Nifflheim

Symphony of Scales Pt. 4

Haralda runs across the cell with no hesitation and thrusts her large sword into the Nidhogg's eye. Thick, green blood runs down her sword and drips off her arm. The Nidhogg screeches and flails, dislodging itself. Haralda dodges its retaliation and it's head crashes into the wall, destroying the three cells to our left. The castle shakes violently. Chunks of the ceiling fall like rain and crash into the ground with heavy thunks.

"Move your asses" Haralda screams at us who remain frozen in shock and runs out of the room. Even Bo who normally emits no emotion stands like he has been frozen in time.

"Let's not have her show us up," pesters Frode who follows behind her.

What am I doing? Am I always going to be like this? Doing nothing and letting everyone else pay the price for it. Even if Bjorn was an ass, he didn't need to go down like that.

We all pile into the hallway behind her. The Nidhogg still wails in pain, flinging its massive body into the sides of the crevice. Debris flies around us and lands in the half-destroyed hallway we run in. I grab onto Langley's shoulder and pull him towards me, saving his head from colliding with one. Iver unleashes one of his arrows and it lodges into the other eye of the Nidhogg, blinding it completely. It gives out one last shriek and crashes into the hallway. Its head carves another small ravine into the castle as it falls to the floor.

The walls of the hallway shatter and the floor crumbles under our feet. We are falling, following the destroyed hallways decent. We land several stories to the bottom floor with more debris continuing after us. Silence. Tiny rocks trickle down from the upper hallways stirring up dust when they land.

My body screams. It pleads for just one moment to not be thrown around. I'd be lucky if only a few of my bones are broken. I lift my head slowly, my companions lying motionless around me. Their chests subtly lift, disturbing the rocks collected there. Good, at least they are breathing. I sit up and lean on the large pile of collapsed hallway behind me. I focus on my breathing, struggling to push air through my shattered ribs. The bones move underneath my fingers when I apply pressure. Hopefully, this can be a problem future me will have to handle.

The bottom of the castle is barren. A few snakeskins are all that remains of the thousands of snakes that once lined the floor.  They all must have fled when the Nidhogg arrived. Afraid of being indiscriminately slaughtered in its rage. The ground is black and cold. Its metallic chic reflects the little light that seeps in from the ceiling. The Nidhogg's body lays still on its surface.

"What happened?" Langley coughs out, using the debris to sit himself up. His face twists in pain as he moves his hands over his body, checking for any serious damage and luckily finding none. Haralda and Frode start to stir, coughing up the dirt in their lungs.

"That could have gone better," grumbles Frode. He stands using his sword to hold himself up.

My body creaks as I stand up, "Is everyone okay?"

"Over here," shouts Haralda. She stands over Bo who still doesn't move under one of the larger pieces of debris. "Give me a hand with this."

We all rush over and each grab a part of the large debris, "Three... Two... One... lift." My muscles tear under the weight of the debris. My arms almost leave their sockets before it slips from our grasps and lays back down on top of Bo.

"I think he is breathing," Frode assures us. "Is there anything we can use as leverage?"

We all frantically search but there is nothing. Is there even a way out of this place?