The proprietor of the store is a lean, almost skeletal man.  He's an unfriendly man with a seeming instant dislike for me.  He suspiciously asks me, “Where you goin', stranger?”

I claim to be a horticulturist, interested in some of the unusual plants that grow in a mangrove swamp.

The man sneers, "The mangrove swamp is a good place to avoid.  Strange things happening in the swamp.  Best you stay away from there.”

I tell the man, "I don't need trouble, but I'm good at handling strange things.  I have an assignment to explore the mangrove swamp, because of a university study.  I'm a poor boy and I have to earn my money.”

The man grins at me and says, "Yeah, like as not, you'll earn your money.  Right boys?”

There are a few disreputable looking loafers hanging around the store.  They look like trouble.  However, I'm good at handling trouble.

The boys do indicate that the mangrove swamp is indeed trouble, especially for strangers.

I buy a few supplies from the proprietor and stash my supplies in my back pack.  I then walk out of the store and toward the setting sun.  I follow a dim, beaten earth trail through the flat land.

The trail winds along, between little ponds of brackish water or salt water and I walk in steadily growing dusk.  The darkness grows and a man would sometimes hardly be able to see his way through the gloom.  However, I'm not human, and I can see quite a ways into the infra red.  I pick my way through the darkness, along damp ground.

After I have walked for a ways, I become aware that I'm being tracked by someone, probably several someones.  I have a pretty good idea that my trackers are at least some of the disreputable looking loafers who were hanging around the general store.  I continue to walk, headed a bit to the North of the mangrove swamp.  I keep alert and keep walking.

When it gets to be full dark and I'm just within the mangrove swamp, I halt and turn to face those who follow me.  I'm not human, and I can see quite a ways into the infra red, but that's not the sense that I use.  I pull scabbarded Glyr out of my backpack and strap the scabbard to my belt.  I then keep my eyes closed and I also remove a very bright LED flashlight from my backpack.  I aim the flashlight where my very keen hearing tells me that my pursuers are walking, following my footsteps along the dim trail.  I switch on the flashlight, leaving my pursuers suddenly night blind.  I then move into three pursuers and I use Glyr to good effect.

My pursuers are armed, but that does them little good, as the bright light from my flashlight has left them night blind.

With my help, Glyr takes the lives of the three.

I remove two rifles and a pistol from the corpses.  I also slit the pockets of the corpses and remove a few dollars in cash.  I leave the corpses, where they lie.  This near to Hell Tree, the corpses won't be there, in the mangrove swamp, when the morning comes.

I walk to the shore of the Gulf of Mexico and throw the rifles and the pistol as far as I can, into the waters of the sea.

Then, with no real choice, I keep alert and keep walking.

(Mangrove trees can survive, even when most of their roots are underwater and can't breathe.  The mangrove trees mostly prop themselves above the water level with stilt roots and can then absorb air through pores [called lenticels] in their bark.  Some mangroves root on higher ground and make many pneumatophores, root-like structures which stick up out of the soil like straws to enable breathing.   The pneumatophores are covered in lenticels.  In any case the mangrove trees put out root structures which are above ground, giving the trees the appearance of being on stilts.)

A human couldn't see where to walk, in the darkness.  However, I can see well into the infra-red and the remaining heat from the day gives me enough illumination to make my way through the mangrove swamp, until I find the Hell Tree.

Hell Tree stands alone, towering above the rest of the trees in the mangrove swamp and providing a sort of grim warning to those who walk into its domain.

I remove my back pack and hang it from the branches of a bush.  I then extract from my backpack and set up a small, low level light that illuminates mostly in the infra red.  I wash my hands with water from my canteen and then have a little snack of dried meat, that I purchased along my bus journey, washed down with water from my canteen.  I then wait for the action to start.

A bat flies at me and I draw Glyr and slash the bat in two.

Glyr mutters, “A waste of time, it was just an animal and not of magic.”

I chuckle, “Glyr, magic or not, I don't want a bat in my face.”

(As I have stated, Glyr is not magic, but a living being, a demon.  Glyr is a demon, fiercer than any demon of Earth.  Glyr and I will deal with ghosts, the undead and demons, this night, or we will die. Glyr and I are exiles and we have no choice in matters.  I prefer to wait for the main events to use Glyr, but I can use Glyr against other attackers, if I deem it necessary.  Glyr and I don't actually talk, but rather communicate mind to mind.)

Glyr reflects for a moment or two and says, “I suppose that a warm up is not really a bad thing.  I must start to kill, at some point in time.”

I chuckle, “Ghosts will come.  I'm not afraid of ghosts, I'm an anti-necromancer.  The undead will come.  I'm not afraid of the undead, I'm an anti-necromancer.  Demons will also come.  I'm not afraid of demons, I'm an anti-necromancer.”

Glyr lectures me, "Ghosts will come.  I'm a demon and I'm not afraid of ghosts.  The undead will come.  I'm a demon and I'm not afraid of the undead.  Demons will also come.  I'm a demon, more powerful than any demon of Earth and I'm not afraid of demons here.”

I sigh, "Most of our tasks lead to very interesting nights.  That, however, is our destiny."

I then sheath Glyr.

I can feel the rage rise in Glyr.

I say, “Very soon now, Glyr.  You must be a little patient.  It wouldn't do to draw you and let your anger dissipate, while we wait.”  (I actually speak the words, but to no real purpose.  Glyr can't hear me, but, as I have said, Glyr can read my mind, at least to an extent.)

As full night comes, the residual infra red light from the ground begins to fade.  The small, low level light that illuminates mostly in the infra red, that I previously set up, provides enough illumination for my purposes.

Out of the sea staggers a black man, probably a slave, who must have drowned many years ago.  The zombie form is draped with seaweed that glitters with an evil glow.  The zombie stops, shakes itself and then launches itself in an attack against me.

I draw Glyr and wait until the zombie is almost on me.  I then slash with Glyr and the zombie rushes past me, having received what would have been a fatal wound in a living creature.

However, the zombie is not a living creature, it's undead, and it turns and again attempts to rush at me.

I cut the zombie's head off and the zombie rushes past me, with what would have been an instantly fatal wound in a living creature.

However, the zombie is not a living creature, it turns and the headless creature attempts to rush at me.

This time, I cut one of the zombie's legs off and the zombie finally pitches to the ground.  The headless, one legged creature is of no danger to me and it doesn't attempt to rise.

As I slashed at the zombie, the seaweed clinging to the creature lashed at me.  The seaweed would have tried to attach itself to a human and then burrow into the human's flesh.  However, I'm not human.  I now peel the seaweed off me and wait for the next attack.  Glyr feeds some of the undeath it got from the zombie, back into me.

Some sort of flying hell beasts launch themselves at me, from the Hell Tree.

I kill one of the flying beasts with Glyr and flail at the other with a length of seaweed.

The flying beast doesn't like the seaweed at all!  It turns, in mid air, and then dives at me in a senseless attack.  I move aside, at the last possible instant, and kill the second flying beast, with Glyr.”

Glyr feeds some of the life force that it got from the flying beasts, back into me.

In the infra red light, I see a form stagger put of the sea.  The form is that of an ancient seafarer, possibly a Spaniard.  The form is free of seaweed, but it does have a sword.

The sword that the seafarer carries is a cutlass, a cutlass of maybe the same length as Glyr.  The seafarer is a bit taller than I am and probably has a bit of a reach advantage on me.

I have not trained against a cutlass, so I take a stance in tierce, the standard en garde stance for saber fencing.  I watch to see what the seafarer will do.

The seafarer seems a bit puzzled that I take my stance and he then charges me, slashing at my head with his cutlass.

I deflect the seafarer's cut with a beat parry and then I riposte.

The seafarer manages a beat parry of his own and continues to try to move into me.

(The seafarer is not as strong as I am and I'm much quicker.  The seafarer does have a very minimal advantage in reach.  I need to move, avoid the power moves at which he's better trained than I am, and I need to make no mistakes.)

As the seafarer tries to reach me, I move from side to side and also use pass forwards and pass backwards.  (A pass forward is illegal in contest saber fencing, but we're not doing contest saber fencing.)

The seafarer then tries a prise-de-fer, which is a bad mistake, since I'm stronger than he is.   I disengage, with displacement movement and then thrust Glyr into the seafarer.  I get only the very tip of Glyr into the seafarer.