“I don’t know if I will be any more grateful today than I was two years ago,” Hugo said. He had no idea what kind of monster he was supposed to be fighting here, and he couldn’t ask because he was supposed to know this stuff. He gave Yasmin a meaningful glance.

“What’s a thrip?” Yasmin said, taking the hint.

“It’s a leaf monster, Lina should be able to tell you all about them,” Ramin said and gestured to the trees in front of them.

Now that he knew what to look for, he could see that the weird trees weren’t swaying gently in the breeze, they were covered with green monsters that were shuffling around. He turned to Ramin and said, “No, I want you to give her the full run down. I don’t want my friend hurt just because I forgot some important detail.”

Ramin grumbled and said, “I was going to correct you if you made a mistake. Anyway, Yasmin. This whole forest in front of you is one large colony of Greater Thrips. They look like the leaves of the baluwt trees. They are symbiotes of the trees, providing the tree nourishment and protection. When anything approaches their tree, they defend it, drawing energy from the baluwt tree to heal and stay in the fight.” Ramin continued the explanation, Yasmin asking questions every so often. Hugo was very grateful for his friend’s presence.

“You should be grateful that the huntmaster has brought you here,” Parisa said, “The sustained combat with beings similar to riese is almost guaranteed to grant you The Mother’s blessing.” She looked at Hugo and said, “Almost.”

Hugo bristled. She was looking down on him because he had been soulmarked instead of gaining The Mother’s blessing. Parisa was a bit of a bigot. He would just have to show her that soulmarked people were just as good or better.

Together, Yasmin and Hugo slowly approached a tree on the edge of the baluwt grove. Parisa and Ramin stayed well back, claiming that they couldn’t be too close or The Mother wouldn’t bless Yasmin. Hugo just hoped that they would be able to reach him in time if they got in trouble.

As soon as they got close enough, a half dozen leaves fell from the tree. They drifted to the ground, landing flat as if they were just fallen leaves. But once they landed, the leaves split and stood up. They looked like someone had taken a leaf and cut it up into the shape of a person. Two arms and two legs with a pointed head. Hugo was vaguely uncomfortable about the placement of the stem.

The six monsters raced towards the riese girls, and they ran away. Hugo and Yasmin didn’t want any more monsters to be drawn in by the fight, so they had to back away from the baluwt tree. Once they got to the spot Ramin had pointed out, they turned and faced the monsters.

The leaf people were smaller than the two riese, but that didn’t make them any less terrifying. Yasmin was the slower of the two and she turned to see five of them jumping at her at once. She shrieked and stumbled back. Hugo jumped in front of her and swept his spear across his chest. Four of the monsters were knocked back, their light bodies making the maneuver possible. Thrips five and six got inside his guard, slicing at him with their razor sharp arms and legs. Hugo dropped his spear and cried out in pain as two long gashes were opened up on his left arm.

Yasmin saw him being attacked and got herself together. She used her mace to beat the monsters down. Once they were on the ground, Hugo drew his dagger and stabbed each one.

It was just in time, the first four thrips had recovered and jumped forward to attack Hugo on the ground. He rolled to the side, swearing out as he accidentally put his weight on his injured arm. Once he was standing again, he moved to support Yasmin. They focused on the monsters one at a time, Yasmin beating them down, and Hugo severing the tip of the leaf where the head resided.

Soon enough, all four thrips were down. Yasmin fell to her knees, exhausted. Hugo held up his left arm, trying to see how deep the injury was. Just then, he felt a stabbing pain on his left right thigh. He looked down to see thrip six. Hugo had assumed that this monster had been killed earlier, but it must have had enough life left in it for the baluwt tree to heal it. Hugo swung his dagger at the monster, stabbing it in the face. It shrieked and backed up.

Yasmin’s mace came from above, absolutely pulping the monster. Three more swings of the mace ensured that no amount of magic could revive it. She walked to the other downed thrips and pulped them as well. Hugo didn’t help because the stab to his thigh meant that he couldn’t walk. Once he was sure that all six monsters were really down, he collapsed onto his back.

Ramin’s face appeared above him and he said, “Well, you really messed that one up. I guess your bad luck with thrips continues. I mean sure, pulling six leaves at once was a lot, but still. Girl, you need to get it together.”

As he was berating Hugo, the huntmaster was cleaning and bandaging Hugo’s arm. Then he moved to his thigh. The wound was deep and bleeding freely, but he didn’t bandage it. Instead he said, “Yasmin, come over here and help out your friend. She needs a tight bandage right here.”

Hugo was doing his best not to cry out in pain, so he didn’t say what he was thinking. If the huntmaster was right there, why didn’t he just bandage up Hugo himself?

Yasmin arrived and wrapped up Hugo as she said, “I am so sorry. You got hurt protecting me, and I am so, so sorry. You shouldn’t risk yourself like that.”

Hugo looked down at the bandage. It was already red with blood but it didn’t look like he was going to bleed out anytime soon. Now he understood why the huntmaster foisted off the first aid. The injury was high up, and the man didn’t want to have his hands anywhere near a girl’s private parts. That was dumb.

Given the choice, he would certainly choose a faster bandage over the embarrassment of having a man near his privates. He wondered if that was just because he didn’t really consider this body as his own. He didn’t care too much about preserving the modesty of a body he considered Lina’s. Either way, he was still vaguely upset that he got a lower standard of care just because Ramin was squeamish.

“Well, did you learn anything?” Ramin said once he was sure that Hugo would be fine.

“I learned that you are a massive jerk. You should have just told me to bring my sword along. A spear is not nearly as good as a sword for killing thrips. You knew we were coming here the whole time, what were you thinking?” Hugo said.

“You said you knew better than me, I took you at your word,” Ramin said and shrugged, unrepentant.

What an ass. Hugo needed a sword to kill the thrips. Or at least a blade on the end of his spear. He could create his own fairly easily, but there were a few reasons he didn’t want them to know he had the formation domain. It was far too soon to have naturally gained a domain, and he wanted to tell people he had the ritual domain so he could get training for that. He sighed to himself. It might not be a good idea to create a sword anyway. He didn’t want the huntmaster to know he had no idea how to use a sword.

A thought occurred to him. He wasn’t the only one who could create wood with magic. “Huntmaster Ramin. Will you please create us a pair of wooden glaives? Just a little longer than we are tall and with a long blade. Thank you.”

The weapons would work better than his spear, and he wouldn’t have to pretend that he already knew how to use it. Ramin grumbled about cheating, but eventually he grew them a pair of glaives from a piece of wood he had in his pack. Hugo found it interesting that they were not identical. The huntmaster just shrugged when asked about it.

They didn’t get back to the fight right away, Hugo needed more time to heal. His health points slowly took care of most of the damage and he could walk after an hour of rest. While he was recovering, Parisa showed Yasmin some moves with the glaive.

The next time they approached the baluwt tree, they managed to attract the attention of just three of the leaf monsters. After running back to to the sweet spot, Hugo and Yasmin turned and attacked. This time the monsters were dead in moments.

Hugo killed one with the first wide sweep of his glaive, and the second only too two more. Yasmin had disabled her own monster and Hugo helped her finish it off. Once they ensured that these thrips wouldn’t be getting back up, they did it again. And again. And again.

Long after lunch time, Hugo called for a break. The point of the constant fighting was that The Mother’s blessing had been shown to come to those that fought often and for prolonged periods. The same was true for those that gained their domain naturally. Hugo was trying to pretend to be one of the latter, but he had his limits. This was just a waste of time for him since the thrips were tier one monsters.

He walked back to the aphids and got out a meal bar for himself and Yasmin. Ramin looked like he might be hungry, but that jerk wasn’t getting any. Hugo was still frustrated about the sword thing.

“You should move on to the next tree after this,” Ramin said after he dug out his own food. It looked like a small stick to Hugo.

“Why is that? It looks like there are probably fifteen or so thrips left on this one,” Yasmin said.

“You don’t want to accidentally draw the attention of the sovereign thrip. Each tree has at least one. It’s an older thrip that has established the connection with the baluwt tree. I think it's called cultivation. The longer it remains there undisturbed, the higher it will rank up. The sovereign thrip of this tree is probably tier two or three. That’s why the thrips are symbiotes in the first place, they are feeding off that connection, tiering up over the years,” Ramin said.

Hugo looked back to the tree they had been harvesting. He wanted to kill a sovereign thrip. It could give him points, not like the tier one monsters they had been killing all day.

“Do you think we could kill it if all the other monsters were dead first?” Hugo said.

The huntmaster thought about it and said, “Maybe. Probably. Not worth the risk though. We are going to be out here for a few weeks, there is no reason to rush in. The height of the monster surge was last night. These are the only easy kills for miles and miles. Take your time, perfect your form. Maybe I can find you a weak sovereign before we leave.”

Hugo nodded, but he was already looking back at the top of the baluwt tree. It looked like the tree was dying from the ground up, only the top layer had any leaves left. He promised himself that he would kill a sovereign thrip. Maybe even today.