Breath of Another World (BOTW Link x Reader)

When paths split

(Warning: Long chapter ahead)

I stumbled backwards, my knees almost buckling as bent over and leaned on my trident. I was drenched in sweat, which I did my best to wipe away as I took a small breather. Every day had been the same. Wake up, travel, take a break, train, travel, make camp, train, sleep. It was working; I could feel myself slowly getting stronger, and we had even started training with weapons and the bow, buuuut... I had also gained a lot of bruises and scratches from Damia's harsh training methods. Maybe this was how he was taught, or maybe he just doesn't know his own strength.

Whatever the reason, calm TF down, dude!

Damia noticed I was struggling and sighed, sheathing his blade and running a hand over his hair. "Okay, break time."

I groaned out in pained relief, almost collapsing right there from exhaustion. I was probably pushing myself a little harder than I should have, but I was on a time limit here. If I didn't push myself, I wouldn't have gotten this far with our training.

Damia helped me sit down on a log, where Sanela had been watching us train, and walked over to our horses to grab something from Mira's saddlebag. I sat hunched over, my head in my hands as I tried my best to relax. Sanela had offered to heal me on multiple occasions, but I refused due to what happened to her when she healed my shoulder wound. I didn't want anyone draining their energy on my account. So instead she offered moral support, which did help more than she realised.

"Sorry for being a little harsher today, Y/N," Damia apologised when approaching, handing me a towel and a potion bottle filled with crystal clear water. Or maybe it was just regular water... but it looked soooo good right now. He sat down next to me and opened his own bottle, pouring the tiniest bit into what looked like the top of an acorn and handing it to Sanela "I just feel like you're improving quickly- gotta keep it challenging, ya know?"

"Wait, you were being harsher?" I asked after taking a huge swig of water "I hadn't noticed."

"You didn't?"

"Look man, I come out hurting regardless, so the difficulty level doesn't faze me much." I sighed, wrapping my towel around my shoulders after wiping the sweat from my face. Damia let out a small 'huh', before going silent for a moment...

His fist came flying forward.

I was quick to parry his surprise attack, pushing his arm aside and bringing my own fist forward to nail him in the gut with full force. He spluttered and hunched over, holding his stomach painfully. But, between all the groans was impressed laughter.

"Okay, yeah..." He wheezed "You're getting good... really fast."

I huffed "Don't test me, Flirtia, I won't hesitate!"

"Yeah, that was uncalled for!" Sanela scolded.

"I know, I know! Sorry." He sat up with a pained smile "But man, you have knuckles of steal. You could already punch real good, but man... you punch trees or something?"

"No, but I did have a punching bag I'd go at whenever I was irritated... Most of the time without gloves, hehe..." I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishy "But it did give me a pretty mean punch, so it wasn't the stupidest decision."

"I can tell," Sanela lifted her acorn cup to her lips "Have you used those fists in an actual fight yet? I mean, I know you couldn't really do much with combat, but did you at least put them to good use?"

"Well, I did punch a Lynel..."

The two spat out their drinks, making me jerk back in surprise as Damia pounded his chest in a fit of coughs. After a moment he turned to me, eyes wide and watery "You punched a Lynel?!"