Ed is nearing his sixth year away from home, sadly Shadows are hardly the weirdest thing he's ever heard of. He almost smirks when Akihiko visibly relaxes, but he contains it, listening to his explanation with interest. It was an interesting skillset, lightning power hardly went hand-in-hand with healing, but Edward wasn't going to question it.

There's a slight tension in Ed's posture at the question, Akihiko hadn't exactly compared alchemy to magic, and the way he worded it was innocent enough - but the mention of magic always made him a bit wary to get into any discussion about his skills. "I'm an alchemist. Back home, alchemy is the science of deconstructing and reconstructing matter. It's useful for making or repairing things." Sure, he's downplaying it, almost making it sound pointless in a battle unless you have the time to create weapons with it.

Without another word, Ed crouches to the ground and claps his hands together before touching them to the dirt there with a crackle of electric blue light. As he stands up, he pulls a spear along with him as if creating it out of thin air - although the ground is uneven where he'd used the materials to create the spear.

"Comes in handy."