My Second Chance Mate is a Barbarian (Sera and Fenris) novel Chapter 30

Sera

"Sera, you have to wake up. Now. You’re already late."

I groaned and tried to roll away, burying my face in the dark furs. My body felt like it was made of wet sand. "Go away, Mina. Five more minutes."

"Yvara is already in the yard," Mina hissed, her voice rising with a sharp edge of panic. "She doesn't do waiting. If you’re late, she’ll make you pay for it. Get up!"

I pulled the furs back over my head. "I'm not a soldier. I’m going back to sleep. Tell her I’m sick."

The room went quiet for a heartbeat. Then Mina yanked the furs back, leaving me exposed to the freezing mountain air. "Sera! Have you forgotten you have to fight Taya in six days? She’s going to kill you."

My eyes snapped open. The memory of the council meeting—the threat of the flogging and the challenge Fenris had thrown down—hit me like a bucket of ice water.

"Taya is brutal," Mina said, her face pale. "She’s actually trained for this. What happened in your room was a fluke. She was caught off guard because she didn't think you’d swing. On the day of the challenge, she’ll be ready. She's going to brutally fuck you up, Sera. You have to move."

I sat up, glaring at her through tangled hair. My head throbbed. "Fine. I'm up."

We walked to the training yard in silence. The sky was a flat, bruised grey, and the air was cold enough to turn my breath into thick clouds of steam. Yvara was already there, standing in the center of a patch of packed dirt. She had her arms crossed over her chest, watching me with the same bored expression she’d used on the council.

"I'm here," I said, rubbing the chill from my arms.

Yvara didn't say a word. She just moved.

Her boot connected with my stomach before I could even blink. The air left my lungs in a wheeze, and the world tilted sideways. I hit the dirt hard. I couldn't breathe. My throat locked up, and I stayed on my hands and knees, clawing at the frozen ground while my vision went white at the edges.

"Telegraphing," Yvara said. Her voice was flat. "You watched my eyes. In a real fight, you watch the shoulders. Get up."

“Wha…what the fuck!” I struggled to my knees, my chest burning as I finally managed to suck in a ragged breath. "What was that for?" I choked out. "That’s not fair."

"Taya won't warn you either," Yvara snapped. "Fair is a word for children in the South. If you want to survive here, you learn to take a hit. Get up."

I pushed myself to my feet, my stomach cramping.

Yvara moved again. She stepped into my space and drove her shoulder into mine, sending me stumbling backward. I stayed on my feet this time, my jaw locked tight.

"Better," she muttered. Then she swept my legs.

I hit the ground again. My hip barked against a buried rock, and a sharp line of pain shot up my side.

The next hour was a brutal cycle. Hit. Ground. Correction. Get up. Yvara only spoke to point out my failures. My feet were too wide. My weight was too far forward. I was flinching before she even swung.

Twenty minutes in, my ribs felt like they’d been hit with a hammer. An hour in, my arms were shaking so badly I couldn't keep my hands up. I bit my tongue during a particularly hard fall, and the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. It tasted like a dirty penny.

I saw Mina watching from a stone archway. I caught her eye once, looking for a break, but she looked away. No one was coming to pull me out of the dirt.

Yvara didn't let up. She hit harder as I slowed down. "Exhaustion is when mistakes happen," she said, her voice a low growl. "Taya will push you until you break. If you can't fight when you're tired, you're already dead."

Eventually, I stopped thinking. My brain shut off, and my body moved on pure instinct. Block. Dodge. Fail. Fall. Get up. The world narrowed to the dirt under my fingernails and the sight of Yvara's fists.

"Stop," Yvara said suddenly.

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