Hugo’s eyes tracked the grenade as it arched in the air towards him. When it was about five feet away, he created a blue barrier in the air, deflecting it back towards the assassin. As the alchemical grenade bounced back towards the human, Hugo scrambled to get out of the room.

He didn’t make it.

Just as his head passed the threshold, the explosion went off. It shredded his legs, making him collapse to the ground in agony. He tried to get up, but he couldn’t. His legs didn’t work, they were just pulsing slabs of pain. He tried to take a big breath to scream in pain, but he couldn’t. He coughed up blood. In between coughing, he was able to take shallow breaths but it wasn’t enough.

He could feel himself fading. The blood loss, the inability to get enough air. It was pressing down on him. His vision narrowed. He heard some faint yelling and someone stomped closer to him. He didn’t have enough energy to look up to see who it was.

Rough hands flipped him over. It was a riese he had never seen before. Someone big and strong. The man yelled to someone behind himself, his voice raw with emotion. Hugo was sure that he was going to die in the man’s arms.

Suddenly, a bottle was forced between his lips. Liquid poured down his throat. Hugo coughed up the liquid and blood. The man seemed undeterred though, continuing to force it down his throat. Hugo managed to gulp some of it down between foamy blood coughs. It was clear by now that he was trying to feed him a health potion.

Hugo continued to fade though. The pain was all encompassing. Someone was messing with his legs and making it worse, but he couldn’t muster up enough of a breath to complain. All he could do was lay there and try to get a breath. After a few moments, they ran out of health potions and Hugo just lay in the man’s arms taking shallow breaths.

Perhaps five minutes of agony later, a life mage arrived. It was an older woman and she walked up to Hugo, touching his injuries with targeted healing. Hugo coughed up more blood, and then he could breathe properly again. The woman slowly worked down his body, but ran out of mana before Hugo could be fully healed.

He didn’t complain though, he was exhausted and just happy to be alive. He closed his eyes and lay back. He only asked one question, “Is he dead or did he get away?”

It took them a moment to understand what he was asking, but someone looked into the room and said, “The human in there is very dead.”

Hugo lay back and said, “Good. Thank you for saving my life, everyone.”

The men around him shifted awkwardly, and the life mage said, “You are most welcome, princess. We should probably get you to the infirmary now that you are stable. It will take some time for my mana and heath points to recover so I can finish healing you.”

Hugo’s mother, Shirin, appeared just then. She took a moment to look at the blood splattered everywhere. Shirin assessed the situation and said, “Lina! Cover yourself.”

Hugo looked down at his chest. The cut that had almost killed him also left a large gap in his dress and chestwrap. His left boob was exposed. Hugo slowly reached over and pulled his dress closed. He looked up at her and said, “You know, mom. You are a real jerk. I almost died and you are only worried about my modesty? You broken twig.”

She sputtered and stared at him aghast.

Exhausted, Hugo closed his eyes and lay back. He tried not to smile. He had learned that insult while he was out hunting and apparently it was particularly offensive.

“Listen, young lady. I will forgive you this once since you have obviously undergone something traumatic. I am the wife of the First Prince and your mother. You will address me with the respect I deserve. We will talk again once you have recovered,” Shirin said as she drew herself up. “The rest of you, get her down to the infirmary and keep her safe,” she said and stalked off.

They took him down to the infirmary. It was a small room near the armory, only there for triaging injuries in case the royal grove tree got attacked. They lay Hugo on the bed furthest from the door and pulled a leaf down from the ceiling. It gave Hugo his own private area where only the life mage could see him. He dropped his hands and tried to rest while she recovered her mana.

This whole being a woman thing was annoying. He wasn’t used to covering his chest, even after a month of having boobs. He certainly appreciated them on other people, but the two lumps on his own chest only caused him problems.

A few hours later, he woke up to the sounds of shouting and fighting outside. He sat up and felt around. He had been fully healed. The life mage sat in a chair in the corner, sound asleep. She must have exhausted herself fully to heal him. Someone had laid a blanket over him while he slept and he wrapped it around himself. He got up and slowly walked outside.

As he walked, he created another wooden knife. It seemed like today was going to be a shitty day. What he saw outside made him tuck the knife away.

A trio of guards stood relaxed at the entrance to the infirmary. Hugo walked between them to see the source of the shouting. A swarm of monsters were attacking the tree and royal guards were shooting arrows into the approaching beasts. The monsters were gray beasts with mouths full of long sharp teeth. They had their mouths wide open as they scrabbled up the huge tree trunk. The few monsters that didn’t get an arrow to the face hit the magical barrier surrounding the tree. They were instantly turned to ash.

The huntmaster walked up to Hugo and watched along with him. He said, “It’s a disgrace that they are letting so many renders through. The guards use up The Mother’s magic just because they can’t be bothered to shoot fast enough. They are just lucky I am only in charge of the hunts, or I would take the bark right off of them.”

That was interesting. The magic that protected the trees wasn’t some hidden runework, it was magic directly from the riese god/symbiote. With that kind of magical protection, he could see why the riese worshiped that weird pulsing thing.

“You though. I have to say, I am proud of you, Lina. They tell me the assassin was soulmarked and you still managed to survive. Do you know what domain he was?”

“I’m not sure, I didn’t see him perform any magic, just artifacts and potions,” Hugo said. In truth, he knew exactly who the assassin was. It was the same slivered mercenary he had ran into when he was Cristian. During that life, the hedge mages had contracted the mercenary to kidnap Hugo and in this one he was obviously there to kill him. Whoever had placed the hit must have a connection to the hedge mages.

“Maybe he was an alchemist. Anyway, it made me glad to see that the royal family is strong enough to stand up to a human assassin,” Ramin said and put a hand on his shoulder. “I hope you understand that we will need to go out hunting again soon, right? We don’t have to leave right away, but I am afraid parties and social gatherings will have to wait until after your mother’s challenge.”

Hugo sighed. He knew that the huntmaster was right. It was clear his personal guard had been paid off or killed. Nowhere on the royal tree was safe. Far away in the forest was the only place he could be safe from assassins. They couldn’t kill what they couldn’t find. He was going to miss his bathroom and luxurious bed. “Well, I guess I will take out my anger on the monsters. When do we leave?”

“Two or three days. Until then, stay in the room they assign you and keep a health potion and a cure-all handy. I will send someone into town to get the trail rations you like so much,” Ramin said.

Hugo nodded in thanks and the huntmaster walked off.

He pulled up his Acomarian screen and did something he should have done days ago. He ranked up to sixteen and put his free point into resilience. He had delayed ranking up because he hadn’t been sure where he wanted that extra point, but now he was sure. With assassins after him, he needed thick skin and health points.

With that done, he gestured to his personal guards and followed them to the room they had set aside for him. He couldn’t stay in his own room of course. The new room was near the kitchens but still far enough away to be secure. He wondered if it would be safe to let Yasmin know where he was so she could come visit. Probably not. He would just have to send her a letter so she knew he was alright.

In the meantime, he was going to use a few of his domains to make himself more durable. First step, wooden armor. He quickly wrote out the equations for greaves. It only took six mana to create. That was so much less mana than he was used to when fabricating weapons and armor. It made him think about a technique he had learned about in school in Reval but hadn’t used much since then. He could make the wood much better by injecting additional mana into the form as he created it.

The result was a set of shin armor that was much stronger than the first attempt. It still wasn’t as strong as the titanium he was used to, but he could fix that. He jumped into his Acomarian system and chose titanium for his third element. Next he fabricated a few rods of mithril and got to work. He needed quality armor and he had a few ideas for an improved crossbow. It was going to be a long few days.

...

He met the huntmaster before the sun rose two days later. Parisa was impatiently waiting with a trio of aphids. She didn’t say anything, but Hugo could tell she wasn’t looking forward to babysitting Hugo again. Sadly, Hugo couldn’t ask Yasmin to come along when they knew assassins might be after him. There were probably assassins after his mother as well, but she was blessed and much more capable of defending herself.

“Is that new armor?” Ramin said as she got closer.

Hugo nodded and said, “Yes, but I didn’t leave my room, no worries. I just ordered it.”

“Must be nice to be a princess. I don’t even want to know how much it must have cost to have someone grow you a new set of wooden armor in two days,” Parisa said.

“If I wasn't a princess I wouldn't have anyone trying to kill me,” Hugo replied.

“Whatever. Let’s get going,” Parisa said and motioned to their mounts.

Ramin led the way with Hugo in the middle. They raced across the upper branches of several grove trees. They went southwest until the forest , and then turned straight south. They made good time in the forest. It was still before noon when they reached a shallow stream. The huntmaster led them north east from that point.

They made several more changes in directions and a few backtracks, they headed southeast. It wasn’t too far from the farmlands of Ettel and Reval. This time of year, there weren’t many monsters in the forests so they made good time. They were thirty miles south of Reval by the time they stopped for the night.

The trio hadn’t talked much the whole day. Just a few words needed to kill the monsters they came by. Hugo had done most of the killing, but none of them were over tier two, so he didn’t get closer to ranking up. He hadn’t used his new crossbow yet. Partly because he wanted to pretend that ammunition was limited. Mainly because he wanted the first time he used it to be impressive. He wanted to knock the socks off of Parisa when she saw how powerful it was.

High up in the junction of the grove tree branches, the three of them got ready for bed. Hugo wasn’t quite ready for sleep yet, which was good because he had the first watch. The other two hadn’t closed their eyes yet, so Hugo struck up a conversation.

“Huntmaster Ramin, do you have a specific destination in mind, or are we just going to wander around for the next few months?” Hugo quietly said.

“I have a few destinations in mind, but we will travel the majority of the time we spend out here. We will be back for your mother’s challenge, and then out here again,” Ramin replied.

“I’m hopeful that we won’t have to do that. If my mom wins her challenge, then this whole thing will be over. The Juniper family won’t have any reason to want me dead then,” Hugo said.

Parisa scoffed, “You don’t know it’s them. Your family has made several enemies over the years.”

Hugo shrugged, “Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I am looking forward to her win. I miss my bed. It is so much better than this crappy bedroll.”

“Growing up, I would have been happy to have a bed as luxurious as your bedroll, Princess,” Parisa said.

Hugo just shrugged. She had a point. Hugo had spent plenty to get a really nice bedroll. It was just that the moss bed at home was so much nicer.

The other two riese turned in then, falling asleep with the speed of those trained to it. Hugo looked around the landscape, already bored. This early in the year, there weren’t a lot of monsters around. The shimmer mountain heartbeat had drawn them all into the cities to get slaughtered. It would be a while before enough monsters spawned to make the forest dangerous again.

It would be nice to fabricate something to pass the time, but he didn’t want anyone to see the slight glow that skill created. Instead, he played with his wards. He could create large ones, at a frequency that would be invisible. He had some experience with small ones, but with his larger mana pool he wanted to create a huge ward. He anchored one to the base of the tree, about knee height and spread it out as wide as he could get. It was one designed to trigger if it sensed a monster.

He was happy to see that it went out forty feet. That was wider than he had ever done before. With a thought, he recycled it and tried again, this time making a circle with a fifty feet radius. That mentally taxed him. It was probably his limit. Fifty feet wouldn’t really help him in his watch though. He still needed to keep an eye out. Just for practice, he made another ward underground. Burrowing monsters weren’t able to go through grove tree roots, but the extra ward couldn't hurt. Eventually his watch ended and he woke the huntmaster for his turn.

An unknown amount of time later, Hugo jolted awake. Something had triggered his ward.