For Honour - How to Train Your Dragon (Astrid x Male Reader)

The next generation

The training was hard, for a solid two months you focused solely on physical exercise and muscle training. Everything you told them was to build up the raw strength to preform even the most basic of activities that a squire of the same age could perform, of course you wouldn't have any of them running after you and cleaning your armour when you told them.

The next few weeks would be about working them hard to the bone regularly, doing everything you could think of to build their muscle mass. Some did better then others naturally, you'd noticed one of two model students immediately.

At the moment you were running around berk in the middle of torrential rain carrying your armour in a pack over your shoulders, it's was a difficult exercise for even Ashfield youths and as an adult it never lost the ability to really sap your strength.

Your eight squires behind you were struggling to keep up though they weren't really carrying anything as heavy as full armour, instead they carried a few axes and rocks in their packs to simulate a reasonable weight. They seemed to be struggling even with this though since they never had to carry their own burdens nor run such large distances, it seemed that using dragons for everything had made the people of berk lax.

Behind you one of the weakest recruits, was lagging behind, unable to keep up with the group. You slowed your pace to let him catch up but didn't let him stop. "Come on keep going, don't stop until we finish keep pushing through." You told him and running back on to watch the other recruits, a much large Viking boy fell back to help his friend. You'd encouraged them not to help each other since you had build up their skills, but the bonds that built up were always good. The smaller boy refused, then suddenly powered through running ahead and leading the charge. That's what you liked to see.

"Rogannon what do you think your doing?" You yelled as you spotted him running too far ahead. "This isn't a race, run too hard and you'll just tire yourself out." The goal was endurance not speed, who could push the hardest for the longest. But as usual Rogannon had misunderstood the point of the exercise and instead was trying to kill him self by pushing too hard too quick, Rogannan needed to learn to calm down and listen before sprinting into action. He was the first student you ever had and he was proving to be one of the worst out of the eight wanna-be knights, he proved to completely uncoordinated when practising with blades and what little classwork you'd done he'd been even worse. Yet he possessed a sense of fire that the others lacked, his indomitable willpower that was stronger then any iron was not something to sneeze at lightly.

Behind him Ragnar, one of two model squires, was maintaining a steady pace. He was putting on a brave face but a combination of cold and wetness was starting to sap his strength, his lead was starting to falter and he begin to fall back to the others. His strength was impressive but he wasn't nearly as strong as he thought, evident by his many strains and bruised from trying to lift things that were too heavy. He'd settled on using a large battleaxe, though you were going to forge him a halbert when he was was ready.

Then there was Lothria, what would usually be seen as the opposite of a good knight. She was quick, sleek and focused on small thrusts that cut deep into flesh and severing main arteries and veins. You'd done everything possible to get her out the habit, once the others started using armour she'd see how redundant it was. She was still a valiant warrior though since she never complained and was fast enough to avoid any attacks during the few sparring lessons you'd pitted them against each other, she had a good heart though and seemed prepared to deal with anything you through at her. She was smarter then Ragnar too as she was lagging a little further behind in the middle to conserve her stamina.

You kept pushing them until they reached their destination of the dragon academy which hiccup had let you use when they weren't training, Satan was currently curled up around it and acting as a unintentional umbrella. He lifted his head up as you approved and gave a low grumble in the back of his throat, the rain seemed to subdue him somewhat. Interestingly he's not used his flames in the same way other nightmares had, most monstrous nightmares preferred to burst into molten flames that burnt everything around them and go on a near berserk rampage. Satan, ironically, didn't seem to use his flames much at all. Then again he lacked the sharper horns and longer beard that Hookfang had, so it was possible he was only young, which was a terrifying thought.

As the recruits followed you he lifted his great head and tracked their movements suspiciously since he seemed to have little trust for many people other then Astrid, though what a great beast like him would have to fear you wouldn't know. Perhaps he too had once served under the tyranny of the red death talked about from ten years ago, or it might have been the strangers moving in the distance one the first night you met. You shuddered just thinking about them, the danger practically stunk off them even though there was no way to actually see them. The night had startled him too since he's been truly defenceless at the time and the feeling of dependency isn't a nice one. Perhaps you'd mention something later on.

The young recruits always starred at the dragon, a mix of fear and awe kept them rooted on the spot. Satan snorter disinterestedly at them, though he had developed a habit of craning his neck in so his head was just behind someone. He probably liked the shock they got from turning and seeing him right behind them, apparently he was developing ever more ways to mess with people. For now he just watched as you went into the dragon academy, which was once again lined with a few weapons.

Picking up your broadsword from the rack you paced into the middle of the arena, twirling it familiarly in your hand. You'd been practising with the recruits, pushing yourself to achieve the best you could be. You had been average at best back in Ashfield, mediocre at worst. You thought it was important to keep your skills sharp as possible, though you hid it well from the students. They each grabbed their own weapons of choice from the rack, approaching with nervous trepidation.

"Pair up, practise until only ones left standing." You told them without mercy, expecting them to find a partner and fight until one or the other had scored a total of ten points. A strike on the limbs was worth one, while a direct hit to the torso was worth five, however a headshot was a disqualification. Despite the fact in Ashfield no such rule existed against head shots you wanted to avoid any major injuries, young boys died from brain Trauma. Only the strongest were worthy to survive to grow up in the legions, the weak and stupid were eliminated early on.

You watched as the kids fought against each other with little skill, there were no truly great warriors among your small ranks that you could yet see, but with training who knew. Lothria won against Ragnar in the finals, Rogannan had come second from last. You hid a sigh from them as you didn't want to play favourites, but that child was starting to annoy you. He just couldn't stop fucking up!

Hed threw a slash with his long sword but he was way off balance, knocking himself to the ground and promptly stabbed by the practise blade of his opponent.

Foul!

"Master." Lothria bowed to you as she became the victor.

"Well done Lothria, you've done well. You've shown a good display of speed and control, one of the finer fighters from my homeland had a similar style." You told her with a grin, holding your hand down to help Ragnar up.

"Thank you sir." She nodded gently, though she had a wicked look in her eye. "If I may ask Outlander, what if I fought you?" There was a pause, everyone wanting to see your reaction.

"As you wish." You told her, getting a large wooden sword. Swinging it around in the air a few times to get accustomed to the weight, then bringing it up over your shoulder. "Begin when your ready." You told her, tapping the wooden sword against your chest to signal. She brought up a small short sword and a long knife, taking a sideways stance and hunching down to keep her centre of gravity low. You honestly couldn't work out how she'd learnt this form of fighting considering you'd never taught it to her and it was unlikely to work against dragons so none of the older warriors had instructed her.

She suddenly lunged at you with her sword extended, hoping to end the fight quickly. You smacked it out the way with a quick flick of your own weapon, she tried to follow up with a second stab with her knife. You'd been looking for such an attack and hit her with the hilt under her arm, jabbing her ribs. Lothria was knocked to the side, but to her credit she quickly recovered and jumped to the side to avoid your follow up slash. She gave another stab at you from the side but you jumped back and swung, catching her fully in the side and knocking her to the floor.

"Two chest hits I believe." You grinned. "That's enough sparring for now, let's back back to training." You told them as Satan chuckled.