because his Elemental Resistance is the perfect counter to the Ice King's frosty magic.
The Tree House was usually a place of warmth, but today, the air felt brittle. I woke up to the smell of frost not the morning dew kind, but the magical, biting kind that smells like old refrigerators and loneliness.
"Finn! Jake!" I shouted, swinging out of my hammock.
I didn't need to look outside to know what was happening. My Elemental Attunement was screaming. The moisture in the air was being forcibly crystallized. By the time I got to the living room, Finn was already struggling to pull his golden sword out of a block of ice that had encased the weapon rack.
"Kael! The Ice King is on a kidnapping spree again!" Finn yelled, his breath visible in the air. "He took some princesses, and he just tried to flash-freeze the Tree House!"
"I felt it," I said, grabbing my travel pack. I noticed Jake was shivering so hard his jowls were flapping. "Jake, grow some fur or something. We're heading to the Ice Peaks.
The Ice Kingdom was a wasteland of jagged blue peaks and penguins with attitude problems. As we crossed the border, the temperature plummeted to forty below zero. Finn was huddled in his bear-hat, and Jake had turned himself into a thick, wooly sweater for Finn to wear.
I walked ahead, dressed in nothing but my standard tunic and trousers.
"Bro," Finn chattered, his teeth clicking together. "How are you... not a... human-sicle right now?"
"My body just doesn't register the cold the same way," I explained. It was more than that my Resistance was actually absorbing the ambient thermal energy to keep my core temperature perfect. "It feels like a mild breeze to me. Stay close, I'll block the wind for you."
The Ice King's Hobby Room
We broke into the Ice King's castle, crashing through a window. Inside, it was a mess of frozen furniture and kidnapped princesses trapped in large ice cages. The Ice King himself was floating around, playing a drum set made of snow.
"Give it up, Ice King!" Finn shouted, jumping out of Jake's warmth to strike a heroic pose. "Release the princesses!"
"Oh, look! It's the little human and his dog," the Ice King cackled, his crown glowing. "And... wait. Who's the other one? You're not in my fan-fiction!"
"I'm the brother," I said, stepping forward. "And you're about to have a very bad day."
The Ice King shrieked, "Ice Bolt! Blizzard Blast! Cold... Blue... Thingy!"
He unleashed a barrage of jagged ice shards and freezing beams. Finn and Jake dived for cover behind a frozen pillar. I didn't move. The beams hit me square in the chest, the blue light splashing harmlessly around my body like water hitting a rock only felt a tingle.
The Ice King's jaw dropped. "What?! Why aren't you a statue?!
I watched the way he moved his hands. My Accelerated Learning was picking up the patterns of his magic. I couldn't cast it yet I didn't have a magical crown but I could see the flow of the energy.
"Your technique is sloppy," I said, walking through the storm of snow. "You're pulling the energy from the crown, but you're venting the excess heat through your beard. If you keep doing that, you're going to short-circuit your own spell."
"I don't need advice from a teenager!" the Ice King screamed, flying at me.
He tried to freeze the floor under my feet to make me slip, but I was already in tune with the ice. I shifted my weight, using the lack of friction to slide toward him with increased speed. I grabbed his arm, and for a second, our energies touched.
The cold from his body was immense enough to kill a normal man instantly. But I just felt a slight tingle. I used a wrestling move I'd seen Jake do once, combined with a pressure-point strike I'd learned from an old manual in the Tree House.
CRACK.
I didn't break his arm, but I hit the nerve that controlled his grip, and his flight spell faltered.
"Finn, now!" I yelled.
Finn didn't miss a beat. He leaped off Jake's back, delivering a flying kick that sent the Ice King tumbling into his own drum set.
"Mathematical!" Finn cheered. He ran to the cages, using his sword to shatter the locks. "Come on, Princesses! Run for it while he's down!"
As the princesses scrambled toward the exit, I stood over the Ice King. He looked small, pathetic, and confused. My magic resistance had completely nullified his primary weapon.
"You're a weird kid," the Ice King muttered, rubbing his head. "Why won't you freeze?"
"I'm just built different," I said, looking at his crown. I could feel the ancient, chaotic power inside it. It was a dark, heavy element. I wasn't ready to be "in tune" with that yet. It felt dangerous.
Back at the Tree House, once the adrenaline had faded, Finn was busy telling a wide-eyed BMO about how I walked through a blizzard like it was sunshine.
"Kael, you were like a wall of fire!" Finn said, swinging a stick around. "The Ice King was all 'Zap!' and you were all 'Nope!' It was the coolest thing I've ever seen."
"It's just one of my gifts, Finn," I said, sitting by the window. I looked out toward the Ice Kingdom. I had learned a lot today not just about the Ice King's magic, but about my own limits. I was resistant, yes, but the Ice King was just one crazy wizard. There were bigger threats in Ooo.
"Hey, Kael?" Finn asked, settling down. "Can you teach me how to do that? The thing where you don't get cold?"
I looked at him and sighed. "I can't teach you the resistance, Finn. That's something I was born with. But," I stood up and grabbed a couple of practice swords, "I can teach you how to move so fast the attack never catches you. Ready?"
Finn's eyes lit up. "Ready!"
As we practiced into the night, I felt the elements around us settling. I was getting stronger, and as long as I was around, the Land of Ooo was going to have a very hard time hurting my brother.