Boyzilla: I was only talking about how Tamamo could be overly passionate and of "suffocating affectionate", with no sense of Hakuno's modesty. I do not dispute that she obeys Hakuno in a combat situation. Simply, Tamamo is Tamamo and she behaves like Tamamo... I really like Casko, she is one of my favorite Servants. She is funny, enthusiastic, and very beautiful. We never get bored with her. But I have no illusions. It is also a manipulative and selfish creature. Do you remember how Tamamo decided that Hakuno was her husband? She suddenly came up and said that Hakuno had a "wife from Heaven" (she). Tamamo never asked Hakuno if she agreed. This kitsune is inherently intrusive. She has no sense of personal boundaries. From the beginning, Tamamo dictates her behavior to Hakuno and does not even ask her opinion. Hakuno tolerates this because... well it's Hakuno. She's shy, she doesn't say much, and keeps her opinion to herself.

The Prey and the Shadow

Having found the trails covered with powdery snow, the solids Indians Appaloosa were full of joy, wheezing their nostrils with puffs of steam. The spotted mare on which Hakuno rode was a strong, calm animal with a secure foot. Its only flaw was undoubtedly its gluttony. Accustomed to searching for food in the middle of winter, the mare would stop regularly to search a mound with the hoof in the hope of discovering grass that would have been protected from the cold wind that blows between the hills.

Pulling on the reins, Kishinami had to constantly force the animal to take its place in the procession. But behind the Victor of the Moon, the other riders blocked by the caprices of the mare line up every name in the book. With affection for her Steed, Hakuno paid no attention to the swearing of the Sioux policemen and contented herself with flattering the mare neckline and whispering sweets nothings to the moving ears which turned in the direction of the unknown sounds.

"You should respect the travel instructions, Miss Kishinami".

Hakuno looked up to Sheriff Garreaux.

"Look at the top of the mound on the right, at the end of the groves." continued the police officer.

Hakuno's kinetic sensibility was extraordinary and she immediately spotted elk emerging from the shade of the trees. A large male protected their retreat.

"Don't stare too much at them! Now look on our left flank."

Birds described large circles above the forest. Without raising his voice, the sheriff explained himself.

The unusual behavior of the animals left no doubt, two groups of men followed the column of policemen. They could have been trappers, but then they were in the illegality because the hunt had been closed since December 15. Caster was not reassured by his comment. The Indians on the reserve seemed to be playing some sort of permanent Russian roulette. Tamamo feared they would attack his adorable Master on an impulse. The kitsune exchanged a glance with Jeanne. Ruler remained calm. Best rider among the non-Indian, she stayed close to Hakuno to help her with her own horse.

Then pressing in both is spur, Hal Garreaux joined the front of the line. Around Hakuno, the other policemen were talking and joking as usual. However, their eyes systematically avoided the tall trees while their hands hardly moved away from their weapons.

Slowly, the sun slid between the heaps of iron-grey rocks that blocked the horizon. While the tribal policemen set up the bivouac under the protection of a sentry, anxious looks were exchanged. All-day long they had been followed by their invisible companions.

Aided by Ruler, Hakuno untied her mare's harness, placing her saddle on a fallen tree at the edge of the trail. A little further Tamamo helped to unload the beasts of burden. Weikmann pulled up a black polymer machine gun with a Picatinny rail with an additional attachment: a laser designator. The weapon was a Slovak submachine-gun CZ Scorpio Evo 3.

Awakened in a startle, Hakuno leaps out of her sleeping bag the heart beating at full throttle. In and around the big tent, it was pandemonium. A violent shooting was raging amid the human howls and the terrified horses' whinnies. Oppressed by panic, anesthetized by the suddenness of events, Hakuno will become entangled in the tent pegs and fell. Facedown, she slowly raised her eyes.
A few meters away, a zigzagging silhouette stopped abruptly pointing an indistinct weapon in her direction. The flame and the detonation tear the night. But no projectile touched her. On the contrary, the assailant collapsed hit by a burst. Over her, another shadow replied with a short rounds of shots.

The Scorpio... Weikmann! The brief flashes of light illuminated an obese Amerindian escaping between the brushes. The physicist touched him with a burst of projectiles in his legs. The impact of a bullet lifted the ground just in front of the Victor of the Moon. But Tamamo had intervened, other bullets crashed on his mirror lifted like a shield. Hakuno took advantage of the help of her Servant to crawl to the other side of the tent. There, too, panic reigned. Some fuliginous silhouettes were running between the trees and exchanged shots. Betrayed by the flashes of their weapons, the dark figures appeared and disappeared in a tragic game of hide-and-seek. Panicked by the clash, pushed by two figures that screamed and gesticulated, the horses fled, knocking down the tent, trampling the equipment.

The attackers dispersed themselves in the dark forest. A few minutes of anxious waiting followed the shooting.
Apart from the groans of a wounded man the silence was now total.

Hakuno jolted when she was touched by the shoulder. Turning around she saw Weikmann in the dark. He raised on his forehead the complicated case of night vision glasses:

"They are gone."

Around Weikmann and Kishinami, tribal policemen rose to light their electric torches. Barefoot and shivering, Hakuno was squeezed into the arms of Tamamo. While the kitsune worried about her looking for an injury, Jeanne d'Arc went around the camp. The horses had disappeared. The camp was trampled and bodies were lying on the ground. The police examined them for survivors.

The man wounded by Weikmann did not speak.

Despite the care, he died without regaining consciousness bled to death by a hemorrhage caused by the many impacts of the Scorpio. Only a hospital could have sutured such wounds.

Overturned by the horses, the pans spread their embers on the tent. Hakuno had lost her parka and much of her belongings. In compensation, she received a jacket from a dead policeman. The surprise assault resulted in the death of Pete Two Legs; Jeremiah Coutrelle was shot and now had to be transported in a makeshift stretcher. But although no one mentioned it, the most serious was the loss of transportation, tent, and radio. In an environment like this, death was assured by exhaustion or cold.

The victory of that night had the bitter taste of defeat. Moreover, Hakuno had no idea of the motives of their attackers.

Taking away everything they could carry without overloading themselves, they left the clearing. Hal Garreaux and Raymond Little Eagle were carrying the cripple and Tamamo was closing the march, just behind Hakuno who was advancing next to Jeanne. Doctor Weikmann opened the march. Thanks to his night vision glasses, he hoped to be able to prevent any further ambush.

They walked for an indefinite amount of time in heavy darkness, watching for the eventual return of their adversaries. Tired, Hakuno walked like a sleepwalker. But, suddenly, the nocturnal silence was broken by a long plaintive cry carried by the wind, the howl of a malevolent and solitary beast, rising in the high and then rapidly decreasing before ending on a long strident note. The Victor of the Moon turned her head around, shaking hands against her chest. As affected as she, the policemen and Weikmann watched the silence and the wind in the leaves.

The sheriff was the first to recover. Reloading his Winchester with cartridges drawn from his pocket, he stopped to concentrate strongly.

"What was that?" murmured Weikmann.

The Native American gave him only a brief glance. Despite the darkness, Hakuno guessed his face tense, worried. Garreaux ends up answering in a low, deep voice... barely higher than a whisper:

"Not the scream of a round-tailed raven, not the scream of any Dakota animal. In fact, no animal screams like that! Have any of you ever heard this kind of... groan?"

On either side of Hakuno, the two Servants seemed about to invoke their Noble Phantasms at the slightest sign of danger. Casko was thinking out loud:

"It's not an animal and it's not a human being... It can only be a supernatural creature. And his intentions are not friendly."

Hakuno swallowing acidic saliva.

No more reassured that she, Weikmann kept a finger on the trigger turning on himself in search of the origin of the complaint. After a short exchange in Sioux with Ray, the sheriff beckoned him to join him.
"Wait! What are you doing?" asked Tamamo.

After spreading the branches of a fir tree to let his companion pass, Garreaux turned to the kitsune:

"My duty, Caster! Beast, man or... worse... this thing is in my tribe's territory."

"We should not separate," replied Jeanne.

"We can't transport Jeremiah and we can't leave him alone. Miss Kishinami, Caster and..."
Ruler interrupted him:

"I'm coming with you."

As the sheriff wanted to contradict her, the saint insisted:

"I'm not defenseless. Anyway, nothing says staying here is safer than following you."

Garreau sighed and nodded silently before leaving the track with Jeanne de Weikmann and Raymond Little Eagle.

Hakuno put out her flashlight in order to get used to the black and white landscape of the forest. The call Jeremiah the call drew her from dark meditations. returning to the stretcher, Hakuno helped her to re-bandage and put it as comfortable as possible against a tree. From there, leaning against the trunk, the police officer thinks he can shoot with his rifle if necessary. As the last Master of the Moon chatted in a low voice with the Indian, fear made his hands tremble. He swore, cursing his wounds which compelled him to be a burden and not a guardian of his people as his duty required.
Again, the horrific scream repeated itself and silenced the tribal policeman. Rubbing her shoulders with the palms of her hands, Hakuno shivered from head to toe, blood as frozen... from a cold that owed nothing to the outside temperature.

"It's not a bird even if the call came from above," the Indian held on his weapon like a drowning man to a plank of wood." But there were words... yes, it was a call with words of no man's language."

Tamamo had frozen herself, if she had not adopted a human appearance, her ears would no doubt have betrayed a great agitation:

"I agree, the cry comes from above. The one who cried flies... The good news is that he is moving away from us."

A gunshot sounded in the distance, its echoes had not yet finished dispersing and two more shots sounded.
The silence suddenly came back, uniform as a shroud. The absence of any indication only kept the tension going. It is the quiet, calm, almost meditative voice of the Indian policeman startled Hakuno:
"This is a powerful round, probably the 356 of the sheriff's "big bore"."

Tamamo approached Hakuno:

"Goshujin-sama? Your orders?"

Hakuno made a head tilt unable to answer anything. The teenager turned to Jeremiah quietly busy rolling a cigarette in the light of an electric torch. Looking at the two women looking peaceful, he smiled:
"It takes someone to wait for Hal, both of you go. I don't need a nurse" His appreciative gaze lingered for a moment on Tamamo's assets "_even a good-looking one."

Carrying Hakuno like a princess, Tamamo ran at full speed between the trees. Arrivée au sommet d'une butte, Tamamo s'immobilisa:

"Goshujin-sama, four men, they go up towards us... it looks like... yes! They follow a trail."

The young Japanese girl turned to kitsune with a question in the eye. Tamamo no Mae was so used to her Master that she understood the implicit question:

"They don't follow the trail of our friends, in fact, they trace their tracks in our direction."

"Enemies?"
The night vision of the kitsune was far superior to that of a human, she replied immediately: " They are armed with big game hunting rifles, even a modern bow."

Hakuno nodded. She remembered seeing arrows planted in the ground of the camp.

" Foe!"

After a moment she added:" Let's ambush them, but don't kill them."

Tamamo replied with her usual exuberant enthusiasm:

"Yes, Master!"

Hoarses voices resounded in the dark forest. Hakuno reopens the eyelids. Accustomed to the conflicts of the Grail War, she was not even worried. Humans against a Servant? It was not a fight... The voices came closer... more than a few meters. An anxious call was made, freezing the laughter. Surprised, Hakuno looked across the tree curtain and saw the Amerindians drifting back into the woods. On a mental order, Tamamo leaped. She was so fast that no human eye could have followed the kitsune. In a few "light" blows, she threw the attackers to the ground. All of this had lasted less than a second.

Hakuno straightened herself, leaving the shelter of the tree that concealed her. She was going to advance towards her Servant when a feeling of discomfort made her turn... Hakuno felt a frightful presence just behind her.

Darkness.
A fluctuating wall of darkness cut the forest to her right, darkness so deep that it resembled a breach opening onto the void between galaxies.

A living, frozen nothingness.

A nightmarish impossibility.

Unable to shout, Hakuno saw the "wall" waving on the ground and advancing towards her as the bloodcurdling scream resounded again. As Hakuno clumsily retreated, she took her feet in a root. Panic prevented her from stand-up. Terrified, the Survivor of the Moon felt inspected by the "wall of darkness" and suddenly the shadow stopped, as if undecided, only two steps away from her.

"Goshujin-sama!"

Caster leaped forward, striking the shadow with Amaterasu's mirror. The creature took the full brunt of the attack and immediately retreated. Around the shadow, the trees died and the vegetation dried up. An instant later, the living darkness had disappeared.

"Master... it was... it was a Servant! This abomination is a Servant! I don't know if our new opponent is Berserker or Rider but... his power is clearly demonic."

At this moment the sound of shooting broke out. Hakuno recognized the brief burst of Weikmann's Scorpio.

Cautiously Tamamo was descending a slippery slope, still carrying Hakuno. Rubble rolled under his footsteps, bouncing endlessly, taking away more falls before finishing their race in a splash of spray.
There was a river running down.

The moon allowed Hakuno to distinguish the wet footprints on the stones of the ford. Evidently, the band of Indians had passed by to cross the river. From a leap, the kitsune jumped over the obstacle. Going up to the top of the thalweg, she stopped in front of a lifeless body. Next to him is the silhouette of a heavily built man armed with a rifle with a telescope. As the man straightened himself, Hakuno recognized Garreaux.

Without the slightest sign of surprise, the tribal policeman showed the body:

"He received several bullets, from a 9 mm machine gun, in view of the dispersion of the impacts and the casings. I guess it was Weikmann work. According to the trail signs, the man killed by Weikmann was not alone. There were four of them with him. Three were probably Native Americans living on reservations, but I don't think the last one was."

"Ruler and Weikmann are not with you... nor are the last policeman" questioned Tamamo.

"Ray was taken away by a shadow from the sky. Ruler went after him. Weikmann and I were then separated by an attack by drunk and ill-armed men."

Pulling himself away from the overly protective arms of the kitsune, Hakuno turned on her torch to inspect the trampled snow:

"You can tell a white man from a native American by his footprints?"

"A Native American walks with his foot overhanging on the ground, a white man first sets his heel."

On his knees, Garreaux showed one of the prints:

"5' 55", heavy for its size... maybe one hundred eighty pounds. Its strides are short... it hurts while walking. He's wearing walking shoes, something expensive. No, definitely not a Sioux."

At that moment, there was a crack in the branches. As Sheriff Garreaux was grabbing his rifle, Tamamo raised the barrel of the weapon:

"Don't shoot, it's Weikmann! He's been watching us for several minutes!"

The kitsune then turned to the dark forest:

"Doctor, you can come out. Do you recognize me? I'm Caster, my Master is next to me, and so is the sheriff."
Almost a minute passed before the scientist came out of the shadows. He glanced anxiously at Tamamo and circled her to join the sheriff. The latter understood that Pier Weikmann was afraid of Caster but did not understand the reason. On the contrary, the kitsune smiled:

"Don't worry, Dr. Weikmann, I will not attack you... not without my Master's orders. And I know her well. There's nothing more adorable than her. You have nothing to fear."

[What is going on?] Questioned Hakuno mentally with a cute head tilt.

While Weikmann and the Native American held their breath, Tamamo replied:

[Sheriff Garreau does not know that I am a Servant... unlike Weikmann... because he saw the invocation of my mirror.]

Hal Garreau decided to set aside the discomfort that had set in and questioned Weikmann about what had happened since they had been separated. The scientist had little to say. He had hidden in the woods, pursued by Indians. He ambushed them and killed their tracker before hiding near the trail.

The sheriff summed up what had happened to him

Nevertheless, Weikmann cut short the dialogue and showed the direction taken by his fleeing aggressors:
"I don't care about the skin color of these lunatics, I want to catch them! Unless we send smoke signals to the other research teams, we're reduced to our means... They're our only lead on finding my brother and niece."

However, the Amerindian did not listen to him. He turned to Tamamo:

"Caster, what have you done with Jeremiah?"

"He asked us to meet with you. Exactly, he went straight and said something about 'defending his tribe'."

"And he also looked at Caster saying that he didn't need a nurse even well-behaved" Hakuno added.

Bug-eyed, Tamamo turned to her Master, thinking that her "husband" teased her. But she looked at the kitsune with her usual innocent look... probably without understanding what she had just said.

Suddenly deprived of all her means, Tamamo blushed and put her hands on her burning cheeks:

"You... lady-killer!"

Weikmann smiled despite the situation. Only the sheriff did not seem amused. The physicist wanted to speak but Hal Garreaux turned back to trace his own tracks.

"Where are you going?"

"See Jeremiah!"

At first undecided, Hakuno turned to Weikmann.

"The sheriff's right, let's not stay here."

Stiffening, Weikmann stares angrily at the Victor of the Moon designating the direction taken by the escapees:

"My brother and my niece are this way. I would not abandon them!"

Caster (having finally regained her composure) gave Weikmann a cold look:

"You are on a Servant's hunting ground. You will die if you meet him. You can follow me and survive or stay there... and die. This is your choice."

When Hakuno made her decision, she went after the sheriff. Of course, Tamamo was walking by her side. Seeing the others abandon him, Weikmann swore in a low voice before running to catch them.

It took almost an hour's walk to return to the temporary camp. When the little troop entered, Hakuno realized that Garreaux had reason to fear misfortune.

The clearing was devastated, the contents of the backpacks littered the ground. A broken-down coffeemaker, lacerated clothes, scattered provisions... this was the painting of incomprehensible savagery. You steal what's valuable, you don't destroy it!

The policeman ordered Doctor Weikmann to keep Hakuno away. Raymond Little Eagle's body had been brought back to the bivouac. The teenage girl recognized the dead only by his clothes. He now looked like a secular mummy, a blackened, dried, bloodless creature. Struggling not to vomit, Kishinami let the American take her by the wrist to take her outside the camp. Followed by Tamamo, the teenager took refuge in the shelter of the trees.

The two men were almost peacefully discussing around the corpse, the comments of a policeman and those of a scientist. For them, there was no doubt that the "wall of darkness" was responsible for this act. Garreaux s as a good tracker noticed the absence of footprints around the body. Moreover, Raymond Little Eagle seemed to have fallen from high. As for Weikmann, he thought that the mummification phenomenon was probably the result of harmful radiation.

While listening to what they were saying, Hakuno was thinking by herself. The Servant who had attacked them seemed to have a definite purpose. First, he had attacked the policemen but not the Amerindians who had ambushed them. Maybe they're up to something? Hakuno shivered by all the prospects offered by an alliance also against nature.

Seeing a dark surface in the snow, The Survivor of the Moon stopped. A dark spot the size of a plate sliced over the phosphorus of the snow. It seems... yes, the action of a liquid! In the light of her flashlight, Hakuno observed the maculated ground, covered with a dry reddish-brown crust. The brutal understanding of the phenomenon makes her heart beating really fast. For a long minute, she dared not move, riveted on the ground, her eyes following the drops of blood that continued to fall.

"Goshujin-sama! Don't look up!"

But she looked up at the branches of the tree and the horrible shape that was hanging there.

Hakuno immediately regretted not having listened to Tamamo. Dropping her lamp, she buried her face in her hands.

Skinned alive, Jeremiah Coutrelle's remains were hung by the feet at the tree.

Tamamo no Mae caressed Hakuno's head, sleeping on her lap. The kitsune was grieved and angry. The events of the night had been too horrible for her adorable "husband" she would make the Servant responsible for these atrocities pay for this.

Personally, that a Servant kill or steal the Od of humans left her indifferent... but if a Servant made her Master suffer... She clenched her fists with anger. There was no crime in her opinion more horrible than to harm her "husband".

Suddenly, a noise startled her. Her fox ears appeared on her head pointing at the source of the commotion...

Yes, there was a fight in the distance. From here she heard only the muffled rumor of trunks of trees breaking.
With a movement of the hand, Tamamo made her mirror appear. She touched it with her fingertips while concentrating. Of all the Servants, the Casters were the most skilled at spotting other Heroic Spirits' Mana. They could feel their magic energy from miles away and even make their image come alive.
And Tamamo knew Jeanne's energy well.

A scene appeared in Amaterasu's mirror.

A forest barely lit by moonrays filtering between the branches.

Black flames were burning on disembodied trunks. Breathless, Jeanne was on her knees. Her armor was damaged and her beautiful face was bloody. Nevertheless, her eyes were firm, she straightened her teeth...

In front of her...

An army...

Emaciated, translucent, they are specters dressed in medieval European armors. Some had crossbows, others had harquebus. Some of them had two-handed swords. Some of them were on horseback.
They threw themselves at Jeanne d'Arc.

The French saint avoided attacks by jumping sideways, twirling her banner. Then she raised it to heaven. The banner snapped and lit up... the heaven replied in the form of a rain of light ray.
The tree trunks exploded and the ghostly army was dispersed.

Jeanne turned to face... a black flame burning in the midst of devastation. A flame that hovered above the ground... with a vaguely humanoid shape... two redeyes sparkled where his head should be.
Jeanne began to speak vehemently, but the mirror does not permit her to hear sounds and Caster pinched her lips in spite.

Opposite, the other Servant reversed himself back. Seeing Ruler covering her ears with a mimic of pain, Tamamo understood that the monster was screaming.

Immediately other specters appeared... Their glowing eyes shone with dementia.

"At least I don't have to wonder what class this Servant is... its Berserker. His energy is very different from that of the flying demon... who must be Rider." the Kitsune murmured.

But Jeanne kept talking... visibly begging. Unfortunately, Caster did not know how to read lips and did not understand the conversation, especially since Ruler had to speak French and she not sees the lip of Berserker.

The fight was about to resume, Ruler's negotiations having visibly failed but...

The two Servants turned around.

The trees at the edge of the battlefield withered, the bushes dried up and fell into dust as a wall of darkness advanced.

"And now, here comes Rider!"

Rider neglected Jeanne to immediately attack Berserker. The wall of darkness enveloped the army of specters that disappeared in an instant. But the black creature retaliated by projecting balls of dark flames...
Irritated, Tamamo clenched her lips:

"Mikon! A clash of two individuals covered by soot in a dark room... try to figure out what's going on!"

Mana overload erased the image of the mirror surface. But for a few moments, the scenes appeared and disappeared in a shower of images deprived of context... Tamamo saw some sort of winged massive form, a lion's paw, a bearded face with a high tiara. Then the mirror of Amaterasu definitively became inert.

Author's Note: Two new Servants for a single chapter. But who are they? Do you have any idea?
Berserker should be easy to identify, he appears in Fate Grand Order.

Rider is a historical figure... but I invented the Servant.