77 Strength of mutation

My eyes widen, looking at the dead man living once more. They can't stay wide for long, however, as flesh-eating insects start ripping into my exposed skin.

'How? Why isn't he dead yet?'

Looking at the situation, I decide to make a radical decision. I cannot allow these insects to make their way past the muscle tissue, and thus I engulf myself in dark magic, commanding it to devour all the insects on my body. Parts of my skin get ripped off in the process, however, it does seem that I've managed to shake off the nasty intruders.

More immediately try to attack, but I manage to fly up without any of them digging in. This is the largest swarm yet, they occupy the entire arena. The sound of their buzzing overwhelms the noise the crowd makes. I spew fire in response, trying to dwindle their numbers, the volume of the dying insects only being challenged by the sound of the remaining living. Out of my flames, 5 insects fly towards me, they look weak and on the verge of death as their bodies are ignited by my fire. They sluggishly fly closer to me, which makes it rather easy for me to dodge.

They stop in my proximity as all 5 insects screech as if they are sheep getting slaughtered.

*BOOM*

The 5 insects explode, creating a storm of fire. I barely manage to stay in the air, having been grievously wounded by this surprise attack.

'What was that? Did they absorb my fire and use it to explode?' I think, still slightly shaken by my opponent's revival and the seemingly endless tricks he has.

The swarm underneath me is still alive and well as they fly towards me. Giving me no chance to recover from the explosions.

'I can't use normal fire, I don't know if there are any more of those insects mixed in. However, I doubt that any of those pesky insects are resistant to blood-related magic. It has always been considered one of the more niche types of magic, making me doubt that any mutations would give them resistance.'

Having made my decision rather quickly, I could feel a metallic taste in my throat as I spew dark red fire toward the swarm. The entire arena bathes in an ocean of this beautiful fire. The sound of buzzing quickly gets replaced by the sound of burning flame scraping on an unnatural surface.

The fire dims at my command, giving me the possibility to look down at the old man. The old man still seems severely wounded from my original attack, but the smile on his face gives me a different story.

"You don't look too good, old man." I call out towards him whilst slowly regenerating.

"Well, would you look at that… I knew… I KNEW… I knew… I KNEW!" The old man starts yelling again. Seemingly throwing some type of fit or something else that a sane person probably wouldn't understand.

'I guess I should have expected such a reaction from a clear madman.' Cursing myself mentally for not being able to think of any other way to distract him.

"They never listened, but I knew… I…. I knew." He continues his rambling, having been subdued to a more gentle tone.

"What did you know?" I ask, still trying to waste some time so that my wounds are properly regenerated.

"They abandoned me… Cursed me… But I knew… YES, I KNEW WHAT I WAS!!!" The old man starts yelling again, seemingly having reclaimed some lost vigor he had.

More and more insects appear in and outside this walking dying corpse. The crawling of the parasite on his skin was no longer subtle as millions of vermin must be inhabiting him. I feel disgusted simply looking at him.

'I don't even want to imagine how that feels like.' I think whilst having to stop myself from visibly gagging.

Tiny white worms, the fleshy-looking larvae are just a few of the many the naked eye can see.

"I knew… I knew…" He suddenly regains some clarity in his voice as he looks up I am assuming trying to make eye contact which is rather difficult considering the lack of eyeballs.

"I knew that I would be the one to kill them." He says, making all the insects on his body go into some sort of frenzy.

The white worms start going to the exposed bones, seemingly digging in the bone just to come out. My eyes widen at the sight as I realize what's going on. The worms continue their duty as they start making a bridge of bodies between the bones and thus connect the 2 disconnected pieces of bone. Then by some miracle or curse, they harden having successfully replaced the bone itself.

The fleshy larva does something similar as they start to reproduce at a bizarre pace. Crawling over my opponent's skin until they come to a place where muscle tissues seem to be missing. They start to eat parts of his skin before barfing some type of loose flesh out that serves as a substitute for the muscle tissue. They die after "an exhalation" of this fleshy sensation as their bodies deform and create the surrounding skin.

"Tell me… Tell me… Does this look like a failure to you? NO, THEY DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO CALL THIS A FAILURE!" The old man yells, his madness worsening by the second.

"Well, they couldn't call it a failure at the end, couldn't they? It's hard to call SOMETHING A FAILURE WHEN YOU'RE GETTING DEVOURED, AFTER ALL!" The old man goes down on his knees as he starts to hit the stone underground of the arena. Shattering his wrist with every hit as fleshy larva and white worms get flung off trying to heal their master.

Watching this mental patient having a mental breakdown in front of me, only 2 emotions come to mind: disgust and pity. I don't attack, however, fearing the possibility that his madness could be the source of his power.

"Those eyes… Those damn eyes… I'll rip them out of your skull. Just like they did with me." The old man says in an unexpectedly low and stable tone.