Hive Knight: A Dark Fantasy LitRPG (Trinity of the Hive Book 1) Grayson Sinclair (book recommendations website .TXT) 📖

I circled Elizabeth for a few moments longer, studying her stance and footwork, an often-overlooked aspect of a duel. Players tended to put faith in their abilities and didn’t bother to practice proper form or technique. Even now, they didn’t realize how unforgiving this world could be.

Elizabeth, however, had decent form. A bit too conforming for my tastes, but it wasn’t awful. She followed the military-style close to the letter, and I detected hesitation in her movements when I suddenly shifted or moved in a way she didn’t expect. A weakness I would use to my advantage later, but I kept circling, waiting for the opportune moment.

I found it a few moments later, when I decided to change the speed of my footwork. Elizabeth shifted to face me head-on and dropped her shield an inch off-center as she raised her steel. Giving me my opening. I lunged forward, activating Twice Critical, and thrust into the opportunity.

My sword struck the spot just above her heart and stopped cold. A semi-translucent silver outline appeared just off her skin and shattered like glass, cracking and falling to the ground before vanishing. Damn, that’s Full Defense, a passive ability in the defender class. An automatic extra bit of armor that lasted until it absorbed too much damage.

Having been caught off guard, I quickly backed out of reach, though I was a half-second slow. Her sword pierced through my armor, scoring a shallow wound across my side.

Damn! That was sloppy of me.

Elizabeth impressed me yet again. She fought with clear skill, had the mind of a tactician, and was also talented enough to be given command over an army. If we’d met under any other circumstances, I’d have liked to offer her a place within our guild.

She was a member of the Alliance, just a puppet for them. A simple piece to move on a chessboard, but a piece of them nonetheless, and I refused ever to allow those bastards to get that close to us.

Damn shame.

Elizabeth having abilities from the defender class and sporting a heavy shield told me everything I needed to know about her fighting style. While I couldn’t begin to guess at the others in her arsenal, she was a purely defensive fighter. Prone to reacting rather than making the first move. It would give me the upper hand while I dictated the pace of battle.

A flash in the corner of my vision told me I was out of time. Sixty seconds left. If I’m going to end this fight, it needs to be now.

I was reluctant to use so many abilities back to back, but I had little choice. If the timer wore down before I killed her, it wouldn’t matter how many I kept in reserve. I activated Holy Blade in tandem with Rush Strike. My sword took on a golden hue as light spilled down its silver blade, and the scent of summer filled the air.

No matter what defensive abilities she has, Holy Blade will negate them all.

Time seemed to slow as Rush Strike kicked in, and the wind enhanced my movements; before she could blink, I was on her.

My golden blade speared straight through her shield and chest plate like they weren’t even there, but there was resistance as my sword cut through tissue and bone. As the radiant light faded from my weapon, Elizabeth slumped over into me, my sword protruding from her back.

When I pulled my sword from her, she crumpled to the earth, blood spilling from her wound to soak into the dirt. A fit of coughs wracked her, and blood dripped slowly from her mouth.

My fury, having been satiated by my victory, left me feeling weary. I knelt by her on the ground. I‘d done some awful things in the name of my guild, things I’d do again in a heartbeat, but they left a sour taste in my mouth. I wasn’t sorry for my actions, but the weight of them settled around me.

“Just so you know, you fought well,” I told her.

I was never one for disregarding my enemy’s talent. She looked up at me with pain-filled eyes, but they were missing the hatred that had consumed them previously. She, too, seemed to find peace with her inner rage.

“If you and the Alliance hadn’t been so greedy, this needless death could have been avoided,” I said softly, my voice little more than a whisper on the wind.

Fire filled her eyes for a brief second. She reached up to grab the back of my head and pulled me down to whisper into my ear, “It’s not what you think. You need to be careful…he’s coming.”

I didn’t understand, so I leaned closer to her to ask her what she meant, but it was pointless. Elizabeth was dead, her glassy eyes staring absently into mine.

I never liked killing other players; taking decades of work from someone else over whatever petty reason presented itself didn’t seem right. I’d still do it, but I never liked to.

Standing up, I wiped the small pool of blood she'd dripped on my legs. Which was the exact moment my auras timed out. Absolute bone-deep exhaustion filled me as my battle fatigue skyrocketed, and I couldn’t control my body any longer. My legs buckled, and I crashed into the ground, motionless.

I stayed in that position for five minutes as my fatigue slowly returned to zero. When it finally receded completely, I shakily picked myself off the ground. I’m lucky none of the soldiers I’d left alive stuck around. They likely fled back to the main force when I engaged Elizabeth and her guards.

Elizabeth's body was gone, deleted from the world. Though her equipment was transported automatically to our loot room, since this was our territory and we were under siege.

With Elizabeth dead, the