Chapter Text
Author's Note:
This is my sequel to one of my other stories, Escape. You should probably read that before you read this, so yeah... Enjoy!
"Okay, so today we're going to learn about combat, because if we're ever separated from our dragons and there's a threat, we need to be able to defend ourselves," Hiccup announced to his group of friends, which now included Rebecca, or Beck, a girl who had recently moved to Berk after having rescued Hiccup from Alvin's clutches two weeks ago. Apparently, Beck had had some excellent training in combat from her parents before they died seven years ago, and since she had nothing much to do since then, Beck had practiced her fighting skills almost daily. So, she was going to be leading the class today at the Dragon Academy. Hiccup said as much to the group of teens and they all either looked interested (Astrid and Snotlout) or wary (Fishlegs and the twins). Astrid was quite interested in today's lesson, understandably, as she was the best shield maiden on Berk, while the twins and Fishlegs were wary because they hoped that Beck's lesson wasn't as hard as one of Astrid's lessons would be. Snotlout was actually a bit of both, as he loved to show off his muscles, but he still wouldn't like to have a really difficult lesson. "Anyway, take it away, Beck," Hiccup finished, gesturing to the girl, who stood off to the side, quietly observing the other teens. She seemed to do that a lot lately.
"Okay then," she started, stepping up beside Hiccup with one hand on her sword. "We'll just do pretend fights, one by one, between me and each of one you guys. Then we'll go from there." Here, everyone looked at her curiously, but Beck just smirked and said, "Astrid, you're up."
Astrid gripped her favourite axe tighter and stepped closer to Beck. Hiccup counted down from three, "Three...two...one...go!" and Astrid was off like a shot, yelling a battle cry as she rushed Beck, who stood there calmly as Astrid got closer and closer. Finally, seeing that Beck seemingly wasn't going to move before she bowled the thin girl over, Astrid stopped just short of Beck, which was her big mistake. Beck used the blonde girl's momentum from rushing at her and suddenly stopping to her advantage and grabbed Astrid's arm and twisted it while simultaneously kicking her in the back of her knee, so Astrid's knees buckled and she fell on her back at Beck's feet, her axe skidding away.
Beck calmly hefted her sword and pointed it at Astrid's prone throat, looking away and at the group as she did so, as if she wasn't doing anything important and hadn't just beat Astrid Hofferson in a fight. "One thing you need to know," Beck said, her tone serious. "Expect the unexpected. If your opponent is smart, they'll do anything to make you feel uncertain and hesitant, and when you get uncertain and hesitant, you pause. Which is something you never want to do in the middle of a fight." Having ended her first lecture, Beck held out her hand to Astrid, who grabbed it and used it to get back up on her feet. Everyone stared at Beck in shock. This thin, frail-looking girl had defeated the great Astrid Hofferson like it was nothing. All she'd done was stand there, and yet it had ended with Astrid on the ground, Beck's sword keeping her there and pointed at her neck.
"So... who's next?" Beck asked, grinning. There was a reason she had picked Astrid to go first. Beck knew that everyone thought that Astrid was unbeatable, plus she knew that Astrid would be the most willing to go first, as she loved combat training too and was eager to prove her strength. Furthermore, the other teens' confidence in their abilities against Beck would be diminished when they saw Beck defeat Astrid so easily because if this stick-thin orphan could easily subdue Astrid, then how could they expect themselves to be able to defeat Beck?
Not surprisingly, no one spoke. Fishlegs and Hiccup shifted restlessly, looking anywhere but at Beck, while Snotlout whistled innocently and the twins still had their mouths agape. Chuckling, Beck walked over to Ruffnut and Tuffnut and closed their mouths, startling them out of their stupor at seeing Beck defeat Astrid. Astrid, herself, couldn't help but be grudgingly impressed with the new girl. She had skills, but even more, she had smarts. And she knew how to use them.
Beck sighed mock-disappointedly. "Oh well. I guess I'll have to pick another volunteer..." she said, starting to circle the group like a shark would circle their prey (which was exactly the point, in this case). Slowly, her circles got tighter and tighter around...Fishlegs. Poor Fishlegs whimpered and hunched his wide shoulders, trying to appear unnoticeable. Call him a coward, but Fishlegs had never liked fights and combat. He didn't see the point in them, really. Finally, Beck stopped her circling and paused in front of Fishlegs, then backed up, as if the match was about to start. She glanced at Hiccup, who took his cue and started his countdown from three, leaving Fishlegs barely enough time to scurry over the weapons rack (borrowed from Gobber's forge) and grab a small hammer. At Hiccup's "Go!" Beck sprinted at Fishlegs, her sword raised and her face stony. Fishlegs yelped and tried to get his hammer into the ready position, but when Beck got within five feet of him and didn't show any signs of stopping soon, Fishlegs panicked and dropped his hammer, curled up in a ball on the arena floor and started begging, "Please don't kill me, please don't kill me, please don't kill me..."
Beck screeched to a stop and used her foot to prod Fishlegs out of his defensive position, then pointed her sword at his neck. Just like with Astrid. She then looked up at the nervous crowd and said, "Another important thing to remember. Know thine enemy. I observed that Fishlegs isn't one for fighting, especially very aggressively, and I noticed that he is easily scared and startled. So, I rushed him without seeming to stop before I hit him so that he would get nervous and break down." Here, she took away her sword and let Fishlegs get up, who was shaking like a leaf in a strong wind. Quickly, before Beck could play her weird mind games with him again, Fishlegs scampered away and hid behind Snotlout, who was beginning to get cocky.
"Alright, so you beat Astrid and Fishlegs. Big deal! Astrid's a good fighter, I'll admit, and Fishlegs is a coward, but I'm a true warrior! I'd like to see you try and beat me, babe," Snotlout sneered at Beck. When Beck had come to live at Berk, Snotlout hadn't stopped hitting on her since. To be honest, he was getting tired of getting rejected by Astrid constantly (plus he could tell that Astrid liked his runt of a cousin already for some reason anyway) and here was a new girl to flirt with. Unfortunately, Beck had been resisting all of his attempts at flirting with her so far (she had actually once threatened to break his arm) but he had a good feeling she'd reciprocate soon.
To Hiccup's surprise, Beck only smiled at Snotlout's remark of "babe", which slightly worried Hiccup. This wasn't going to be good. Usually, Beck would snarl and threaten Snotlout with her ever-present sword, but if she was just going to blatantly ignore Snotlout's pathetic attempts at flirting with her, then Beck must have something nasty planned.
Snotlout adjusted his grip on his bludgeon while Beck just stared innocently at her fingernails, like she was bored. Hiccup and Astrid had to hold back chuckles at her obvious disregard for Snotlout at times. When Snotlout looked ready, Hiccup started the countdown. When he had said go, Hiccup, Astrid and Fishlegs leaned forward eagerly, wanting to see Beck kick Snotlout's ass in this match so the loud and arrogant boy would finally be taken down a notch or two. The twins were too busy arguing over what weapon to choose for their respective matches with Beck (they both wanted the same mace).
When Hiccup said go, Snotlout started walking towards Beck casually, spouting some nonsense about how he had recently moved into his parents' basement and would Beck like to come over and work out sometime. Beck didn't try to walk forward and engage Snotlout in combat; she just stood there, twirling her hair, smiling goofily and agreeing with everything Snotlout said. Snotlout fell for it completely. He kept walking aimlessly, showing off to Beck, while remaining unaware that Beck had gone behind him and had her sword raised over her head. Suddenly, she tossed her sword in the air, grabbed it by the blade and whacked Sntolout in the head with the hilt. Snotlout, of course, never saw it coming and promptly collapsed onto the hard floor face down. Beck placed her foot on Snotlout's back to keep him there while she explained to the other teens, "Also, always keep your eyes on your opponent. That one's pretty obvious, or at least should be." This last part she hissed at Snotlout, who mumbled something about could he get up now. Beck grudgingly let him up and the matches continued.
When it was Tuffnut's turn, all Beck had to do was point over Tuffnut's shoulder and say, "Look over there!" in an excited tone to get the opportunity to shove him down onto the arena floor and point her sword at his neck while proclaiming that one should never trust their opponent not to play dirty. For Ruffnut's match, Beck got a shield and angled it so that the afternoon sun hit the shield's shiny metal center and reflected a small circle of light onto the ground, effectively distracting Ruffnut long enough for Beck to flip her onto her back and subdue her. Beck then announced that you should never let yourself get distracted during a fight.
Finally, it was Hiccup's turn. He felt kind of nervous while he and Beck were squaring off, waiting for Astrid to do the countdown. He'd seen her skills with combat, especially with a sword, on Sunset Island and Outcast Island and he didn't feel like being on the receiving end of those skills. Then, Astrid yelled, "Go!" and Hiccup raised his sword into a defensive position to block any of Beck's attacks. But, surprisingly, Beck didn't start by attacking Hiccup's sword to disarm him; she kicked at Hiccup's prosthetic and grabbed his sword as he let go of it in his surprise and attempt to balance himself before he fell. While he had his arms out, Beck pushed him over and Hiccup landed on his back rather painfully with Beck pointing both swords at him.
"And finally, exploit your opponent's weaknesses while using a bit of force," she said, finally tired and a bit short of breath after all the adrenaline spikes. "That's all for today."
As soon as she said these words, everyone but Hiccup, Toothless, Chainsaw (Beck's Whispering Death) and Beck herself nearly ran out of the arena, eager to be gone. Astrid wanted to go practice her axe skills in the woods ("I'd like to see you try and beat me next time!"), Snotlout went to get something to eat from the Great Hall ("I need my strength!"), Fishlegs wanted to spoil Meatlug with some granite rocks he had found ("Granite's her favourite.") and the twins wanted to go yak-tipping ("It's more fun than getting beat up in Dragon Academy class!").
Beck sighed and leaned against Chainsaw, who nuzzled her gently. "I'm so tired," she yawned. "I never thought that teaching people could be such a handful."
"Yeah, you'll get used to it," Hiccup replied while scratching the back of his neck. "At least the day's practically over," he continued, observing the sky getting pinker with the approaching sunset.
"Yeah, I guess," she said tiredly. And with that, they both got on their dragons and headed to their respective homes.