-Royal Tombs Part 1

Lara fell and landed onto a small ledge, 'Phew!' She examined her new surroundings. The place looked even a richer environment than before. Flame bowls were all lit on the walls, so it was even brighter and easier to see ahead. The walls have changed into an emerald green colour and the landing floor to a rich purple. Lara was impressed with the environment and was about to admire the quality, but remembered that she still had to find Illiat and fast, 'He has to be here somewhere'.

There was another ledge underneath where she was, so she dropped onto that ledge and observed the ground below this one. All that Lara could see is only a slope, and yet she couldn't even see pass through it. She wasn't sure whether if it was safe to use or not. Being wary, Lara dropped down on the slope and began to slide upon it, and there she saw it, a spike trap and a ladder. Carefully making her timing just right, Lara jumped onto the ladder and grabbed the rail tightly, so she wouldn't stumble and fall into the spike pit. She climbed up the ladder and hoisted herself up on the ledge.

"UUuuuHhhhh"! Quickly Lara looked round from hearing the noise. It was coming underneath where she was. She looked down and saw a... MUMMY! This was unheard of before, an un-dead walking! Lara nearly almost vomited at the mere sight of it, but remembered what she had heard at the altar in the temple. 'You have awoken the guardians of the temple and they shall not rest until you are DESTROYED'! What she had just seen may be one type of guardian, the un-dead walking and attacking anything in its way.

She leapt down and had finally seen what the mummy had been approaching... ILLIAT! In a rush, Lara drew her pistols and started firing at the mummy... Unbelievably it was still moving! BANG, BANG, BANG! It took about 8 shots until the Mummy had finally fallen. Lara saw Illiat panting very loudly, the mummy may have already attacked him! She moved towards and kneeled beside him.

"Oh Illiat, are you hurt?" Lara asked.

"It's too late for me Lara. I've lost too much blood. I'm...dying!" painfully said Illiat.

"How did this happen to you? What's going on?"

"Lara, did you touch the temple altar?"

Lara sighed "Yes".

A very worried expression crossed Illiat's face "Lara, you have unleashed the guardians!"

"What guardians? Like that Mummy?"

Illiat thought of all the horrible things the guardians will be: Mummies, Skeleton Warriors, Un-dead Wizard guardians and worse of all... He then explained the following to Lara.

"They are the spirits of the ancient protectors of the temple. They were entombed here to make sure no-one would try and take the stone. They would kill any intruder!"

"Then, Illiat we've got to get out of here!"

"No Lara, you must stop the others".

"What others?"

Illiat had a horrible flashback episode, on what had happened to him earlier.

"While I was waiting for you, I was ambushed and tortured. There were mercenaries who wanted the map to the Nightmare Stone".

Illiat then remembered being just left for dead, near the altar by the ruthless mercenaries.

"They took me to the altar and made me show them what must be done. Then they found the map and left me there to die. But I managed to trick them. They actually didn't get the entire map. They cannot get all the way down to the snake guardian. Only He holds the final part of the key that will unlock the Nightmare Stone".

Illiat reached out and gave Lara a map, and started panting for breath more violently.

"This map here will help... you get back... up to the altar. Destroy the Nightmare Stone Lara... It is PURE EVIL!"

Illiat's last breath gave out, he died in Lara's hands and she hugged him with only a few saddened tears to shed. It was that moment, she noticed Illiat was holding something else which had dropped onto the floor, and it was a key. 'I wonder what this opens'?

Lara ran through what she had just been told by Illiat, that the altar had actually held the Nightmare Stone all this time, which must have been the white 'X' orb that was flashing inside it. Furthermore she was not the only one in pursuit of the Nightmare Stone. Mercenaries had found their way into the temple too, and were searching for a way to unlock the stone as well. She was not alone, 'So I have to face the guardians of the temple, the mercenaries and the snake guardian to get the final key, all in a day's work!'

Lara left the body of Illiat, she wanted to fulfil his final wish and destroy the Nightmare Stone before it reaches into the wrong hands. She turned back and started walking towards near the end of the ledge. There she saw another landing at the bottom. Dropping down upon it, Lara saw another doorway shut off. While looking around for a way to get through, she spotted a keyhole 'the key!' Lara grabbed the key which Illiat was holding in his hand, inserted and turned the key. A smile crossed on her face, as the door all of the sudden moved in an upwards direction, clearing a new pathway for Lara to take. 'Thank you Illiat'. She began to walk along the opened path, wondering what will she will come across during her pursue.

It wasn't long until Lara was faced with two ledges above where she was standing, she could see that one to her left was blocked, and wasn't able to see what options that was held within. She pulled herself onto the right ledge and there it was, another switch, she approached it without looking first, and then it happened. On the floor, there had been a pile of bones with a sword next to them, and while Lara was moving closer to the switch, it then all became too sudden.

A bespoke whirlwind circulated around the pile of bones and the sword, and it only took a few seconds until standing before Lara was a ... Skeleton Warrior! Creped out by this new enemy, Lara was unable to move, she was stunned at what she had just seen. However the newly formed skeleton warrior was not taking any chances. It had one mission, to kill any intruder that tried to cross.

Ready to attack, the skeleton warrior took a swung using the sword at Lara, luckily she ducked just in time and gave it a good roundhouse kick in response into the skull head. The skeleton warrior was knocked back, but still was not taken apart by the kick. Lara had to think quickly, before the un-dead warrior will strike back at her again. Then she remembered what Illiat had said 'They are the spirits of the ancient protectors of the temple. They were entombed here to make sure no-one would try and take the stone'.

Maybe that whirlwind was some sort of magic, which had reacted with the bones and the entombed sprits to fuse together the warrior. 'I could try my pistols, it's better than nothing', Lara drew her dual pistols and started firing on the main ribcage of the skeleton warrior, and to her surprise it had worked! The skeleton warrior reacted heavily to Lara's shooting. First it began to step back as if it was absorbing the impacts of the bullets, but unexpectedly it started to sprint towards Lara. Like being in its last breath wanting to desperately stab her body with the sword.

'Phew!' the skeleton warrior was no more. It had fallen after Lara increased the pace in her shooting style at the warrior, as it was running straight at her. Whilst it had fallen, a wisp of smoke surrounded the warrior, and out of the blue the bone remains were vanished into thin air. The encounter was an unusual one for Lara, she had never come across anything like it before, and it was starting to freak her out a bit. 'I wonder if I will face anything much worse' she thought chillingly and set about pulling the switch, and getting onto the other ledge to pass through the now unblocked doorway.

The next obstacle that was stopping Lara continuing her journey was another locked passageway, but this time there was no switch or key hole to be found. Instead, in the middle of the room she was in, there was a wooden stand and nothing else in the room except for the fire bowls that were lit for room brightness. Lara examined the wooden stand, on top there had been what looked like a picture but all mixed up, it had 14 pieces with one piece missing. What it was when Lara came to conclusion, was a single fifteen block puzzle or game of fifteen, 'Wow, I never expected the Aztecs to set up this type of game to challenge the intruder', Lara had played game of fifteen often before, so she had a method of solving this type of puzzle. She saw a representation image within the wooden frame. It had gold and stone properties mixed together. In her mind she identified the placement of the pieces and numbered them, so they would help her solve the puzzle.

Using this principle, Lara solved the puzzle in a matter of a few minutes and in the end, the puzzle itself was a picture of an Aztec drawing. Pleased with solving the ancient puzzle, Lara was rewarded with the sound of the doorway opening and revealing a new passageway. Not only that, also one of the flaming bowls to the left of the doorway had been extinguished and dropped something onto the floor. Lara picked the object up and was surprised at what it was, a key. But this was not just any old key. This one had been hand-crafted so the turning point had been sculpted into a skull. It had been magnificent to hold such a relic object. It was shame though it had to be used to open something. Lara stored it away into her backpack and went through the newly opened doorway.

There had been a very long corridor, which Lara had to cover quite a distance and then she was met with a huge arched tunnel. "UUuuuHhhhh" Lara turned her back quickly and saw that she was being followed by another mummy right behind her. Each step was steadily walking at her direction with arms raised ready to grab and kill. Knowing it takes a good couple of bullets for the mummy to fall, Lara made some distance between her and the mummy. She drew her pistols and began shooting at the bandage chest. Instantly, the mummy had taken a step backwards from the impact of the first few bullets, it was certainly weaker compared to the previous mummy she had encountered. It had fallen after around several bullets.

Along the corridor Lara was met with two options, there had been a hole in the ground she'd had passed. The hole looked a bit steep for Lara to fall within, and at the corner there was another passage leading onwards. She decided it was best to keep following the passage, and upon this it had turned a corner with the ground been risen. Having to make a jump onto the formed ledge, Lara saw a switch a few yards away.

Two black scorpions approached Lara on the way. Having to deal with them, Lara drew her pistols. Each pistol pointed at their dark bodies, and she pulled the trigger, causing both pistols to fire. Both bodies started to spill a pool of black blood between them and they were no longer moving towards Lara's direction. Lara went up to the switch, it had been hanging down from the ceiling, being cautious that this was another trap, she pulled on it. Without warning, there had been a sound and a feel of water gushing around underground, Lara thought 'Maybe there had been a carving underneath, which the water may have come from'. Since there had been a dead-end in the passage she was in, Lara backtracked her way to where the manhole in the passageway was. Now, it was water filled to the brink.

'Do I have to get my clothes wet again?' Lara dived into the manhole. Fortunately it had been suitable size for her to squeeze through. Lara had a bit of difficulty seeing in the water, but managed anyway thanks to her waterproof flashlight. The beam had been bright enough for Lara to see and swim through the layout of the flooded route. During which she came across a few more electric eels to avoid while swimming too.

After a few moments, Lara was running out of oxygen, she needed to find air quick before she drowns. Looking around she saw nothing that could help, and that was when the panic had arose. As swiftly as possible, Lara swam through, continuously scanning for an airway breather along the way, until the route now led upwards and there it was. It was like light at the end of a dark tunnel. By now at this time, Lara's lungs were bursting for air. She changed the style of her swim into a fast paced front crawl and started her descend upwards, hoping it wasn't her mind playing tricks.

A rush of relief came to Lara. Unanticipated she was met with a breath of fresh air within her lungs, and was treading water above the surface. A few moments after catching her breath, there had been a ledge in front of Lara to climb up upon. A few yards away from where she was standing were hall-like doors. She opened one of them. They were indeed very heavy, so she had to use nearly all her strength to just move it a few feet. She entered through the double doors, and inside saw a huge skeleton statue in what seemed to be at the end of the hallway. But as she was staring at the spellbinding statue, a figure emerged from the shadows, it was wearing black cloaked robes with a hood and carrying what seemed to be a walking stick for support.

Lara saw the figure and drew her pistols, waiting to see what move it would do next. It stopped in place, only a couple of meters in front of her. It looked up and Lara gasped, it reminded her of what she had seen in the movies, but there it was a ... reaper!