//------------------------------//
// Escalation 
// Story: Theory of nothing 
// by Elidjz 
//------------------------------//

"Well, that escalated quickly."





The sharp thing flying towards me was a claw. That claw was still attached to a creature. I did not notice it in time, but fortunately, someone else did. The creature was stabbed by a jagged blade under its jaw that pierced through it's whole skull.

The blade itself was a shiny sickle, with a gold colored grip. The being holding the blade was one of those very elegantly clothed beings that I saw back in the more luxurious stand. It had discarded its robes and most of its silky clothes. It was still wearing pants and covered in different bracelets and necklaces. It also had... Tattoos? The white markings on its body did not look natural.

The being held a sickle in one hand and a shortsword in the other. It was bipedal, had a long, thin tail and had a three-eyed dragon head. It elegantly swung its blades around lopping limbs off. The way it moved looked like it was dancing. A beautiful and bloody dance. It clearly noticed me, but seemed content ignoring me.

I became aware of my surroundings again as more blood splattered on my face. 

And I panicked. And felt sickly.

I managed to calm down after taking cover behind a big metal plate. I stared at the mace that I was holding in my hoof and had somehow not dropped it. And the amulet was glowing brightly. I could feel the magic coursing through me. I could use some illusions to help in the fighting. Or maybe just blast something  with magic.

Coming up with an idea of what illusions to use wasn't easy because of all of the infernal noise around me. So I would just have to blast something in the face. Or use levitation in a clever way. I quickly proved how clever I was by lifting a big box up with my magic, both a few creatures and beings stared at the floating, glowing box with curiosity, before blindly throwing it into the fray.

It clearly angered something, as long claws pierced through my metal cover, almost impaling me. One of the slender, gray scaled creatures had noticed me and was now trying to claw my face off. I grabbed it with my magic and threw it away in panic, while it's claws were still stuck into the metal plate. This caused most of its claws to snap off.

Unfortunately more creatures noticed this. Some of the tinier three headed, six armed or hedgehog like creatures managed to slip by the shadowy beings and heading straight towards me. I swung my mace wildly, hitting one of the hedgehogs in the face. A loud crack was heard and blood flew out of the creature's nose.

I then blindly and wildly blasted some spells in their directions. Most mist, but two of the creatures were violently thrown back. The others were also slowed down as they tried to dodge all of my spells. This made them easier targets for the shadowy beings. Some of the creatures were shot by guns or bows or other projectile weapons. Others decided that the beings were more of a threat and went to combat them. 

Only three of the creatures were still heading towards me. A devious Idea came to mind. I fired a few spells trying to hit the one in front. I got slightly desperate as they kept dodging my attacks and getting closer. I finally managed to hit it and then it proceeds to swell up and blow up in a gross and disturbing fashion. The other two creatures look at me and then at each other before running away.

The gory mess disappeared and was replaced by the (unconscious?) and intact body of the creature. I Silently thanked that one horror movie I had seen along time ago, as it gave me the idea for that ilusion. I also was impressed by how... realistic it was. 
Which caused me to stare at the amulet. I was obviously disturbed by the fact that as far as I knew, it was powered by blood. And I was partially covered in blood. And both fortunately and unfortunately it wasn't my blood.

One of the gigantic cyclopen creatures suddenly burst through a wall and crushed multiple beings and creatures. It then swung it's long arms around. It was unceremoniously taken out as its skull was partially blown to smithereens by some strange looking firework.

I found the ones responsible for taking out the cyclops. They were busy loading another strange looking firework into a long tube. They then fired it. Multiple creatures were blown up by it. They then reloaded it again and repeated this over and over again. 

This proved quite devastating. Even more when the shadowy beings started bringing more of those contraptions alongside different kinds of canons. 

This was answered by multiple cyclops and creatures as big as them bursting inside alongside another wave of the tinier creatures. 

More blood and limbs flew around in a violent and chaotic manner. I tried to avoid puking as the smell of blood became more and more pungent. Unfortunately, I was starting to get used to all of this. 

Or maybe that was for the best? Who knew how long I would stay here. And if I kept panicking then I wouldn't survive for long, even less go back home. Especially as another creature was heading towards me. I took a deep breath. Lifted my mace. I would have to fight for my life.

I then blasted the creature in the chest, throwing it back into the fray. I then shouted and reluctantly jumped into the fray blasting spells, breaking bones and joining the fight. Using my armor and illusions to protect myself as much as possible.





Everything looked grim as the walls and floor were colored red. Both sides had been butchering each other for what had to have been hours. I myself was covered in cuts and bruises. However the magic from the amulet kept me awake and dulled the pain.

The fighting had escalated as the creatures managed to enter some of the other floors. They had smashed through the walls and were now climbing up the walls. 

I hadn't done that much in that time. I had simply swung my mace around and fired some spells, which had allowed me to knock a few creatures out. But it wasn't much compared to the utter tartarus that had been inflicted on both sides. I knew that, the beings knew that and even the creatures knew it. As they had stopped attacking and were regrouping and taking cover. Both sides had taken cover behind the rubble and different kinds of shields.

I was grateful for the breather that this temporary stalemate allowed. Though it wasn't peaceful, at all. Sometimes a creature would spit in our direction and a being would fire back. And the opposite happened just as often. There was also the throwing of miscellaneous objects. mainly rocks.

Both sides were also busy licking their wounds. What doctors, I assumed, were busy amputating and sewing limbs back together. Weapons were being reloaded and repaired. Swords were being replaced and shields were patched in all possible ways. 

Fred didn't look worse for wear. He was simply busy instaling what looked like a bigger gun with a lever. The being with nice clothes and jewelry stood close to me. It still had it's sickle in one hand. It's shortsword was missing. And so was the lower half of it's other arm, with only a bandaged stump remaining. 

It then stood up as it and all of the other beings were now ready to continue fighting.

However at that moment all of the creatures ran outside through the doors and holes in the walls. To the surprise of everyone present. After standing there confused for a few seconds, some of the beings looked like they might be about to cheer thinking that they had won. This feeling was quickly dashed as a big thump could be heard. Which caused the confusion to come back.

This thumping slowly became louder and louder. It then caused the ground to shake. Panic slowly spread amongst everyone, as they had no idea what caused this. I however had an idea. And it was bad. We all started retreating away from the entrances.

As I backed away I bumped into something. Cosmo. He stood there, with a smile on his face. "Start act 2." He said with a joyful tone.

A gigantic claw then slammed through the walls, causing everything to shake and many of the supports and walls to collapse on themselves crushing anything unfortunate enough to be beneath them.

And Cosmo kept on smiling.