Hero of Darkness

In a wide mountainous range of deep and dense forest area close to the border of Xena, hundreds of black figures ranging from assassins to knights, mages, swordsmen, spearmen and archers are silently marched towards the inner region.

After their entourage landed in the forests, Kahn and the subordinates walked on foot to not alert the monsters lurking and inhibiting these dense treelines filled with types of greenery and flowers Kahn hadn't even seen before. 

And after a long time, he finally felt like he truly had come to a different place after leaving the capital. Meanwhile, his generals spread across and ventured in different directions to search for large groups of monsters that would be suitable for Kahn to absorb abilities from. 

And given the vastness of the land, Kahn finally released the entire Legion force for the first time after leaving Rathna. Because there were no set of eyes on him here and he needed the numbers to hunt on a large scale in different places. 

Omega and the three generals aka Ronin, Jugram and Oliver lead groups of members of legion subordinates to look for big herds and groups of various species of monsters. 

"Master, I've found a big of Cimdras. What are your orders?" asked Omega through a transmission artifact who was 10 kilometers with his own group of swordsmen and halberd fighters. 

"Too weak. But if there are more than a dozen, hunt them all. Just leave the small cubs and a few of the males and female adults alive." spoke Kahn who was dozing off leisurely at the peak of a mountain while enjoying the gust of fresh wind.

The pleasant scenery of the wild nature was extremely soothing for him so he decided to let the generals deal with the small tasks. 

And half an hour later, Omega came to his location and took out more than 50 of full-grown Cimdras. A species of monsters that had fiery red bodies and looked like a combination of cheetahs and Dilophosaurus; a species of dinosaurs that had large fan-like ears. 

However, there was no fur on the bodies of cimdras and the entire body was covered in black and sharp spikes while they walked on four legs and had long tails. 

Kahn then put his hands on two of the corpses and took a deep sigh.

"Absorb!" he commanded and the system activated the Ability Absorption divine ability. 

After gaining all the possible abilities and bloodlines he could, Kahn had nothing but a dejected expression. 

"All these abilities are far inferior to what I already have. I guess all those fire elemental skills from the magma drake are indeed top grade. Even the merged abilities are B Rank at best." he said and looked at the heap of monster corpses. 

"We do need some subordinates that are good at hunting in a forest and have great thermal sensing abilities. Plus it's a rocky and mountain region so they might as well make good steed." spoke Kahn and decided to merge all the dead corpses at once. 

"Awaken!" commanded and the next moment, the King of the Dead skill activated which could direct help Kahn in creating new subordinates in 1 kilometer radius after he broke through to semi-saint rank. 

This was the ability he got after killing Ajak, the Dark Summoner in the Bromnir dungeon during his stay in the Flavot city. This ability was one of the most useful skills for him as it helped Kahn bypass the need of directly touching different specimens to merge and create new subordinates. 

Soon, seventeen tall and growling figures of black and red Zinvaks, the evolved version of this species stood in front of Kahn. But sadly, he couldn't upgrade them further because these were just rare rank monsters. 

But before he could think more, Kahn had another communication artifact ringing. 

"Master, I've found a large flock of Tevriks. Their numbers are good and I can picture them turning useful." spoke Oliver, the emerald archer subordinate who invoked Horus, the variant Garuda bloodline after rising to High Lord rank. 

Kahn had mixed him with Tormund, a peak grandmaster tengu archer that Ceril brought to him after wiping out the Hydra during their stay in the capital. 

"Are you sure? If they're useful for reconnaissance and as a flying force, then bring them all in. Just leave a few alive, we don't want to disturb the ecological order in this forest completely." relayed Kahn. 

"Yes, master. I'll bring in only the strongest ones." replied Oliver and cut off the communication. 

An hour later, he returned and presented Kahn with more than a hundred bodies of tall and wide blue-colored flying monsters with a large wingspan. 

After Kahn absorbed their abilities, he was left discontented again. 

"Sheesh.. Not even a flying ability or wings. These guys are only good for acting as flying drones." he said and activated King of the Dead skill again. 

However, Kahn received plenty of flying monsters with large wings that came with team buff skills as well as flock hunting abilities that helped them act as a unit to take down a flying opponent easily. 

The biggest beneficiary from this was Oliver who was a lone 'bird' until now and finally had his own set of underlings. 

An hour later, Ronin and his battalion of assassins brought hundreds of Qilvezems. 

A herbivores species of monsters with red and green bodies that looked like a mixture of Triceratops and Lesser Kudu. This species was famous in the Verlassen region for their delicate and scrumptious meat. 

The only useful abilities Kahn got from them was scent detecting abilities that basically turned him into a police dog who could sniff out drugs from afar. 

After evolving them, Kahn received another amble supply of good and sturdy steeds. 

By the evening, three generals and Omega brought thousands of bodies and on the first day, Kahn's number of legion subordinates rose from 1500 to 5 thousand. 

And this was just the beginning area of this mountainous range. 

"Oliver, these monsters are only fodders. I want you to take your new air force and look for High Lord rank monsters in this region. Venture deep into the forest and inform me if you see one." commanded Kahn.

Oliver nodded and departed with his new squadron of flying beasts. 

Because Kahn realized that the mobs wouldn't cut it. They were only good for raising the numbers. What Kahn really wanted to hunt now was the… 

Regional Overlords. 

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[[Author : Reference Arts for all the monsters are in the chapter comments.. Check them out.]]