Sebastian's heart was beating so fast out of his chest that even an average human with no special sense of hearing could have heard it from a metre away.
He was currently moving into the dark faction side of the battlefield and although the terrain was the same as the light faction. With the same trees and the same rocks, somehow everything felt more sinister and dangerous once he crossed the border.
A part of Sebastian knew that it was all mostly psychological, but the way of the coward rule number #4 said " If your gut says something is wrong, then trust the goddamn thing and run "
As a true believer of the way of the coward, Sebastian wanted to run for his life instantly, however, the mission demanded that he did not.
" Why am I so charming? Because of my inexhaustible stamina in bed and my sexy beard I'm always put on the frontline of dangerous missions " Sebastian muttered as he contemplated if being so handsome was even worth it.
Venturing deeper and deeper into enemy lands, Sebastian moved extremely carefully at a snail's pace unlike all the other scouts that believed that speed was of the essence in this job.
Sebastian took cover behind every other tree and scanned the entire area thrice before moving another few metres and repeating the process.
At the rate he was going, it would take him at least a day to get to the nearest orb defending position and then another to get back.
According to the Way of the coward rule #5 which said " It's better to be slow and steady than dead and still" Sebastian truly believed that his approach was the best.
" Let the other scouts be hasty, I, Sebastian, Son of Thor, Best Friend of Ravan and student of Kremeth will never set foot on a ground I'm unsure of " Sebastian said as he nodded to his own words and was astonished by his own wisdom.
What he did not know was that he was currently being preyed by a 'Naga'
A snake demon which had both a snake form and a half humanoid form.
The snake demon was enjoying his hunt of the dwarf, until he began to listen to all the gibberish that Sebastian spouted and felt like his common sense was being attacked.
He had never seen a scout move in such a foolish manner at a snail's pace and never heard a man spout such cowardly words as if he were reciting the gospel.
Thinking he had enough, he slithered closer and closer to where Sebastian was hiding behind the tree and made sure to not make a sound.
Just as it reached Sebastian's back and was ready to pounce, a trap hidden beneath the leaves activated and a bear trap with several spikes closed down with fury as it pierced the snake at multiple points.
" Aagh! "
The snake shouted in pain, but before it could even let out a full cry of pain, it felt someone pressing down on its mouth as it was shocked to see that there was another dwarf who was attacking him while the first dwarf that he was chasing remained stationary despite the sound of the scuffle and kept hiding behind the tree.
Pulling out his sword, Sebastian swiftly sliced off half the snakes body while he strongly held its small neck between one arm, preventing the snake from opening its mouth.
If it were other creatures, they would have died instantly once half their body was cut off, but the naga's could survive even in such a mangled state for a few hours if left untreated.
To kill them for good, one had to chop off their head.
Tossing the half snake towards the ground, Sebastian immediately moved to strike it's head while the snake tried to make the plea move.
" Please let me go! I'll give you my nagmani- "
The Naga tried to woo Sebastian, but the dwarf was undeterred as he immediately chopped off its head.
Blood from the Naga dripping from his sword, Sebastian looked towards the his dwarf duplicate that was hiding behind the tree and said " Listen carefully to me lich, for I'm about to give you an invaluable lesson…. "
" The turtle hermit way rule #12 - Never trust the words coming out of a dying man's mouth.
The bastards speak more gibberish than 14 kids combined " Sebastian said as he ordered the lich to polymorph back into his normal undead form.
The Naga was naive to believe that Sebastian the coward was to actually walk in a forest and not detect its presence.
Sebastian had long detected the snake and it wasn't even him who had found its presence.
1000 undead created a perimeter of 500 metres around wherever Sebastian was walking while the necromancer lich who was capable of polymorphing into any creature of its choice walked as Sebastian's duplicate moving slowly behind tree to tree.
The real Sebastian was 100 metres behind where the lich moved and was always ready to summon an entire army of undead even if a small gang of enemy troops decided to look his way.
As a true cowardly gentleman Sebastian was never a fan of a one vs one fight. The odds should always be at least a 1000 to one in his favour and only then would he prefer engaging in the battle.
Such was the way of the coward, such was the caution taken by Sebastian the cowardly.
***********
( Meanwhile DarkSorrow )
DarkSorrow walked with 4 chained enemy scouts in tow towards Ravan's tent in the Bloodfall camp.
As per the Lord's instructions he had captured four scouts alive and was now on his way to deliver them to him.
Upon seeing the prisoners, Max nodded in acknowledgement towards DarkSorrow for bringing them in and then asked everyone to leave as he wished to interrogate the prisoners in private.
" You can kill us if you want, vampire, but none of us will ever tell you a single piece of information.
We will not betray the ruler of hell and the dark faction. *SPIT* " the leader of the scouts said as he spat towards Max who deflected the slow projectile back to its source with ease
" Oh don't worry, I'm not interested in interrogating scum like you - " Max said with a sinister smile on his face as he inched closer to the man letting all of his aura run wild.
The weaker scouts felt weak in their knees and buckled under Max's aura while the leader began sweating profusely and felt intense fear.
" W-w-what are you doing? " The leader questioned as Max put a finger on his forehead and said " Yield "
Max used [ Brainwash ] and tried to make the enemy scout compliant to his will, but the move failed the first time around.
" You- you're trying to manipulate my mind! Despicable Vampire, I curse your seven generations, I - "
" YIELD! "
Max used [ Brainwash ] once more and this time around it was a success.
The light drained out of the demon's eyes as he stood still without swearing towards Max, awaiting his instructions like a doll.
Once the leader was subdued Max looked at the rest of the men who were staring at him with pure looks of horror and smiled even wider.
He was about to play an interesting game with the dark faction.