AN: I had another idea grab me and hold me hostage until I wrote it. Please send help.
Hunter strode down the tunnel, staff at the ready. There had been several reports of wild witches using these caves to gather and conspire to do… whatever sacrilegious things they do in their spare time. Really, he wasn't even supposed to be here; it had taken much convincing for his uncle to agree that he was ready for a mission of this importance. But here he was, preforming his duty to the Titan on the most significant mission since his inauguration as Golden Guard a little over a year ago.
Moving forward and not worrying about behind him, for he had left several scouts to guard the only entrance to this particular tunnel, he soon found the passageway opening up to a large torch-lit cavern. More importantly though, he found two witches sitting on chairs of rock. However, they seemed too engrossed in their conversation to actually notice him.
They both wore cloaks, one green and the other deep blue, with hoods that hid their faces in shadow.
"Is everything ready?" asked the green one in a feminine voice.
"Should be," replied the other woman in a gruff tone. "Assuming the crystal you got works as advertised."
"Well if it doesn't then we may as well kiss our magic goodbye…"
Hunter smirked behind his mask. 'May as well do that right now,' he thought.
"So who do you think they're going to send?"
"I don't know, we're probably a low priority, so probably not their best. Maybe a small squad, a few new recruits…" Hunter's smile only grew. "Maybe someone stupid enough to think wearing bright colors is a good way to stay stealthy…" Wait, what?
Hunter leapt out of the way just as a large stalagmite erupted from where he stood moments earlier. Realizing he was now right in plain view, he leveled his mechanical staff at the pair, glad for his mask to… well, mask his startled face.
"Well would you look at that," said the blue one, "the Golden Guard himself." She looked at the green one. "Looks like you were wrong after all."
Green shrugged. "Only about the first half though."
Hunter cleared his throat. "Well, since you already know why I'm here, surrender now and the Emperor will show mercy."
Blue scoffed. "Yeah, just as soon as he rips out every bit of freedom we have."
"Why would you say that?" Hunter asked, genuinely confused. "Of course you'll have freedom, once you're in a coven then-"
Both the wild witches laughed. "Exactly!" Green exclaimed. "That's what he wants, to keep us all trapped in that little system he cooked up, unable to think or use magic for ourselves!"
"The Titan demands th-"
"You mean your precious Emperor demands it." Blue rolled her eyes (probably; It was hard to tell under the hood).
Hunter's grip tightened at the blatant disrespect. "Emperor Belos is only doing as the Titan decrees. Unlike you."
"And don't you think it's weird how what 'the Titan decrees' is always exactly what his highness wants?" Green butted in.
"Of course not!" Hunter argued. "It's Belos who wants what the Titan wants, not the other way around!"
"Funny how he's never given a shred of evidence for that."
"'Evidence?'" Hunter couldn't believe what he was hearing. "How could you say that? After aRGH!" His argument was cut off by a sudden pain from his abdomen. Looking down, he saw the source of said pain was a large dagger lodged within the gaps of his armor. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Blue disappear in a puff of smoke, and the real one materialize at his side.
"Well finally," said Green. "I was getting tired of that shit he was spouting."
"Hey, next time you handle the illusions then!" Blue protested, yanking out the dagger.
Hunter collapsed to his knees as his vision faded in and out. Why, oh Titan why, did he think going alone was a good idea? What, just to prove something? He had nothing to prove, he was chosen by the Titan Himself!
"Well hopefully after tonight there won't be a next time."
Hunter tried to crawl over to where his staff fell, but it Blue quickly kicked it away. "But seriously, this is the new Golden Guard? I mean, he's- he's-" The last of Hunter's strength failed him and he collapsed, mask striking the ground hard. The last thing he felt was the sudden gust of wind on his heavily scarred face. The last thing he heard was "He's… just a kid?" And then everything went black.
Outside the cave sat a group of coven scouts. "Sooo…" said one, breaking the silence, "we were supposed to go in with him, right?"
"Theoretically," said a second.
"Then why aren't we going in after him?"
"Because like it or not he's our superior, and he ordered us to remain here and cover the exit in case anyone tries to sneak out."
"Well, yeah," said a third, "but we're still breaking protocol. And besides, he's only one guy."
The second scout threw his hands up. "Look, if that arrogant brat thinks he can do this mission all by himself then by all means I say let him! If he decides he needs our help then we'll just give him a lesson in humility afterwards, and if he doesn't then it's not our fault if he gets himself ki-"
"Look!" the first one exclaimed, pointing down the tunnel. "There he is!" True to their word, the gold-glad figure was rushing towards them, cloak billowing out behind him.
"Err…" the third one went, "is anyone else wondering what exactly he's running fro-"
*Ka-BOOOOMM!*
A massive explosion shook the ground as a massive fireball erupted from the cave. Everyone present was knocked to the ground as the blast lit up the night.
"What was that?!" Screamed one voice.
"What did it look like?!" Screamed another. "A big frickin' explosion!"
Someone summoned a gust of wind to blow away the smoke left in the wake of the blast. As it cleared, the three scouts pulled themselves up. "Did we lose anyone?"
"Looks like we're all here." The scout who said that grabbed the mask that fell off his face. "Everyone except…" he turned to the tunnel entrance, which was now nothing more than a collapsed pile of rubble.
"…Do you think he got out in time?"
The maskless scout glared at the one who spoke. "What do you think?!" he snapped.
"W-well, I mean… construction magic!" The frantic scout pointed at the used-to-be cave. "He could have created a bubble, or tunneled out, or…"
The third one shook their head. "In any case, mission accomplished… I think." They turned around. "We'll return to base. If the Golden Guard survived, he'll know to meet us there." They walked off, the other two following behind him after a short look back at where their fallen comrade was presumably entombed.
On a hill overlooking the retreating scouts stood two cloaked figures, watching through binoculars. "Titandamn, I could feel that from here…" said the blue-cloaked one.
"Yeah, uh… I may have underestimated just how powerful the explosives would be," the green-clad one admitted. "But at least the teleport crystal worked as advertised." She lowered her binoculars. "By the way, nice touch with the kid there."
"Thanks…" Blue muttered.
"Hey." Green placed her hand on Blue's shoulder. "What happened in there wasn't your fault. It was that antlered prick's for sending someone that young in the first place.
"Was it really though?" Blue shook her head. "But it doesn't matter, what's done is done… The questions is, what now?"
"Whatever we want!" Green threw up her hands. "We're dead; why not live a little?"
"Yeah…" Blue agreed. "Just as soon as we take care of a few loose ends."
AN: I hope you guys enjoyed my wild witch plot devi- I mean, uh, OCs, because that's the last we'll be seeing of them. But yeah, this won't be a long story, probably about 4 chapters in total. I just came up with idea that I hadn't seen done before and wanted to get it out there; if anyone would be interested in using this idea – or if it has been done and I just haven't found it – I would appreciate it if you could send me a message so I could take a look (and it goes without saying, but I would also appreciate it if you gave me credit in the case of the former).