A scream so loud pierced through the skies as the sounds of feet stomping the ground echoed with intent.
The hard surface of the earth had never experienced such force as the multitude of people ran like bunnies away from the alien creatures.
"Aaahhh!!!"
"Mummy!!"
The sounds of their screams and cries of help were followed by the loud shrieks of pleasure. The tiny creatures were seen rushing around in the crowd and slicing people like butter with their scythe-like limbs.
Their shrieks of laughter pierced the air with a malevolent frenzy as it spread more panic among the people gathered.
Paxton, amongst others, was lost in thoughts with their feet glued to the ground as they stared at the chaos in confusion.
'What? This is the Server Test?'
But it was simply carnage.
He bit down on his lip, his confusion evident as people ran past him in a frantic rush, pushing each other away in the process.
Young or old, elderly or juvenile, it didn't matter! This was a matter of life and death, and humans liked to live, so why was Oaxton not running?
'This….this can't be all? Why would the Server want to kill humans? No, there must be a mistake somewhere'.
A sudden gust of wind blasted past him and a figure screamed out in pain as his hands fell to the ground.
Blood splattered in the air and across Paxton's face, setting a drastic reminder of the reality of the situation.
He was quickly snapped from his delusions as one of the tiny creatures ran past him and sliced the human into two, ending his suffering all at once.
'It's real alright'.
Paxton's gaze traced the steps of the creature while the creature looked back at him, a snarl escaping its grotesque black lips as they locked onto each other.
For a moment, their world, which seemed so apart, was pulled together, and the creature suddenly charged at him with frantic speed.
Paxton took a step back, his gaze following the creature's movement as it leapt into the air and swung its scythe limbs through the air in a deadly arc.
His gaze, surprisingly caught on with the creature's movement, and with the pump of adrenaline within his body, he ducked.
The creature's arms sliced through the air and missed its target by a hair's breadth, causing a distasteful stare in the creature's expression.
It was still stuck in the air, descending at a rather low pace when Paxton swooped up and slammed his body into it.
'I refuse to die…'
He thought as the creature landed on the ground with a sudden, loud thud.
It attempted to scurry its way back to its feet when Oaxton suddenly stumped his foot into the creature's thin neck.
A sudden crack echoed as the creature snarled in pain, swinging one of its limbs in retaliation to the sudden attack which Paxton dodged by ducking again.
A sparkle of intent ensued in his gaze as he stumped his foot again, harder and with much sudden passion, a startled snarl of pain escaping the creature as the Crack sound echoed again.
"Die already!" He muttered when the creature swung its scythe limbs around with no purpose or intent.
It caused scratches and cuts that began to spill out blood but none were lethal enough to cause severe damage.
He stumped his foot the third time with a loud grunt and a loud crack echoed once again. The creature wheezed loudly before its limbs fell flatly on the ground.
He panted lightly, his gaze fixed on the dead creature as the sudden rush of adrenaline diminished.
The sound of screaming and slicing still echoed around him while the creatures jumped around in glee with blood on their teeth and limbs.
It was a gory sight and a call for nightmares but he seemed particularly invested in that moment.
'I killed one'.
He looked up at the people around him, noticing how everyone was focused on fleeing and not fighting.
"Everyone! Stop running! Fight! We can kill them!"
He cried out at the top of his voice but even that couldn't get through the chaos.
With a click of his tongue, he grabbed one of the limbs of the dead creature and pulled it with all his might.
"I'll be taking this".
One needed to be resourceful at times like this and their limbs were practically swords. Sharp enough to cause severe damage with one or two accurate swings.
A loud snarl echoed behind him just as he pulled the limb out of its body, a surprised expression etched on his face as he did so.
He turned around in a second before swinging the limb through the air and slamming the incoming creature back to the ground.
"Huh? These things….other than their numbers and quick blades, their joints are weak and their limbs are too heavy for their little bodies to carry".
He muttered in surprise as he quickly stabbed the scythe limb through the creature's chest while it attempted to get back up.
With this, his theory had been proven.
"We can kill these things".
He heard a scream at his side and turned towards the direction, his head tilting at the numbers that attacked the group of humans that insisted on running.
"In that case….I'll have to kill them".
He ran towards the direction, the scythe limb held firmly by its arm with his right hand and the elbow joint with his left.
While the chaos ensued and escalated, the angelic figure remained in the air, her arms crossed and disappointment laced in her expression.
"Once again, humans have proven how dumb they can be".
It's a known adaptation to flee or fight when in the face of danger, but on many occasions, humans choose to flee when their danger is unknown.
"An unknown danger is a cause of uncertainty but they can at least try"
She muttered in disgust.
"These are mere Storm Pawns".
Just then, a glimpse of a human running through the chaos with an amputated monster limb caught her attention.
Her gaze narrowed in surprise as she watched him for a while.
The human seemed to move with amateurish steps, evading and stabbing.
There was no particular noteworthy action, but the confidence in what he did seemed to have spurred a chain reaction among other people present in the chaos.
Soon, she caught another human fighting back, a much burlier human compared to the first.
The man easily broke one of the creature's limbs while enduring drastic cuts from its scythe limbs.
Her intrigue was further pulled in as she found a female in a tracksuit, evading them with gymnastic movements.
Her flow seemed irrepressibly flexible and she dealt deadly kicks to the creatures.
A few others had begun to pick on the memo and fought back in their way.
Pushing them back with their numbers.
For a moment, she watched in silence and the next, a scoff exuded from her pretty lips.
"How amusing".
It was like the aura in the chaos had been shifted by a chain reaction.
The humans had the upper hand in the numbers, even with the number of dead bodies that lay on the ground.
Their numbers remained much larger than the creatures. At least, thrice as more and they finally used that to their advantage.
They say, 'Corner a prey too much, and they become a predator,', and the humans were doing just fine in their retaliation.
The creatures didn't see it coming as some were pushed from behind to the floor, tackled from both sides and held by their limbs to stop them from moving.
Their weaknesses were exploited. They just needed to watch how the other killed one of the creatures to know what to do for themselves.
One after the other, the creatures suffered sudden and surprisingly quick deaths.
Of course, a lot more struggle. They would swing their scythe through the air in an attempt to drive off the encroaching humans but it wasn't enough.
These humans had already faced the fear of death. What else did they need to do when they realized that the threat was not much of a threat when they used their numbers.
While the chaos came to an anticlimactic end, the timer continued to run down, nearing its end.
Paxton stopped after stabbing one more creature that was held by its limbs by two males and looked up at the sky where the timer was set.
He dropped the amputated limb, his breath haggard as the chaos around him died down. All he needed to hear now was the call.
"Humans, congratulations. The First Test is Over".