Rise of Mercury (47)

Narumi led the boys away from the academy.

Kyo walked up to her. "So are we officially Knights now?"

She nodded. "Yes. I still have to get the paperwork done, but you four are Gamma Squadron Knights. I'll have someone show you the ropes. Do you guys have a place to stay?"

Agaki raised his hand. "Frost and I live in the same house."

She looked at Tenma.

"I live with my parents." he said.

"What about you Kyo?"

Kyo put his hands behind his head. "I usually just sleep in a tree. It's really comfortable if you find a wide enough branch."

Narumi smiled sadly. She wanted to help him but didn't know what she should do.

Agaki yawned. "Well if there's nothing else, I'm going home."

Tenma agreed. "I should be getting back too. Kyo I still haven't forgotten about our bet just so you know."

Kyo sheepishly hung his head in defeat.

Narumi waved at them as they left.

"Where were we going anyway?" Kyo asked.

Narumi shrugged. "Honestly I just wanted to get out of the palace. It's boring in there."

Kyo's face lit up. "Wanna go see the Garden of Mercury? It's one of my favorite spots!"

Narumi smiled. "Yes! I'd love that!"

Frost quietly followed.

Kyo led the two to the Garden of Mercury. Tall black gates stood at the front of it. He opened them up. "You'll love it here, there are all kinds of rare plants, flowers, and-"

Kyo looked at the sight of it.

The entire garden was ablaze.

A man in the middle of it all turned around. He had gray hair, and wore a long black robe with gold trim. His eyes were black.

Kyo was furious. "You!! What did you do to this place?!! You burned it all away!!"

The man looked at the three of them for a second. "Oh, so you were here to visit this place. I had forgotten that my sanctuary was in the First Order's territory now. I am simply taking back what is mine. I am the god Mercury, wielder of fire and ice."

Narumi stepped forward. "We don't care *who* you are!! How dare you destroy such a wonderful place?!"

Frost quickly jumped in front of her and held out his arm. "Chill out. We don't know how strong this guy is. He's a god."

Kyo glowed. "It doesn't matter who he is, I won't forgive you!!"

Kyo ran towards Mercury.

The god waved his hand, hitting Kyo with a blaze of fire.

Kyo rolled over on the ground.

Frost walked forward. "Kyo, back me up. I'll handle this."

Kyo was against the idea of being a backup, but he didn't argue. "Okay."

Frost exhaled. His eyes glowed ever so slightly.

The temperature in the garden dropped tremendously.

It was summer, but the temperature was now way below freezing.

Kyo and Narumi shivered. "What the heck is going on?!" she said.

"Frost said that he could control temperature, but I didn't know he could do this..." Kyo said.

Mercury grinned. "So you're an ice type. Very well, I'll show you ice!!" He waved his hand, sending large shards of ice through the ground.

Frost stomped his foot, countering with his own ice shards. He held his arms out then suddenly balled his fists.

The ice shards turned into water, which froze instantly mid air, creating frozen mist.

Frost reopened his hands.

The frozen mist turned into tiny sharp ice needles. Hundreds of thousands of them shot at Mercury.

"Nice try." Mercury said. He held his hand out. A large blaze of fire emitted, but then it went out. "What?!" He quickly put up a ice wall. The needles pierced it.

Frost smirked. "The temperature is too low for fire to exist. Kyo, now."

Kyo quickly charged in, throwing punches and kicks. He managed to land a blow to Mercury's stomach.

"My movements have gotten slower... it's the cold!" Mercury flipped mid air to recover, then kneed Kyo in the gut.

Kyo coughed up blood.

Mercury continued to hit him, again and again.

*"I thought I was stronger than this... why does it hurt so much? Why do I feel so helpless?"*

A pillar of ice intercepted Mercury's combo. Frost was breathing heavier now.

"Ah, I see you can't keep this up for too long. No matter how cold you make it, you still need heat to live!!" Mercury quickly appeared in front of Frost. He held a sphere of solid ice in his right hand. Inside was a ball of fire.

Narumi was right behind Frost. *"I can't let the princess get hurt!!"* he thought.

Frost swung both of his hands down, raising a wall of ice between him and Narumi.

"Frost!! No!!!"

Mercury swung the sphere of ice at Frost. It hit his chest.

The sphere shattered, and an explosion of fire shot out of it.

All Narumi could see from behind the wall was the orange glow of fire. She fell to the ground in defeat. *"No... this is my fault... I'm the one who made them Knights... was Fujitora right after all? Were they not ready?"*

The wall of ice broke down.

Frost was still standing, his head knocked back from the impact.

There was steam everywhere. He managed to straighten back up into a slouched stand.

Mercury stood in front of him. "You are still alive... it seems the cold managed to stifle my fire's effects again. I can feel that it's coldest closest to you."

A large shard of ice grew down Frost's arm.

Kyo slowly stood back up. "Frost... you better not be over there dying on me already..."

Frost's eyes glowed. "Don't be stupid. Did you forget who I am?"

Frost and Kyo attacked at the same time.

Mercury had a difficult time keeping up.

Narumi watched from the ground. *"Those two... they're still going! I want to help them, but..."*

Frost managed to keep the temperature low enough that Mercury couldn't make any flames to counter his ice, and Kyo kept the pressure up with his close range attacks.

Frost got in front of Kyo and charged at Mercury with the ice shard covering his arm.

Mercury jumped back. "Too slow!!"

Kyo got behind him. "No, *you* are!!" He held both of his hands out. White mystic energy emitted from them. "Repel!!"

The force pushed Mercury towards Frost.

"Tch! Who do you kids think I am?!" Mercury made an ice pillar that came from under the ground and pushed him upwards in the air.

Frost's arm stabbed the pillar.

Mercury quickly appeared behind Kyo and kicked him in the back, knocking his head into the ice pillar.

*"He... moved too fast... I couldn't keep up!"* Kyo thought.

Frost ran around the pillar. "Kyo!"

Mercury covered his fist with ice and punched Kyo in the head, knocking him out cold.

Frost gritted his teeth. "Why you!"

Mercury made another ice pillar on a slant, knocking Frost in the stomach, throwing him in the air.

Narumi couldn't believe it. *"They're sacrificing themselves... for what? Why would they? But I have to help them!!"* She stood up.

"Frost!!! Get Kyo out of the way and buy me some time!!! Quick!!"

Frost looked at her from the air. He got a hold of himself.

Mercury grinned. "You're pretty high up there, it just got a lot warmer!!" He shot a large fireball at Frost.

Frost took a deep breath and blew on the fire, cooling it off. He then raised a hand holding a sphere of water and threw it at the ground, turning the water into frozen needles of rain.

Mercury waved it off with fire.

Frost used that time to get to Kyo. He exhaled a cold mist from his mouth.

The temperature dropped again.

Mercury was annoyed. "Again with the cold? It isn't doing you any good anyway!!" He chased after him.

Frost carried Kyo and shot himself high into the air using an ice pillar as a boost.

Mercury started to fly up towards him.

Narumi's amber eyes glowed a deep golden color. She held both her hands out. "Kodak Circle!!"

A bright gold magic circle formed. It had several tiers, each one spinning and rotating in various directions. Bright golden blasts shot out of it at quick speeds.

The blasts hit Mercury repeatedly, causing him to fall to the ground.

"She's amazing..." Frost said.

One large ball of energy formed out of the circle and shot at Mercury without warning.

A large explosion happened, destroying what was left of the Garden of Mercury and the god himself along with it.

After the dust cleared, Frost flew down. "What was that?!"

"That's my Kodak Magic. A special magic affinity that my mother and I have. She uses it to heal, I use it to attack. But I'm forbidden from using it because of its massive destruction power." She laughed nervously. "I guess it doesn't help that I took down a god too huh?"

Frost smiled. "This entire time I thought I was protecting you, I'm the one that got saved."

He started walking back towards the city holding Kyo.

Narumi grabbed him by the shoulder. "Frost. Absolutely *nobody* can know about this. If someone asks, just say you two were training. I'll cover the story to make it seem legit."

He nodded.

--

Kyo woke up finding himself in a hospital bed.

A nurse was writing something on a clipboard when he woke. "Oh you're awake. How are we feeling right now?"

"I'm okay."

The nurse gave him a reassuring smile and opened the door. "Someone was waiting for you."

The nurse walked out as Narumi walked in. She closed the door behind her.

"Princess...!" Kyo said.

"Shhh! I'm really not supposed to be here!"

Kyo watched as she sat down next to his bed.

"About what happened... about, you know. Could you not tell anyone? Please?"

Kyo nodded. "Sure. I won't. I barely remember what happened anyway. I got hit pretty hard."

"Yeah. You did. I should've acted earlier. I put you and Frost in danger."

"No. I have to keep training. Fighting Mercury made me realize something. If a god made it to the city, it would be chaos. People can die. I've always loved fighting and sparring but this isn't training anymore. It's the real world. I have to get stronger if I want to be able to protect others. I don't wanna be the weak link anymore."

Narumi's face lit up. "About that, if you want you can use the training room inside the Royal Palace. I can give you rights to use it. It has super advanced tech that you can't find anywhere else!"

"Really? That's great! I'll use it as often as possible!"

Narumi stood up, politely bowed, and walked out the room.

Kyo balled his fist. "I'm going to make this mystic energy my own. I have to master it as soon as I can..."