Msaka strode out the gates, and walked away from the city, deep in thought. Various strategies for fighting the tree ghost played through his mind, but without more knowledge of the creature, he had no way to be sure of whether any of them were viable. Finally, he stopped, sighing. "Fretting about it isn't going to help." he thought to himself. "I should work on something else."

Absently, he held up the amulet that the liontaur had given him. "This had better work, or it won't matter anyway." he thought, then paused. "What about that spell from the apothecary?" he wondered, "If it prevents me from hearing sound..." He considered the idea for a while, but realized that once again, there was no way to be certain. Certainly, if the tree ghost's song worked on a victim who heard it, the spell might be an effective counter, but if the singing was merely the casting, and it worked directly on the target's mind, then being unable to hear it would be no defense at all. "Still, if this amulet doesn't work, then it might be the only chance I have." he concluded.

Glancing around him, he spotted a large boulder nearby. "Perfect." he thought. Raising his hands, he began loosing bolts of flame at it. While the rock hadn't done anything to deserve such treatment, it was a good way to work off his frustration.

After several minutes of rock-scorching, he lowered his hands and sighed again. He was feeling more relaxed now, but was no closer to solving his lack of knowledge. "At least I am well prepared to burn it to the ground, if it comes to that. As long as it doesn't do the same to me first, anyway." he thought.

Msaka whirled around as something roared behind him. A humanoid figure was rushing towards him, spear raised to strike. Msaka cursed. He shouldn't have been so distracted as to let the thing get so close.

In the moonlight, it quickly became apparent what the creature was. One of the crocodile men that plagued the region. They were tough, but not altogether bright, and Msaka exploited that weakness, incanting his Hide spell. He disappeared from the croc's view, and it stopped short, blinking in confusion at the turn of events. Carefully, so as not to move too much and break the invisiblity, Msaka called his staff into being, readying a magical assault on the creature.

Msaka slowly swung his staff to point towards the croc. A circle of flames rose around the creature, scorching the grass the flames were in contact with, but not spreading outside of its initial form. The croc roared again, and whirled around, looking for an opening to escape through. Taking advantage of its confusion, Msaka released several magical bolts towards it. One flew past, rocketing off over the savanna, but two struck home, searing the creature's flesh.

Still, to it, the injuries were not too serious, and the pain of the attacks finally brought its thoughts back into focus. It faced toward where it had seen the blasts coming from, roared, and charged forward, moonlight glinting on the head of its raised spear. It bolted right through the ring of flames, taking serious burns for its efforts, and stumbled, nearly dropping its weapon.

Msaka unleased another bolt of electricity at it, then cursed as his staff dissipated, its power drained. "My reserves must be much lower than I realized for it to have done that." he thought as he summoned it back, alarmed. The staff reformed in his grasp, but he knew it wouldn't last very long this time either. "I have to kill it quickly." he realized.

The delay had let the croc recover, and it charged toward Msaka's location again, stabbing wildly with its spear. Msaka was forced to break his concealment to dodge one of the attacks, and the creature immediately focused its attacks on him, roaring murderously as it sought to run him through.

Msaka backpedalled and unleashed a ball of flames, burning the croc still further. He ducked sideways as the creature's murderous spear lanced forward, and it missed by no more than an inch. Msaka lashed out with another spell from his staff, which struck the croc in the head, sending it stumbling backwards, stunned. Msaka sent a final blast of lightning into the creature's chest, and it collapsed onto its back, knocked unconscious by the energy of the spell, its breathing ragged.

Msaka darted forward, drawing his dagger, and slashed the croc's throat with a single, swift stroke. A horrid gurgling sound issued from the creature, but its breathing soon stopped, and the gurgle likewise ended. Msaka grimaced at the noise, but refused to let himself feel any pity. "It would have done the same to me without regret." he thought grimly.

He allowed his nearly discharged staff to dissipate, then turned and walked away, leaving the corpse sprawled on the ground. His relaxed mood from before the attack was gone, and he stalked back toward the liontaur city, still angry with himself for having let his guard down as much as he had.

A patch of tangled grasses nearby caused him to stop, as a realization dawned on him. The tangled plants reminded him of the dangerous vine patch that he had encountered the other day, and the body that lay within.

"The apothecary had said something about a man intending to burn the vines down, and wanting something from the apothecary to do so. Could that have been the body in the vines?" he wondered, "And if so, then the bottle..."

Msaka resumed walking towards the city, but his mood had just improved again. Perhaps the tree demon wouldn't be so difficult to destroy after all.