Chapter 73 Crisis in the Night
A furious roar—
"I am…the son of Dicttis!"
Perseus suddenly erupted in fury, an inexplicable aura emanating from him, arcs of electricity faintly flashing across his body, even his eyes gleaming with a bluish-purple light…
The aura spread like a gust of wind, sculpting the grass into circular shapes.
Isaac, terrified by this aura, clutched his sword and collapsed to the ground.
Staring blankly at the handsome, somewhat mystical young man before him…
For some reason, Isaac felt a surge of panic. Sitting on the ground, he frantically pushed against the earth, trying to move his body backward…
Perseus, seeing Isaac's expression on the ground, realized the strange change within himself. His own expression instantly changed, filled with panic.
Then, Perseus, gritting his teeth as if suppressing a surge of emotion, dropped the stick he was holding and turned to run away into the distance...
Until Perseus's figure disappeared into the wilderness.
Isaac belatedly got up, filled with curiosity and doubt.
He glanced at the sky.
Then, turning back every few steps, he went home.
But after returning home covered in mud and filth,
Isaac didn't see Perseus.
He didn't come back...
Isaac thought it was his fault, that he had angered Perseus and run away, and fearing the adults' scolding, he kept it from his mother.
Shiaga, being mute, frowned when she realized one of her children was missing, stammering as if trying to express something, but Isaac insisted that Perseus would return soon, begging her not to tell his mother.
However, until night fell.
The father and the adults had all returned home after drinking, but Perseus was still nowhere to be seen...
At this point, Isaac began to panic.
He had taken someone out, but hadn't brought him back... What if Perseus had encountered something bad outside...?
He would definitely be punished by his father...
So, while the adults were still exchanging pleasantries outside, young Isaac, quick as a flash, slipped out again under the cover of night, hoping to reach the wilderness and find Perseus before the adults realized what was happening.
Evening fell, and the moon shone brightly.
Isaac stole a torch from the street to use for light in the darkness.
He called out to Perseus across the wilderness...
Since he didn't know Perseus's name, he called out like this—
"Son of Dicttis!"
"Where are you, son of Dicttis—"
Isaac still had the small wooden sword hanging at his waist, his thin shadow flickering in the firelight, above him a sky full of stars and moonlight, below him the vast wilderness and fog.
He carried his torch and arrived at the place where they had sparred during the day.
Perseus was no longer there...
However, Isaac had a special talent: he had an excellent memory, and he could hardly forget anything he had seen.
Then, after a moment's recollection, he remembered the direction Perseus had fled in during the day...
The sky was growing dim; the once bright moonlight was now obscured by clouds and mist, and a thick fog rose over the wilderness. The villages behind him were now just scattered, orange-yellow lights in the twilight...
And in the distance, darkness shrouded everything in thick fog.
Seeing the unsettling darkness and fog ahead, Isaac felt a pang of fear. After all, he was only six or seven years old, still a child. He usually needed Shiaga to light a candle for him when he got up at night to urinate.
But then, Isaac gritted his teeth, suppressed his fear, and, torch in hand, stepped into the darkness...
He had to find Perseus...
It was a responsibility, something his father had taught him more than once.
As a man, one must shoulder responsibility...
"Son of Dicttis, where are you?"
Isaac called out repeatedly in the darkness, the firelight offering a sliver of security.
He drifted further and further from the village, heading towards the forest.
By this time, the firelight of the village behind him was completely swallowed by the night.
He could see nothing...
Darkness and mist shrouded him in front, behind, and all around, the only sound the rustling of grass beneath his feet.
His calls, like those lost in a swamp, were swallowed by the wilderness and the night, not even an echo could be heard...
He was lost in the boundless darkness.
A sense of dread crept over Isaac...
In the darkness, he recalled the ancient and terrifying tales told by the adults: the horrifying walking corpses, the pale ghosts, the man-eating Nemean lions, and the black-skinned goat-hoofed men who lured children away...
Children's imaginations are always vivid; it was as if those terrifying hallucinations were hidden in the darkness, and those monsters would emerge from the mist at any moment...
"Where are you, son of Dicttis?"
Isaac's voice was much softer, trembling slightly.
Clearly, he was afraid.
Isaac's panic reached its peak, and he decided to turn back and let the adults find Perseus.
But just then...
The howling of wolves came from not far away, and the faint sounds of fighting...
Isaac was startled, suppressing his fear, he held a wooden sword in one hand and a torch in the other.
He ran towards the source of the sound...
He was near a forest, and parted the bushes and grass.
In the moonlight, he witnessed a horrifying scene—
Four or five bloodthirsty white wolves surrounded a boy, their eyes gleaming with a scarlet glint...
"Son of Dicttis!"
Isaac immediately recognized the boy; it was Perseus, the boy who had gone missing during the day.
He was horrified and instinctively wanted to help, but as he took a step, he stopped. He realized he was no match for those wolves...
Those were wolves! How could they, mere children, possibly defeat them?
As he hesitated, the pack of wolves pounced on Perseus from both sides, their sharp fangs gleaming coldly in the dim moonlight, aiming straight for his neck...
Perseus was already wounded in several places, bleeding profusely. Holding a wooden stick, he could only barely dodge the fangs' bites when the white wolves attacked, but their sharp claws had already slashed several gruesome gashes across his chest...
However, Perseus paid no heed to the pain. He struck a white wolf in the abdomen with his stick. The wolf howled in pain and stumbled back a few steps. As one wolf retreated, the rest attacked again.
Perseus spun like a top, constantly fending off the attacks from all sides, managing to barely hold on...
But his wounds multiplied, and blood soaked through the boy's clothes.
Isaac, hidden in the bushes, was stunned...
He had never seen such a tough guy, and not even an adult, but a child.
And because of this,
Perseus, fighting the wolves under the moonlight, became an indelible image in Isaac's childhood...
But...
Watching like this wasn't going to work.
Perseus was clearly struggling; he was swaying...
He had to think of something, he had to help...
Just then, Isaac noticed a white wolf poised to attack Perseus's back in Perseus's blind spot... He had to help!
At that moment, Isaac overcame his instinctive fear!
He leaped out of the bushes and threw the torch a long way.
At the same time, he shouted—
"Son of Dicttis!"
"Watch out!"
...