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

rogues, and two mages, but I couldn’t tell what elemental aptitude they’d chosen. That left one guild member who I couldn’t place. He seemed to be the leader, and he bore the appearance of a king, with heavy golden armor that bore a familiar crest.

The Order of the Dawn.

I sighed. Of course, it would be them. Our paths had never officially crossed, but they held a reputation nearly as famous as ours was infamous.

Their leader walked out in front of the formation. His name was Richard, and he was as pompous as they came. Sporting blond hair that draped down his shoulders, it matched his armor almost too well. His ice-blue eyes held both contempt and superiority in them, and his high cheeks and pointed chin gave his face the resemblance of an arrowhead. Richard’s smile held a bitterness that matched his eyes perfectly.

He stood half a dozen yards from us and looked each one of us up and down before speaking, “Ah, the renowned Gloom Knights. I would say it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, but why sully my mouth with a lie." His smile twisting with cruelty.

While everyone else focused on the bastard’s face, I watched his hands. His fingers twitched as he looked over at us, counting. I could easily tell what he was thinking. He was going to be overconfident since he outnumbered us.

“Seems you are missing a few of your retinue...what, they see us coming and run off?” Richard asked with a loud, forced laugh that caused the rest of his guild to chuckle meekly in response.

I smiled darkly at his ridiculous performance. ”They had other, more pressing matters to handle and couldn’t be bothered.”

His grin grew wider. “Ah, truly, that is a shame. I had hoped to round you all up at once and look at what you’re doing. Making us work extra hard to catch you, wicked deviants.”

Are they here bounty hunting? That didn't make sense. The Alliance didn’t hire mercenaries, preferring to rely on their soldiers, and they especially didn’t contract bounties to player guilds. The Compass Kingdom left such work to the Adventurers Guild.

If the Alliance was attempting to take our castle from us, having the Order arrive at the same time as the troops didn’t fit. The Order shouldn’t even be in the same company as the Alliance. Something else is going on here.

“Who the fuck hired you to bring us in?”

“My, my. The mouth on this one. Poor Durandahl. You don’t need to worry your head about these things; you’ll soon be parting with it,” Richard said.

I scowled as he said my full name. “Why don’t you and your friends ride on out of here, and we all forget this misunderstanding ever happened?”

Richard’s grin deepened. “Why would I do that when I have you right where I want you?” His gaze shifted, becoming something malicious and cruel. “Now, why don’t we dispense with these trivialities and get down to business?”

He spoke to all of us next.

“You can all surrender quietly, or I can kill most of you. I was only hired to bring back two of you alive. Every one of you has kill orders placed on your heads, so we get paid regardless if you’re dead or alive. It doesn’t matter to me.”

It was my turn to laugh. ”You think we would ever surrender to the likes of you? Think again, jackass.”

He shook his head, clearly displeased with my answer. I sent a mental ping to both Harper and Yumiko. It was time.

“I’ll admit, Durandahl. That was the answer I expected of you. Too stupid to take my most generous offer. I’m going to enjoy killing you, but I’d have spared your friends' lives if you had cooperated.”

“You and your guild can go to hell!” I yelled at him. “Gloom Knights, to war!”

Several things happened at once. Gil activated a couple of his abilities to start the fight off on a literal high note. His thundering War Cry rang out as if emphasizing my own battle cry, followed closely by a higher-pitched scream. Gil’s Stun Shout.

The members of the Dawn took on the appearance of statues frozen in motion. Both rogues were unaffected by the shout and disappeared in a puff of smoke. I figured they would be able to break the stun lock, and tried to keep track of them, but lost them in the thick cloud.

Harper and Yumiko, as soon as they heard my call to war, leapt out of their respective hiding spots and fired into the now frozen crowd. The smoke and tightly massed bodies made scoring head shots nearly impossible, so they didn’t even try for them, going for the easier body shots.

Yumiko used her venom-coated arrows to take out a few key targets, putting one in each of the mages. While not instantly fatal, the toxins would soon get to work, wreaking havoc on their organs. She tried to take out one of the rogues, but the arrow buried itself into the grass by the startled rogue’s feet.

Harper activated Black Sun Arrow. An ominous black glow pulsed off his bow as he raised it skyward. He released his arrow with a satisfying twang. As the shaft reached a certain height, it lost all its momentum and hung in the sky for the briefest second before changing course and flying back towards the earth. Just before the arrow hit the ground, it burst into hundreds of smaller arrows to pepper the helpless guild.

The small razor-sharp flechettes formed a cloud of hornets and indiscriminately pierced flesh and armor as they descended. Still afflicted by Gil’s shouts, the players couldn’t even cry out in pain. A hundred minuscule rivers of blood flowed from torn flesh to pool into a small lake at the feet of the guild.

Harper's attack landed with brutal efficiency. Bleeding will raise their fatigue, hopefully enough