The Earl's Guards, chosen from the best of the common soldiery after the Purge for the job of guarding those individuals charged with the responsibility of ruling the Empire. They spend 5 days a week on duty; they work 6 hours shifts on the wall or gate, 6 hours patrolling the grounds, 4 hours of free time in the barracks and the rest of the 8 hours for sleeping. At any given time, there would be about 50 to 100 guards somewhere in the castle grounds, but with such an important event as the Earl’s Ball, the number guards on duty was near doubled, to 187 guards.

Of all the possible things that they had prepared for, assignation attempt, mob uprising, rich drunk folks vomiting on them, the stampede of screaming "distinguished" guests spilling out from the Great Hall wasn’t one of them. The closest guards to the Great Hall were crushed and pushed, and helplessly carried away with the tidal wave of escaping people. 

With the ever-decreasing sound of stamping feet, screaming people and shouting guards, everyone left in the Great Hall was motionless. Most by choice; one by a hold person spell near the entrance of the Great Hall, Ancalamie’s plus one. The other by the Earl's Guards just by the steps to the stage; Smitty.

Everyone else in the room was the Earl and his wife on the stage, the Cavalier next to Smitty, Tagaryen the half orc off to the right of the Great Hall, an unknown dwarf standing off to the left and Aldrich, Atticus and Rasiu in the middle. And at the centre of them all, the enormous wolf form of Amia Stives, leader of the Black Moon, the Alpha.

Rasiu and the Alpha was the first to act. Rasiu with quarterstaff and fist. The Alpha with claws and teeth. They started exchange blows. At the same time Smitty manages to pull one hand free, and fires a red beam of arcane energy, a firebolt, at the Alpha, which finds the Alpha's back. Tagaryen with great axe in hand, leaps to help Smitty and strikes the arm of the Earl's guard. A punch to the side of the head from Rasiu. A dragging of the teeth across the chest by the Alpha, leaves Rasiu stunned. Using that lull in combat, to reposition away from the centre of the Great Hall. This movement was matched by Atticus, swinging his heavy longsword down along the Alpha's side. Seeing Rasiu stood there motionless, Aldrich moves to Rasiu. But doesn't find the face of an ally, as Rasiu snarls like a feral beast at him. Shocked at this, Aldrich slaps Rasiu. The impact throwing Rasiu's head right back. This managed to bring Rasiu somewhat back to his senses. Hearing the impact, Smitty turns and looks. And Aldrich and Smitty both see, Rasiu's back pulsating, and seeing a growth of silver flesh midway down his cloak - ripped through from the other side.

With his back, chest and cheek throbbing with pain. Rasiu re-joins the fight next to Atticus. The Alpha swings at Atticus, and bites at Rasiu. The swing gets block with by Atticus's shield. The bite scrapes over Rasiu’s shoulder. Seeing the open wounds on Rasiu, the unknown Dwarf moves and touches Rasiu’s shoulder with a glowing white hand. Rasiu feels a warm pulse come from the Dwarf's hand, as most of the bleeding stops, and the wounds start to heal. With the guards in shock of the Half-Orc's attack, Smitty manages to finally get free. He runs right up behind the Alpha, with electricity coursing round his hand, he reaches out grabs back of the Alpha and shocks him. Tagaryen seeing that Smitty is free, moves to join the fight but is swiftly dropped to the floor near the Cavalier. Leaving him unconscious. After the impact on his shield Atticus, takes a step forward, expertly swinging his longsword low, catching the front legs of the Alpha, tripping the Alpha. With the Alpha on the floor, Aldrich and Rasiu take this opportunity to attack the great wolf.

The attacks stopped with the form of the Great Wolf disappearing before them. Taking its place was the human form of Amia Stives still and motionless. And as soon as his human form had fully manifested, he turned invisible!

Shock suddenly gripped the group, and everyone froze and started to look around, trying to see if anything moved so much as an inch. The unknown Dwarf moved and healed Tagaryen, helping him back to his feet. Smitty,  with his keen half-elf hearing, managed to pick out faint footsteps, leading towards the main doors. Upon hearing this he pointed at the main doors. And everyone gently stated moving their way towards the main door. Well, almost everyone try’s this gentle approach. Rasiu decides to try and find this invisible man by brute force. He starts charging across the top of a nearby table, kicking everything he can as he goes. Hoping to see some food or cutlery hit their invisible foe. He makes his way down most of this long banquet table, stopping just short of the end. To Rasiu's disappointment and everyone's annoyance, this didn't work, except to fling sliver wear and food around the Grand Hall, and grab everyone's attention. As Smitty was glaring at Rasiu, out the corner of his eye, he see’s a faint line of visual distortion. Smitty drew all his focused on this distortion, tracking it, seeing where it curved and went straight, mapping it in his mind. And managed to work out that he was looking at the outline of a man! An invisible man sitting on a chair at the feet of Rasiu.

After the loud disturbance, everyone ones again started to move out to look for Stives, but Smitty starts walking straight towards Stives. Even with Rasiu so close, Stives wasn't worried. He was certain Rasiu didn't know where he was, but to make sure it stayed that way he didn't dare move. As he concentrated on Rasiu, he only just felt the touch of a hand on his shoulder. As he whipped his head round to see the grinning face of Smitty; the sharp pain of electricity rushing through his body gripped him. This sudden shock of pain was enough to brake the concentration needed to keep the invisibility spell active. With great effort Stives managed to break out of Smitty's grip and went to rush out of the Great Hall but upon hearing the surge of electricity and now being able to see Stives, the group descended on him.

Aldrich and Atticus managed to block his escape path, and as the rest of the group cautiously encircled him, with a cry of defiance Stives shouts

“If I go down, I'm taking one of you with me!"

As he starts transforming Stives begins to wildly attack those around him. He managed to catch Rasiu across the stomach with a wild strike, and following up with another across the back, laying Rasiu down. As the Alpha continued his onslaught; Smitty shouted at Ancalamie

"Aren't you going to do anything to help?!"

With a stern look Ancalamie turned from Smitty, pointed her quarterstaff at the Alpha, as three blue bolts of arcane energy shot from the end of it, and hitting and stunning the Alpha. After firing her deadly missles she looked back at Smitty, one eye brow raised and said,

"Are you happy now?"

"Almost"

he replied, letting lose another line of red energy, a firebolt, straight at the Alpha's chest. This time it caused the Alpha to erupt in fire, roasting the Alpha alive and leaving only a charred human corpse and a teeny bit of poop. With that Smitty turned to Ancalamie with a smile on his face and said,

"Now I'm happy."