Msaka rushed through the southern exit of the plaza into the street, and paced along quickly, trying to put some distance between him and the crowd. He could feel that he was blushing furiously, though fortunately it wasn't visible under his fur. Unfortunately, there was little likelihood of the crowd forgetting who he was; there was no one else in the city likely to look even vaguely similar to him. He let out a small snarl as he walked. Being considered a figure of amusement had not been one of his objectives for the day.

There was nothing he could do about it, however, so he consoled himself with the fact that he'd made a quick getaway. Perhaps the people who'd seen him would have the courtesy not to mention it, especially to him, but he doubted that would be the case.

He stalked along the street, following the route that would take him back to the gate plaza. Once again the streets seemed to be mostly empty, which simply didn't make much sense given the number of people who entered and exited the plazas while he had been in them. The illogic of the situation annoyed him further, though at least it gave him something else to focus on, and he felt the blushing start to subside.

He refrained from lashing out with his magic, despite wanting to. He was going to be working with it soon enough, and needed to reserve his power for that. Growling, he continued on his way.

A little over halfway to his destination, he began to grow uneasy. He felt that something was wrong, though he couldn't see anything out of place. Still, he slowed down a little bit, keeping a more alert eye on his surroundings. The feeling didn't go away though, but intensified as he moved along, and he felt the fur on the back of his neck start to stand on end.

He came to a stop and called his staff to his hand. He felt certain that something was about to happen, very probably another attack against him. With a quick wave of his staff, he scanned the area for magical energies, hoping to find out what it might be before it happened.

He detected two sources of magic, one down the street ahead of him, and the other some distance behind him. The magic behind seemed to cover a fairly long stretch of the street, from one side to the other. It was a threatening magic, and Msaka quickly resolved the nature of the threat. Though invisible to normal sight, the entire area now sported wicked metal spikes of various sizes and shapes, impossible to navigate through without being impaled. That being behind him, Msaka turned his attention to what lay before him, as the spikes presented no threat unless he were to go that way - and he suspected that whatever was in front would be what would give him reason to want to do so.

The magic ahead of him was within the ground itself, passing steadily beneath it towards him. It wasn't moving terribly fast, but neither was it moving slowly, and whatever it was, its magical radiance indicated that it was both hostile and dangerous.

Without warning, the magic rose up from the ground, causing the street to tremble as a large part of the ground was pulled up along with it. The magic, earth, and stone formed itself into a large, vaguely humanoid shape. Msaka had heard the story of last year's attacks on the city to recognize it immediately for what it was - an elemental of earth was now bearing down on him with lethal intent.

He swore and raised his staff, unleashing a stroke of lightning at the creature. The electrical charge didn't seem to bother it at all, and it kept right on coming. Msaka cursed, then remembered another part of the story - the one who had bested the elemental had used firey attacks to defeat it, as these things were invulnerable to other forms of damage.

He started backing away, unleashing a ball of flame at the creature as it closed in on him. The impact of the Flame Dart had a much greater effect than seemed reasonable for a thing made of earth and stone - while it wasn't burned very much, it's entire form shuddered and swayed. It quickly recovered though, and continued onwards, its every step causing the ground to shake anew.

Msaka waved his staff in a circle, invoking several words. A Wall of Flames sprung up between he and the elemental, stretching across the street. The elemental thundered to a halt on the other side of the flames, seemingly unwilling to cross through them. Msaka unleashed another bolt of fire at the thing, and once again, it shuddered under the impact.

He was about to unleash another attack, when his senses told him that someone else was working magic. Almost immediately, his fire wall died away, and the elemental lumbered forward again. Msaka's fire struck it a moment later, sending a third shudder through the thing. A few trickles of dirt crumbled away from its towering form as it charged again, closing the remaining distance.

Msaka readied his next spell, but the elemental had moved more quickly than he had anticipated, and he found its fist whistling towards him. He lunged backwards to avoid it, but the elemental just moved foward to match, and Msaka was struck hard.

Pain shot through his chest as he went flying backwards, his staff clattering away as he lost his grip. He crashed onto the ground in a heap, sending another jolt through his body. Fortunately, he'd landed just short of the spikes, which would have sliced him to ribbons if he'd hit them.

Gritting his teeth, Msaka forced himself to keep his attention on the elemental, despite the agony that shot through his chest with every move. The thing was just about on him again, and there was no way he was going to be able to avoid the next blow if it came. With no other options left, Msaka released a Flame Dart from his hands, praying that it would be enough to disrupt the forces holding the thing together.

Whether the prayer had anything to do with it was impossible to know, but the spell struck the elemental as it raised its fist to strike. It shuddered again, and this time, instead of trickles, its entire form spilled to the ground, dropping chunks of stone and a stream of earth onto Msaka. Msaka sputtered and forced himself into a sitting position to avoid being buried, and the deluge quickly ended, though both the movement and the materials sent waves of pain through his chest again, and he could feel quite acutely the places that stones had struck the rest of him.

Fighting against the blackness that was creeping over the edges of his vision, Msaka incanted his healing spell, dancing his fingers through the patterns necessary to build the energies he needed. With great difficulty, he completed the magic, and passed his hand over his chest. The sensation was odd, as unlike the wounds he had received so far, he had several broken ribs this time. Feeling them snap back into place under his skin was unpleasant, but the pain immediately died down to a level that no longer threatened to make him pass out. He expended the spell's remaining energy to repair the muscle and skin, leaving him only with the injuries he'd sustained from the elemental's collapse.

Ignoring the pain that was shooting through his limbs, he dug himself out of the pile as quickly as he could - the story of the previous elemental still in his mind. He needed to trap the core of its essence, before it was able to merge itself with the ground again. Tearing open the top of his waterskin with his knife , he quickly emptied it onto the ground, then widened the slit further.

It wasn't hard to spot the elemental's essence - it was the only remaining clump of earth which was still cohesive. Already, it was trying to merge with the ground, but it certainly hadn't progressed far enough to prevent Msaka from scooping it into his waterskin. Msaka did just that, managing with some difficulty to get the entire thing inside. It was a temporary container at best, but it would suffice until he could find something more suitable.

He retrieved his staff with his free hand, and incanted his spell of healing again through it, letting the magical energy repair the rest of his body. He let out a small sigh of relief once that task was completed, both from the physical renewal, and the fact that he'd managed to survive the encounter.

His relief didn't last long though, as it quickly dawned on him that whoever had been trying to kill him before was still trying to - and the next attack would probably be even more deadly than this one.

He looked behind him, then cast his spell of detection again. The spikes were still there, as dangerous as they had been when he'd first sensed them, a potential menace to whoever came this way. While he cared very little for the population of this city, neither did he desire to see harm come to any of them. Expending his staff's power further, he released his Reveal spell over the area, and the forest of spikes faded into view. He couldn't do much to clear them away; while they had initially been created by magic, they were entirely real objects. At least, though, he had made certain that no one would be found impaled on them accidentally.

With that image floating in his mind, he suddenly felt very much that he wanted to be somewhere else. Turning away, he hurried along the street, carefully avoiding the hole that the earth elemental had emerged from.