"AGAIN!" Archer yelled as he beset Harriet once more, the young girl exhausted from the days of swing swords and clashing a man who outclassed her every swing. Not only did Archer have her beat with the length of his arms and height, he taught her everything she knew and could counter every strike with easy.

She spat a glob of phlegm on the ground as she hoisted herself up with the English Broadsword she had taken a fancy to in the past couple of months training,

"HYAAAA!" Harriet yelled as she swung, Archer with contemptuous ease stepped to the side before kicking her in the stomach again. He held a hand up to stop the battle when she got back up.

"You over-committed to the swing, left your stomach open again." he raised his swords once more on the defence, "Come at me once again" And at his words Harriet charged forth with a downward slash.

Archer parried the blade to the left, leaving her right shoulder open, a slash coming from straight up followed, only for him to lean back as Harriet's sword moved in front of his face.

Archer took a step back and analyzed what she did while she gained her breath back. She had leaned into the left as if to dodge the blade coming straight down before she turned her blade to the right and stuck high into the air.

She forced him to dodge the attack or get slashed along the chest, while also stepping into his guard, allowing her to either push forward with an upward slash or roll to her left to get out of the way.

"I think we'll stop here for today," Archer said while his swords disappeared into little motes of light.

"NO! I CAN STILL FIGHT" Harriet yelled as she charged forward with reckless abandon, only to be put on her ass as her sword was slapped out of her hands while Archer kicked her legs out from under her with a good push to the head.

*THUD*

And there she was, huffing and puffing air as she was forced to watch the sun fall, Archer sat by her hand until he just let him self fall backwards.

"Why" He asked, stretching while watching the sky move.

"Why… What…" She asked, out of breath.

"Why do you fight?" It was a simple question looking for a simple answer, one that would tell him all he needed to know going forward.

"I… don't know." She rasped out, smacking her dry lips before Fou handed her a water bottle, he along with Merlin and Artoria had sat on the side lines watching the fight throughout the day.

"I fight for myself alone." Archer started after but naught, a moment of silence filled by the chirps of birds, "There's no other reason to fight." He sat up, an arm on his knee.

"If you don't know why you fight, then by all means do as you wish." Archer's words were sardonic in nature. "Flail that sword around without purpose… However, when you find what makes you fight, be certain it's not anyone else's." He stood to full height and turned away, facing the sun as twilight starts to creep into the fading light.

"Know that if you fight of your own free will, any resulting sins and punishments will be of your own making. Bearing it comes with that decision, however, if your reason to fight is borrowed from another person… Then the reason you fight is nothing more than fantasy, there must be a reason for fighting, and it must be your own." He started to slowly walk away to the small smithy that was set up for him and Fou to practice their craft.

Leaving her to stew in her thoughts as the Magus of Wrought Iron walked, The King of Knights and Magus of flowers watched on as her resolve was questioned. Why did she fight, at this moment it was because of the future ahead of her. Yet that fate has been broken, has it not?

She is but a girl, who from the day she was born had her life turned upside down by the very world rejecting her existence. And now that she was fully broken from the chains of fate that the world held over her?

Would it more fervently pursue her, or would it leave her alone?

"Tell me, Harriet, that which is beautiful?" Merlin asked, his jovial voice and smile hovering over her. Archer's hammer hitting heated metal into shape rang out through the forest.

"I don't know." Harriet had finally regained her voice and returned to her monotone voice.

"And that's okay, you will, in time, find that which is beautiful to you. I hope that the day you find that, you find your reason to fight." Merlin left with the wind blowing, dissolving into flowers that ride the breeze.

Harriet didn't know what to say, they kept talking about having a reason to fight. But why does one need a reason to fight? She raised her hand to the endless night sky, like she had that night on the first day here.

She asked herself the same question she pondered mere months ago, the one shad begun to ask her herself the first time it happened.

Why?

Why did she continue to get up in the morning. Why did she work herself to the bone. Why did she do anything.

To spite them.

To spit in the faces of the Dursley's after all they made her go through; the cooking, the yard work, the stale and moldy food, the Luke warm gruel they called oatmeal, the water from the garden hose connected to the rain collector.

That in spite of all the pain and suffering they made her go through, no matter how close she got to bitting her own tongue out… Vernon's violation that he called 'normalcy'... in spite of it all.

Her hand formed into a fist, one that clenched with the pain of her life.

She survived, she lived.

"Again!" Archer yelled, the hot wind was blowing through the clearing as Harriet rose up once more, huffing and puffing, she readied her blade as Archer begun his onslaught of blows.

And so began their dance, parry after parry, deflect after deflect, strike after strike. Both moved at high speed around the clearing, trading spots and blows as they fought. Yet archer fought with contemptuous ease, as if he was handling nothing more than an annoying child.

Harriet came with a downward swing and Archer raised his sword's in an X and caught the blade, the height difference was apparent, yet Archer thought her to take advantage of that fact.

She started to control the tempo of the fight on the defensive, parry's and deflections that just barely worked because Archer allowed it. At the side-line, Merlin gave a big smile. He had been teaching this girl mage craft for the better part of 6 months of the 5 years they've been here, and yet she was already doing better than expected.

"Binding-Vines-Of-Magical-Draining!" She jumped backwards, the ground lighting up with red electricity, vines growing rapidly from the ground interspersed with metal wrapped around Archer's body saying his magic from his body. His arms and legs were wrapped numerous times, as was his torso, restricting his movement.

From the start of the battle, Harriet had been laying down a plan to capture Archer and trap him in a self-fulfilling binding that would feed back loop off of his magical strength.

"BRAVO! BRAVO! Excellent job speeding up your chants!" Merlin jumped up from sitting on the ground, clapping furiously, while Harriet breathed deep breaths she raised her sword and held it at the Hunter of the Red Plains throat.

"I concede this battle." Archer said with his eyes closed as he sighed in annoyance, yet he had a faint smile on his face. " I do hope you're ready, though, because this is where the kiddy gloves come off." Archer held a certain level of smug in his voice, Harriet just flipped him off as she collapsed to the ground on her back.

She let loose a hot breath of steam, sweat poured off her body as Artoria handed her a towel to wipe said sweat off her face. Only for Archer to lunge forward with a downward sing.

Harriet kip-uped into the air and flip over Archer onto her feet behind the man as he left his blades in the ground while stretching, none of the others made a move to stop Archer as they trusted him and what he was doing.

"I estimate that you could handle normal humans just fine, and now it's time for phase two, Harriet." Archer said as he leisurely started to stretch, Harriet took deep breaths as she watched for Archer's next move.

"I'll allow you to catch your breath, go practice Kyudo." Archer spoke as he started to walk away, his swords stuck in the dirt exactly right where her head was… Archer had gone for the kill shot.

A/N:

Original post: Nov 20, 2021. (Originally Posted to Webnovel)

Updated post: Sep 17, 2023. (Updated Revamp/Rewrite Posted to Wattpad, FF.net and Spacebattles)

This was originally posted to Webnovel, then Wattpad. I've since stopped supporting updates to Webnovel and have started Revamping/Rewriting the story to better comply with FF. Net and will be cross posting between Wattpad, FF. Net and Spacebattles.

Update: Oct 21st, 2023. (After a Poll I'm uploading this to Scribbile hub, I'm copying this straight from Spacebattles.)