Standing in front of Artoria in the middle of a super special mini illusion barrier thing that would be able to take the physical blows I stretched as Artoria held the black and red cursed sword of Excalibur Morgan... And boy Morgan herself was going to throw a bitch fit when she heard how Artoria Alter's Noble Phantasm was a beam of all-consuming destruction that used her name.
"So no sword beams as the hard light illusions cannot take it," I warned Artoria and she rolled her eyes as she smiled confidently while swinging her sword side to side elegantly leaving a trail of black and red light.
Artoria aimed her sword at me and raised an eyebrow as she spoke. "Rules for combat is for the weak Blake Barris." She chided me and then looked to Mash who was standing by Ritsuka who was watching us. "Little shielder, watch us dance between life and death and feel our blades clashing to awaken your fighting style!" Artoria announced strongly.
'Oh, so rules are for bitches huh?' I thought with a dark smile coming to my face and then when Artoria brought her sword to rest at her side for her to easily perform a side swipe I reminded her of why she needed to take my offer of setting rules for a spar as I broke through time and space via my Unfettered Traveler and teleported behind her and sucker punched her so hard in the back of the head with the punch following through so that her head bounced off the floor twice.
And even as she was stunned by her head being used as a basketball, I grabbed her wrist that was holding her sword so I wouldn't get cut in half by her instinctive retaliatory swipe. "Should have taken my offer," I said sarcastically as I used her sword arm as leverage to slam Artoria into the ground again, and again, and again.
In response to my taunting, Artoria's sword glowed with maleficent power and I had to throw her aside as her sword exploded within a corona of black and red light.
Artoria almost like a cat was able to reorientate herself in the air as I threw her and as she landed, she glared at me and I only raised an eyebrow as I flexed my hands. "Artoria, physically wise, I am probably one of the strongest Servant's honestly. So if you don't want me to manhandle you and actually fight you with a sword, I ask that you don't use sword beams." I finished with her snorting before pausing with her gold eyes flashing as she nodded in understanding.
Sure I may not have a sharp metal stick or magical weapons that can nuke an area but my fists could go through mountains and I could shoot laser beams on demand anyway so screw those Noble Phantasms that just make a big boom... Just fucking wait till I feed Ea to God Killer.
"You can do it, Saber!" Ritsuka cheered on Artoria and I saw a small smile come to her face as her form glowed with blue mana she used a Mana Burst to dash forward with her sword swinging at me and this time I took her seriously as God Killer in the shape of a large two-handed claymore swung and collided with Artoria's sword creating flames as the air around the blades became superheated from the friction and grinding the blades made against one another.
See normally with swords and other weapons that weren't fantasy all but indestructible weapons you wouldn't grind your weapon on the opponent's weapon to try to get past their guard to go for their arms or even their chest while pushing against their blade. But with these aforementioned weapons, it was less of us wildly swinging at one another trying to find an advantage in a duel.
No our grinding of blades and the stances we held our blades decided our fight as I didn't abuse my superior strength to put Artoria too much on the back foot.
Loud clanging noises rang out as the corrupted Excalibur met God Killer as I quickly faltered under Artoria's systematic sword training that lasted decades but I had my Hollow instincts as well as the claymore's reach advantage to keep the shorter swordswoman at bay for a couple of minutes before Artoria mashed our blades together getting our guards stuck together and then black metal her gauntleted fist came forward for my chin.
So with my God Killer locked against her sword and I didn't want to cheat and have God Killer turn into a mass of razor-sharp wire to cut her arm and hand apart I simply welcomed that bit of Bezerker we all had in us as I laughed loudly as I instead of getting punched in the chin like she tried I just head-butted the shit out her gauntlet covered fist.
And in the impactful battle between fae enchanted steel gauntlet versus a harem protagonist hollow with a magically reinforced forehead. My big brain came out on top as my Hierro-covered head impacted her fist and I heard the metal popping along with her fingers.
"I literally beat Zeus and Dragons to death with my bare fucking hands," I said dryly as Artoria dismissed her sword to cradle her broken hand while hissing. "Don't get in a fistfight with me." I finished before gently laying my hand over hers and I filled her Servant Core with my spiritual energy her hand visibly glowed the blue and gold color of Servants Saint Graph being touched and like time was reversed Artoria's hand was healed with the armor losing its dents as I healed her.
"Blake stop!" I heard Ritsuka yell and I blinked in surprise looking over to her and I saw her flushing while holding her chest. "You pervert! You are filling Artoria up too much and both of your magical energy is returning to me like in a mana exchange ritual!" She cried out flushing at how my spiritual/magical energy had apparently been filling out her very soul.
'Actually... Her words reminded me of something important,' I thought as Artoria coughed with an awkward smile as she removed her hand from me and bowed to Ritsuka to give her an apology. "Ritsuka actually we need to talk about this," I said seriously. "Due to my own slight dragon heritage after killing a dragon, drinking its blood while in a tub of said blood as well as eating the dragon's heart... Along with my own nature as a world creator, the spiritual/magical energy I breathe out is so pure and high quality that it can even make a person's soul grow stronger just breathing the same air I do, to say nothing of should you drink a bit of my blood or something." I tried to explain and Ritsuka froze in understanding in what I was offering.
You could actually graft more Magical Circuits into your body, even if it was dangerous or use other implements to make your spell crafting better, but magical circuits were like sticks of RAM honestly. For example, you could have thirty sticks of RAM in your body each with a GB of memory, or you could have forty sticks of RAM in you but each one has 64 GB of RAM... And that was the difference in talent for Mages.
Each GB of RAM acting as the standard metric for magical units that Mages used for their magecraft.
Ritsuka after going through the Mage's Association knew all too well the value of high-quality magic circuits as although she came from the Tohsaka family her paternal side of her lineage was nothing special hence her magical circuits were only slightly above average. "I would be able to support you and even more Servants with better magic circuits wouldn't I?" She spoke more toward herself but it was clear she was leaning in affirmation.
"Mash come work with me so I can try to get you to learn your Noble Phantasm!" I ordered drawing Mash out of her lewd daydreamings of me probably taking Ritsuka into her room and doing some kind of mana transfer ritual or something. And at my demand, Mash shuddered under the gaze and weight of my spiritual pressure with her lewd armor appearing on her form along with her oversized shield that was a good bit taller than even I was.
'I was going to let Ritsuka stew on those thoughts while I worked on Mash.' I thought as I took the blushing purple-haired waifu back onto the large circle that became a grass-covered field so Mash and I could train.