Hear me roar.

[Rhalius]

In the meanwhile the games are about to begin. Romans and guests are placed on seperate sides of the emperor. The three friends are eager to see how the games will go.

Gladiators: "Hail Emperor Tiberius! those who are about to die salute you!"

It seems like a strange thing to say to the three friends, but they are soon distracted by the ensueing battle.

Frederick: "A trident and a net? Is he trying to catch a fish?"
Henry: "He sure knows how to use them though. Look! he catches his sword with the net!"
Roderick: "I'd still rather fight with a sword. though."

The emperor and the roman generals seem to really enjoy the games.

General Tertius: "You trained them well, where did you get the Retiarius from?"
General Secundus: "I won him in a gambling match with general Decimus of the tenth legion. He was not happy about losing his best gladiator."
General Primus: "All that matters is that our guests get to see the glory of Rome. They will need to get used to it."
Emperor Tiberius: "Indeed my friend. Soon your legion will return from our island, Tertius his legion is under way as well along with general Quartus and the fourth legion."

Domidius proves to be the better gladiator, and has defeated his challenger. He looks up to the emperor and waits for his judgement.

Emperor Tiberius raises his thumb up. "He may live. Let it be known that I show mercy to those who know when they are defeated."
Roderick, Henry and Frederick now realise that this was not a mere game, and that if the emperor gave the word, that poor man would have been killed on the spot.

[Rhalius]

General Tertius raises his voice to announce the next battle.
"Two knights of the kingdom of Falcona have challenged General Secundus to a battle in the arena, Let's see who emerges victorious!"

Heavily armed and armored and on horseback, Sir Hugo and his brother Sir Otto enter the arena.

When taking their position, Hugo notices Roderick, Henry and Frederick in the audience.

Hugo: "You three will be next after this!"
Otto: "Let's focus on the fight at hand first."
Hugo: "Crushing that puny roman will be easy."

When General Secundus enters the arena however, he is not alone.

Riding a scythed chariot, he is accompanied by six gladiators.

The romans cheer for their general, while the two knights look in surprise at this turn of events.

Otto: "Cursed roman, you are cheating! This fight is between us, no other people should be involved."
General Secundus laughs. "Your brother said I should come at him with everything I have. These gladiators are my property. Slaves I trained to fight for me. They are not people, they are weapons at my disposal."
Sir Hugo: "Cowering behind your slaves won't help you, I will cut my way through them to get to you!"

The two sides charge at each other, Hugo knocks over one of the gladiators but the others hold their ground.


General Secundus manages to knock Otto from his horse when he throws his pilum at him, and two of his gladiators are quick to subdue him once he is down.

Hugo is quick to dismount to better fight the gladiators on foot.

He is completely surprised however, by their skill.

They are well trained, and give him a tough fight.

The three friends are just baffled by whats going on.

Roderick: "How can they be so cruel to these people? Forcing them to fight. They even forced a woman to fight."
Henry: "At least they seem well trained, they are defeating Hugo. He won't like being beaten by a girl."
Frederick: "Now there is a woman who knows how to catch a man, with a net."

Defeated and surrounded, the two brothers are helpless to do anything when General Secundus declares his victory.

Emperor Tiberius: "Well done general Secundus! I had no doubts that you would defeat this primitive rabble. They may live since they clearly are no threat to our glorious empire."
Hugo is about to try and stand up at this insult, but Otto keeps him down, speaking in a hushed voice to him. "Patience brother, we will strike at them from a position of strenght."

[Rhalius]

This seems to work. While they gather their horses and leave the arena to return home, humbled, the emperor announces the main event.

Emperor Tiberius: "Romans, friends, guests. Two months ago General Primus arrived on this continent with the first legion. Prince Edward of Alion foolishly dared to defy my mighty empire and raised arms against us! But here he is before you,  General Primus defeated him and subdued the kingdom of Alion! Now he will fight here in the arena for your amusement!"

Reluctantly Prince Edward walks into the arena while the romans are booing at him.

He has no idea what awaits him, and is not happy at all about having to fight on foot and without armor.

General Secundus: "You dare call yourself the Lion Prince, well, now we will watch you run from a real lion! Release Cecilius!"

The gate is pulled up, and a big lion walks out with a roar! Somehow Prince Edward does not seem frightened however.

In fact, he puts his sword away and smiles, offering his hand to the lion who slowly walks up to him and licks his hand.

Prince Edward: "So you are Cecilius? I will call you Cecil. I grew up with lions at the castle, it has been a custom for Lion princes and kings to be accompanied by a Lion for protection."
While the audience laughs at this unusual turn of events, general Secundus is enraged.
"Why you! this is not supposed to be like this! He is mocking us! Cecilius! kill him! Obey your master!"
Cecil however just ignores Secundus and purrs as Prince Edward scratches him behind his ear.

Emperor Tiberius puts his hand on Secundus his shoulder.
"What is this Secundus? He was to be humiliated so that everyone can see the might of my empire! We can't have conquered enemies making a mockery out of me!"

General Secundus: "What can I do to correct this mistake,  mighty emperor?"
Emperor Tiberius: "Release the beast!"
General Secundus: "Are.. are you sure? it was a gift from the copper knight."
General Tiberius: "Do as I say or I will have you tossed in the arena as well! You invited me to these games you organised and make me look foolish! Make the beast angry and release him in the arena! I want that prince dead!"

Growling can be heard as the arena gates are opened once more.

The three friends are leaning forward to try and catch a glimpse of it.
What manner of beast are they going to release on Prince Edward?

[tahra]

 

Brilliant way to use the pitiful half arena we get.. You made it look great!

He looks up to the emperor and waits for his judgement.

The posing on the gladiator looking at the veredict is AMAZING!


Good to see those idiots getting a taste of their own medicine (and having the nerve to complain about it)! And the female gladiator too, fixed

Great scenes with the kitty 

(more?)

[Macruran]

Brilliant way to use the pitiful half arena we get.. You made it look great!

That's the full arena. You can tell because it has the columns behind the central seating.

The posing on the gladiator looking at the veredict is AMAZING!

Agreed! The posing throughout is meticulous!

On the whole a fantastic job.

[tahra]

That's the full arena. You can tell because it has the columns behind the central seating.

What playmobil sells as a full arena is a poor excuse for the arena, imo. That it's tiny is normal. Than half the surrounding pieces are simple walls instead of seats is quite bad. My opinion, anyways.

I think it was brilliantly done, by hiding half of it, it looks like it's there! 

[Macruran]

What playmobil sells as a full arena is a poor excuse for the arena, imo. That it's tiny is normal. Than half the surrounding pieces are simple walls instead of seats is quite bad. My opinion, anyways.

I think it was brilliantly done, by hiding half of it, it looks like it's there! 

Oh right I thought you meant the actual half arena, which is a different set. The "full" arena is probably that way because package size; it's easily upgradeable by ebaying extra seating sections. That's what I'm doing with mine.

Rhalius's story only needed a tiny audience so it worked out perfectly!

[Tiermann]

Excellent story continuation! Great scenes!

[Rhalius]

((thanks everyone!  ))

A gigantic grey beast with a horn on its nose rushes through the gates, straight towards the prince and his lion, who both run away from this angry monster!

The guard who opens the gate narrowly manages to get out of the way by jumping on the gate!

The three friends just can't believe they would unleash such a big beast.

Frederick: "What have they been feeding that unicorn? its huge!"
Henry: "I don't think its a unicorn, but it looks unstoppable!"
Sir Sigurd: "Can't you see that is a rhino? It was meant as a gift to the emperor and was not intended to fight in the arena."
Roderick: "Just call it off! that rhino is going to kill the prince! He can't outrun him forever!"
General Primus: "The emperor will use his gifts however he pleases, and if he wants that rhino to kill the Lion prince for his defiance, than it will be done."

Roderick: "Well I can't just watch and let that happen."

Roderick draws his sword and looks down the arena, where Cecil the brave lion is knocked aside when trying to protect his new master and the rhino is about to attack Prince Edward who has no where to run.

Without any hesitation, Roderick jumps on top of the rhino to distract it, and save Edward's life.

Roderick: "Get to safety!"
Prince Edward: "Th.. thank you, I am in your dept!"
Quite confused about why Roderick would save him, the prince runs away as far as he can from the rhino.

Henry is ready to jump into the arena as well to help Roderick, but Frederick stops him.

Henry: "We should help him, we can't let him fight alone against that beast!"
Frederick: "Wait here and watch those romans, I have an idea."

[Rhalius]

Frederick is up to something, but so is the Blue Shadow who arrives unnoticed.

Armed with a bow and a grappling hook, what instructions could Captain Sirius have given him?

He manages to climb the tower unnoticed, while most of the soldiers are distracted by the spectacle in the arena.


Henry stands ready to jump in the arena if need be.

Henry: "I sure hope Frederick knows what he is doing.."
Sir Sigurd: "Stay right where you are, swan knight. You will leave my rhino alone. If you jump in there you will have to deal with me."
Henry: "I don't care how tough you are, you won't stop me from saving my friends if need be."
Henry does his best to hide his fear, he still remembers that the copper knight defeated the Dread Baron together with two other Craftkeep knights.

The gates of the arena swing open and Frederick bursts out of them riding a chariot! Suprised roman soldiers have to jump aside.


He stops near Roderick and Prince Edward, while the Rhino charges at them.

Frederick: "Hop on, we are getting out of here!"
Both are quick to jump on the chariot.
Roderick: "Nice thinking  Frederick!"
Sadly, the romans close the gates behind Frederick, forcing them to ride circles to try and avoid the angry Rhino comeing after them.