They get started, Catherine critiques a bit!

"Coming!" Byleth stated, grabbing the training sword, and Catherine watched as he stepped into the training field.

"Either of you mind me refereeing?" she asked, and both Byleth and Shez shook their heads, fine with it as Shez held her two training blades in a stance. "Then begin!"

Shez wasted no time, rushing right for Byleth, and swinging for him with one blade, and trying to sneak a stab in towards his midsection with the other. Byleth however parried the first blade, sidestepped the other, and tripped Shez, using her swift speed and momentum against her. She proceeded to faceplant, but managed to turn her fall into a roll before she lost all of the momentum, barely avoiding the back swing Byleth aimed down at her.

She jumped to her feet, and crossed her weapons to block a hit from Byleth, but was then kicked. "Ah, damn it!" she cursed, skidding back, before attempting to slash at him with both blades. He ducked, and stabbed at her. She immediately used her shadow warping to dodge, and moved around to get behind Byleth. She slashed again, but Byleth jerked back, getting inside her reach before she could complete the swing, and slammed his back into her. "Gah!" she was sent sprawling, and landed on her back.

She started to sit up, before jolting slightly as she found herself staring at the blunt point of Byleth's training blade. "...got you," he told her with a faint smile.

She pouted slightly. "Damn, still not at your level, huh?" she sighed, before taking a hand he offered to get up.

"You're fast, but a little too straightforward and predictable," Catherine noted. "You should try changing up your attack patterns, get in and out fast, really annoy your opponents before you have an opening to go straight for the kill."

"...that was more or less the advice I had for her," Byleth nodded in agreement with Catherine, Shez listening with rapt attention.

"You got pretty damn good combat instincts too," Catherine smirked at Byleth. "Most people would have wasted time trying to turn around in that last moment."

Byleth nodded, taking the compliment, before Sothis said in his head, "You should try using your special sight on her! Maybe she's a good candidate down the line!"