Chapter 12:
King Aleus stood from his seat in the imperial box, the crowd immediately silencing from the ruckus of the bustling crowd and announcing the beginning of the Pankration, two men walked from either end of the arena and were received by wild cheers from the crowd.
Callie, Cynthia, Arthos, Jason and Antheia sat together along a row and were eating some of the pastries they had gotten from a vendor with Hestia sitting a few rows behind them, blending into the crowds unnoticeably whilst joining the cheering and anxiously anticipating her sons fights. Callie watched the two men who walked out, she could tell by how they walked that they were egotistical and believed themselves to be undefeatable as so many did. She hid a small smile as she thought of how different her brother is, Perseus was never boastful, but he could defeat these fools any day, plus he was way stronger.
The two fighters stood across from each other as another man walked forward with a long pole in his grasp. Upon a wave of the kings hand the pole was swung into the ground and the match began, the two fighters quickly approaching one another, yet before the larger one could attack the other threw some of the sand that he had picked up off the ground into his eyes before striking out in a series of blows.
The larger man was distracted for a short while, taking almost all of the hits being unable to defend against the assault, despite this he shortly recovered from the distraction and fought back, displaying his obviously superior skill and strength. The fight went on for a few more minute before the larger man landed a strong blow to the side of the mans face, knocking him to the ground, from where the larger man pinned him down and beat him until he was unconscious, then a little more. The crowd broke into cheers, celebrating the mans victory as he stood and held his arms up in victory.
Hestia, who had been watching the fight intently, wanting to know what her child had gotten into, was shocked to say the least, that was unnecessarily brutal and could leave the other contender with lasting damage, plus their fighting was aggressive and underhanded with obvious intent to kill. Upon watching this she wanted to go get her son out of this stupid competition that was no better than what she had heard of from Ares about events like these, although she knew he wouldn't back out, plus she had little to worry about given none of these people would be able to touch Perseus if they didn't let him.
From the pits Perseus could see the fight through the bars that sealed them off from the arena, whilst he didn't believe that such underhanded fighting should be displayed as entertainment, he had come to suspect such things during his time in the mortal world and instead analysed the fights. He watched every move each fighter made and the numerous flaws and vulnerabilities in both fighting styles. It came to Perseus as a surprise that in the fights he has seen and participated in so far in the mortal world, he found that those he fought against relied either on brute force or strict techniques and didn't adjust their fighting at all based on their opponent, this meant that so long as you could analyse your opponent's fighting style and adjust, as Perseus, and he suspected more skilled warriors could do, many of these opponents would be easy to take out.
After the match ended, Perseus retreated from the edge of the pits where he was watching from and sat on one of the rough wooden benches that lined the walls of the room that was filled with participants of the event. Looking around the room he found many people trying to act tough and psych others out before their fights, there were also a few who looked unprepared and without proper skill who had likely spent much of their remaining money on a wild dream of winning this event and becoming famous and getting the cash prize. Lastly, he saw a large, bulky man that was almost as tall as himself, sitting in the corner where no one would approach, he had many scares and burns littering his upper body and face, dirty cloth wrapped around his fists and forearms and shoulder length scraggly hair. As Perseus looked into his eyes, he saw they were dark, emotionless black irises that simply blended into his pupils.
From what Perseus could sense this man was a violent person and obviously was strong, experienced and skilled at least in some regard. As the morning wore on 5 more fights had taken place, some were brutal and some had more honour, but none were overly intense, matched up fighters never having equal combat abilities. It was the next fight in which the man in the corner was brought out into the arena and even got special mention, his title being 'the blood monger' which another person in the pits explained was due to when he bathed the entire house of someone who had threatened him in his and his families blood.
Perseus watched as the fight began, the blood monger had waited for the other man to take action and that he did, the other fighter seemed competent enough although being a bit over a foot shorter and far less muscular then his monstrous opponent, and as he punched the gut of his larger opponent with as much force as he could muster the man had barely budged and retaliated with a series of strikes. Before they knew it, the nearby arena sand was wet with the smaller mans blood as the blood monger pounded his face into the ground until all life had drained from the limp corpse of a man.
As would be expected, great tension built in the pits as a few of the less skilled or experienced men tried to leave only to be told that they couldn't after they'd signed up. Perseus simply moved back to his seat, whilst the so called 'blood monger' was huge, he had killed beasts of far greater size, strength and with added powers as a young child on the island, the fight would be an interesting test of his skills if he held back his godly abilities.
Whilst Perseus had been almost completely calm besides his suppressed anger at what the monger had done to his competitor, that couldn't be said for spectators. The crowd had mostly been disgusted and flinched at the sight of the brutal fight and few cheers had been called at the mans victory but amongst them were many families of other competitors who were increasingly worried.
Despite Callie's previous disregard to any threat towards her brother due to his skill, seeing that monster of a man and what he had done sparked a good dose of fear in her and she wanted to run down to the pits and drag Perseus away but knew it wasn't allowed. Regardless, she knew Perseus was extremely strong and very skilled at the least and so he stood a chance, so Callie anxiously awaited the following fights. The rest of their group were almost quivering with nervousness as they thought of what might become of the new addition to their lives if he went up against the monger. Jason had covered Antheia's eyes as soon as the fight had escalated but he couldn't hide the bloodied mess that was left across the arena.
Antheia had immediately curled up into her fathers side and started sobbing, the image of Perseus leaving all that blood behind staining her mind, Perseus had become her closest friend, she only really had her father and him after all that had happened and she prayed to the gods that Perseus would be ok.
Hestia was more similar to Antheia, no matter the fact that she knew that Perseus could kill the monger like an ant underfoot with the slightest fraction of his growing powers, even without powers Perseus was so skilled that the monger still wouldn't stand a chance, but she had the same image stuck in her head of her beloved son replacing that man as the bloodied corpse. Pulling herself back together and pushing aside her fear for now, Hestia continued to watch the fights.
After the next fight had begun the announcer entered the pits and called for Perseus and another man for the next fight. Perseus took off his shirt and wrapped some of the cloth strips Cynthia had given him around his fists before walking over to the arena entrance opposite to where his opponent had gone. The man he was getting put up against was around 5'11", significantly shorter than him and was also less muscular although looked to still be quite skilled. Without his shirt on it was obvious to onlookers how physically powerful Perseus was, he had dense and large muscles but not to the point where it looked grossly bulging, he still had a form that would allow for great agility and held himself with the poise of a skilled fighter. Perseus had looks that could put the most handsome of people, even gods, although not to his knowledge, to shame, he believed it to be part of his connection to nature as his form and features were such that he could be linked to the perfection of natural beauty and not seem at all like he had forced himself to look like that. As such when Perseus walked out of the pits and onto the arena floor many gasps were heard from the crowd, predominately female, as they saw Perseus walk out, thinking a god themselves had walked out. Many women began calling out to him asking for him to be with them or sleep with him, some men cried out in protest towards him for various reasons due to their jealousy.
Perseus simply kept his head down and approached the centre of the arena where the announcer was standing and where he would face his opponent. Once they both reached the centre of the arena the announcer told the crowd their names and initiated the match, striking the staff on the ground.
The two circled each other as the crowd awaited the fight, perched on the edges of their seats in anticipation, most women of the crowd still practically drooling at the sight of the godling. Perseus was patient, waiting for his opponent to make the first move whilst analysing how he moved and his stance. Within a few moments the other man gave up waiting him out and made the first move, he jumped towards Perseus and swung a foot out towards his legs as he dropped down and slid on the ground past him. Perseus, seeing the movement a mile away as he intently watched his opponent only had to spin out of the way and struck out as the man sprung to his feet as fast as he could. Perseus' fist hit the mans jaw with an audible crack as he was rising from the ground and flung him down onto the ground, unconscious from the moment Perseus' fist made contact.
The crowd went up in deafening cheers, louder than any previous match as they celebrated Perseus' victory. It was made obvious in that match how outclassed most of the other participants were, as despite the opponents speed, Perseus had been able to defeat him with ease.
Those who knew Perseus stood with a large amount of other people from the crowd and cheered for his victory. Jason had picked up his daughter and Antheia had yelled out to him from her newfound vantage point, "Yayyyyy, go Percy, you're the best." Hestia also cheered loudly but refrained from vocalising her support, not wanting to stand out to any other gods watching anywhere or the crowd. Instead she sent a message through their minds as she was used to communicating with him, "Good job son, you did great." As the crowds cheering died away with Perseus' departure back to the pits they sat down, including Perseus' friends and family, as Antheia sat down she was still giggling and bouncing with energy as she celebrated 'Percy's' win herself, dancing around on her seat much to the others amusement.
As Perseus left whilst the crowd cheered, he raised a hand in victory as he saw all the others do when they left, but he made haste to exit the arena, not feeling comfortable being the centre of everyone's attention. Entering the next pit room for those who passed the first round, as he entered the people within took more notice of him then before, about half of them move back and gave him a wide berth to get through others paid him little to no regard. It was obvious that those who gave him space were skilled enough to see he was a skilled and strong fighter; the others had simply judged the fight to be a fluke or that his opponent was weak and lacked proper skill.
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The rest of the day went quite similarly to that morning, each round was shorter in time due to the lessened number of fighters each time. Perseus had beaten each of his opponents with similar ease to that of the first, never taking a hit and only timing a single hit after a few dodges to instantaneously take out his opponent. By the second last round of the day, as Perseus had emerged from the side of the arena he was immediately met by a standing ovation, the crowd having gradually all come to back him throughout as he showed unparalleled skill without the violence and brutality that some contenders presented with.
This round though he was put up against the blood monger, many of the crowd showed great interest as those who placed bets which were opened in the second round mostly placed them on either of the two and therefore there was a lot of money riding on both of them.
As they met in the middle, Perseus' stature was accentuated by the fact that he was taller than the monstrous man before him yet looked natural due to his perfectly muscled and structured frame. In comparison the blood monger had grossly bulging muscles with veins popping from the skin even more then before after the day of fighting. The cloth that he had wrapped around his hands and forearms were still dripping with blood from his last opponent and his body was splattered with both dried and wet blood.
The announcer called out the match and started it, as soon as his staff had contacted the ground the behemoth of a man ran at Perseus with surprising speed for his size. Perseus could see the intent in his movements as his legs were kept tense and knees loose so that he could spring in whatever direction he was to go in so instead he stood still.
As the monger saw him stand still, he grinned maliciously and swung a bloody fist towards his face, wanting to knock out the person who had been stealing his glory from the crowd. Instead of taking the punch, Perseus weaved beneath it to his side and threw a powerful jab that was at the upper bar of a mortals strength although the attack was directed at a vulnerable place and as it landed the monger was still moving forward.
As the monger slowed his movement, he stumbled and collapsed, Perseus' strike having caused immense pain in his abdominal region that spread throughout his body making him lose the control of his legs for a short moment. Perseus had already spun to face him after landing the blow although waited, allowing the monger to slowly raise himself to his feet as the crowd cheered, seeing the vicious brute downed for the first time that day.
The monger turned to Perseus after grunting through the pain as he strained to get back up, spitting out some blood in his mouth the monger looked at him with eyes filled with anger and bloodlust. Perseus decided that he would fight him properly, clear hand to hand combat and defeat the monger at what would look to be his own advantage, therefore making a mockery of him before the crowd and serving some justice for what he had done to the other competitors.
As such when the two attacked one another Perseus didn't back away or manoeuvre around him, instead he weaved throughout the series of blows placing solid jabs and withering away the mongers strength a bit at a time. Soon the monger had grown tired and slowed greatly so Perseus took advantage, blocking one of his roundhouse swings then throwing a huge punch into his face. The mongers nose broke with a loud crack that resonated through the arena, the man was picked up off his feet and thrown a few meters back before hitting the ground.
Despite all other opponents Perseus faced having fallen unconscious at this final attack that was often his initial one as well, after a couple seconds of groaning he rolled over and pushed himself slowly to his feet before turning around and facing Perseus once again. This time there was something more in his eyes, beyond wanting to simply harm him and win but to outright murder him. Perseus prepared himself to go again, despite the strength and skill the monger had, he still hadn't even gotten a drop of sweat or blood on him as he found himself easily outmatching all these opponents despite using a mortal level of strength and speed.
The crowd was going wild as they observed the monger being beaten at his own game and watching the skill of Perseus as he did this. The monger, once he had prepared himself, once again charged at Perseus yet this time instead of continuing basic hand-to-hand combat, Perseus dodged the swing, turning and grabbing the outstretched fist then flipping the brute over his back.
As the man hit the ground, he let out a loud grunt as the force of his collision caused small tremors in the vicinity within the arena floor. Perseus then proceeded to roll the man on his back and lock his arm to where he could break it with only a small bit of motion. Seeing as due to the rules he had to either knock him out or kill him to win the game as there's no way he would yield, Perseus lifted his foot from his back to launch into the back of his skull. As he did this the monger made use of his moment of instability and rolled out from under him, snapping his own arm in the process but knocking Perseus other leg out from under him.
As Perseus realised what happened he just had time to recover his fall into a roll and leap back to his feet, facing an already charging monger. The charging bull of a man had his leftover good arm hidden behind his back and his other swinging limply on the other side, once he got to Perseus he jabbed out with the other hand he had hidden, Perseus taking the jab, intending to not falter from the strike despite it's power given his strong stance, then replying with a punch to knock him out.
This didn't go to plan as Perseus stumbled back after the jab, to the monger's grumbling laughter, as he approached Perseus again and went for a follow up swing to finish the fight but Perseus was too fast, ducking the slow attack and kicking his legs out from behind him, sending the brute into the sand. As the monger had fallen again, Perseus backed up and held his hands to the place on his stomach that the man had hit.
Cries of outrage and terror were shouted from the audience at what they then saw, Perseus had ripped the short dagger that the cheating scum had used to stab him in the fight, from his stomach and thrown it to the ground as the wound bled. Despite the blood that the onlookers all saw, Hestia could see the ichor that leaked from his wound through the mist, whilst Hecate's magic concealment wasn't too strong yet, not covering up most things from mortals, when a god was somewhere, the mist would strengthen in that area, concealing almost everything.
Hestia stood along with many of the others in the crowd crying out for the punishment of the foul competitor but rather then such cries, Hestia had on a calm façade that gave nothing away of her anger and fear, rather her eyes had lit on fire and she was struggling to calm her raging aura as she was about to incinerate the fool that harmed her child. Before she acted, she was calmed by placating words sent to her mind through her and Perseus' link.
Perseus instead ran at the monger once he got back to his feet and leapt into the air, as he begun to descend he lashed out his fist and struck the scum in the face, knocking him off his feet and sending his face straight into the ground with a cracking sound on contact with both his fist and then with the ground. It was clear that the monger was done for and so he was loaded onto a stretcher and taken from the arena, Perseus and the crowd were both unsure whether he would get up from that strike, but no one particularly cared at this point.
Perseus raised a fist in victory before departing the arena once again, as he re-entered the pits this time, he was granted far more reverence by the other fighters and all of them knew how powerful and skilled he was, or at least they thought they did, and therefore gave him plenty of space.
After another fight, the competition was almost at an end with only the final fight to go, those left in the pits being fighters that were injured and stayed to watch the rest of the event. Before the fight there was a short recess held so that the two finalists would be given ample time to recover their strength and energy for the last fight. Perseus had held one of the offered cloths to his stomach wound as he observed the last fight, having refused proper medical attention and due to his advanced healing the wound had already closed up and healed but he left the blood around the wound as to not alert onlookers to his abnormal healing.
During the short break Perseus' friends/family had paid him a visit, Callie raved over his victories and how he was 'so awesome', Antheia joining in and jumping around and hugging Perseus before getting him to put her on his shoulders. Jason had congratulated him and given him a few word of encouragement for his last fight whilst Arthos did similar and tried to offer some tips for how he could beat the other finalist. Cynthia on the other hand was fussing over him and mildly annoyed that he refused for her to check his stomach wound after he claimed that an official medic had already healed him as best as could be done, instead Cynthia tried to convince him half-heartedly to leave the event and stay safe.
Once he had calmed Cynthia down and talked to the others for a short while they all left back to the stands after giving him some words of encouragement and bidding him good luck. After they had left Perseus turned back to the things, he had in the pit being his shirt, cloak, a bit of food and cloth strips, he began rewrapping his fists in cloth for the last fight. As he was doing so some sat down beside him and brushed his hands away before continuing the task herself, delicately yet firmly securing the cloth with great care. Perseus didn't have to look up to know it was Hestia as he could tell by her aura as well as how she acted, "Hey, are you ok?" Perseus asked, looking into her eyes and seeing some fear hidden in them.
Hestia nodded before responding, 'I'm your mother Perseus, whether in ichor or not, it is my responsibility to worry about you, regardless of your skill I still fear that you will be hurt." Hestia looked back in his eyes and caressed his cheek in one of her hands, the other still on his now wrapped hand, "Even if your immortal, you dying, I couldn't bear it Perseus, I need you to stay safe." She spoke with love filling her voice.
"I promise I will stay safe mother. And I know that you aren't my mother by birth but that doesn't matter, you are my mother in every way that counts, never doubt that." Perseus brought his hand up to her one on his cheek as he spoke.
Hestia smiled in response before leaning forward and embracing him in a tight hug that Perseus returned in kind. "The last competitor is Dorian, the egotistical and privileged prince, he is very skilled having grown up with the most skilled tutors in the land but I know you can beat him as easily as you did others, I can see your holding back in skill and only using mortal strength and speed. You mustn't beat him so easily, if you must beat him make it look like a close fight at least, he won't take kindly to you defeating him regardless and I don't want him sending people to hurt you or having you convicted of something you didn't do. Ok?" Hestia almost pleaded.
"Of course, mother, I trust you. I'll let the fool think he has a chance." Perseus said with a chuckle that was reciprocated by Hestia. Soon after the two calmed down and Hestia finished wrapping his other hand what looked to be a servant entered the pit room, they were in.
"Sir, the fight is to start soon, you must get ready at the entrance." He spoke clearly yet was soft spoken as if afraid he'd lash out at him.
"Very well, thank you for telling me, have a good day." Perseus responded to the servant who nodded after overcoming his slight surprise that he had been treated with respect, leaving the room quickly with a small smile on his face.
"You better get back to your place in the crowd mother. I love you and I hope I see you again soon."
"I love you too son, stay safe and I'll hopefully see you after the fight, tonight. I'm sorry you can't stay with me; Zeus is still acting more and more paranoid and egotistical by the day."
"It's okay mother, I don't blame you, just know I'm here for you whenever you call, don't let him hurt you, ok?" Perseus answered, concerned for Hestia's safety.
"Of course, and I'm there if you ever need me as well. Go kick some ass for me." Hestia said with a smile before giving Perseus one last hug and a kiss on the forehead before leaving.
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The crowd was almost entirely cheering as they saw Perseus emerge from the side of the arena and as the two fighters met in the middle, Perseus could see obvious anger in the prince's eyes as he got recognition where the prince got little.
The game was announced once again, the king himself giving the pair blessings of good fortune in the fight to come before starting the fight himself with the lowering of his hand, received by the crowd by another round of cheers as the fighters circled one another.
Perseus was able to quickly decipher the prince's stance and style of fighting based on what he had seen previously and what he saw now. As they circled one another the prince was the first to lose patience and leapt at him but not before kicking a fair amount of sand into his face.
In response to the underhanded trick Perseus shut his eyes and blocked the onslaught of strikes that were sent his way with his eyes closed, using his trained and perfected senses to tell every move the prince was making before anyone, other than the prince himself, could.
The fight was drawn out, Perseus taking a series of strong blows to different places and making a show of slowing his pace and looking injured at each received hit. Eventually the fight was completed once Perseus utilised the over-committed swing sent by the prince to duck around him and kick his legs out before scrambling, pretending to struggle, onto his back where he secured his head in a hold that indicated he could easily snap his neck. In the hold the prince struggled and lashed out in vain attempts to release himself from the constraint before angrily whispering to Perseus, "If you don't release me now you will regret it vermin."
Perseus ignored the threat and looked towards the king who announced the defeat of his son rather than order Perseus to finish him, as such Perseus let go and Dorian fell to the ground from where he scrambled to his feet and glared at his defeater before leaving the arena at a brisk pace, his head still held high in arrogance.
The announcing of Perseus as the victor was too flamboyant for Perseus' taste and he felt awkward as he knelt in front of the royal family as the king came down and placed a kotinos, an olive wreath that pronounced him as victor, on his head himself. The crowd broke into uproarious cheers as this happened and there were a few more announcements made along with the king giving a speech, thanking the gods for their blessing of the harvest and granting them a valiant warrior in the tournament etc.
As he was being crowned by the king, he looked around the crowds to see many people jumping and shouting out to him and was happy to see that he was able to entertain the crowd at least and that his fighting was enjoyed even though he wasn't as violent or brutal as other contenders. He then looked towards the royal family in the box and saw the queen looking at him with respect and curiosity although the princess was actually smiling at him and waving subtly, mouthing congratulations once she saw him looking at her. Perseus assumed that she knew who he was from Callie and as a result he smiled back and bowed his head slightly further from his kneeling position before the king, in respect and acknowledgement.
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As Perseus vacated the arena after retrieving his shirt and cloak, he was met with crowds of women practically begging for him to spend time with them and grabbing onto him, he pushed past these and was met with some young children that wanted to see him up close, these kids he gave some attention to as he told them word of encouragement for them to do whatever they wanted in their lives. After he had given all the kids his attention, he evaded the crowds, throwing his hood over his head as he left towards his residence where Jason and Antheia were going to join them for dinner.
As Perseus ducked through a small, empty side alley, taking a shortcut on his way back he was enveloped in a bright flash and found himself in a freshly planted wheat field that was lit with the orange-golden glow of the beautifully setting sun and supplemented with the faint silvery glow of the rising moon.
As he looked around he noticed a beautiful women in front of him who had an almost perfect body and was around Hestia's height, she looked to be around 30 years old and had curled, luscious, deep brown hair that cascaded over her shoulder and reached down to about mid-back, her eyes were a deep green like that of a forest but had speckles of an earthly brown in them. Her features reminded him of Hestia which made him, along with her godly appearance and the circumstances of his arrival, suspicious and suspect her of being an immortal. As a result, he got into a defensive stance and put one hand in his cloak, grasping one of his knives in his hand.
"Peace young one, I mean you no harm. I have come to meet you. My sister told me about you, who you are, where you come from and so on." She spoke raising her hands in a placating manner.
"Who are you and who is this sister that told you about me?" Another flash of light responded his question as his mother appeared between them.
"Mother what's going on?" Perseus asked upon seeing her.
"My son, this is my sister, Demeter, she was watching the competition held in her honour and saw you although she also noticed me and then proceeded to question me on why I was there. Demeter is my closest sibling after Hades and I didn't want to lie to her, so I got her to swear on the Styx to tell no one and then told her who you are, she wants to meet you." Hestia answered him.
Demeter then approached and stood beside her sister, facing him, "Nephew I wanted to meet you and congratulate you on your flawless victory in the competition. My sister cares about you greatly and I only have one close daughter who is currently stuck down in the underworld because of my stupid brother, I was wondering if you would allow me to be your aunt?" She asked almost pleadingly.
Perseus looked to his mother, trusting her judgement beyond all others and only answered once she nodded, "I would love that aunt Demeter, Hestia has told me a lot about you. I would be honoured to have you as an aunt." Perseus answered respectfully and to his surprise he was soon embraced in a tight hug and a brown blur collided into him.
"Thank you, Perseus, it gets so lonely on Olympus and I've always wanted more proper family. As your aunt I bestow upon you my blessing, you are already connected to nature, I can tell that much, but with my blessing you will have greater power in the creation and destruction of life in nature."
The three then spent a bit over an hour in the field telling Demeter about what had happened so far as well as Demeter sharing some of her more closely kept stories, then the three simply sat around and joked and smiled, eating some food Hestia had decided to summon and dome fresh delicious fruit Demeter had grown for them to share.
Perseus was angered at the plight that Demeter had suffered, Zeus had used a potion from Hecate to seduce her and then once she had the child that she loved so dearly despite how she was born, Zeus tricked Hades into forcing her to eat the pomegranate seeds that trapped her in the underworld so that he wouldn't have to deal with Hera complaining about how he had another illegitimate child.
Demeter had been heartbroken and despite all her efforts she could only ever get her daughter back temporarily, on top of that Hera still found out and took out her anger on Demeter by harming her reputation and removing the respect other gods had for her, making her seem like a stupid, loony idiot and she had only had Hestia to turn to.
After some time, Hestia told them that her and her sister had to leave as the two of them being them was no doubt going to lead to them being noticed if they stayed too much longer. As a result, Perseus bid both of them farewell embracing his aunt and mother in a tight hug that was returned in kind, after the two had placed a kiss on each of his cheeks they flashed out and Perseus found himself in the alley outside his home.
As he ascended the stair to his apartment, he smiled thinking of how his family had grown, before he opened the door and was received by a feast and celebration with his family here in Tegea. And so, the night was spent as they ate, and he played with Antheia whilst Callie raved about how he had 'kicked the annoying prince's ass'. Jokes were shared and stories told and by the end of the night as Perseus drifted to sleep in front of the hearth, he reflected on how his 'family' had grown and smiled at the thought of what was to come in his future.