Chapter 97

Cara found Vivian and Flint in the crowd of coppers. Flint was still looking fine like her but Vivian was unusually quite, clearly full of nerves.

"Did you see the number of people out there? It's already so noisy, how will we concentrate when they will start cheering," comolained Flint.

"Have you seen Roisin?" asked Cara.

"Yeah some time ago, why? You don't want to enter the ring near her, that will be a bad decision, " said Flint.

"What do you think I can't take her?" Cara asked.

"No, but if the two hammer coppers collided too soon in the ring, I know, neither of you will stop until one is out, it can ruin the festival fir the other, my bets are obviously on you, but you don't want that kind of start with someone from your own clan, you will be left looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life, don't forget, you wil both be training and studying very close together, " said Flint.

"Whatever, I don't want to think so much, I just want to swing my hammer, " she said.

A horn sounded from somewhere ahead of them and the crowd started moving forward.

"It's starting, they are getting up on the stage, best of luck guys, " said Flint and ran off ahead. Cara hugged and said good luck to Vivian and got mixed in the moving crowd too. No matter what she definitely didn't want to face Vivian or Flint.

The large circular stage was soon filled with all the coppers. Cara was surprised that all of them got on the stage with so much space between them. The stage was built of well refined slabs of some rocks brought from far away, there were smaller circular patterns on the stage, each copper was standing inside one of the circles. There were a few feets between each of them, the stage was huge, she couldn't see the other edge of the ring from where she was standing.

Another horn sounded, this one louder and longer. She knew what it meant there were seconds before the fight will start. And then a single loud drum was hit somewhere which resonated in the sudden silence that had fallen. Cara saw the people in the audience in the stands and on the railings above, they were still talking and cheering, but for some reason they couldn't hear any of them.

Cara looked around her, she saw some familiar faces, some unfamiliar ones. They were all clutching their weapons in their hands wondering if the fight had begun, but according to the rules, after the drum, it was supposed to begin. There was a boy on the left of Cara with a long rod of copper with a chain at the end, on her right was a girl with two circular disks on each hand, they were sharp. Cara saw as all three of them moved at once, she felt she was too late for the action, because the boy had already started moving and thrusting his spear towards her, but Cara too annoyed at herself raised her hammer and launched an attack to scare her opponent away. She had no idea what the girl might be doing behind her back, she felt utterly stupid, her mother would definitely hate this start to her fight. She remembered her owrds once when she was giving lessons to her and Steven. "Sometimes when we feel desperate, we try to cover our mistakes and fear by acting too loudly and recklessly, I have seen many times fighter just running at their opponents shouting loudly when they find themselves loosing" Cara felt that she was doing exactly that.

Just as her hammer was about to come in contact with his spear, a wall sprang out from the floor in between them, stopping them in their tracks. Cara turned around and saw another wall just like it raise behind her. The whole stage was now full of walls here and there. It had turned into a maze. Cara understood what was happening, her opponent had been selected for her, and whoever it was, was at the end of the path in front of her.

Cara moved forward, in between the two walls following the narrow gap, the walls started curving towards the left slowly, she started hearing noises through the walls, the fights had started, just beyond the wall beside here there was someone fighting. The silence that had falled was gone now, and the noise of fighting had again started to rise the adrenaline in her body.

She hears running footsteps in front of her, the narrow gap suddenly widened into a circular clearing, there were four more such gaps in front of her, and from each of them four more people emerged all looking just as surprised.

Cara felt like fate was playing a sick game with her, because one of the coppers who had emerged was Troy, then there was Roisin smiling moving her hammer from one to other, her hammer looked a but red with blood, it looked like she had already defeated one copper and she hadn't gone easy. Ther was one more familiar face, Morris, carrying his shield in front of him. The fourth was a Seltic, with an axe.

The Seltic made the first move, he was nearest to Morris, so he swung his axe at him and Morris blocked it with his shield. Cara didn't have to think who she will be fighting because Roisin was already approaching her.

Cara had been wanting this fight for very long, suddenly all the bad memories she had with Roisin in them flashed and her blood boiled. The two dwarven girls swung their hammer with full force and they collided in the middle creating a loud sound and a shockwave. The three boys were left staring at them for a moment forgetting their own fights.

Cara knew her hammer had held, she thanked her dad and pulled her hammer back already swinging it forward, Roisin did the same but this time Cara was able to push her back.

The fight was becoming a simple show of strength, Cara was simply swinging at Roisin like she was a nail in the wall, and little by little she was being pushed back into the wall. Roisin had always acted like she was the queen, and because Cara was the quieter one she had thought that she was the submissive one, but Cara was soon making her realise who was stronger. The sudden change in expression on Roisin's face was unnerving, she had never seen her scared. Roisin finally dropped her hammer and leaned back on the wall sliding down on her knees, Cara smashed her hammer on the wall right above her, Roisin closed her eyes and clutched her head in defeat.

Cara moved back and looked at the others. Morris and the Seltic were still involved in their fight. This left Troy and her.

She hadn't thought this far. Troy had no choice left he had to fight Cara. He had held back so far, wanting a fair fight, but now he couldn't hold back anymore. Three of them were his classmates so he will have to fight one of them at least.

Cara didn't know what to do, her mother's face again appeared in her mind.

"Are you really going to throw away your life for an idiot boy," she would say.

Cara brought her hammer up in a defensive position and got ready. Troy saw her confirmation and charged with his sharp trident a foot in front of him.

Cara knew she would have to fight differently now, Troy had a different weapon, it was like a sword, he could move faster with it. Cara was holding her hammer in front of her, Troy also feeling the disadvantage she had, thought that she was going to use the hammer to stop his trident. So he increased his speed and held his trident loosely ready to change it's orientation.

Cara knew she had one chance, one trick she had seen in a book, it instinctual for everyone to assume a hammer weilder could do one of two things, but to fully utilize a hammer you needed to let it move you. So when Troy was almost near her and at high speed. She let the hammer go, the heavy head swung downward and Cara used it as a lever to swing her body sideways, the hammer was actually heavy then her, it was the great strength of th dwarves and her clan. Troy was caught completely offguard, he was too surprised to see how easily Cara was able to move her body with the hammer, even he had hadn't thought the hammer would be so much heavier then her. Where he had thought rhe hammer was the weapon and she was moving it, now the hammer was the one moving her body. His trident went clear past her, her whole body was in the air and she swung her leg and landed a hard boot on his face. Troy went flying into the wall, Car had transferred all the momentum of the hammer into him. His trident the other way.

Troy was on the floor clutching his back, his trident was too far from him.

Morris had managed to defeat his opponent, she had missed how he managed to do that.

Morris looked at her. She had never really paid much attention to him before, he always remained quiet and alone, Flint was the only one with his too friendly personality who used to drag him a long sometimes with them.

But now in a moment as things were becoming more serious she felt sympathy towards his struggle and also admiration at his determinant eyes.

Cara and Morris fought, a very decent fight, they both tried everything they could. But Morris didn't fell for her tricks and she didn't for his. In the end they separated and went different ways looking for other opponents.

Cara had defeated two really strong opponents and it should be enough to get her the praise of the elders.