Hive Queen by Sinclair, Grayson (positive books to read .txt) 📕

my muscles out and was ready for some rest and water. I was getting hungry, but going without food for a couple of days was something I could deal with later. It was barely more than an annoyance at that moment.

I settled back against the wall and drank my fill of water while watching the other prisoners come and go. They ate sitting around the same cheap wooden tables, nothing more than thin soup and a heel of bread, but it was more than I was getting.

By the time dinner was through, I was ready for sleep, and I leaned back against the rock, closing my eyes for just a moment.

I slept rough, only to be woken up by the bell in the morning, signaling another day’s work. It went much the same as the first. I worked my body to the bone mining, and my hunger only got worse as the day progressed.

The Aspect did what it could, helped take the edge off the worst of the pain, but it could only do so much. At the end of the second day, I stumbled over a loose rock and nearly toppled over. It was a simple mistake, but that was all it took in a place like that.

I’d just shown that I was weak and vulnerable to a pack of predators.

It didn’t take long after that for the first hopeful king slayer to approach.

A dark-skinned human with long black hair shoulder barged me as we passed. I turned, grabbed a handful of his greasy mane, and wound it around my wrist. I jerked hard on his locks, and he stumbled back. I kicked the back of his knee and sent him to the ground.

I let go of his hair and curb stomped his throat, collapsing his windpipe.

The man’s eyes bulged as his hands went to his neck as he gasped and wheezed, trying to breath.

I left him to choke to death and walked past him.

The others took one look at him, and they backed up. I went to my corner and sat in my chair, keeping an eye on everyone while I clicked on the blinking notification.

Combat Results!

One Killed (Dwarf): 1800 Exp!

One Killed (Human): 1500 Exp!

Total Exp Gain: 3300 Exp!

5600/5600

Level Up!

Level: 57

2200/5700

10 Stat Points Available!

 

Might as well keep bumping up my Durability, but I need to start putting some points in Battle Fatigue. I’m hitting my limit on nearly every prolonged fight. If I have a bit more Battle Fatigue, I could use Dance without fear of maxing my fatigue.

I dropped five to Durability and five to Battle Fatigue.

As the dead man jerked in his final death throes, I leaned against the wall and sighed. If it happened once, it would happen again. It was only a matter of time, and I would only grow weaker as the days wore on.

I’m going to have to keep my guard up, or I’ll find a shiv in my neck while I sleep.

The next few days went by in a blur. I’d work, drink as much water as I could and then go to bed hungry. By the third day, I was starving, and I couldn’t keep my strength up no matter how hard I tried.

In the morning, the first of the attacks started.

A glint of light off the pickaxe was the only warning I had before it came down, aimed at my spine. I stepped back on reflex as the pick glanced off stone and lashed out with a kick. I took my attacker in the side, snapping a few ribs. He stumbled back from the blow, dropping his pickaxe and giving me a good look at him.

A stubby dwarf with a thick beard and bald head. He winced as his shook off the pain. I shuffled forward and swung my pick. It connected with the side of the dwarf’s head, piercing through his temple and coming out his eye.

Blood and gore slid down his nose to stain his beard, and I ripped my pickaxe free, tearing through bone and cartilage.

He dropped to the ground dead, or wishing he was. I raised the pick once more and brought it down on his skull, splitting his head wide open to reveal bloody bone and brain.

I left the pick where it lay stuck in his worthless body and knelt, snagging the dead dwarf’s pick and continued my work as if there wasn’t a dead body leaking blood and bile two feet from me.

After the first two failed attempts, I’d have thought the other prisoners would have gotten the message, but attacks still came my way. One or more a day, and I was running on fumes.

This went on for three days, and I’d killed half a dozen prisoners. I was tired, but I had no choice but to fight. It was that or roll over and die.

As the day’s work wound down to a close, I dropped my pick and left the tunnel back to the main room. I was going to sit at my table when I found it occupied by four men. Each of them held the look of lifers, scarred, ruthless men who’d committed heinous acts and were now made to pay for it.

“Get up,” I demanded.

“Or what?” a man with a squished, ugly face said, sneering.

“Or I rip open your throats and gorge myself on your disgusting blood, you inbred fucks. Now. Move.”

I’m going to need your strength to fight.

“Delicious. But let’s try out our new ability. I’m anxious to see it used.”

Fine by me.

A pleasant heat spread from my chest to my back and along my spine. It tingled, and then something rose from my back.

Four black limbs forged of chitin entered my vison, and I glanced side to side at them. They were long