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

Wolf sniffed the air, the breeze bringing the smell of Eris to him, he pinpointed her location and smiled. “Then die and nourish me with your blood!”

I blinked, and Wolf was gone, on Eris in seconds, rending her armor asunder with his frosted claws. His swipe took her across the face, shredding her chitin and slicing a deep groove across her cheek. Blood poured down the right side of her head but trickled to a stop as Frostbite took hold. Godsdamn it! She’s going to lose! Fucking get up and do something, or Eris is going to die!

“Now, do you desire my power?”

Yes, shit, just let me help her!

“Very well.”

Warning! Forceful Activation of Hive Guard.

Black ooze pooled out of my skin to cover me, and a pleasant warmth spread from within my chest. As the chitin faded back under my skin. I was whole and unblemished. My battle fatigue was at zero, and even my cooldowns had been lowered.

Eris continued her losing fight, not giving Wolf any ground, but she was fighting the clock, and each passing second pushed her closer to death. The fight had been going on only for a handful of minutes, but it felt like hours. Eris, in a desperate attempt, used the last of her fleeting magic and summoned a horde of red wasps.

They swarmed by the thousands to the Hive Queen, drifting above her head like a crimson cloud, waiting for orders.

“Kill him.”

They obeyed, their buzzing intensified, forming into a droning battle cry as they attacked, twisting and turning like a corkscrew in midair, sailing towards Wolf. Who was blind to the oncoming horror, but the buzz was unmistakable, and Wolf brought his frozen hands up in an attempt to fend them off.

He swatted to and fro, freezing the very air as his hands passed through dozens of the creatures, killing them instantly, slaughtering scores of them at a time, but it was useless; they froze on his talons, sticking to them. Each time one died, another ten took its place.

Hundreds of the wasps made it past his swipes and crawled over his arms, stinging him, but they were doing minimal damage—his fur was too thick.

Eris was doing everything she could to remain standing, but Frostbite and her depleting mana were sapping what little strength remained. Soon as Wolf dies, so too does his magic. I have to end this. Eris and her insects had helped, but precious few remained, a hundred at most, and each passing second Wolf killed more and more of them.

I picked up my sword from the ground and waited for an opening. Poison Blade activated as I closed my hand over my weapon, slithering out to drench my steel.

I called out to Eris, “Go for the face!”

She nodded and raised a trembling hand, pouring what remained of her magic out in a final command. “Attack his head!”

The wasps followed her order, and all swarmed to Wolf's face, covering it entirely.

They crawled over his ruined eyes and into his nose and mouth, Wolf roared in rage, his maw snapped shut and he swallowed a dozen or more, but more just kept coming. Each time he tried to breathe, more wasps entered his mouth and stung him repeatedly, clogging his throat with their lifeless bodies. His entire focus was on the swarm, giving me my opening.

I ran, my sword raised as I charged the werewolf. I flew across the ground as fast as I could, but Wolf still heard me coming, some small part of his brain rational enough to turn towards the sound. He looked dead at me, baring his throat to me in the process. He swiped, but his hands were heavy with frozen wasps, and his swipes were easy to avoid.

My sword connected with his neck, and I put my entire strength behind the blade. Resistance met me, and for half a millisecond, I feared it wouldn't go through, but his thick sinew gave way under my sword. Slicing through his neck and drenching me in blood. I’d given him an opening, and he punched through my chest with an errant swing from his claws, puncturing a few organs, and knocked my blade from my hands, sending me to the dirt.

Wolf gurgled as his blood poured freely from his throat, his hands trying in vain to close the wound. He dropped to his knees and slumped to the grass as the rest of his blood ran from him.

We…we did it…

I was too exhausted to celebrate. Everything hurt, and with each passing second, my consciousness waned as the blood loss caught up with me. Eris looked over to me, her magic drained to the last drop, and her chitin armor flowed to retreat under her skin. Her entire body was covered in frost, and her skin was turning a sickly blue-black as necrosis set in. She gave me the barest hint of a smile before toppling over, slamming into the grass.

“Eris!” I ran to her and knelt, scooping her into my arms. The grass soft underneath me as I leaned her against my chest. “Eris, wake up!”

Her eyes fluttered open for a second, and I took her hand in mine. She managed one more smile. “Did we get him?”

I smiled back. “Yeah, we got him.”

Chapter 19 - The Serpent’s Tail

Her head lolled to the side as she passed out. I shouted at her to wake up, but she was out.

“Eris!”

Nothing, not even a flicker of her eyelids. Blood ran in rivers from her face and body, bleeding from a dozen different locations, all while the after-effects of Frostbite ate away at her flesh. Not good, need to heal her and fast before it permanently damages her.

I pulled my pack from my inventory and laid Eris’s head on it while uncapping a health