-Attack of the Nightmare Demon Phoenix Guardian
Looking from right to left and above upon the buildings, the duo couldn't find the monster they had heard outside from within the shrine. Aware that a sudden strike can fall upon them at any moment, Lara and Ayesha took opposite sides to each other, to suss out the whereabouts of the enemy. Suddenly in the darkness, Ayesha spotted red ruby eyes shining brightly up on the roof of the temple, watching them intensively.
"Lara! Over There!" Ayesha shouted out, in response Lara swivelled round and saw the same gleaming red eyes that were watching them closely. As soon as it knew it got the full attention of the two pursuers, it flapped its wings vigorously, ready to dive and attack them full on.
"Shoot It!" Lara called to Ayesha, as they quickly trained their weapons on the unidentifiable fiend.
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
The winged unknown monstrosity swooped down at a speed that almost pierced and cut through Lara's body. Fortunately, in the nick of time Lara foresaw this aim from the creature, and dived to her left, missing the beak of the bird. As their torches still shone, they moved them to directly see what their adversary was. The light allowed them to see it was a large bird creature, with an aura of fear and shadow. It was covered with midnight black feathers, with a fiery purple tail. Viciously it circled the two raiders, planning its next line of attack, only this time it was thirstier for bloodshed.
"Ayesha! It's a phoenix! I recognise the figure in many mythical scripts, though this one is different..."
"More demon-like compared to a normal one!"
"Yes! Quick! We need to defeat it! I don't want to find out what it has in store for us!"
Forever more they kept trigger happy on their pistols firing at the dark phoenix, but it seemed to have little effect upon the bird. It was at that point, Ayesha saw the winged creature looking like it was charging up, preparing for an unnatural attack on the duo.
"Lara! Find cover, it's gonna unleash something horrible!"
Lara and Ayesha ran their separate ways to find some cover from the upcoming assault, with Ayesha taking herself behind a demolished standing wall, whilst Lara took refuge at the back of a large boulder. This should provide enough protection from the impact blast the bird was about to make.
The time had come for the phoenix to release its brutal spell upon the two humans. A focused overdriven beam shot out of its mouth and immediately blasted the wall Ayesha was using as a shield. Beginning to crumble apart, the bricks splattered out of place onto the floor, leaving Ayesha vulnerable for another blast. Quickly Lara reacted to help out her partner, bringing out the crossbow and loading it up with an arrow from her pouch. She pulled out from her cover aiming immediately at the dark demon.
Instead of the body though, Lara took full accurate aim at the bird's blood eyes, and paired to the precision of the laser sight, with one arrow she'd successfully hit one of the eyes. Thanks to this move, the bird was caught off guard and veered it's targeting off completely into the other direction, missing Ayesha by a long shot. It gave off a howl of a cry in pain, as it had become blinded in one eye.
"WRAWRWAR!" It roared in anger. Revenge was now on the agenda for the beast, as it was determined to stop the two thieves at any cost. They were indeed a challenge, but it was still an almighty monster. It flapped its wings aggressively high, reaching up to the underground peek to where it was well hidden in darkness. It was there not only to recover for a brief moment, but also imagining what it has in store for the two adventurers to endure.
"Ayesha, are you okay?" Lara came over to Ayesha, who had frozen still from the look the phoenix gave at her before Lara intervened.
"Yeah, that was a tense moment, thought I was a goner for sure, thanks"
"No worries. Well, it's not over yet, that thing is still living and probably conjuring up another attack for us" Lara said, looking above to see if she could find where the demon was at.
"What shall we do? Our weapons are useless. It's like the beast has steel armoured feathers to deflect our bullets. Yours was an impressive lucky shot right into the left eye" Ayesha pointed out.
"Unfortunately Ayesha, I think that's our only way. So here's the plan, blind the phoenix, then give it everything you've got" Lara said with a smile. Ayesha smiled back at Lara, and they split up once again, one going opposite direction to each other. They had something up their sleeve for the bird.
Two long minutes passed, and there was no sign of the phoenix at all. Both the ladies were wondering what was going on, did the bird go back to the nest and give up, or was the dark monster preparing to unleash a hideous spell. It was all too silent, only at certain times the sound of flapping was heard up above...
Then as the duo were about to come out of their concealed places, the shadow phoenix had built up enough charge to make its move. Its fowl scream filled the broken city walls like a high pitched supersonic wave, and it began to dive down in an aerial strike mode, beak first heading right in the middle of the long abandoned streets. At a high speed, it drifted in and out of the shackled buildings, seeking its enemies to kill with one final blow. However what it did not expect was the two jumping out from their hiding places very swiftly as it was flying pass.
BANG! Ayesha landed a direct hit on the last red eye on the creature, and it whaled out in agony and frustration. It slowed down because of this, all the phoenix could see was nothingness, and even though it had lived in the city ruins for many years, the creature did not know where to manoeuvre around to. Paired with not knowing the positioning of the two humans, it didn't have enough power to foresee where they were. The demon had to recharge and regain its exhausted power although that would take time which the fiend didn't have enough off. Just as it was about to react and retreat away, the nightshade phoenix became bombarded with ammunition and firepower from the intruders.
"Great shot Ayesha! Now let's give him everything we got!" Lara said applauding Ayesha's efforts and spurring her on.
"Let's go!" Ayesha cheered along with Lara, as they reloaded their pistols with fresh clips and went trigger happy against the now blinded dark phoenix.
Acknowledging that it wasn't going to survive this ordeal, the phoenix had one special move before it gave up to the two humans yet. It was going to be the swan song of the bird, one last final performance that would surely mean the end of not only its existence, but also the intruders as well to its untamed mind. Now was the time to make that action...
Witnessing the bird from the ground, Lara and Ayesha suddenly saw a burst of brilliant flames ignited underneath the body in mid-air. A drop of burning fire exploded onto the floor growing from a small patch into large field, engulfing anything in its path. Overseeing what the bird was planning, and without a moment's hesitation for a stopping thought, Lara and Ayesha ran as fast as their legs could take them away from the fire, not wanting to be burnt alive to a crisp.
The carbon smoke gradually arose from the flames, intoxicating and filling up the underground cave, if the duo were caught within its breath, they were sure to suffocate and choke to death. Passing the rows of old out of date skeletal structures, Lara and Ayesha did not look back even once, they kept their focus on getting to a safe enough distance, well away from the dangerous black smoke. They must have sprinted a good 500 metres, leaving their legs excruciating in pain from the built up lactic acid in their muscles. It was a run that saved their lives. Panting and taking deep quick breaths, Lara and Ayesha turned around to see the conclusion of the last given attack. Luckily for them the pursuing of flames ended behind them and extinguished, the result left the phoenix's power waning and fully used up.
Many formerly leftover ancient constructions were caught in the blaze, none left intact and were now nothing but ash and dust. How unfortunate 'twas, an old lost city that had masses of memories, now all wiped out in a flash. Research on the city was now no longer viable, any evidence was near to all destroyed, leaving only Lara and Ayesha being the only two people seeing and bearing in the remains of Mystiaja. All was now lost in the fire, except for the two humans...
As the dust began to settle, everything soon became clearer in the underground cave. The duo happily saw each other still standing though sweating from the heat and exhaustion.
"Phew! That was a close one!" Ayesha breathlessly said, as she looked over at Lara's direction, seeing her too taking a few deep breaths.
"Yeah you're right, it was indeed..." Lara said until her sentence was suddenly ended by a low vocal.
Their sentences to each other were cut short abruptly again by the sound of the dark phoenix, but this time around instead of it howling with full strength and power, there was only a small growl. Overwhelmed, the creature huddled itself together with its wings and was wallowing on the ashy floor suffering from the damages not only from the two ladies, but also to the utter harm it had caused to itself. Lara and Ayesha walked over to the beast, and drew out their pistols. They took a moments silence and then they delivered the final three shots to the shadow phoenix, ending its long enduring life here in the lost city. Victory was seemingly theirs, though a series of unexpected events happened in a flash of white light waves...