Having landed in front of the man several things became obvious. One of which was that Gilgamesh did not necessarily consider his powers to be cheating, instead he thought of them as his birthright. He argued the point that a king having abilities that commoners thought of as cheating or abnormal made them kings, and after a second of consideration Artoria nodded her own understand. She stood far above most in her own right, and was deemed invincible by others. Her attitude and ability to predict the best possible moves for herself were touted as unusually keen. "In fairness, I can not argue against that point," yes, that was fair, and she could be gracious about it, even in the middle of combat. Yes, she was calmer now, even though her mind still wasn't quite working enough. But what else was there?
The sensation of mana, the opening of thousands of gates. Ah, the Gate of Babylon he called it. Launching treasures from his personal stores like bullets. All the things he'd amassed and all of the things both given and collected. Artoria looked at those gates and the light of them reflected in her own eyes for just a second. "The archer classing makes a bit more sense now, and where was this, when I was ready to kill you?" Artoria's question came with annoyance, something about the fact that this was missing from their earlier battle seriously bothered her, and she couldn't rightly understand why. No. Never mind, she understood it completely. A half-victory did not fit her idea. If she is trying to kill someone and they are not doing everything within their power to survive, then it feels like murder. And while she was by her own nature a murderer, she had adopted Chivalry and put forth a great effort in keeping it. In this new life time, aside from pure fury, murder no longer tasted sweet. In a moment when someone was completely honest and they were not just part of her empire, Artoria did not know how to feel. Comrades, family, sworn protected, and enemies... four classifications of people who received from her, the four different emotions she possessed. But what did she give this man, who fell into none of those spaces? The fury innate to her soul, but without a true desire to kill?
Her thoughts were playing freely behind her eyes, and those same eyes, were watching as these gates rained down various things upon her. Unlike others who would despair at such a thing, the tiniest upturn of Artoria's lips occurred. Occasionally, things were knocked off course by swings of Excalibur. Other times would see her move to avoid damage to her body. Some things would graze her person as she moved about, but the armor she wore, reinforced by her mana would also deflect things. There was a time, when Artoria would have been able to do this for hours, capitalizing upon a single instance of victory. Still, she couldn't see one yet. 'Dodge, dance, turn. Eyes open, no stopping. Wait for the right step...' Artoria was fully on the defensive but didn't seem to hate the predicament at all. It was easier to defend than it was to attack in this particular case, she should probably be thinking of the victory, but when was the last time she felt she couldn't win? For a person who had started a fight in anger, she was enjoying it in earnest, the the determination to find a way through obvious. Despair? Why? This was fun!