Ragnarok

Chapter 61 - Flame and Bone

"Alright, guys, this is the last part before we make it to the moonlet around the Tree of Life, and then we can finally get into Yggdrasil," Thorin said to his companions, who were showing considerable signs of wear and tear.

The party had slain the fire giants that guarded the entrance, only to find that the tower itself was just as full of fiery monsters with unpleasant dispositions as the valley outside had been. They were taking a breather on a landing near the apex of the spire, with the ashen corpses of their most recent kills lying in piles around them. In front of them were a large, iron-bound set of double doors, wide enough for their three broadest warriors to walk through shoulder to shoulder. The top of the entrance was a good twenty feet off the ground, predictably enough for a tower that was occupied largely by fire giants and creatures of equal size.

Kitara was doing her best to keep up with the damage her allies were taking, but her healing abilities were being sorely taxed without Yeshua and Selif there to provide additional recovery spells. Healing wasn't even Kitara's main specialty, as an elementalist, and while she had adjusted her equipment set to try and compensate for her expanded healer role, the front liners like Thorin, Tyrion and Vladimir were taking a heavy beating. Fortunately, Gosta's class of Watermaster had a few low-level healing abilities, so she wasn't entirely on her own when it came to keeping the party on its feet through the fierce fighting.

After several minutes of allowing everyone's health to regenerate, Thorin made his way back to his feet. He tested his shoulder, which had taken a salamander's superheated spear thrust, and found the muscles sore but useable. He looked over to Tyrion, who was investigating his own wounds, and cocked an eyebrow. Tyrion nodded back at him, scooping up his helmet in one hand and replacing it upon his shoulders.

"I'm ready to get the hell out of this place," Tyrion said mildly, walking up to the iron-bound doors. "Everyone else ready? If so, I'm about to kick in the door and say hello to whatever's guarding the portal back to Midgard."

The party replied with a somewhat weary chorus of assent, and no objections were raised. Nodding, Tyrion gripped the Axe of the Bloodlord with both hands and raised a well-armored leg, planting it right in the middle of the double doors and shoving them open with a thrust and a loud clang.

The doors swung open, revealing the smoke-filled Muspelheim sky, and straight ahead of them, a gate similar in appearance to the one they had entered this realm through. It appeared as a great, burning disc, rimmed with blue and with a blurry vision of a massive tree just visible through the center. Like the door Tyrion had just kicked open, it was sized for a much larger creature, and its bottom edge floated a few inches off the ground.

At first, the gate seemed unguarded, save the thick layer of bones that lay upon the stone rooftop. As soon as Tyrion began to move out onto the balcony, however, the bones began to shift and0 char, eventually bursting into a greasy fire heavy with choking black smoke. The flame spread in a serpentine fashion, becoming denser and somehow more solid as it did so. Finally, the charred bones began to melt and flow together, arranging themselves into a massive serpent made up of bone and fire. It reared up in front of them, revealing a body that was long enough to wrap itself all the way around the entirety of the portal, and gave a loud hissing sound.

"Snakes," Tyrion quipped. "Always with the bloody snakes."

The beast suddenly lunged with surprising speed, its jaws wide open as it swooped in on Tyrion. The heavily armored warrior tried to take a step back, only to stumble upon the loose bones covering the ground. Thorin was ready to step in, however, and smashed his great warhammer into the bone serpent's face. It recoiled from the strike, its head whipping up and around, then lunging once again, this time at the one who had struck it. Thorin spun Mjolnir in a defensive pattern, knocking its strikes away repeatedly. He was holding it at bay, but his blows seemed to do little save anger the creature.

Fortunately, he had bought his party time to regroup, and now they moved to surround the beast. It hissed, its skull-like face dancing atop its long neck to try and keep them all in sight at once. Lilith was the first to move forward, and the snake's head swiveled towards her, releasing a gout of flame that seemed to completely engulf her.

While it was busy breathing fire, the rest of the party surged forward, bones crunching beneath their feet as they attacked it from all sides. The serpent gave a high-pitched shriek as blades and bludgeoning weapons alike slammed into its flesh, crunching blacked bone and causing a strange, molten sort of blood to ooze out of its wounds. It tried to twist itself around to strike at Thorin again, but Avril was there with sword and shield to knock it back. Then, the fire it had blasted forth parted, and Lilith leaped to the attack, utterly unharmed by the flames. Her massive greatsword crushed bone beneath its force, causing the fire snake to shriek in pain and thrash about, its burning body slamming into several of them and knocking them off their feet. For a moment, it seemed the snake would have time to recover; then, there was a flash of golden armor, and the snake's head slid sideways off of its neck.

"Very good, comrades! Now, let's get through this portal before it has time to reanimate," Vladimir said, pointing the way onwards.