How to train your vessel - Book one

Lifeblood soul

The lord's skeletal arms continued to blindly swat at the dragon riders it could no longer see as he raised his head and smashed it against the roof of the gardens cavern. The well telegraphed crush was too slow to hit the Wanderer as they dashed and slid down the giant shield with their claws. Stalactites and boulders loosened at the lord's whims and toppled onto the shield, a swirling storm of the pure nail crashed and carved through the falling stone as the Wanderer climbed to the top of the lowering shield.

Though the nerves in the lord's main shield had long rotted away, he knew well his old friend wouldn't go down easily. Letting his three parasitic lifeblood hearts flare he charged a flame for the Wanderer at the top of the shield. Just as planned, he let a stream of blue flames form as the king reached the top. The Wanderer quickly turned his back tendrils into armor and and created a void barrier, the lord further lowered his shield to burn them on the way down after they sheathed their weapon and cast an abyssal rebuke to envelope the lord in void flames.

The Exiled lord supported his weight with his front scythes as he doubled over from the disintegrating and decaying void while the Wanderer grabbed onto a thorn vine and climbed up the ledge it was on. Focusing their soul, they mended their mantle and the charred pieces fell off to reveal the newly regenerated vessel. 

The lord lowered his shield to cover his underside that the riders seemed so keen on destroying, letting his arms stay far enough to the sides to strike at them, managing to nick the monstrous nightmare in the side and send it to the dirt. Igniting his lifeblood cocoons again, he shot many homing fireballs at the Wanderer, who ran to the side dodging and deflecting them. Many explosions ringed through the lush grounds as the Wanderer started climbing to a higher vantage point to resume their attack while the lord looked down to make a more precise attack that smacked the riderless Deadly Nadder to the mounds and shrubs below. 

The end of the Wanderer's ascent was met with a stab of a massive scythe which it dashed through and started running along. The return stroke of the massive arm-weapon brought them closer as the other scythe was moved to scrape them off, and promptly be slid under to continue the run. Turning the shadow armor back into six tendrils, the Wanderer carried them-self with their wings and tendrils to the lord's head again, landing a shade soul into his head just before he raised his shield once more. Dashing over the mass again they fell down on him with another descending dark, many of the extinguished void flames that turned much of the lord a charred black were revived around the head as the force and fire of the meteor attack sent the traitor back down on his front scythes.

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Astrid and Toothless angrily intensified their attack after Stormfly was knocked down and out. Finally after many attacks on the exploding lifeblood cysts that covered the monsters body with blue flames, they were able to see into the Exiled king's ribs. The crashing of a great slash could be heard as Astrid jumped off Toothless and onto a massive warped rib. Looking up she saw three colossal lifeblood cocoons that had formed in front of the aberration's heart, and likely about to regret this, she sent forth a beam of void fire into what looked like a thinner part of the back left cocoon. 

Quickly running over the rib and past the sternum, she moved away from the impending blast of the burning lifeblood cocoon. Donning her void armor and squeezing into a decaying hole in a bone, her covered ears still suffered from the deafening explosion that rippled the Exiled king's skin and she felt the vibration of giant bones and armor cracking, much of the same happened along with a wave of searing heat splashing over her as another cocoon blew. Knowing there was no way for the rib she was hiding in to take another hit as it shattered with the last two pulses, Astrid scrambled out and took a leap of faith while blue flames and impossible force displayed how narrow her escape was.

Yet the fires started to catch up to her as they spread out of the open wounds. Apidae was quick to grab onto Toothless as he dove through the flames, grabbed Astrid, and used his body as a heat shield while Apidae channeled his magic through his wings and honey to regenerate the silvering scales and tears in the alpha's wing membrane. Toothless's screaming went unheard over the lifeblood fire before he barely managed to fly through an empty cavern and crash land onto a bed of flowers, completely exhausted and unconscious after rescuing his close friend. Apidae immediately started putting out the blue fires on the dragon's back, resumed healing the wing membrane, and returned the Night Fury's still silvering back to the normal color.

Though reluctant to leave two of her three closest friends, Astrid jumped and grabbed the claw of the yellow-eyed Night Fury that came to check on them after the rough landing, who then span to throw Astrid on his back. Upon returning to the conflict she was met with the battle cries of the dragons and their riders, even hearing Hiccups less-than-intimidating yells in the mix, as they all wailed on the bony back of the being's neck. She and her new mount swiftly scaled the enemy and dropped her onto the same spot on the neck, and turning the ax to it's neon blue form, sent the biggest lightning bolt she had ever created into the Exiled king's spine.

The King returned with a massive cry and fell onto his exposed and shattered ribs. Falling to the ground again, Astrid was grabbed by a recently arrived Stoick and Valka by each arm and let down on the soft soil. She immediately looked for and ran to an out cold Stormfly. After asking the Wanderer for a favor, since she didn't have any sort of healing powers, she gently nudged her dragon awake while Fishlegs and Meatlug managed to drag themselves to the rest of the group.

"Well done, Zephyr... True fifth queen of Hallownest."

Shook the earth as the Exiled king's eyes at last faded. Shocked Exiles looked to each other as the fighting faded too, then landing their gaze on Astrid, bowing in great honor and respect at the goddess among men. Astrid lead the group to where Toothless landed, Apidae happily greeted them as he lathered dark green honey over the entirety of Toothless besides the belly. The still shining scales slowly turned black as the bee continued tending to the heroic dragon. Astrid and Hiccup speedily went to their now unofficially shared dragon, the not yet honey-covered head and antennae and face radiated heat as they both touched his silver snout with their dragon scale-gauntlet protected hands, easily making him smile in his well deserved sleep.