Act 0 Chapter 2 - Void
A million thoughts raced inside his head, but the words “You’re going to need this” rang loudest, without any other options but to rely on his instincts he held out the staff above his head that’s only a couple metres away from impact. “ABRA KADABRA” he screamed at the top of his collapsing lungs, it was the only magical words he could remember in the heat of the moment, stemmed from old legends.
He closed his eyes, as he felt a weird sensation at his fingertips, as if he was being drained of oxygen. A gust of wind propelled him upward, threatening to rip apart his limbs through pure whiplash. As he fell down again, he concentrated on that same feeling, letting the stave drain him of his last remaining oxygen. Breathless, he controlled a stream of wind, gently lowering him closer to the ground until he ran out and hit the ground with a thud.
He laid on the fractured, crystallised grassland panting and wheezing with exasperation, seething with anger. He first recalled at how his silly magic words nearly got him killed, he then recalled how a little girl, a child, threw him into what seemed like another plane of existence. He caught his breath, looked around, managed to quell his anger and focussed on getting out of that predicament. Snarls and growls littered his eardrums, the purple crystallised grasslands more lively than the dewy green fields he was just in minutes ago.
“Home, sweet home my ass” he snarled angrily mimicking the incoming gem encrusted creatures that had started to circle him. These creatures were all disproportionate, from what he could tell, some of them resembled wolves, some completely unknown. All in all, he was breathless, with just a magical stave that apparently required oxygen to use, forced to fight five outlandish creatures.
The first, a disgusting wolf: one fang far longer than the other practically reaching the ground, a jaw that looked like it’s forced to be permanently opened, a fractured purple gem growing outwardly in place of an eye and crusty fur that had never known the meaning of moisture.
The wolf lunged at him, using his larger tooth in a slashing motion attempting to tear a limb clean off. He stepped to the side of the wolf, and put his sweaty hand inside the wolf’s arid, gaping mouth, completely stopping all of its momentum and action. He lifted the wolf up to deliver a crunching knee strike. Strangely, instead of bleeding or whimpering, it disintegrated to dust.
He eyed the other deformed creatures, threatening the same punishment he delivered so effortlessly, the other wolf type creatures scattered, which left the two unfamiliar creatures. Upon closer inspection, that creature shared physical traits with the wolves that he had fought before, but there were key differences: there were large teeth like protrusions from the outward side of their knees, their body and face were half crystallised which is what caused his prior confusion.
Luckily for him, the slow circling of those creatures, clearly sizing him up, allowed him to catch his breath. The stave, positioned behind him gave a boost to an otherwise stagnant two legged kick. He grinned widely, laughing almost hysterically “Incredible!” he exclaimed at the disintegrating corpse of the Half-Face Alpha, “This magic stick might prove to be a fun tool!” he continued excitedly, “How does it work? Can it do more than generate wind? Theoretically, I could fly using this stick right?” he paced, twirling his stick idly, conjuring up ideas to improve his combative strength using that stave.
A loud growl broke him out of his curiosity filled trance “You still haven’t left? Dumb mutt, do you not understand how awesome this stick is!?” he explained pointlessly. Those creatures disintegrate, so he didn’t really have to deal with a mess which led him to a particularly gruesome idea.
He sprinted towards the Half-Face Alpha, sliding between its large legs, pressed the stave into the bottom of the jaw, while awkwardly holding the top of the creatures head. A burst of wind was enough to split open the head of that Half-Face Alpha, what would have been a grisly scene was more like dust filled confetti, celebrating the demise of that poor murderous beast.
From that fight he had garnered a few key things about the stave. The first burst of wind consumed more oxygen than wind that came from continued use. Plus, the strength of the initial burst of wind is directly proportionate to the oxygen used, essentially it’s a 1-1 conversion. After catching his breath he continued to trek the gem-encrusted grasslands, jumping past fractured islands until he reached something he recognised from his country, ruins.
Giant rocks, in the shape of an ancient colosseum, encrusted width glowing gems create a foreboding atmosphere. Beyond this colosseum was emptiness, so this was all he had; his only potential key to getting out of this jarring, gem-infested duplicate.