Brutes Clan: 1

Oeric flipped to his side and body checked the haedian that was trying to grab the gold nugget in his hand. He laughed. This was the kind of thing he wanted to do, this competition was much more up his alley. A handful of haedians heard the empyrian’s laughter and felt slighted that he found this a laughing matter. They all eyed him, but as they launched their attack they found the topsider was managing the fight well. 

Griffith and Aule watched as Oeric gleefully flung haedians off of him. They knew the orange empyrian tyrian had forgotten what the object of the contest was. He was fighting all these haedians for just a single gold nugget, but Griffith and Aule shrugged their shoulders leaving their friend to his fun. Griffith and Aule looked around trying to not fight, they would if they had too, but they preferred to go about this contest more calmly. 

Oeric knew that he was getting distracted from the whole point of this competition, but he was having too much fun. The smaller haedians were much easier to deal with. Their weight made it so he could really launch them away from him and usually that was enough to keep them from coming back. It was the larger haedians that forced him to take the time and think of fighting strategies. Either way, he was having a great time. 

Griffith and Aule were quietly collecting rocks as the majority of haedians were locked in their own fights. This left many piles unattended, it was too easy and the pair knew it wouldn’t last long. They knew when Oeric got too into his fighting that he tended to release waves of magic unintentionally. Just as they expected, it wasn’t long before haedians holding golden nuggets near Oeric started yelping and dropping the rocks.

Griffith and Aule flew closer to their friend. As they moved within range they could feel the heat waves rolling off Oeric. 

“Oeric,” Griffith tried to call out, but it was clear Oeric wasn’t listening. 

“Chill out, Oeric!” Aule yelled as he countered Oeric’s fire with his own blast of cold air.

Oeric felt the cold air hit him. It was the shock to his system he needed to reel in his aura. For a brief moment everyone stood still to see what would happen. Fortunately, energy surged through the competitors and the competition resumed. Oeric flew to Griffith and Aule. 

“How many have you collected so far?” Oeric asked. 

“More than you.” Aule laughed.

Griffith led his friends to where he had been putting the rocks. Aule disposed of his collection and Oeric placed the one that was still in his hand from the fight. 

“I can’t believe all that for just one,” Griffith shook his head, but the humor was very clear in his voice. 

Oeric rolled his eyes, letting their words go in one ear and out the other. 

“You can redeem yourself,” Aule added, “Surely there is still time.”

Griffith nodded his head eagerly as they all looked around for their next target. The three went their separate ways thinking they could cover more ground this way. Griffith stayed close to where they had stashed the rocks so if someone tried to steal it, he would be near. He would wander away to get one rock and then quickly return to the stash. 

Aule wandered further from their stash, but he was never very far from Oeric. He wanted to be close in case Oeric got too excited again. However, much to his amusement most Haedians would give Oeric a wide berth. So he turned his attention to finding more rocks. Aule managed to collect some stranded rocks that it seemed no one had found yet. 

Oeric reveled in the reactions from the Haedians around him. They backed away from him and the smaller haedians would completely abandon their gold rocks to get away. Oeric felt a smile spread across his face as he looked at the fear of these haedians. He easily collected more rocks before returning to Griffith. 

Griffith saw Oeric approach with a sinister smile on his face. 

“You could be more subtle with how much you're enjoying this.” Griffith scoffed. 

“Ha! Not a chance.” Oeric laughed as he placed his rocks in their pile. 

Aule approached the pair with his latest collection of rocks. He dumped them near their pile before he looked at his friends. When Aule caught sight of Oeric’s expression all he could do was roll his eyes. 

“Does anyone know how much time we have left?” Griffith looked around. The energy was still very high, but Griffith felt his attention waning. 

“I thought there was a halfway call at some point but I don’t know how long ago that was.” Aule answered. 

“I can go around and grab some more rocks!” Oeric’s smile stretched further. Griffith and Aule knew they couldn’t stop him, but as Oeric turned to leave Zarod yelled, stopping him. Zarod called for the competition to end. The three friends settled next to their pile and waited for the winner of the round to be announced. 

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