Perseus sighed as these two people he had fought before came in as reinforcements for MacGonagall’s men. “I’ll take Mariah, one of you two can take on the holder of Apollo. Guess we got that rematch sooner than expected.” Hector and his sister look at one another with Jaclyn stepping forward. “My brother's not much of a fighter, so I'll be your opponent. You better not hold back, because I won't hesitate to rough up that soft face of yours.”

  Mariah summoned her weapon, Perseus was already fairly familiar with the oversized metal spiked ball. Nathaniel summoned his crossbows. “Sorry girl, but unlike when I fought your friend before, now I've actually got something to lose. I won't make the mistake of underestimating my opponent either.” Perseus didn't hesitate to go after Mariah and forced her on the defensive right off the bat. Meanwhile, Jaclyn was unsure about her match-up. Once again she'd be fighting someone with a light aspect, only this time they both used fire.

  Jaclyn decided not to overthink the elemental typing and start blasting with rapid fire small orbs. Nathaniel immediately rushed to the side with amazing speed to dodge. His speed was impressive compared to what Jaclyn had seen so far but slower than her brother. He then began his own rapid fire shots from range as he strafed her. Perseus didn't hesitate to use the water in the area from the sprinklers that had slowly run to a stop. The floor is still plenty wet though he shapes the water at Mariah's feet into ice spikes that shoot at her.

  Perseus' ice spikes were met with rock formations, the woman smiled. “Thanks to you, I've gotten better at elemental control and stopped relying almost entirely on my weapon. I'm now a more well rounded fighter because I've adjusted my style. Our fight has made me stronger.” She swings the chain forcing Perseus back as the large iron ball is thrown from the movement. Unable to do much more than standing his ground the tables were quickly turned to him being in the defensive.

  Jaclyn was having trouble getting a bead on Nathaniel as he was too fast for her to get a solid hit on. Though she was able to block or dodge most of his hits she had taken a glancing blow to her side. She gripped her wound and gritted her teeth. “Damn it, he's almost as fast as Hector and I can't get a solid hit.” Jaclyn then had an idea. First she fired a bit too far ahead when leading a round giving her opponent to stop, then to keep his tactic intact he started to circle the other way. Jaclyn waved her weapon and black fire moved across the floor creating a wall of fire blocking his movements.

  Jaclyn quickly created one on the other side of him giving him only one direction to escape her attack. He blasted white flames at his feet to launch himself over the wall only to be met with a large fireball to the face that knocked him to the floor. He gets up, slightly singed, and charges into melee range. This change of tactics catches Jaclyn completely off guard and she takes a step back and gets ready to block. However, instead of swinging for a melee he aims one of his wrist mounted crossbows at her and fires it from relatively close range giving Jaclyn very little time to react.

  Perseus moved to the side of the spike ball, pushing it to the side with his weapon as he rushed at Mariah once again. However, this time he didn't go straight into melee as she expected. She moved her spike ball getting ready for him to come at her from the side or back to try and flank her but instead he leaped over her head and fired hailstones down on her as he passed over. Mariah swung her weapon to destroy them, swinging enough to land the spike ball behind her expecting the attack to be a distraction and to find him aiming at her back but he wasn't standing behind her and was no longer in her sight.

  Jaclyn was expecting to take a direct hit as the man fired his weapon, but just as the projectile was about to leave the crossbow the man was tackled to the side by something moving at blinding speed. When the two got up from the tackle she saw that it was her brother Hector who just stepped in. “Alright buddy, I was going to stand back and focus on healing wounds but obviously that's not going to be good enough. So now you've got two of us to worry about.

  Mariah’s eyes widened as she realized that Perseus must have run a double faint and quickly turned back the other way, swinging her weapon and sending earth spikes as she did. Her reaction saved her from what could have been a devastating attack as Perseus was mid swing but got forced into a combination block by the combination of attacks. Using ice spikes to counter the earth. The building quaked a bit as the two clashed. “We both have the power of a god known for moving the earth, imagine the collateral damage if we did away with the natural inhibitors on our powers. Imagine what it would be like for proper gods to fight.”

  Perseus sighed. “I don't have to try hard to imagine that, I think it's something I must have witnessed in a past life. The war that was the dawn of the end of the age of mythology for the Greeks.” Mariah pulled her weapon back to herself to try for another attack. “The Trojan War, if you were there in a past life… your soul is from before magic was sealed off from mankind.” She sends her iron ball at Perseus once more, this time also shooting earth spikes at him.

  Nathaniel shoved Hector off of him and fired a few shots only for Hector to dodge with ease and Jaclyn to take the opening to fire a flamethrower like blast at her opponent. Forced on the defensive from the two on one tactic Nathaniel started to rethink his strategy. One crossbow aimed at each person he did his best to try and keep them on the defensive while moving. Hector dodged while Jaclyn fired her own projectiles to block. It seemed Nathaniel would be able to keep these two at bay for a while.

  Perseus used an elementally charged swing to break the projectiles and block the iron ball. To Mariah’s surprise, despite him being a distance away from her, Perseus was still able to make the water at her feet turn to ice to slow her down or even attack her with spikes. This forced her to stomp her feet to break up the ground beneath her several times to avoid being restrained. “Poseidon’s trident is a melee focused weapon. So how are you manipulating the water at a range like a caster?!”

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  Jaclyn decided to change tactics and rushed into melee range while creating a small shield like wall of fire in front of her weapon to block. Perseus using a melee weapon to shenanigan his way into caster tactics showed her it was possible to break free of the traditional use of weapons with some creativity. As she drew near Nathaniel was forced to focus both his weapons on her only to catch some wind boosted rocks to the side from Hector. Nathaniel pulled his arms back in pain from the textbook and familiar feeling of a rib cracking. He groaned in pain as he unintentionally opened himself up to an attack.

  Jaclyn shaped her dark fire from a round shield to a whip as it unrolled and flicked at Nathaniel’s other side. His side was cut and burned in one attack and he opened his hands blasting light and fire like a flash bang as he made distance once again. He gripped both sides and looked over to the wall of the building. “Running isn't an option for me, I've got something worth protecting. I won't stand down. I'll do whatever it takes to protect my family!” Nathaniel’s body started to glow as white fire licked out from his body and his eyes started to glow. In his desperation to protect something precious to him, he has achieved Unity.

  Perseus forced Mariah into the defensive as she now had to worry about attacks coming from close to her despite Perseus being at a distance. He flicked his weapon down, sending a wave of water out from it to push back the large spiked ball of iron. “I'm capable of a different kind of Unity. One where instead of becoming one with the spirit of the god and drawing from their power they instead fight besides me and manipulate things within their domain without my input. This isn't a one on one Mariah. You're currently outnumbered. You think of your weapon like a weapon. A tool for fighting. This is why you'll lose. It's not about a difference of power or experience. It's a difference in mentality.”

  Jaclyn and Hector both took a step back as Nathaniel emitted an immense amount of power, greater than that of any Unity they had felt up to this point. Nathaniel looked at his hands, glowing slightly as he achieved a level of synchronization unlike anything he'd ever felt before. “There was a wall between me and Apollo. A barrier preventing us from truly connecting. I always felt I was simply missing a piece of the puzzle. Seems like I've found it.”

  Victor was already a solid distance away from the fight but on seeing the holder of Apollo get powered up he made sure to back up even farther. Mariah considered what Perseus was saying for a moment. Assuming he was being honest with her, that ment she was outmatched as she herself couldn't achieve any form of Unity. She lacked the synchronization to do it. Despite that, she wasn't about to give up. “I'm a close second when it comes to raw power among holders I know of if you measure by abilities without Unity. Outmatched or not, I'm not going down without a fight.”

  Mariah stomped the ground causing it to shake and break up in an outward cone as well as send up a crack and spikes in a path that rushed to Perseus. He leaped into the air to prevent his feet from being skewered and burst himself at her mid air by shooting pressurized water from his feet like jets. He swung his trident with a mighty force pushing Mariah back slightly as she moved to block. She then found herself getting punched in the back by an ice puller shooting out of the water. Her guard broke as the wind was knocked out of her, opening herself up to attack.

  Nathaniel rushed at his opponents with a new flaming passion, in more ways than one. His entire body enveloped in the power of his weapon causing him to burn and glow like a miniature sun. The light was difficult to look at and Jaclyn and Hector both had to suddenly switch to dodging and were forced on the defensive once again. Jaclyn managed to achieve a brief Unity before, but that was somewhat forced and her body wasn't ready for something like that for more than a short moment. She looked over at Hector. “There's another kind of Unity we can do, if we want to even the odds we'll have to pull out all the stops.”

  Hector put his hand on his sister with a nod, both Jaclyn and Nathaniel charging up for a big attack. Nathaniel clapped both his hands together aiming both crossbows at Jaclyn. Jaclyn pointed her candelabra forward as her brother channeled his energy into her. “Take this, Solar Flare!” Nathaniel fired, his two shots merged into one large shot that resembles a sun about five feet (about one and a half meters) in diameter. Jaclyn fired a stream of flame from her weapon to meet it. “Obsidian Eclipse!” The two energies met and eventually exploded forcing all three fighters back.

  Perseus took the opening, but instead of going for a slash with his weapon he covered his arm in ice creating a large fist of it and slamming into Mariah with it, boosting his elbow with a jet of water, and knocking her to the floor. Out cold, Perseus was done with his fight. He looked over to see the aftermath of the explosion and saw both Jaclyn and Hector running ragged with Nathaniel looking rough as well. Feeling somewhat tired himself he rushed in and helped Hector up. “Tag out, you need energy to heal us afterwards. Jaclyn and I have got this.”

  Jaclyn wobbled on her feet a bit and huffed. “I don't know if I have the energy to do much. Maybe I should support or boost you. You look rough but might do better thanks to your use of the environment and elemental pairing.” Perseus pointed to the feet of Nathaniel who was getting ready for another round of combat. “The ground at his feet is dry as a bone, he evaporated the water around him. Even if the sprinklers triggered again I doubt any regular water and ice would be effective on him in this burning rage state he's in.”

  Nathaniel rocketed towards Perseus at extremely high speed, before jetting to the side before reaching melee range and firing off shats just as rapidly but much larger rounds then the first time they fought. Perseus could feel the heat emanating from Nathaniel. He was too drained to try and attempt Unity himself to match Nathaniel but Jaclyn moved in to transfer some of her energy over to him. Recharged a bit, Perseus started launching ice spikes to meet the white fire projectiles being sent his way.

  The sprinklers went off again but none of the droplets even reached Nathaniel as his entire body started to steam. In an effort to cool him down Neptuna started taking water that was landing elsewhere and sending at Nathaniel. Nathaniel pushed back against the torrent of water and ice being sent at him from Perseus and Neptuna with the mundane water evaporating, the blazing man actually let his guard down a bit thinking he was evaporating the attacks from the Armatus as well. That was until some hailstones started pelting his body repeatedly and rapidly.

  With the constant barrage eventually the flow started to fade and Nathaniel’s altered state ended. Perseus took this opportunity immediately and rushed at Nathaniel before knocking his lights out with an ice fist like he did to Mariah. Finally the group was free and clear but Perseus now felt drained. Hector started healing and recovery for him but used up the last of his energy to do so. Perseus was now the only one with any energy left to fight.

  There was a defining silence after all the enemies were defeated before the sound of footsteps on the metal catwalk echoed through the building and Gregory MacGonagall walked out from the shadows, clapping slowly. “You did well to get this far. I'd commend you if not for the mess and how much of my product you've ruined. So now that I have no other option but to handle you myself… tell me. WHO THE @#$& ARE YOU GUYS WORKING FOR!?!?”