Uninvited Guests

It's been about 3 hours since the patrol started, but everything's gone smoothly so far. Wattzis Buckets, and Wildfire have been standing guard in the Lord's Manor since they arrived. There's been little to do, and conversation has to be kept to a minimum, so more than anything, Wattzis has been bored out of his mind. Such is the life of a guard. Wattzis' eyes move to watch as Lieutenant Spellsword enters the manor's atrium on her patrol route. She gives the two guards a short nod. Nothing to report. They nod back in response. Good so far, but the meeting's still going on. They have to stay vigilant. The Lieutenant turns, and begins to walk towards the stairs Wattzis, and Wildfire are guarding. As she reaches about halfway, the manor's front doors fly open with a loud slam. The Lieutenant quickly pivots to face the front door, and only has a second to analyze. There are three figures in the doorway. On the left, a massive Minotaur. On the right, a gryphon in a cowl, and in the middle, a slender, hooded unicorn. She surmises these must be the 'disgruntled employees' they mentioned in the briefing. Lieutenant Spellsword opens her mouth to shout a command, but the gryphon takes to the air. He raises his talons, and a dark energy sparks from them, giving off the illusion of dark claws jutting from them. The Lieutenant readies her sword. A bolt of lightning shoots into the air from behind her, but the gryphon manages to swoop to the side before he begins a dive towards her. Wattzis internally curses himself for missing his attack. He readies another bolt, but by the time he can get it off, the gryphon will be too close to the Lieutenant for him to safely shoot it at the gryphon. (https://youtu.be/Ddx1kDNIEDM?si=XbnGnsLupthWhoxv) The blur of the gryphon diving towards the lieutenant suddenly changes direction, as something else collides with him mid-air. There's a loud slam, and chunks of marble fly into the air as the gryphon appears to be slammed into the floor. To his surprise, Wattzis now sees his partner, Nar, standing with his boot on the gryphon's chest. The gryphon has been half buried into the marble floor. Nar also appears to be holding an unconscious manor guard in one of his hands. The gryphon lifts his talon to try and strike at Nar's leg. Instead, Nar lifts his leg, then stomps on the gryphon's chest. There's a sickening crunch, then the gryphon's arm falls limp. Nar's eyes stay locked on the slender unicorn as he tosses the unconscious guard towards him. "Next time you try to have a spy ambush someone, don't send a light mage to try to blind an earth mage in a stone cellar." The slender unicorn's eyes widen. The minotaur roars, and steps forward. "I will CRUSH YOU!" Nar's leg winds back, as if readying for a kick. The minotaur charges forward. Nar's leg comes back down. The unicorn's voice screams from the front doorway. "Move you idiot! He's an earth mage!"

Nar's foot digs into the ground. The marble floor ripples forward in front of him. A pillar of marble shoots up from below, catching the minotaur's chest. It skyrockets, slamming the minotaur against the ceiling, leaving him there. "Surrender NOW!" Lieutenant Spellsword booms a command as she rushes towards the unicorn. To Wattzis' surprise, the unicorn obliges. He throws his hands above his head, allowing the Lieutenant to approach without resistance. "I'm no fool." He snarls. "Had I known the Executioner was here, I'd have left well enough alone." Without another word, the unicorn is placed in cuffs by the Lieutenant, and lead to a separate room to be detained. Wattzis stares at the minotaur pinned to the roof in surprise, and awe. Beside him, Wildfire whistles. "Man. How'd you show up just in time? Weren't you in the cellar?" Nar turns to the other two guards as he finally steps off of the gryphon. "They had a spy on the inside. Planned to take me out in the cellar, but the dumbass triggered the trap early, and forgot I'm an earth mage. Flash of light, then I just hit him with a rock, and knocked him clean out. Rushed up here as soon as he was out." Wildfire raises an eyebrow. "And how did you get up in the air to intercept that dive?" Nar motions behind Wildfire, to a pillar of stone coming out of the floor at an angle. Wildfire simply nods. "Damn. I gotta learn how to do that with my fire."