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The Exetrius Saga (11): Festival of the Ranks (part 3)
Exetrius posted a topic in Guilds of Historica
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) 10: Festival of the Ranks (part 2) Episode 11: Festival of the Ranks (part 3) It is the seventh day of the festival. About three hundred battles have taken place in the arena over the course of the last six days, with day six for resting, recovering and - for those who were still able to - celebrating. The city council had made sure that this year's party was extra grand, compromising a triathlon across the city, a two-course buffet for all of Zotharith and finally, a magical arts and fireworks contest. In addition, many pubs were offering free booze to the participants, which might have been the reason for the half-empty arena the following morning... Whatever the case, Exetrius wasn't bothered by the lack of crowd at all. The loud folk was absent. A healthy dose of quietness and suspense filled the atmosphere; perfect conditions for concentrating on what would probably be his last chance at a good battle. In his arrogance, he had lost his first fight in the blink of an eye. Even though the team fight had turned out better than expected, especially considering it was only his second fight for the regular combat ranking, it would not effect his rank as a mage. There would simply be no room for another blunder; the only way of compensating the first match and maintaining his upper middle class status was through the upcoming fight. He'd better go for it! One thing was, probably, in his favour: it was already day seven. The newbies, lower-ranked classes and those in the intermediate regions had all had their battles. Now, a whole different league was about to take the stage. Exetrius was, apparently, deemed worthy enough to enter this tiny pool dominated by big and dangerous fish, like taskforce commanders, dragon slayers and sub-elite sorcerers. If he could win against one of them... Exetrius and his opponent entered the battlefield. Like his first rival, this.. mysterious character did not have a visible weapon, which implied that he/she/it either had spells bound to the body, or integrated in the clothing and armour. Consequently, his opponent would always have an advantage in mobility, due to having both hands free. On the other hand, spells bound to cloth and skin are vulnerable, because they could be rendered useless by a small rupture or wound. He decided that he would start with a few energy blasts as a speed test. "My son, you might as well give up right at this moment, if this is the only technique you are going to use against him." Onicius thought. Exetrius was struggling hard to keep his rival at a distance. Whatever his opponent was; beast, human, or something in between, it was incredibly fast. He had never seen anyone with this level of skill in mobility and strength enhancing magic. It was using the sides of the arena to gain extra speed forward, at an increasing pace. Exetrius started to loose track, so he created an pillar under his feet to get an overview. Within seconds, his rival was blasting right towards him. This was the chance he had been waiting for: a full-frontal charge in midair, nowhere to go. He wouldn't be able to dodge this! A giant rock boulder shot straight out of the ground, towards his rival. But, he soon came to realize that something was not right... His confidence was turned into outright fear, as his opponent's right leg started emitting a powerful green glow, and it was aiming right for the boulder! The devastating impact of the kick blew the giant rock to smithereens, together with all Exetrius' hopes of standing a chance against this monster... ..who, by the way, appeared to be surprisingly friendly. This would be as far as it would go, this year. He would stronger next time around! For now, all he could do was waiting for his results, praying that he would not drop down into the lower ranks again... To be continued.... in the next episode: The ranks are out! So, I guess that concludes the Festival of the Ranks. I was planning to have a few more exciting battles with interesting characters, but school has started and a lot of other contests suddenly showed up, so those will be saved for another time then. I hope you enjoyed anyway. This build is also a CBC 2016 entry in the category "The Final Duel". Once again, if you feel like creating a little magic action scene related to this festival, go right ahead! C&C is always appreciated! -
The Exetrius Saga (10): Festival of the Ranks (part 2)
Exetrius posted a topic in Guilds of Historica
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...) -
The Exetrius Saga (9): Festival of the Ranks (part 1)
Exetrius posted a topic in Guilds of Historica
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! Episode 9: Festival of the Ranks (part 1) The announcement was made. The word spread quicker than wildfire: within an hour, all of Zotharith was bursting with life again! Warriors, mages, kids, trainers; everyone was trembling with excitement for the start of the festival. Large crowds were heading towards the public arena to sign up for the event and to meet other participants to form teams. There was only one day to sign up this time around, but luckily, Exetrius and Yukino (his sister) found their names on the list of participants the next day. A guide to the festival It's the first day of the festival. The cheering crowd in the arena went silent as soon as Zeruko Urima, first ranked user of magic in the Order of Zotharith, entered the arena. He silently walked along the edges of the rectangular battlefield, taking in the public carefully. After he had made his round, he stood still and started his introduction speech. Zeruko "Welcome to the seventh annual Festival of the Ranks [...] The arena provides all the arcane energy you need, as well as the materials for alchemists. [...] Most important rules: Killing of your opponent, inflicting permanent damage on your opponent and the use of soul magic on your opponent are strictly forbidden. This festival serves as a way of pushing your own limits, not those of others. We, as Zotharians, will use this internal conflict in order to emerge as greater force in the end! Therefore, I ask you: defeat your comrades, so we will all become stronger!" The crowd roared and applauded after these words. And then, the first duels started. Generally, the fights between lower-ranked fighters are the first to take place. After twenty-something battles, it was Yukino's turn. She was up against one of the sabre-tooth tigre assassins that her brother encountered in the forest, while training. She completely outmatched him, easily blocking the sword attack with her massive club and knocking him down with a decisive three-hit combination. Somewhat later, yet-to-be-ranked Enzan Armafur had his first duel. Soon, it became clear that his opponent was quite new to magic. The way he smiled at his (supposedly new) staff, and the overexcited expression already made Enzan suspect something like that. He wielded a simple energy magic staff. His technique was seated upon the "aim - fire - did I hit anything?" principle. Enzan wasn't very impressed. He dodged a few beams.. .. and effortlessly deflected the next. He charged forward, but then the referee declared that the match was over. Easy win. To be continued.... in part 2 Hi guys, there it is, finally! The Festival of the Ranks has kicked off! I would like to invite you to create a little battle scene (duel/team fight, magic/regular, it's up to you) for this festival, if you feel like it. Of course you can tell me below or PM me about it! Anyway, more to come. Btw, the wall of text under the spoiler tag is kind of essential, I put it there to not scare you away directly. Also, I renamed Exetrius sister to Yukino (previously 'Rozi'), sorry about that, I will try to avoid such thing in the future.