Hero of Darkness

Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Praise thy Savior

There was a grotesque battle happening in front of a cliff. Kahn hid among the small trees and bushesand observed the scene in front of him.

2 groups in a battle to the death, one appeared to be normal merchants & their bodyguards while theother being a group of bandits. And the merchant side at the losing side in this case. Only 2 merchantsand 5 bodyguards versus more than 12 Bandits surrounding them. Many of the merchants andbodyguards lying on the ground, their bodies lifeless.

Kahn who was watching from 30 meters distance from within the plants & bushes could clearly seewhat was exactly happening. These poor Merchants were ambushed in a well-thought trap. Becauseon bandit group side, there were only 3 casualties and 2 injured. While the Merchant side having lostmore than a dozen men despite having around the same number of people.

Kahn rejoiced in his head. He finally found a way to get out of the damn forest and also play the heropart so that the losing side will be indebted to him.

Compared to how Rudra and Omega killed their enemies, the scene in front of him was like childrenplaying house. And he too was accustomed to a lot of killing in the week he had spent in the forest.Plus he had absorbed the abilities of many predators in the forest. And acquired and merged many oftheir abilities.

One being Hunter's Intent he created after absorbing the abilities of a Hawk-like bird and a Scaly Lion-like monster. And this new ability helped him gauge the strength of his enemies like how SurvivalInstinct blessing from Kravel let him feel the killing intent directed at him.

And he found that none of the bandits that were attacking the merchants & the bodyguards were nearlyhalf as strong as him. But he decided to wait up a bit more.

He had to make his entry in the most crucial moment. Otherwise, his help would go under-appreciated.

Kahn wasn't hasty to help because he knew that he too will be looked at suspiciously after he savedthe poor merchants. Because a half-naked man, wearing wolf hide coming out of a deep forest to helpout poor travelers worked only in fictional stories.

As soon as the trouble was gone, everyone would think like 'Red looks SUS'. And would point theirswords at him next.

Among the bodyguards, there were 2 women & 3 men. One of the women having a metal wand in herhand who was conjuring spells and creating barriers to help her allies. The other woman being anArcher who looked very skilled and fast at shooting her arrows every time an enemy tried to make amove.

Out of three men, two were the Tank & the Swordsman while one looked like the Healer who was in thecenter of the battle formation. All these five had very a deep understanding of each other and theircoordination was a sight to behold. This was a team that worked with each other for years.

"Ah, classic RPG stuff." Kahn thought.

But no matter what, even a strong formation would fall in front of sheer numbers. The merchants wereof no help in this case and the bodyguards were simply getting too tired to fight as the time passed.novelbin

Finally, the bandits broke through their formation and attacked the mage and healer of the group.These two had no fighting capabilities at a short distance. Even the archer was forced to use herdaggers as she lost the advantage of distance.

The middle-aged man who was the tank and young swordsman were barely holding two to threeenemies at bay by themselves. At this rate, they were all going to die.

One of the Bandits shouted, "Don't hurt the women, both are quite exquisite. We can enjoy their bodiesfor a long time."

The voice came from a burly and tall man who was wielding a giant cleaver. His wide and strong armseasily managing to hold the weight and swing it without any problem.

The tank who was already bearing the brunt of 3 bandits fell back after this newcomer attacked himwith a vertical swing of his cleaver.

"Follow the Boss's orders. And don't let them commit suicide! We can sell them later for a high price inthe slaves market as well. They are quality goods." said one of the bandits who was standing in themiddle of their group and nocked an arrow, aiming towards the Healer of the group.

Lecherous gazes were focused on both the women in the groups, while the men were already dead intheir eyes.

From the bushes across the road, a figure silently walked behind these bandits without making anysound. The figure stood behind one of the archers in the group who was the farthest from the battle.

Before he could even notice anything, a strong hand covered his mouth while the other one grabbedhis neck from behind. Before the archer could even make a sound, an unbearable amount of force wasexerted from the hand and his neck was snapped right that very moment.

The figure slowly put down the dead archer on the ground and looked towards another archer just 3meters ahead. The figure walked behind this second archer and snapped his neck just like the earlierone.

"Two down. Ten to go." the figure spoke softly.

It was none other than Kahn. He decided that it was about time he interfered and saved the merchantsand their bodyguards who were close to cross that threshold of life to death. But he chose to do it thesilent way because waltzing in would jeopardize the lives of these people if the bandits were alertedand went all-in with their attacks.

Now they were just laughing at the defending side and passing on slanders on the women about howthey'll play with their naked bodies.

These remarks disgusted Kahn, yet he chose to use their diverted attention to his advantage.

Kahn quickly left the scene and focused on the next batch of targets, the Healers amongst the banditgroup.

Kahn crouched from the bushes and silently appearing both these three healers. He had to be decisivebecause after this, the bandits would be alerted.

He grabbed the neck of one of the healers and snapped it the next second! Before the other healerstanding close even noticed anything, Kahn focused all his strength in his right fist and sent adevastating punch to other healer's heads.

BANG!

The healer's head exploded right on the spot, he didn't even get to react and wail in pain before hishead turned into broken eggshells and red blood and the brain splattered on the ground.

"What?!" The remaining healer shouted in surprise, this made other bandits look behind their backs.What they saw was 4 dead bodies on the ground, while one had his brains splattered like awatermelon.

Kahn did not stop and dashed towards the last healer in a single leap, his right knee focused towardsthe sternum of the healer.

The force and momentum were so strong that as soon as Kahn's knee touched the rib cage, the soundof bones breaking could be heard.

"Ahhhhh!!", the healer shouted as his body was flung backward by that forceful attack, dropping on theground the next second. The man spat a big chunk of blood from his mouth and started choking on it.

Kahn didn't waste any time looking at it and he ran towards the closest swordsman who was barelyprocessing what just happened.

The swordsman grabbed his sword tightly and ran to attack Kahn.

"You fucker! Die!" he shouted and swung his sword horizontally. To this, instead of running away ortrying to dodge the attack, Kahn increased his pace, and before the sword could even touch him, hewas already in close proximity of this bandit. He quickly grabbed the wrist of this bandit, stopping thesword midway and twisted it forcefully. Kahn headbutted the swordsman and kicked him in his sacredtemple with all the force in the leg.

Crack!

Two walnuts were broken that day.

The bandit who just lost his ability to reproduce wailed in agony and grabbed his crotch.

Kahn quickly picked up the fallen sword and held it like a long pole in his right hand, then closed his lefteye as if trying to aim.

The next second, he threw the sword with all his might at one of the bandits holding a scepter in hishand.. The mage!

Before the mage could even react, the sword pierced through his neck, even breaking the bones andexiting out from the other side.

Up to now, everything happened within just 20 seconds as soon as Kahn was noticed by the bandits.Naturally, they weren't going to stand there and wait for Kahn to kill them.

"Kill that motherfucker!" one of the bandits shouted and several of the bandits charged at Kahn, witheyes full of anger and hatred. They wanted to cut him into hundreds of pieces.

The closest bandits attacked with his mace and aimed at Kahn's head.

Kahn who already had his Hunter Intent & Survival Instinct blessing active as soon as he entered in thisfight, was already moving like a jaguar. Too agile and quick to react in just a second.

He sidestepped before the swinging mace could even touch him and kneed the bandit in his rib cage.

Bones cracked and the bandit caved in, the broken bones piercing his heart.

"Who the fuck are you?!" the boss of the bandits finally shouted. His eyes were full of rage and killingintent.

"Your death." Kahn replied in a stern tone and picked up the mace. He walked towards the swordsmanwho was lying on the ground with his hands holding his crotch after that sudden attack.

"No! Don't come near me!" the bandit shouted, color dropping away from his face as he saw themurderous eyes of the half-naked man in front of him.

KACHA!

The sound of something hard broken could be heard in the area and just like that, another bandit fell.Kahn took out the mace from the mushed head which was lying on the ground like a broken

watermelon.

"Who's next?" Kahn asked as he gazed towards the remaining bandits.

Out of the twelve bandits, only five remained as Kahn systematically took out seven of the bandits in amatter of seconds.

This eased the tension on the bodyguards who were suppressed till now and finally could fight on eventerms with the bandits.

The tank and the swordsman of their group already noticed Kahn when he took down the archers asthey were fighting in the front. But they kept silent as they were more focused on fending off the banditsthey were dealing with.

"You're going to pay for this. I'm going to torture you to death!" The big and brawly bandit boss shouted.The boss looked like a giant bear, had a long brown beard and his entire physique was that of aseasoned warrior.

"Looks like you don't get it. It's not me who's gonna pay. It's you who will pay for your sins." Kahn saidas he readies himself for a brute clash.

"You took everything from me!" said Kahn loudly. Enough to reach the bodyguards and the who werefighting against the remaining bandits.

"I don't even know who you are." replied the bandit boss as he charged at Kahn.

The giant cleaver swung around a couple of times, Kahn dodging them by sliding and sidestepping.Both times it looked like he barely missed the attack and survived by hair's breadth.

In response, Kahn also swung the mace but was tackled and defended against. The bandit boss was askilled fighter and had tons of experience.

Till now, Kahn only fought with his bare hands and didn't even use a single one of the abilities & skillshe gained by absorbing monsters. This would raise suspicion and he'd appear like a monster from theforest.

Unlike the other bandits, the leader was well geared up and had a lot of his vital body parts covered ineither iron or a leader armor. Kahn could easily rip that apart with his Alpha Wolf's claws but he had toplay the part so he wasn't going to do anything that would arouse unnecessary questions.

Another powerful horizontal swing came, Kahn squatted down and used a leg sweep to break the bodybalance of the bandit leader who was already in motion.

Clang!

The bandit leader fell on the ground as his entire body was in full momentum.

Kahn quickly attacked the right hand that was holding the giant cleaver and broke the fingers on thehand with a single attack.

Kahn's mace landed on the chest of the fallen bandit boss and he kept swinging it over and over againtill it broke through the chest armor.

"Ah!.. Stop!.. No!" The bandit boss yelled while getting hit with the mace on his torso again and again.His chest was bleeding, his face was already bruised and blood was flowing from his nose.

Somehow, Kahn's hits were getting stronger and stronger and his body could barely retaliate.

[Was this guy holding back till now?] the bandit leader asked himself.

Kahn noticed that the remaining bandits were killed by the bodyguards with their impeccablecoordination and timing. He turned his eyes back to the bandit leader and said,

"Look, none of them are left. Shouldn't their leader also join them?" Kahn said while acting as he wasdelivering a death sentence.

"Let me go please. I'll do whatever you want." The bandit boss begged.

"Did you let my friends go?! Did you let all those women & children go?!" Kahn shouted in an enragedvoice, hearable to anyone within half a kilometer. His voice contained wrath and despair at the sametime.

"What did we ever do to you?" the bandit leader asked in a deathly ghast voice.

"The farmers. The mercenaries." Kahn said as he ripped apart the chest armor and clenched his fists.He sat on the upper body of the bandit leader and started punching the bandit's face with only enoughforce to let the sound reach everyone's ears.

"Who the fuck are you even talking about?" the bandit boss said as he was barely able to stand thesepunches.

"You don't even remember them? You bastard! Were they just nobodies you killed for fun? Yourmistake was letting me escape that time."

Surprised, the bandit leader asked "Are you... One of those guys?"

Kahn had no idea what this guy was talking about but played along.

Splat!

The head was cut in two and the blood and brains were out in the open.

The bad guy had played his part. There was no more need of him.

Kahn didn't stop here, he looked towards the sky as if trying to remember something..

"Yahhhhhhhhh!!!!" Kahn roared with all his might, his head held towards the open sky as he startedsobbing on the place, his voice trembling with pain & sadness.

"Elena, Stephen, Pavel, Uncle Vasemir.. I've avenged you.. I've finally avenged you!" Kahn said astears trickled down from his eyes.

Kahn got off from the dead bandit leader's body and fell on his knees as if a dam of hidden grief hadfinally broken down. He kept crying and wiping off tears from his face, the angle was good enough toget noticed by everyone from the merchants and the bodyguard's side.

This was a very touching scene for anyone who lost a family member or someone they loved.

Finally after staying silent for a while, an elderly man who was one of the merchants and the middle-aged man from the bodyguards walked in close to Kahn.

The elderly man spoke in a soft and gentle tone.

"Thank you, young man. You saved all of our lives today. If not for you, none of us would be alive at thismoment."

"Yes. We would be dead men and the women in our group would be left to a fate controlled by thesebastards. And we would never be able to avenge our fallen comrades either" said the middle-aged manwho had a giant shield on his back. His built was no different than the bandit leader but he looked moreof a father figure type of person. He had grey hair strands in the middle of his head and a completelywhite beard.

The elderly man was scrawny but had an appearance of a well-off businessman just by looking at hisclothes.

Kahn replied with a solemn voice, maintaining his previous demeanor.

"I didn't do it for you."