Viper

The Lost City is a land of hidden danger.

^{"Softdisk doesn't know how to draw women do they? (G) Well, anyway these 4 armed serpetines weild swords that do a fair amount of damage, and when you first see them they are stone, and it may take 3 minutes before they transform and start beating the living crap out of you, and they usually appear in groups. They take about 6 hits to kill too... that sucks."
--Description, Catacomb Crypt}

Sinister serpentine allies of Nemesis, Vipers, also called Gorgons in the game code, are deadly foes native to the jungles around the Lost City.

They resemble women from the waist-up, with four arms, one of which carries a sword. They wear live snakes as clothing. Their tails are tipped with rattles.

In Catacomb Armageddon

As deadly as the snake they resemble.

These sneaky serpents are the exact opposite of the Giant Ant strategically: whereas the Ant is tanky and defensive, frequently taking fire for other monsters, the Vipers are fast and evasive, with very high damage output. The Viper's damage output is on par with the Two-Headed Demon, and it is much faster than other enemies that appear at this point, making a beeline towards the player once active. Vipers are a priority threat, as a result; if allowed to stick around, they can quickly catch up to the player and do considerable harm.

Even worse, the Viper has borrowed a sneaky trick from the Treant and Killer Rabbit; it often poses as a statue, which is immune to damage until it activates. As is the case with other two monsters, not all of these statues are necessarily Vipers, but most will be, and they will not show up on the Crystal Sphere until they activate. They're prone to using this trick to bushwhack the player and get in sneaky hits from behind. Thankfully, Vipers are comparatively fragile, with only 10 hit points, making them easy to focus down.

Vipers require the Green Jewel to see on the crystal sphere. When destroyed, they recoil backwards before faceplanting into the dirt.

Trivia

• The Viper is one of three expressly female monsters in Catacomb Armageddon, the others being the Giant Ant and Succubus.
• The sacrificial altars and temples, along with the huge numbers of Skeleton Warriors in their realms, suggest they follow Nemesis out of religious reverence, and they seek to establish his dark reign.
• With their multiple arms and serpentine bodies, they resemble Mariliths from Dungeons and Dragons.
• While descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek mythology and occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair made of living, venomous snakes, as well as a horrifying visage that turned those who beheld her to stone. Traditionally, while two of the Gorgons were immortal, Stheno and Euryale, their sister Medusa was not and she was slain by the demigod and hero Perseus.