The Exetrius Saga (10): Festival of the Ranks (part 2)

[Exetrius]

Exetrius Saga

1: Fallen leaf

2: Message in Kyrrath

3: Equipment upgrade

4: Subjection of a legend

5: Family Dinner

6: Attack of the Hunters

7: Taking the Runestone

8: Supplies Arrive!

9: Festival of the Ranks (part 1)

Episode 10: Festival of the Ranks (part 2)

Day three of the festival, early afternoon. Exetrius was called out to the battlefield for his first magic battle. His heart skipped a beat and let out a sigh of relief. However, his little moment of joy was soon overruled by nervousness. As he walked through the stands, to the entrance of the battle arena, he felt hundreds of gazes upon him. To him, the overwhelming cheering meant one thing: they were expecting a good fight; they wanted to see him win!

But, could he really live up to this? Would he be able to display the same progress as he did in his training, in front of all these people? On the bottom of the ladder, climbing five places in the ranks (his current objective) is a walk in the park. But, in the middle to upper class, the competition is very tough.

Exetrius looked up from the projection of his anxious thoughts. Time to man up and focus! And then, his challenger appeared before him...



He was struggling hard not to laugh. This was definitely the most plain looking chap he had ever seen! It seemed as if there was simply not a single thing going in that head of his. The announcer told he was rankless, even. Seriously, what kind of joke was this!? How did he even get in the middleclass for his first battle? There must have been some sort of mistake! Furthermore, the referee requested Exetrius to remove his armour and head gear. Fair enough, this won't last long either way, he thought...





Exetrius was right indeed. The match was over before he even knew what hit him! He got beaten with a single punch... such incredible power...
He swore that he wouldn't judge a book by its cover ever again. Curse him! He got on his feet and faltered back to the stands, hoping that his next fight wouldn't come too soon.

A few battles later, it was Enzan's turn again. His rival was, judging from the insignia on his robes, a Kaliphlinian fire mage. This would be a very important test. They chivalrously shook hands and wished each other the best of luck.



The fire mage uttered a spell, after which Enzan found himself running around the arena, chased by a flaming whip.



Strangely enough, the flame only seemed to come after his right hand. Suddenly, he came to the realization that his act of chivalry was where he got tricked. During the handshake, his opponent must have transferred a magical mark onto his hand so he became target of the spell. Sly move...
Luckily, the marker could be dispelled quite easily. Now, his rival had to switch to manual coordination of the attacks.



This bought Enzan a little bit of time, which he used to activate the fire absorption spell on his staff.



He turned around, took aim...



... and fired the energy of the flames right back at their caster in a powerful blast.

Another victory for Enzan.

Plenty of interesting duels took place afterwards. The last battle of the day was a much anticipated one: a clash between the Order of Zotharith's taskforce of warriors and ninja assassins, and the city's largest independent alliance of bounty hunters. The stakes of honour were high, for both both parties. The arena was trembling to its foundation under the crowd's massive excitement, generating a noise that was hardly bearable.

It turned out that the organization had chosen representatives from the different hierarchical levels of each side. And so, Exetrius ended up alongside his sister and Commander Kira Derisquar, as the weakest member of the team.



The enemy team consisted of the leader of the alliance, wielding two katanas and sporting a straw hat, as seen on the insignia of all members. Despite being their leader, he was at the greatest disadvantage of the team, because his strenght relied mostly on his skills with his enchanted katanas, which had been replaced by unenchanted ones for this regular combat battle. The other two seemed to be average fighters. If nothing else, the girl attracted lots of attention, mostly that of the audience.





Commander Derisquar quickly came up with a strategy: she would fight the leader, Exetrius would take on the girl and Yukino would switch between defending her brother from the boy and attacking the girl.



The strategy worked out more or less as planned. In a fierce battle, they gained the upper hand. And when Yukino managed to take the boy down, the fate of the battle was almost sealed.



Exetrius responded by directing his attention towards the leader, who was still being attacked by the commander, leaving the girl to his sister.



Together, Exetrius and the Derisquar cornered the enemy leader, directly under the noses of Onicius Centario and Zeruko Urima.





Check. Mate.


To be continued.... in part 3

Hello there, here is the second part of the Festival of the ranks, and there is still more to come!  I'm well aware that there is still no overview of the entire build, so therefore I suggest to wait patiently and check out the next episode.  Since many of you thought the last episode ended rather soon, I have made this one longer, I hope you enjoy it! C&C always appreciated!

(Oh, btw: someone on Flickr pointed out that the fist is from a right hand, instead of a left one. My fault...)

Edited December 18, 2016 by Exetrius
Fixed broken links

[BrickCurve]

Looks good! My favourite part is the cheering crowd, they are very well posed.

[bricklover]

Cool battle scenes and story. Can't wait for more!

[TitusV]

Awesome figposing, you're really good at this! Very Nice story as well! Keep it up!

[Henjin_Quilones]

Another well-told and well-photographed episode! Is that first guy an earthbender? Crazy stuff. Great posing and use of camera angles! I look forward to seeing some more of the story, too!

[MKJoshA]

Amazing magic scenes and fig posing! You also come up with some of the best weapon combos I've seen!

[Exetrius]

Looks good! My favourite part is the cheering crowd, they are very well posed.

Cool battle scenes and story. Can't wait for more!

Awesome figposing, you're really good at this! Very Nice story as well! Keep it up!

Many thanks, guys!

Another well-told and well-photographed episode! Is that first guy an earthbender? Crazy stuff. Great posing and use of camera angles! I look forward to seeing some more of the story, too!

Thank you! It's an alchemist who specializes in earth magic (not an earthbender, in the sense that every mage could use earth magic, in theory. More on this here.)

Amazing magic scenes and fig posing! You also come up with some of the best weapon combos I've seen!

Thanks! Sometimes, I spent about as much time searching for a good weapon combo as for a minifig combo. I always strive for uniqueness.

[en_zoo]

awesome! love the posing as well as the realisation of the spells! can't wait to read more of the story!

[Isundir]

The plain chap has to be a Saitama reference right, loving the brick fist

[Exetrius]

awesome! love the posing as well as the realisation of the spells! can't wait to read more of the story!

Thank you! Not sure when I will upload the next episode, hopefully next week.

The plain chap has to be a Saitama reference right, loving the brick fist

Thanks! Nah, pure coincidence...

[soccerkid6]

Yup, never trust those innocent smileys I enjoyed the longer storyline, and your fig posing is excellent as usual

[LittleJohn]

Excellent continuation of your story The various fig poses are great and I really like that brick-built fist

[Exetrius]

Yup, never trust those innocent smileys I enjoyed the longer storyline, and your fig posing is excellent as usual

Excellent continuation of your story The various fig poses are great and I really like that brick-built fist

Thanks, Soccer and SK! Great to hear you are still following along, too!

Edited September 19, 2016 by Exetrius

[MassEditor]

Another very enjoyable segment to this festival! As others have noted, your minifig posing and action setups are exquisite. Extremely imaginative and perfectly executed! The story is very entertaining too. Excellent work Exetrius!

[Brandon Stark]

Like with everyone else, your minifigure posing is just very cool. I also especially like your story.