"I DON'T HAVE ALL DAY TO WATCH YOU WEAKLINGS stumble around like withered trees gasping their last breaths!" Griselda's voice cracked through the air once again, her shout shaking the students out of their haze as if thunder had struck just above their heads.
Her piercing gaze swept across the trembling lines of students, each pair of eyes that met hers quickly lowering or darting away in fear.
"I don't care if you fell dizziness, or nausea," she growled, voice laced with disdain.
"You've got thirty seconds. I don't care if your head is spinning or your guts are twisting—if even one of you fails to stand straight in the next half-minute, I will personally strike your name from my course."
Her words were delivered with the finality of a judge's verdict.
"And your thirty seconds..." she continued, her voice now lower but somehow even sharper, "start now."
With that, she pulled out a sleek pocket watch and flicked it open with a click that felt far too loud in the tense silence.
