Franz was perched on the edge of his seat partially in anticipation for the morning, which would mark the end of his frigid room, and partially because his limbs were so stiff he couldn't really move. He watched the digital timer on the holo-screen before him as it began a 10-second countdown.
Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven... some groggy faces in the bored audience began to stir and look at their own holo-screens. Six, Five, Four... Franz fell out of his chair after attempting to get up. Three, Two, One... He managed to scramble up to his booth and prepared to make his announcements.
Zero.
"Well then, everyone, it truly had been an amazing experience sitting here looking at some snowy forest for the last two days..." He paused, expecting some laughter from the crowd, but after a few seconds of unamused glares from both sides of the stands, he continued deciding to drop his typical satirical persona.
"Anyways, let's just get this over with and convert the arena back to its default."
A couple of unenthusiastic cheers and fist pumps came from the audience, the humans truly didn't care. However, the Ilfvan most certainly did. Their future depended on whether their new "Hero" was going to live up to that name.
Looking out on the disappearing forest onlookers were met with the sight of one brutally mangled corpse coated red in blood and another body a few metres in front of it a blueish figure discernable to be a rather cold and weary Nero.
The respective medics rushed forward to confirm the result. Then the corpse of the girl was put into a black bag and a stretcher was brought out for the young male. Franz chirped up again:
"So folks looks as though the Elves win once again, Nerd or whatever he's called will go on to the next round, however more importantly we are going to take a full day's break from the war."
Murmurs spread through the stands which pressured the short man to quickly try and reassure spectators.
"Now now everybody, nothing has changed, I am certain that this world will still very much be ours in one Earth-time fortnight. However, to ensure that no battlefields obstructing our views and the reach of the drones' cameras will pop up again, the arena will be going under some repairs, upgrades and reprogramming, so until then I bid you adieu."
The humans all trudged out, cursing the trees that blocked their view of what may have been an interesting fight. On the other side, the Ilfvan had to be ushered from the stands so that repairs could begin.
The remainder of their day was spent busily running businesses as normally as they all could in the face of possible extinction, and the word quickly spread of their second consecutive victory over the humans in many nights.
Nero's fame began to grow, no one wanted to get their hopes too high and yet something told them better times could lie ahead.
- - - - -
"Hello again, looks like you survived another battle."
"Yeah, go me."
Nero had been semi-conscious when he was taken to the medical facilities, once he had arrived there he was told to take off his clothes and bathe in lukewarm water. He had only a few scratches, and a couple of deeper gashes but nothing that would take very long to heal, so the consequences of extended exposure to freezing conditions were dealt with first.
Once his body temperature was brought back up to safer levels, he dried himself with a garment imbued with magic that absorbed the water on his body. From there his clothes were returned to him, having been dried by Shuri, through her Solar attribute.
It was a Light attribute that had healing properties but also a side effect which (when exploited to its max) emitted a substantial heat.
Now that he looked more like his natural pale, Nero sat down on a chair allowing the healer to get to work on the scrapes, bruises and gashes that littered his body.
"So I'm guessing the fight wasn't that difficult?" Shuri questioned.
The male sat there scowling but kept quiet.
Receiving no response she shrugged before continuing the conversation:
"I suppose not then. Well honestly aside from the slightly blue tinges you've got on your digits you're relatively unscathed. You won't even be needing any potions or medicines." She paused and then pouted before teasing her patient in an attempt to get a reply.
"It's a bit of a shame really, why couldn't you have died a bit more? We'll only get to spend a short while together in comparison to yesterday."
"Oh yeah why's that?" Nero asked.
She smiled, he hadn't said a word since his arrival and she was starting to worry.
"Well it doesn't take very long to heal a couple of scratches, you clearly underestimate my healing ability."
He rolled his eyes unamused by her playful tone, he was not in the mood.
I didn't mean why it'll take long. I was asking why it's a shame we don't get to spend more time together.
Shuri made an overly dramatic face of woe.
"Oh, how could you say that! I am so greatly offended! How will I sleep at night knowing one does not look forward to our time with each other?"
It was the over the top fake posh accent that got through to him, both Ilfvan looked at each other trying to stifle their laughter.
"Pffftt Ha ha ha hah." The male broke first and cracked a suppressed smile before losing all composure.
Soon afterwards Shuri made playful jabs about how she broke through his
'tough guy act' then proceeded to lose all concentration on her actually job instead joining her patient in hysterics.
He chuckled till his sides hurt and then after taking a few deep breaths said: "Shuri you are one persistent funny asshole you know."
"Wow, charmer." She managed, still rolling about on the floor.
"I try my best."
"Yeah, you are gonna have to work on that to become the Hero they're all claiming you to be."
"Ughhhh." He groaned. "I don't care about them though, I do this for myself, I can't be their 'Hero' or whatever.
By this point, Shuri had gotten up and finished her spell. She looked down to the side unable to face him and went a bit quiet, murmuring something Nero couldn't quite pick up on.
"Sorry, could you repeat that?" He asked.
She faced him, cheeks slightly flushed, and bashfully answered:
"I said, why don't you be my Hero then?"