Terror crept up Paul's spine as he gaped at the creature, this massive beast could end him in one swipe of its lion paws if it desired, but both of them stood there watching each other. Paul's heart felt like it would burst out of his chest, his eyes trembled, his lips quivered. He has to run but he couldn't, every muscle in his body was screaming run but Paul's mind was frozen in terror. What could he, a measly human, do in this situation. He stood there for what felt like an eternity and then, the beast made its move approaching Paul, this was the wake up call his mind needed, as the beast approached Paul took in a big beath and turned to start running towards the altar in centre of the church with all of the speed he could muster up.
"AHA!!" he screamed as he fell down from his running position, he looked up in terror and there it was the beast Infront of him once again, he turned his head around towards the door to see that there was nothing there, 'how does it keep getting Infront of me?' Paul thought but as quickly the thought came it disappeared back, as he got up as fast as he can and turned toward the door to run to the exit of the church but once more the beast materialized Infront of him and its lips curved upwards slightly to reveal its fangs, it was…. an uncanny smile like, a predator messing with its prey.
Paul thought what he should then he decided he would walk backwards to the altar very slowly to not anger the beast, but the beast just kept walking towards him, yet he didn't stop walking slowly backwards. 'Slow and steady' he thought as he backed off. While walking backward his leg stepped on something, he looked down and saw a skull under his foot, he quickly ignored it looked up at beast it was still walking towards him, he didn't know what to do, desperate Paul decided to look around for other exists, he looked to his left only by moving only his eyes and moving his neck just a little, in order not give the beast an idea of what he was thinking, and then he saw a thin solid cylindric metal with the diameter of about 4 cm standing there and at the top of this metal was a basket like structure that was made by metals about 3cm in width and this basket contained burned ashes and in one of the sides of the basket there looked like a symbol, like the one on the boulder Paul saw the other day but not quite, an idea sparked in his head. He turned his head to right side now moving his neck, he saw the same metal but this one was destroyed and claw marks on …. A lot of them too big to be made by the beast, but Paul didn't have time to ponder this. He moved his neck more to the right and surely enough the beast followed his gaze. And then Paul kicked the skull under his legs without even seeing the destination, to his left towards the metal structure, when the skull hit the structure, it swayed and fell to the ground.
When the structure finally struck the ground there was a sound of metal falling but that was not the only thing there was, at first it was subtle but it grew more noticeable as moments passed by, other sound came from that direction and they were not of things falling down, it was a cacophony of frantic screams, and what sounded like an angelic music coming from the place, the beast had already jerked its head towards left, with its face showing a hint of another emotion Paul couldn't name, before he got a good at the creature its body was already facing towards the left, Paul took the opportunity and started to sprint towards the door, he looked back at the beast as he got closer and closer to freedom and the beast looked furious foaming at the mouth, Paul turned back deciding to focus on his freedom, before he knew it he was out of the door, but he didn't stop far from it he continued up the hill he slid down when he got into the church first.
He ran and ran and ran, he didn't know for how long nor how much and he didn't care he wanted to be as farthest as possible from that church, he didn't dare to look back even once after he saw the beast foaming at those screams, there was nothing going on insides Paul's mind he couldn't afford the distraction. He began to slow down after a while of running, his breath became more laboured, and he couldn't keep running anymore he stopped bending to clutch his knees as he took a massive breath and breathed out all of the air in his lungs."God…" he said still struggling to catch his breath."How did I survive that...?" he continued as his breath began to slow down."What was that thing?" he said to himself remembering the beast, " It looked like some kind of sphinx." he remembered the mythical creatures from stories, "Thank God, I escaped it or I would have been like those skeletons in the church." Paul shuddered even thinking about it.
As Paul continued to calm down, he felt a little nudge in his heart, "That experience must have fried my adrenalin." Paul thought, but he couldn't quite shake the feeling, he didn't know how this feeling came to be but he knew something was off. His mind rushed to find the reason then he saw it, still bending down and clutching his knees he saw a shadow on the sand below him, he quickly turned up to see. The beast… or Sphinx what ever it is, was flying above him with its bat like wings out gliding in the air. Paul's heart sank, somehow the sphinx found him, before Paul formed even one coherent thought the beast dived down from the air with its paw stretched in front of it.
Paul dived under the sphinx's assault, as the beast roared to the sky, Paul quickly got up form where he dived and tried to stand up but then he felt a sharp pain in his right leg, he slowly bent his neck to look at his leg and there… was a massive wound on his shin in the mark of claw.