Dwarves. We Are Engaged With Grey Skinned Dwarves.

A sheilded formation of well Equipped Grey Skinned Dwarves were pushing into my Army Ant Hive. Newly mature Army Ants flooded to block their entry doing almost no damage to the Armored invaders. They did little more than stall the attack. With large Dwarf Cafted Hammers and Pickaxes the Dwarves were smashing chitin and flesh with every blow. My Ants weren't ready for this. They were dying by the score. I had to get up there. I couldn't manipulate my Dungeon while active invaders were inside. In order to close that hole I needed to expel the attackers, kill them or take them as prisoners.

I raced out of my chambers and Flew through the heart of my Dungeon up the oversized passageways and into the Hive. My Dungeon Sense showed me that there were 16 Grey Dwarves pushing into the room in a solid circle of ****. Another 5 Dwarves defended the breach in the wall. It was their only exit. They couldn't afford not to defend it. I didn't waste any time. Apologies to my own Ant Soldiers but I had to break the enemy formation ASAP. I crashed through my Swarming Ants and Shattered the Dwarven formation with my heavy body. Armored Dwarves cursed and yelled in panic as they were flung away from each other. Who would expect a Huge Dragon/Minotaur Hybrid to attack while in the middle of a battle? These Dwarves sure as hell didn't. My jaws snapped shut on one valiant Dwarf as he moved to use his pickaxe on my face. My swordlike teeth cut through his chain mail hauberk and cleaved him in half. I wasn't a massive creature but I was still a huge monster. My jaws were only wide enough to chomp one Dwarf in half at a time. I'll admit I had expected it to be more difficult to cut an Armored person in half. But I was a Dragon/Minotaur. My musculature was crazy strong even without the buffs from being in my Home Territory. I used my foreclaws to rend the Armor of two other Dwarves and watched as my Army Ants Swarmed over the scattered invaders. My soldiers snatched up fallen enemy weapons where they could and used their sharp fanged teeth where the Dwarves were weak on Armor. I even witnessed a Dwarf being pried out of his platemail suit by 6 Army Ants. It was almost comical how impossible the Dwarf found it to fend off 12 weak but still muscular arms. A group of 5 Grey Dwarves were still holding together nearby. 2 of them were taking turns hacking at my side while the others held the Ants back. Even as tough as I am I was actually taking some damage. A Dwarf with a vicious serated Pickaxe was cracking my scales and peircing my hide, but only barely. He was only receiving drips of blood for his mighty efforts. The other Dwarf was doing actual damage. Even with my physical defense boosted absurdly high their one handed Warhammer was sending my scales flying and smashing into my hide with tearing ****. This wasn't due to the Warhammer being magical, although it was a minor Artifact. My God's Eye told me everything I needed to know about my armored attacker.

Name: Abria DeathDwarv

Title: Centurion of The Guard(This Soldier has fought dangers beyond the skill of experienced Guardsmen and survived to become a leader among Veterans)

Race: Duergar(Grey Dwarf)(This Race is considered evil by their Dwarven Kin. The animosity between Races has Driven the Duergar to use any means necessary to defend themselves and fight back. The Duergar are known for their Excellent Craftsmanship in all implements of War. They have all natural Dwarven Resistances. The Duergar have a bonus to their Darkvision but are somewhat sensitive to bright lights.)

Gender: Female

Age: 22

Reproduction: Sexual

Class: Tier V Centurion(A NonMagical Offensive Combat/Support Class- This Elite Veteran brings their experience to bear when leading troops into battle. Even other Veterans benefit from a Centurion's presence. 100% Increase to Physical and Magical Defense, 50% increase to all Experience Gains for all Soldiers under your Command. The Severity of All Wounds taken by this Centurion are Lessened into Minor Injuries. Instant Deathblows Cannot be Lessened.)

Powers: None

Cheats: None

Oaths: Protect The City(This Grey Dwarf has sworn an Oath upon her City's OathStone to Protect her City from all dangers. 25% Boost to Physical Strength and Defence per Duergar in Danger(Including Self) within a 50 foot radious. Only active when within a 2 mile radious of the City. If the bearer of this Oath Fails to Stop an Incursion into the City and does not die in the attack then this Oath is Forfeit and is replaced by Die For The City)

Die For The City(This Oath will remain until ****. The bearer of this Oath is magically bound to remain at least 2.5 miles outside the radious of their Former City and is unable to communicate with any Duergar. If any Duergar attempts to aid the bearer of this Oath then the bearer is magically **** to attack said Duergar and rufuse their aid. For every enemy of the City the bearer slays they receive a permanent Boost of 1% to All Stats. This effect stacks without limit.)

Blessings: None

Miracles: None

Important Historical Moments: The Day Abria became a Centurion was the worst day of her life. Both her father and her Mother were Centurions. They were powerful fighters and she loved them dearly. She was content to remain a veteran soldier but during an attack on the City she defeated an Eldrich Horror that had slaughtered hundreds of her kin. This event gave her the Class of Centurion and heralded the Deaths of both her parents. Her Father was killed by the Horror and by Oath her Mother was banished from the city to die a lonesome certain **** for failure to stop the Attack. And Abria was then **** by the City to Swear that same Oath. An Oath all Centurions bore. She may hate monsters but this Event Drove her to Loathe the City of her Birth. Especially the ruling Caste who **** all their Centurions to Swear that Damn Oath.

Opinion of You: Enemy/Hate

That was alot to dig though in an instant. That Oath was a serious double edged weapon. I thought about killing her. I really did. But I saw some potential there. I could make use of her. But not if she was dead. I lashed out violently with a wave of tentacles and wreathed her in muscled limbs so thick she couldn't move or see. She kept hold of her Hammer and flexed her Oath enhanced body for all it was worth. Between us I was the stronger one but I felt her strength push back at mine making me work to keep her subdued. Her physical stats were no joke. They must be quadruple mine or more to test me in My Dungeon. I really need that EXP boost I keep promising myself. At least my Army Ants were no longer dying in droves. There must be hundreds of my soldiers already dead and more were succumbing to fatal injuries even now. I had to end this.

I whipped around knocking the Dwarf with the Pickaxe back with my spiked tail. He fell into the increasing swarm of Army Ants and I chomped down on one of the Dwarves fighting off the swarm. He didn't even see me coming before I took his upraised weapon arm clean off at the elbow. I didn't swallow it. This Dwarven equipment would be very useful once my Army began to organize. I was already seeing my Army Ants learning from the mistakes of their brothers and sisters. I even saw one Ant in the swarm that was mostly covered in Stone Armor. Now that was smart thinking. Imitating the Dwarven Armor using their Stone Manipulation ability. I would have to make that standard practice for my Army Ants going forwards. Then I'd never needed to worry about Forging Armor for them. With all Dwarven resistance gone to pieces I turned my attention towards the hole in my Dungeon. The 5 Duergar Guardsmen were fighting sporadic groups of Army Ants while trying to withdraw back behind the hole. The cave behind them looked like a storeroom of some kind. It was filled with large wooden Barrels and Crates. There was only one Duergar in the room and he looked like he might be a civilian. He wore no armor and carried an old Battleworn Pickaxe. His Class was WeaponSmith. I could use a WeaponSmith. And I'd prefer to have no witnesses to tell the reinforcements about me if at all possible. I **** my wings up then out behind me to propel me faster towards the fleeing Dwarves. I didn't waste time killing them. I just grappled them with tentacles bristling with spikes and hooks. With my momentum I yanked them all back inside my Dungeon with extra ****. Enough so that they pitched forwards, majorly off balance with no chance to strike back at me. My Army Ants Swarmed all over them but I had my eyes focused the WeaponSmith. My goal was almost in range but Fate was a Cruel, Cruel Mistress.

Boudicca my little Warrior Princess raced past my seeking tentacles. My girl's Shiny Obsidian hair was now halfway down her back. She wore a tight band of hide across her chest covering the essentials and had a short one piece hide skirt similar to her mothers. And she still was a young girl. She looked to be about 6 years old. In less than 6 hours that was pretty impressive. As was the way she shot past me in flight and brutally cut down the Duergar Craftsman. He didn't even get his weapon up. Boudicca had a tiny Bone Knife and she used it to devastating effect. Her inhuman reflexes and muscles had the knife repeatedly stabbing down at the Duergar's thick neck. Her killer instincts told her where to attack. I was preparing to heal his wounds with my Preistly magics but Boudicca took her brutality further. She pulled a long Dwarven dagger I hadn't noticed off of her enemy and drove it home into one of his frantically wide eyes. Then she turned her Darth Maul colored eyes up at me filled with hope. I'm serious. Look up a picture of Darth Mauls eyes, widen the dark pupils very slightly, brighten the vivid colors and that was my daughter. Unnerving but beautiful on her youthful eager face. Boudicca had just made her first kill and she wanted my praise.

There was nothing my meager healing skills could do to fix.... that. The WeaponSmith was dead. Just like my plan for the Dwarf to jumpstart my own Armory.

Boudicca didn't notice my soft groan of lament. She proudly smiled up at me. "LOOK DADDY," she pointed at her first kill. "I KILLED HIM FOR YOU." Her expression was so innocent and adorable I lost any urge I had to scold her.

"YES SWEETY. YOU WERE PERFECT." I wasn't lying, her fighting technique had been damn near perfect. She would become a terrifying leader for my most deadly troops. With one of my unbloodied tentacles I patted her on her obsidian haired head avoiding her long but delicate Antenna. "YOUR FATHER IS PROUD OF HIS WARRIOR PRINCESS." Boudicca beamed me an even more adorable smile. It didn't phase me in the least that her two incisors were as sharp or sharper than any Vampire I'd ever seen in the movies.

I picked up Boudicca by a tentacle and swept up as many crates and barrels as my unoccupied tentacles could get in range of from my side of the hole. The Duergar Guardsman were all dead or in the process of being finished off. So I ordered the nearest free Army Ants to pour through the breach and seize all the goods that they could. Who knows when I'll have the opportunity to aquire civilized goods stored by a WeaponSmith again. I ordered a handful more of my Soldiers to find the entranceways out of this building and stand guard. They were to send out an alarm and order the retreat of the looters as soon as they saw any threats incoming. Then I organized a larger ****. There were now around a thousand of my mature Army Ant Soldiers Swarming over their own fallen and the bodies of the Dwarves ready for orders. They were nothing compared to the shear numbers of their unborn kin. Those Soldiers who had gained any experience fighting the Dwarves were told to stay and begin looting the Dead Dwarves of their Gear. Every scrap of metal would be useful to my Future Army. I ordered 500 Army Ants into the breach. They obeyed me, Their Sire, The Master of Their Queens without question or hesitation. They were all aware this was a one way trip. They were happy to die for the Greatness of the Hive. I had them attack the Duergar City to distract the Dwarves. That would keep them busy while I plundered everything my Ants could get their 4 arms around.

Meanwhile I examined the Breach in my Dungeon. It did not appear to be caved in by hammer or pickaxe. It was smooth with sleek gouges all along the wall as though the stone had been cleanly scraped off like it was cheese. Then I realized what had happened. I looked back at the Hive and cursed my Gold Driven inattention. The Queens were surrounded and protected by buildings sculpted of solid stone. The entire far side of the cavern was now a small warren city of defensive structures designed to protect the Hive from attack. Only I hadn't realized how much rock the Stone Manipulating Ants had shifted. Not to mention the increasing number of Army Ants that I now saw imitating the Dwarves and each other. Hundreds of Ants now bore heavy-duty Stone Armor. I even saw some experimenting with stone weaponry. Stone Pickaxes did not seam to work very well but I saw plenty of weapons that would. Like an Ant who had oversized Gauntlets on his arms. So heavy were they that could cave in a Dwarfs head after a few punches. But the weapons of choice among the Soldiers seemed to be a tower sized shield made of thick stone attached to both arms on one side and on the other they went with a heavy stone club or hammer. Some even decided to duel weild two Dwarven styled one handed hammers. I was impressed with how quickly they adapted to their enemies fighting styles. Nevertheless.

SO THATS WHAT HAPPENED. The Dwarves were not responsible for this battle. My Ants had shifted so much stone they had opened the way into enemy territory. The Duergar Craftsman had likely discovered the hole in his workplace wall and called for the Guard. Who responded quickly to the threat posed by what they thought was a low level Ant Colony with what looked like only a couple thousand newly born Ant Soldiers. It was interesting that my Ants had Automatic permission to Manipulate my Dungeon's Indestructible Stone. Maybe it was subconscious on my part. I would talk to my little Queens after this and we could develop a way to supply them with stone that didn't involve expanding their Cavern.

I considered widening the hole and doing a bit of exploring but that was somewhat counterproductive. Sure the Duergar knew about the existence of the Ant Colony on their doorstep. I was relativly certain that we had actually tunneled right into the city itself. WeaponSmiths did not tend to build their forges outside of civilization. And my sense of smell confirmed that this was the storeroom of a Forge. The acrid smell of cold cut steel blended with the sweet smell of red hot iron gave it away. The Duergar were probably gathering Guard Forces from nearby Barracks as reinforcements. But I was 90% certain that everyone who had seen me and Boudicca were dead or captured. Abria had lost the strength to fight after all her nearby people were killed. Her Oath wasn't nearly as useful without any endangered Duergar nearby.

I stiffled a chuckle as one looting Ant marched past with a Dwarven Anvil in his 4 arms. There must be a Store Front attached to the Forge because behind him was a flow of Red Orange Haired Antpersons carrying double armfuls of finished weapons. Dwarven Hammers, Warhammers, Pickaxes, Long Daggers and even a large number of Heavy Duty Short Spears. That equipment alone was worth the meager cost of sacrificing 500 Army Ants. But the goods kept coming. I think the Army Ants began to loot surrounding shops because the storeroom was empty and they started bringing in polished suits of Dwarven Leather Armor, Leather Clothing and Large Crates with unknown contents. They must have found a Leatherworker's Shop next-door. It wasn't long after that till the lookouts raised the alarm and Army Ants streamed back through the hole whether they had loot or not. I was next to but not in line of sight of any spying Duergar. I still held my little Warrior Princess but she seemed perfectly happy to be wrapped in my arms(tentacles). I manipulated my Dungeon to shore up the edges of the hole and filled it in entirely when the last Army Ant through signaled there was nobody else from the loot crew left. The operation was so smooth that I doubted the US Marines could have accomplished that mission so adroitly. Not to slight the Marines. They are experts at their profession. It was just that no humans on Earth could perform with so much coordination and level-headedness under that much pressure.

Expending a few minutes I made the wall between my Hive and the Duergar City as thick as I felt was needed to be comfortable. I took stock of the rest of my Dungeon to ensure that there wouldn't be another similar incident. I ordered all of the wounded brought before me and used my Preistly magics to heal them as best I could and gain experience for my Priest Class and Healing Magic. Then I stopped in to talk with my little Queens. Our talk was quick. My Daughters were eager to please and took my orders as gospel. Every Army Ant I saw now bore Stone Equpment. They were beginning to become a true army. Every hour thousands more of them were becoming mature Soldiers and Workers. The mix was predominantly Female and they were all growing more muscular as they worked for the Hive. My Dungeon Senses told me there was currently 4 thousand active Ants. They also informed me that the number of Eggs had risen beyond 70 thousand and my little Queens didn't think that they would ever stop production. I was quite satisfied with the progress of my first Hive.

The Duergar were a threat to my Dungeon. That was a certainty. A whole City of Duergar sat adjacent to My Territory. I had captured Abria one of their Elite soldiers and was delighted to see that she had lost her Protect The City Oath and received Die For The City in exchange. I had plans for her. I wondered how long it would take for her to accept my offer. Possibly never, but I highly doubted that.