It became painfully obvious to everybody watching that there would be no grand finale, like there had been in years prior. The tributes were simply too cold and weak to fight properly. Instead, it became a matter of who would stay alive the longest.
And it was such that, over the next day and night, three more tributes succumbed to the arena's frozen grip.
He did not, but he came very close.
He had felt a strange, sudden burst of warmth, and was fumbling to get his clothes off when the trumpeted announcement rang out that he was the Victor.