Chapter 356: Fifteen Minutes of Hell And Three Days Countdown

Chapter 355: Fifteen Minutes of Hell And Three Days Countdown

Sophia nodded firmly. "I won’t forget next time. I promise."

Brynhild’s smile was soft at first—approving—but it didn’t last. She tilted her head slightly, attention shifting to the warmth on her skin, the angle of the light. She didn’t need eyes to know where the sun sat.

"I have about fifteen minutes left," Brynhild said calmly, "before I need to return home to Raina."

Sophia blinked. "Fifteen minutes?"

"Yes." Brynhild’s lips curved again, this time into something sharper. "And that means training is about to get much tougher."

Sophia frowned. "What do you mean?"

Brynhild’s smile deepened, dangerous and pleased, like a blade being drawn slowly from its sheath.

"You’ll find out."

And for the first time that morning, true dread curled in the pit of Sophia’s stomach.

---

Brynhild wasted no time. When she told Sophia that training was about to become much tougher, she meant it.

She stepped forward, planting her boots firmly into the packed earth, and raised her voice—not loud, but precise. The kind of tone that didn’t need shouting to command obedience.

"Everyone," she said, "spread out."

The training grounds shifted instantly. Clusters broke apart. Circles widened. Weapons were adjusted, grips tightened. Something changed in the air—not excitement, not nerves, but focus. Heavy. Intentional.

Sophia barely had time to roll her shoulders before Brynhild spoke again.

"Everyone is going to spar with each other. You will rotate with each other," Brynhild told them.

Shocked sounds rippled through the training grounds.

"Rotate?" they asked.

"Yes," Brynhild told them. "Some of you are too focused on each other—a specific person—when you shouldn’t be. It’s to the point that you know each other’s tells, and that is not improvement. The beasts you are about to face are not familiar. Familiarity isn’t going to help you here."

Orion smiled despite himself. He had been kind when he trained the trainees, but Brynhild was stern, and she didn’t come to play. The trainees were in for a lot of work.

"And I don’t want anyone half-assing this. If you do, then you might as well kiss your days goodbye, especially because you wouldn’t get the chance to not put in effort during the test," she told them.

They nodded.

Brynhild observed all of them, then smiled faintly. "Begin."

And so the chaos began.

Brynhild observed Sophia as her first opponent stepped forward.

Then another.

Then another.

What started as one-on-one sparring turned into something else entirely. Sophia moved constantly—short swords flashing, daggers spinning free and returning to her hands as if pulled by invisible thread. She adjusted to different fighting styles, different rhythms, different strengths.

No one fought carefully. They fought like their lives were on the line.

Sweat slicked Sophia’s skin. Her breathing stayed steady—not because it was easy, but because she refused to let it break.

She couldn’t shift like they could. No wolf to lend her speed, no instinct to surge forward and take control.

So she relied on what she had.

And Orion’s voice, lodged deep in her memory.

"Don’t stop moving. Persevere. Push forward."

At some point, the sparring stopped feeling like sparring.

It became a full melee.

The training grounds erupted.

Steel rang against steel. Bodies collided. Wolves shifted mid-fight. The ground trembled beneath pounding feet.

Sophia barely registered when someone slammed into her from the side. She rolled with it, came up swinging, ducked beneath a clawed swipe that would’ve taken her head off.

She fought three people at once, then four.

Someone went down. Someone else took their place. The person who went down stood up, fighting the next. It was organized chaos.

Her muscles screamed. Her wrists burned. Her thighs shook. But she didn’t stop.

Especially not when arrows started flying through the air.

The arrows were not from the trainees. No—this was from guards whom Garron had brought in to train them.

Sophia didn’t stop to think. She knew a single second could risk it all. An arrow landed right next to her feet just as another trainee attacked her.

She moved, fighting back against the trainee, not letting a moment of weakness slow her.

Garron stood at the edge, bow in hand, face carved from stone. The guards and hunters he had called in joined him, loosing arrows in precise patterns that forced the trainees to think beyond the fight in front of them.

Fight or dodge.

Attack or survive.

Sophia twisted, ducked, rolled. A blade skimmed her shoulder as she dropped flat, an arrow screaming overhead where her head had been a breath earlier.

Brynhild and Orion walked through it all.

Through flying arrows.

Through clashing steel.

Through shifting wolves and shouting voices.

"Your stance is too open," Brynhild said to one trainee, tapping their hip with the flat of her blade as an arrow thudded into the ground beside them.

Orion shoved another trainee aside just as an arrow passed through the space where their throat had been. "Eyes up," he growled. "You die when you tunnel."

Sophia barely noticed when Orion passed her—until his hand caught her elbow mid-spin, redirecting her momentum just enough to avoid a collision.

"Don’t overextend," he muttered. "You’re tired." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

She gritted her teeth. "I am, but I’m not giving up."

"I never said you should," Orion told her, and just as quickly as he reached her, he was gone.

She smiled and kept moving.

Time blurred.

The training grounds reeked of sweat and groans. Some who couldn’t handle the training gave up, but the majority stayed.

After what felt like an eternity—but was barely twenty minutes—Brynhild left the training grounds to return home.

Orion stayed after she left. He had work to do, but he spent about forty more minutes with the trainees. Before leaving, he informed them that they had three days to get better and be more prepared, because the test would take place in three days.

That made everyone even more serious. Those who had been slacking before felt revived. This was what they had been waiting for.

---

Those three days were brutal.

No one held back.

Brynhild appeared briefly each day, her presence sharp and focused, offering corrections that cut straight to the bone before leaving again.

Caspian joined despite the stiffness in his back, teaching strategy, movement, and awareness.

Daniel sparred with the trainees too. Seeing more elders join in training showed everyone that whatever was coming was serious—far more brutal than they had expected.

Sophia had not expected Daniel to fight the way he did—not with one hand, not with that level of control. He dismantled opponents with precision and calm, proving without words that strength wasn’t defined by what was missing.

She learned from him.

They all did.

Except Holly.

Holly stayed home, only showing up when she felt like it. The only reason Garron allowed it was because whenever she did show up, she put in effort.

But she didn’t believe the test would be as serious as Orion and the elders claimed. She tried to tell the others, but they didn’t listen, pointing out that Orion wouldn’t be training Sophia so harshly if it wasn’t dangerous—and that the elders wouldn’t be involved if it wasn’t serious.

No matter how much she tried to convince them, they didn’t believe her. Eventually, she stopped trying. Besides, the test would help her with what she planned for Sophia.

Three days passed in blood, sweat, and exhaustion. After training each day, the trainees lined up at the medical facility for herbs to soothe their battered bodies.

The night before the test, Garron instructed them to sleep and get enough rest.

They obeyed.

And suddenly, it was morning.

The day of the test had arrived.