It's boss time! And, due to special circumstances, this one can actually get a name in-story lol. The art for Gleeok Chimera Ignikanos can be found under my blog's "dungeon 5" and "concept art" tags, or in the Ao3 version of this chapter.

Content warning for violence, blood, face-melting, broken bones, and, uh, brief death. Just a touch of dying.

Harry cautiously traversed the line of temporary cool spots in front of him, thinking light-weight thoughts. Of the two lower access doors that weren't submerged in the lake, this was the only one that wasn't blocked by rocks on the other side. Unfortunately, it was also thirty meters across the lava, well away from any of the walkways. In fact, there were holes in the wall where the catwalks were supposed to be mounted, but had been ripped away and banished elsewhere. Harry wouldn't be surprised if the odd, spidery-looking metal paths he'd seen under the ceilings in other areas had been taken from here.

'Vaati, you petty wanker,' Harry thought before casting another Water-Conjuring Spell. He stepped off the stone starting to lurch beneath him and onto slightly more stable ground. It hadn't been enough for Vaati to whisk away the floor and fill the room full of archers; he'd just had to snatch the scaffolding, too!

Sweat poured down Harry's face as he lightly quick-stepped across the lava. His brothers looked just as much like crap as he did, now. Even Yellow, usually able to stay perky through sheer force of will, was flagging in the heat. Mere centimeters from this magically charged lava, it was hot enough to make the iron plates on top of their boots start turning red. As demonstrated by the boiling springs at its base, Death Mountain was much hotter than it was supposed to be; Harry could only pray that didn't mean this unusual temperature would be able to eat through the protections of their magical necklaces. Shadow Harry wouldn't have known to take into account the artificially soaring temperatures in the mountain's heart when he'd crafted them, so there was a very real chance of equipment failure here.

The Harrys converged at the exit and leapt onto the solid stone floor one by one. They were immediately faced with a wide iron stairway. Staring down it, Harry felt a sense of dread that wasn't entirely his own. He conjured the Dragon Hammer into his hands. "I don't know what's down there, but the sword doesn't like it," he warned his brothers as he started down the staircase. A wall of dried lava lay ten meters down, sitting askew over the span of a few steps. "I'll take care of the walls. Cover me if something leaps out."

He brought back the hammer, gathered the strength in his arms, and hauled it sideways. The head rocketed into the wall with ear-splitting, thunderous force. Harry backed up from the false wall as it crumbled, his fearful eyes on the ceiling. Had that been holding the tunnel up? Had he destabilized anything?

The ceiling was dark, devoid of lights. He could only see the iron-plated walls, orange-washed by the half-functional illumination strips. Alarmingly, some of the metal bore the same crumple-marks as the doors to the control room. Harry's heart stuttered in his chest at the sight and he hesitated on the stairs. The other non-flooded doorway was blocked by the collapsed tunnel beyond, leaving them only with this path to progress through. Vaati had clearly reconstructed it, though, which meant there was a good chance of it leading to a trap…or being a trap on its own.

He gripped the hammer tight and took a few measured breaths. This was literally the only direction they could progress through if they wanted to get any closer to the temple beneath the facility. They had to keep going this way. Harry picked over the rubble and continued toward the next shell of cracked, unnaturally-cooled stone blocking their way.

"D-Do you know if that's a g-good, idea, Green?" Yellow asked. His eyes were fixed on the ceiling.

"Not at all." Harry could feel the sense of danger grow as he moved onward, so he assumed this was the right direction. Shadow Harry had said something about monsters congregating in places they shouldn't be, so it was perfectly possible the creature mucking with this place had decided to hole up in the temple below. That didn't mean busting up the walls in a place that had previously collapsed was a good idea, however.

Harry wound up and swung. The sound of stone smashing under his hammer was as satisfying as it was terrifying. He backed up to let the wall fall in front of him, glancing up the stairs over his shoulder. The exit was now over twenty meters away. If the corridor collapsed once he took out the last wall, they'd have to sprint thirty meters up the stairs in order to escape.

"Blue, do you know any, er…anti-crushing spells?" he asked as he walked up to the last wall.

"No, and I don't like the fact that you're asking," Blue said warily. "What do you know that we don't, Green?"

"Hylian stuff usually comes in threes, and this is the third wall." Harry jerked his thumb at the obstacle. "So I figure something is going to happen once we take this one out. Other than us getting attacked by the monsters on the other side, I mean."

Red looked up at the top of the staircase an alarming number of steps away. "If the tunnel collapses, there's no way we're running all the way back there," he said. "Blue would trip over his own feet."

Blue elbowed him hard. "Would not!"

Red rubbed his side. "Would too."

"I'm not that clumsy!"

Harry stepped in to end the argument. "Blue, if I would probably trip, you would too. If the tunnel collapses, we're running forward first and figuring out an escape plan later," he said decisively. "Now get ready." He reeled the hammer back.

"Erm, c-could we maybe figure out a plan before the tunnel collapses?" Yellow shrilled.

"We don't know how bad it'll be, if it even does," Harry grunted. He swung for a third time.

CRACK! The wall seemed to flinch as a shockwave ran through it, a massive spider web instantly forming across the thin stone. As it crumbled to the ground, Harry felt a rumble under his feet and heard the Four Sword silently scream.

"Run!" he barked at his brothers, hurdling over the fallen rock. He charged down the rest of the staircase and found himself in a round room with a domed ceiling supported by stala braces. There were three sets of doors, two of them bulging out, glowing red, and seeping lava. The third pair, marked "EMERGENCY EXIT", lay opposite the tunnel. That was all Harry could take in before the room gave a violent shake.

Harry was knocked known by the bucking floor as a discordant, singing roar vibrated in the air around him. Just hearing it filled Harry with a sense of something indescribably awful. His heart ached in his chest, squeezing with something like sadness. Tears sprang to his eyes as his face contorted in disgust. He screamed and clawed at the iron plating under him, filled with a sense of furious energy he had no other way to express but through violence. What was this?

The terrible song mercifully faded, only to be replaced by the even worse sound of cracking, thundering, crashing stone. Harry struggled to push himself up as the floor jumped underneath him. The tunnel behind them was, as Harry had predicted, caving in. Once the short earthquake passed, its work done, Harry looked around frantically for his siblings.

Red was sprawled on his back, dazed. Blue was curled up next to him with bloody scratches running across his ears. Yellow had already sat up. He stared wide-eyed at something in the middle of the room. Harry followed his line of sight.

Giant purple dragon eggs—four of them. Harry had no idea how they'd gotten there in the time he hadn't been looking. Maybe they'd just appeared through magic? The eggs started cracking from the inside, and Harry scrambled to his feet. "Baby dragons!" he hissed at Red and Blue, shaking them by the shoulders. "Get up! It's time to fight!"

Red shook his head to clear it and then hopped to his feet, while Blue peeled himself off the floor more slowly. Summoning his Dragon Hammer, Red grinned at the prospect of a fight. "I'm gonna see how this beast does against those scales," he said eagerly. "If stala isn't strong enough to beat that metal, nothing is."

That was actually a good idea. Instead of drawing his sword, Harry held onto his hammer. He definitely didn't have the skills or strength to use it most effectively yet, but seeing the bone mask on the first snake to fall out of its egg made him want to crack it. For whatever reason, that felt like a thing he should do.

Four shiny golden snakes tumbled out of their eggs, spotted the Harrys, and hissed with ire. The Harrys split up and separated to different corners of the room, leading the baby dragons to do the same. Harry kept a two-handed grip on the heavy hammer and waved it in the face of the monster slithering after him to keep it from looking in Blue's direction as he ran by.

"Eyes on me, you little beastie," Harry said, bringing the hammer back.

The snake attacked before he did, spitting a quick spray of venom that had Harry jumping back. Normal orange lava spread out across the floor, rather than the purple Harry had gotten used to. Huh, that was interesting. He dodged another attempt to melt him, spun to build momentum, and whipped the hammer down at the monster's mask. The tool responded to his intent and jetted on partway through.

With a ringing bang, the snake's armored head slammed hard enough into the iron floor to make the lava next to Harry spit droplets into the air. When Harry lifted the hammer, he saw that the snake's mask had totally shattered. As the monster woozily raised itself back up, the shards of broken bone fell away. A vulnerable head with thin scales and a large bald spot on top was revealed.

Harry grinned wickedly when the monster seemed to come to its senses and jolted upright. A spark of intelligence and fear showed in its red eyes. "Not so tough now, are you?" he remarked.

The snake sucked in a breath.

Uh-oh. Harry hurriedly exchanged his hammer for the Abyssal Vase. He braced his arms and legs in preparation for the storm.

Harry's feet skidded against the floor as three invisible cannon balls slammed into the vase's mouth. Hot dry wind whipped around him, searing his eyes and shoving against his chest. He stumbled forward once he was done being pushed backward, his extreme counter-balance working against him. Looking at his vase brought his smile back, however. Three lines of waves shone pure white against the room's orange tint.

Harry hopped back and then to the left to dodge sprays of venom and then aimed the Abyssal Vase at the snake. The monster hissed angrily and started drawing in air again. Harry stood his ground, bent his knees, and pressed the button under his right hand.

FOOM! The vase kicked hard enough against his arms to smack into his ribs. Violent winds ripped at Harry's hair and clothes as a hurricane shot across the room. The ball of roiling wind was sucked straight into the monster's wide-open mouth.

With a sound like a mud-filled balloon popping, the larval dragon exploded. Harry hid his vulnerable face behind his vase as a hail of metal scales battered every body part not protected by leather or iron armor. He remained half-curled there for a couple of seconds after the bruising had stopped, then peered around his improvised cover. Smoking purple monster bits and coin-like golden scales were scattered around the room. All of the other occupants, including the snakes, stared at him in shock.

"We can do that?" Red said with wonder. He switched his hammer out for his vase. "Wicked!" He kicked the snake in front of him and started running around it as it did its best to turn him into a puddle. "C'mon, give me air!"

As the battle resumed around him, Harry hurried around to pick up the monster parts in case they decided to vanish. He had no idea what these snake things were or what their components were worth, but he figured anything and everything was worth collecting. Better to pick it up and find out that it was worthless than to skip grabbing it and realize only later that it would have been useful.

He conjured his hammer and brought it down on a golden snake's feathered tail as it slithered by chasing Blue. The snake, whose tail already bore smoking marks from Blue's sword, let out a magically unsettling scream and then vanished. Harry hefted his hammer, frowning at the floor. Maybe it had just been him mistaking the scuffles of battle around him for something else, but he thought he had heard something off when he'd hammered the ground. Harry switched the hammer for his sword and rapped the magical blade against the iron plating. It sounded about right, but he could have sworn…

"DUCK!"

Harry dropped to the ground as the snake Red was fighting went berserk, shooting air and venom everywhere. Its mask was gone and one of its eyes had a smoking line through it. Harry was forced to roll to one side, push himself up to his feet, and sprint as an expanding lava puddle chased him. "Kill it already!" he shouted.

"I'm trying!" Red struggled to get behind the snake so he could safely land a strike. "Stay still, dammit!"

Blue barreled in with his hammer in hand. He went to land a spinning strike like Harry had earlier, messed up his footwork, and wound up tripping over the snake's tail. The hammer fell from his grip and smacked heavily against the monster's skull. By the time Blue had landed in an elbow-bruising sprawl, the snake had wailed and vanished.

Red snickered. "Great job there." He offered a hand up.

"Timing is hard, alright?" Blue snapped defensively, taking Red's hand.

Only one snake was left now, and Yellow was on his way to finish it. "Get your shields up!" Yellow warned, aiming his glowing vase at the monster's mouth. Harry unlatched his buckler and huddled behind it.

A spray of unconventional bullets clanged off the steel. When Harry peered around his shield, he was surprised to find it had gained new dings and scratches. Those scales must have been really hard! He cast a Mending Charm on his buckler and picked up one of the scales that had landed close to him. It looked like gold, but was the material closer to stala? This was twice now that he'd seen it defeat steel. Maybe he should find a way to mail some to Ruka's family; metal like this seemed like something the Master Craftsman would like.

The Harrys scurried around, picking up anything and everything. Egg shards, scales, and monster guts were all thrown into their bags to be figured out later. Once the battleground had been picked clean, Harry sent a conflicted glance at the emergency exit doors. That was their way out, but they couldn't leave just yet. How were they supposed to go farther down, though?

"The lava is sinking!" Yellow cried in alarm. "What does it mean when the lava is sinking? Should we leave now?"

Harry scrambled to the rim of one of the impromptu ponds the snakes had created. The lava level dropped quickly as he watched, draining centimeter by centimeter until a dark, dripping hole appeared in the middle and started widening. "The floor is hollow! I thought so!" Harry crowed. He hadn't been able to hear it with his sword because there was a meter of stone and iron underfoot, but the Dragon Hammer had hit hard enough for him to pick up on the weird resonance.

"Does being connected to the Four Sword make you a dowsing rod for hidden rooms? How the hell could you have known that?" Blue asked.

"Hyrule has a lot of hollow walls, and hitting them with magic swords is a great way to tell whether there are any secrets around." Harry leaned over and reached into the molten hole with the Four Sword. He used the blade to clear out some of the sticky rock clinging to the edges of the opening, then chucked it across the room. When it reappeared on his back, it was free of lava.

"Find a big enough opening and drop down," he called out. "This is our way in." He conjured his Magic Rod and hopped into the dark hole. As soon as he was clear, he cast the Falling Spell.

Violet haze and a whole new level of sweltering heat enfolded him. Harry's vision swam as his body adjusted to the sudden jump in temperature. The dragon terrorizing the mountain had definitely made itself at home down here. Looking at his clothes, he saw that the metal accents were shimmering red just from the ambient temperature. If it was this hot just standing around in here, he hated to imagine how miserable it was going to be right next to the source of all this.

His brothers gently floated to the ground around him. "Man, it sure does suck down here," Red said, looking around. He did a double-take and then froze. "Erm…Don't panic."

Yellow clung to Red, his look of strained composure immediately cast aside. "Don't tell me not to panic, because now I want to panic! I've been panicking since the iron on our boots started turning red!" he said in a shrill whisper. "What is it now?"

"There's Endraal," Red whispered back, pointing.

Yellow, Harry, and Blue jolted ramrod straight, then mechanically turned to follow his finger. The Spirit of Eldin's muscular bulk sat in a pitiful ball at the back of the room. It looked like she'd been thrown hard against the wall and slid down to the ground. She lay curled up tightly on her side with one wing spread over her body and her long tail tucked somewhere under the feathery canopy. Her colors were darker than before; her wings had gone from fiery orange to ruby red, the glowing lines on her horns had gone dark, and her previously brick-colored skin looked closer to maroon. The dragon's whole body moved with her difficult, heaving breaths.

"Should we…do something?" Yellow asked.

"I don't know what we can do, unless Red Potions fix spiritual damage," Blue said. "It's the nasty magic around here that's making her sick."

"Let's focus on the evil dragon for now and check on the good dragon later," Harry said, starting toward the tunnel the led out of the room. It was a grand thing, with multiple archways and praying female figures carved into the red stone. Braces of an unfamiliar darkish silver material held the ceiling up. The interlaced metal nets weren't quite delicate, but definitely not Goron; the finely twisted flame designs were way different from the chunky, square aesthetic of Goron City and the facility he'd just left. Between the fancy, polished ceiling supports and human-shaped statues, it looked like a misplaced patch of ancient Hylian culture had been chiseled into the Gorons' domain. Brackets of blue flame lit the large corridor rather than Bluestone or lava, seeming to burn off the violet smog between the arches.

The Harrys passed through the tunnel in solemn silence, staring wide-eyed at the ancient architecture around them. The tiles underfoot were small and square, forming subtle geometric patterns of rippling red, orange, and yellow. Harry found himself watching the tiles pass by. It looked like he was walking on artfully arranged lava.

At the end of the fancy hall lay a stone staircase that tunneled straight down in a square spiral. Harry had no idea how far down it want. He clenched and unclenched his hands. For the first time since entering the temple, the question of "how far am I from sunlight?" crept into his mind. If there was a cave-in down here, they'd be buried hundreds of meters below the surface. At least if they drowned, their bodies would float—

He slapped himself across the face and stomped down the stairs.

"What's wrong with you?" Blue asked him bluntly once he'd caught up.

"I was doing too much thinking," Harry said. "If I tell you what about, the rest of you will wind up thinking it, too."

Blue's face pinched. "…That's fair, but now I really want to know what you were thinking about."

"I'll tell you sometime later, maybe."

They trooped down their stairs. Down and down and down. Their footsteps echoed loudly off of the flat planes of stone boxing them in on all sides. There were doorways—dark doorways—leading away from the landings every so often. Harry ignored the arcs of shadow and swimming stars in favor of keeping his feet moving at a steady rhythm. Down was where the danger was.

Monstrous singing began resonating up the staircase, quietly at first before growing louder. Harry stumbled and almost missed a step partway down one of the steep, short flights. He grabbed onto Blue, who looked similarly unsteady, and sat them both down on the next landing. Red and Yellow sat down next to them and huddled close.

Emotional pain tore at Harry from all directions, making him weep and scream and pound his fists on the ground. He hated, he grieved, he dreaded, and he felt the claws of betrayal pluck the angriest notes of his heartstrings. Red haze fought with the violet fog and blue light, and it was the barest sliver of self-control that kept him from repeatedly slamming his overburdened head into the ceramic floor. He sagged to the ground, crying and caterwauling his lungs out, until the terrible song released him.

Harry awoke from the strange tantrum as if from a dream. He stared down in surprise at his hands, now aching and bloody. The sides of his head were wet. Harry touched a hand to his ear and was alarmed to see it come away with even more blood.

Yellow curled up on the ground sobbing. "Make it stop, make it stop," he whimpered. Shivers wracked his body despite the extreme heat.

Blue lay unconscious with his eyes rolled back into his head and his hands up by his bloodied ears. Red stared into space, his face slack.

Harry put his hand on Yellow's shoulder. "It's over," he told him. "There's no more song."

Yellow jumped at his touch, then abruptly pushed himself up. "I-I'm fine," he said quickly. "Don't w-worry, I'm fine!"

"No you're not," Harry said with a huff. "We just got hit with backward phoenix song." That was the best way to describe the dragon's beautiful, horrible roar. It was like Fawkes's cry turned on its head somehow. While Fawkes's song inspired and uplifted, this one was…unfathomably awful. It punched blindly and viciously at every negative emotion. It didn't have the creeping, focused chill of a Dementor's aura; the noise was a simple blast of "everything bad".

Harry put his hand on Red's shoulder. Red's eyes slid back into focus. "That was wild," he croaked. "We wouldn't happen to have earplugs on hand, would we?"

"Blue has a set of earmuffs, but we couldn't split them between us unless we used the blank spell scroll," Yellow said. He looked at Harry. "Do you think they would count as equipment or a tool?"

"We can't afford to find out down here." Harry gestured toward the glowing red sections of their boots. "I don't know what temperature makes iron do that, but I'm sure it's more than enough to cook us if we guess wrong."

Red pulled a jug of water out of his bag and poured a little on the floor. It immediately erupted into steam and evaporated away. The tiles barely got wet. He stowed the jug before the rest of its contents could boil. "Yup, we're in an oven," he concluded. "If we're going to cover our ears during this dragon fight, we'll have to do it with our hands." He shook Blue by the shoulder. "Come on, nerd. Time to get up."

"Unngh." Blue's eyes rolled back down and he blinked. "It feels like a truck hit my brain," he groaned. "That was the worst." He flopped onto his side before sitting up. "What was that?"

"You know how Mr. Black said the dragon he saw looked kind of like a phoenix?" Harry said. His brothers nodded, clutching their heads. "Well, I think Vaati's 'magic experiment' hit us with evil phoenix song."

A shiver went through the staircases as something thudded heavily beneath them. The purple light shining from the bottom of the long column dimmed. :Morsssels, come to usss,: lilted three lyrical, sibilant voices in harmony. :We can sssmell you hiiiding. Come heeere, little preyyy. We crave flesssh.:

The Harrys exchanged bug-eyed looks and stared downward. Light World snakes, as far as they knew, were incapable of speaking Parseltongue. If so, they would have been able to hear Ropes talking every time they went down to Potions class. Parseltongue was a language seemingly exclusive to Dark World serpents. The fact that this thing could speak it was the final proof that Vaati was getting the hang of wizard magic now.

:No ussse in making usss wait, preyyy. We know why you're heeere,: the dragon sang. :Our massster told usss to sssavor youuu.:

Harry's skin crawled. Did all big, evil reptiles talk like that? He was uncomfortably reminded of the Basilisk from last year. Rubbing his arm where it had been pierced by the ancient snake's fang, he hoped this thing would stick to just spitting venom rather than injecting it.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Red said, breaking the unnerved silence they'd fallen into. "You heard the freaky singing dragon." He resumed tromping down the stairs. His brothers collectively grimaced before following him.

The air got even hotter as they went down. Harry blinked dizzying spots out of his eyes as they spilled out into a massive atrium at the bottom of the stairs. As soon as they were through the metal-braced doorway, the ceiling suddenly soared away to form a heavenly dome painted with scenes of Old Hyrule. Through the Four Sword, he recognized Lake Hylia, the ancient Death Mountain, the original Hyrule Field, and other places the New Kingdom also possessed, but not quite in the same way. The Four Sword's previous bearers also had their places in the distant mural, standing sentinel around a symbol of Vaati's eye. Their crystal blue gazes fell upon Harry with what felt like judgment.

:The prey is heeere!: the dragon's voices joyfully called out.

Harry spun around, instantly on the alert. He saw only the atrium's huge, person-shaped pillars and the moat of lava edging most of the room. The lava was fed in through a large natural tube in the back of the room that parted around a raised platform and pedestal which currently stood empty. Harry's eyes didn't stick on the empty pedestal, but the lava tube. If this place was right at the hottest part of the mountain, where the facility above would have put more furnaces if it could, that meant it was near a large concentration of lava. How convenient would it be for Vaati's dragon if it could nest in this ancient palace and head right through that tunnel to cause havoc whenever it wanted?

DANGER!

Harry dove into an expert tuck-and-roll that didn't come naturally to him. A puff of hot breath hit the back of his neck as he heard a meaty clap from behind. He turned around and froze.

A car-sized reptilian head hovered centimeters from him, looking disgruntled at being denied a meal. Harry drew his sword and chucked it at the snake's face as he ran in the opposite direction. How the hell had he not seen that thing coming?!

The sword bounced off the snake's golden scales, doing nothing more than make it blink with eyelids that snakes definitely weren't supposed to have. :The prey has good ears,: the reptile remarked as it slithered backward up a pillar. It spoke in three voices despite having one mouth. Where were the other two? Harry looked up.

A three-headed dragon nearly the size of Endraal perched up on the side of a pillar, staring at him with two sets of volcanic red eyes while its third head reeled back in. The dragon climbed down the pillar with the grace of an insect, its multiple heads locked onto the Harrys with disturbing focus. It was a bizarre chimera of snake, lizard, and phoenix. Three golden snake heads hovered fluidly over a wide, flattened lizard body on serpentine necks. Long, stiff feathers stuck out around the base of each head's jaw like a bristling crimson collar and formed a full mane down the central head's long neck. Red bird wings tucked tight against the creature's back, while a scaly tail tipped with a huge fan of red and gold feathers proudly waved behind it.

Upon gracefully leaping to the floor, the dragon stepped toward the Harrys, who were now shrieking and finding things to duck behind, with the haughty air of a king.

:Hiiiding from our eyyyes will not hide you from our noooses,: it sang, all three heads speaking in unison. As he tucked himself behind a pillar, Harry kept a close eye on the middle head. It was bigger than the others, with a gold and scarlet mask that the smaller heads lacked. It moved first and the other two moved after. That was the creature's center of control and probable weak point. The problem was getting to it; the monster held itself like a peacock despite its wide body and splayed-out legs, putting its main neck in a high coil over its body.

:Come out and ruuun! We want to chassse you!: The heads on the sides lowered to the floor and began weaving around the pillars. Their necks stretched ever-longer behind them.

There was a startled yelp from Red, followed by a sharp hiss and a spray of violet. Red screamed and emerged from behind a melting column, clawing at the liquid eating into his skin. Harry ran to help, holding out his Magic Rod. "Scourgify!" The transmitted burning sensation faded, but Red wasn't out of trouble yet.

The dragon turned and began stalking Red, giggling with glee. :It runs! The prey ruuuns!:

Harry, Yellow, and Blue abandoned their cover to chase after it. "Leave him alone!" Yellow shouted, sending a Severing Charm at the dragon's tucked wings. It bounced off harmlessly.

:The prey wantsss attention?: the dragon said with amusement, its central head cocking an eye in their direction. :It ssshall have it!:

Harry didn't notice the beast's left head silently stretching toward them behind the pillars until a cloud of toxic violet hit them from the side. Harry hissed through his teeth as fiery pain clawed across his skin and the inside of one ear. His left eye hadn't been fast enough to close and now obscured his vision with purple-stained tears. Harry cast a Scouring Charm on his burning skin as he went from a run to a desperate sprint. Violet lava chased after him, spreading with alarming speed.

Blue wasn't quite fast enough. In his peripheral vision, Harry saw his brother plant his back foot in the lava beyond the edge of the melting tiles during a running step. "Oh shi—" Blue went down and his curse was cut off by a terrified shriek.

Across their mental link, searing, crushing force swallowed Harry's right foot. He stumbled to a stop at the slowing edge of the lava pool. Whipping around, he saw Blue dragging himself away from the lava, his foot coated in molten rock. "Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff," Blue babbled in a panic.

"Scourgify!" Yellow and Harry cast the spell simultaneously and ran across the tiles, skidding to Blue's side on their knees.

"Are you okay? Did your foot get cooked?" Yellow asked, poking carefully around Blue's Goron boot. The dragon's superheated violet lava had singed the leather and set the iron plates glowing white-hot.

"Did you break anything? That lava felt heavy," Harry said worriedly. In all honestly, he'd expected Blue to sink right into it, so one boot getting swallowed was the best outcome he could hope for.

"I twisted my ankle when I tripped," Blue grunted. He tugged his foot away from Yellow, who had been turning it all about. "Ow."

Across the atrium, Red swore loud enough to wake the dead. Then a hurricane ripped through the room. Harry got to his feet and ran at the highest speed his bulky boots would allow. Nonono, Red would not die today. None of them would die if he could help it!

Crunch. It was a sensation in the back of his skull, not a sound. Harry's consciousness blinked off. He woke up on the ground to the feeling of having more energy than his rebooted brain knew what to do with. Bewildered and disoriented, he lifted his chin from the hot ceramic tiles. "Huh?"

Yellow and Blue shot past him. "Save Red!" Blue shouted over his shoulder. "Distract it!"

Harry got his feet under him and joined his brothers in their all-out sprint, a dozen meters behind. He lassoed his Magic Rod overhead and sent repeated Sunburst Spells at the dragon to get its attention. :Come and get usss, you ugly bassstard!: he hissed in Parseltongue.

The dragon jumped and all three heads swiveled toward him in astonishment. :The prey ssspeaks?: it balked.

:Yeah, we can underssstand you and your creepy tauntsss. Why don't you fight all of usss, you great big coward?:

The dragon puffed up indignantly and its body started turning in their direction. Harry could catch a glimpse of Red on the other side of its bulk. He was pressed flat against the wall, silent and frozen. Harry had never seen him so terrified.

:Coward? The prey thinksss it ssscares usss?: the dragon harmonized with a sour, irritated hum in one of its voices. :We are Ignikanosss the SSShining! Your blades are as good as broken!: Ignikanos galloped toward the Harrys.

At the sight of the house-sized chimera bearing down on him, Harry's brain seized up. The impulses of "run away" and "grab Red" got tangled, causing him to stand there like a dumb brick while Yellow and Blue booked it. Harry watched his brothers flee, realized he should probably do that himself, and then noticed the distance between him and Ignikanos was short enough that the dragon would be able to eat him from behind if he took his eyes off of it.

'Stand and fight it is, then,' Harry thought grimly. He went for his sword, then paused. The bright metallic shine of Ignikanos's mask gave him an idea. Harry conjured the Dragon Hammer instead. If it could put a fair dent in steel factory doors, maybe it could do something to that natural armor.

Since it didn't seem like the dragon was going to stop, Harry wound up as it kept running with its necks stretching eagerly toward him. Ignikanos's central head lowered, its mouth wide enough for the deep purple flesh within to glisten in the blue-violet light. The dragon was confident in its scales protecting it from any weapon. Harry was about to test that. He swung the hammer down as Ignikanos closed in.

As it turned out, in a battle between Dragon Hammer and dragon, the hammer would win.

The rocket-powered strike nailed Ignikanos's snout to the floor. Its body slid up behind it, the elongated necks shrinking back to their default length and then crumpling behind the lead head. The massive beast laid there flat on its armored belly, its glowing crimson eyes rolling dizzily. A crack now ran through its mask.

Harry vanished the hammer and drew his sword. Time to see what would hurt this thing. He struck the thinner-looking scales on one of its side heads and only got sparks. Then he tried stabbing it in one of its red eyes. A golden eyelid came down, causing his sword to skid off. The dragon roused under his feet with an angry hiss. Harry hopped down from the head and started running before it could snap up and fling him into the air.

"Okay, destroying that mask is definitely a must," Harry noted under his breath, glancing over his shoulder. The expression of incredulous fury Ignikanos had on its faces made Harry laugh. It looked like Dudley after Aunt Petunia denied him an extra birthday gift.

:What's wrong, ssscary hunter? You can't handle prey that fightsss back?: Blue jeered from behind a pillar.

Ignikanos bristled at the insult, planted its feet, and bellowed its terrible song toward the ceiling.

Emotional pain descended on Harry like a bird of prey. He shrieked and collapsed, all conscious thought gone. His limbs pounded at the ground with boundless rage at the same time his body hunched and coiled with nameless grief.

Then he was aware again, and he heard shouts and spells. He didn't know what was going on, but the best policy with Ignikanos was to keep moving and watch for surprise attacks.

Yellow was fleeing from one of the dragon's heads, towing Red behind him as Ignikanos spat acid at their backs. Red was still pale and silent, his eyes locked on his brother. He didn't check over his shoulder like Yellow did. Blue was weaving around pillars and casting Knockback Jinxes behind him, doing his best to trip up the central head as it snapped at his heels. Harry followed the head's feathered neck back to its body as it prowled alongside Blue.

Where was the right head? He saw the neck stretching behind the pillars, but not where it ended. Harry conjured his Dragon Hammer and looked around wildly. No glint of gold moving toward him from the shadows. Even so, he could feel malicious eyes on him. The Four Sword buzzed with unease.

Harry abruptly stopped running, then leapt to the side. A golden head shot down from the sky to strike where he'd been standing. Caught off guard by Harry's dodge, it rammed into the ground. A hundred meters behind it, Ignikanos's body wobbled on its feet.

:Didn't think that through, did you?: Harry said as he brought his hammer back. He smacked the head straight into a pillar. A shower of powdered stone went flying and clattered off of the head's scales when it collapsed to the floor.

Ignikanos's other heads abandoned their pursuits and snapped toward Harry. :You,: it hissed with hatred.

Harry spun the hammer in his grip. :Me.: He grinned fiercely. 'That's right, keep your focus over here,' he thought, watching the dragon pull its heads in. If all three were aimed at the same target, they weren't chasing his brothers.

Ignikanos moved with smooth, predatory steps into the center of the atrium. Only two of its heads were tracking him. Its right one hung limply, the slits in its scarlet eyes unfocused. Harry didn't hold out any hope that it was down for good. The dragon's body expanded as its mouths pulled in air. Harry's sense of confidence immediately fled. It was this attack that had done…whatever it had done to Red. Harry ran for the pillars, taking a sideways route to keep the dragon from having a straight shot.

Harry managed to put himself behind a column before the Ignikanos started firing. In the span of a second, he summoned his Magic Rod, transfigured a patch of the pillar into Angora rabbit fur, and clung on with all his strength. He shut his eyes tightly as a windstorm ripped at him. Air almost like fire scraped painfully at the exposed skin of his face. It infiltrated every gap it could find between the pillar and his body. Harry screamed into the wind as it started levering him away from the column, his fingers tightening until they were numb.

As suddenly as it had started, the hurricane was over. Despite the lack of breath in his lungs, Harry started running. There was a sharp hiss behind him, then a thud and crash as the dragon's attempt to eat him missed.

Red came barreling in, bellowing a battle cry and holding his hammer up with both hands. He shot past Harry and bashed Ignikanos's dizzied left head with it. "That's for killing me!" he shouted.

"That's for what?!" his brothers echoed from various spots around the room.

Any answer that Red might have given was drowned out by Ignikanos's enraged song. With its secondary heads down, the harmony was lost and all Harry was forced to feel was an echo of the dragon's anger. Harry slipped out from between the pillars as the dragon's central head descended in an attempt to swallow Red. While his brother sensibly fled into the shadows behind the columns, Harry made a beeline toward the approaching mouth. Ignikanos's eyes were locked solely on Red, meaning it wasn't expecting an attack from the side.

Harry poured on speed, went into a spin, and leapt as high as he could. The hammer's rocket kicked on as he jumped, adding to his height. With the extra clearance, Harry was able to bring it down squarely in the middle of the dragon's skull.

KUNNNG!

A third of the mask fell off at the previous seam he'd created as another, larger crack appeared down the center.

"That's two out of three!" Harry cried triumphantly. Rather than push his luck, he hopped down from the central head and put some distance between him and the woozy chimera. It had gotten up pretty quickly last time and he didn't fancy getting eaten for a second time in this place.

He skidded to a stop next to Red, who was warily watching Ignikanos pick itself back up. "Hey, what was that about you getting killed?" Harry asked.

"It hit me with a hurricane and then I hit the wall," Red said tersely. "I knew I was dead at the speed I was going, and then I woke up. If one of you hadn't drunk a potion right then, my brains would be pudding. That's all there is to it."

"I thought you weren't afraid of dying," Harry said, ducking behind him to watch the dragon. Its heads were all back in the air now, furiously scanning the room.

"I'm not afraid of gambling with my life sometimes, but there's a difference between a chance of dying and actually dying," Red said. "Uh-oh, I think the dragon's getting clever."

Ignikanos was taking in air again, but this time its main head was inhaling while the other two just had their mouths open and fangs exposed. Harry was prepared to transfigure the pillar in front of them to create handholds, but Red grabbed him and threw him into a run. "There's no weathering this!" he shouted.

"Weathering what?" Harry saw Yellow and Blue fleeing around the other side of the room. They disappeared into the alcove with the long spiral staircase.

In a long, stormy exhale, the dragon emptied its lungs. At the same time, its side heads sprayed their venom into the wind. A massive purple cloud consumed one side of the room. Superheated violet lava immediately began forming on every surface it touched. Pillars melted, the floor melted, the wall melted—an entire side of the atrium was dissolving into purple-white sludge.

Harry held his breath and conjured the Lenses of Truth onto his nose as the airborne acid washed over him and Red. Liquid fire slicked across his face and dripped around the edges of his magical goggles. When his brother started slowing down, hampered by the pain, Harry grabbed his hand and forced him to keep up the pace. Lava was oozing out of the walls and floor around them. Sizzling drips fell from above as the pillars sagged and lazily drooped toward the floor. Harry felt the ground under his feet going soft even as he pumped his legs for all they were worth. His vision tunneled to a single point ahead of him, beyond the reach of the encroaching lava.

One of Ignikanos's side heads slid through the pillars and stopped in front of him, its mouth wide. Harry didn't slow down, just conjured his hammer and kept on going. He spat the bitter venom off of his lips and raised the hammer high. "SCREW YOU!" he roared, bringing it down on the waiting mouth. It was immensely satisfying to see the smug dragon's jaws forcibly clap shut. Harry grabbed Red's hand and towed him around the downed head.

Summoning his Magic Rod, Harry vanished the venom eating through their skin and repaired their protective gear. On the other side of the room, well behind the dragon, they finally pulled to a stop and leaned against a column, wheezing. Harry watched with dismay as a significant portion of the atrium spilled across the ground. Not only did it represent the loss of countless years of work by countless hands, but it also meant they'd have a lot less space to run around in.

Yellow and Blue emerged from the staircase alcove and scurried across the room. "Take a Red Potion," Blue said upon seeing them. "I don't care if you think it's minor. Your faces are half-melted. Do it."

Red took a bottle out of his bag and downed it. The residual screaming in Harry's skin went quiet. "Why couldn't you drink it?" Red asked.

"It's the principle of the matter," Blue sniffed. "You should have the sense to heal yourself."

:Preyyy,: Ignikanos sang. Its heads swayed drunkenly as it approached them, the one on the left swinging limply. :We want it dead. Dead, dead, dead!: Its two conscious heads coiled back, then flung themselves out. Harry and Red fell down flat on their backs to avoid the one lunging for them. Watching the snake's scales slide by and choking on its red feathers as they dragged across his face, Harry felt his heart pound so hard it seemed like it might hop up and flee the room. If he didn't get killed fighting giant monsters one of these days, his heart might just decide to quit from all the stress!

As soon as the head was no longer above him, Harry sprang to his feet. None too soon, either, because the central head decided to follow up its initial strike with a spray of venom that forced the Harrys to scatter. :Preyyy!: the dragon screamed, flailing its heads madly. It turned in the direction Yellow had run and chased after him. :Diiie!: After a quick breath, it fired a cyclone ahead of it, sending Yellow and a great quantity of lava flying toward the melted side of the room.

"Yellow!" The Harrys turned as one and ran to save their brother.

Blue was closest. He caught Yellow with a Levitation Charm and flung him toward the ceiling as Ignikanos closed in. Yellow's screaming went from terrified to surprised as he abruptly found himself changing directions. During his slow backward flip toward the murals overhead, he conjured his Magic Rod and cast a Falling Spell. The dragon charged beneath him like a runaway freight train before sliding to a stop a few meters into the lava that had slopped across the floor.

:Massster sssaid the prey would be weeeak! He did nooot sssay it would have ssstrange teeeeth!: Ignikanos musically wailed. Lava splashed everywhere as it stamped its feet. It slid off of the dragon's gleaming scales like water. :Massster, whyyy is the prey not dyyying?:

Yellow, still sliding through the air, scowled at the beast beneath him. He switched his Magic Rod out for his Dragon Hammer and dropped out of his controlled fall. :You ssspoiled brat!: he snarled, twisting around to bring the hammer up. A streak of light cut through the air as he shot down onto the dragon's central head. Ignikanos went down with a crack of thunder, its central chin nailed into an un-melted section of the floor.

The last two thirds of Ignikanos's golden mask fell apart, revealing a large bald spot on top of the dragon's head. Yellow dropped his hammer, drew his sword, and began hacking away at the vulnerable purple skin. :You! Ssspoiled! Overgrown! Lizard!: Yellow ranted as he swung. The giant reptile cringed and whimpered, but Yellow wasn't having any of it. :You've been making ssso many people's lives harder, and you have the nerve to pitch a fit when your actionsss have consssequencesss?! Die, you whiny murderer!:

The other Harrys piled onto Ignikanos's head, standing on its nose to attack its bald spot. They didn't get to stay there for long, though. Harry saw a golden glint to his left. "Bail!" he shouted, jumping down. The monster's right head whipped over the one in the center. Blue caught a heavy smack to the chest that sent several shards of pain through Harry's ribs. Red nearly avoided it, but suffered a broken arm before he could drop out of range. The two hit the ground hard, aggravating their injuries and causing renewed waves of pain to crash across the Harrys' mental link.

"Potion now," Blue wheezed. "Pneumo…thorax risk."

Harry had no idea what that meant, but Yellow went deathly pale and plunged his hand into his bag. Meanwhile, Ignikanos was getting back up and swaying more drunkenly than ever. Yellow was forced to toss the potion bottle to Harry so he could drag Blue away from the dragon's stomping feet. Harry gulped down the potion, shoved the empty bottle in his bag, and pried Red off the ground. "Gotta go!" he said frantically. A golden head swung around and Harry dropped down with a breathless squeak. He and Red ran out of the danger zone, half-crouched and keeping their eyes up to watch for any incoming heads.

:The prey hurt meee!: Ignikanos whined. :Hooow can it hurt meee?: Its whining turned into a wordless, discordant lament that took the Harrys out at the knees. They writhed under the agonizing strains of the dragon's projected torment. Harry could barely register the sound of his own screaming or the pain in his bloodied fingers. Ignikanos poured its heart out into the atrium until pillars began to crack and what tiles hadn't already been crushed or melted spontaneously shattered.

When Harry's awareness returned, the room was rumbling underfoot and his ears were filled with high-pitched ringing. Blue dragged him to his feet and they started running.

'So much running,' Harry thought fuzzily. He put a hand to one of his stinging, half-deafened ears. 'Are we ever going to stop running?'

Ignikanos was throwing a full tantrum. It swept around its wings and fan-shaped tail to kick up high sprays of lava, swung its heads at the room's support pillars, kicked down statues, and spewed venom over whatever it couldn't smash. The smooth, predatory taunts it had been spouting before were long gone now. All Harry saw was pure, frustrated, childish rage.

"We need to take this thing down before it collapses the whole temple!" Yellow said in a panic once the Harrys had reconvened. They ran in a rough square toward the raging dragon.

"Its lead head is fifteen meters off the ground, though, and moving around a lot," Harry said, frowning at the flailing necks. "Would launching one of us up there work?"

"Playing off of its pride seems to have been effective so far," Blue said. "Red, you can—"

"No, I'll do it," Harry said. Red had experienced enough of this dragon's wrath today. "Blue and Yellow, stay off to the sides while I get its attention. When it comes in to eat me, take it down. Red, keep your Magic Rod on hand in case I need a lift out of there."

Blue blinked in surprise at his decision, but didn't protest. "Alright, I guess that works too."

As his brothers peeled away to leave him standing alone in the middle of what remained of the room, Harry stopped and took a deep breath. Standing there looking as vulnerable and weaponless as he could, Harry cupped his hands around his mouth. :You want your prey, you big whiny weakling? I'm right here!: he hollered up at the dragon. One of its heads twitched in his direction. :I'm ssstarting to wonder whether you're really a hunter at all, as pathetic as you are. What kind of hunter can't catch a handful of child-prey in a room like thisss? Were you lying when you sssaid you could sssmell usss?: Harry jeered in his best Malfoy impression. :What if we are the hunters and you are the prey, Ignikanosss?:

Harry could see precisely when the dragon lost its mind. All sense of intelligence left its eyes at once and the only retort it could come up with was an earsplitting squawk. Hissing and shrieking incoherently, it went into a thundering charge. The swaying heads stabilized, their murderous focus entirely on him. In its eagerness to eat him, the dragon kept its heads low to the ground as they zoomed ahead of its body

Yellow and Blue came sprinting out of the wings with their hammers raised. They smashed Ignikanos's side heads into the ground, causing the dragon's legs to skid and then collapse. Harry ran up the central head as it slid up to him and held on tight to its feathery mane to stay on. In the other hand, he called up his hammer and raised it with some difficulty. The giant head bucked underneath him. :Ssstay down!: he hissed, conking the dragon in the bald spot with it. Ignikanos's rising head collapsed, almost pitching Harry off. He straightened up, threw the feathers he'd accidentally torn out into his bag with what was quickly becoming reflex, and slashed wildly at the dragon's bare skin. The room was subtly shaking even without Ignikanos continuing its rampage; they probably had minutes to get out of here before all that cracked, unsupported stone came down.

His brothers hauled themselves up and joined in the attack with the same level of frantic gusto. They had to kill this thing and get the hell out of here, ASAP. In fact, if Ignikanos didn't die now, Harry was going to order a retreat so they could live to fight again later. The dragon might be able to dig itself out of heavy rubble and swim through the lava tube at the back of the room, but the Harrys would have to use the stairs.

The dragon was trying to rise again, its neck undulating behind them. Harry cursed. They didn't have Force Gems in this dimension and their swords were still magically broken! The Four Sword just wasn't going to cut it on its own here.

Harry sheathed his sword and plucked his hammer out of the air. It wasn't a divine weapon by any means, but it was a big, heavy mining tool with a bloody rocket on it. Plain old brute force worked decently against smaller conjured creatures, so he figured it had a good chance of working here. The Force Gems had really been for breaking the magic in Vaati's anchors, anyway, not defeating his monsters.

"Back up!" he warned his brothers, winding up for a swing. His siblings stared wide-eyed at him as they abandoned the attack.

"But can the hammer even—?" Blue started.

"We'll see!" Summoning up all his strength, Harry brought the hammer down in the middle of the dragon's bald spot.

Bone gave way with a sickening crack. Purple smoke and ash fountained from the dent Harry had just created. White patches quickly spread across Ignikanos's body and soon, sections of it began collapsing. Harry yelped when he was suddenly dropped to the floor. Bitter dust filled his airway.

Choking and coughing, the Harrys trudged away from the downed dragon's dissolving body. As soon as they were clear of it, the pile of ash disappeared in a huge cloud of purple smoke. All that lay behind were a handful of Goron bones and mining tools…and a glowing red orb that hovered stationary over the floor.

A loud rumble sounded through the atrium, followed by a crash that bounced Harry into the air and battered him with concussive force. Harry stared wide-eyed at the massive chunk of the ceiling that had come down. Painted figures impassively stared back.

"Time to go!" he shouted over the sound of disaster, running to grab the glowing orb. With far less reverence than the object deserved, he crammed it into his bag as he made a break for the stairs. He ignored the weird zing it had sent across his nerves as soon as he'd touched it. There'd be time to figure that out once the sky wasn't falling.

The Harrys crowded into the stairway and then started leaping up the spiraling flights three steps at a time. All around them, the temple shook with the rumble and crash of thunder. Cracks were starting to form in the stairs.

By the time the Harrys emerged from the long vertical tunnel, they could hear the too-close crackling of stone collapsing and falling in on itself behind them. They sprinted through the decorated corridor ahead of them at full speed. Thank Merlin for those fancy metal braces doing their job!

They came to a sharp halt in the room where Endraal lay and looked up at the ceiling in dismay. They were going to have to guide one another through the ceiling one by one using Levitation Charms, praying they didn't launch their brothers headfirst into the stone and metal as they did. The current pressure of the situation definitely wasn't going to improve their magic control any.

"Little Brothers…" A thick-fingered, clawed hand large enough to hold all four Harrys slid in front of them. "Get to the surface," Endraal said weakly. She had herself propped up on one rocky elbow, her fire-colored eyes half-shut in pain. "I'll take care of the mountain. I pray you reach safety."

The Harrys piled onto her hand and she raised them up toward the melted holes. One by one the boys climbed through and helped pull up the sibling behind them. "Thank you, Ms. Endraal!" Yellow called down. "I hope you feel better soon!"

A deep chuckle came from below. "Me too, Little Brother."

Dashing to the emergency exit, Harry summoned his Navi Slate and slapped it against the reader. The boys were through before the doors had finished opening. Beyond the doorway lay a wide bank of open-air elevators connected to a long shaft that continued into darkness. What few lights were functional flickered with every floor-shaking crash. Harry sprinted up ahead of his siblings, fully prepared to navigate a computer or a console, but it looked like the designers of these lifts had truly been prepared for emergency situations; the only buttons were "UP" and "DOWN". As soon as his brothers were all on and clutching the guide rails, he punched "UP" and they shot into the dark shaft above.

Harry was too preoccupied with the fact that everything was collapsing to give a damn about the false stars floating in his eyes. Who cared about what imaginary thing lurked in the shadows? He had real things to worry about, like boulders!

As light returned and the elevator slowed down, he heard chittering. A cluster of Fire Keese descended from the ceiling. "No time!" Harry said, vaulting over the side of the elevator and heading for the exit doors. His brothers followed suit and the Fire Keese were left fluttering confusedly over the elevator platform.

The Harrys spilled out into a shipping bay flooded with lava. Though the cave-in behind them wasn't as loud up here and the ground no longer quaked as heavily, the twisted shelves around them were squeaking as they shook. Bokoblin archers snapped to alertness and drew their bows.

"Merlin, just give it up already!" Blue cried in exasperation, firing off an Incendio.

Harry shot a line of water across the lava and they all kept up the pace while Blue, Red, and Yellow picked off archers. Pressing up against the door, Harry smacked his slate against the reader. "C'mon, let's go," he said desperately when it sputtered orange. Three more tries, and the doors reluctantly slid open. "Yes!"

He stumbled into the entryway of the Death Mountain Lightware Facility. The lobby computer's blue lights blinked at him, its monitor displaying a cheerful welcome message as it sat idle. Reddish haze filled the room. Harry was reminded of the bitter ash of Ignikanos's short-lived remains. It wasn't a pleasant smell, but it was what passed for fresh air and it was coming in through the open exit.

Harry flung himself outside and sprawled out on the warm, hard ground. He laid there, staring up at the gray and orange sky. His brothers flopped down beside him. They were alive, they'd made the world a little better, and they could see the sky again. What a great day!

Notes:

-Iron heated to 900 degrees F (or 460 in Celsius) will turn red. The metal decorations in the temple proper are made of tungsten, which is why they look perfectly cool in Ignikanos's heat.

-Parseltongue! I bet you guys thought I'd forgotten that existed, huh?

-Lava is over three times denser than lava, so humans don't sink in it. I admittedly took a little bit of artistic liberty when Blue almost lost a shoe in it :P

-Red wasn't emquite/em dead, which is why a potion worked. There were still some electrical impulses going on in there. Even once the boys get fairies, permadeath will remain a very real fear for them. A fairy isn't going to be able to fix a Harry falling into a bottomless pit or being turned to cinders, after all.

-Pneumothorax is when air gets stuck in your chest outside your lungs, usually due to a rib puncturing a lung, and builds up to the point of a lung collapsing from the outside pressure. This is the medical situation that calls for someone taking apart a pen and stabbing the ink tube into the person's chest in movies/TV.