If you've read the novelized version, this may not be exactly what you pictured because when I wrote those I wasn't sure myself what I wanted them to look like. Originally they had gems all over their body and plates on their spine, but it was too bulky looking and whatever. I kept calling them "moles" in the novel for their habit of burrowing, so when I started working on the roughs for this I think I put in more mole aspects than originally planned.

Actually actually actually... originally I had envisioned these Alien type critters probably because at the time I was obsessed with Sakura Taisen, which shamelessly ripped off the Xenomorph designs. Then I made them look more like monkeys, then I decided they were blind at some point and could burrow... and here they are now. I went with this design because it's relatively easy to draw, kind of FUN to draw, and I don't need to use any tone on them :D :D :D Because I tend to get tone-happy and it tires me out...