Piercer

Artwork

Weight:
20lbs

The **Piercer** (*Ventriperforus lutonatarus*) is an original species created and designed by TheAgent41. The Piercer inhabits the *The Hole* universe, an original universe created by TheAgent41.

## Appearance and Anatomy

The piercer is a medium-sized worm-shaped carnevite measuring just over three feet in length. Weighing 20 pounds at full-size, piercers can measure two inches in width at their widest point. Rather than typical arthropod-like body segments, piercers are covered in a unique type of exoskeleton composed of numerous brown, hexagonal, chitinous scales that allow the creature's body to be incredibly flexible. Running down the piercer's body are a series of equally spaced dark brown stripes. It is thought that these were once the location of dividing lines between typical arthropod-esque exoskeleton segments in its ancestors.

The head end of the piercer consists of a large chitinous structure shaped somewhat like the nib of a fountain pen. This head structure, generally referred to as a "chitinib", has a stone-like texture and is tipped with a sharp point used for stabbing other creatures. The dorsal side of the chitinib, analogous to the scalp on a human, has numerous small holes as well as a large opening. The inner circumference of this large fenestra-like opening is lined with small sensory organs that allow the piercer to detect even the most sensitive vibrations produced by creatures walking on the ground above it. The purpose of the smaller holes is not known, although the most common hypothesis is that they make the chitinib more lightweight.

The tail end of the piercer's body is dominated by a large spherical appendage. This large hard sphere makes up a large percentage (as much as 40%) of its body weight. It is thought that this ball is used to maintain the stability of the piercer's tunnels in the soft wetland soil.

## Ecology

### Behavior and Intelligence

The piercer is a solitary predator that lives most of its life underground, digging networks of subterranean tunnels beneath the swamp environments it inhabits. Much like an earthworm, piercers are constantly digging, using their pointed snouts to push loose swamp soil aside and their large tail spheres to keep the tunnel behind them from collapsing.

Piercers are aggressive and territorial creatures. When hunting, piercers use their chitinib's sensory organs to detect the seismic vibrations created by other creatures moving around on the ground above them. When the exact location of a potential victim is pinpointed, the piercer will thrust itself out of the soil with incredible speed and impale it with its pointed chitinib.

### Diet

Piercers are obligate carnivores and subside entirely on a diet of carnevite flesh. When they have successfully stabbed and killed their prey, they contract their muscles and reveal a long muscular pharynx, like that of modern planarians, from an opening on their underside. The piercer then uses this pharynx to drag their victim beneath the loose swamp soil and drain them of blood, making piercer's vampiric creatures.

One notable example of piercer prey is the gastroguard (*Ventripraesta lutoperrepus*). The piercer and gastroguard have been locked in what can only been described as evolutionary arms race for the past several million years. Early gastroguard ancestors lacked the protective underbelly armor modern specimens have and were thus prime candidates for piercer meals. Gastroguards eventually developed this stomach armor to protect themselves from stabbing attempts. However, this too has been countered in recent decades by piercers. Over the past few decades, piercers have been observed specifically stabbing one tip of the gastroguard's body (rather than stabbing the middle) in an apparent attempt to knock the gastroguard off its balance and flip it over onto its unprotected back.

### Reproduction

When two piercers reproduce, they line up next to each other, facing opposing directions, belly to belly. They then use their pharynxes to latch onto each other before using a special dart-like protrusion tucked under the "lip" of the pharynx to inject sperm into each other's bodies. At this point, the two go their separate ways.

Within the piercer body, the sperm travels through the bloodstream toward the internal sexual organs. These internal sexual organs can contain as many as 30 egg cells. When fertilization has finished, the internal sexual organ closes itself off from the rest of the body, sealing itself and becoming a small cocoon-like sac. When the piercer is ready to give birth, it crawls to the surface and uses its pharynx to deposit this sac in the soft dirt. When the newborn piercers are ready to be born, they will use their pointed heads to tear open the fragile skin of the cocoon and burrow underground to begin their lives.

## Trivia

* The scientific name *Ventriperforus lutonatarus* loosely translates from Latin as "mud-swimming stomach stabber."

## Gallery

Artwork