“As for you my firmly shelled friend, you'll be needing something more suitable, something long and stabby right?” Gwyn spoke to our bug like it was an old friend, but our dev?k just stared back blankly. Flattery and false charm were somewhat ineffective against our dull friend. Gwyn took at as the bug seeing through him so he changed tact fast.

  “I overheard your conversation with Vae earlier, I apologize for doing so, but when I heard I rushed to get our blacksmith. He has a special prototype that might be more to your liking.” Gwyn stood aside and a shorter, more muscled pixie stepped forward and bowed.

  “I-i think ye might be needing somethin', a bit more heavy duty. Be I right?" The short pixie spoke with a pleasant voice, while gesturing at the arsenal of plant-like weapons. While not as refined as Vaelin, nor as beguiling as Gwyn he was straight forward, and our young dev?k liked that. More accurately he kept it simple, and our bug liked it. Trying to show that with a smile our bug ended up making a menacing snarl when it shifted its tendril. Not the best idea nor first impression, but the instinct came from the human side.

  The dev?k was confused about why everyone in the room had gotten unusually still after it had smiled. Was there danger afoot? Or was it something else? Perhaps they were just nervous. Well whatever the case may be the dev?k decided to try and ease the short pixie into conversation.

  “wHAaat is yoooou Caaaalllled?”

  “A-ah me name be Rhind, I be sorry for nae introducing myself sooner, Lord Protector. It be an honor-”

  “Rhind, enough groveling, and show our friend what you made.” Interrupted an impatient Gwyn in a sharp warning tone. The grizzled and gruff Gwyn glared at the smith.

  “R-right, sorry Gwyn.” The dev?k remained silent, a bit curious about the interaction, but our bug was interested in every interaction. Our dev?k watched Rhind carefully, inspecting him and wondering if he had the weapon on his person. Surely not, because if so it would have probably been too small, and the smith promised something heavy. So our dev?k just stared blankly and waited for Rhind to do something.

  Realizing that everyone was waiting on him, Rhind moved his left hand over a small blue bracelet on his other wrist, a spear materialized in his grasp. As soon as the spear was fully formed, the light around them seemed to dim. It was almost pure white from tip to haft, except for small black veins that permeated the whole thing. The blade took up a fourth of the total length and was wedge shaped, getting quite thick near the base of the blade. The whole thing looked to have been carved, instead of forged.

  “Originally it was an order for a human client. They wanted a pendant o' concealment made out o' tha bones o' a lesser shadow demon. Originally I designed it ta resemble tha tip o' an arrow. We were attacked an' exiled 'afore I cou' finish it though, an' when gwyn came ta me earlier with your request I was able ta give tha blade an edge an' remove tha loop it had.” As Rhind spoke, he hesitantly offered the spear to the dev?k. It is not that he was afraid of giving our shelled murderer a weapon, he just did not want to touch any part of the dev?k.

  Okay maybe he was a little afraid, but the dev?k just looked too... Wrong. The bug looked too messed up and twisted to be alive. It was as though this creature was made to spit in the face of the natural order.

  The dev?k stretched out a hand and grasped the middle of the haft. It pulled it out of Rhind's hand without touching him, to his relief, and began to see how it felt in its six fingered hands. Honestly, the weapon was very over-balanced and slightly brittle. The darkness and corruption that lived in the bones made it a poor base for a weapon, and the heavy blade made the spear clumsy to weild. The dev?k didn't know any of this, it only saw the positives. Like that the material made the spear lighter than it should be and it had excellent reach that reminded our young friend of its makeshift spear tendrils. Plus the head was huge compared to the shaft and it was really sharp.

  Rhind however was aware of the defects, and wouldn't have made this into a weapon unless Gwyn hadn't ordered him to. Everyone knew that demon bone weapons grew stronger when fed blood, but these weapons also tended to twist the minds of their wielders until turning them into mindless savages and then demons themselves. It was a risk to give such a weapon to someone already, so monster-like, but Gwyn didn't care. In fact it is what Gwyn wanted to happen. Thanks to his Job as a demon tamer, Gwyn could bend savage or newly created demons without minds into things reminiscent of house pets. Rhind wasn't sure what Gwyn's ultimate goal was, but it didn't bode well for the dev?k.

  Our dev?k was overjoyed with its new weapon. After thanking Gwyn and Rhind, it proceeded to swing its new spear around haphazardly on the banks of the pond. While gaining nothing status related for its all thrashing about, our dev?k did become marginally more comfortable with the spear. As the sun fell low in the skies, the pixies began to raise dirt and mud walls to cover the outside of the rent. The structure wouldn’t do anything except block line of sight, which wouldn’t be of much help to the pixie.

  Just then Aldreya and Vaelin came speeding out of the helmet making a beeline for our dev?k. As they got closer Vaelin called out, “Alright fearsome protector it is time for the last step in the plan. We can’t seal up the rent without using our magic, but using our magic will cause us to be slaughtered before we can seal it. So we need to make you their main focus, are we willing to protect us and not run away?”

  Our bug only nodded as it stopped its rather fruitless efforts to twirl the instrument of war in its hands.

  “Good you will need to stand still for this.” Another nod and Vaelin unsheathed a small knife and pricked her finger. She Smeared the blood on the dev?k’s forehead in an x pattern. Then Aldreya pricked her finger and smeared a + through the x.

  “I claim this one as Protector, and gift them with the blessing of my blood may they be enduring as an oak.” Vaelin spoke in a formal tone, being quickly followed by Aldreya.

  “I claim this one as Protector, and gift them with the blessing of my blood may they always stand strong as stone.”

  Both Aldreya and Vaelin had grown visible pale, as our dev?k felt the blessings kick in.

  “Good luck.” The pair spoke in unison as they began to walk back to the alcove. The blessing had taken all of their energy and then some. The dev?k just nodded at their backs and once again began twirling its spear. The forest that was already restless began to bristle with activity.

  Now my friends, you should take note that while our dev?k was certainly more intelligent than it was just a few days ago, it had the maturity of a child. Which is an improvement, but when it was twirling the spear well the bug felt cool. There was no other way to describe it. Physically the bug looked like an epeltic fish stranded on dry land, but that wasn’t how the bug saw it. Perhaps that is too harsh but you get what I mean.

  As our shelled friend continued its clumsy attempts at being cool. A dense pulse rippled out from behind exuding a feeling of strength and peace. The human part of our dev?k tried to figure out how it could use that kind of power for itself. The Marg part wanted to consume it all. While the av?k remained silent, and steadfast. Several moments passed as more pulses shot out into the forest and with every one the anticipation rose. As our dev?k stood with its back to the pixie alcove, unease began to rake across its mind. You see my dear friends, our dev?k has never known the fear of waiting. It has never defended anything other than itself. It finally began to wonder just what it had gotten itself into.

  Before fear could convince the dev?k to flee, it heard the incoming hoard and it sounded like the promise of a meal. The scurrying of insects began like a low whisper and grew to a shout as they converged from all sides. When the hoard grew close enough, the dev?k bellowed a heart stopping screech. The entire plan hinged on the fact that the mindless insects would think our dev?k was the source of the magic pulse. So our bug decided to firmly grab their attention.

  Rushing the lone dev?k, like starving men being offered cake, they converged. As the front line met with the dev?k, they were greeted with an arc of death. Cutting through insects like butter had less to do with the actual sharpness of the blade, and more to do with the nature of the shadow demon bones. As the hoard crashed together a few of the more easily distracted insects began to fight each other. After all, it wasn't a unified collective, just a bunch of insects hungry for power. Regardless, the dev?k cut down all that lay before it. Using the tried and true tactic of delivering debilitating blows and letting foes die from their injuries. The dev?k moved through the horde like a horrible storm of death.

  Ten minutes passed then twenty, and it was smooth sailing. But that was because most of the front runners were small fry. Acting like alarm bells, Parasitical Growth activated, and alerted the dev?k to the one or more host-worms beneath its feet. Screeching an ear piercing screech paralyzed the hoard, but only for a moment. In that moment our dev?k drove its spear into the earth. Sinking in far deeper than it had expected, the dev?k was surprised, but much less so when five more host-worms shot out from the earth. Four tendrils gulped down an ambusher each, leaving the fifth untouched. The fifth worm angled itself towards the dev?k's chest -hoping to pierce the heart. Host worms didn't possess any sort of advanced eyesight, or eyesight of any kind for that matter, so it didn't see the chitin protecting our dev?k's chest and heart. It also didn't see the claws that launched out and cut it in half, but that was more to do with the speed of the attack than anything else.

  The dev?k yanked its spear from the dirt. It was disappointing to find that the host-worm had not come with, but it was not the time to dwell upon it. The hoard had mostly regained their senses and once again had crashed upon the lone dev?k. Watching the fight was like watching a river try and split a mountain. Even though the mountain seemed indomitable, the river was still wearing away at it, and the only question seemed to be how long the mountain would last.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  As the battle progressed, the insects started getting bigger and bigger, and then rodents started to swarm. As the dev?k fought the ever shifting odds, a notification it had been waiting for finally appeared.

  One less thing to worry about, now it just needed twelve more to balance out the arthropod gene pool. At least that is what Parasitical growth told the dev?k, but that could wait now was survival time.

  Small dark green rodents had wiped out the remaining insects and were now beginning their focused assault on the dev?k. At least they would have, if not for the strange rumbling in the earth that drew the eye of all combatants. The dev?k looked on in awe as a round metal dome that was the suit of enchanted steel began to rise up and collapse the entrance to the alcove. Various tubes and pipes sprouted from the dome and the nearby ground as well. It was presteene, the pixies must have altered the shape of the armor somewhat since the helmet seemed wider than before. Almost like the ritual had made the suit of armor bulge outwards in all directions. Now our dev?k just had to wait for them to open the helmet and let the bug inside. Any second now. Slow horrible realization seized our incompitent insect. The pixies didn't care if it survived, our bug was just a useful distraction to them, wasn't it?

  Hot rage boiled up in our dev?k as it began to slaughter with renewed vigor. To survive this our dev?k would need greater strength, and the only way it saw to do that was by eating rodents. Ripping apart the rodents, our bug began to fill its mammalian gene pool.

  It fought with reckless abandon reling upon its chitin and without realizing it, its healing flower. Our bug barely noticed the small glancing blows that struck between its plates of chitin. Some of these blows left small cuts and abrasions, insignificant and almost painless. So our bug was under the impression that it remained uninjured, and it was confident in victory.

  However, despite its near constant feeding and blessing, our dev?k began to grow tired. So tired, so very tired. The slow debuff was beginning to take a massive toll upon the dev?k. It kept slowing the dev?k more and more as it pushed harder and harder against it. Then for the first time since the queen had attacked it, the dev?k felt pain. The plates on its body had grown spaced out from all of the dev?k's rapid growth. Normally an av?k or dev?k would molt the old shell and grow a new one over the course of the week. Our dev?k wanted to stockpile food before it molted, but never got the chance.

  The ordinary vole landed a lucky strike from behind on the dev?k's exposed neck. This would have spelled the end for our little bug's short and violent life, if not for Vae's flower. In a heartbeat roots had strung themselves through the wound like stitches and pulled it closed drinking the blood already spilled. The dev?k swung around and lopped off the head with a single swing of the bone spear. Feeling a little aggrieved, our dev?k plunged the spear into the vole’s skull before screeching yet again.

  Then something screeched back.

  Breaking the surface of the water was something that vaguely resembled a rat. It had white slicked down fur, a wide mouth, beady eyes, and the nub-like ears of an otter. Its neck however, was bare of fur and ridged with gills. It was some kind of rodent fish hybrid commonly known as a Mudling. A hybrid like our little dev?k, but far less twisted. When the remaining voles saw the approaching mudling, they fled in terror.

  I wish I could tell you that our dev?k was relishing this fight, but truthfully it was afraid. This thing that was coming towards the dev?k had an entirely different countenance. It felt... Ominous, like an actual monster. Just from the ripples in the pond it was easy to see how much larger this animal was. Instead of just the overgrown insects our bug had been killing, this thing had some actual weight to it. Our dev?k was not looking forward to dealing with any part of that thing we know as a mudling.

  As the muddling stepped on to the shore, the dev?k noticed that it had fallen to one knee at some point. Trying to regain some vigor, the dev?k tore into the freshly slain vole. The tasteless meal definitely took its mind off of its exhaustion, but thanks to its sin it wouldn't be able to recoup fast enough before the clash. Thankfully mudlings were not very fast on either the land nor in the water. It moved at an even pace on four webbed and clawed feet. It was nearly thrice the size of the lone defender, and quite grumpy from being woken up from its midday nap.

  The dev?k continued to swallow bite after bite, trying to eat as fast as it could. A thought passed through its mind, about how wasteful this all was. Our bug had slaughtered so much and it gained such little energy back from consuming food that it felt almost pointless. Yet it had no other choice, but to continue choking down the tasteless rodent. Unfortunately, half of a vole was all it got through before the mudling was close enough for an attack. With tendrils safely stowed, the dev?k stood ready for attack. If it survived this, the pixies might let it back inside. It was a foolish hope, but it was all our bug had to cling too. If they didn’t save the dev?k at the end of this fight, then even if it survived our bug would be too exhausted to do anything other than wait for death.

  The lumbering form of the mudling stopped a few pace away sizing up its opponent, the beast wasn’t stupid and recognized our bug as something dangerous. Still the semiaquatic rat could see how tired the bug was, and it could smell the blood of pixies nearby. The mudling screeched its challenge towards the sky. The dev?k didn't hesitate as it lunged. Spear pointing towards the mudling's exposed throat. The mudling reacted with hither too undemonstrated speed as it batted the spear away with one swipe. Letting the added momentum carry the dev?k, our shelled friend spun. This time the spinning slashing of the dev?k managed to make contact, slicing into the mudling's front right leg, the same leg that had knocked the first blow aside. Hissing in pain, the mudling tried to bite the head off of the dev?k, but our shelled friend lunged backward just barely stumbling out of decapitation range. The blood flowed down the mudling's leg as the beast babyed the injury, it kept the leg up and tucked avoiding putting any weight on it. Unfortunately, the slash had been but a glancing blow, at full force our bug could have lopped the thing right off.

  Both beasts glared at each other, one hurt the other exhausted before the mudling advanced. The dev?k had been hoping that it would back off or even wait a bit longer before attacking again. Now the dev?k’s only hope was to take advantage of an opening, and attack with everything it had left. Which would essentially be a gamble unless our shelled menace could strike an eye. Another chance might arise, but with the exhaustion weighing down the dev?k waiting for that chance might just kill the bug. In the few seconds it took for the mudling to reach the dev?k, its wound had already closed. The dev?k deflated a bit more. The finishing blow had to be extremely precise now hitting an artery or a gut wound might not even finish it. Our bug would either have to go for the brain or heart.

  The mudling swiped down with its no-longer-injured paw in a heavy strike. Too tired to move out of the way, our dev?k blocked with the haft of its spear. A bad idea really. The pseudo-real nature of shadow demon bones means that a blade made out of the stuff will go through most things like a hot knife through butter. Unfortunately, having a part of its structure be made out of nothing does not help it block or stay together.

  A crack spread throughout the weapon and as it did, the dev?k felt the ominous twisting power of the demon seep out of the spear and pollute the air. The shadows that escaped wrapped around both combatants. The mudling screamed in pain while the dev?k convulsed, as numbness spread across its mind and its very soul. All demonic power, or essence, has an element of corruption to it. This corruption wraps around another concept, twisting it to draw out as much power as possible. Two threads for the price of one, but with this method comes drawbacks. Such as never being able to reach the same depths of control and stability as normal users. So getting a straight shot of those corrupted shadows with no protection in place. Well that is tantamount to visiting the sewers without any skin. Odds are you aren’t coming out clean and well let’s be honest, you will probably die from a horrible infection shortly after..

  Corruption affects everyone and everything differently. It is one of the more chaotic threads, besides chaos itself. For example, the air that came into contact with the essence turned into six different types of gasses that were all harmful to the life present. Harmful, but not fatal. The mudling was having every molecule in its hand ripped apart and warped into a shadow demon's claw, while the dev?k was being altered on a more fundamental level. It was fighting for control of its soul since that is where the dev?k was weakest. Our dev?k had what you might call an incomplete soul, and what the architect's of Fracture would call a Deviation.

  Our dev?k from a few days ago probably would have lost before it even knew what was happening, but now it was holding its own. Without meaning to our dev?k was to fight back the corruption with unfettered and unrestrained rage. Our dev?k was tired and frustrated and it just wanted to go the fuck inside, so how dare that black shit try and take over its body. ‘How dare those pixies lock me out. How dare that shitty rat fuck try and kill me. How dare this shitty fucking spear break on the first day…’

  A memory of Gwyn arranging for our dev?k to have this spear popped into our bugs head, fanning the flame or its incandescent rage. The dev?k was just beginning to like the pixie and it seemed like they were out to get it from the start. Our dev?k wasn’t sure why Gwyn had given the bug the spear, but the pixie must have been up to something slimy. Even if it became some corrupted demon our dev?k would make sure to do something awful to Gwyn. Then the dev?k saw something destressing out of the corner of its eye. The mudling was moving towards the dev?k, and its transformation had halted. Walking on three legs and dragging the fourth mutated limb, the mudling shambled forward. While the mudling was not intelligent, it was spiteful. It was still a monster and it wanted to kill the thing that might've just cost it life. Just like our bug wanted to do to Gwyn.

  Slowly, step by step with a shuddering halting gait the mudling advanced. Both dev?k and mudling were still dealing with the immense pain from their respective corruptions. The dev?k still lay motionless, adding panic to its rage, hoping to push the corruption back, but it didn't budge. It was the end for our dev?k. The corruption was advancing and our bug could stop it. So either the mudling would eat it or the corruption would destroy its soul. Something moved across the dev?k's vision in a blur. All of a sudden the mudling had been knocked over, and before it could even let out a sound of surprise, the mudling was stabbed in the brain.

  The pixie savior rushed over to the dev?k and laid a hand upon its bulbous carapace. It was Vae. But how was that possible? The pixie was not that fast before, no pixie was. Nor did they have the strength to knock over anything as big as the mudling. In the dev?k's lapse in concentration, the essence invading its soul had progressed.

  “I'm going to do what I can.” Her voice was ragged and clipped as though she was in great pain, “Moving will make it worse. So it is now or never, You have to swear to protect me, because in a moment… Well I won't be much use in a moment. Do you swear?”

  The dev?k nodded and felt its concentration slip a bit more. It would do whatever it took to survive.

  “Then as you have accepted my blessing and I, your oath, I hereby seal our pact with magic.”

  "I overheard your conversation with Vae earlier, I apologise for doing so, but when I heard I rushed to get our blacksmith. He has a special prototype that might be more to your liking." Gwyn stood aside and a shorter, more muscled pixie stepped forward and bowed.

  "I-i think you might be needing somethin', a bit more heavy duty. Am I right?" The short pixie spoke with a pleasant voice, while gesturing at the plant-like arsenal. While not as refined as Gwyn or Vae, he was straight forward, and our young dev?k liked that. Trying to show that with a smile our bug ended up making a menacing snarl. Not the best idea nor first impression, but the instinct came from the human side.

  The dev?k was confused about why everyone in the room had gotten unusually still after it had smiled. Was there danger afoot? Or was it something else? Perhaps they were just nervous. Well whatever the case may be the dev?k decided to try and ease the short pixie into conversation.

  "wHAaat is yoooou Caaaalllled?"

  "A-ah my name is Rhind, I am sorry for not introducing myself sooner, lord protector. It is an honor-"

  "Rhind, enough grovelling, and show our friend what you made." Interrupted an impatient Gwyn in a sharp warning tone. The grizzled and gruff Gwyn glared at the smith. Almost as though the smith had let something slip.

  "R-right, sorry Gwyn." The dev?k remained silent, a bit curious about the interaction, and pleased with the bit of flattery it had received. Well what it assumed was flattery, it didn't know what lord meant, but it sounded cool and polite. Our dev?k watched the short Rhind carefully, inspecting him and wondering if he had the weapon on his person. Surely not, because if so it would have probably been too small, and the smith promised something heavy. Noticing the dev?k eyeing the smith, like a wolf eyes fresh meat he was eager to be gone.

  Moving his left hand over a small blue bracelet on his other wrist, a spear materialized in his grasp. As soon as the spear was fully formed, the light around them seemed to dim. It was almost pure white from tip to haft, except for small black veins that permeated the whole thing. The blade took up a fourth of the total length and was wedge shaped, getting quite thick near the base of the blade. The whole thing looked to have been carved, instead of forged.

  "Originally it was an order for a human client. They wanted a pendant of concealment made out of the bones of a lesser shadow demon. We were attacked and exiled before I could finish it though, and when Gwyn came to me earlier with your request I was able to give the blade an edge and remove the loop it had added." As Rhind spoke, he hesitantly offered the spear to the dev?k. It is not that he was afraid of giving our shelled murderer a weapon, he just did not want to touch any part of the dev?k.

  Okay maybe he was a little afraid, but the dev?k just looked too... Wrong. The dev?k looked too messed up and twisted to be alive. It was as though the bug was made to spit in the face of the natural order.

  The dev?k stretched out a hand and grasped the middle of the haft. It pulled it out of Rhind's hand without touching him, to his relief, and began to see how it felt in its six fingered hands. Honestly, the weapon was very over-balanced and slightly brittle. The darkness and corruption that lived in the bones made it a poor base for a weapon, and the heavy blade made the spear clumsy to weild. The dev?k didn't know any of this, it only saw the positives. Like that the material made the spear lighter than it should be and it had excellent reach that reminded our young friend of its makeshift spear tendrils.

  Rhind however was aware of the defects, and wouldn't have made this into a weapon unless Gwyn hadn't ordered him to. Everyone knew that demon bone weapons grew stronger when fed blood, but these weapons also tended to twist the minds of their wielders until turning them into mindless savages and then demons themselves. It was a risk to give such a weapon to someone already on the edge, but Gwyn didn't care. In fact it is what Gwyn wanted to happen. Thanks to his job as a demon tamer, Gwyn could bend savage or newly created demons without minds into things reminiscent of house pets. Rhind wasn't sure what Gwyn's ultimate goal was, but it didn't bode well for the dev?k.

  Our dev?k was overjoyed with it's new weapon. After thanking Gwyn and Rhind, it proceeded to swing it's new spear around haphazardly on the banks of the pond. While gaining nothing status related for its all thrashing about, our dev?k did become marginally more comfortable with the spear. As the sun fell low in the skies, the pixies raised the last of their concealing walls and informed the dev?k that they were ready. It only nodded as it continued its rather fruitless efforts to twirl the instrument of war in its hands.

  Now my friends, you should take note that while our dev?k was certainly more intelligent than it was just a few days ago, it had the maturity of a child. Which is an improvement, but when it had tired of swinging its spear around, our dev?k felt something stir inside. A desire, no, a necessity for flair that seemed to be in most children, awakened in our dev?k as a need to kill with style.

  As our shelled friend continued its clumsy attempts at being cool. A dense pulse rippled out from behind exuding a feeling of strength and peace. The human part of our dev?k tried to figure out how it could use that kind of power for itself. The Marg part wanted to consume it all. While the av?k remained silent, and steadfast. Several moments passed as more pulses shot out into the forest and with every one the anticipation rose. As our dev?k stood with its back to the pixie alcove, unease began to rake across its mind. You see my dear friends, our dev?k has never known the fear of waiting. It has never defended anything other than itself. It finally began to wonder just what it had gotten itself into.

  Before fear could convince the dev?k to flee, it heard the incoming hoard like the promise of a meal. The scurrying of insects began like a low whisper and grew to a shout as they converged from all sides. When the hoard grew close enough, the dev?k bellowed a heart stopping screech. The entire plan hinged on the fact that the mindless insects would think our dev?k was the source of the magic pulse. Being mindless they fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

  Rushing the lone dev?k -like starving men being offered cake- they converged. As the front line met with the dev?k, they were greeted with an arc of death. Cutting through insects like butter had less to do with the actual sharpness of the blade, and more to do with the nature of the shadow demon bones. As the hoard crashed together they began to fight each other. After all, it wasn't a collective, just a bunch of insects hungry for power. Regardless, the dev?k cut down all that lay before it. Using the tactics our bug had relied on previously, delivering debilitating blows and letting foes die from their injuries, the dev?k moved through the horde like a horrible storm of death.

  Acting like alarm bells, parasitical growth activated alerting the dev?k to the one or more host-worms beneath its feet. Screeching as loud as it could to paralyze the hoard, and buy itself a few seconds our dev?k drove its spear into the earth. Sinking in far deeper than it had expected, the dev?k was surprised, but much less so when five more host-worms shot out from the earth. Four tendrils gulped down an ambusher each, leaving the fifth untouched. The fifth worm angled itself towards the dev?k's chest -hoping to pierce the heart. Host worms didn't possess any sort of advanced eyesight, or eyesight of any kind for that matter, so it didn't see the chitin protecting our dev?k's chest and heart. It also didn't see the claws that launched out and cut it in half, but that was more to do with the speed of the attack than anything else.

  The dev?k yanked its spear from the dirt. It was disappointed to find that the host-worm had not come with, but it was not the time to dwell upon it. The hoard had mostly regained their senses and once again had crashed upon the lone dev?k. Watching the fight was like watching wind try and topple a mountain. Even though the mountain seemed indomitable, the wind was still chipping away at it, and in this scenario the wind was getting more ferocious.

  As the battle progressed, the insects started getting bigger and bigger, and then rodents started to swarm. As the dev?k fought the ever shifting odds, a notification it had been waiting for finally appeared.

  The rats had wiped out the remaining insects and were now beginning their focused assault on the dev?k. At least they would have, if not for the strange rumbling in the earth that made that drew the eye of the combatants. The dev?k looked on in awe as a round metal wall began to rise and engulf the entrance to the alcove. Various tubes and pipes sprouted from the ground as well, and just as the rumble died down, the dev?k had a realization. The pixies locked it out. They didn't care if it survived, it was just a useful distraction, wasn't it?

  Hot rage boiled up in our dev?k as it began to slaughter with renewed vigor. Ripping apart the rats, it began to fill its mammalian gene pool.

  It fought and fought still uninjured, but our dev?k began to grow tired. So tired, so very tired. The slow debuff was beginning to take a massive toll upon the dev?k. It kept slowing the dev?k more and more as it pushed harder and harder against the wall. Then for the first time since the queen had attacked it, the dev?k felt pain. The plates on its body had grown spaced out from all of the dev?k's rapid growth. Normally an av?k or dev?k would molt the old shell and grow a new one over the course of the week. Our dev?k wanted to stockpile food before it molted, but never got the chance.

  The ordinary rat landed a lucky strike on the dev?k's exposed neck. This would have spelled the end for our little bug's short and violent life, if not for Vae's flower. In a heartbeat roots had strung themselves through the wound like stitches and pulled it closed drinking the blood already spilt. The dev?k plunged the bone spear into the rats skull before screeching yet again, and then something screeched back.

  Coming out of the water was something that vaguely resembled a rat. It had white slicked down fur, a wide mouth, beady eyes, and ears like one too. Its neck however, was furless and ridged with gills. It was some kind of rat hybrid. A hybrid like our little dev?k, but far less twisted. When the remaining rats saw the approaching mudling, they fled in terror.

  I wish I could tell you that our dev?k was relishing this fight, but truthfully it was afraid. This thing that was coming towards the dev?k had an entirely different countenance. It felt... Ominous, like an actual monster. Instead of just the overgrown insects it had been killing, this felt like something designed to kill. Our dev?k was not looking forward to dealing with any part of that thing we know as a mudling.

  As it stepped on to the shore, the dev?k realized that it had fallen to one knee at some point. Trying to regain some vigor, the dev?k tore into the freshly slain rat. The tasteless meal definitely took the edge off of its exhaustion, but thanks its sin it wouldn't be able to recoup fast enough before the clash. Thankfully mudlings were not very fast on either land or in the water. It moved at an even pace on four webbed and clawed feet. It was nearly twice the size of the lone defender, and quite grumpy from being woken up from its midday nap.

  The dev?k continued to swallow bite after bite, trying to eat as fast as it could. The only snacks it had consumed during the whole fight were the small host-worms, and it needed a feast to continue. Unfortunately, half of a rat was all it got through before the mudling was close enough for an attack. With tendrils safely stowed, the dev?k stood ready for attack. If it survived this, the long hour of fighting would be over and it could rest.

  The mudling screeched its challenge towards the sky. The dev?k didn't hesitate as it lunged. Spear pointing towards the mudling's exposed throat. The mudling prepared for this; it batted the spear away with one swipe. Spinning with the motion, the dev?k still pressed forward. This time the sideways slashing of the dev?k managed to make contact, slicing into the mudling's front right leg, the same leg that had knocked the first blow aside. Hissing in pain, the mudling tried to bite the head off of the dev?k, but it had pulled its spear out and jumped back to avoid decapitation. The blood flowed down the mudling's leg as it tried to keep it elevated. Unfortunately, the spear had not been sturdy enough to chop through monster bone, so the mudling's foot was still attached.

  They glared at each other before the mudling advanced. The dev?k's last hope was to take advantage of an opening, to finish the fight quickly. Another chance might arise, but the dev?k would have to play defense. In the few seconds it took for the mudling to reach the dev?k, it's wound had already closed. The dev?k deflated a bit more. Even cutting it up until it bled out wasn't an option. It would have to go for the brain or heart instead of trying to sever a main vein.

  The mudling swiped down with its no-longer-injured paw in a heavy strike. Too tired to move out of the way, our dev?k blocked with the haft of its spear. A bad idea really. The pseudo real nature of shadow demon bones means that a blade will go through most things like a knife through hot butter. Unfortunately, having a part of its structure be made out of nothing does not help it stay together.

  A crack spread throughout the weapon and as it did, the dev?k felt the ominous twisting power of the demon seep out of the spear and pollute the air. The shadows that escaped wrapped around both combatants. The mudling screamed in pain while the dev?k convulsed, as numbness spread across its mind and its very soul. All demonic power, essence, or thread is based on corruption. This corruption wraps around another concept twisting it to the user's will. Two threads for the price of one, but with this methods comes drawbacks. Such as never being able to reach the same depths of control and stability as normal users. So getting a straight shot of those corrupted shadows with no protection in place. Well that is tantamount to visiting the sewers without any skin. You're going to catch something, and then probably die.

  Corruption affects everyone and everything differently. It is one of the more chaotic threads, besides chaos itself. For example, the air that came into contact with the essence turned into six different types of gases that were all harmful to the life present. Harmful, but not fatal. The mudling was having every molecule in its hand ripped apart and warped into a shadow demons claw, while the dev?k was being altered on a more fundamental level. It was fighting for control of its soul since that is where the dev?k was weakest. Our dev?k had what you might call an incomplete soul, and what the architect's of Fracture would called a Deviation.

  The dev?k from a few days ago probably would have lost before it even knew what was happening, but the dev?k now was holding its own. Calling upon an emotion it had used only a few before, the dev?k summoned its rage.

  How dare that black shit try and take over its body. The dev?k was just getting around to enjoying itself a bit when that fucker Gwyn came in and made things complicated for it. Our dev?k didn't know why it believed Gwyn had a hand in this, but the pixie just felt slimy. It would lose itself to a demon, at least not before it could do something awful to Gwyn. Then the dev?k saw something destressing out of the corner of its eye. The mudling was moving towards the dev?k, transformation halted. Walking on three legs and dragging the fourth mutated limb, the mudling shambled forward. While the mudling was not intelligent, it was still a monster and it wanted to kill the thing that might've just cost it life. Just to be spiteful.

  Slowly, step by step with a halting gait the mudling advanced. Both dev?k and mudling were still dealing with the immense pain from their respective corruptions. The dev?k still lay motionless adding panic to its rage, hoping to push the corruption back, but it didn't budge. It was the end for our dev?k, until it wasn't. Something moved across the dev?k's vision in a blur. All of a sudden the mudling had been knocked over, and before it could even let out a sound of surprise, the mudling was stabbed in the brain.

  The pixie savior rushed over to the dev?k and laid a hand upon its bulbous carapace. It was Vae. But how was that possible? The pixie was not that fast before, no pixie was. Nor did they have the strength to knock over anything as big as the mudling. In the dev?k's lapse in concentration, the essence invading its soul had progressed.

  "I'm going to do what I can, to try and save you, but moving you will make it worse. So it is now or never, and if I do this more monsters with come. You have to swear to protect me, because I won't be much use against the hoard. Do you swear?"

  The dev?k nodded and felt it's concentration slip a bit more. It would do whatever it took to survive.