Perhaps Jörmungandr simply hated having its head touched, or perhaps it hated looking up at others. In any case, it temporarily abandoned the defenders at the breach in the city wall and slithered directly toward where Thor had fallen.
Its dark green body was nearly impossible to make out beneath the black canopy of the sky, but its two glowing eyes clearly revealed its position, like headlights in the fog.
"Stop it! Don't let him enter the city!"
Baldr commanded the warriors around him to stop the giant serpent from advancing deeper into the Golden Palace. Once the central formation was breached head-on, the enemy troops behind the serpent would pour into the city without anything left to stop them.
"Roar!"
The Asgardian warriors answered with a thunderous roar, forming a line of defense with their own bodies.
Unfortunately, reality often did not bend to human will or wishes. The gods possessed powerful bodies and physical abilities far beyond those of humans, but compared to a freak like Jörmungandr, spawned from an Elder Spawn, they were still hopelessly outmatched.
Like Dominoes struck and crushed beneath a train, countless warriors died on the spot. The endless roar of scales grinding across the ground, together with the blizzard, drowned out their screams.
Thor was not in too bad a state—just a severe concussion, fractures throughout his body, and internal bleeding in several organs. After being dug out from deep underground, he saw stars and could not stand. Volstagg and Hogun could only support him as they desperately retreated.
Yet Jörmungandr was already close at hand. Its enormous shadow loomed over the ruins, its snake head raised high, its gaze full of mockery.
Its huge mouth full of fangs opened. Its head had fan-shaped ear fins like a sea dragon's, and the monster