Xarakas narrowed his eyes at the princess as she agreed to his requirements for their training.
He was surprised that she so readily agreed but didn't appreciate her sass, so he moved forward and gave her a swift punch and shove, delivering a hard look as she hit the ground.
"If you're not learning anything from this, then you're either an idiot or you have a death wish. Besides, if you don't fight back then this time will just have been wasted, as it's cutting into my valuable training time."
Asha almost managed to block this hit, having been warned by what she assumed was anger glinting in his eyes.
On the one hand, it felt like a small victory to come that close, but on the other, it wasn't as if the victory made his punches hurt any less.
As she got up from hitting the ground, she glared at him. "Maybe you should've thought about wasted time before you decided you were going to try and intimidate me into quitting. I'll do the work you want, but at least spare me the insult of thinking I'm stupid enough to believe that you honestly mean today to be educational in any way. You already admitted you're just going to beat the shit out of me for three hours. You're just testing me. You don't intend on taking me seriously until I endure whatever shit you plan on giving out today and come back tomorrow."
"I'm not going to spell everything out for you, Princess" Xarakas rolled his eyes as she spoke, pacing around her again slowly as he decided what he would do next. "You may be used to your tutors handing you the answers, but don't expect such courtesy from me. This is a learning opportunity—figure it out."
With that said he moved again, and for the next few hours he continued to attack and occasionally counter attack as they sparred, getting a sense of what she was capable of and what she needed to work on.
Which was basically everything.
Her footwork was atrocious, her posture abysmal, and he could tell what she was going to do minutes before she decided to do it. But as the tower bells sounded the hour when their lesson ended, he finally stopped, moving to grab his cuirass and pull it back on as he wiped the blood from his knuckles.
"Three miles of running. One hundred pushups. One hundred sit-ups. I'll give you other exercises once you've managed those," he murmured as he pulled his jacket on, glancing over at her for a moment before sighing.
"A hot bath will feel nicer, but won't help in the slightest. A cold bath will help with the inflammation. Yarrow, nettle, and chamomile will help with the bruises. Marigold and comfrey will help with the scrapes. Halve the exercises for today, but do the full set starting after tomorrow."