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

“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 bubbling 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.

As the dire wolf reared back for a second bite, I rammed the tip of my blade through its mouth and out the back of its head.

It slumped against my sword, and several hundred pounds of dead weight came crashing towards me. I scrambled back and out of the way as it hit the ground.

That was close.

Standing up, I checked myself over for wounds and found myself whole and relatively unscathed. The vambrace is still usable, but it took a knock. The thick metal had jagged teeth marks sunk into it, but there weren’t any tears or holes.

I quickly looted the fur, eyes, and claws from both creatures and left the meat to other scavengers. Two down, three to go.

Half an hour later, the remaining three were dead, and I was beyond exhausted. I sagged to the ground and fought back the urge to fall asleep where I sat. As I waited for my battle fatigue to lower back to zero, I cleaned the blood off my sword and armor. I’d only taken a few more light nicks and scrapes during the fight.

When my heart rate cooled, I stood and began the walk back to camp, cursing my bad luck. Five dire wolves and not a single core between them. It’s what I get for not putting any points in Luck. Even with the bonus, without any stats in loot drops, I’m going to lose out.

I took off my armor and let the heat of the fire dry the pouring sweat from my chest and neck. Eris had set up her tent separate from mine and was already in bed. She peeked her head out when I returned.

“I’m glad you’re all right,” she said and went back in.

Guess she’s still pissed. I ate some bread and drank some water but was too tired to eat more.