The Arena

The four lions continued rounding Lara until one of them decided to pounce at her with his large paws. With the shotgun in her hand, Lara blasted the gun at the large feline creature and stirred the other three lions in the process as the loud bang echoed throughout the entire amphitheatre. Once the first lion fell to the ground, the others started running towards Lara at full force, but she was able to perform one of her signature sideways somersaults to avoid getting cornered by the large cats. Meanwhile, the two large gorillas that were standing out in the side lines were getting antsy and decided to join in on the conflict. One of them grabbed a large boulder and threw it at Lara to bring her down. Luckily, Lara was able to see it happen and jump out of the way before she was crushed. She turned her attention back towards the lions and blasted them with the shotgun, with each shot being a successful one. Looking backs towards the gorillas, Lara's heart started to race as one of them started running towards her, while the one other one was pounding his chest and making sinister gorilla sounds.

"Alright you furry bastards, which one you threw that boulder at me?!" Lara said as she pointed the shotgun at the gorilla that was running toward her. She jumped out of the way as the gorilla tried to pound her with his giant fists. Lara fired two shots before the gorilla fell dead to the ground. The other ape was now closing in and trying to pound Lara into the ground. She watched as the creature picked up another large boulder and threw it her general direction. At this moment, Lara decided to take out her trusty dual pistols to conserve her 'good shots' for the other battles she might have. Although the shots she fired from the pistols were not as damaging as the fatal blows of the shotgun, they were still very lethal nonetheless. It took a good six shots before the large creature was brought to its knees and was dying in silence. Breathing a sigh of relief, Lara holstered her guns and started looking around inside the giant pit to see which area she would explore first. She turned towards the small doorway on the left underneath the high spectator's balcony just beyond the shallow pit and started making her way towards it.

"I wonder what I can find in there." Lara said as she slid her way down the gravel slope and into the room just beyond where hardly any sunlight was able to make it in. Looking around, even with the lack of light that was in the room, she was able to make out some of the main details present in the room. Besides the sandy-coloured walls and the stony brown ceiling, Lara could see four smaller rooms, two on each side, connected by large rusted metal gates. She figured that they were once holding cells for the wild beasts that may have once battled the warrior athletes inside the arena thousands of years ago. Then all of a sudden, Lara thought back to the lions and the gorillas. Were they the same animals that were fought in the Greek coliseum millennia ago? Was it possible that the creatures roaming these ruins were the descendants of the unlucky creatures that were taken from their habitat all those years ago? She had her doubts, but Lara could not help but wonder as to whether or not it was true. She pulled out a flare from her backpack and illuminated her surroundings.

The first thing that caught Lara's attention was the carcass of a dead Greek warrior in the far right-hand cell that was still dressed still dressed in his heavy metal armour, helmet and all. She walked across the gravel towards the relatively empty cell and kneeled down to get a closer look at the warrior. It was evident that his life did not end the way he wanted it to end, perhaps forced upon him against his own will by some higher authority at the time. It was a very interesting and perplexing find.

"What happened to you?" Lara said as she examined the skeleton. "It almost looks as though you were tortured or brutally murdered."

She searched the other cells for more carcasses, but there was nothing but the sound of dripping water echoing throughout the room. Turning back towards the entrance to the room, Lara noticed another passageway just to the left that lead down a small hallway and followed it before emerging into the shallow pit in the ground of the arena. With her flare still in hand, she jumped up to grab the ledge and then pulled herself back up into the large arena area of the amphitheatre where more lions and gorillas were waiting for her.

"Great." Lara said under her breath. "Looks like I've entered round two."

After quickly dropping the flare on the ground and reloading her dual pistols with fresh ammunition, Lara charged towards the lions as they charged at her and fired her weapons at the dangerous creatures. She was now over by the large rock formations that veiled the other doorway below the spectator's balcony when a gorilla tried attacking her behind. Lara quickly turned around and fired at the gorilla until it was put out of its misery and refocused her attention on the two other lions that were roaming around the arena. After turning around, Lara momentarily lost her balance and was startled by the deep spike pit that was in the ground, for she was unaware as to how close she was from accidentally falling and killing herself. One more step and she would have made a bloody mess of herself! With her chest pounding from the sudden scare, Lara manoeuvred away from the trap as the two lions started running after her. Once she had a good shot, she started shooting at the lions and pounded bullets into their thick furry coats before they fell over and they each gave their last breath.

"How many more of these bloody lions are there?!" Lara said when she was suddenly surprised by yet another gorilla that pounded its way toward from behind. Frustrated, Lara pulled out her shotgun and blasted the giant beast to its demise before it even had the chance to pound her into the ground. After the gorilla was dead, Lara just started to notice the scrapes on her arms from when Pierre knocked her down into the arena. They were stinging a little, though the blood that was surfacing in her wounds was not much for concern. Still, she did not hesitate to use a small antibiotic cleaning wipe to disinfect the open wounds.

"There, that should do it." Lara said after applying just a couple of simple bandages to her wounds. Once she finished doing that, she went back over to where she dropped her flare and picked it back up before she walked back over to the other doorway behind the large rock formations inside the arena. "Now, let's see what I can find through this other doorway."

Making her down the small sloped hall that was connected to the doorway, Lara slid her way down into another 'basement'. Looking around the area, there were plenty of notable differences compared to the previous basement area, especially the height of the ceiling (which slightly higher) and the overall floor plan of the room. The right half of the room, starting from where Lara stood, was further broken into two sections by another wall that protruded from the midsection of the room and the floors had lattice designs on them similar to some of the rooms back in the St. Francis's Folly area. The ceiling on the right side of the room had the same carved square designs that had been found in previous areas as well. The walls were a different story. While the bottom half displayed a lighter sandy tone of colour, the upper half of the walls on the right half of the room were a darker stone brown and had the signature artistic Greek line patterns running along the bottom edge where it bordered the lighter bottom half. Scattered all over the floor were shards of what may have once been some kind of pottery or the remains of something metallic like ancient body armour.

Looking over to the left side of the room, Lara noticed a few things that were different. For one, there was a small staircase which lead down to a lower floor where the ground was made of gravel. On the far side of the room was a tall column-shaped wall that separated the two-toned wall on the right side of the room from the walls on the left side of the room which appeared a bland sandy hue and had large chips taken from it due to long-term weathering and erosion. There were two tall doorways on the left wall and a smaller door on the same wall where Lara entered just to the left of where she was standing down against the lower floor. The rusted gates that once blocked the two tall doorways were standing wide open. They lead into two smaller rooms that were pitch-black and seemingly enigmatic, as if they were hiding something. With the reddish glow of the flare to guide her through the room, Lara started to explore it and see if there were any other secrets to be revealed. But before she decided to look inside the two open doorways, she took a quick glance at the small closed door.

"I'm guessing this door probably leads down to the large spike pit." Lara said as she examined the small keyhole beside the door. She tried opening the door to see if it was already unlocked. Once again, to Lara's utter dismay, the door was unable to budge. "They had to get the dead bodies out somehow. I wonder if the key is hidden anywhere down here. Maybe if I check through those two other doorways and inside those smaller rooms, I'll find something that will help me open the door. Knowing my luck so far, I just might be able to find something that will work. At least that's what I'm hoping. Either way, I'm going to have a lot of artefacts to take back with me by the time I'm done here…"

Lara approached the two doorways and started with the one on the left. Emerging into the small room, she found two more fully-armoured carcasses similar to the one she already found in the other basement. There were also ancient weapons scattered inside the small room such as javelins and swords, as well as a couple of beautifully decorated shields.

"If only I had a bottomless backpack." Lara said as she shined the light of her flare upon the dead bodies. "I've always been fascinated by ancient weapons." She looked around for any other things of interest but there was nothing else.

Lara exited the small 'dungeon cell' and walked through the other doorway and into the other tiny room. The reddish light from the flare revealed another dead body, only this time there was no armour. It was positioned on the ground almost as though it were reaching out towards something, with the right arm being the outstretched limb. That was when Lara discovered a small closet-sized space in the right-hand corner of the room. It was blocked by a rusted metal gate, though she was able to easily open it by giving a light pull. Inside the small space was a small rusted key that matched the lock next to the closed door in the larger 'divided' room.

"Hmm…This might come in handy."

Once Lara walked back to the small locked door, she did not hesitate to pick it up and see if it would fit inside the lock. To her amazement, the key fit perfectly. However, when she tried turning the key, it would not budge. Lara then tried taking it out, but the key seemed to be wedged inside the hole.

"Oh come on…" she said. "Don't do this to me now!"

Frustrated, Lara tried yanking to get the key out of the keyhole, but it was in there indefinitely. Cursing under her own breath, Lara kicked the door out of anger and was stupefied to see the locking mechanism break loose and the door unlock itself to reveal the passage leading down to the bottom of the spike pit where the light from arena above made its way down. Lara breathed a sigh of relief as she started her way down the sloped passage.

"Well, it seems as though my anger can get me somewhere." she said. "I just hope that I can eventually find my way towards the Tomb of Tihocan and the second piece of the Scion. At this rate, I can only hope that I'll beat Pierre at his own game."

Lara's exploration of the Greek coliseum has made a slight turn for the worse. Having encountered four gorillas and many lions and with no idea as to where the Tomb of Tihocan is located, Lara's overall adventure is starting to prove more daunting by the minute. However, she has made plenty of interesting observations of the environment, particularly with the armored skeletons and the tools they left behind. Will Lara be able to make more substantial progress in the near future? That will be answered in the coming chapters. See you then :)

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