath!" Tuffnut agreed, "I bet he'll hate it as much as we do!", as Barf started blasting his own cocktail of explosive gasses at the Skrill. Belch was about to set the cloud off with a well timed dose of sparks when...

A flaming boulder flew mere feet overhead, narrowly missing the twins. Barf and Belch were forced to roll out of the way of the flaming boulder, allowing the Skrill to escape the ensuing explosion. Sormfly rolled out of the way of another flaming boulder, which crashed into a seastack, bringing it down. As Stormfly flew out of the path of the falling seastack, Astrid yelled, "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" Hiccup spotted The Skrill's Revenge sailing towards the Skrill and dove after the dragon, barrel rolling out of the way of a flaming boulder and firing at the catapult. Hiccup pulled his sword out and waved it above his head, trying to scare the Berserker Soldiers into backing down. For a brief moment it worked- the Berserker Soldiers gasped and started to back away from their catapults. Then, a familiar voice cut through the air. "KEEP FIRING AT THOSE DRAGONS, YOU FOOLS!" Dolly fired her own blast at one of the catapults, lighting it on fire before the soldiers manning it could carry Dagur's command out. Dagur himself leaped at the prow of his own ship. Planting one foot on the port side of the boat, he waved his axes at Hiccup, roaring, "SURPRISE, SURPRISE HICCUP! NOW GET YOUR DAINTY LITTLE HANDS OFF MY SKRILL!" Hiccup gave a signal to Toothless, and they started to fly down the port side of The Skrill's Revenge, Hiccup stabbing and slashing at every ballista and catapult they flew past. Toothless likewise strategically fired at the ship's arms as flaming boulders continued to rain down around them. Hiccup roared back at Dagur, "YOUR SKRILL?!? SINCE WHEN WAS IT YOUR SKRILL, DAGUR?!? SINCE WHEN WAS IT ANYONE'S SKRILL?!?" The Skrill, agitated by the flying boulders, arrows, and bolts, screamed, "REEEEEAAAAAAIIIIII!", and shot straight at The Skrill's Revenge, electrocuting half the crew with a single multi-direction blast. Ducking beneath the blast, Dagur squealed, "MY SKRILL IS GLORIOUS! THE LEGEND DOESN'T DO IT JUSTICE!" "AGAIN, NOT YOUR SKRILL!" Hiccup and Toothless tore through the sail, setting that alight. They barrel rolled out of the way of an incoming crossbow bolt, and nearly crashed into the Skrill.

At the same time, Astrid and Stormfly dive-bombed another ship at the head of the armada, the former throwing hatchets at the Soldiers onboard, while the latter fired her spikes and unleashed her incredibly hot firepower at the arms onboard. Yet another ship fired a mix of arrows and bolts at Fishlegs and Meatlug, the former yelping, "WOAH! MEATLUG, DROP!", the latter nearly falling into the ocean to dodge the arrows... before unleashing the Gale Force Gronckle on her own volition. Snotlout and Hookfang flew too close to the angry Skrill as it was harassing another Berserker ship, and Snotlout yelped, "OH NO! HOOKFANG!", as the Skrill blasted the crew, then changed target and started chasing Hookfang. A bolt struck Snotlout in the helmet, and he yelped, "GAAAAH! HALBA AAIII NNUUIEE KNOS AAAAAG!" Hookfang ignored Snotlout and ignited himself, firing a barrage of shots at the nearest Berserker longships. Ruffnut and Tuffnut flew over a line of Berserker Ships, Ruffnut instructing Barf, "That's it, keep spewing that gas... hee-hee-hee this one's gonna blow up half the fleet!" Tuffnut retorted, "You think? Ah-Ah- Not Yet, Belch! We've gotta wait until we reach the end of the line before we set the gas off!" They continued flying over the line, allowing an irate Hookfang and babbling Snotlout to pass before continuing to gas the line. When they reached the end, Barf and Belch turned around, and Tuffnut commanded, "Belch! NOW!" Belch fired his sparks at Barf's gas cloud, and a massive explosion ripped through the fleet's masts, reducing them to flaming splinters and scraps of sail. Ruffnut lamented, "Aw shucks, we just set their sails on fire!" Tuffnut reminded her, "Silver lining: They can't go anywhere, and be sunk by the other ships as they try to retreat!" Ruffnut pointed out, "Oh yeah? What about the ships behind them?!?" Tuffnut grinned and asked, "Shall we blow up the ships at the very back of the fleet?" Ruffnut cackled, "We shall! I love it when we cause mayhem!" Dolly flew between the ships, temporarily cloaked, and strategically firing her plasma blasts. Here, she sniped a mast off a longship, there, she blasted the paddles off the oars and left the ship spinning in circles. She reached the back of the fleet and spotted the twins gassing the last row of ships and preparing their next explosion while an irate Hookfang terrorized the crews of random ships in the fleet, carving a messy path of destruction and flaming objects. Dolly shook her head and dove back into the fray, her shot count fully reloaded. Hal and Nightstriker tracked the Skrill, desperately trying to corral it out of the range of the Berserker ships into the water, using their own plasma and ice blasts to try and force the Skrill into the water. It wasn't working- they hit Berserkers, Berserker Ships, and Berserker Weapons more often than not, and the irate Skrill continued attacking the ships around it, electrocuting every Berserker crew that crossed its sights and then flying back up to the clouds to recharge its shot limit. Hal and Nightstriker, determined to try and help the riders in any way they could, continued to chase after the Skrill, trying to come up with herding strategies on the fly. Wall.e accidentally pulled out of her own dive-bombing run a little too late, and to her surprise, found herself slamming horns first into Captain Vorg. She accidentally flew him off the ship, then shook her head, dislodged Vorg, and dropped him into the sea. She then turned and swiped her horns at a nearby ballista, throwing it's aim off and denting one of the arms. Pressing the attack, she bit the ballista and grappled it with her claws, planting her feet on the edge of the deck and flying backwards with all her might, wrenching the overgrown crossbow out of its deck mounting and ripping the stock out of the hands of the soldier manning it. Surging down the ballista, Wall.e started brawling with the soldiers on deck, infuriating them into attacking her with a particularly annoying sounding roar. E.v.e. soared overhead, sniping the armaments of ship after ship with her plasma cannon. When she noticed Meatlug beginning to falter in her pinballing Gale-Force Gronckle move, and Fishlegs looking like he was about to fall off his dragons back, she swooped down and roared, rallying Meatlug to continue fighting while Fishlegs recovered from the unexpected use of one of Meatlug's most powerful moves. She flew back up and surveyed the battlefield from above before choosing a target... and starting a dive bombing run on The Skrill's Revenge, preparing to slam Dagur overboard and into the sea.

The Berserkers, unable to use their ballistae and catapults to fire projectiles, and unable to sail away at anything resembling a decent speed, resorted to firing their crossbows in all directions. Hiccup, alarmed at the increasing number of flying projectiles, yelled, "LET'S GO, BUD!" Toothless roared, and the flock reunited and began to fly away from the fleet with haste. The Skrill screeched and flew back up into the raging thunderstorms above the armada. As lightning Strikes began to wreak havoc on those Berserker Ships that still had masts and the crews began scrambling to perform damage control, Dagur clambered back over the side of his own ship, glaring at the retreating dragon riders. Captain Vorg hauled himself over the other side of The Skrill's Revenge, exclaiming, "They're running!" Dagur charged Vorg and pinned him to the side of the ship, fuming, "NO! They're regrouping, you idiot! That's it! You're relieved of duty!" He shoved Vorg overboard and groused, "Great. The Skrill's attacking my fleet, too... a dragon that can destroy half a fleet all by itself and go head to head with a whole flock..." He grinned, and punched his own hand, smirking, "And it will soon be mine."