This was certainly one I had a lot of ideas for, but then I heard this fan song made for Age of Calamity earlier today and it basically gave me new ideas. Also, please no spoilers for Age of Calamity. I managed to convince my mom to get it as a present and I want to go into it about as blind as I can.
Anyway, this chapter ended up taking a while due to the amount of ideas I had… and then me asking if something would sound believable in a Three Houses Discord I'm in ending up distracting me. ...it at least gave me a neat picture of Edelgard with purple hair that I honestly like. May make something out of that in the future. *shrugs*
Just an FYI for you guys, this chapter has… minor crossover elements. I don't know how much this may bug you, but it's worth a mention since it'll be a part of the chapter. Just figured I'd explain it. Regardless, I hope that you guys enjoy this chapter.
Disclaimers: Fire Emblem belongs to Nintendo, Intelligent Systems, Koei Techmo, etc.
Byleth proceeded to brandish the Sword of the Creator as Marianne stood across from him. She had a somewhat calm smile in response as Byleth had an expression that indicated he was ready.
"And… begin!" Claude called off.
Thus, Byleth took his first swing, but Marianne effortlessly danced past it. Byleth took another swing, yet Marianne danced around it with ease. This continued for a bit and Marianne couldn't help but laugh a little as she danced around Byleth's sword swings. Byleth continued to swing in spite of how she was easily dodging the blows.
"Come on, keep up," Marianne couldn't help but tease gently as she dodged once more.
The professor stood in front of a figure with a similar hair color to Marianne, but the rest of this figure was completely different and dressed like a belly dancer. He tried to strike at her, but she was able to effortlessly dodge all of his strikes. Byleth kept on swinging, though, because he could faintly see Marianne herself by this dancer.
"I will save you!" he yelled, quickly switching weapons.
Byleth gave a small exhale before he swapped from the Sword of the Creator to a bow with a similar sort of style as the sword. He pulled back quickly and launched a charged arrow while shouting "FAILNAUGHT!"
Marianne watched the arrow sail through the air before she jumped into the air and the arrow ended up just striking a wall behind her. She landed with grace and a small bow before she gave Byleth a 'come at me' motion. Byleth couldn't help but chuckle a little as the weapon again changed, this time into a lance, and he charged forward to try to hit her. Marianne, once more, danced past his attempts to use the lance against her. She couldn't help but giggle a little as she easily got around him and just smiled.
"Do you concede?" Claude asked.
"Not… yet…" Byleth responded, making the lance change into an axe. He let it charge with energy for a bit before he swung down around where Marianne was… only for her to jump over him and tap him in the back, "...nice moves."
"Thank you," Mairanne smiled.
"Winner, Marianne!" Claude declared.
Byleth soon sat down and took a moment to try to catch his breath. He then made the axe change back into the Sword of the Creator and set it aside.
"Where'd you learn how to do that?"
Byleth turned to see Marianne, still in her dancer outfit, had walked over to him. He gave her a motion to sit next to him, which she accepted after a moment with a smile.
"Just a little magic…" Byleth informed, changing the Sword of the Creator into the lance, "Not exactly an easy task since it means I need to quickly adapt from a one-handed weapon to a two-handed one…"
"The only one you seemed at ease with was the bow…" Marianne remarked.
He simply nodded his head a little, changing it into the bow, and then taking a few stances with it in hand. Marianne couldn't help but stare at him as he did the stances and she had a very faint blush on her face.
"I'll admit that I did need to train with it a bit…" Byleth informed, "But, I had somebody who used bows basically all their life as my main teacher and was adapt at switching between it and swordplay, so he was a good teacher."
"...who was that?" Marianne couldn't help but ask.
Byleth took a calming breath as he pulled back on the bow and let it fire off. The arrow just narrowly missed the center of the target board he was using and he exhaled.
"Still an improvement," his mentor remarked.
"Sorry. I'm just used to swords…" Byleth admitted.
"It's all about relaxing and taking aim…" the figure told Byleth.
The figure had blonde hair, a mostly blue shirt, a large shield, a sheathed sword, and a mostly brown bow. He pulled back on it and effortlessly fired it off. Byleth simply gawked a little at the skill he had.
"...how are you so skilled?"
"Years of practice," he shrugged as he put the bow away and walked off.
"...who are you?"
"...call me a Champion."
"Can't really say… but he was a Champion of his land…" Byleth informed, "Then I had Claude and Bernadetta give me some pointers and, I'll admit, it's a good alternative to the sword."
Marianne gave a small nod in response as she looked at Byleth and just admired him a little bit as he began to think a little bit.
Byleth took a jump into the air, aiming the bow right at the monster in front of him, but his hands began to shake a little. However, before he let go, he saw other hands steady his aim. He looked to see Claude was holding onto the bow and Bernadetta was helping him keep the arrow stable.
"We've got your back, Teach," Claude assured.
"You're not alone…" Bernadetta added.
Byleth took a calming breath before he fired off the bow at the monster, which destroyed it. He then landed on the ground and the sight of Claude and Bernadetta both vanished.
"Not bad… not bad at all…" the champion mentor commented.
"Something on your mind?" Marianne asked.
"Huh?" Byleth blinked. He then turned towards her, "Sorry… spaced out for a second. What'd you say?"
"Is there something on your mind?"
"Eh… am a little worried about this war…" Byleth lied, scratching the back of his head.
"I am too…" Marianne responded, gently moving a strand of her hair out of her face, "And I had this really strange dream that's been on my mind. Just… flashes of light appearing over the monastery and going around people… then I run over to you and hold onto you… and then I wake up."
All Byleth could do in response was nod a little and then gently hug Marianne. She gasped a tiny bit, but then simply hugged Byleth back.
A few hours passed before the Golden Deer headed out to respond to an attack on a nearby village by what looked to be some kind of dragons and wyverns. The Knights had managed to clear out several, but the leader dragon was proving to be an issue.
"What's the plan, Teach?" Claude inquired.
"Claude, you and Annette work on stalling the dragon. Keep it in the air for as long as you can," Byleth told the two.
"You got it. Come on," Claude responded before he motioned for Annette to get onto his wyvern and the two got into the air.
"Bernadetta, Yuri, you two keep the back-up of the dragons at bay," Byleth continued.
The two nodded and went off to do that.
"Lysithea… smash," Byleth added.
The mage girl simply grinned before she ran off to let her magic go off.
"Everybody else except for Marianne, get any civilians out of harm's way," Byleth instructed, "Marianne, you're with me. We're going to deal with that dragon."
The remaining members of the Golden Deer all nodded and headed off, while Byleth and Marianne headed towards where the dragon was. They saw some smaller wyverns had gathered around the head dragon.
"We got this," Byleth smiled, readying the Sword of the Creator.
"Right," Marianne nodded, holding out a special fan.
With a quick nod towards each-other, Byleth swung the Sword of the Creator and it knocked down some of the wyverns with ease. As the wyverns charged towards him, Marianne tossed the fan like it was a boomerang and it bounced off the wyverns and knocked some of them out. Marianne quickly caught her fan before she rolled over towards a few of the now grounded wyverns and smacked some of them with some kicks to make sure they were down. Byleth then swung his sword around and knocked some more wyverns out of the air.
"Nice moves," Marianne quickly commented.
"Same to you," Byleth smiled.
After about a half hour of battling, almost all of the enemy wyverns had been beaten and the civilians had been evacuated.
Up in the air, Claude and Annette managed to stun the dragon in the air. However, out of the corner of his eye, Claude noticed something that was quickly approaching them.
"Teach, we got a problem!" Claude shouted.
Byleth looked and saw the Death Knight was approaching. He then let out an annoyed sigh, "We don't have time for this. Lysithea, take care of him!"
The white-haired spellcaster almost grinned with joy at the prospect of beating the supposedly unbeatable monster once again.
However, before Byleth was able to turn around, a wyvern managed to bite onto one of his hands, making him yell out in pain. Marianne quickly saw this and got the wyvern to let go of his hand.
"Are you okay?" Marianne quickly asked.
"I'll live…" Byleth responded, shaking his now bleeding hand a bit.
Marianne looked towards him and then towards the others, who were all awaiting what they should be doing next, "Go and help Lysithea hold off the Death Knight!"
Nods quickly came in response to this.
"I'm not afraid of you…" the Death Knight proclaimed.
"I know you are," Lysithea responded, quickly casting up a ring to immobilize the Death Knight, then generating electrical magic in her hands, "And I'm going to beat you in one move!"
"That's not doable…"
"Just watch me!" Lysithea smirked, "I, who stand in the bold light of the heavens, call upon thee who will open up the gates of he**! COME FORTH, DIVINE LIGHTNING!"
The Death Knight just remained stunned in the magical ring around him.
"THIS ENDS NOW! INDIGNATION!"
"No… impossible!" the Death Knight managed to utter.
A huge flash of lightning then zapped the Death Knight, outright obliterating the foe with the blast of lightning.
Within the air, Annette had managed to stun the leader dragon with her magic.
"We got it stunned, Teach! If you're going to do something, you gotta act fast!" Claude yelled.
Byleth gave a nod as he changed the Sword of the Creator into Failnaught and then took aim at the enemy dragon, but his injured hand ended up making his grip on the bow unstable. He tried to ignore the pain, yet it was bothering him too much and left him unable to keep the bow steady.
Suddenly, he felt the bow being unable to move at all. Byleth quickly turned to see Marianne was now holding it steady for him.
"I'll hold this, you fire," she told him.
Byleth smiled at her and then looked back up to the dragon. He pulled back on the arrow, letting the tip generate a bit of magical energy, then he quickly exchanged a nod with Marianne.
"FAILNAUGHT!" they yelled in unison.
The arrow then flew through the air and successfully struck the enemy dragon right in the heart. The dragon then fell down from the air, dead. Byleth and Marianne both exhaled in response and then fell backwards onto the ground.
Once the group returned to the monastery, Byleth was brought to the medical wing to have his wound treated. Marianne, meanwhile, simply stared at the Sword of the Creator for a bit. She then hesitantly reached out and held it for a moment. The sword didn't seem to have any negative reaction towards her, which made her stare at it for a moment.
"Let the lesson begin!" she proclaimed, striking a pose like Byleth would when he said that. She then gave a small flip of her hair and mimicked some poses that she recalled Byleth having done.
"Um… Marianne?"
Marianne then meekly gasped as she saw Byleth was now standing next to her.
"Oh! Professor, I… I uh…"
"It's fine. I'm just more surprised you're holding the sword without any issue…" Byleth admitted.
"...um… I was able to hold it as a bow, so… I wanted to see if I could still hold it in other forms…" Marianne explained before she put the weapon down.
Byleth simply nodded his head a little bit.
"How's your hand?"
"It's going to need some time to rest," Byleth admitted, "But… at least I know my weapon will be in good hands in case I'm unable to battle."
Marianne blushed heavily in response to this before she turned towards the Sword of the Creator, "Still… I wonder why I can use it…"
Byleth simply turned away from her and began to think a little bit about it…
Byleth looked towards his foe and then channeled a small spirit orb and, by his side, a transparent version of Marianne stood next to him.
"Professor…?"
"We'll beat them together. There's nothing I can't do without you," Byleth told the transparent version of Marianne.
"Alright," Marianne nodded, now mirroring Byleth's battle pose.
"Let the lesson begin!" they said in unison.
'Has to be because I channeled her spirit so much in that other world…' Byleth thought.
"Professor?" Marianne spoke up.
"Oh, sorry. What is it?"
"I'm just glad that you're okay," Marianne smiled, taking his non-injured hand in her hands, "I… I don't know what I'd do without you."
Byleth then simply pulled her into a hug. The two simply remained in their hug for a little bit and just relaxed into the position.
Well… that was a chapter. I think I did action stuff… decently enough. I know I need work on action scenes since this is a written media, but I think it worked well enough.
The base idea for this chapter was Marianne dance-dodging Byleth's attacks and then show him magically switching between his weapons that he used in Smash Ultimate. That's… honestly all I really had. Then things sort of just… went from there.
The idea of Lysethia using Indignation came from how she's a, as the Three Houses Discord I'm in put it, "magical nuke". And if one of the lowest powered characters in SAO was able to use Indignation in a Tales crossover, then I think a "magical nuke" should be able to use it.
I'll see if you guys can guess who Byleth's bow mentor ended up being. Hope you get it.
Also, favorite part was Marianne and Byleth working together to fire the Failnaught. Cute.
Just Live More.