"Why is the eagle's eye shining? I am getting a bad feeling." Prajwal hid behind the statues so that the eagle couldn't spot him. He was loosing confidence as he saw that eagle had started looking around with the look of 'got you' on it's face. It's search was nearing the area he was hiding. He looked at the timer, "1 minutes and 55 second remaining. Time seems to have been slowed down. I feel like i have been running away from it for half hour." Suddenly eagle stopped moving around and started staring at the single spot. As Prajwal didn't hear the flapping sound, he peeked towards the direction the eagle was. "Oh my god." As he looked towards eagle, he saw eagle staring at him with the cold eyes. It seemed as if the previous anger had completely dissapeared. But he knew that now eagle had gone serious. "Previously it took me as toy that could be toyed but now it sees me as it's enemy. The difficulty just spiked. Shit..."
The eagle charged towards him with it's beak pointed. It's speed increased and it couldn't change the trajectory of it's flight. At that moment Prajwal started running for from the eagle's attack line. "It will surely crash with the statues. This bird does have child's brain. If i can continue to dodge, i should be able to last 2 minutes with my stamina but i don't think it will be that easy. It will only crash once but after that it will chase after me and won't need to search for me."
Meanwhile as eagle saw it's prey out of it's attack line it tried to stop by flapping it's wing in opposite direction, but it still couldn't stop itself completely and crashed into one of the statues and fell on the sand. Due to the impact eagle was hurt and the statue brust into pieces which scattered in all direction and further crashed into other statues. More statues were destroyed but the force of the pieces of statue had decreased so, they just fell on the ground. The area around looked devasted. There were rubbles everywhere. "That scared me. What a chain reaction. Almost half of the statues in this area have been destroyed by that attack. If it was a full force strike, it would have destroyed all the statues in this area." Prajwal had anticipated the crossfire so he had kept his distance from the area and was moving towards the entrance of the pyramid. He was sure that the eagle will give him chase as the statues were normal sclupture but the eagle was an evolved beast with mana as well as skills. He had already witnessed two skills and was sure that they were super useful.
As the rubbles had all settled down and the area had become sandy, it was a nice cover. Prajwal sprinted towards the entrance. As he was nearing the pyramid, he heard a painful cry. He looked back and saw disheaved and groggy eagle. It was hurt all around and there were scratches it its body. Some of it's parts were dripping with blood. But it's eyes were cold as frozen lake. "That sure did a number on it." Prajwal was excieted about it's injuries as it would be easier for him to escape. He stopped looking back and ran forward. The eagle as well flew towards him with it's claws pointed at him disregarding it's condition. Eventhough it was hurt, it was closing distance between it and Prajwal. Distance kept on decreasing until there was just 1 meter between them. The eagle extended it's claws and speeded up.
As Prajwal was running ahead with eagle on his tail, he disregarded everything on his mind and focused only on running."I can't get distracted in this condition else it's game over." Suddenly he got deathly vives. He felt as if he would die. He trusted that instinct and rolled on the ground sideways. "that was a close call" Prajwal looked and he saw eagle's claw passing through his original spot. "I would have been pierced by that claw, had i not trusted my instincts." He immediately stood up and started running towards the broken statues. He couldn't get to the pyramid as eagle was on the way to pyramid.
Eagle was loosing it's cool. It had controlled it's anger so that it could kill it's prey but time and again it's prey was slipping from it's hand. As it had speeded up, it took some time to change the direction and again chased after Prajwal. Prajwal was using bird's speed into his advantage. As eagle was fast, it couldn't abruptly change it's direction. Prajwal saw the bird's body reaction and formulated the plan. He was nearing the destroyed area when he again felt that death was upon him. He again rolled on the ground and ran in opposite direction. He sprinted this time with all the energy in him as he knew that the bird won't be fooled third time. As for the eagle, it had again lost the ldistance and was tired. It had chased it's prey used his skill twice and had crashed into the sclupture and buried under the rubble. That had cost it a ton of it's stamina. It tiredly flew towards it's target but the distance between them wasn't decreasing as fast as before. One of them was flexin using skills and playing with it's prey while the other one was conserving energy for rainy days. It was obvious who would win.
This time Prajwal successfully reached the pyramid but the eagle too reached there almost at the same time with little to no difference. It didn't attack by speeding up, it had learnt it's lesson.
As they entered the pyramid, the surrounding went completely dark. Prajwal ran minding his steps. The eagle was forced to close it's wings and walk as the passage wasn't wide enough for it's flight. As it was walking, it's speed was same as that of Prajwal. Only about minute were left for the trial to end and as the area was dark and eagle had already used it's searching skill it couldn't see him. right? "If the bird can use it then it's over for me. Anyways what is this place? It kind of feels special. I went through many temples, cathedral and Roman ceiling but this one feels different. Maybe there's something here. Now that I think clearly though this trial are is mixture of ancient buildings, there is clear segregation of temples, cathedrals and pyramid. If this pyramid is special then other smaller pyramid is not special then we can assume that every big buildings in each section is special."
Prajwal didn't get attacked anymore. "Eagle can't use it's skill anymore." He started walking instead of running. As he moved deeper, it was getting brighter. Then he saw a lamp burning. "Is this the legendary lamp which never extinguish placed in front of tomb." Prajwal found stairs leading downwards. "Shouldn't I be going upwards in the pyramid. This pyramid seems to be tomb." He moved down the stairs. As he moved down, his instincts warned him to run away. After the near death experience in 1st trial, he had developed an institution of survival. When his life was at risk, he would feel threatened from within. That's what saved him from the claw attack from the eagle. But it was different this time, it didn't warned but it was like screaming. "It seems there is something far more dangerous below. Should I risk it or run away? But if there's risk there must be reward. I should go there when time's about to be over. He waited till half minute was left and slowly started going downstairs. He ignored his mind's scream.
As he reached to the end of stairs, there was a large ancient looking door. As soon as his eyes fell on the carving on the door he felt cold sweat run down his spine. He was shivering unconsciously.