Edelgard warily accepted the heavy, rust covered axe from the professor.
Lightly running her finger over the dull, uneven edge, she felt little bits of oxidized metal flake off onto her gloves before fluttering to the ground.
When Byleth had invited her to join in some one on one training with her over the weekend she had been excited about the prospect. But this…wasn't what she had expected.
"Don't do more than she can handle, kid. I know you can get a little...intense with your training."
Perhaps the initial response of Jeralt and his mercenaries to Byleths' invitation had more truth to it than she realized. She vaguely remembered some chuckling with amusement while others shook their heads in sympathy.
One had stared wide eyed in horror, then bowed in prayer, gently whispering, "Goddess help you."
That last response had amused Edelgard.
Besides, through the moons she had been under the professor's tutelage, her time spent training and in battle with the woman had been tough, but hardly enough to warrant a response like that.
She had been sure that it was just the mercenaries over exaggerating, as mercenaries had a tendency to do.
Now, she was beginning to question that notion.
"What exactly are we hoping to accomplish here, professor?" She asked as Byleth hefted her own weapon - a rusty iron sword snapped near the center of its blade.
"You'll see," She said flatly, offering no other explanation before handing her a small orb, strung through with a letter cord. "Wear this."
"And 'this' is...?"
She gave a flat stare in response. A response Edelgard had learned was akin to asking her to trust her. Well, after all the battles her teacher had led her and her comrades in the Black Eagles through, she had earned trust enough for that.
Edelgard accepted the orb, pinching it between her fingers to examine it closer. The light of the sun, reflected slightly off of the stone, which seemed relatively clear. Other than that, the stone was unremarkable. Slipping it around her neck, she threaded her white hair through it and flaring it out behind her. The stone settled over her armor with little fanfare.
Giving Byleth a questioning gaze, her teacher responded by simply turning and headed off into the forest.
Edelgard narrowed her eyes, but chose not to say anything. The bandits that they were allegedly her to clear out weren't this way. Perhaps they were going to set traps for an ambush?
Trodding deeper into the trees, they eventually stopped at a thicket, and here Byleth settled, leaning against a tree, arms crossed. Edelgard initially thought to lean on her axe, but didn't trust that the rusted metal wouldn't snap if she put her weight on it, and settled to lean against a tree opposite her teacher instead.
"Are we waiting to draw them into an ambush?" Edelgard mused eventually.
She knew the answer to that already. If they were setting an ambush, they would have set traps or done something to draw the bandits out of the village to gain the upper hand. There seemed to be little tactics involved with this, save for the cover of the forest around them.
Byleth shook her head, sending dark teal hair shaking back and forth. "No, there's no need. They'll come to us."
"Really? How can you be so certain?"
"Don't worry, they will." Her teacher's voice lent a sense of casual certainty. "They'll come out of the village to meet us no matter where we are. This thicket will be the safest place for us for this exercise."
"I...see."
Edelgard definitely didn't see. It made no tactical sense for the bandits who'd captured the small village to give up the cover that its modest stone walls surrounding it offered.
Even if the brigands thought it was just the two of them luring them out, even a novice tactician would expect another enemy force to attack from another side and attempt to retake the village and leave part of their force behind.
Of course, there was no ambush waiting to retake the village. Nor had they done anything to announce their presence. It was just her and Byleth in a thicket, carrying rusty and broken weapons.
Byleth chuckled. "No, you don't see yet, and that frustrates you."
It irked her that her teacher didn't elaborate further. Edelgard's lips drew into a thin line, biting back a retort that turned into a sigh. "You are as astutely observant as always."
"You trusted me enough to tell you about your past. I'll ask you to trust me enough to know that no matter how ridiculous what we're about to do may seem, it works."
"And what we're about to do is fight bandits with rusty and broken weapons."
Byleth simply nodded, "Exactly." before her head tilted to the side, listening.
"What is it?" Edelgard asked, trying to hear what her teacher heard.
"Right on time. They're coming. Get ready."
Edelgard straightened, hefting the rusty axe. At the very least, the handle was covered in leather straps so it wouldn't slip out of her grip. The shouts of people, accompanied by the sound of brush being trampled, and twigs snapping echoed through the forest, signaling the imminent arrival of their foes.
"Remember, don't make the first move," Byleth murmured. "Let them come to us."
Edelgard nodded.
It began simply enough.
With a roar, a single bandit broke through the brush, wielding iron gauntlets charging straight towards her.
The attack was clumsy, and even in heavy armor, Edelgard easily sidestepped the wildly thrown punches, following up with a swing of her axe that should have taken the man's arm off.
But it missed.
Byleth's follow up strike missed as well.
Then the chaos started.
The rest of the bandits broke through the trees, like a horde of bees swarming out of a destroyed hive. Within moments, Edelgard was fighting for her life.
There was little time to think as she and her teacher moved to cover each other. Perhaps it was confidence in her and her teacher's abilities that allowed her to continue dodging the majority of the strikes coming her way. She was grateful for her armor for covering her mistakes.
Through the mess of battle, she was peripherally aware that there were enough bandits that only about eight of them could really attack them at a time. Which was still a ridiculously high number for two people to take on at once, even Crest bearers such as themselves.
Especially with rusty and broken weapons.
That was before the magic and arrows began raining.
The battle passed in a haze, and over time, injuries piled up on both parties' ends, though through careful use of the Crest of Flames and more than an occasional vulnerary or concoction, she and Byleth persisted.
More than once, her teacher saved her in the nick of time when she slipped up. As always, it seemed Byleth had a sixth sense for when others were in danger.
The battle wore on long - longer than any battle had any right to persist. Hours passed in their desperate bid to simply survive the onslaught.
A cold part of Edelgard that sounded very much like Hubert wondered if Byleth had brought her out here to die. Would Rhea have been involved? No, this was all Byleth's idea, right? Just training.
But of course, training accidents happened all the time.
Quite suddenly, the tide of the battle shifted.
It started when the first bandit who had attacked - who miraculously was still alive - when his gauntlets shattered. In fact, when a small lull in the battle presented itself to stop and observe, she noted that there were others whose weapons were in similar conditions.
Well, Byleth was the daughter of the Blade Breaker.
"Ninety-five."
"...What?"
"Edelgard, here: take this."
Edelgard quickly dropped the rusty, but still miraculously intact axe and accepted the fresh steel one from Byleth. It felt light in comparison, even with her aching arms and exhausted state.
In the heat of the moment, she didn't think to question where Byleth had been keeping that axe on her person at the time, but noted that Byleth had drawn a steel sword for herself. From…somewhere.
The change in the tide of battle was nearly instantaneous. Even as exhausted as she was, with a proper axe in her hand, and a proper sword in Byleth's, the bandits quickly fell, one by one. Until at last, the stragglers fell under her axe.
Edelgard collapsed to her knees, dropping the axe. She retched.
"And one-hundred."
"What…" Edelgard wiped her mouth, then breathed deeply, in and out, trying to set her rebelling body in order. Exhaustion was quickly catching up with her. "What are you counting?" It couldn't have been the bandits. There hadn't been quite that many.
"Hmm? Oh, it's just my…internal clock. I try not to let my training go on longer than that. Here."
Edelgard looked up to see a canteen of water presented to her and quickly snatched it up. Careful not to drink too fast, the liquid was still amazing, even if it was lukewarm.
"So, how do you feel?"
Terrible, like she had just spent an entire day doing the most intense physical training one could. Even with the fatigue, she straightened, leaning on her thankfully not rusty axe and with as much dignity as she could muster stated:
"I'm fine."
"You don't need to keep a mask up out here, Edelgard. It's just us."
Edelgard glanced around, the now silent forest littered with the bodies of the whole company of bandits. The bandits that they had spent an entire day fighting. "Honestly professor, that wasn't training, that was insanity. You're insane."
"But it worked, didn't it?"
"I'm…not sure what you mean."
"Your skills with the axe, don't they feel sharper?"
"After wielding that lump of rusted metal for how long I did, any normally balanced axe would feel leagues better. Besides, training with an unbalanced axe, especially one heavy and blunt with rust would be detrimental to my form, not beneficial. Surely you knew this, professor."
"No, I'm serious. Try something."
Her tone was nearly the same as it always was, but something - perhaps a desire to prove to her teacher that her 'training exercise' made no sense for improving any skills - goaded Edelgard into trying.
She was wholly unprepared for the lighting which crashed down as she slammed her axe - partly in frustration - at a nearby tree. Said tree was bisected and blown to bits, and Edelgard had to shield her eyes from the resulting chunks of wood that flew out after.
Edelgard's eyes glanced down to the unsuspecting gem, still hanging by that leather cord around her neck. Was the trinket charged with magic in some way to let the wielder do something like that? "Is this a joke professor?"
"No, it's called a knowledge gem. I found it on my excursion to the Red Canyon. It seemed pretty unremarkable but someone I know," her eyes glanced to the side, but Edelgard didn't see anyone there, "let me know how valuable something like this can be."
"What exactly did it do? I've never trained explicitly in reason magic with you before." Which wasn't a lie. She hadn't ever trained with Byleth in it. But something like this was still beyond her capabilities.
"It simply allows you to draw out your potential, hone your skills quicker. I doubt whoever crafted it imagined someone would be as reckless as we just were with it."
"And if I take it off, will I retain what I gained?"
"See for yourself."
Unclasping the cord, she held the gem up to her eye. It was just as unassuming as it had been when she'd first seen it earlier…this morning? Dusk was already upon them, the stars beginning to peak out in the night sky.
Handing the stone over to Byleth, she readied her axe, and consciously focused on repeating what she had done mere minutes ago.
Another thunder strike, another tree split in twain, charred beyond recognition.
"I think the results speak for themselves. How does your heavy armor feel?"
"My armor? What about it?"
"Does it feel lighter to you?"
"I…suppose." To be honest, after a while, Edelgard had forgotten she was wearing it. Which was strange. After an arduous battle, it should feel heavier, not light as is did now.
"Odd, isn't it?" Byelth noted. "Especially considering you just started training with it a few weeks ago."
"It's impossible to condense months or years of training into a single day. None of this makes any logical sense."
Byleth smiled. "No it doesn't. For now, let's head to the village before the adrenaline wears off and we crash."
Edelgard agreed, but only made it halfway to the village before she blacked out.
A/N: Or, at Sothis' suggestion, Byleth takes Edelgard power leveling so she can have s+ in axes and armor way early. Not that Edelgard wasn't broken enough already.
"Next time, we're bringing wyverns."
"Why?"
"They're busted. Trust me."
Let me know what you think, or if you want to see more shenanigans.