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

made it back to the field where we’d been ambushed in an hour, and after nearly three days, there was very little sign that we’d almost lost our lives. None of the dead men’s gear or loot was still around. After twenty-four hours, it was deleted from the world, which was a shame, but nothing I could do about it now. Damn, a few high-tier weapons and armor would have fetched decent coin in once of Central’s markets. Oh, well.

There wasn’t a scrap of blood or anything left in the field; only the trampled and torn grass told we’d been there at all.

“All right, Eris, do your thing.”

Eris nodded and spread her arms out, calling upon the magic within her. It came quickly, pooling in the palms of her hands and spilling over to fall to the ground. It took her a few minutes, but I assumed she’d found something when her eyes snapped opened and she canceled her spell.

“I might have found it.”

“Figured it wouldn’t take long, where is it?”

She pointed to the east, toward the forest. “Not far from here.”

“Is that not far in Eris speak? Because last time I asked you for directions, we spent twenty minutes walking in the sun,” I said with a cheeky grin.

She laughed, then playfully poked me in the chest. “It’s like five minutes from here, love. Don’t worry.”

Following Eris’s lead, I guided Lacuna through the forest to search for the safe house.

Eris was right this time, as it only took us a few minutes to find it, but if I wasn’t searching for it and without her help, I’d have gone past it and never known it was there.

The safe house was a long, wooden cabin with a porch. It was meant to look worn down and abandoned, but the wood was of good quality, and the single-story cabin was too well built if you looked at it closely. Rotten wood and vegetation had been piled up around the house and roof to further disguise it from anyone who came near, but they couldn’t hide it from Eris.

We climbed off Lacuna, and I drew my sword, Poison Blade activated and salivated to taste Darren’s flesh. He might still be here, or if he were smart, he’d be on the other side of the continent by now.

The wooden steps leading to the porch didn’t so much as creak as I ascended the three steps. Further proof this wasn’t some forgotten cabin in the woods. Creeping to the door, I listened for any sounds inside but could hear nothing through the sounds of the forest.

“One person is inside, Sam. They’re breathing slow. I can’t hear anything else though, so be careful,” Eris said, her ears twitching as she crouched beside me.

“You’re amazing, you know that?”

She tried to hide her smile, but it broke wide on her face. “No, so keep telling me.”

Getting back to business, I gripped my sword tight and tried the knob. It was locked.

“Damn, locked. But I don’t see a keyhole?”

“What do we do?” she asked as we stood up.

“We do things my way,” I said, planting my feet and kicking the door.

My foot connected just to the left of the doorknob, the weakest point on the door, and the lock broke under my strength. I went in first, surveying the area while Eris stood at my back, her hands already forming jagged claws as the chitin oozed out of her pores.

The space was clean, but there was disorganization everywhere. Papers, supplies, and clothing were strewn about at random, as if someone had rushed through in a hurry before leaving. I ignored the mess and checked the place over to make sure we wouldn’t be ambushed again.

The kitchen told me nothing, neither did the bathroom, which left only the bedroom to deal with. I crept through the hallway and jiggled the knob, unlocked. Twisting it as quietly as I could, I readied myself and flung the door open.

Inside the room was a sparse room with a single queen bed on a hand-carved wooden frame, a nightstand next to it, and a full body mirror in the corner. A chair was at the foot of the bed, and sitting there, tied up, was our target.

Oscar’s wife had probably been striking once when she was younger, but like her husband, the years of hard farm work had whittled her refined features and left precious little beauty in its wake. Her hair was long and thin; gray strands stuck to her sweat-stained face while her thin, pinched face held deep laugh lines and crow’s feet.

Her yellow shirt and gray pants were ripped in a few places, and her breathing was labored. I rushed across the room and cut the ties that bound her. She toppled over immediately, but I caught her and carried her to the bed and pulled a skin of water from my inventory. Pressing it to her lips, I got her to drink a few mouthfuls.

I kept plying her with water until the skin was empty, and she opened her eyes. Her milky brown eyes stared into mine.

“Who…are you?” she asked.

“Your husband sent me to rescue you.”

“Oscar? Is he all right?”

“He’s fine. Can you stand?”

She nodded and rose weakly to sit up on the bed. Several days without food or water had taken their toll, but after a few days rest and some good food, I thought she’d be fine.

When I was sure she could stand on her own without falling over, I introduced her to Eris. She was taken aback by her appearance at first, but no one could fight against Eris’s personality, and by the time she was ready to leave, they were laughing together.

“Eris, can you take her back to Oscar? I want to have a look around here.”

She nodded. “Of course.”