Determination & The Path We Walk

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A lone Robin was fluttering about through the snow covered forest.

It's call echoed far and wide, attracting the attention of other birds nearby.

The robin had been searching for berries with its flock when it got separated.

Growing hungry, the robin luckily spotted some berries on a tree branch.

Flapping its wings, the robin glided over towards the tree before landing on the same branch with the berries.

Perched on the tree, it enjoyed its meal, before suddenly spotting more berries.

This time though, it was warry as it noticed the berries were held by a human.

In the end, however, its hunger won out as it fluttered gently up to the humans hand in which the berries laid.

Munching on its favorite food, the robin thought to itself that maybe humans weren't so bad.

Watching the tiny bird in his hand as it ate away without a care in the world, Ryker felt amused.

He had noticed the lonely looking bird weaving between the trees. So he decided to feed it some berries he had found nearby. First setting them onto the branch to lower its guard, before appearing with the rest.

After watching the bird for a brief moment, Ryker returned his attention to what he had previously been doing.

Roughly 200meters away to his left, Ria was currently leaning against a tree while panting heavily. Her legs were shaking, and her arms were lax as proof of the strain her body was currently experiencing.

The two had been going at it for nearly an hour now.

Ria had been trying again and again to get within range of Ryker, yet between his mobility, terrain awareness, and god-like firing range, Ria hadn't been able to even come close enough to see him, let alone hit him.

Now that Excalibur had 'evolved', Ria had experienced a massive boon in her combat abilities. Nearly every time she swung Excalibur, the power behind the strike was roughly equal in strength to that of a Nobel Phantasm.

Yet even with that it wasn't enough.

Besieged by arrows from all sides, she released energy wave, after wave, decimating the surrounding trees and earth, in an effort to counter Ryker's seemingly never ending arrows.

From others perspective, it may not seem cost efficient to use a high cost energy attack, equivalent to a Noble Phantasm, to deal with an arrow.

Ria, however, knew that if she didn't use that much power, then it wouldn't be long before one of Ryker's arrows found purchase with their target.

Every single arrow Ryker fired, although not as flashy or as 'powerful' as a Nobel Phantasm, was equal to one in strength. Thanks to Ryker's inhuman parameters, every time he drew back his bow, the force in which the arrow was released at, was enough to qualify it as an A rank or even an A+ ranked Nobel Phantasm.

Just that fact alone would strike fear into anyone unlucky enough to find themselves in his sights.

Yet what was truly frightening, was that Ria knew he was holding himself back quite a lot.

Ria had never seen Ryker unleash his full strength even until this day.

Call it a gut feeling, or her instincts warning her, but she felt that if Ryker had wanted her dead. The first arrow would have been all that was required.

She knew though, that he would never do anything to harm those he loved, and had probably been even putting strain on himself in order to ensure his attacks never went beyond a certain threshold.

This thought made her happy that he was so concern over her safety, yet it also filled her with much shame. The feeling of guilt and self-condemnation she felt over the fact that she was so weak to the point where Ryker needed to forced himself to go easy on her, weighed heavily upon her.

So during their battle, every time she fell, every time her body screamed for her to stop.

She forced herself to stand once more.

Her pride, and honor as a knight wouldn't allow her to fall until she at the very least came a little closer to him.

She loved Ryker with all her heart, and desired nothing more then to walk at his side into battle without being a burden on him. So no matter how much her legs hurt, or how heavy her sword felt in her hands, she continued to march forward while striking down arrow after arrow.

Lifting her exhausted body from the tree, she had been using to keep herself standing, she once again starting heading towards the direction the arrows were coming from.

Although they had stopped coming for a brief moment, as soon as she stood, the void once more shifted, as arrows exited from tears in space heading towards her.

Knowing she couldn't swing her sword as fast as previously, she instead kept it close to her body, while using the energy that coated the blade as a shield. This would allow her to conserve what little energy she had left while also, doing its purpose in blocking the arrow.

The blood red arrow tip collided with Excalibur before shattering into multiple pieces.

Yet the force of the attack, had sent Ria feet skidding backwards across the ground.

Before she was able to steady herself, she sensed another attack coming from above.

Knowing she wouldn't be able to raise her sword in time to block the arrow, she knew that she would need to resort to her trump card, yet once she used it, any remaining energy she had would be sapped from her body.

Not willing to test it, she scream out loud in an exhausted, yet resolute voice, "Avalon!"

*Shhing*

Through out the forest it reverberated. A noised liken to that of a sword being drawn from its sheath.

As soon as she called to it, sound seemed to become muted, and color faded from the world. The arrow coming towards her at speeds faster the light itself, begun to slow to a crawl.

The scabbard on her waist dissipated into countless tiny particles in the air before engulfing her within.

Then…there was nothing.

Yet within the nothingness, was something.

'So you used it huh…I had a feeling you wouldn't due to your pride yet I guess your desire to push yourself further was stronger then even your pride…you really are my girl.'

Ryker thought to himself before once more knocking an arrow gently. Not minding the robin perched on his shoulder.

Drawing his bow all the way back, Ryker remained still while holding his breath.

*Fuuuu*

*Twang*

Releasing his breath and the arrow at the same time. Ryker watched as the arrow seemed to break apart the moment it left the bow.

Not sparing it another glance, Ryker looked towards the location where Ria had disappeared from.

He knew that her Noble Phantasm had brought her to the domain of the fairies, 'Avalon' the unreachable utopia. Avalon completely isolated its user in a world separate from the regular world, shielding its user from all harm.

Yet even the seemingly 'perfect' Avalon had a flaw.

Its was useless before Ryker's eyes.

*Crack*

Akin to class shattering, space suddenly distorted as Ria once more appeared, standing at the exact same spot in which she had vanished from previously.

*Cough*

Blood slowly trickled down the edge of her lips, as she coughed up any that might have been clogging her throat.

'He…he broke Avalon from the inside? How!?'

Panicking slightly, Ria hadn't noticed when another arrow suddenly appeared in front of her until it was too late.

The arrow connected with her shoulder, penetrating a gap in her armor as blood splattered about.

'Mmm!'

She clenched her jaw tight in an attempt to not cry out, as the pain caused a momentary laps in her awareness causing her to take another arrow in her side.

Unable to withstand the pain, and pressure from her exhausted body any longer, her legs ended up giving out on her, forcing her to drive Excalibur into the ground before putting her weight onto the hilt of the blade.

Propping herself up using Excalibur, she attempted to calm her, heavy, laborious breaths.

*Hum*

Hearing the loud, high pitch, hum coming from Excalibur, Ria thought to herself, 'Crap!'

Shifting her weight, while releasing what little tension that remained in her legs, she allowed herself to fall in an attempt to dodge the arrow which had just exited the void from behind her.

'Ugh!'

Unable to dodge it entirely, Ria was hit in the back by the arrow before she collapsed onto the ground. Whether due to the pain, or the exhaustion she found her vision blurring, as her mind attempted to force her into unconsciousness.

Although she attempted to resist, she suddenly heard a voice speak from behind her.

"You've done enough for today Ria. I'm proud of you."

Hearing the voice of her beloved, and feeling the wounds on her body begin to heal, she no longer resisted the encroaching darkness. It wasn't long before said darkness engulfed her, causing her mind to feel cold, yet within her heart, only warmth and love was present.

Once Ryker finished healing her wounds with the help of Avalon, he lifted her in a princess carry before making his way back towards the castle. Excalibur and Avalon, both returning to spirit form and storing themselves within Ria.

It was an odd scene really…

Yet for some reason, Ryker felt that it was beautiful.

A man dressed in black, his long glossy black hair swaying in the wind.

Within the man's arms, was a woman dressed in white armor that was died red in her own blood.

Her long platinum blonde hair, flowed down towards the ground as if it was apart of the snow that blanketed the ground, and surrounding trees.

Slowly the man gracefully walked upon the path through the forest, as he headed towards an ancient and majestic castle on the horizon.

Snow gently fluttered about, ever now and then coming in contact with the two as if attempting to place them within natures embrace.

Yet Ryker didn't quite feel like he deserved to be within the all accepting embrace.

The last thing he ever wanted to do was bring harm to the people he cared about most, yet had he not just done that very thing he desired to prevent?

He felt conflicted and lost.

During the fight, although it was Ria who was 'trapped' in a siege of arrows, his heart had also been 'trapped'.

He watched as she spilt blood, and sweat, yet every time she took an arrow, he felt as if his heart was bleeding alongside her.

He had been forced to lock away his feelings and emotions when confronted with Ria's resolve to grow stronger. Largely due to the conflict he had felt within himself.

Feelings of wanted to protect her from all harm, yet knowing he needed to harm her for her to grow, caused him no small amount of emotional turmoil.

In the end though, when he looked at her eyes full of determination from afar, he knew that she would only be burdened if he decided to hold back.

Ria was just that type of person.

Although she wouldn't say anything so as to not hurt his feelings, he knew that she would secretly punish herself if he held back. To Ria, her deepest desire ever since they became a couple was to be able to walk beside him into battle without being a burden. If he held back at that moment, he would essentially be telling her that she was to weak to walk beside him.

Ryker realized for the first time that, sometimes to help the ones you love, you must first cause them harm.

So he locked away the part of him that was screaming to protect her from harm, and attacked in full force, only holding back enough to not seriously harm, or kill her.

Regardless of everything though, when he held her cold and exhausted body while carrying her back home, he felt no small amount of guilt. It was almost to the point where it felt suffocating.

"Ryker…"

Broken out of his thoughts, Ryker looked down at his arms and noticed Ria had woken up and was currently looking at him with her eyes still half closed due to lacking the energy to even open her eyes all the way.

Before he could ask what was wrong, he heard her speak once more.

"Thank you…my love…for granting me…my selfishness…"

Although her voice was faint and choppy. Her words brought a smile to his face as he leaned down and planted a kiss on her forehead before saying, "Sleep my little knight, we can talk after you've rested."

Releasing a smile of her own, Ria allowed herself to drift back to sleep as she felt the warmth radiating off her beloveds body, especially from his chest, where her head happened to rest.

Ryker felt that all his pain and sorrow from today had been worth it when he saw that smile of hers.

He knew that she had gone through far more server pain physically then he had emotionally, and there was no use brooding on the past. As long as his Queen was happy, that was all that mattered.

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(Author's Note: I was originally not going to include the fight, and just leave their training at where it had ended last chapter, but I felt that it had been a minute since the last serious fight scene so for those who enjoy them here you go >.< I wanted to try to bring both Ria's post-relationship, character to light some more as she has changed in many ways since she allowed herself to be happy as a woman. I hoped none of you are too put off by her getting hurt this much here, but I hope I was able to help you understand their reasoning a little bit as to why they went so far during their fight. Iris knows she isn't a match for Ryker in terms of strength and has accepted it, determined to walk alongside him regardless of her weakness, and instead act as his emotional support, while Ria doesn't have enough experience in love to be like Iris. To Ria, who only knows how to fight and rule, the best way for her to support Ryker is on the battlefield. When she sees the gap between them, it causes her to want to do anything to become strong enough to walk alongside him in battle. Iris will be the 'home' and 'shelter' for him to return to, as well as give him peace of mind with regards to his children, while Ria will be his 'pillar' and 'guard' which support him away from home, always ensuring he returns to where he belongs.)