Hive Knight: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Trinity of the Hive Book 1) by Grayson Sinclair (black authors fiction txt) 📕

Phineas sighed deeply, defeated. He hung his head and whispered the name.

“Magnus. The name of the man you’re looking for is Magnus.”

I sliced a shallow line across his throat, carving his flesh. “What else do you know?”

“The auction house. It’s where Darren spends his time. I think his boss is there.”

I cut another light gash, right next to the first. Phineas shook his head, his eyes never leaving the bloody piece of glass in my hand. “That’s all I know, I swear. I wouldn’t even know that if I hadn’t overheard him talking about him to his friends.”

It was all I would get from him, and he’d outlived his usefulness.

I crushed Phineas’s windpipe.

Slitting his throat would be too quick of a death. His face turned purple as he was deprived of all oxygen, his eyes bulging out of his skull as he slowly suffocated to death. He attempted to run away, but a stretched-out leg caught him and sent him to the floor, from where he did not rise.

Phineas choked his last and died, all while pleading with me to spare him. Pathetic.

I walked over to the table where Phineas sat, scooped the large pile of gold in two bags, and tossed the smaller one to Jackson as I left. “Have a good one, Jack.”

“Watch your back, Duran.”

Back in the alley, I found the corpses of Doorman and Darren right where they’d been. The nameless goon was right where he fell. That much hadn’t changed. What had changed was that I now found myself surrounded by nearly a dozen guards — all with their weapons drawn and pointed at my throat.

“Howdy, fellas, fancy seeing you here.” I smiled.

All of them shouted at me in unison. Each one was shouting a slightly different version of the same thing. Get my hands in the air. Do not resist. Drop my weapon—the usual drivel.

My knee-jerk reaction was to pull out my sword and slaughter them all. I didn’t have time to deal with these clowns.

I twitched, my hand milliseconds from reaching for my sword when a voice stopped me cold. A voice I hadn’t heard in a very long time.

“Don’t do it, D.”

I looked around until I spotted the source. The one man I’d hoped to never see again.

Pushing himself through the circle of soldiers in the alleyway, he stood in radiant crimson plate mail that shone bright even in the dim lighting. A long golden cape trailed down to his knees and fluttered here and there in the slight breeze that rolled through the alley, and a heavy longsword was belted at his hip. Almost as unadorned as mine except for the large ruby fastened in the pommel and the golden inlay of his cross-guard.

His face hadn’t changed since the last time I’d seen him, over fifteen years ago when we’d stood blade to blade and tried to kill one another. He was still handsome, and his chestnut hair hadn’t changed much. But his brown eyes were so much colder than when I’d known him.

“Lonny. It’s been a while.”

I took note of his armor, especially of the golden crest on his chest plate—hands clasped in prayer surrounded by a halo.

I scoffed at the man I once called a friend. “You joined the fucking Cardinals?”

He nodded. “They’ve treated me fairly over the years, D. They gave me a family, after yo—after everything that happened.”

“Surprised I never ran into you when I was training.”

His face darkened. “The other paladins are quite displeased with you, not to mention the High Priest. By Whisper's lips, I’ve never seen him so enraged before. You earned plenty of enemies that day when you fled.”

I shrugged. They can get in line. It matters little to me. “So, you’re the leader of the strongest guild on Nexus. Quite an accomplishment, old friend. And while this little chat’s been fun—” I eased off my sword and moved to leave, “I’ve got places to be—”

“Hold it!”

Shit. “What do you want?”

He motioned at the bodies, an incredulous look on his face. “You killed three people, and you ask what I want.”

“In my defense, I only killed two of them.” I pointed at Darren. "Him and his crony over there killed the doorman and attacked me. I killed them. There’s no crime against self-defense.”

Jostling armor moved behind me. I turned to see one of the guards coming out of the Rose. He ignored me and spoke to Lonny. “Sir, there’s another body inside the tavern. The description the owner gave of the killer matches this man.”

Thanks for the sellout, Jackson! “Would you believe he came at me with a knife?”

The look Lonny gave me was withering. He wasn’t in the mood for jokes. Well, I’m not in the mood for your self-righteous bullshit, so that makes us even.

Lonny went for the handle of his sword, a warning in his eyes. “D, you know I have to take you in. Not counting the bounty still on your head, you killed three, maybe four people here. I can’t just ignore that.”

This isn't what I need right now! Godsdamn it, Eris is in danger! I didn’t have the time to waste, but I didn’t have the time to get killed either.

Lonny joined the Cardinals. Even as a level one hundred blade master, Lonny would’ve been a dangerous foe. He’s twice as deadly now as the last time we fought. He wouldn’t just beat me; he’d reduce me to a bloody smear on the wall. Maybe I could win with Dance, but no way could I get them all in time.

Darren said she wouldn’t be harmed, and even if I hated to admit it, I believed him. Slaves were only valuable in perfect condition. So, I could