Hive Knight: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Trinity of the Hive Book 1)

by Grayson Sinclair

  Once we had settled on the large horse, we set off out of the keep as the gate thumped to the dirt. Dawn broke over the hills but hadn’t yet fully decided if it wanted to keep going. The fog was still rolling in, and the grass was slick with dew.

  Eris stared in awe and took big heaping gulps of the fresh air that the breeze brought in. I’d never been a morning person, but even I had to admit the pure calm that came with the very early mornings was worth the trouble.

  “It’s been so very long since I have felt the fresh air and sunshine on my skin,” Eris said in wonderment. “I’d forgotten what this feeling was like.”

  Her head darted back and forth to catch a glimpse of every single speck of landscape she could. We rode that way for a long time, a couple of hours spent in silence, letting Eris enjoy the sights and sounds of nature. Past the green grassy plains surrounding our territory to the Rolling Hills immediately beyond Castle Gloom-Harbor.

  There were no towns within a day of us, and we were just over five hundred miles from the outskirts of the East Kingdom. It would take us around a week to reach the East Kingdom of the Compass Kingdom and another ten to twelve hours once we were in the East Kingdom to enter the Central Kingdom.

  A few hours later, after we’d traveled about fifteen miles, Eris had absorbed enough of the scenery. She stretched herself out, arms extending and arching her back. Which was a pretty impressive feat considering we were on horseback. She sighed as she fully stretched herself out, and more dark green smoke came trailing down her hands and through her fingers.

  Sharp scents of wood and fauna flooded my senses, and Lacuna spooked slightly at the new smells that appeared without a source.

  “Much better,” Eris said as the smoke slowly dissipated.

  “What’d you do?” I asked her.

  I had seen her magic twice now, and neither time was what I would consider a pleasant experience.

  “I’m working on building up my magic again. I’m useless right now with how weak I’ve become. I’m trying to reconnect to my little ones.” She smiled and leaned back into my chest. “It’s going to take time, but we’ve got nothing but time, right?”

  Her tone was light, but there was unease in it like she was afraid she could blink, and I’d disappear. I leaned down and kissed the top of her head. “Right. I’m not going anywhere.”

  We rode for hours, simply enjoying the journey and each other’s company. We had a lot to talk about; there was so much that I wanted to know about her and her about me. Even with her seeing fragments of my life, there were still plenty of gaps, including my first life here.

  Eris was surprised to hear that this wasn’t my first life in this world, turning and looking at me strangely. “You’ve died before?”

  I nodded. “Twice, actually, but yes. This is my second life here.”

  “What happened?”

  Flashes of memories flooded through my mind, things I didn’t want to remember. The four of us, me, Sophia, Mika, and Lonny. So many good memories, ruined now. Because of me.

  The man who’d been like a brother to me raised his sword, the one just yesterday he’d been bragging about, its ruby-inlaid golden hilt branched out at the crossguard. The quillons formed a stalwart golden cross as the silver blade whipped toward my head.

  “Lonny, stop!” I yelled as I stepped back.

  I was too slow as Lonny flicked his wrist and sent the blade across my chest. Scarlet danced on the tip of his sword, and my blood splattered across the earth.

  Before I could register the wound, Lonny charged me, his steel heater shield glowing with a soft yellow light. Four different swords crossed together over a rising sun, the emblem I’d once found so much pride in, grew in brightness as his ability took hold.

  I braced, preparing for his Shield Bash.

  He barreled into me, knocking the wind out of me and snapping my left arm like pine wood. I flew back and hit the ground hard, my health bar dropping to mid yellow.

  Tears dripped down Lonny’s face. He was handsome, with strong cheekbones, a rugged chin sprouting the beginnings of stubble, and short chestnut hair. It was thick and curled randomly, giving his face a hint of youthfulness that didn’t belong with his eyes. His caramel eyes that once held so much laughter in them now held grief and hatred.

  I stood, ignoring the aching pain spreading up my left arm and focused on my target. Lonny was skilled at close quarters, even better than me, and since we both fought with swords. It put me at a disadvantage up close.

  Damn him! I lunged, activating Blade Shift. Like a mirage, my sword faded translucent and was quickly joined by three copies, all writhing and shifting like an illusion.

  Lonny knew what the ability did, but he couldn’t guard against it entirely. I wormed through his defense to jam my sword through the opening.

  It stopped just shy of his armor, the silver outline shimmering to life and cracking under my blow. His Full Defense held under my attack, and I backed away as he turned and swiped at me.

  Lonny’s sword was poised to bite into my neck, but I activated Flash Step and was out of reach as his blade passed through empty air.

  Any other time and Lonny would have grinned that he’d managed to get me to waste my most powerful ability, but not this time. I couldn’t read anything beyond the rage in his eyes.

  I circled him, knowing I had one good sucker punch left in me. As Lonny turned, I danced in. Activating Swordfeint, I vanished, as a copy of myself appeared in my place. I thrust; my blade angled towards Lonny’s exposed neck.

  Scatter Pulse hit me like a bulldozer. An invisible force shattered my blade and lifted me off the ground. Lonny struck the side of his shield, bashing me across the temple and opening a deep cut across my scalp.

  I blacked out, coming to with Lonny standing over me, void of any mercy. I had only one ability left to me, and I used it. Phantom copied Lonny’s sword exactly and materialized in my hand, an ethereal shimmer cascading down its length.

  My final thrust was weak, lacking any force, and Lonny easily parried it and sliced through my wrist, severing my flexor tendons that led to my hand, stopping me from holding my sword.

  When the illusionary blade hit the ground, Phantom ended, and the sword faded from existence.

  My own sword was shattered, and I couldn’t stop Lonny from raising his blade to me. The cold metal bit into my neck, and Lonny, with tears streaming from his hate-filled eyes, took my life.

  I sighed, shaking myself out of the past. I held Eris close, her heat helping to ground me in the present.

  “It’s a long story…I failed someone very close to me, and after they died, everything fell apart. The blame fell on my shoulders, and I was killed in a duel by someone who’d once been a friend.”

  Eris squeezed my hand. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s fine,” I lied. “It was a long time ago.”

  I’m still so wrapped up in the past that I can’t see the future. Sophia’s dead. No matter how much I wish I could take it back, I can’t. Maybe it’s time to move on.

  “What was your guild called?” Eris asked.

  “The four of us were the Swords of Legend. When we founded the guild, we all took the names of holy swords. I was Durandal, the sword of Roland the Paladin. The others were Mika, Takamikazuchi, and Lonny, Ascalon, the sword of Saint George.”

  We rode a minute or so in silence. The only other sounds were the chirping of the birds and Lacuna’s hooves treading through the dirt. I waited to see if she would drop this topic of conversation, but Eris wasn’t stupid. She realized I’d omitted one member. “You left someone out. Who?”

  I didn’t want to answer, but not explaining would lead to more questions.

  “Her sword was Mistilteinn, but we just called her Sophia,” I whispered.

  Eris noticed my change in mood, picking up on my hesitation. “You cared for her, didn’t you?”

  I nodded. “She was my best friend. I loved her…just not nearly enough."

  Th
ankfully, Eris didn’t pry any further. She was inside my head, and I knew she felt my misery. She let the topic drop, though she pulled my hands to her waist and held them tight.

  We rode that way until I pulled myself out of my head. I had questions of my own, and they seemed like a good distraction.

  “Tell me more about the Hive. You mentioned other races besides entomancers, what were they?”

  “There were four other races. The mantearians and apocritans, which formed the bulk of our labor force, and the warrior clans, the arachne and scorpius.”

  “Are they still around?”

  Eris shrugged her shoulders, and her head hung low. “I don’t know. They were resilient and strong, all of them…but a thousand years is a long time. Anything is possible, I suppose.”

  “What about you?” I asked, changing the subject. “What was your childhood like?”

  She turned around and smiled, but it was an empty smile, full of longing and regret. “It was…lonely. Even before my mother became queen, I was kept like a bird in a cage. I wasn’t allowed to choose my friends. My father only let me associate with children of a respected dynasty.”

  “Your father treated you like property?”

  “Yes. I was a valuable piece for him. Too valuable to let spoil, so even when I was allowed to associate with other children, it was all under the guise of finding a suitable candidate for bonding. Before my mother became queen, I was to be bonded with a nobleman’s son. The family wasn’t high in the upper echelon, but it would have secured my father’s place in the upper nobility.”

  Eris spoke in a concise, mechanical fashion. Laying out the facts as if they had no meaning, but there was a deep pain in her eyes as she spoke. Her hands trembled as she finished speaking, breaking her façade.

  Fury caught in my chest, raising a heat that put even Eris to shame. Hatred for a man who’d been dead a thousand years flowed out of me, and I gripped Lacuna’s reins tight enough to hurt.

  Eris caught my expression, and her face softened; a tear spilled down her cheek. She could feel emotions, and she smiled at me. “Thank you for getting angry for my sake, but it was the way of life for my kind. Our society existed on favors bought and sold. It was straightforward and brutally efficient.”

  “To treat a person like property to barter with is disgusting but treating your own daughter like a slave is unthinkable.”

  “You’re probably right. He was my father, and I hated him, but I also loved him,” she said, sighing.

  I laughed. It was sudden, and I didn’t mean to. Eris whirled around, looking a bit shocked.

  “I’m sorry. I’m not laughing at you, I swear.”

  “I know, but you don’t laugh much. It’s nice to hear. What made you laugh?”

  I slowed Lacuna to a trot. She was strong, but we’d been switching from walking to cantering off and on all day, and we’d covered a good bit of ground already. Lacuna deserved a rest. The grassy plains around us rose to thick forest, and the burning sunlight fell to spotted twilight.

  “What you said reminded me of my own dad. He was a hard man to love, but he did his best to raise Micah and me. For being father and son, we were like night and day. We had nothing in common and fought over the littlest of things. But at the end of the day, I loved him, and even if we couldn’t communicate, I knew he loved me too.”

  “I saw the love he had for you. He gave his life for you and your brother, your mother as well. Your family loved you immensely.”

  I hung my head. Letting the weight of what she’d said settle around me. She’s absolutely right. They loved me and trusted me to save Micah, and I couldn’t even do that. I betrayed their trust.

  We rode for another few hours, talking briefly, but both of us had too many weighted memories rattling around our heads to continue a long conversation. As the light waned through the trees. We came through the small forest to an expanse of plains ten miles wide. A deep stretch of forest lay beyond them, but it was as good spot as any to stop and find a place to make camp.

  I didn’t want to camp out on the open plains, not with the deep forest so close. Bandits used the forests as natural hideouts, and I didn’t want to give them an easy target. So, we pushed on until we came to a copse of thick trees amid the green fields. An oasis of dense trees to hide ourselves, and as we entered the thicket, I found a decent spot to make camp.

  After hopping down from Lacuna, I set to work taking care of her and feeding her. Afterward she started to meander around. She never strayed far, so I wasn’t worried about her, and instead set about making camp. Eris sat on the dirt as if it were the most natural thing in the world and helped dig a fire pit. Clearing the rocks and leaves away, and then while I set about erecting the tent, she went to forage some kindling. Good thing I had the foresight to bring a two-person tent in my bag. Though hers is still available if she wants to sleep apart, but I doubt it.

  I’d just finished with the tents when Eris returned, carrying a decent sized bundle of sticks in her arms. She deposited them by the hole she’d dug and sat back on the ground. Closing her eyes and letting more magic drip from her fingers. I watched for a second before turning back to my duties. I piled the pit with sticks and got a nice fire going.

  That done, I stretched out and got comfortable, taking off my armor and stowing it away, and I set to the task of preparing dinner. We hadn’t eaten anything all day, and I was ravenous.

  I set the small pot down and poured a generous amount of water in to boil. I’d decided to make a light stew, though we had only dried meat and potatoes to make up the bulk of it. I added a dried beef stock cube along with a liberal amount of powdered garlic and pepper and let it all simmer.

  Once the food was done, we tucked in and made short work of the meager stew.

  Finished, I leaned back with a satisfied sigh, staring up at the stars while the fire cracked and curled in front of me. Eris came over and sat beside me, leaning over and laying her head on my shoulder.

  We stargazed for a time while our food settled, but before long, I was too tired to keep my eyes open, and we called it a night and headed for bed.

  In the morning, we packed up camp and set off. I wanted to push past most of the wildlands if I could, but after two days hard riding, I gave in to defeat and started looking for places to camp.

  An hour later, I’d picked out a pretty good spot, nestled in a clearing just off the main road, and was about to climb off Lacuna when Eris turned around and put her hand on my wrist.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  She didn’t speak right away, tilting her head towards the blowing wind and sniffed. Her ears twitched, responding to a sound I couldn’t hear. I was about to speak again when she held a finger to my lips and shushed me.

  “There’s a pack of dire wolves nearby. Five of them and they’re out hunting. They haven’t noticed us yet, but I don’t like how close they are.”

  Shit. One or two would be no problem, but five is a challenge. Dire wolves ranked just under bane wolves in terms of size and savagery, and the average level for one was about fifty. I didn’t want to put Eris or Lacuna at risk, but I also didn’t like them hanging around our campsite.

  “All right. I’m going to go deal with them. Eris, stay with Lacuna and get our camp ready,” I said and dropped our packs from my inventory.

  “Let me go with you!” Eris pleaded.

  “Hell, no. I’m not putting you or Lacuna at risk. I can handle them, but not if I’m playing babysitter.”

  Eris shook her head and looked like she wanted to argue, but I didn’t give her the chance.

  “Please, for me?” I asked.

  She huffed and pouted but acquiesced.

  I took off at a sprint, not bothering to even attempt stealth. The dire wolves would sniff me out long before they caught sight of me, and nothing I could do would prevent that, so I didn’t even try. Howls in the distance told me they’d spotted me, and I drew my sword.

  A slight hiss alerted me to a bu
bbling purple liquid falling down the length of my sword. Poison Blade.

  Time to test my new skills.

  Two dire wolves jumped me before I’d even made it out of the woods, each of them the size of two full-grown men, with gorgeous, shimmering gray fur. Their paws were as big as my head with thick claws that would rend my flesh asunder if I let them get close.

  Their sharp blue eyes regarded me with caution as their hackles raised. The pair lowered to the ground, growling as they circled me.

  Too slow! I burst to the right as the closest took a step. Caught off guard by the suddenness of its quarries advance, it couldn’t skirt away in time. My blade scored a gash from neck to chest. Its vicious jaws snapped in retaliation, but I danced out of reach.

  First blood went to me, but it wasn’t as deep as I’d wanted. And now it was two against one. I backed to the tree line, putting some obstacles in front of me as the beasts charged.

  The trees divided them, and I used that to my advantage. Grabbing a low-hanging branch as the unbloodied wolf leapt at me, my feet sailed just over its snout as it jumped. I pushed off the branch as it sailed past. I gripped the hilt of my sword in both hands and drove it as deep as I could in between the wolf’s shoulder blades.

  Poison splashed across its fur and deep into its veins, but it was useless; my thrust had punctured its heart. It toppled to the ground as it bled out what little life it had.

  Claws whistled next to me as the injured wolf attacked. It pounced on me, forcing me to relinquish my sword still stuck in the first’s carcass. I landed hard on the ground, my head hitting dead flesh and crimson stained fur. Blood tickled my hair and the back of my neck.

  I put my arm up to keep it at bay, but it wrapped its powerful jaws around my forearm and bit down. Aldrustian steel was top-notch steel, but it couldn’t match the pounds per square inch force of its bite. The metal bent and crumpled, but it held off the initial attack and allowed me to reach overhead and pull my sword free from the carcass of the beast.