Hive Knight: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Trinity of the Hive Book 1) by Grayson Sinclair (poetry books to read TXT) 📗

Gil’s asked collided with the buckler, and Repel activated, sending Gil’s axe flying out of his hand. Saber danced forward and sliced a deep groove down Gil’s chest before Behemoth could defend him.

Behemoth kept Gil safe while he retrieved his axe, and it looked like the gash was just a flesh wound.

The pace of the battle changed when a bolt from a crossbow slammed Behemoth. It glowed and shimmered translucent as it passed through his massive shield, and Phase Shot took him in the shoulder. It would have hit his heart if he hadn’t been moving at the time it struck. He was thrown back from the force and lost hold of his shield.

Saber rushed in to press his advantage given to him by Crossbow, gunning for Gil. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

I activated my auras simultaneously for the second time today and rushed in to save my best friend. My body was a thousand times lighter when my auras kicked in; it was a temporary high, but right now, I could take on the world.

Saber swung his sword to take Gil’s life, but I caught it on my cross-guard with the barest moment to spare. Surprise rose on Saber’s face. So focused on Gil, he’d been oblivious to my approach, and he snarled wordlessly when I denied his kill.

Binding with Saber wasn’t an ideal situation, not with Gil injured and still in Crossbow’s range. While Saber and I had our swords locked, I kneed him in the stomach, and Saber doubled over in pain as the air fled his lungs. Wasting no time, I brought my sword up and took Saber’s head off in one swing.

It passed through the air where Saber had been standing, shattering the illusion I hadn't known was there. Saber reappeared a few feet away in a haze, smiling.

"Missed me," he taunted, and with a whisper, spoke an incantation.

A small purple Script circle appeared in his hand and vanished in an instant. He charged us, but before he could take a step, six identical copies of Saber appeared. All grinning wickedly.

Shit, he's a battlemage! Saber was using illusion magic. Mirror, Mirror, a spell that could create copies of the castor, who were able to interact with the real world. Meaning we didn't have one opponent to deal with. We had seven.

Two of them countered Gil, while the other five came after me. I backed out of reach and danced between several sword thrusts. Something I knew I couldn’t keep up. They backed me into a corner, and I was too slow to stop a couple of stabs slicing through my armor. One on my shoulder, the other across my ribs. Neither deep, but I was running out of time.

I activated Aura of the Antimage to level the playing field once more. It bubbled effervescent on my skin, invisible to everyone but me and rolled off, expanding in a circle fifteen feet in all directions. With a small but audible pop, every bit of magic in the area dissolved, leaving only one very confused Saber to deal with.

I rushed in before he could react and severed his head. The second time around was much more permanent. Blood fountained out from his stump as Saber’s lifeless head rolled around in the grass. Unfortunately, Gil was right in the path of the spray and was coated in the hot, syrupy mess.

Gil’s face was unreadable as I pulled him to his feet. He reached down and ripped into Saber’s clothes, creating a makeshift towel and neatly cleaning the blood from his face. He growled and spat several times.

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly.

Though I knew that didn’t make up for the impromptu shower of gore I’d subjected him to.

Gil grinned at me with his blood-stained teeth and went to respond, but we’d made a colossal mistake on the battlefield. Never stand still.

A sledgehammer smashed into me. Intense pressure hit me in the back, right over my heart. The bolt flung me to the ground, with several bruised ribs. My shadowsteel armor splintered under Crossbow’s Hammer Bolt, but it hadn’t broken through.

My life had been spared twice today.

My armor was tough, but I didn’t want to chance it again. I rose to my feet and took off at a dead sprint through the grassy plains towards the main force of the Dawn, passing by several of my guild in the process.

Evelyn and Richard were going head to head, but even from a glance, Evelyn was toying with them, only using the barest bit of effort to fend off Richard. He tried and failed to activate his abilities against her. That pompous bastard even had his other tank with him, but he would need more firepower than that if he wanted to take her down.

I left Evelyn to her fun and went hunting for the bitch who put a bolt through my armor.

She was lining up a shot that would have taken Levi through the chest. Levi was currently guarding Gil with Behemoth, making sure Gil was back up to fighting shape.

Levi engaged with the last warrior, who had discarded his ruined buckler and was currently wielding his longsword with both hands, trying to hack his way through Levi’s shield. So focused on his fight, Levi would never see the bolt coming.

With a burst of speed, I slashed at the wooden crossbow, and splintered it with a heavy crack, severing the tightly wound string. Crossbow jumped back from my next thrust, which would have taken her through the chest. She cursed at me for breaking her weapon and pulled a small dagger from her belt, running at me wildly, screaming unintelligible words as she did so.

It was clear to me that she’d never faced a situation where she’d lost her primary weapon. Her stabs and half-formed slashes with the dagger were clumsy.

As Crossbow