As Mattias dodged a charging horror, the other horrors lunged before he could react. The first slammed him from the side to side like a flesh bag. Then it dug its teeth into his arm, crunching through the skin before his regeneration could catch up. Mattias screamed, catching the creature's head and then driving his knee into it repeatedly until the skull burst like rotten fruit.
The others didn't wait and jumped at his leg, taking a bite out of it. Even more joined and started to bite his body, some screaming, then colliding into him all at once.
Mattias, twisting and tearing off his leg and arm, rolled, putting some distance between them. His hands regenerated, then blackened again. He caught one of the horrors and, like a madman, tore its guts out, crashing the ribs of another, tearing out the throat of the one that had taken his arm with his bare teeth.
Mattias screamed at the top of his lungs. "You ugly bastard, I'm gonna kill you all."
A tail whipped across his back, sending him sprawling into the corpse of the wyrm. His breath left him in a hiss. Before he could rise, one horror pinned him by the chest. Its jaw unhinged, dripping red and white sludge that smelled like rot and iron.
Mattias: "Get off."
He thrust his hand upward, straight into its mouth, ripping through its skull and pulling out his arm, covered in brain matter.
The creature convulsed, limbs twitching before going still.
Mattias lay panting, surrounded by a puddle of black liquid, torn flesh, and faint violet mist rising from the corpse. His arms trembled, as his regeneration was slower than before.
Looking at the other monsters, Mattias thought, "I feel… heavier… those things must have had some kind of poison. If they just keep coming, I will die of exhaustion."
A horror lunging at him was met. He caught it by its mouth and tore it in half.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Miras clapped while laughing from above as he watched Mattias struggling.
Miras: "You're going to get outnumbered and then killed at this rate."
Mattias wiped blood from his face. "Go choke yourself."
Miras just smiled, looking as Mattias was about to get attacked again.
Miras: "You don't look so well, and your regeneration is practically gone at the speed it's going."
Mattias felt genuine fear, because he knew he was right.
With that facial expression on Mattias's face, Miras smiled widely, then started to sing, and all the monsters turned to Mattias and started to rush at him.
Mattias, feeling his body shaking, took a deep breath, then clenched his hands into fists. He didn't know how to survive this. He didn't know why he wanted to live, or if there was even a point. Yet he just kept going. On instinct, he felt it, so familiar. He calmed himself and prepared to fight them all head‑on.
Miras smiled. He watched to see if Mattias would create his own miracle and survive.
With a clap, as the horror now lunged at Mattias, Miras said, "Let the feast begin."
The ground quaked as the horrors charged. Hundreds, maybe thousands, a storm of flesh, claws, and shrieks.
Mattias exhaled once. His pupils dilated as he rushed into the horrors lunging at him.
The first horror reached him. Mattias dodged, then with a kick he crushed its skull into its body. A loud boom was echoing from the hit. A little surprised by his strength, but again he had to dodge. Three more jumped at him, almost taking his head. As he dodged, another lunged. Focusing again, he drove his arm into its body and crushed whatever it called a heart.
As he was removing his arm, tentacles trapped him in place as seven more large horrors rushed to devour him. His body, panicking, made him try to remove the tentacles. Quickly ripping free, he moved to the side, dodging the largest of them, its claws shredding through the ground. His movements began to get slower, as this was a lot.
A beast the size of a carriage slammed him from behind, its claws carving through his ribs. Mattias coughed blood, twisted, and bit down on its throat hard. The creature shrieked, then thrashed, but he didn't let go. He ripped until its flesh tore, until the taste of iron filled his mouth.
Another leapt. Mattias caught it midair, slammed it into the ground, and stomped its head until the ground cracked. His breath came ragged. His eyes burned with black fire.
Mattias: "You damned things."
Dozens answered. They piled onto him, a sea of limbs and teeth. His body disappeared beneath them. The mass shifted, shrieking and snapping, then exploded outward as Mattias erupted from beneath the heap. His claws extended longer than before.
Chunks of meat and bone scattered across the black earth.
He staggered, half his body missing, but his regeneration was so slow now, not even enough to keep bones snapping back into place, skin bubbling as it reformed.
Miras hovered above, clapping slowly, voice echoing like silk dipped in mockery.
Miras: "Oh, splendid. I didn't know you had it in you. Look at you, killing them like this. You're more like me than I thought."
Mattias panted, his gaze trembling between rage and exhaustion. "I'm… nothing like you… whatever you are."
Miras: "Is that so?" He laughed, eyes gleaming gold. "But you tore them apart limb by limb."
Mattias snarled, charging again.
He tore through the front lines, ignoring his broken, regenerating limbs. His claws raked through another horror's stomach. He caught the intestines before they hit the ground and whipped them across another creature's face.
Mattias: "I will never be like yo…"
But before he could finish his words, the pull in his soul, that cursed chain Manu had placed within him, tightened. His vision blurred. His body wavered.
Still, he roared through it. "Not… yet."
He felt his insides burn up as the black goo poured out. He had pushed his newly found strength too far, and this was backlash. As he struggled to stay standing, a horror hit him to the side. As he lay about to die, he struggled to get up again, and as he tried, a horror hit him down or tore a piece of his flesh or a limb.
Mattias (thinking): "I don't want to die, not like this. I just got the power to survive after being only prey to these things. I don't want to. No, I'm not going to. I refuse to die to them."
Miras laughed lightly at him.
As Mattias looked at the still several horrors, he felt the hopelessness of this situation. As a horror jumped on him, he just lay there as more and more jumped on him, devouring his limbs and opening his insides. As his organs were crushed and pulled out, all he could do was nothing, as he felt his soul slowly get removed from his body as the chains pulled his soul.
Miras landed from above and killed the horrors in the area with a wave of his wing, infused with that strange energy again. Crouching next to the mutilated corpse of Mattias, he looked sad as he spoke. "You died. I'm honestly disappointed. I thought you might actually surprise me."
He smiled softly. "I honestly wanted you to survive."
As the black goo started trying to rebuild Mattias's body, his soul was still getting pulled out of his body. Miras stared at his body healing.
Miras, looking: "Do something. Anything. Just don't tell me you were a waste of time."