fanfic tier

black of the chamber's ceiling, the light you see is given by some strange moss-like plants that litter the entire chamber top to bottom, but this is not what really draws your attention...
Around the pillar of roots you see an coiled mass of scaled muscle and sinew, it has claws that look about the size of houses and all wrapped around the roots terminating in a vicious looking dog-like head, festooned with a mass of twisting pointed horns , teeth that look like jagged mountaintops drooling with ichor as they embed, chomp and gnaw ceaselessly at the mass of roots down below the ledge.
Suddenly you let out a gasp and as if on cue the bulging monster stops in it's dstractions and unhinges it's massive jaw from the roots to turn your way. You feel a sudden sense of impending doom and dread as it's slitted eyes lock on your position and the beast begins to unwrap itself from the pillar edging closer and closer, zigging and zagging like a serpentaccross the root covered floor of the chamber. You want to scream but you are frozen in fear as you see the beast begin to claw it's way up the rocky walls with loud thunderous thuds every time it clinches it's talons into the wall. Suddenly the rumbling stops and everything is quiet, the beast can no longer be seen but you feel it's presence alarmingly close. You can smell a sweet coppery scent of dried blood and a vague aroma of rotten wood. Behind you in the corridor you can hear things scrambling and chittering away into the distance getting more and more faded. Deathly silence.
Before you very eyes, an enormous mound of curled horns shoots up from below the lip of the rocky ledge and trailing behind it a large and wide bony mass covered in scales as black as coal. Before you know it two large firey orange eyes with diamond like black slits are bearing down on you as a scale and inchor covered snout begins to materialize. The head of the beast alone takes up your whole view, alluding to the truly awesome size of the serpent. You can feel it's acrid breath on you the intoxicating smell is enough to send you into a stupor but you resolutely and paralitically stand there to face the beast. The head is now towering over you with it's long mucle bound neck and you can hear the beast rumbling as ichor drips in rivulets from it's gigantic maw.
You stand there dumb founded as the cold calculating gaze of a predator fixates on your very body. Suddenly you hear a loud huff that you know would have been as if a miniature hurricane had it been directed at you, and with that you begin to hear a sound so horrid it is as if a thousand hot pokers are being pressed against your brain....
"You are not dead..." the beast grumbles "not like the others. I know it I can hear your heart beating like a storm, I can see your hot blood pumping through your little cadaver." it says in a mocking tone.
"You seek to go up, but from down here only I can climb." it says almost boasting in it's tone.
"You are alive, and that means you have a working mind, not like those lifeless shambling broken things that they toss down here." it says with a pause.
"Perhaps I won't eat you," it says "perhaps...perhaps I will let you play a little game, something to stimulate the mind after all these ages."
"Oh what fun!" it says with a wry but vicious grin "Why don't we make a wager? Hmmmmm?" it hums but you can feel the entire cave grumbing with it's booming voice.
"You answer my riddles and I let you climb" it says with a toothy grin "but if you fail, I get fresh meat for once."
"Very well...hmmm let's see now...Aaaaaaahh!" it says with a drawn out sigh of pleasure
The beast growls "Incarnadine battalions, marching to the beat. A nation's glories, paid bitter-sweet. They march from father to son, a war that can be lost but never won. What is it?". The beast eyes you down in anticipation...
With a flare of it's nostrils it continues. "The dream of a mad philosopher. That which would remain in the cupel if one should assay a phantom. The nucleus of a vacuum. You inhabit it but only through your eyes. What is it?"
It puffs loudly through it's nostrils before uttering: "You cannot keep it, until you give it. You cannot touch it but you can break it. What is it?"
The serpent narrows it's eyes at you and you can see a snarl creeping upon it's monstous mouth. "They hurt without moving, poision without touching. They bear truth and lies but only fools judge them by size. What are they?"
"It seems you are testing my appetite more that I am testing your wit mortal..." It says in an undeniably angry tone. "The most dangerous weapon, the most fragile container. Once opened it can be soiled, once closed it is prone to fester. What is it?"
It grunts angrily before uttering "It stained a city's first walls with the blood of a brother. It shows the truth between you and any other. A fool will blame it as the root cause of suffering. Democracy ignores it while kneeling. What is it?"
The beast snarls at you before booming it's next words at you "Last chance little morsel... " it says as it's anger subsides momentarily before saying it's next words "Anyone can take as long as it is on someone. A wiseman avoids it, while a coward abuses it until he has won. What is it?"