Magic, Baby! Magic! (NasuFate - Artoria Pendragon SI Chapter 4)

He felt a tug at his core. A summons, a call for him-No, for Dragon Slayer.

Motes of magical energy gathered, a body was formed, and Servant Saber answered the summoning.

The first thing Siegfried noticed upon opening his eyes was that he wasn't in the real world. More like he was summoned half way between the Throne and the real world.

"Yo!"

He looked to see a young blonde girl with intense green eyes, dressed as a squire. Siegfried instantly felt an aura of a dragon from her. It seems the realm of dreams may have heightened his senses a bit for him to realize that so quickly.

"Hello, are you my Mas-"

"Kinda, sorta, technically. Not important!" She spoke in a hasty way that excited children do, as her grin was wide and held a manic edge to it. "Anyways, I summoned you here to fight me. Don't worry this place is a dream, illusion thing, so no worries on injuries. Engrade!"

"Wai-" Siegfried barely got a word out before he had to start blocking slash after slash from the blonde girl.

She would try different attack patterns and maneuvers, again and again, and they all end the same. Stopped in their track by Balmung.

After a few short minutes of this, the girl disengaged with a frown.

"Hey! Why aren't you taking this seriously?" She whined.

"Master, I just don't think this is a good idea. If you could please explain-"

"Wait, I have those command thingamajig. Fight me for real!"

Siegfried's eyes widened in horror as before he could stop himself, or for the girl to react, he took her head off.

The blonde hair covered head rolled on the ground, frozen in a wide calm face of one who didn't realize they died yet.

Then the world stopped and reset.

Everything was the same again, there was no damage to the environment, and the girl was alive once more, rubbing her neck with a pout. Thankfully the effect of the command seal was gone, with the objective fulfilled.

"That doesn't count!" She cried out. "Although I guess that's the difference between fighting someone whose good at fighting, and someone who specializes in it. This should be fun-"

"Master," for once Siegfried acted first, and placed his hands on the girl's shoulders, stopping her talking on her own. "I understand that I was summoned her for you. But this isn't the real world, and I have no extra knowledge about what's happening. Can you please explain?"

"Huh? Wait, shouldn't the summoning itself give you the info. Damn Merlin's shoddy summoning!" The girl ranted again. "Okay!" She looked up and smiled at him, putting her fists on her hips. "I'm Artoria, well, Arthur. Just call me Arty. This is my dream world, so no worries if I die here. If I die in the dream I don't die in the real world. Suck it, Sword Art Online."

"I see." Siegfried slowly nodded. The girl, Arty, was nonsensical in part, but it was nice of her to be cooperative.

"I summoned you because I need to, well, my teacher did the summoning, I'm here for the rest. Basically, you're here to be my sword-slash-combat teacher. So you're job here is to fight me at full strength-well maybe not full strength, just enough to overwhelm me-till I get good enough to beat you!" She finished with a grin, as Siegfried stepped back to look at the girl once more.

As Saber asked a few more questions for clarification, and Arty answer, Siegfried came to a realization.

"Master-" the girl glared (pouted) intensely. "Arty, I believe your teacher is giving you an impossible challenge. I don't know if you know me, but my name is Siegfried." Arty tilted her head in confusion. Siegfried's lips twitched in amusement, at her not knowing him. "The Dragon Slayer." Her eyes widened and Saber assumed she would understand why fighting him is futile.

"AWESOME! I really owe Wizard Bro for this one." She shouted. "Although I'm not gonna tell him that. But I'll try to get him something as a thank you." She muttered to herself.

"What?" Now it was Siegfried's turn to be confused.

"Basically I'm a Dragon Incarnate, so kinda like a dragon in a tiny badass form. You have a clear type advantage over me, so obviously, if I manage to beat you then then logically I would be a Dragon that can beat a Dragon Slayer. A Super Dragon Incarnate!" She cried out with punch to the air. "I mean originally I wanted Hercules, but fuck, this is even better."

"I'm sorry, I'm not Hercules."

"I just said that you're better." Arty said, crossing her arms. "You should have some more confidence in yourself, you know!"

Seigfried stared in silence for a moment, before letting out a sigh as he smiled. Arty has something about her that pulled people into her mood. Saber couldn't help but feel delighted by her presence.

"Arty, if you want me to train you, can you answer me something?"

"Shoot."

Saber tilted his head at the phrase, but understood the intent. "Why do you wish for strength?"

"Duh, to become powerful."

Siegfried thought for a moment, and adjusted the question. "I mean, what will you use that strength for?"

"To go on awesome, badass, grand adventures." She grinned, then tried to look a bit more casual. "And because I'm gonna be king in the future, and you need to be strong to hold onto your claim of kingship and all that."

Well, that clarified a few things. "What kind of King do you wish to be?"

Without missing a beat Arty replied. "Strong, wise, effective, popular and lucky enough to retire with a harem of beautiful babes by my side." She nodded to herself. "If I'm gonna be king, then I'm gonna be the best, I'm already doing the admin and politics study for it, but that alone isn't enough, I need to also be strong. Plus I wanna be able to deck my teacher in the face, and show him up."

"Your...teacher who arrange for you to meet me, to learn from me?"

"Well, yeah, the best gift you can give your mentors is to show your devotion by surpassing them. Otherwise they wasted their time teaching you for nothing."

Siegfried found himself smiling at the girl's surprisingly earnest nature under her cocky attitude.

"Very well. Then I shall offer my blade in building the path of your legend-"

"COOL! NOW, FIGHT ME!" Arty burst into motion with her blade gleaming with magical energy, already in swing.

Siegfried's heartfelt words were cut short, yet the intent was conveyed. Saber smiled as he conversed with Arty through their swords clashing.

Artoria was now fourteen years old. It had been a year since Merlin used the Servant Summoning Spell to grant his student another teacher in the form of Siegfried.

It was surprisingly easy to get the Servant he wanted, when the designation of the summoning was the dream realm.

Naturally, Artoria had grown leaps and bounds in skill, yet even then she wasn't winning all the time in her bouts with Merlin. Although that was because Merlin had been pushing himself more and more to keep up, and ensure that Artoria didn't rest on her laurels, by gaining more wins than him.

Outside of their home, the civil wars were getting more intense, but thankfully news of this enchanted Sword in the Stone, Caliburn, was circulating more and more. Soon enough all the kings will gather to try and pull the blade, to show which one is worthy of ruling all of Britain. That should halt the fighting for a bit.

It shouldn't be long now. A year, two at most, before Merlin would have to bring Artoria before the sword. While her education is going well, real life is rarely as identical to theory. However, he had hope in her. She was the Child of Prophecy after all.

Ector should be coming soon to take over a bit of her training, since Merlin wanted to check some rumors out, about Morgan, the Saxons, the Picts and other possible worries to inform and prepare Artoria for.

He heard the angry stomps of his young charge heading toward the house. He smiled, wondering what set her off this time. She said something about going out to hunt on her own this morning. She probably failed in catch something big?

"MERLIN!" Artoria roared as he kicked their house door off its hinges. "RABBIT! KILL! HOW!?"

"...What?" He blinked in confusion at her broken raged rant.

"RABBIT. SQUIRREL. THING. TEACH. HUNT. ME."

"Errr, can you clarify?" Looking outside, even Horsy the Dragon-He should really tell her to change the name to something dignified, like Hengroen or something-was shivering from the anger exuding off of Artoria.

"BOW AND ARROW. SPEAR. HUNTING SPEAR. TEACH SKILL! KILL FUCKING TRICKSTER RABBIT. NOW!"

"You...wanna learn how to hunt game?"

"IT'S FUCKING RABBIT SEASON!"