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

side kick to his knee, dislocating it as he put most of his weight on it attempting to grab me. With an ear-splitting shriek of pain, he collapsed to the stone, and I curb stomped his face, shattering through the cartilage in his nose and sending blood spilling out to stain his lips and slither down his chin.

He was broken and bleeding, but he was still conscious, and he tried to shakily stand back up. At this point, even I knew he’d had enough, but my anger was too strong, and I wanted to keep hurting him.

“More, hurt him more!”

Before he could stand, I kicked his head, catching him just below his cheek and dislocating his jaw with a twisted pop. Mikhail somehow stumbled to his feet and swung wide. I caught his hook, dazed him with a jab, and flung him over my shoulder.

Mikhail hit the ground headfirst, smashing the base of his skull on the stone, cracking loudly as he landed, blood smeared the floor from a deep gash on the base of his head.

My anger still wasn’t satiated, and I wanted to kill him. I raised my foot to shatter his skull.

“Stop!” a frantic voice shouted.

I turned to see Wolf, arms raised in a non-threatening manner, trying to keep me from killing his dim-witted friend.

“Why should I?” I growled at him, my vision thick and dark with shadows. I wanted to keep hurting. I wanted to kill them all for what they were planning on doing to my queen.

Wolf gestured around the room, at the broken and bleeding bodies of Darren and Mikhail. Slip had managed to pull the poker from his leg and downed half a health potion before climbing to his feet. Both walked toward me, and both had their hands raised. They knew who the strongest one here was.

“You don’t need to continue this. You've won, there is no need to hurt them any further.”

I pointed at them and roared, “You fuckers are the ones who started this.”

Wolf shook his head as he motioned to the ragged body of Darren.

“No, he is the one that started this foolishness, and Mikhail got dragged into it trying to defend Darren. They both paid the price for their actions tonight. Let it end here.”

I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to keep fighting. To keep causing pain and suffering to those who had sought to subjugate and harm Eris. They would suffer agonizing deaths.

“No, I’ll end this here and now!”

Both moved into their combat stances, and I was a second away from charging them when Eris grabbed my arm. Her eyes were hazy and unfocused, but there were tears in them, and that stopped me cold.

“Stop this, Duran. Please, let them go.”

“They’re our enemies, and they need to die,” I said through gritted teeth.

“For me, please,” she begged, tugging on my arm.

I didn’t want to listen, but I wasn’t acting in my right mind. My anger was so intense and overwhelming that it hurt, and I wanted to hurt in return. One look at Eris, and it was plain that she could tell how I was feeling and that she was trying to save me from myself. Her concern for me bled through my darkness, if only a little, but it was enough.

Now that I wasn’t in combat anymore, the twisted magic’s hold lessened enough to allow Eris’s words to reach me, to let me regain a small piece of myself.

“Fine. Take them, and never let me see your faces again.”

Wolf nodded his head, and he and Slip went and retrieved their unconscious and dripping comrades off the blood-soaked floor. Slip poured the rest of the health potion down Mikhail’s gullet and dragged the men out of the inn and into the night, shutting the door with a heavy thud.

I sat back into my chair and tried to let the anger fade completely. I need a drink.

“Hey Ruff, can I get another ale?”

***

Eris passed out in the chair after the fight. She was right to stop me, but she’s also too soft. That’s going to bite us in the ass, I just know it.

If Darren and his cronies weren’t already a threat before the fight, they were now. Letting them go was a foolish move. But Eris couldn’t handle my brutality, and I wasn’t going to kill them in front of her while she wept and begged me not to.

As I drained the last of my ale and waited on Ruff to bring another, I glanced at the notifications tab in my interface to see that I had several of them waiting for me.

 

Combat Results

Three Downed (Human): 4500 Exp

Mercy Penalty: -1500 Exp

Total Exp Gain: 3000

Level: 45

Exp: 4500/4500

Level Up!

10 Stat Points Available!

Level: 46

Exp: 100/4600

The notifications stunned me. I’d never seen so much Exp awarded for a simple bar fight before, let alone one that hadn’t even ended in death. Never seen the system grant Exp without killing something before…never seen a mercy penalty either, so this is all new territory.

The mercy penalty scared me. It felt like something was pushing me to be more violent and ruthless—that and the strange magic that was ever-present in my heart. I’m being molded for something. Whatever took over Eris and made me this way has plans for me, but what can I do about it?

Even with the mercy penalty, I’d still earned a considerable chunk of experience. Joke’s on them. That was still far more Exp than I should have earned for such a fight. I was okay with the system taking a little off the top. I came out ahead, regardless.

Ruff was busy dealing with another patron at the bar, so I walked over and waited till the farmer left with a tray of