( ): Narration

A few minutes after the Chat Noir Fury had attacked, Adrien finally fixed the calibration issue in his bolas catapult and was ready to use it. With that in mind, Adrien put away his tools and ran towards Gorilla and Nathalie to once again try to convince them to let him out. But before he could even think of an excuse, Gorilla was grabbing a purple and pinkish-red crossbow as Nathalie, a whip attached to the right side of her hip, walked over with a battle axe arm attachment in her hands. One look at the blacksmith and weapons specialist, and Adrien knew that luck was on his side.

"Man the fort, Adrien. They need us out there," Gorilla explained as he took off his tongs attachment and let it drop to the ground before he tossed the crossbow to Nathalie. In response, she caught the weapon and tossed the battle axe to him. As they walked to the door to the shop, Gorilla attached the axe to his arm while Nathalie grabbed a quiver full of crossbow bolts and strapped it to the left side of her hip. But right before they went out, Nathalie turned back to face the boy.

"Stay put, Adrien," Nathalie ordered, telling Adrien to stay in the shop. The boy just nodded, no way wanting to stay in the shop and miss his chance at killing a dragon but needing to appease the adults.

"We mean it, Adrien," Gorilla said before he roared out a mighty battle cry, raising his axe into the air before running out of the shop with Nathalie to join the action. Their exit gave Adrien the perfect opportunity to try to catch a dragon. So with lightning-fast speed, Adrien shed his apron and pulled on his vest as he ran to his bolas catapult. Once he reached it, he grabbed the wheelbarrow handles behind the actual machine, and ran out of the shop, right past the confused vikings that came in for more repairs.

"Adrien, where are you going?" A viking questioned as Adrien ran out of the shop, pushing the wheelbarrow in front of him as he ran.

"Yeah, I know! Be right back!" Adrien exclaimed as he made his way out of the plaza and towards a cliff near the village.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the other side of the village, a pair of Multimouse Nadders and a Rena Rogue Timberjack surrounded a group of sheep and were eager to sink their fangs in them. But unknown to them, Gabriel was right above them on a bridge leading to the farm and threw a net on top of them, effectively trapping them while more vikings came in to subdue them. As they did, one of the Nadders slipped most of their head through the holes of the net and spewed out a jet of fire in an attempt to free themselves. Gabriel then jumped off of the bridge he was on and started to wrestle the Nadder's head to the ground to close its mouth so no fire escapes.

"Mind yourselves!" Gabriel exclaimed as he continued to wrestle the dragon's head towards the ground.

"The devils still have some juice in them!" the chief finished as he finally managed to pin the Nadders head to the ground while the others got the rest thoroughly trapped.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back with Adrien, he ran to the edge of the village, found a good spot that was right in front of one of the catapults that weren't damaged by the Chat Noir Fury. He quickly set up his catapult, getting it locked and loaded to make a quick catch. After that, Adrein began waiting as he scanned the sky for the Chat Noir Fury, hearing the distant dragon roars in the night sky above him.

"Come on. Give me something to shoot at. Give me something to shoot at," Adrien quietly begged out loud as he waited. He kept hearing shrieks in the night that progressively got closer, as a black figure passed through the night sky, flying towards the catapult in front of Adrien. The screeching gets even louder as Adrien lined up his bolas catapult with the larger catapult in front of him, right before a bullet of fire hit it, and destroyed it.

A split second afterwards, the dragon passed right in front of the now burning wreck of the catapult, providing Adrien with a glimpse at his target. Without hesitation, he launched the bolas. The amount of force from the catapult sends him flying backwards, and onto his back while the bolas went flying towards the dragon. Adrien picks himself up from the ground just as he hears the dragon screech out as the bolas found its target. As the blonde got himself into a crouch, Adrien smiled in amazement as he saw the silhouette of the trapped dragon fall towards the other side of the island like a shooting star.

"I hit it. YES, I HIT IT!" the blonde shouted out in excitement as he jumped to his feet.

"Did anybody see that?" Adrien asked out loud as he turned to face the path he came in from, hoping someone had witnessed his accomplishment. But the King Monkey Nightmare had climbed up onto the hill while he was turned around and crushed his invention underneath its large hind foot, looking at Adrien hungrily. At the sound of his catapult breaking, Adrien turned around and his excitement quickly turned into fear as he was face to face with the dragon.

"Except for you," Adrien sighed in disappointment and hidden fear. The dragon then lifted its head into the air with a deep growl, and lungs at him. Adrien evades the attack and runs away screaming with the King Monkey Nightmare right on his heels.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gabriel and his team had just finished trapping the Natters and Timberjack, when he heard a scream from the other side of the village. He turned around to see where the scream was coming from and saw Adrien running from the King Monkey Nightmare, heading straight to the plaza. With a sigh, Gabriel abandoned his team and ran after the terrified boy.

"DO NOT LET THEM ESCAPE!" Gabriel yelled at the other vikings as he ran up the path to the plaza to save Adrien, while the vikings received their orders.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the plaza, Adrien kept running from the dragon as it shot a jet of flame at him, only for it to land on a wall to Adrien's left, making him yelp in surprise. The boy kept running into the plaza while the Nightmare scurried up the wall on Adrien's left and followed him a bit before shooting at him again. But thankfully, Adrien avoided the flames again with a shriek, and ran behind one of the sky torch's pillars and hid behind it. He managed to catch his breath for a second before the dragon shot a jet of fire at it, the flames being split down the middle as the wooden pillar protected Adrien from being burned. As the pillar starts to burn from the fire left on the wood, Adrien tries to curl in on himself to avoid the flames.

When the fire stopped coming at the pillar, Adrien, scared out of his wits, cautiously tried to peek behind the pillar to see if the dragon was gone. But he did not see that the dragon was on the other side of the pillar, about to eat him. Just as the dragon opened its mouth, Gabriel came in just in time and punched the dragon's head away from the unsuspecting Adrien. The dragon was pushed away from the boy, and Gabriel somersaulted to face the dragon as it recovered. The King Monkey Nightmare roared at the chief as he waited for the dragon to make its move and spewed fire at him. But what came out was only a small amount of its red hot gel instead of its normal amount. The dragon looked at Gabriel nervously, as he realised that meant...

"You're all out," Gabriel remarked as he walked towards the dragon. When he got close enough, he punched it in the snout, causing it to back away from him. From there, Gabriel continued to follow the dragon, continuing to punch and kick it until it flew away.

(Oh, and there's one more thing you need to know.)

As Gabriel rolled his shoulders, he turned to face the still smouldering torch pillar. A second afterwards, the pillar collapsed on its burning base, and fell to its right, revealing a nervous and guilty-looking Adrien staring at Gabriel. As Adrien stood in place, the torch fell on top of a bridge leading to the plaza, crushing it to pieces before the basin on top of it broke away, and started rolling down into the village.

Gabriel looked at the scene in shock, while Adrien winced at the destruction the rolling torch basin was causing. As the sounds of surprise from vikings and destruction start to get fainter, Gabriel angrily glares at Adrien so much that the boy didn't even have to turn around to feel the weight of Gabriel's stare settle onto him. With slumped shoulders, Adrien glanced back at Gabriel with an apologetic look on his face.

"Sorry, Dad," Adrien nervously apologised.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, the torch basin reaches the trapped dragons and continues rolling towards them. The vikings holding down the net run away at the sight of the torch basin coming towards them, allowing the Multimouse Nadders and Rena Rouge Timberjack to get out from the net, just before the basin crushes them, and take the sheep. The captured livestock bray out in terror as the raiding dragons retreat, carrying loads of fish and livestock, in nets or in their mouths, as they fly away. The dragons had won this battle.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adrien's eyes dart around the plaza at the other vikings, while Gabriel, now revealed as his dad, continues to stare at the retreating dragons in anger. A few seconds later, Adrien darts his eyes around the plaza as he turns to face his dad, trying to find a bright side to the situation.

"Okay, but I hit a Chat Noir Fury," the blonde quickly mentioned, right before Gabriel took him by his vest collar and started to drag him away from the gathering crowd in the plaza, much to Adrien's displeasure.

"It's not like the last few times, Dad! I really, actually hit it!" Adrien insisted as he was dragged off by Gabriel, slightly hanging in the air, with his feet catching the ground as Gabriel continued to walk towards their house.

"You guys were busy. I had a very clear shot," the blonde continues as the crowd gathers closer, Gorilla and Nathalie among them, and stare at the boy as his dad continues to drag him with him.

"It went down just off Raven Point. Let's get a search party out there before it..." Adrien suggested while still being dragged by his dad.

"STOP!" Gabriel yelled, interrupting Adrien before he stopped dragging him and turned to face him. Adrien immediately stopped talking and nervously glanced around the area, trying to calm his nerves.

"Just stop," the chief repeated more quietly, before he started the usual lecture he gave Adrien, every time he disobeyed his orders.

"Every time you step outside, disaster follows. Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed," Gabriel ranted, anger and annoyance laced in his voice as he spoke. But Adrien tries to once again look on the bright side.

"Between you and me, the village could do with a little less feeding, don't you think?" Adrien jokes, trying to lighten the mood, while he unintentionally makes a jab at the overweight vikings in the crowd, who hold their stomachs in worry at the possibility of no food for the winter. Unfortunately, the joke did little to lighten Gabriel's mood, but rather darkened it.

"THIS ISN'T A JOKE, ADRIEN!" Gabriel shouted at him, trying to get Adrien to see the gravity of the situation the village was now in.

"Why can't you follow the simplest orders?" the chief rhetorically asked his son with a groan, genuinely curious why his son wouldn't listen to him.

"I can't stop myself. I see a dragon and I have to just kill it," Adrien exclaimed while making a stabbing gesture with his hands as he spoke.

"You know, it's who I am, Dad," Adrien finished, trying to get his dad to listen to him. But he failed as Gabriel once again groaned in exasperation.

"Oh, your many things Adrien," Gabriel said as he placed his hand onto his forehead to stop the oncoming headache from pounding on his skull.

"But a dragon killer is not one of them," the chief continued while Adrien looked down at the ground in disappointment.

"Get back to the house," Gabriel ordered before he glanced back at Gorilla and Nathalie.

"Make sure he gets there," the chief requested, ordering the blacksmith and weapons specialist to escort his son back to their house, which was on the hill next to the stairs of the Great Hall. When Gorilla and Nathalie got to where the chief and his son were, the blacksmith smacked Adrien upside his head before they started walking back to Adrien's home.

"I have his mess to clean up," Gabriel sighed out before he walked away. As Adrien began his way back home, he and his escorts passed by Marinette's friend group as Kim, Luka and Juleka laughed at the poor boy as he walked by.

The group was in a bit of a line with Luka and Juleka at the start, followed by Max and Nino, then Kim, while Marinette and Alya were sitting on a set of stone stairs to a viking hut. As they walked by, Marinette watched Adrien while wrapping her rope dart, a rose gold dagger with a black handle, connected to a black bell-shaped weight topped off with a silver stem by thick pink rope, around her hands which was a habit she picked up when she first got her mother's family weapon, as Alya just watched with her.

"Quite the performance," Luka lightheartedly remarked to Adrien as he walked past him, while Juleka gave him a supportive thumbs up. Max and Nino remained impartial, while Kim turned his gaze to Adrien.

"I have never seen anyone mess up that bad. That helped," Kim smugly told Adrien, making him feel worse than he did.

"Thank you, thank you. I was trying," Adrien replied to the muscle head while looking at the ground in shame as he walked by.

But when Gorilla walked by Kim, he pushed the boy away by his head, moving him from his path and giving the boy a taste of karma. As soon as Gorilla was out of sight, Kim right himself and tried to play it off cool in hopes of preserving what dignity he had left.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A little while later, Adrien, Nathalie and Gorilla walked up the stairs to the house next to the Great Hall. It was only slightly different from the other houses in the village, with the main difference being the much larger wood dragon figurehead at the top of the house. But it was more like a jail to Adrien rather than a home as he walked up the steps.

"I really did hit one," Adrien told the adults as they climbed up to his house

"Sure, Adrien," Gorilla agreed, even if he didn't believe the boy, as he tried to make him feel better.

"He never listens," Adrien griped, fed up with his dad not listening to him when he tries to talk to him.

"It runs in the family," Nathalie said with a roll of her eyes, trying to assist Gorilla in making him feel better as they reached the front door to Adrien's house.

"And when he does, it's always with this... disappointed scowl, like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich," Adrien described as he got to his front door. But before he opens the door, he turns around and starts to mimic his father's voice with annoyance, yet with playfulness.

"Excuse me, barmaid," Adrien began, mimicking Gabriel's deep yet cold voice almost perfectly as he made gestures matching his dialogue during his interpretation.

"I am afraid you brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered an extra-large boy with beefy arms, extra guts and glory on the side. This here, this is a talking fishbone," Adrien finished with annoyance towards his father, and shame towards himself.

"Now you're thinking about this all wrong," Gorilla said, trying to cheer Adrien up and defend Gabriel at the same time.

"He's right. It's not so much what you look like, it's what's inside that he can't stand," Nathalie piped up, not quite making the point clear, if Adrien's confused stare at them was anything to go off of..

"Thank you for summing that up," Adrien sarcastically thanked as he turned to open the door to his house, feeling worse than ever.

"Look, the point we are trying to make is.." Gorilla began, causing Adrien to look back at him as Nathalie continued his sentence.

"Stop trying so hard to be something you're not," Nathalie finished, getting the point across better than the first time. But Adrien still didn't feel any better as he opened his front door while still glancing at them.

"I just want to be one of you guys," Adrien admitted before he walked into his house, the door closing behind him.

At the sight of the closed door, Gorilla and Nathalie sigh, and then leave. But unknown to them, Adrien had quickly ran to the back of his house, went to the back door and left to find that dragon on his own.