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Old 28-02-12, 23:05   #7
Craig Michaels
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Underpus's Revenge

"Oh, that's lovely. I hope it's as blind as it looks."

Lara grimaced as she stared at the giant octopus, its bulk filling the pool of the vast chamber. She could see its tentacles wound tightly around pillars, suction cups adhering stickily to the stone. It was totally entrenched here. Yuck, she thought.

The walls dripped, the viscid limestone glittering in the lamplight. Convenient that someone had left the gas burning. Glancing upward, she saw the underside of the canopy of a great chandelier, the finials shaped like sharpened spikes. Surely this was too convenient.

She timorously picked her way along the passage to her right, leaping over crevices and avoiding the jagged rocks. I really must get waterproof boots, she thought. I always seem to end up barefoot when I go diving.

Lara hummed a bar from the Beatles song stuck in her head as she jumped to grab a crevice in a crumbling wall. She wasn't so sure about wanting to be under the sea after all.

Eventually she made it down, slipping on the shattered rock and avoiding taking a plunge into the octopus’s pool. How could she get passed it? It was firmly ensconced, blocking any movement forward. Dropping the chandelier on it would kill it, certainly, but what would she be left with then? A gigantic dead cephalopod that still blocked the passage.

Lara tried to recall what she knew about octopuses—it was a Greek word, not Latin, so the plural was not, in fact "octopi." They had been worshiped in ancient times in the South Pacific and Peru, and paintings of them had been found on amphorae in Knossos and Byzantium. They also tasted terrible in sushi, but were fine when fried.

Well, there was no help for it. She took a deep breath, clenching and unclenching her hands as she brushed her fingertips over the twin pistols at her sides.

It would have to be a good old-fashioned epic battle.

Stealing herself, she took two steps back and then performed a graceful swan dive into the water. The splash had aroused the interest of the octopus, whose tentacles began to lift slowly, as with great effort, while Lara swam through the murky water toward the creature. She wanted to get to it at close range: she wasn't sure how thick its slippery skin might be.

She emerged for air, and scrambled up onto a rock near the center of the pool. The creature seemed angry now, as if it knew it had been intruded upon. It's bloated head rocked from side to side as first one, then another, then another tentacle detached themselves from the surrounding walls. Lara swiftly drew her pistols, leveling them between the creature's eyes, ready to shoot. The octopus heaved itself up, seeming to grow even larger as it loomed over her, eclipsing the light of the lamp above. She readied herself. Three more seconds, and she would be close enough to fire into its eyes and kill it instantly. Two seconds. The water churned around her, and the octopus made a horrible sucking, roaring sound as it drew close. One second.

Suddenly there was a muffled explosion behind Lara. She wheeled as she heard voices calling out. The octopus too, had frozen, as if confused. There were other people coming into the room. Lara's eyes flickered between the giant monster on one side and the chamber’s entrance on the other. Then she hurriedly holstered her pistols and dove back into the water, swimming as fast as she could for a shadowed crevice on the far side of the pool.

Several men in full scuba gear, and wielding automatic weapons, stepped into the flickering light. There must be someone else following her, sending mercenaries after her! It sounded like Amanda's work.

One of the men reached up and pulled the mask from over his face, and called out in an Irish accent: "Ah hell, look at the size of that thing. Come on boys, we’ll have to blast it." All five took aim. Lara held her breath.

The sound of the gunfire was drowned by the roaring of the creature and the cracking of stone as it heaved itself bodily from the water, hurling its massive body toward its attackers. Lara heard screams as the men were overtaken, two knocked senseless by flailing tentacles to plunge to the rocks below. One was picked up by another looping tentacle and shaken like a baby rattle. Meanwhile, the exit from the chamber was now clear. As the octopus finished off the last of its attackers, the crunch of bones audible in the echoing chamber, Lara clambered through the door and on up the stone-hewn steps.

She was glad now that she hadn't killed the octopus. She found she actually felt rather fond of it. She'd have to think of a good nickname for it later.

Last edited by Craig Michaels; 28-02-12 at 23:08.
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