Power

Simon switched into first gear and caught Runa before they hit the ground. She grunted in pain, as she reached for her left shoulder. It was dislocated.

Simon first checked his surroundings, then noticed her discomfort and asked her to brace herself, as he popped it back in for her. She let out a low scream through a cloth he gave her, from his belt. Then she grabbed a booster and immediately plunged the contents into her arm.

"You good?" Simon asked.

"I'm still good to go." She nodded, getting herself back up.

"The plan has changed-" He was cut off by a bright flash of electricity, as Galad appeared above them.

"Do you understand the consequences of attacking the royal family? We have come to bring you salvation!" The prince's voice echoed through the plains.

"He's mad," Runa concluded, then glanced over at Simon, who was unfazed.

He stepped forward and laughed. "Monarchies are outdated. Let me guess, your old man gave you everything didn't he? You didn't have to work for anything, and then you killed and enslaved those weaker than you to raise your status. Am I right?"

Galad rubbed his chin and pondered. While allowing electricity to crackle around him and keep him afloat. "Hmm, what's wrong with that?"

"Runa." She knew when he said her name, that he was about to get serious.

She backed up and gathered large amounts of lightning holding it in the sky, as Simon's expression changed. Rings of fire crushed the ground simultaneously, as orange and reddish veins, coursed through him even faster.

Streaks of silver popped up evenly throughout his hair, as he looked up smirking at Galad. "Nothing really, I just wanted to make sure, that you deserved this first."

Galad didn't realize Simon could be hiding so much strength, however, he didn't falter, having full confidence in his abilities as they both lunged at each other. Allowing their fists to collide and sent shockwaves throughout the land.

Simon kept up with him, covering his fists with blue fire, with every several strikes, denting the prince's lifeforce.

Galad backed away, making some distance. Completely unprepared for a massive streak of lightning breaching the sky and striking him before he could react.

He yelled out in pain for a moment, then began to absorb the lightning. Forcing Runa to stop, seeing as it did not affect him.

However, Simon didn't hesitate with the chance Runa gave him, by appearing before the prince with a swirling, blue ball of fire. "Ignite: Caeruleum Globus!"

He struck the ball into Galad's chest sending him hurdling back, while it continued to bury itself even further before exploding, as he hit the ground. Dust and rubble rose to the sky, as the shockwave resounded for miles.

Runa appeared beside Simon. "Let's take him out quickly."

"Right." He replied.

Lightning struck the epicentre of the explosion, followed by a line of electricity, trailing quickly out of the smoke, as Galad appeared with a blur in front of them. Kicking down at Simon with his full might, while he tried to block it with both of his arms up. Then they resumed back to exchanging multiple blows back to each other.

However this time, Simon was unable to keep up, receiving many unguarded strikes from the prince, and seemed to be at a disadvantage. The Galad's rage and fury fueled him, to go even faster.

Runa was blown back from the winds of them, just striking each other. She couldn't find an opening and felt powerless to do anything. She trained so hard, yet she felt like she wasn't making as much progress as the other second-generation Novas.

Before Galad broke away to make some distance, he slipped a ball of electricity trailing behind Simon, without him noticing. "Simon watch out!" Runa started to say.

However, the prince grinned, knowing it was too late. "Paralysis Overload."

Electricity raced out of the ball, through Simon, and towards Galad's hand, shocking him with billions of volts. Forcing Simon to yell out in pain, as he succumbed to a short seizure, while Galad continued his attack, only stopping, as Runa shot volleys of electricity at him.

The world watched, as the Nova fell out of the sky, unconscious, with smoke trailing out of his mouth. His battle suit, sent out small nanites, helping to break his fall.

Galad turned his attention to Runa, after watching Simon fall. Intensifying his energy output on purpose and making Runa shiver.

She raised one hand to the sky as lightning, gently touched down, kissing her hand, as she took the energy she needed. "Static: Thor's Armour."

Static electricity settled over her suit, protecting and reinforcing her, as she unsheathed her swords.

The prince smiled, welcoming the challenge. "Little girl... What can you even do with a sword?"

She didn't blink, yet he was too fast to follow, closing the distance between them too quickly for her to react. He punched her gut, sending her flying hundreds of meters away and made her drop one of her swords. Then caught up to her and struck her back, stopping her flight, as she coughed up blood.

The Nova gritted her teeth and swung her sword around with an arc of electricity, as the other sword, flew back into her hand. He caught the blade and threw it away, then spun around to kick the other, flying once again, as she tried to follow up. "Come on now, no weapons." He teased, before lunging forward.

She braced herself, raising her hands above her head, as he started to beat down on her. "Fight back with your hands warrior!" He yelled at her.

She grimaced in pain, as each strike sent jolts throughout her body, causing internal damages she could not handle. She crouched, making herself smaller, then exploded out an electric barrier, pushing Galad back, but he held his ground.

He smiled, sinisterly as he prepared to close in for the kill. "You will die here."

She smiled bravely. "If that's the case, I might as well do everything I can to stop you." On cue, she raised her right palm, then dropped it down to face him. "Static: Yggrdrasil!"

All of the lightning she had been building up in the sky struck him all at once. A massive tree of lightning dropped down, pushing her back, but she held on, maintaining her focus as he screamed in agony.

The prince quickly regained his composure and began absorbing the electricity instead. Raising one palm in front of him, facing Runa and yelled out. "Storm Convergence!"

A blast of electricity manifested forth out of his palms, racing towards her. Her attack kept him in place but only hindered him. She prepared for the end.

"Ignite: Hyacintho Ignis!" Simon yelled as he appeared in front of Runa at the last minute, placing his hands forward in front of Galad's attack. Allowing both of their attacks to collide in midair.

The prince was annoyed. "You should have stayed down!" He yelled, over the thunder.

"Not till you're dead!" Simon yelled back, pouring in as much as he could muster and holding the stalemate.

Runa wished she could do more. She contemplated letting the lightning go, but if he escaped, they may not have enough energy to further engage him. She pondered and pondered, for a moment watching the two struggle on. Glancing at Simon once more, who was fighting for his life, she shook herself awake.

'Now is not the time to feel sorry for yourself. Now was the time to put all of your cards on the table.' She thought to herself.

She gathered more clouds above and struck herself with more electricity than she had ever contained. The tree got bigger, making Galad writhe in pain.

"You bitch!" He yelled at her, then manifested hundreds of electric volleys around him, before launching them at the Nova.

Simon could not protect her, worried that she would be in trouble. However, quick zaps of lightning dissipated them.

Her blue eyes glowed brighter and cobalt blue veins appeared on her skin. Years of her life drained out of her as she drained more energy and willed the strikes of lightning to keep up with his barrage.

The tree of lightning began to glow brighter and then converged into one, glowing blue and hurting Galad even more. Breaking his concentration for just a moment.

Simon noticed Runa's change and smiled, drawing in more energy from all around him. Plants, animals, and even the Earth itself. Then he gave one final push. Breaking the stalemate.

The resulting sight was spectacular, as a perpendicular cross of fire and electricity connected. Erupting a gigantic. bright explosion and incinerating Galad at the center, with one final scream. "Nooo!"

Runa began to fall, exhausted and seizing. Simon caught her just in time and flew as fast as he could to safety, with burns beginning to show up on his face.

Helio and Karim vs Mikrel...

Mikrel hovered above the two, looking down at them. "You guys don't look like much, I want to finish this and go play with Osei for a bit before Ataron breaks him."

Helio gritted his teeth and shifted into first gear. The temperature around them began to drop drastically.

Mikrel was astounded, looking at Helio with curiosity. "Oh? So you can ascend just like the Rennayans? This must be the dormant energy, we've sensed, different in you humans."

Karim got into a defensive stance, creating dozens of flying golems ready to attack. However, Mikrel just laughed, raising one hand as the golems dropped out of the sky, frozen and crumbling apart. Then he placed his hands out wide. "World of Ice!"

It started with a low wind, then picked up quickly into a blizzard howling around them. Karim braced himself but was surprised that he didn't feel cold.

His suit was working overtime to keep him warm and would soon require strength from his own body. However, Helio had seen this technique before, but not on this scale. He slowed down the snow blurring his vision of Mikrel.

However as the snow started to slow down, Mikrel disappeared, then seemingly manifested out of the downpour of snow, and kicked Karim flying into the wind, before Helio could stop him.

"Damn you!" Helio yelled, over the howling wind. Their fists met each other's faces, as they started to strike each other.

Then Mikrel pushed Helio back a couple of meters with a roundhouse kick. Helio dropped to his knees, he could feel a fractured rib and multiple bruises all over his body. Blood splattered all around them, as it was slowly covered by snow. He was beginning to lose his grip, allowing the blizzard to slowly drift in.

Mikrel raised his right palm, facing Helio. "Your fight is over warrior, there is no longer any need for you to struggle. Salvation is here."

A sword with an intricate alien-looking design manifested out of ice in thin air. It hovered naturally into Mikrel's hand.

He prepared to strike down Helio, when a stone, bull golem, trucked into him and pushed him back a few meters before he cut it down. However, in the next moment, three more golems rushed at him from all sides.

"Helio!" Karim called out.

"Karim! Are you okay?!" Helio asked, relieved to see him.

Karim finally came into view. He had visible injuries and was bleeding on the side of his head. "Never better, except for all this ice. I can barely get access to the Earth-"

"The weak should never challenge the strong and be careless." Mikrel cut him off.

Helio stared in disbelief. This couldn't be happening again.

The sword Mikrel had made, protruded out of Karim's gut. He reached for his sword and telepathically pulled it out of him, with blood bursting out, like a popped water balloon. The Nova staggered back looking over at Helio, speechless. He coughed up blood, while trying to cover his stomach to stop the blood flow, then fell over.

There was a snap, like the spark of a fire starting, deep within Helio. His gaze never left his dying comrade, but the constant snow kept disrupting his view.

Memories of Ranesa's corpse and visiting Leon's grave, as well as those within his life, that he was unable to help, flashed before his eyes. He was kind and never wanted to hurt others. He always saw the children of Atlas as those who needed to be stopped, but never actually hated them, especially after meeting Nirro.

However, this situation was different. Mikrel was someone he wanted to kill.

The blizzard began to die down, and the ice began to melt. A quick trail of ice erupted from under Helio's feet bursting out a massive ice wall separating Mikrel from them.

It continued, for hundreds of meters as the prince watched, until a part of it reached for him. Forcing him to leap away and make some distance, to observe the current phenomenon.

Helio rushed over to Karim. Quicker than he had ever moved in his life and injected him first with a medicine booster.

Then, placed his hands down over Karim's injury, pouring in everything he could. The air started to feel sweltering hot, as steam escaped Helio's body, then he quickly cooled down, repeating the process.

A dome of ice enveloped Karim and started to glow, as streaks of silver, evenly began to glow all over Helio's hair. The turquoise blue marks, began to glow harder, pulsing in faster intervals and flowing even quicker.

"Karim, hang in there! He yelled as vapour escaped his lips with each breath he took.

He could feel Karim's life slipping away. Waves of emotions and thoughts, paraded through his mind, as he contemplated the worst. He remembered, that Sarah had brought it forth as a theory, that the real ability of wielders of the ice element was complete thermoregulation.

There were not many records of advanced ice wielders on Rennaya. With some Exceptional ones making a name for themselves once every century. However, she hypothesized that they were capable of manipulating heat on an atomic level, giving them the ability to produce, what some may call 'miracles'.

The hole in Karim's chest started to close, as his organs rearranged themselves back to their original positions. The blood he lost, rose into the air, and returned to him, cleansed of dirt and contaminants.

The heat around Helio continued to intensify, as the ice dome healing Karim, glowed more ominously, with occasional mist rolling off of it.

Helio could feel each blood vessel, artery, and organ he was repairing within Karim, taking meticulous steps and keeping focused to be careful. Then finally with a sigh of relief, Karim's life force started to stabilize, as well as his heartbeat.

Multiple blurs landed behind him, softly. The medic team with one looking exactly like Saphyra approached Helio. "Helio, we'll take it from here," Saphyra asked, as he nodded back at her.

"Please, take care of him. Tap the ice when you're ready to operate on him." He asked as they prepared to take him away.

She nodded in agreement, as the team carefully lifted Karim onto a secure self-driving stretcher and started to leave.

"What makes you guys think I will let you get away? Mikrel asked, as a massive iceberg hundreds of meters long, manifested in the air above him.

Then began to plummet down. Surprising Helio, as there was nowhere to escape, with the medic team unable to get away with Karim in time. However, suddenly the iceberg shattered into millions of pieces, as if crushed by an invisible force. Forcing Mikrel to look up surprised, as did everyone else.

For a faint moment, they could all see a figure, hovering in the sky. "Who is that?" Helio started to say but was cut off, as the shattered attack showered Mikrel at sonic speed, sending him crashing down, covered in snow. Then the figure abruptly disappeared, just as the medic team made it to the safety of the shuttle with Karim.

Mikrel exploded out of the avalanche yelling at the top of his lungs. "Who dares!"

Helio appeared before him, not missing the chance. He thrusted both hands forth, revealing a large rotating sphere of thin ice, holding together a swirling tornado of cold air, followed by another similar-sized sphere on his left, filled with boiling water. Both condensed and pressurized with force only found in deep oceans.

"Frost: Aliento de Akewa." He said, As he rapidly clapped his hands together, the spheres crashed together point-blank in front of the prince.

The recoil reverberated throughout the Nova's body, but he held his ground, as Mikrel was sent flying towards the Tasman Sea. While those, watching around the world, wondered who was helping the Novas.