Wind and rain battered the walls and in silence, Ubel sat in a watchtower. He leaned forward on his hands and stared at the overgrown jungle. Except for those on watch duty and those tending to the fire, everyone was inside the cave taking a much-needed rest after these past few days.

It's been a hectic time for us. With Urist in a coma and most of our army either killed or put into a weakened state the effects greatly burdened the rest of us. Man, those healers and white mages saved a lot of lives keeping those seriously injured from dying of blood loss or disease. And thanks to Yri and Uria who woke up quickly we had enough food to stave off hunger.

At least she isn’t completely useless without sight. Ubel mused as he thought of his next move.

If Urist doesn’t awaken and dies, I’ll have to take control of the crystals and masses. I don’t want to, but other than Urist no one is better in leadership. Although he’s a dreamer and has had barely any experience in leadership he’s done well in the position. 

Everyone else lacks that aura to lead and if someone else picks it up it’ll lead to our ruin. Which means I’ll have to kill any who doesn’t take kindly to me usurping leadership. Uria, Unicy, and the blood mage who gave Urist the Rat King's heart will have to be killed. 

Who else… I bet those healers won’t take kindly to such a thing and might rebel. With them saving most of the military, they should have good sway and might set up a religious faction. You can never trust light mages, always wanting to go on holy crusades. 

Of course, I can’t forget about the mage faction lead by that powerful Spirit Charmer. Just her summon alone had saved many dwarven lives making her quite respected here. Another faction would be those blood mages, I don’t know about anyone else but I saw the hesitation of using that heart to save Urist. 

And thanks to the battle he and his fellows have collected quite a bit of blood crystals and can be considered a powerful force. He might have a change of heart and pull a power play with the other blood mages. Might even summon a demonic being who knows with blood mages.

Then finally there is that old dwarf that's a magic swordsman. Probably the most powerful person inside the base except for Spirit Charmer. If he wanted to he could’ve gone on a rampage and killed us all by himself with the bases who were current;y at a weakened state. 

With a sigh, Ubel felt frustrated that that idiot Urist had put him in this stressful predicament.

To move or not to move. To kill or not to kill. 

These were the thoughts that rang in Ubel's mind. When he felt exhausted of thinking he took a drink of his woozoo tea, leaned back and closed his eyes. How much time did he have before he had to make a move? 

Although Urist had eaten the Rat King’s heart that held huge amounts of energy, he had expended much of his life force thanks to overtaxing his body. At most, it should sustain his body for four days before dying of dehydration thanks to dwarfs needing less water.

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Since three days had passed Urist had at most one day left to wake thanks to a dwarf’s constitution needing less water than a human. Meaning that Ubel had to choose a course of action.

So the question presented itself once again.

To move or not to move. To kill or not to kill.

When he started killing there was no turning back from traveling the path of hell. He would have to become a demon once more. To become brutal, cold, and calculating to all his fellow dwarven brothers and sisters. To kill his emotions as he killed those that were innocent.

Foot tapping against the stone, hands combing through his hair and a line of blood dripping down his bitten inner lip. A struggle of past and present crushed for ownership of the future. And then all of a sudden his hands fell on his lap and his foot stopped tapping.

“Half a day.” 

Was all Ubel said before getting up from his seat before walking into the heavy rain. Closing his eyes he raised his head to the sky and let the water soak him from head to toe.

And as he stood in the rain an annoying voice called out to him. “Hey, brains why you standing in the rain like a dumbass? Did you finally lose it?”

Instead of raising to the taunt Ubel just sighed, opened his eyes and started walking towards the fire pit. He looked to see Unicy sitting with a smug face seemingly quite pleased by her remark. 

Annoying.

Ubel didn’t say anything as he sat down on an opposite log. He reached forward and took one of the rat skewers that had finished cooking and started eating. 

Unicy picked up on Ubel’s unusual behavior of not being a jackass and got the idea of what he was thinking.

Looking down into her tea she declared, “Don’t worry he’ll wake up and everything will be alright.”

Ubel kept a natural face as he nibbled on rat meat. “You don’t know that. No one knows if he’ll wake.”

To his reply, Unicy shrugged her shoulders and took a sip of her tea. “I know he’ll come around and that crazy blind bitch also knows that he won’t die here. It’s just expected that he’ll live.”

And to that Ubel’s left eye twitched at such naivety and baseless hope that he wanted to stab her right then and there.

His voice was filled with ice as he replied, “You think he’ll survive when greater men have died against lesser odds. That fate hasn’t taken those who were deemed important to civilization. That great generals haven’t died in the battlefield thanks to a freak arrow? That naivety to believe in faith is going to get you killed like all the rest. Why am I surrounded by idiots who can’t see the truth.”

At Ubels outburst, Unicy looked at him thoughtfully and chose her next words carefully.

“A dwarf with no hope is a husk that walks on two legs and dies a meaningless life. Those that don’t strive to make their hope a reality end up dying unfulfilled. And those that don’t know when to quit will lose everything in their greed and die remorseful. 

“I don’t know what kind of person you are Ubel, but I know who I am. I’m the kind of person who will fight to the last breath for what I believe in. I’m the type of person that will rage, shout, and dig my nails into the ground towards hope until I die. So even if I am a fool, I believe that Urist is like me and would do the same thing If I was in his position.”

Ubel scorned, “Oh? Please do enlighten me on what you would do. Let me guess. Die?”

She shook her head, “No I’d beat the shit out of this coma and come back.”

Without another word, Uria got up from her seat and headed over to the watchtower. Leaving an even more agitated Ubel to his thoughts once more.

And this is why I have to kill you muscle brain. An idiot’s faith is too dangerous a weapon.