Conquering His Cold Heart

"Ring, ring, ring, ring." Several days after the event with the bandits Frost was suddenly awoken from his blissful sleep by a torrent of annoying ringing.

"Who's calling me so early in the morning?" He groggily sat up in bed, gently moving the two arms that were wrapped around his waist to the side. One being green and muscular while the other being white and dainty -albeit containing far more strength than the former.

The three engaged in quite the battle last night, the first time the two of them decided to work as a team rather than individuals. Of course he came out on top once again, even with their combined might they weren't able to completely satisfy his hunger, perhaps another was needed or maybe two.

Nevertheless he certainly enjoyed the combined experience and would make sure to engage in similar battles in the future.

Anyway back to the matter at hand. It wasn't the communication crystal that was ringing but the dungeon menu, meaning that it was either his father or one of his many siblings.

"Yo! Little brother how's it hanging." The loud voice of Indra bellowed through the screen followed by the image of him relaxing back against his sofa. His style was certainly different from his own, a lot more wood and cobalt colouring in the background.

"What do you want Indra?" Frost questioned in an irritated tone, annoyed at being awoken from his blissful sleep.

"Oh…seems I interrupted you little brother hehehehe don't worry I can call back in a little while if you'd prefer." A mischievous look adorned Indra's face as he peered through the screen to see the exposed skin of Daki and Maya.

"Hmph!" Frost didn't take kindly to his brother's perverted looks and instantly turned off the visual aspect of the call. Only he was allowed to see his girlfriend's naked body. He quickly donned his robes, entered the living room and sat on the sofa before reopening the visuals.

"Tch stingy, some people would call depriving others the chance to witness art a crime." Indra teased.

"Is that so, do you happen to agree Izuna?" Frost asked with a friendly smile, his words immediately causing Indra to sweat bullets and turn around in desperation only to see no one there.

"That was low."

"So is trying to take a peek at my girlfriend." The two brothers stared at one another for a good few seconds before laughing.

"So what'd you call me for so early in the morning?"

"I can't just want to chat with my favourite little brother."

"You sound like Aqua."

"…I think I'll take that as a compliment, knowing her she'd somehow know if I badmouthed her."

"True she does seem to be able to read my thoughts whenever we talk." Aqua called every few days to chat with him, constantly begging him to come and visit her in the northern oceans or at least allow her to visit him. In fact ever since the family gathering and the large update to the dungeon menu system, his contact with his family continued to grow.

Indra and Aqua were not the only ones he grew close with albeit being the most distinct. Indra especially was quickly becoming his best friend.

"Alright stop looking at me like that I'll tell you." Frost gave his brother the stink eye until he verbally explained the real reason for his call. "I just finished my first war. One of our much younger sisters Chala who specialises in avian monsters challenged me for some reason and as you probably guessed I'm pretty much destroyed her. She was a terrible match up element wise and position wise."

"Congratulations, I guess." Indra didn't seem too happy about the result.

"You'd think that wouldn't you but no instead of relishing in a hard won victory like your match against Gobuske I had to console our crying sister after she barely lasted an hour against my forces….I'm not good with crying women Frost." Indra wore an exhausted and almost traumatised expression as he relived that moment.

The poor girl wanted to test herself against one of the best dungeon cores around because in her mind she was worthy of an upper position, she even willingly gave herself a handicap by picking someone who had an advantage in their element. The result was harsh and heartbreaking for poor Chala who instantly burst into tears the moment her loss was announced.

Indra was thus inundated with glares from her guardian, Izuna and even their father hell even some his own monsters looked at him as if he was some kind of bully. The joy he was supposed to relish in was thus nothing but misery. Eventually Chala stopped crying but the whole idea of testing his skills against another sibling was ruined, he became despondent.

"So that's why you haven't called in a while." Frost now knew why it'd been over a week since they last talked. "So what changed, why are you calling now?"

"I need something to improve my mood, training with Izuna has helped but it's not enough. I need something to really get my blood pumping." Indra eyes flashed as he stared directly at Frost.

"If you want to have a war with me you can forget about it. I've already cleared my quota and have no time for a large scale war right now. My territory has just gotten popular, a sudden shift in the dungeon could ruin it's worth." Though he'd like to have another war at some point due to the enjoyable experience and bountiful rewards on offer now was not the time.

"I know, I know you've told me multiple times about your growing territory and to be honest I'm slightly in the same boat plus my monsters just went through a war they don't exactly want to go through another quite so soon." Though he had replaced the majority of his lost forces since the war with Chala they weren't up to code level wise.

"What then?"

"Hehehehe I asked Father for a new type of dungeon core challenge which he agreed to after several requests."

"You badgered him into it then."

"Pretty much, but I'm sure my disappointment with the war against Chala certainly helped." Indra didn't deny his persistent pestering. "Anyway the old man created a new challenge for us which allows dungeon cores to duel on an individual basis, no monsters just us and our skills. Interested?"

Frost leaned back against the sofa, cupping his chin as he thought about Indra's suggestion. To be honest the idea of duelling his siblings in single combat was quite interesting, especially against Indra who was said to be roughly on par with him training wise. Both had entered B-rank through their weapon mastery, and both were skilled in their use of chakra and magic.

Ice and lighting could pose for a very good match up given that neither held clear dominion over the other. For example if Frost was challenged by someone like Pyro for instance though he'd love to sock that arrogant elder brother of his in his smug face he'd immediately refuse.

Fire held too much advantage over ice especially in the early stages of development, he'd be nothing more than a punching bag in such a match up.

"Why haven't I heard anything about this from father?"

"Because he just designed it and wants us to be the exhibition match."

"By exhibition do you mean all our siblings will be watching?" If that was the case then he'd have to refuse, he didn't want his potential rivals to see how he fought.

"No, no it'll be completely private bar the result. I think the old man's set up some kind of bet between our siblings to see who wins." He did the same thing during the first dungeon war exhibition match.

"Alright as long as it's a private duel with only the results being broadcasted I'm game. Has he set any specific rules?"

"The only thing he asks is that we don't kill one another, anything else is fine. Our guardians are to be stationed in the duelling space with us to make sure nothing goes wrong so all we need to do is focus on fighting to our hearts content." Indra looked really revved up for the duel.

His passionate words and bright expression couldn't help but move Frost, he felt himself getting more and more fired up.

"When will we do this thing?" It was a bit early for a duel and he didn't want to be the one to abruptly wake up Maya from her dreams after what he put her through last night.

"How about tonight, around 6pm. The old man said we'll be sent a notification through the dungeon menu and that by clicking accept we'll be teleported to the duelling space with all our equipped gear."

"Alright 6 sounds good, I'll leave one of the kids in charge of monitoring the dungeon and inform Findlay and Khuno about it. They should be able to handle anything during my absence." Since both he and Maya would be indisposed he'd have to delegate some tasks.

"That's great see you then little brother and may the best lightning master win ciao." Indra ended the call with a cheeky grin and a wave causing Frost to light-heartedly laugh.

"You're so going down Indra."