How to train your vessel - Book one

Goddess and void

Toothless slowly opened his eyes. Looking around he saw he'd dozed off at the blue lake with Platinum at his right side, a familiar blue tunic on his left gently tapped his wing-shoulder. There was a strange look in her eyes, did something happen to Hiccup? Was she afraid of him? Did she know something he didn't? Oh... OH FUCK NO.

"I saw why you're so... Distant from us."

Great... Now what to do-

"Remember the night the hunters wanted to sell you to Drago? I made Hiccup ride Stormfly to get a ship from Berk to carry you home, I wouldn't risk letting you fly there. Instead, I stayed with you, I doubted you were in a state that would let you remember that night but...

Until then you always acted a little passive aggressive towards me. That hive queen thought Hiccup was my 'lover', I guess you thought of me as competition for his attention? Now that the void has shown me what turned you into what you are now, I can understand you'd be a little protective of your only friend, you were afraid Hiccup would turn away from you in favor of me.

In the middle of the night you woke up screaming, I was the only one there to clam you down. You fell asleep again on my lap, that was the moment even someone numb as me could tell something other than what had just happened was turning you inside out. The other dragons got you to break down after I told Berk what you were really like when we got back, forced you to see we wouldn't throw you out for regretting something you did. 

I remember that much night clearer than Hiccup because that's when it was my turn to truly befriend you, how you reacted exactly opposite to how I thought a merciless killer would, I see now everyone is more than 'good or evil', but I can tell you're still a good person at heart in a world that probably didn't treat you as one. Whatever drove you to that low, its time to put it to rest.

If you haven't already, tell her."

Astrid picked up her neon blue and silver ax and walked back to Berk, a few seconds after she was gone Toothless brought himself to wake up Platinum.

"Hmm? What?"

"I'm s-sorry but...There's... a couple things I need to tell you."

"It's alright, take your time."

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"OH COME ON! AGAIN!?"

"Hiccup, calm down, everything you did is still on the ax. There's just some weird void damage added to it and your lightning."

"Necrotic and fire damage."

"Whatever it is; I'm still using your ax, with your lightning, and your talent. Thank you for this Hiccup, thank you so much."

"Oh...OH u-uh thanks Astrid."

"Your welc-"

KABOOM

"Mantis raid?"

"Mantis raid."

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Some of the Berkians seemed to think Astrid a goddess as lightning poured from her now neon blue ax to smite the Exiles trying to climb out of Dirtmouth's well, meanwhile Quirrel and Hornet lead the counter charge against the attackers plunging to the ground from the Crystal peaks. 

Upon taking her own plunge down the well, Astrid stood at the side of the Pale Wanderer and Apidae's bee allies as they flanked the Exiles focusing on the Mantis warriors forcing apart their formation. Astrid locked eyes with a five armed mantis dismounting a lifeblood Night Fury, one more dragon then last raid, maybe Vespa really was right about them being honest and loyal to the Exiles.

Snapping herself out of her thoughts, she recognized the fighter as the mantis that got away from the attack on Berk when they arrived. The Wanderer shadow dashed in and out of other warriors while Astrid and Apidae charged the recurring attacker, the latter of which appeared to have a personal vendetta against this specific elite.

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The mantis's quick strikes were more than even Astrid could handle, Berks best warrior was being pushed back into the grinder of blood and bone that was the main battle. Thinking back to Toothless, hoping he stayed at the lake to except his past with Platinum, she remembered what the voids manifestation of his former self had done to her clothes. 

Getting a much needed moment of reprieve, her ax turned black as she ignited the void flames and enveloped herself in the smoke. Void armor weighed down on her, but still leaving her with enough dexterity to keep the mantis from getting the angle he needed to crack the shadows protecting her. Astrid's new approach to her foe was a confusing form of calculated recklessness, swirling in a hurricane of burning darkness and diving right into the Exiles attacks while twisting her body in just the right ways to have his weapons slide and bounce against her instead of doing real damage. 

The Exile fought on, barely hiding his impressed reaction to her sudden onslaught. Apidae, after getting sick of his attacks being blocked by the back-mounted scythe, zoomed to the side and got a stab on the enemy's large arm. The little bee's nail was just the right size to wedge under the heavy plate chitin while Astrid managed to amputate three other arms in one expert motion, leaving the persistent Exile with his two chest-mounted scythe-arms and his large bleeding one.

Refusing to give in, it continued to strike at Astrid's searing and decaying tornado, Apidae being the only one of the trio to notice the many warriors on both sides who just stopped to witness his human friends spectacle. Finally seeing an opening in the Valkyrie's wrath, the Exile body checked with his large armored arm's elbow, fracturing the maidens Night Fury-black uniform while countless cuts and burns and rotting flesh decorated his own form. Using her own protected arm to parry the follow-up scythe attack like the mantis before her often did, Astrid drove her near-holy weapon into the foe's side, and using his own unbreakable stance to pull her draconic helm into his skull.

Taken aback by the impossibly fast recovery, the mantis tried to crush her with his fist, only to be met with a side step and blade digging into a gap in his armored shoulder. Flames and Decay radiated from the ax as Berks greatest fighter propped herself on the elite's leg to get leverage, and finally sever the great-club of a limb. A quick somersault and spin shattered the final two limbs and stuck her ax in one of the front two legs, a kick to her chest disarmed her and widened the crack in her beautiful draconic-shadow chest piece. Returning the favor, Astrid leaped and forced her own two legs into the weakened Exile's body and sent it to the ground while a feat of acrobatics landed her on her feet.

Holding her hand above her head, the ax flared in the prone warriors wound and reformed in her palm.

"Incredible..."

Was all the mutant mantis said before welcoming the void knight's ax to the center of his skull in her well deserved victory. Even while landing the strike that marked the true end of the raid, Astrid couldn't get her mind off her haunted friend at the lake above the weeping capital, what would've happened to him if she was bested by this mantis? Would Platinum be able to care for him after that?

Again pushing the thought from her mind, much preferring not to think of what might've became of him, the pride of Berk was impaled by the scream of a Night Fury. Turning to see Hiccup had climbed down the well and was running after the lifeblood Night Fury her defeated enemy had rode into battle, which was now lacking a wing and fore leg. Seeing the Wanderer slicing through the dragons tail was far a far from needed detail Astrid had to know it was the only one capable of carving so many cuts into the dragon, who was faithful to her dead master to the bitter end. 

Astrid grabbed Hiccup long before he could get to the dragon, now restrained by mantis spears stabbing through the tough scales and into the ground beneath, while the Wanderer itself took the duty of pinning the head to the ground with the pure nail. Quirrel's magical arm released purple-pink magic as he enchanted the dragon to sleep, giving the also recently arrived Hornet ample time to make the killing blow quick and painless.