"Well, I managed to get to this point barely alive, but..." There was a long pause before Benny's next words. Something must have gone wrong somewhere along the way. Not that they'd expected him to survive or get this far on his own.
"But what?" asked that bastard with a temperament. "Speak up, man! You ain't mute!"
Benny flinched. It had been a while since someone had spoken to him, so he was quite startled and started to stammer.
"They... they blocked the entrance. They... exploded it with magic, and it's completely sealed."
His words dropped on the other hopeful survivors like an anchor sinking to the ocean floor.
Their seemingly hopeless situation became even more hopeless with this new information. Their faces looked like they'd been doused with cold water, extinguishing whatever positivity and fire they had left.
Others screamed at Benny, which made the man flinch and become even more startled and fearful for his life. Threats were thrown at him randomly because they couldn't cope with reality. "If you're lying to us, you bastard, we'll beat you up real good! Prepare to lose a tooth or two, you dumb fuck!"
These were just a few of the threats laced with insults. Benny, being antisocial as he'd always been, began to curl up into his shell. This was exactly why he didn't like people, why he didn't mingle with them much.
Feeling threatened, Benny's natural instincts began to kick in. It was the instinct to protect himself, to preserve himself. Something deep in his subconscious was triggered. Although the defensive array of the sanctuary didn't activate, Benny's own defenses did. He felt like a rat trapped in a corner and became like a wild beast as the moment passed.
The others who'd threatened him felt the aura change. They'd only wanted to vent their frustration on someone, but it seemed to have other implications. Benny's weapon was drawn in a weird stance—a fighting position mimicking a beast, almost a prowl too close to the ground.
While they'd all been busy with the fight some time ago, the leader of the group, Gustav, had still been scanning his surroundings because that's what a good field commander does, especially in active combat. To be aware of his surroundings. He might be the only one who'd witnessed how Benny fought those beasts that came after them. He'd aimed at their precise weak points with no wasted movement—accurate and efficient, like it had been practiced and visualized over and over again, a thousand or maybe a million times. That meant these stupid idiots might actually die if this continued.
This guy, from what they remembered, was weak and pathetic, so they were underestimating him by letting out their frustration on him. They thought they could bully him based on their own biased opinions of him.
But Gustav knew otherwise. No weak person would survive this long if what Benny said was true about the entrance being locked. After closer inspection, it didn't seem like Benny was lying at all. He could finally see it himself—his weapons, his armor were made from monster bones, and the armor itself seemed to be from the monsters they'd fought before, the mutated scorpions. All the parts were protecting vital areas, replacing places where his old armor had been damaged.
He also wasn't covered in grime and blood like they were. He'd even gained a little weight and looked healthy, with well-defined muscles. Unlike them, who'd been losing fat every day, consumed by their daily fights. With their current state, even Benny was probably stronger than them. Gustav had to admit he wasn't a proud man like these people who couldn't come to terms with their reality.
Before he could stop these five idiots from becoming a liability, Gustav shouted at them, "Hey! Do we really have time for this? If you don't believe what the guy said, then at least we can confirm it with our own eyes, right?!"
"Stand down, or you may face dire consequences. Never underestimate a cornered rat, or you'll face something far more terrible."
This somehow began to calm the situation. The other observers couldn't care less—they were tired and all. This also began to calm Benny down, taking him back to his normal state. It seemed his natural defenses had come to understand their environment.
Benny, on the other hand, apparently had no idea what the fuck had happened around him, but all their eyes were on him. Some had scary gazes even. "Fuck, what did I do?" He didn't remember, but he was embarrassed by the stares and all. It was quite new to him being the sole focus of everyone's attention.
It was very unnerving.
The silence stretched as everyone processed what had just happened. The transformation they'd witnessed in Benny was unlike anything they'd expected from the timid guard they remembered. The way he'd moved, the predatory stance, the cold efficiency in his eyes—it was like watching a different person entirely.
"By the Heavens, Benny," one of the survivors muttered, wiping sweat from his forehead. "What the hell happened to you down here?"
Gustav stepped forward, his commander instincts taking over. "Everyone, calm the fuck down. We're all stressed, we're all hurt, and we're all scared. But turning on each other isn't going to help anyone." He looked directly at Benny. "You said the entrance is sealed. How do you know this for certain?"
Benny shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny. "I... I tried to go back up. When I first got separated from everyone. The stairway..." He paused, seeming to gather his thoughts. "There's nothing there anymore. Just solid rock. Like it never existed."
The weight of this information settled over the group like a heavy blanket. Some of the survivors began to understand what Gustav had already realized—if Benny was telling the truth, he'd been trapped down here just like them. The difference was, somehow, he'd learned to thrive.
Meredith, the woman who'd first recognized him, spoke up quietly. "How long have you been down here, Benny?"
He looked at her, then at the others, seeing the mixture of fear, anger, and desperate hope in their faces. "I... I don't know exactly. Time's hard to track down here. Months, maybe?"
"Months," Gustav repeated slowly. "And you've been surviving on your own this whole time."
It wasn't a question. It was a statement of grudging respect from someone who understood exactly how impossible that should have been.