Shadowy Visitor
Asher rushed back to Imperia as quickly as his legs would take him. He had to get signed in to begin the tournament. Before that though, he had to offload a great amount of energy in order to not completely decimate the competition and show off the fact that he should be ranking much higher already. He was practically bursting with it. He figured he could do one thing and channel it into new minions. But how could he use the ability? That was the question he had been asking himself.
There was a group of goblins he spotted as he trekked through the forest. He didn't even bother drawing his sword as he advanced through the group, killing all of the weakest ones, snapping their necks and saving the strongest for last. The last one appeared to be the leader of the group and it stood defiant against him, pointing a wooden spear at him. He muttered, "You'll do," nonchalantly to the beast. Of course, the goblin was lacking in the intelligence to even begin to understand what he had just said and it snorted and thrust the spear forward. Asher twisted around and snapped the shaft cleanly with just his hand. After that, he twisted the remainder of what was essentially just a long stick at that point, out of the creature's hands.
At that point, the goblin began to strike at Asher with its bare hands. He just stared at the stupid beast, dumbfounded that it believed it was doing anything whatsoever to him. He had discarded his broken cuirass and didn't even have armor on beyond his gauntlet and greaves, his skin had just become that resilient to damage that he didn't even feel the impact of the goblin striking him.
Asher placed his hand on the goblin's head and tried various things, attempting to use the ability of subjugation. Nothing seemed to work and the creature continued to pummel at his side in a futile attempt to harm him. Asher almost laughed at the situation, because just a few short months ago, he would have been badly hurt from the incessant attacks. Now, he simply took the beating and barely even felt it.
He was about to just snap the creature's neck when he heard a voice behind him that sent chills down his spine. He knew the voice all too well and he hadn't looked forward to hearing it again. Asher almost didn't want to look behind him, towards his shadowy visitor. When he saw it, he noted that the creature looked different. It was made completely of darkness, more similar to a wraith than anything.
It reached for Asher's hand and a cold chill went through his body that had nothing to do with the winter air. His entire being shuddered in response to the monster that was guiding his actions. The only thing he could figure is his body was reacting to true unbridled evil in it's purest form. Still, he was going to pay close attention to what it did, because he was sure this was his one and only lesson.
He felt a flow of energy leaving his body as he was more in tune with his own life force these days. Asher paid close attention to the feeling and once again, he heard the creature shout at the goblin, "Submit!" Directly after that, the shadowy figure dissipated and Asher was left with a new minion. The goblin had glassy black orbs for eyes, as it was completely under Asher's control. He noted that it didn't take very much of his power away taming this one, so it had to be a set amount of strength required to dominate a monster. Asher wondered how far this could go, realistically if he were to gather more intelligent beasts.
With that thought in mind, he searched for the next step up from a regular goblin. Hobgoblins were larger and slightly more intelligent, albeit not by much, than regular goblins. Asher was counting on them taking quite a bit more energy than a regular goblin did. At the same time, he expected them to be a lot more powerful due to his influence. If he was going to continue to gather his small army, he expected them to become powerful enough to bring him to new heights.
Asher had been having his new follower scout the area for monsters, hoping it would find something for him to tame. It didn't disappoint, as it had found a small group of hobgoblins. Just like with their smaller cousins, Asher picked out the strongest and had killed the rest with his bare hands.
He didn't know if it would actually matter if the one he subjugated was strong beforehand or not, but he figured there was no harm in taming the strongest ones first and experimenting more later. With that thought in mind, he had his minion hold the hobgoblin down as Asher concentrated on the task at hand. He felt the surge of energy in his body, even with it being weakened from dominating a creature already.
There was another feeling that he had as he sent his own life energy into the hobgoblin, it was an internal battle between the two, the creature's own life force was battling him as he tried to impose his will onto it. He feared what would happen if he ever lost the conflict.
As his power won, he could see the flow of energy between the two of them. The hobgoblin had lost and there was only one thing left to do. He had to finish the job. Asher yelled, "Submit!" It did nothing at first and he repeated it louder. The final time he attempted it, he screamed as loudly as he could with authority and the monster stopped struggling abruptly. It's eyes had taken on the same glassy black color as the goblin's had.
Asher felt sweat pouring down his back and face from the effort he had put in. He didn't realize exactly how much the shadowy figure had done to assist him until now. It was just as much a mental battle as it was a power struggle. Asher dropped to his knees in the snow that had begun to fall around him. He still felt as though he would obliterate anyone in his way during the tournament, with plenty more energy to expend until he felt comfortable joining up and fighting. He sighed heavily as he thought about how far he had come, just to drop himself down once again.
This time would be different though. He was forming a group that would hunt for and empower him. They would be completely loyal only to him. Asher knew, this was going to be a turning point. It wouldn't be long before he was gathering enough strength passively to just continue dominating monsters to add to his collection. He wondered how far it could actually go. It didn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon, in fact his rate of gaining strength only seemed to be getting faster over time.
Still, he had quite a ways to go before he could consider himself on the same level as someone in even the A ranking. Those people were capable of dealing with frost giants by themselves, the same beasts he had struggled with. He cringed slightly as he realized he was throwing away the power he had gained from them. He sighed heavily and muttered to himself, "Can't be too far ahead of everyone or they'll suspect something." That was why he had fought the siren for the power of precognition, he knew he was going to have to dump energy somewhere. It didn't matter how weak he made himself, he still had the passive abilities of every special monster he had killed.
With that in mind, he made his way onto a new target. He had commanded his minions to scout the area to find anything else of use to him. They didn't disappoint, he was led to yet another hobgoblin group. This time, he had two helpers and he had an idea of what to expect from each domination. Asher commanded his minions to kill all but three of the beasts and he got to work.
As he started on one of them, he noted that because it wasn't as strong, he had less issues imposing his will onto it. Asher continued until he had taken all three of them under his wing. His group now stood at a total of five. At that point, he knew he was ready to begin. Even with how much energy he had expended, he knew he was more than powerful enough to defeat the competition. Just to be safe, he had checked the intelligence levels of the hobgoblins and they were markedly smarter than their smaller cousins, able to complete more complex tasks. Asher already knew what he was going to do with that fact in mind.