Tomb Raider: Curse Of The Sword Chapter 8: Cave Ruins, a tomb raider fanfic

- Cave Ruins

It was too dim to see anything. There was no source of light nearby at all and Lara was initially blinded by the darkness. Without delay, she reached for her backpack, took out a handy flare, and ignited its strip. A brilliant light from the flare shone brightly, showing Lara her new interior surroundings. The walls were made of a rough textured stone, not shaped properly, so most of these large rocks stuck out from the walls. Some of these were quite sharp, and Lara did her best to avoid them.

There also were some gloomy voodoo masks sticking out of the walls too, which to Lara were fascinating to observe. She viewed them more closely up, using the flare to examine each one. Compared to the rest of the cave structure, these built-in masks were magnificently engraved and shaped. But Lara had no time to fully analyse them. She had to stop the Bokor, who was no doubt further up ahead in the cave.

Lara advanced forward through the cave corridor. This was till she reached the end, where some stairs had leaded her to further delve underground. It started to get brighter, when she kept on going. Hence she had no use of the flare anymore. She carried on down the stairs, which seemed to go on forever. During this time, Lara prepared her weaponry for battle with the Bokor. She loaded up the shotgun to its maximum capacity, and held it tightly whist continuing forward. The stairs led Lara to a large cave alcove. She glimpsed through, to see what was ahead.

A massive circular dead-end room was through the alcove, and in the centre was the person whom Lara has been after all this time... THE BOKOR! He was facing the opposite direction, kneeled down in front of a huge statue. It looked like he was worshipping it, and Lara ignored him for the time being, scanning the room. The chamber was supported by a series of pillars, along with two other statues at both sides of the room. They had the faces of the masks Lara had encountered in the entrance, and were holding flame bowls, which lit up the room quite luminously.

There was nothing else standing out from the room, so Lara further examined the statue the Bokor seemed to be praying to. It was that moment she saw the cursed sword. It was placed into the statue offering stone tablet. 'Blast! The Bokor must be performing the final stages of the ritual' Lara now fully understood what he was actually doing. Having now seen enough, Lara aimed her shotgun straight at him, and moved into the room.

"I've been expecting you Ms. Croft" the Bokor spoke out, with his dark croaky voice and his back still turned away from her. Lara was initially surprised, but she still focused the front sight of her shotgun directly at him.

"Ha! You think you can stop me, but I'm afraid my plans to restore my beloved queen will come to fruition. It won't be long now until she takes over your body, leaving your soul to be DESTROYED!" the Bokor told Lara menacingly.

"Well as long as I'm still breathing, I'm certainly not going to let that happen. I will defeat, and put an end to your terror!" Lara vowed. With the end of that statement, using the shotgun, she shot a shell straight in the direction at his body.

Unbelievably however, the shot was unsuccessful, as the Bokor began to levitate into the thin air, and turned to meet Lara face to face. "Now, you shall die!" he roared out. His hair now was shaking left to right, similar to a medusa effect, as he lifted his arms upright, preparing a flame ball to fire at Lara. Once the flame ball was fully charged up, he threw it right at Lara's position. Using her athletic skills, Lara managed to dodge the flame attack unscathed, and reacted quickly by firing the shotgun whilst he was hovering.

Surreally enough, just as the shot was about to hit him, he dematerialized and vanished out of sight. Lara was flummoxed by the Bokor's abilities, and had to hurriedly come up with a plan, otherwise she would fail, and become his victim forever. Suddenly he reappeared behind Lara, and was about to give a good knockout punch, but Lara had already sensed him and at once ducked to avoid his attack. Annoyed by his missed strike, he dematerialized once again, only this time to hover in the air and tried again firing a flame ball at Lara.

During this time, Lara continuously dodged the Bokor's spells and line of attacks, and every time she did, he furthermore got angry at her and himself for missing. Lara's plan was to wait until the Bokor got tired out, since she had a lot of stamina gained from previous adventures and training. When she saw that he started to get worn out, she would then reach for the sword, in which she assumed he will try and stop her. There would be a moment he would be caught off guard, and with that small window of opportunity, Lara would take her chance by shooting him head first with her shotgun.

Soon after thinking of this plan, Lara had now seen that the Bokor was already drained from using too much of his power. So Lara's plan came into reality. She sprinted towards the sword, and reached out for it. She felt the Bokor's presence right behind her, with him screaming "NOOOOOO!"

Without hesitation, Lara dived and turned to face him straight on, pulled the barrel of her shotgun and squeezed the trigger. BANG! This time around, the shot was effective and the Bokor shrieked his final words, "AAAARRRRGGGGHH! FORGIVE ME MY QUEEN!" Having been stopped in his tracks, the Bokor tried his best to reach out for the sword for one last time. But his last breath had given out, and straightaway he fallen onto the floor to his death. The Bokor was no more. Lara stood over his deceased body, looking over at the corpse, 'At last! I am free from the curse' she sighed with relief. She left the body where it was, and moved onto the sword, which was still sealed in place.

'I must make sure this can never happen again', she thought to herself and walked towards the cursed sword.

Two days later...

Lara stepped into the New York Museum of Antiquities entranceway. There she was excitedly welcomed by Jane, whom she hadn't seen in two days.

"Lara! You're back! Good to see you in one peace! Is everything okay?" Jane asked her good friend, they both hugged each other.

"Yes! Everything's fine. The cult is now finished!" Lara told Jane happily.

"But what about the sword, can it still be used to raise Paveaux?" wondered Jane, awaiting Lara's answer.

"Don't worry! I've taken care of it" replied Lara, as she brought out a timber box from her backpack and opened it. Inside, revealed part of the sword fragment (the handle and part of the blade), that Lara broke off, effectively ending the curse. Even though Lara herself didn't find any treasures in her adventure to take back home, she did save the most precious treasure of all...her life.

The End

Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword (Based On 'Tomb Raider: Curse of the Sword' Game Boy Colour Game)

Tomb Raider and Lara Croft