It felt like every bit of breath left Asha at once as her body hit the ground, and though she got up as she had the first time, it was slower.
She was handling the blows well, all things considered, but she was far from immune from the pain she was feeling. Even so, she straightened as she met Xarakas's eyes, too proud to give him the satisfaction.
"And if I don't give up? Because the only way I'm not walking through those doors again tomorrow is if I physically can't." If she just had to survive his stupid test, she could do that.
"If you don't give up, then I expect you to run three miles every day before our training starts, in addition to doing a whole list of stretches and exercises to prepare you for what I teach you during our lesson block. If you slack off one day, everything doubles. Six miles instead of three, two hundred push ups instead of one hundred, you get the idea," Xarakas explained.
He crossed his arms over his chest as he watched her stand. She had spirit—he had to give her credit there.
"We'd start with basic combat and defense skills, as your last trainer ill prepared you. Then, once you've proven yourself adept at that, we can consider adding weapons to your training."
He listed his demands as if they would scare her off, but Asha didn't bat an eye. She had to prepare for everything else and do work outside her lessons. Why would this be any different?
The only problem she could foresee might be time. She might have to combine activities where she could or wake earlier or skip a meal or two—all of which she'd done before when she needed.
But of course, every time she thought she'd worked things out to where they were running smoothly, something like this came along and booted her right back to square one.
She just had to remind herself why she was doing this.
"Fine," Asha said without hesitation. "I'll get paper and a pen for us later, and you can give me a list of everything you want me to do every day before you leave. I'll get it done, no slacking and no complaints."
She met his eyes frankly. "For now, you said you were going to spend what's left of our three hours beating me to a pulp? Am I supposed to pretend this is educational and attempt to fight back, or do you mind if I focus on trying to take as few hits as possible?"