Chapter 7 – Into the Slither Pit
Back in the icy chambers in the north, where the Hypnobrai Serpentine Tribe dwelled, the Hypnobrai have just arrived back at their chambers. Since Slithraa was still affected from the injury of being shot by one of Kate's arrows, he, with Lloyd's help, was trailing behind the tribe.
"General Slithraa, you aren't doing so well," Lloyd whispered to Slithraa, "if the others see you as weak and helpless, you might have to step down from being general, then neither of us will have power over the tribe," Lloyd continued.
"Hmm," Slithraa began as he nodded, "you are right, Massster, but don't worry, sssssoon, I will recover from my injury and will be ssstrong enough to do your biddingsss again," Slithraa hissed.
"Well, whatever it takes for you to get better and not knocked off the throne," said Lloyd. Slithraa soon spotted a near by Hypnobrai chatting with another tribe member.
"You there!" Slithraa called to the Hypnobrai, getting his attention, "yesss you—come here and dissssslodge thissss arrow from me," Slithraa said when the Hypnobrai got close, and turned his body so the arrow head impaling his tail was facing the Hypnobrai. The Hypnobrai warrior wasted no time in clutching the arrow in both his claws, and immediately ripped it out of Slithraa's scaly body, resulting it a few drops of blood splattering onto the ice, and Slithraa grunting in pain.
Skales and many other Hypnobrai were watching Slithraa in his state of weakness.
"You moron, that hurt!" Slithraa snapped as he bonked the Hypnobrai on the head with his golden snake staff.
"He isss in a weak ssstate—now would be the perfect time to challenge Sssslithraa in a Ssslither Pit. If he iss defeated by hisss opponent, he will have to sssstep down, and then we will have a new, and hopefully better, leader," a Hypnobrai was explaining quietly to the others, and Skales was pondering this the most.
"If hisss opponent wassss to defeat him, eh?" Skales repeated to himself, and slowly smiled an evil smile, "Mezmo," Skales called to a near by Hypnobrai with a short and small hood with black scaled designs on the inside of his hood, and he had a fairly pointed snout, "prepare the Ssslither Pit—I feel assss if a challenge isss about to sssstart," Skales continued with a grin.
"Yessss, Commander Ssskalessss," said the snake Skales was talking to, or now called Mezmo, replied and ran off into the deeper and darker parts of the icy chambers.
Skales made his way over to Slithraa, who was trying his best not to collapse from pain of just having an arrow removed, so he clung to his staff, and panted softly, and Lloyd looked worriedly at him, but neither the general or the master noticed Skales, so Skales clutched the staff in one of his clawed hands. Slithraa and Lloyd noticed Skales so they looked up at him.
"Asss much asss it hurtsss me to sssay thisss," Skales began, almost sarcastically, "I'm afraid you are too weak to lead the tribe—and you musssst ssstep down now," said Skales.
"How dare you, Ssskales—I am not jussst going to give up the place assss general of the tribe," Slithraa said angrily as he glared at his second in command.
"Well, I'm sssorry to hear that, becaussse that would mean you would have to fight for place asss general in the Ssslither Pit," Skales explained.
"And, jusssst who isss my opponent for the Sssslither Pit?" asked Slithraa as he straightened himself to stand up straight. "Slither Pit" by Jay Vincent began to play.
"I am," Skales replied, and as if on cue, torches were suddenly lit within the depths of the chambers, and another big ice chamber was revealed.
A center plaza was in the middle of an icy gorge, but there were other ice ledges surrounding the plaza, and in the middle, hanging from the ice ceiling was a hanger for weapons made of ice, weapons like axes, swords, and a shield, and the hanger was in the shape of a dragon's head, and the weapons hung from the dragons teeth and other ice hooks on the dragon shaped hanger.
Skales ran so he could hop from the ice ledge and onto the plaza and turned back around to face Slithraa again, who was slithering slowly up to the plaza as well.
"Defeat me, and the ssstaff and place assss general are both yoursssss to keep, but if I beat you—I will take the sssstaff and become the new general, and you will then lissssten to me," Skales hissed.
"Sssskales," Slithraa began as he got onto the plaza, with the help of a few other Hypnobrai, "I get that you mussst feel neglected about being ssssecond in command and not leader, and I guessss I apologissse about that, but issss thissss really drasssstic enough timessss to make you want to take down your general?" asked Slithraa.
"Yesss, I am very willing to take you down to be leader, you sssnake in the grasss," Skales hissed while glaring at Slithraa as Slithraa slithered up to Skales.
"Hmm, I admire you desssire to be leader, it issss sssstrong. I will battle you—but only assss long assss you keep thissss a good clean fight," said Slithraa.
"Good, but know that thisss issss the Ssslither Pit—fightssss in here are never clean," said Skales, and soon Skales look up at a higher ice lead with a table of button and levers, and Mezmo was atop the ledge and at the controls, "Mezmo!" Skales called Mezmo's name, signaling Mezmo that the fight could begin.
All of the other Hypnobrai gathered on the ice ledges to watch the fight, and one Hypnobrai took a rope and tied Lloyd by his wrists to a giant ice shard so he couldn't run away from the chambers.
"You had better hope for the bessst that Ssslithraa winsss, becaussse if he losesss—you will be nothing to usss anymore," the Hypnobrai tying Lloyd up hissed softly at Lloyd, only making Lloyd whimper a bit. The Hypnobrai stayed close to Lloyd, but he didn't watch him, instead he had his back turned to Lloyd while watching the Slither Pits.
"All of you should know the rulesss of the Ssslither Pit, the challenger, Sssskalessss, mussst do what ever he can to hissss opponent, Sssslithraa, to defeat him in combat, but with out killing him, but remember that whatever I sssay goesss!" Mezmo announced to everyone, and Skales and Slithraa nodded at Mezmo, "ready you two?" Mezmo called down to Skales and Slithraa, who soon got into fighting stance and faced each other, "fight!" Mezmo announced, finally beginning the fight.
Skales was first to throw a punch, but Slithraa grabbed Skales' wrist, blocking his punch to Slithraa's mouth. But Skales was quick to act, so he jerked his arm, but since Slithraa's grip was still on it, Slithraa was pulled down a bit, letting Skales practically run up Slithraa's body and soon kicked Slithraa in the mouth with his clawed bipedal leg. The impact of being kicked in the face caused a pop sound to emerge from Slithraa's jaws, and his tongue was waving out as well, and unlucky for Slithraa, the kick was even powerful enough to knock one of Slithraa's two front fangs from his mouth. Skales kicked Slithraa hard enough to make the tooth fly far enough and all the way towards Lloyd.
The tooth landed on the ice and skidded in Lloyd's direction, but it didn't go directly at Lloyd, instead the tooth slid towards the ice shard Lloyd was tied to, and it soon made its way into a little crack in the bottom of the shard big enough for the tooth to slide into. But after the tooth slid into the crack, there was the sound of paper being slightly torn, and that got Lloyd's attention.
"That sounded like paper," Lloyd said to himself, and tried to dig a foot into the crack and search around since both his hands were tied up. Lloyd was able to fit his foot into the crack, and his foot eventually hit something, and he began to drag whatever his foot had a hold of out slowly.
But back with the fight in the Slither Pit, the tribe hissed and cheered at the fight as Skales scowled at Slithraa, who was holding his snake jaws in pain. When Slithraa took his claws from his mouth and turned his face towards Skales, Skales was able to see what damage he did to Slithraa's jaw. Since the fang was knocked from Slithraa's mouth, there was a gaping hole where the fang once was, and there was a bloody rip from the fang's place and up into Slithraa's lip, and blood seeped from the hole and down Slithraa's chin.
"Sssside Wonder!" Mezmo announced, and pulled a lever from the control table. Soon the plaza Skales and Slithraa were on began to rock, and at a not so steep angle, from side to side slowly.
Slithraa had a snake tail, making it easy to keep his grip as he kept his arms out to keep balance, but Skales wasn't like Slithraa, so he fell completely over and dug the claws on his hands into the ice to keep from sliding so much.
"Ha, ha, too bad you don't have a tail!" Slithraa admitted with a smile, but his voice was a bit slurred from the blood. Skales made a glare that would kill, if looks could kill, at Slithraa. Soon when the rocking of the plaza slowed, Skales stood up, and scraped the claws of his bipedal legs onto the ice.
"No, but thisss battle issssn't over yet!" Skales snapped.
"Maybe it will be sssoon—Two Weaponssss!" Mezmo announced, and pressed a button.
The dragon shaped hanger from above lowered itself so Skales and Slithraa could claim their weapons. Skales chose two ice katana, and Slithraa chose an ice shield and ice axe.
Slithraa acted too quickly and threw his axe, only resulting in Skales dodging it, but the axe flew through the air and towards an ice ledge with a group of Hypnobrai. The axe flew low, but it caught the tail end of a Hypnobrai and chopped it clean off. The Hypnobrai that just had the tip of his tail cut off stared wide eyed at his tail as he picked it up and tears leaked from his red ringed eyes and his large white hood drooped as he stared at his poor tail.
Meanwhile, back with Lloyd, he finally dragged whatever object with his foot out of the crack, and he gasped when he saw not only Slithraa's fang, but also an old rolled up piece of parchment. Lloyd quickly tried to free his hands from the rope, and he was able to free one hand from its knot hole. Lloyd looked around to make sure no one was watching him, and then he slowly reached for the rolled up paper and when he had it in his grasp, he tucked it away for later. Lloyd then remembered the fang, so he quickly grabbed the fang and began to rub the sharp end of the fang against the rope, trying to cut the rope.
Back with the fight between Slithraa and Skales, Skales was about to strike Slithraa with his two ice katana, while Slithraa only now has an ice shield. Skales struck a few times at the shield with his katana, causing a few tiny ice shards to fly. But then Skales slashed Slithraa in the throat, but the slash wasn't enough to kill Slithraa, only enough to create a small gash on Slithraa's neck. Skales held one katana at Slithraa's neck, and used his other katana to quickly to bash at Slithraa's shield, and Slithraa wasn't ready for that, so Slithraa's arm dropped, but he still held onto the shield. Skales took the advantage of Slithraa's hand holding the shield, in particular, being lower. So Skales took his leg and stepped down hard and fast on the shield, but since Slithraa still had a grip on his shield, his arm was bent the wrong way, and a loud SNAP was heard from his arm, and he finally dropped the shield in the process.
Slithraa cried in pain and dropped onto his back in defeat. Skales had a katana pressed against Slithraa's neck, awaiting his next move. Slithraa panted and looked around sadly at his tribe, before looking back at Skales.
"You win," Slithraa began, resulting in Skales grinning and the tribe cheering, "I will ssstep down, the sssstaff isss yoursss, and you are now general…" Slithraa continued, but then he stopped again, not wanting to say the next part.
"And…" Skales said, wanting Slithraa to say it.
"…and I now take ordersss from you," Slithraa sighed, and stood up while clutching his broken arm.
A random Hypnobrai approached with the golden general staff in hand, or now Skales' staff. Mezmo pressed a button on the controls to raise the weapons back up, and to make the plaza stop rocking as Skales took the staff, but a sudden golden glow began to surround Skales and Slithraa.
Slowly, the scale design on both Skales and Slithraa began to change, Slithraa got Skales' scale design on his head and body, and Skales got Slithraa's scale design on his head and body too. Pretty soon, Skales' bipedal legs transformed into a snake tail, much like Slithraa's tail, but Slithraa's snake tail soon changed into two bipedal legs.
Since Slithraa wasn't used to having legs, his legs were shaky, and Slithraa even dropped onto one knee. Skales couldn't be more happy, so he let out many evil laughs and cackles.
"Wait," Skales said when he stopped laughing and he turned his gaze towards Lloyd. But right at the same time, Lloyd had just managed to cut through the rope and cut himself free.
"You!" Skales snapped just as the roped snapped, and Lloyd gasped and looked at Skales.
"Oh no, Slithraa!" Lloyd called to the weakened and defeated Slithraa.
"Sssorry boy, he lossst, which meansss you are no longer in power," said Skales, but then Skales noticed that Lloyd had cut himself free with Slithraa's fang. Lloyd followed Skales' gaze, and his eyes went wide as he quickly dropped the fang, "hmm, you are worethlesss to me now," Skales said calmly, "get out, and hope we never meet again, boy!" Skales continued loudly to make his point.
Lloyd whimpered and ran out of the icy chamber and out into the arctic winds. Lloyd wrapped his arms around himself to keep warm, and a tear rolled down his cheek. But Lloyd gasped, and he quickly grabbed out the parchment from the crack in the ice. Lloyd unrolled it, and looked over it for a moment.
There were symbols on the map, symbols like a blue and yellow hypnotic spiral, like the spiral designs of the Hypnobrai, and there was another symbol representing constriction that was black and white colored, another green symbol with a drop of green liquids surrounded by a light green circle with dripping green liquid, another symbol with a red snake tongue between to white sharp snake teeth, and then there was another small picture, a picture of a giant fang shaped rock monument. The symbol of the spiral was located in a snowy mountain region, just like the climate Lloyd was in, on the paper.
"Wait a second, this looks like the Hypnobrai symbol, and it looks like this is saying the tomb of the Hypnobrai is located in the tundra lands," Lloyd said as he examined the map, but then looked around at the snow and ice around him, "yeah, ain't that the truth," Lloyd said flatly, and then looked back down at the paper, "Slithraa did say they were one of the many Serpentine species, and if this shows the location of the Hypnobrai tomb, then this must be a map to all of the Serpentine tombs," Lloyd said as he began to perk up, but then he began to grin.
"If I find the other tombs and make the Serpentine my slaves, then I can not only get revenge on the Hypnobrai and those ninja students of my stupid Uncle Wu, but then I can finally follow in my father's footsteps, and make him proud, and all will know of the reign of the son of Lord Garmadon," Lloyd explained to himself. Lloyd then began another one of his pathetic evil laughs.