"It would say it is good to see you alive Hatori, but you know that drinking human blood in front of me makes me rather quezy."

Raising the small patch of scales that passed for his right eyebrow, Hatori replied rather evenly for what he said.

“Would you rather I drink Elvin blood? You know, when you freeze it, mash it up, then put bits of strawberry in it, it tastes like what you Elves might call ice cream.”

Chuckling slightly at his friends paranoia, he waited for what Derek probably intended to be a short time, but amounted to something almost uncomfortable for the snake man, his race being rather uncomfortable staying still without good reason.

"So has anything interesting been happening?"

The snake man extended his head slightly, as if to stretch his neck.

“How would you define interesting? Several towns now own me a small bit, and quite a large amount of people know one of my names. However, I also have the loyalty of several low ranking troops. They have instructions to stay where they are in terms of ranks, due to inevitable brainwashing. Some high ranking members are disloyal. We just need to find a way of making the prospect of joining us seem like it would help them.

“Some aren’t quite disloyal, but fickle all the same. We could probably only turn them in an actual war. Too much risk to them otherwise, and I have a feeling that we have the same thought processes. If possible, then we might even convince the butcher to join us. While most people will buckle under pressure from me, I doubt there’s a soul on earth apart from Valcenz and his commanders who wouldn’t break under him. As far as I know, the only high ranker that is forever loyal to Valcenz is probably much too strong for us to capture anyway. At least, not without some rather innovative traps.

“You know, there is no point trying to look inconspicuous. You are speaking with a snake man who just ordered some fresh human blood.

“As for general information, Valcenz has a rather unusual system of organization. His ‘creations’ are usually at or near the top. No one is higher than them, save for Valcenz himself. His creations are really little more than experiments, to see how far he can push living creatures, and see if they can be tortured beyond recognition and still follow him. I think he has only truly succeded once, but I may be wrong.

“Following them are what are technically generals, but have much more freedom than what one would imagine. They can get away with anything but hurting valcenz in any way, shape, or form. From then on, it seems that everything is a standard situation for an army.

“I know little about the combat abilities of the Creations, but we can assume that they are all great warriors, even if that is not their specialty. The ones who have a fine appreciation for pain will draw out battles. This is key to defeating them. Those without will usually attempt to kill quickly. The ones with less… how shall I put this… ‘morals’ will use tricks, while the ones who respect a good fight will not attempt to gain advantages like that. Be warned that few, if any, are above a cheap shot.

“I’ve managed to identify two creations, each with a specialty. Kon, the butcher, is probably known to you as a torturer. Jason, on the other hand, is pretty much a bull; big, mean, and scary. Fighting them, if it comes to that, would be difficult. I don’t trust the cutlass the butcher wears, best to avoid it all together. With Jason… if you can get his momentum working against him, best to do that, otherwise, dodge. That blade of his will likely tear right through both your sword and body."