RinoZ

The Devil You know 1.3 The Demesne .1

Kept punching away at this. Let me know what you think! Obviously the Chrysalis chapters are in the works, they'll be up shortly.

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Bbllizmthblilbbl, the third of his name, lived and prospered on the world of Flloloshl, an aquatic world dominated by a sapient race of crab-people, the Crutea. Bbllizmthblibbl lived his crab life as well as a crab person can, or so he thought. He may have clacked a claw in anger from time to t...

Chapter 342 - Hatching a plot

[So how many people did you bring?] I led off with.

Isaac drew himself up.

[I've got eighteen o' the villagers finest, as well as some of me old guards back from Midum. They'll give a good account of themselves, no doubt about it.]

I nodded.

[That's great Isaac, just fantastic. So your thought is to form a spear wall with less than twenty people against a horde of a hundred thousand monsters?]

[Well uh, not exactly, you see, u...

Chapter 341 - Insect + Simian

After discussing a few other things with the members of the council in the forward HQ, I headed out, collecting my two pets, and made my way to where the delegation from the village was purported to be waiting. 

I wasn't entirely clear on how the humans had attempted to communicate with the members of the colony, or why they would attempt such a dangerous thing. The colony was a lot more lenient towards the villagers than they had been before, b...

Chapter 340 - All revved up and ...

It feels good to charged up and not on the verge of a horrible death! Whoo! 

Thankfully we were able to make it to the discreet Dungeon entrance the colony had prepared close to the forward HQ without too much mana leaking out of our cores. Using my sub-minds I tried to turn the external mana manipulation up to 11 and drag the mana down into all three of our cores with some success. It certainly helped to level the skill, if nothing else. Shifti...

Chapter 339 - Revel

We slaughtered a heck of a lot of monsters in the third ambush. By abusing the limitations of the control used on the monsters we continuously charged, battled, retreated and recovered until our entire force was battled out and exhausted from the slaughter, unable to keep up with the last retreating monsters. Even Tiny had collapsed to the ground, punched out.

Soldiers had been lost, of course. Fighting meant casualties and I would just have to get u...

Chapter 338 - Third Ambush part 5

We continued to kite the monsters for five minutes, pulling them further and further away from the main body of the horde. Our plan for this strategy depended on a few things: that Garralosh and wizard-lizard wouldn't bother to chase us, the former due to a need to conserve mana in her core and the latter because the Kaarmodo seemed reluctant to leave it's captive Croca Momma alone.

The second thing we wanted to determine and rely upon was that whate...

Chapter 337 - Third ambush part 4

I should learn to hold off on the healing gland. Was I missing part of a leg? Maybe. But right now, as I charge into the literal teeth of a horde of angry monsters, I think that perhaps holding off on spending it might have been the better choice. Because this is going to hurt.

BAM.

I crash into the front line of monsters with a crash, their bodies smashed into mine and the monsters began to claw and bite at my carapace, wild and eager to rend ...

Chapter 336 - the third ambush part 3

Expose by the light, the scouts turned to retreat after I ordered them, taking advantage of their now rear facing commercial zones to fire a few parting shots at the horde as the monsters charged toward us. I positioned myself between the enemy and the retreating scouts, knowing that I could take more punishment than my siblings and hoping to absorb some enemy fire.

The monsters looked a touch angry, let off the hook from their zombie control and end...

Chapter 335 - The third ambush part 2

Sorry for the shorter chapter and missing days, I've had some SHIIIIIIITE at work lately. I humbly apologise. 

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Hunkered down amongst the trees, I waited along with my fellow ants, mostly scouts, for the enemy to arrive. We were roughly a hundred metres from the road and would have to charge across open ground in order to get close enough to launch our acid strikes. Only the soldiers with sufficient speed and range...

Chapter 334 - The third Ambush Part 1

We lay in wait, ready to spring the third ambush. It's been six hours since the second battle, which had been another successful ambush, something that seemed to make Victor very irritated, a feeling I was also beginning to share.

The horde was massive. Tens of thousands of monsters made up the rolling carpet that made its way toward my home and even after two successful fights, we were only just making a dent in it, so the possibility existed that G...

The Devil you Know 1.2 - Administration .2

Obviously there is something else I should be doing right now but I wanted to get this out of my system.

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Theo awoke sometime later, stretched out on a narrow bed that he was certain had not existed when he first entered the room.

"I should apologise for my secretary, Mr Holt" Adelaide's voice came from the other side of the room.

Still muddled, Theo turn...

The Devil you Know 1.1 - Administration .1

Author note. I'm aware that I'm behind on Chrysalis, apologies to all for that, I'm working on it. Felt nudged to revisit this concept from a while back and churned out a chapter. For those who haven't seen it, it's a sort of Kingdom building novel set in hell. I posted a couple of chapters a few months ago, but I just wasn't satisfied with the way the scenes played out and how the characters were portrayed, but I liked the ideas in the novel and shelved it. here is my rewritten chapter 1. Le...

Chapter 333 - Crafting the future

Bella retreated from the Queen's chamber, an inexplicable excitement building in her thorax. The evolution of the Queen was a subject of particular import to Bella and her partner Elligant. The two Core Shaper members of the council had struggled ever since they had evolved into their current forms and responsibilities to get a handle on their purpose, to forge ahead on their path, and they'd been making great strides.

Bella followed the winding tunn...

Chapter 332 - Stepping Forward

Deep in the nest, the Queen contemplated. She thought back to the difficult days just after she had spawned in the Dungeon, when she awoke by herself in the dark tunnels that bordered the shadow levels, surrounded by the roar of monsters and consumed with a burning desire. She had battled hard in that time, born with a powerful body, she had nonetheless come close to death many times as she had frantically tried to satisfy the instinct that had burned with...

Chapter 331 - Regroup

The first ambush had been a rousing success, even though fifteen of my family members had been lost in the fight. It was a small taste of the carnage that was to come. I swallowed my sadness as best as I could. It didn't help anyone if I threw a tantrum and got upset that we'd lost fifteen soldiers in return for killing thousands of enemies. Hitting them from range, drawing them into a tunnel fight, where the ants had every advantage, then collapsing the t...

Chapter 330 - Musings

I was blessed many times over to such events occur, not only in my lifetime, but in my vicinity, allowing me to take a direct hand in the magnificent triumphs that transpired. But that isn't what I value most, the thing I gained the greatest joy from. The understanding that was granted to me far outweighed any other consideration in terms of the impact it had on my life and the direction I took.

What is the System? Divine intervention, most ...

Chapter 329 - The first ambush part 2

As the waves of monsters began to rush forward to attack the pesky ants who were tormenting them from the low hills surrounding them, Tiny burst out his hiding place, crackling with electricity. He'd been hidden much closer to the horde than I was, and it had taken some extremely direct and detailed instructions before I was prepared to allow him to get that close to the enemy.

The plan depended on him not hurling himself in the mid...

Chapter 328 - The first Ambush

I huddled beneath the earth with my brethren. The narrow tunnel was claustrophobic to say the least, the ceiling hung low over my head and knowing just how thin it was didn't help my space issues. My digging skill conveyed to me the awareness that the tunnel was structurally sound, but for some reason it didn't help. 

Perhaps I was just nervous about the upcoming ambush and my nervousness was looking for an outlet. The scouts on either side of m...

Chapter 327 - The forward HQ

It took a good bit of travel before we were able to reach the first staging area on the path between the nest and the anticipated direction the horde would be travelling. A steady stream of workers ran back and forth in long lines, bringing information back to the nest or returning for designated rest periods.

I found it curious that even with their enhanced senses and intelligence, which removed the necessity for the ants to move directly on top a t...

Chapter 326 - Consultation

Filled with energy and a surging sense of purpose I launched myself out of the colony and into the open air of Pangera, my new world. Crinis, Tiny and I move with deliberate haste and make our way toward the village. Before we move to the front line and engage ourselves with the activities of the colony there, I want to take a moment to check in on the village.

I wonder how the people over there are holding together with the threat of horrific death ...

Chapter 325 - Belonging

It took some time for the itching to pass, as it always did. When I finally regained full control of my body again, I picked myself up from the floor, dusted myself off, cleaned my antennae and attempted to move as if nothing had happened. 

The soldiers keeping an eye on the room pointedly didn't look at me as I climbed the wall and moved up into the Queen's chamber. Things continued to operate in here as they always did, a cloud of buzzing work...

Chapter 324 - New Crinis, Spending up

Curious about Crinis new Shadow eye I dive deeper into the information hidden within her core, laid bare before my core surgery skill. Ah, interesting. It's dense bloc of information, clearly a powerful organ, far more than the average, if anything I would think that the majority of her evolutionary energy was spent on this. 

From what I can gather, the shadow eye is a special type of sensory organ, it doesn't help her to 'see' per se, not like ...

Chapter 323 - Crinis evolves

With the main bulk of the planning done, it was time to get my group rested and ready to head back out into the fray. Not long after the council broke up, Tiny stumbled into our chamber only to flop onto the floor and returned to sleep, absorbing the mana of the Dungeon to restore his exhausted core.

Speaking of cores, it was time to help Crinis evolve! Only her second evolution since she'd been reforged as my loyal pet and unlike the last evolution,...

Chapter 322 - War Council Part 2

"With your permission Eldest, I will leave the council and begin to organise a workforce to prepare our initial fortifications" Tungstant said.

I waved an antennae in approval and the small, dextrous ant climbed up the wall and out the roof of the chamber in a moment.

"Alright then. Pitfall traps, tunnels to attack, I like all of these ideas. What else have we got? How is our magic firepower coming along?" I asked.

The two mages in the ro...

Chapter 321 - War Council Part 1

"Welcome back Eldest" Victoriant, the budding queen to be greeted me.

At the sound of her voice, the others turned their antennae toward me, signalling that their attention was with me as I crawled down the wall and onto the floor in the centre of the chamber. There were a few soldiers present, I noted, to keep the spawning monsters out of our carapace long enough for the council to take place.

"It's good to be home" I told them as I settled in...

Chapter 320 - Mother of Planning

THWACK!

HIYA!

SNAP!

The moment I entered the Queen's chamber, a powerful antennae came flying at my head. This time though, I was prepared, I'd thought ahead, inspired by Morrelia's thoughtfulness I had anticipated how my reception would begin.

Thus it was that I stood upside at the entrance, clinging to the roof with one of my mother's antennae clasped between my own. Sword catching is for fools, antennae catching is a whole new le...

Chapter 319 - Reunite with the family

By the time we came within reach of the colony's scent trails I'd managed to level external mana manipulation twice, and we were completely exhausted. Tiny was stumbling with every step, the poor guy was the heaviest of all of us by quite the margin and the hard running had worn him down. Stamina had levelled again for me at least, but only the once, proving just what kind of ridiculous effort was required to get that skill to level up. 

Crinis ...

Chapter 318 - Fleeing south (again)

We had to delay our escape for a few minutes until Crinis had back to herself, but we didn't dare wait around until she had evolved. We needed her fighting strength to help us in the tunnels. If we managed to break free and make it to the surface then she could probably evolve whilst riding on my back if it came to it, but until then we needed her alert.

Once everyone was prepared we enacted our plan, such as it was. Bust out into the tunnel, kill ev...

Titus

Everyone's favourite Legion badass is here!

New art!

Hello all. I have a new commission from Kevin Glint who drew the new novel cover for us! I asked him to take a stab at doing some line art sketches of a few characters and first off the block is Tiny. I gave him a few directions and this is his interpretation of what he might look like. 

It wasn't quite how Tiny appeared in my head but it's quite badass nonetheless! Let me know what you think!