The hug from Brian went on for a good 2 minutes before he let go, much to Jacob and now also Riley’s delight. The two immediately stumbled backwards hands clutching their head once Brian finally released them from the hug from hell, the muscle bound oaf seemingly oblivious to the damage he caused the two with his bear hug, shuffled off with raucous laughter and went back to the chair he was sitting on.

As Jacob and Riley was recovering from the muscle rubbing induced headache, Aurelius invited himself to sit on the chair right beside Brian.

“I think you and I will get along very well. My name is Aurelius Atkinson, nice to meet you. What is your name?” Aurelius asked casually

“Name’s Brian, Brian O’Connor. I’ll see if its nice to meet you, I know Mi-Jacob and Riley but I don’t know you yet. So don’t go getting too friendly. But from the announcement you must be pretty strong, lets have a go at it.” Brian replied ever confident in his own prowess. Aurelius nodded along and said.

“How do you want to test me?” His red eyes gleamed with interest, prompting an involuntary shudder from Brian as he replied.

“Lets not make it too complicated a simple arm wrestle will do!” Despite the initial shudder caused by Aurelius, Brian remained confident as he stood half a head taller than the 1.9 metre giant putting him around 1.93. His muscles too were more defined beneath his simple and very thoroughly caked in blood and gore singlet, meanwhile from afar Aurelius was wrapped from head to toe and any notable physical attributes were hidden apart from his eyes, hair and chiseled face. If Aurelius had a cleft chin too, Brian would have loved to punch it in even further.

Aurelius moved to the side opposite of Brian and sat down, Jacob and Riley having recovered somewhat from the physical trauma. Stood to the sides of the stone table inbetween Brian and Aurelius not sitting down, to avoid being accidentally hammered by the giant and the oaf. They looked on with anticipation as the two clasped their hand together, their right arms forming a perfect W shape.

Both of them locked eyes, grip tightened so much you could see the veins. Jacob decided to give them a signal to go and placed his right hand in between them and he started a countdown.

3

2

1

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Start!

Arms tensed as they visibly vibrate, neither gaining an edge over another. However, from both the looks in their face. Brians’ brown contenance flushed with red as he kept pushing essence from his core to his arm, Aurelius instead kept his sharp red eyes and a relaxed face. The difference in stats could be seen as Aurelius was definitely more than a few levels above Brian and a higher level than Jacob. Jacob did not know how much Aurelius had in strength but it could not be lower than Jacob, as Jacob thoughts churned, Riley was squealing in support of Brian shouting various encouragement. At first it was English, then Jacob heard French,Spanish,Japanese and even Chinese it might just be words of encouragement but if she can speak them all fluently that would be something admirable.

While the fake stalemate continued, Jacob looked to Riley and asked.

“Riley do you speak all those languages fluently or did you just learn those few phrases of encouragement? Either ways that really impressive.” Riley stopped her cheers as she looked up to reply.

“I learnt English and French when I was young so I’m fluent in them. Fooor Spanish, my mum was always watching telenovela a lot even before I was born apart. Hence, whenever I was home I would watch it with her and that was our bonding time so I naturally picked up the language as I grew older. Chinese and Japanese well, I already knew three languages by then and figured might as well learn 2 more so I can act as a guide of sorts for mum and dad when we go overseas.” Jacob gaped a little, however a loud groan from Brian attracted his and Riley attention anew before Jacob could reply.

Jacob looked towards the still ensuing arm wrestle and saw Brian putting up a valiant effort trying to push his arm back towards equilibrium with Aurelius. His entire body as tensed as a tightly wound spring, Aurelius having had enough fun funneled a quick and large to his hand. Using the extra force and downwards momemtum he slammed Brians’ hand down onto the stone table, web-like cracks spread out from the point of impact. A grunt of pain was illicited from Brian as Aurelius let go of his reddening hand.

Jacob kept his mouth closed as the winner was clear. Riley quickly patted Brian on his back continously trying to sooth him, Brian took a few quick breaths to recover and as his hand pulsed a dark red and blue. He erupted in laughter and said in between laughs.

“Woooh you certainly are strong and that burst of essence, I have a long way to go. I know even that wasn’t your full strength, thank you for going easy on me. Next time...next time would not be so easy, that is are you staying with us?” Aurelius cocked his head and immediately replied.

“If all of you are positive you want me to join, I would be honoured to be able to join you all. My cooperation with Jacob had been very enjoyable. The both of you seems interesting too. Jacob did have some apprehensions about me though.” As Aurelius finished both Brian and Riley looked towards Jacob with questioning looks. Seeing all eyes on him, he sighed and spoke.

“If the two of them can forgive my initial lies, I can forgive you for trying to loop off my head when we first met. I look forward to working with you, gold giant.” Aurelius looked offended at the last two words that Jacob spouted but before he could retort.

“Gold giant! I like that you do have gold hair and very very tall. If you are gold giant then Brian shall be bald giant!” Jacob smirked as Riley responded to the moniker he gave Aurelius with much enthusiasm.

Aurelius looked to Brian and saw a look of defeat framing his face, even losing the arm wrestle did not shake him much. But just a few words from Riley made him this despondent. He smiled wryly and took the new nickname with as much grace as he could muster got up swept his right hand across his chest and bowed to the three as he spoke.

“Gold giant, Aurelius Atkinson at your service.”

“We should get some rest, I’ll take the first watch and Gold giant will take the second. I’ll tell him about the next person to wake up. We will set off for the kobold cave once the third sun rose.” Jacob clapped to get everyones’ attention as he moved to the doorway and said.

The rest of the group nodded and bid goodnight to each other before they went to the back of the house to get some sleep. Aurelius instead walked towards Jacob.