Chapter 19: The Final Game

This took over a month to get out. Whoops. At least I updated before New Years just like I promised some of you.

Chapter 19: The Final Game

So anyway it was the fifth and final day of the Magna Convivium as Perses, Diana and Lunara stepped out of the door, with Diana holding her daughter's hand. Of course the Romans would still be awake until Monday at 12AM, but the events of that day would be the last for the week. The final event of the week would be what is spectacularly named the God Fights.

Basically, there would be two teams of Olympians, and seven rounds of different contests, be it a physical combat round, a heavy lifting one, a drinking contest, stuff like that. Perses and Diana were obviously going to coordinate it so they were on the same team of course. Vesta would sit out as she did the year before not only to make the teams even but because she also wasn't that into competitions, so she would sit by Lunara to keep her company while the girl's parents went off and won bets.

They were doing it in the Colosseum so that was where the family made their way down to. Since they were half an hour early they stopped by a small cafe to grab some lunch despite just having breakfast. Perses got a cheeseburger and coke, Diana got a sandwich and some coffee and Lunara got…. pancakes and orange juice. Duh.

With their hunger satiated the family now moved to the Colosseum where the games would begin shortly.

Inside the arena was packed with nature spirits, demigods and legacies, all eager to get a good luck at their gods duking it out in various sports. Since there were only two people on the blue team and it was his favorite color, Perses ushered his family over to them.

Phoebus, who usually went blue since Diana was always red, instinctively went to that side of the colosseum. When she saw her twin coming over decked in blue gear she stood up. “Oh shit. No! No no no no no no no no. You’re over there. You and me, one on one.” She said, nudging him in the opposite direction. He sighed, but seeing Perses and Lunara already seated by Vulcan and Neptune, agreed and switched his colors at the stand.

The hunters had already predicted that their lady would side blue so they were seated in the rows below the gods, already hyped up and decked in blue war paint and gear. When she walked past to sit with her family and they saw her they cheered, chanting her name and acting far more rowdy than they really ever got. She smiled and nodded at her girls while Lunara leaned over the stone railing and waved excitedly. “Hilo!” She yelled down to them, receiving two dozen hellos and waves in response.

The rest of the gods slowly arrived and took their sides, after confirming what event they’d be competing in with Vesta and Reyna. Diana was of course facing her twin brother Apollo in archery while Perses had what was likely the more dangerous event: rock, paper, scissors against Mercury.

In the end the teams were even, a 7-7 split. With the reds were Jupiter, Juno, Ceres, Mars, Minerva, Phoebus and Mercury while the blues got the rest- Neptune, Perses, Diana, Vulcan, Bacchus, Pluto and Venus.

Venus came to sit by the couple, and when Lunara saw her mom she crawled out of her dad’s lap into Venus’. “Hi mommy!” She greeted, looking up at her as Venus wrapped her arms around the small girl and kissed her on the cheek. “Hello, beautiful.” Her mother smiled, assaulting the side of her face with kisses, making Lunara giggle and try to push her away in vain.

The events for the day were as follows: Jupiter and Neptune arm wrestling, Juno and Bacchus wine guessing (an actually fair challenge believe it or not), Ceres and Venus insult-off which was a weird choice, Mars and Vulcan heavy lifting, Minerva and Pluto…. chess (great), Phoebus and Diana rifle shooting, and finally the most intense game of all… Perses and Mercury rock paper scissors, which was usually a tiebreaker since the teams would be tied 3-3.

Vesta was on the side of colosseum, in between the two teams, manning the scorecards, which both obviously had 0. Next to her was Reyna, who would announce the games and each event once everyone was settled.

The colosseum slowly filled up with minor gods, demigods and nature spirits, and when it looked like everyone was there Reyna stepped out and raised a hand. “Romans! Welcome again to the final day of the Magna Convivium! We’ve had chariots, we’ve had gladiators, we’ve had… whatever else! But these have all been between demigods and spirits and other minor creatures of our world. What we haven’t had is our GODS!” She yelled, inciting an uproar of excitement from the crowd.

“What better way to celebrate our gods than to have them all face off in contests of various types, equal in skill, they can go either way. That makes it all the more exciting! So now, show your praise for our greatest kings and queens, our Olympian gods!” She announced, and the arena was filled to the brim with applause and cheering. Some of the gods were reveling in it, some like Percy were waiting for it to end so they could get started.

Jupiter and Neptune then stood and eyed-each other competitively before making their way down the steps to the balcony, where they jumped off into the colosseum. “First up, two kings, constantly rivalling brothers, lords over the sky and the sea, Kings Jupiter and Neptune will arm-wrestle to officially start our day of exciting games!” She introduced, bringing another round of cheering and applause for two of the Big Three.

The two gods smiled and waved, loving the attention as they walked closer to each other. Three fauns rushed out with two chairs and a small circular table for the gods, which they placed right in the middle. The red team cheered Jupiter on as he sat at the table while the blues supported Neptune as he also seated himself and held out his arm.

The two gods were about equal in strength, the events had been organized so it was an even fight between the gods. That was why it was heavy lifting for Mars and Vulcan, not just a boxing match or wrestling, and why Juno and Bacchus were guessing wines and not seeing who could stomach the most.

Jupiter held out his arm and grabbed his brother's hand, flexing his humongous bicep as some sort of intimidation. The king had chosen to wear a grey tank top that day to show off his muscles, partly to show that he was more ripped and partly to hopefully find a girl to bed that night. Neptune was wearing a much more conservative blue Hawaiian shirt with some of his muscles visible through the short sleeves but they weren't on full display like Jupiter.

The two didn't look at Reyna, merely waiting for the bang that would sound the start of the event. Reyna held up one of those clacking things where you hit the two wood blocks together and they sound really loud. Like the shit from movie scents or sprint races.

The crowd all looked at the two gods anticipating the beginning of the event, and the two gods themselves were tense as they glared at each other. Without warning, Reyna sounded for the event to commence. CLACK!

The two gods channelled all their energy into pushing the other's arm back. They pushed so hard it felt like the pressure alone would break both of their risks, as if they were both holding back the hammer of an enraged Thor with but their fists- and yes, both of them have experienced that. On separate occasions, I might add.

Neptune's teeth were pressed together so tight he felt like they were going to shatter, and the stress of pushing his brother back almost made Jupiter tear a muscle in his scrotum. Neptune's energy weakened as time went on and he began to slip back, which only encouraged Jupiter. The king put all his might into the arm wrestling, using the strength of 10,000 men on Neptune. Eventually the elder brother couldn't take it anymore and his arm collapsed onto the table, almost broken by the pressure Jupiter had thrown it into the wood.

Immediately the colosseum roared as Jupiter stood up and threw the table forward, cheering and holding his arms out to the crowd like a victorious gladiator. More than half the stadium had erupted into cheers, showing great support for their king and the majority red supporters cheered even louder when Vesta changed the score to 1-0 Red. Neptune moodily walked back to the blue team with a sour look.

Despite the fact that the next contest was pretty fair, there was never any real doubt about whether Juno or Bacchus could guess more wine than each other. Bacchus was ahead by 5 points when the last sample came along, worth ten points. Juno was pretty out of it by that point, both slightly intoxicated by the drinking while also demotivated by Bacchus' streak.

She took a large gulp of the glass and shrugged. It tasted foreign to her. Caribbean, maybe? Still, she hadn't tasted anything like it. It definitely wasn't good, that was for sure. "Um, I have no idea. Pacific Feijoa." She guessed. Which made the crowd ooooo like they had any idea if that was a good guess or not.

Bacchus took a sip and grinned. He knew he had this in the bag. It was a rare drink, he'd only been able to properly obtain one bottle after his probation had been lifted. Properly obtaining meant purchasing in mortal currency, of course. He smacked his lips and grinned. "Tahitian. Blood. Wine." He said, which earned a nod from the judge.

Juno sighed and let her head fall onto the table as the crowd cheered for Bacchus. The blue team were demoralized by the 2-0 lead the reds had, and they could only count on Venus to get them a point and keep them in the game for the next event. Venus and Ceres were to just roast each other and three judges would decide who the victor was.

The three judges in question were Reyna, Lupa and Chiron, all of whom were not allowed to place bets. Officially, of course. Wink, wink.

As she left to go verbally abuse the goddess of Agriculture, who actually had quite a mouth and a talent for creative insults if you would believe that, Venus was held back by Diana. The goddess made sure Lunara wasn't listening before saying quietly to her. "Insult her children and ass, the former will make her angry and the latter because it's fake. She customizes her ass using her powers." The goddess had surprising dirt on her aunt.

Venus laughed and nodded, making to walk off before turning back. "But wait, I customize my ass using my powers too." She said, but Diana shrugged. "Yeah, but we expect that from you." She said nonchalantly. Venus nodded and smiled, walking off to compete without taking a hint of offense from that.

The two goddesses met in the middle, Venus looking smug while Ceres just looked mildly annoyed at her. The judges all nodded at them to start. The first round was just basic insults, essentially name calling, so both goddesses were loaded with things to call each other.

Ceres went first, smiling mischievously before letting off a chain of insults. “Alright, let’s keep it simple. Venus, you are a fake, two-faced, silicon, whale titted, cocksucking, plastic assed, Ares licking, boy sniffing, slut.” She listed off, keeping it simple. She didn’t want to overkill in round one. After hearing the words coming out of the goddess’ mouth, Percy clamped his hands over Lunara’s ears, and his daughter grumbled and struggled to break free.

Venus went next. “Oh Ceres… What a stuckup, two-timing, hypocritical, bread-faced, crusted-pussied, wannabe virgin whore.” She railed, feeling proud of herself. She hadn’t even utilized the insults Diana gave her.

The two goddesses looked at the judges, and Ceres whooped when they held up signs that had C written on them. Ceres had won one round out of three. Flustered and annoyed, Venus got ready to step up her game.

Round two was practical insults. Roasts, if you will. Insults that were more than just name calling. Again, Ceres was to go first, only they would alternate between themselves.

The goddess of agriculture looked her in the eye and began a savage torrent of roasts.

Venus won the point for team blue.

So now that that napalm pit of an event was over, it was time for the fourth round- Minerva and Pluto playing chess. Both were chess masters, they knew every strategy, so it was even. Lunara was just happy her dad had stopped covering her ears.

In fact, the event was so boring that Lunara fell asleep in her dad’s lap, and if it wasn’t for her father holding her she likely would’ve fallen off the seat. Minerva eventually won after…. Well a long time. It was the afternoon now, maybe three so yeah that event took a while.

The reds clapped politely as they were awarded with another point, bringing the score to 3-1. If they won the next one then they won the entire thing. Mars, knowing this, was eager to get in there and confident of his victory. Without even waiting for Reyna to announce it, the war god jumped over the railing into the arena, calling for the crowd to cheer him on as Vulcan got out of his seat and made his way into the colosseum pit too.

That event, like the chess, was pretty boring. Boulders of different sizes were brought into the pit. It started off with Vulcan lifting them with ease and Mars showing off with one arm lifts. Then it slowly devolved into veins being visible and straining faces. On the last one the boulder was the size of a building, and after half an hour of heavy lifting Mars was too exhausted to get it off the ground.

Despite being equally as tired, Vulcan managed to push through and bring it a fraction of an inch off the ground for a split second, which was enough to earn another point for team blue.

As Vulcan returned to his seat, Diana realised it was her shot, pun unintended. She saw Apollo making his way down to the pit and got up too, though due to her pregnancy she played it safe and climbed down quickly rather than jump like most gods had been doing.

Fauns were bringing out targets for the twins to shoot, and two in particular brought two 40.2-inch Model 91/38 Carcano bolt-action rifles without any scopes just to add an extra challenge. It had been a few months since Artemis shot a rifle, the last time being when she took the hunters to a shooting range in Florida and they got to fire automatic weapons, so she wasn't overly confident about her skill.

The twins met on the blue half of the Colosseum while the targets were being set up on the red side. The contest was simple. Twenty targets, all in different places, they'd shoot ten each and whoever had the most bullseyes won.

The two were given another clip of 6 rounds for when they ran out, and they checked to make sure they were already loaded. Apollo looked at her. "Practice shot? We have 12 rounds." He noted, and Diana agreed. She lifted the rifle and aimed at his foot, and Apollo noticed this before jumping back. Diana fired and it missed his foot, so she looked up at him. "Seems accurate." She told him with a smile.

With a playful grin he lifted the rifle and no-scoped her foot. She managed to dodge that too, and the goddess narrowed to eyes at her brother. "What the Hades is wrong with you, Phoebus? I'm pregnant!" She chastised him, and the god sputtered. "But- but, you-"

She rolled her eyes and turned back to the targets. "Anyway, let's get started." She said, readying her rifle. Apollo grumbled in annoyance and also turned on his heel, pressing the stock to his shoulder and getting his hands in the right position.

Since they would probably both get 100% if allowed to properly aim, the twin archers were only allowed 15 seconds to fire off all ten rounds, including reloading, so they had to pretty much snapshot all the targets. They nodded to Reyna when they were ready, and the Constitutional Empress of Rome got her timer sorted.

"Ready! Aim! Fire!"

Bang Bang, Click Click, Bang Bang, Click Click, Bang Bang, Click Click, Bang Bang, Click Click, Bang Bang, Click Click.

Both twins stopped to reload their rifles, having used up the five rounds in the 6-round magazine. Since she had the most recent experience with firearms, the older sister was ever so slightly quicker with the rifle but not by much.

Bang Bang, Click Click, Bang Bang, Click Click, Bang Bang, Click Click, Bang Bang, Click Click, Bang Bang, Click Click.

Ten.

Both twins ceased fire despite having another round each, and after putting the safety on they waited for the moderators to check the targets. The colosseum was in quiet chatter as the targets were examined, and Diana looked at her younger brother. "So what did you bribe them with this year? Gold? Sex? Immortality?" She asked, only half-joking. He had rigged it before.

Phoebus scoffed. "Me? Bribe them? Noooooooo. Pffft, pregnancy's got your wires all messed up." The doctor assured her, and Diana rolled her eyes.

The results came in and…..

Diana won with 16 bullseyes to Apollo's fourteen.

He sighed and shrugged. "Told you I didn't bribe them." He said defeatedly before pulling her in for a friendly hug. Diana smiled and clapped her brother's back with the arm that wasn't holding the rifle. Not quite a hug back but still a show of affection.

On the way back when giving the rifle back to the fauns Diana took out the magazine and took the spare bullet. Once she'd sat back down by her family she handed it to the excited Lunara. "Here you go, Luna. Don't bite it." She seriously cautioned, and the grinning toothless girl nodded. "Coooooool." She said in awe, staring at the rifle bullet in her hands.

Now it was Perses' turn to win the day. The score was 3-3, this final event meant everything to both teams. Mercury had the support of the entire red side as he stood and jogged to the middle. Perses simply stood and walked down, but he still received an equal amount of cheers and support, and his daughter was one of the most excited fans.

The two gods met in the middle and got ready to face off. "So how we doin' this? Rock, paper, scissors, shoot? Rock, paper, scissors? Pa-per, sci-ssors, rock?" Perses asked, and Mercury shrugged. "Shoot." He decided, and the younger god nodded.

The two gods held out a palm and a fist, ready to start when the other was ready. As the entire colosseum watched on with a tense atmosphere, the gods nodded at each other to begin. "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"

Mercury chose paper.

Perses chose scissors.

I'm sorry it took so long. More importantly, I'm sorry there was no threesome lemon. That will be next chapter. I had to cut it from this chapter so I could be sure I got smth out this month. Percy will find out about the affair, and they will break up but not for long. I'm thinking a few weeks. Don't worry about it. Happy Holidays and if I don't update before it, Happy New Year!

Word Count: 3363