It craned its neck to the roof of the cavern and screeched, shaking rivers of dirt and small stones loose from the darkness above. The piercing cry was worse than that of the demon dogs, it literally felt like someone had reached into his head and scrambled his brains with a hot knife. Yugi stood as though frozen, his face twisted in agony. Strangely though, Yami found that the wail did not effect him quite as harshly. It was as though he had cotton in his ears or something; the yell still hurt, but he was able to focus despite that. Figuring the potion was combating the deadly screech, he dismissed the matter from his thoughts and focused on drawing his weapons.
The snake's cry was cut short as Yami's daggers whistled through the air in a quick one-two fashion. The first bounced harmlessly off of the beast's scaly hide, but when it swung its head down to fix Yami with a deadly glare, the second dagger found its eye and bit deep.
Its next cry held the dark undertone of agony. It thrashed in pain, making the ledge they were standing on tremble violently as lava slapped its sides. They backed farther to the wall, trying to stay as far from the edge as was possible.
"What do we do?" Yugi cried, having to yell to be heard over the beast.
"I don't know!" Yami shouted back, casting his eyes about desperately for some clue to the snake's weakness. "Do you see anything I don't?"
"What about that?" Yugi pointed, seeing a small point of silver nestled between the snake's eyes. Because it was still thrashing so terribly, Yami had at first thought that the silver belonged to the dagger he had thrown, but a closer look revealed that it was actually a part of the snake itself, some sort of gem embedded in its forehead.
Of course, as soon as he saw it clearly, he also figured out that the snake had stopped moving so much and was now staring them down with its one good eye. It began to suck in a deep breath, a terrible red light swelling in it's jaws.
"Oh no." Yami moaned, observing with dismay the small amount of space they had to maneuver on this ledge. They could not have appeared in a worse spot. He prayed silently for a solution to their predicament, and nearly cried aloud in amazement when his prayer was answered a split second later. There was a shallow alcove carved into the wall just a few feet to the side of them, dug into a section of stone that jutted out from the wall and in front of the monster's line of fire. Perfect.
He spun Yugi around and pushed him forward. The air in the cavern seemed to grow cooler the longer the snake inhaled. The light was painful to look at now, glowing with a fiery radiance that would no doubt melt the flesh from their bones!
Just before the snake released the pent up energy, Yami practically threw Yugi into the cavity in the stone and drew his cloak across the entrance protectively.
The ensuing blast momentarily stole the air from the cavern, and left behind a searing heat that burned at their lungs anyway. The light was intense, glowing hot and angry, but it was still nothing compared to the fire itself. The scorching tongues of flame engulfed the whole of the puny ledge and shot up the walls and across the floor, swallowing up every inch of stone that it could. The blaze slammed into Yami's back with the force of a wrecking ball, he jerked forward in shock and pain. But he did not dare lower his arms lest the fire get in and roast them both where they stood. Yugi watched as Yami bravely stood against the onslaught though sweat cut streaks through the dirt on his face and his eyes widened in pain from the pressure. He shook violently, but the snake showed no signs of stopping for many moments. Yugi tried to help by holding up the obviously enchanted cloak against the entrance.
Yami's arms were burning from more than just the heat, and they slipped down a few inches. A single tongue of white fire licked its way into the alcove and burned Yugi's hand before he could retract it, and he clutched it to his chest with a cry of surprise.
"Yugi!" Yami gasped and re-doubled his efforts, straining against the fire with every ounce of strength he had to offer.
The beast finally relented, the chamber grew darker once more. Yami collapsed to his knees and sucked in a huge breath, trembling. Yugi fell beside him, holding his uninjured hand to Yami.
"You alright?" He whispered. Without answering, Yami reached for the hand that had been burned and softly stroked the angry red welt with slender fingers.
"Sorry." He murmured. "Are you alright?" Yugi snorted.
"It's just a little burn. I've had worse. Besides, if you hadn't been so brave just now, a lot more than just my hand would have been burned. So thank you. You saved my life."
Yami brought his lips to the burn in a silent apology, and his cool skin felt good against Yugi's heated flesh. "I guess we're even then?" Yami teased, glancing at his own bandaged wound. Yugi smiled and laughed, and laughed harder still when Yami looked over his shoulder to see that his cloak now sported a great black slash across it, and was smoldering slightly.
"Great." He scoffed. "This 'fire-proof' cloak cost me sixty gold pieces and it caves under the first blow. I'll have a few strong words for that smooth talking merchant." He growled, patting his sword hilt for emphasis.
The temporary reprieve was stolen when the stone around them suddenly shook under the weight of a huge blow, the snake had rammed its head above the alcove, trying to flush out the intruders that it somehow knew were still alive.
"COME OUT YOU TRESPASSING RATS!" The beast roared thunderously, beating on the walls.
"Okay," Yugi said, flinching with every booming impact. "How are we... going to... get to the... jewel?"
"I can distract it with this," Yami answered, waving the cloth back and forth. "It should hold against a few more attacks, I would hope. Meanwhile, you need to sneak across the ledge and look for a way around the guardian. If you can find some way to get higher up, then you can get onto its back and hopefully work your way to the crystal. That seems the most logical course to me."
Yugi nodded, eagerly accepting the challenge, and silently grateful that Yami had entrusted him with such an important and dangerous task. His respect for his brother increased then, and he smiled a little to ease both of their doubts.
"I can do it, no problem." Yugi agreed, and stood up.
"Be careful." They whispered in unison, giving each other one last hug for good luck. Yami grinned devilishly and walked confidently out into the open, right into the startled beast's plain sight. Yami gave an overly exaggerated and mocking bow.
"Was your mother part earthworm or are you just naturally puny for your race?" He yelled. Yugi could almost picture the lava snake's proud features twisted in horrible rage as Yami yelled the insult at it. Predictably, no sooner had he finished then it breathed again, this time a shorter blast because it had not taken as much time to gather energy. Yami ducked under the cover of his cloak and waited out the storm, motioning to Yugi to hurry and move as soon as the snake stopped.
When the fires again halted Yugi took off, sprinting past Yami and heading past the creature to find a stairway or fallen rocks, something he could use for leverage. Yami continued to taunt the prideful creature.
"Is that all you've got, you pathetic excuse for a snake? I've known hatchlings with more fire in their bellies than you've got in your whole body! Why I'd bet..."
Suddenly, he stopped, cut off mid-taunt. Yugi risked one backwards glance to see what was wrong, for he had not heard the snake inhale to prepare to attack.
Yami was standing there, fully exposed and vulnerable, craning his neck up and staring into the snake's one good eye with a glazed and unfocused look in his own. What they both had forgotten and realized too late, was that the lava snake's greatest weapon was not its breath. Born part dragon and part basilisk, a lava snake's biggest advantage over its prey was the ability to paralyze without turning to stone. Yami was held captive in the depths of its burning eye.
The snake chuckled dangerously, slowly moving its great head closer. Yami followed its every move with a vacantly attentive expression.
"Where are your insults now, little thief?" It purred, parting its massive jaws to reveal its slick, poison coated teeth. "You have caused me much trouble by coming here, but then again..." Its forked tongue flicked past its scaly lips to lick Yami from jawline to cheek bone. Yami did not so much as flinch.
"I have not tasted of fresh human meat in a long, long time."
The next moment came in slow motion. Yugi drew his sword and sprung toward the creature, howling one, long, continuous protest. The snake closed its eye just long enough to let Yami out of the spell, and then it snapped its head forward and closed its mighty jaws around Yami's waist.
"NOOOO!" Yugi roared, anger the likes of which he'd never felt before surging in his veins. He raised his sword high, words that he did not recognize floating past his lips. His blade burst into golden flame; delicate runes etching themselves into the metal and glowing intensely. He plunged the blade deep into the monster's neck, spilling its dark life blood everywhere. The snake howled in blinding agony, and Yami dropped heavily from its jaws as it reared back. He landed with a heavy thump and lay still and unmoving.
Ignoring the fiend's deafening screams, ignoring the hot blood coating his forearms, and ignoring the tears that were cascading down his face, Yugi dropped to his knees and cast the sword away. He reached to turn Yami toward him, but hesitated, trying so hard to also ignore how very pale and still his dearest friend was. He swallowed hard and gently turned Yami round, unable to hold back his sobs when he did.
There was no way any potion was going to fix so horrendous a wound. There was nothing he could do.
Tears slipped from his face and splashed onto Yami's cheek, and Yugi put his arms around his brother and lifted him into a tight and heartbroken embrace. He shut his eyes tight against the world and cried, his sharp, wrenching sobs shaking them both as he buried his face in Yami's shoulder.
The gentle touch of shaking fingers on his face and a soft breath in his hair brought him back to the world in an instant. Yugi's eyes snapped open, amazed that Yami was still alive. Yami's eyes shone again with that same unnatural light as when he'd been poisoned by the demons, but they were focused despite that.
"Looks like... you'll have to- to go on without me... aibou." Yami panted, trying to force the words out. "Can you believe this?" he coughed hoarsely, breathlessly. "What a stupid mistake..."
Yugi shook his head, pressing Yami's hand to his face as more tears pooled in his eyes. "It wasn't your fault." he whispered, his voice thick. Yami smiled weakly.
"I guess... I'll know for next time... right?" he joked.
"Don't say that, you're going to be fine." Yugi said, trying to keep the ring of a lie out of his voice. But Yami did not buy into it.
"Don't give up Yugi... you can do it. You're strong... you don't need me around..." Yami looked straight into Yugi's eyes even as their inner light began to fade. "You can..." he reiterated, one last time. And then his eyes rolled upwards and the rest of his breath escaped his body in a soft sigh as he sank into the deepest darkness he had ever known.
"No..." Yugi mumbled, his denial having more than one meaning. "No..."
The snake's blood continued to splatter on the stones like rain, but the beast was still unfinished though it was fading fast. It lined up for the killing blow, its massive jaws wide. Yugi looked to his sword, lying on the stone a few feet away, already stained with blood. But he felt like he could not move to pick it up.
"No Yami... I can't. I'm not as strong as you... without you. I can't do it... I'm sorry." he breathed, hunching over his protector in defeat as the snake's huge jaws snapped closed over them.