Some time must have passed for Benny inside the safe haven. He had some thoughts to himself, though they were fragmentary and difficult to hold onto. The little light that the light crystals gave off provided much relief. At least he could see now. At least the darkness wasn't absolute.
He felt hunger overpowering his body's senses. His sense of smell became unnaturally sharp, unsatiated and demanding. His mouth had become watery with anticipation. He could taste food even when he wasn't eating, phantom flavors dancing on his tongue.
The Benny right now was closer to a monster than whatever he was previously. Some primal instinct must have kicked in when much of him was lost to pay for his resurrection. When the soul fragment was torn away, something else had rushed in to fill the void.
Well, what was lost from his soul? That was a question in itself. What is a soul anyway, and how do you define it? What makes a soul a soul? Philosophers and priests had debated this for centuries without reaching a satisfying answer.
But whatever it was, there was a part of him that was missing. It felt empty, like a room in a house that used to hold something important but now stood bare. And now that emptiness was being filled with another presence. A primal, more barbaric beast that most humans had shed off when they gained reason and logic. The animal self that civilization taught people to suppress.
Although he was not entirely of his right mind, his body moved with terrifying speed. All his training in the rat pit, that other separated labyrinth of its own, was still remembered. The muscle memory from the god's mausoleum and prison, where he died a second time, remained intact. Not much time had passed since he last died and was resurrected. The body remembered even when the mind forgot.
Benny could, weirdly enough, smell the enhanced rats. That mutated variation of ratmen that were more primal than their current civilized personas in the Rat kingdom . Kinda like him in a sense, though that connection didn't occur to him. He was way past such analytical thoughts. He could smell them with startling clarity, their scent like rot, copper and musk and something feral.
There must be another batch being sent into the labyrinth by their more intelligent kind. Fresh meat for the grinder.
He ran toward where he could smell them. Before, he would have taken his time gaining a greater understanding of his opponents and their strengths and weaknesses. He would have scouted. Planned and prepared thoroughly.
But something told him that he had already slaughtered many of these monsters before. He just didn't know when that had happened or how recent it was. More of a gut feeling, but a gut feeling that was actually real. His body knew even if his mind didn't.
With blinding speed, he was like a demon who rushed at five of such creatures. They turned as he approached, their red eyes gleaming in the dim light. Their teeth were bared,ready for a fight.
He raised his shield and kept his sword low, the blade angled downward and waiting for the perfect moment to pierce one of the mutated rats' necks. As soon as the first rat attacked him, lunging with claws extended, he blocked it with the shield. The impact rang through his arm but didn't slow him. He followed the block with a precise stab to a soft portion of the neck, right below the jaw where the flesh was thinnest.
The monster died instantly, blood spraying across his armor.
He didn't take time to admire his work. He pulled out his blade with a wet sound and slashed at an oncoming tail whip from another rat. His strength was already being amplified by this demonic power of his, this new presence that had taken root in the hollow places. The blade cut clean through the tail, rendering it severed and spurting blood across the stone floor.
He then kicked one of the rats that came too close, his boot connecting with its ribs. The creature flew back several feet, hitting the wall with a sickening crunch.
He was a changed man. Whether he liked it or not, he would have struggled killing even one of these monsters before. But now it felt as easy as breathing. As natural as walking.
His body moved on its own, instinct guiding each motion. His mind calculated the risks and rewards of optimal movements that would ensure his victory, processing information faster than his conscious thought could form.
He grabbed one of the throwing knives from his belt and threw it, blinding one of the rats. The blade sank into its eye socket. The creature shrieked and flailed. Moving his sword to the next target, he arced the blade in a clean motion. Another head was lopped off, rolling across the ground, its expression frozen in surprise.
He bashed his shield toward another attacker. His intuition, sharper now than it had ever been, told him an attack was coming from behind. He quickly spun, and what surprised him was the quick gathering of magic in his free hand. It was his fire magic, responding to his need without conscious summoning.
Although it wasn't enough to do significant damage, it would be able to distract or annoy the rat long enough for his next sequence of attacks. He released the flames in a quick burst. The rat recoiled, fur singeing.
He dealt with them using heavy blows, light attacks, parries, counters, and fire magic. Each technique flowed into the next like a deadly dance. The battle may have seemed to last longer from his perspective, but all of it was achieved in under two minutes.
And within those two minutes, he barely broke a sweat. But an eerie smile crept across his face, unbidden. Something about the violence felt right. Satisfying in a way that should have disturbed him but didn't.
He may have taken some cues from the god Sitan unknowingly. Absorbed some of that demonic nature through proximity and suffering. Learning how to become one of those demons himself.
After the battle, he took his prize. He grabbed the massive rat corpses by their tails and dragged them back to the safe haven. Five kills. Five meals. That should last him a while.
Or so he thought.
He would have a feast for a while, but that turned out not to be the case.
Because as soon as he finished roasting the meat over a small fire, letting the fat drip and sizzle, he devoured all five of them in a single sitting. He ate like a starving animal, tearing into the flesh with his teeth. Bones cracked between his jaws. Organs were consumed without hesitation.
It was like his hunger couldn't be satiated no matter how much he ate. And his weak mind, the fragile human consciousness that remained, had been overpowered by a strong primal devilish being that had overtaken his body's mechanics. The beast was in control now, and it was always hungry.
He still had thoughts of fear and confusion. What was happening to him? Why couldn't he stop eating? But strangely enough, he was also surprised at how brutal he had been when driven by something beyond himself.
And at some point during the feast, he felt that he was no longer in control of himself but had become a passenger. Another piece of him, one that had taken a back seat this whole time, was now driving. Waiting to be unleashed into the world. Waiting for the right moment to take over completely.
So was Benny still Benny? Or was he already beginning to turn into something else? Something new and terrible?
Something the labyrinth would come to know and fear as he stepped deeper into its dangers. As he faced all of the monsters within it and tore them apart with increasing efficiency.
The smile on his face remained even after the meal was finished. Even after he should have felt full and satisfied. It was the smile of something that enjoyed the hunt. That enjoyed the kill.
The smile of a predator that had finally remembered what it was to eat your prey after a successful hunt.