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The Scorpan Village, The Ninth Floor, The Dungeon

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Skitters-Across-The-Sand watched the column of Scorpans streaming from the village with a conflicted heart. There were so few of them, to begin with, and the size of their village reflected that. With their first clutches grown and a second well on the way, the King declared that most of the youth would emigrate to the Eleventh. There just wasn't enough space in the village for them all. They weren't like the Drake-kin. They couldn't squeeze dozens of Scorpans into a single house.

And so, Skitters had to say goodbye to most of her Scorplings. Sprints-Into-Danger had grown into the woman Skitters had expected. Firey and loath to sit still. She was the first to declare that she was leaving. Sprints thirsted for exploration, and Skitters wouldn't even think of trying to keep her in the village. Beyond the fact her little scorplings were fully grown and perfectly capable... Staying in the village had already started wearing on her. This was for the best.

Right behind her was her two brothers. Looms-Over-Others had grown large, more than matching his sire in height and certainly out-massing him. Beats-His-Chest declared his intent to leave a second later. Skitters had hoped Looms would stay. Perhaps to become a guard, to protect the village as he protected his siblings. Ultimately, He felt called to defend his siblings more than the rest of the village. She didn't blame him for that.

Finally, Climbs-Tall-Things approached her, a determined look in her eyes. She said nothing. Climbs had become far quieter as the weeks passed. Not in a bad way, but she was more measured and considering.

Sunset-Carapace was staying. She didn't possess the drive for adventure and exploration that her siblings did. Skitters also knew she'd been sneaking out at night recently and patiently waited for the day her daughter introduced her to whatever Scorpan had caught her eye.

While her scorplings leaving tore at her heart... the thing that ripped it in two was that Fires was going too.

Plays-With-Fires had become increasingly distant since the Fire Court's procession. Spending less time with their scorplings. Less time with her. Lays-In-Puddles and Preens-In-The-Light were preparing for their second clutches, but Fires hadn't even looked at her.

And so, there she stood. Sunset beside her, Puddles and Preens consoling her, as her mate and scorplings joined the column of Scorpans.

They soon passed beyond a turn in the canyon and disappeared from sight.

Skitters felt... nothing.

She felt empty.

"It'll be okay, Skitters. You'll find another mate," Preens consoled. Skitters scoffed and turned her head.

"If I did, it'd be a Scorpan half my age, at least," she replied. Preens stepped back, obviously shocked. "All the males my age are taken. No. I'm done with males." Skitters turned, walking back into the village.

She already knew what she wanted.

Minutes later, she was in her house. No longer her Home. It felt cold. Empty. Like her. She knelt before the altar to The Creator in the main room and bowed her head, her hands clasped together while her pincers were spread wide. 'Oh Holy Creator. This lowly servant of your will humbly prostrates herself before your will. My Mate has deserted me. I am without purpose. Forge me into an instrument of your will. I Beg of you.' Skitters did not repeat her prayer ad infinitum. She knew The Creator would hear her. Moments later, she felt His presence bloom in her mind.

Skitters, you have never been lowly. He claimed. Skitters didn't reply. She remained quiet, with her head bowed. She heard Him sigh. Is this what you truly desire?... I see it is. Very well. I require a talented Scorpan to guard the one who will be my Voice on the island's surface. She will be ascending to the surface in a few days. I know you are no warrior. I know you are no Shaman. But that can be changed.

'Oh Holy Creator. I am your instrument.'

I suppose that counts as your consent. He sounded... disgruntled. Then prepare yourself. For the next few hours, I will be altering your body. You will become stronger. More agile. More magically powerful. At the same time, you will receive the muscle memory and knowledge to use every weapon your species has learned to fight with. You will gain the magical understanding to take advantage of the Life mana affinity I will grant you. You are henceforth... my Paladin.

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The Dungeon, Medea Island, The Kalenic Sea

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I left Skitters alone after doing as I had promised. She had been irrevocably changed... I'd modified her natural armor, her chitinous shell, to become more menacing. The humanoid half of her body resembled Daedric armor but in my colors. Her shell was now a purple so dark it was almost black, with shining teal highlights. A similar transformation had been applied to her abdomen, tail, and legs. The upper joint of each leg, already shield-like in its shape, became more so. Her stinger went from one that could belong to an average scorpion to a spiked nightmare, holding the most toxic and poisonous liquid I could coax her body to create.

Conversely to her menacing appearance and deadly new skills, The mana within her body could not be more bursting with Life. I'd given her a few fragments of Life spells I'd gotten from the cleric I'd once imprisoned. I gave her every life-aligned spell the Unihares had created. I gave her the instinctive knowledge of how Life mana worked that the Jackalopes had developed.

And so, I'd created my first Obsidian Scorpan, as I decided to name this subspecies. No doubt I'd create more in the future, but for now, this was enough.

In other news, Kata was doing well with her training. I hadn't lied to Skitters. In a few days, my new Voice would be on the surface. And from the whispers of the sailors... just in time for the invasion.

A long-range scouting ship had returned. They'd been sent out to locate the enemy fleet and locate it they had. Hundreds of ships sailed in formation. They'd be here within the week, and we'd find out just how prepared the Bahrain were to invade my island.

With very little to do beyond wait, in that regard. I turned once again to improving my dungeon.

The Sixth floor had remained relatively unchanged since its initial creation. It was time to change that.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

First, I decided to alter the plains in one significant way: I changed them into floodplains. Mimicking the tides, the lava lakes would rise, covering the flat plains entirely for at least a dozen hours. Given how slowly the lava moved, an entire cycle took four days to complete. The only way to pass by the lava at full tide was through tunnels accessible only to the Children and Courts. Any guilders would have to wait out the tide. Call it an exercise in patience.

With most of the Fire Court's forces now on the Eleventh and the Capriccios being a friendly encounter, I decided to bring the Night Bats more into prominence. Their numbers were still relatively low after Hallmark and his party massacred most of them. First, a quick modification. I set a few of them aside and got to work.

Slightly smaller to present less of a target. Blood-red fur and a decent-sized manacore to provide enough mana. It's main attack? Long-range fireballs. These Hell Bats would hang out near the floor's ceiling, lobbing fireballs at targets on the ground wherever they spotted them. The rest of the bats I left as they were, and providing a boost to their screeches. Something was going on there. It could have been a new mana type, but I wasn't sure. I'd have to keep an eye on that.

With those relatively quick changes done, I reshaped the plains to have small raised plateaus. They were too far apart to jump between but could potentially trap unwary guilders, leaving them exposed amongst a sea of lava. Happy, I moved on. Since I'd already changed the Seventh and Eighth and saw no need to make any more changes, I skipped to the Ninth.

The desert was very effective at masking the canyon. Still, it would be better with another potential landmark to guide adventurers astray. I cursed for a few minutes, wishing I'd discovered the space expansion charms earlier. An endless desert would be amazing, though sourcing the sand would be extremely difficult and time-consuming.

So, I turned to the next best thing. Illusions. There was already the illusion that the desert continued forever around the cavern's walls but with some modification... There was now a mountain range in the distance. A series of ascending peaks meet in the middle, at a central mountain. This mountain had two prominent peaks, and from between the two, a bright light shined like a beacon.

Of course, this was all an illusion. As the Guilders approached the edge of the cavern, The illusion would gradually warp, turning them to circle the cavern's walls. The illusion would string them on until the next sandstorm, the mountain creeping ever closer. After the sandstorm cleared, the Guilders would be crushed to find all their progress gone, the mountain just as far away as it was when they started.

And I had my endless desert.

I turned my attention to the Canyon, observing the winding line of green and blue that split the desert. The Golden Sunlions and Stymphalian Vultures were thriving. The smaller prey animals were abundant. The vegetation was thick and vibrant. My next problem was made quite clear after Hallmark's final stunt.

I laid down another enchantment. A barrier of wind magic that would blow endlessly, throwing any potential jumpers or flight-capable mages back to the top of the canyon, where they started. The only place it didn't cover was the zig-zag path down the canyon at it's entrance. In fact, Kataren, Huea, Aston, and Skitters were approaching that very path. Had three days passed so quickly?

I smiled as Kataren demonstrated her skill with her new wings, leaping from the bottom to the top of the stairs, propelled by a single flap. She stumbled slightly, landing more heavily than intended, but she didn't fall on her face. Progress! Kataren waited at the top, her gleaming wings as much a beacon as the illusionary mountain on the horizon. In contrast, Skitter's obsidian chitin seemed to absorb light entirely, almost matte in the midday sun.

I followed their progress upward. Huea was left behind at the Drake-Kin Village, and they picked up the Drake-Kin I'd hand-picked for Kata's Honor Guard. They bypassed the receding Lava Tide, picking up the lone Capriccio waiting beneath their village. I guided them through the Castle's shortcuts and all the floor bypass tunnels. It was sunrise of the next day when they emerged, standing tall, staring out at the crowded Obsidian Beach.

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Obsidian Beach, Medea Island, The Kalenic Sea

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Haytham and every other Guilder on the island stared in shock as five creatures emerged from the dungeon's entrance. There was a moment of silence as the Gold and Platinum guilders on the beach processed what they were seeing. They were preparing to enter the dungeon for the day when the entrance dilated, expanding rapidly to admit the largest of the group.

Two of the monsters were easily identified, to Haytham at least. A lean Capriccio wielding a spear made of a black metal that seemed to absorb the light around it. Haytham wasn't sure, but he somewhat recognized one of the goat people his raid group had met on their first encounter. It was the shape of the horns, he thought. The males were the ones with large horns, right?

The second was a male Drake-kin. He bore a sword that held a rainbow shimmer, contrasting his dark brown scales. He was armored the other drake-kin had been, with bright orange Pheonix feathers and striped orange fur as accents.

The third was the most familiar and the most utterly terrifying thing he'd ever seen. Outmassing the first two combined, the monster looked like someone had painted the most menacing and hooked knight's armor ever made pitch black. It held two longswords, casually resting on the monster's shoulders. And that was just the top half! The armor's legs had been replaced with the entire body of a gods-damned Scorpion. And not just any scorpion. This one's shell reminded Haytham strongly of the crabs. It was the armored legs expertly covering what would be a weak spot on any ordinary scorpion. Its pincers were hooked nightmares, and the looming stinger dripped a vibrant green liquid. Haytham was in no hurry to investigate that.

The fourth was just as large as the third but in a different way. Where the scorpion was long and wide, the cow-man was tall. It had to be at least eight feet tall and was obviously a cow. A Bull, actually. Intimidating horns, broad chest, and shoulders hefting an enormous hammer. It huffed, its intelligent eyes scanning the crowd.

The fifth was the most disturbing and awe-inspiring of the group.

It looked like the dungeon had tried to turn a drake-kin into a human. What parts of it were exposed showed pale white skin interspersed with patches of scales of every color of the rainbow. Its eyes were the same, shifting through the color spectrum. Its ears were pointed and almost entirely scaled. It- her chest was large, but not obscenely so. Now that Haytham was looking, it was definitely female. The shape of the jaw and the curve of the hips gave it away. But by far, her most eye-catching feature was the glimmering, transparent wings. Like her eyes, they slowly cycled through the colors of the rainbow.

When it seemed like the pause had gone on forever, the winged human-lizard coughed and then spoke.

"Surface Dwellers. I am here to represent The Creator as His Voice. We will be participating in the defense of our island and in it's governing after we've succeeded. We will defend ourselves if attacked but will not initiate a fight. Guildmistress Losat will gladly take any questions you have, as this was her idea."

At once, the head of every Guilder on the beach turned toward the Guild Hall, where said Guildmistress was powerwalking closer and very obviously slowed as she noticed their attention.

The five monsters moved, and the Guilders parted, leaving ample room for them to pass by. The winged monster briefly spoke with the Guildmistress, and then they were led back to the Guild Hall.

The mood of the crowd was... incredibly varied and confused. All at once, the crowd erupted into conversation. Theories and opinions flowed like water as everyone tried to figure out just what the five hells was going on. When it all finally calmed down, there were two main camps.

One, The Guildmistress had sold them out to the monsters, and this was all a way to lull them into a false sense of security. They'd be taking over after fighting off the invasion, and the humans would all be enslaved by the dungeon. This was the most pessimistic opinion, shared by almost a third of the guilders.

Two, The Guildmistress had enlisted the dungeon's help, and the woman was speaking truthfully. A voice, to be the dungeon's input on the island's running. It was here long before the humans had ever stepped foot on these sand beaches. This was the majority opinion. Most everyone had acknowledged that at least the Kobolds were honorable, thinking beings. They hardly needed to kill anything on the third anymore besides avoiding the giant fucking bugs.

There were some other people with truly insane theories they insisted had to be true, but that wasn't important. What was important was that everything would change, as evidenced by the alarm that went up a few hours into the discussion. A scout ship had returned. The Bahrain fleet was a day away.

The invasion had arrived.

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