As Mario was reaching higher and higher within the active volcano, he was greeted by a locked door, which required a key. mario began searching around, digging into the magma hardened ground, picking up rocks, but frowning as he took off his red cap and scratched his head, not finding a thing. However, Mario was attacked from the back by a blue-colored Cobrat, which hissed as it used its tail to whack Mario several times across the face. Moaning as he shook his head, Mario grabbed the Cobrat by the tail and swung it around, chucking it at the rock, which caused it to spit out a golden key. Smiling, Mario grabbed the key and placed it inside the door, heading inside as the door closed behind him.
Mario made his way to the top of the active volcano at long last, letting out a sigh of relief as he took off his red cap and rubbed his brown hair, taking a seat to catch his breath. However, he didn't have a chance to relax, as the volcano began shaking, and within seconds, hot lava bursted straight from the opening, pouring down like rain as fire spread through the exterior walls of the volcano, several small rocks rolling downwards. Mario tried to hang on as he was then greeted by Tryclyde, a three-headed red Cobrat who also happened to be the leader of the bullet-spitting snakes. Mario tried his best to avoid combat, but he was grabbed by Tryclyde's tail, and chucked right into the erupting lava, being burnt alive as he ran on the little platform surrounding the crater and tried getting the flames off of him.
Tryclyde laughed in hysterics as he began spitting fireballs at the red-capped plumber, but Mario was quick to counter with his own fireballs, using them as an advantage as he withstood the burns and approached Tryclyde. Tryclyde hissed as he grabbed Mario with his tail again and snapped at his face with his three heads, finishing off with an intense Flamethrower to the face as Mario was chucked into the crater again. Mario managed to grab the edge, and he pulled up, using a drop kick to flip Tryclyde over and then jumped up, firing as many fireballs as possible before landing with a solid punch into Tryclyde's chest, defeating the three-headed serpent boss as a red-colored warp pipe appeared nearby. Taking a quick breather, Mario ran straight towards the warp pipe, jumping into it and going through another strange warp.