Free The Steele Wolf (The Iron Butterfly) by Chanda Hahn

formulating in my brain, swinging the mace experimentally. I was down one point already. I would have to take him out, and fast.
    The Dømari shouted to begin and I had to hand it to him, the Stahler didn’t try anything new; he rushed me, same as before. Moving backwards, I got myself as close to the rope as I felt comfortable being. Focusing power, I waited and quickly sidestepped him and turned my back towards him in a graceful arc as I swung the mace as hard as I could towards the shield, and at the same time I focused more power behind it. The mace hit the wooden shield and I heard a grunt from him as the shield split into three pieces.
    “EIN!” the Dømari called out in my favor.
    Surprised, my bald opponent stumbled and this time I advanced, swinging the mace forward as I closed in.
    He grinned in triumph as he brought up his axe to catch the mace and wind it around the handle. He knew with one good tug he could disarm me. But that is what I was counting on. With the mace chain wrapped around the axe, he started to pull backwards on it and I held on and ran towards him. I jumped forward the same time he yanked leaping onto his bent knee, I kicked him as hard as I could in his chest using his own momentum to pull me into him, which caused him to stumble backwards over the rope and drop his hold on the axe handle.
    “Tvier, Prir and Svegari!” Which meant two, three and winner. I thanked God that these early rounds went quickly. Walking over to a stand, I grabbed a tankard of water and drank it down, making sure to stay hydrated and to not drink any mead. Sitting in the shadows of a huge tree, I waited and watched the opponents.  
    How’s Fenri doing? I asked Faraway.
    He’s won all of his matches, Faraway answered back. So have Bvork and a few others.
    My next match, I waited to see what the other opponent was bringing into the ring before selecting my weapon. Luckily it was a sword. Feeling more confident, I followed a similar procedure of fighting, only this time I made attempts to draw out the fighting a little longer and added more hard strikes to the shield before using power to crack it in two. I didn’t have to use power to work on disarming them of their swords. I used the basic training I learned from Garit and Kael.
    I grinned as I thought about Kael accusing me of not engaging in combat. I did get disarmed once again, but the score was tied one-one. It came down to sword skill and stamina. I got pushed over the rope once and then the score was two-one and I was able to push him over the rope. Finally, I was able to disarm him, and take the win. I watched tiredly as his sword hit the dirt. I heard cursing and kicking as he walked out of the ring.
    Odin slowly walked over to me and handed me more water, being careful to not show me too much attention. “You’re slowing down, lass, but not as much as the larger brutes. If you keep your focus, maybe you can do this.”
    Nodding my head, I took another swallow, refusing to say a word lest someone hear me. I was physically exhausted and losing control. I was drawing on more and more of Faraway’s strength. More cries of disappointment and shouts of congratulations were heard as another match ended.
    “I think it’s gonna be close,” Odin whispered as he covered his mouth and stroked his beard to hide his words. “I think it will be between Bvork, Fenri and that one.” Odin tilted his head towards the far arena and I felt my face turn into a disgusted frown. It was the Stahler clansmen with the dirty furs and helms who had assaulted me the night before.  
    Oh, great, I thought, just what I needed. When my turn came again to fight, I noticed we were now being paired against the winners from the other arenas.
    Fenri was pitted against Bvork and they were equally matched in strength and swordsmanship.   I could tell from the way they taunted each other, that there was some intense dislike between the two men. They weren’t fighting for a simple win;