I've fought alongside Ahteli as Carintsei, and have fought against him as another character.

Whenever I fought alongside him as Carintsei it was because he and I were the only two Dark players on with about a dozen Lightwalking foes. Out of all the times we hunted, I can only recall one time where there were centurions on Eastern Road were involved. Mainly, he hunted alone.

In my opinion he's not the "ballsiest" Lich out there, but at the same time he's far from a coward. I remember him defending against six or seven lightwalkers at the Palace, where I had to quaff, heal, come back, quaff again, heal, come back yet again and he was still trucking... and giving us a play-by-play over the CB channel at the same time.