Starting issues

Starting two weeks ago my car began making a weird ticking noise while running. At first it was only while idling, it did not increase when I gave it gas or while driving. A few days later it had now begun doing the same thing when giving it gas and the noise had grown louder. It appeared to get worse each time I drove it. About a week later I drove it again and then the very next day I cranked it, it idled extremely rough, was making the same noise and then promptly shut off and would not crank again. We replaced the ignition switch that day just in case.

Today I turned the ignition to run, pressed the gas pedal down and proceeded to start the car. After it made a racket for a while it did finally start, extremely rough and continued to run. Only we discovered there was no oil. However, we just changed the oil about a month ago, for that I suspect a leak. Anyway, I promptly shut the car off since we discovered there was no oil. We added about a quart that we had on hand and decided to check the spark plugs. Needless to say we changed all of them.

Tried to start the car again, had to do the same thing, this time it would not stay cranked for more like thirty seconds and I had to keep pressing the gas pedal, which I did not have to do before. The speedometer kept jumping up and down a few times during the process but the rpm's were not increasing at all.

It is not throwing any codes whatsoever, we are at a loss here and had to give up for the night since its bitter cold out.

I do have audio of the sound it makes when trying to start if needed.