Author's Note: I do not own the Fate series or Fate/Apocrypha in any way. All credits goes to its creator, as well as anything I use from other animes.

With that, enjoy the chapter.

italic [spells and chants]

'thoughts/telepathy'

Chapter 11: In a Tight Spot

(Normal P.O.V)

Achilles was currently leaning against a tree, whistling to pass the time in a clearing as he waited for his opponents. Ever since Atalanta alerted them that the Servants of the opposing faction are coming, he stepped down from the branch to give them a proper greeting.

He didn't have to wait too long, as he heard movement in the forest. "So they finally came." He commented as he stood properly, awaiting the opponents.

His opponents walked towards him, a tall knight in grey armor and girl that was in some sort of wedding dress. They were Siegfried and Frankenstein, the Saber and Berserker of Black.

Achilles twirled his spear at his side. "You had me waiting. So, Saber and Berserker, I presume?" His fingers grab and release his spear as he was anticipating the fight.

"Seems that I'm held in low regards, sending only two Servants and they think that would be enough to deal with me?" a savage grin spread across his face. "I feel offended!" His opponents raised their weapons, a greatsword and a mace as they waited for him to act.

Achilles introduced himself as he prepared to fight them. "My class is Rider. But don't worry, I won't use my steed as I'll hardly need it against you. Are you both prepared? I'll beat the meaning of a true warrior into you."

Siegfried made the first move and charged him then, Achilles followed suit and met the knight in the middle of the clearing. Achilles thrusted his spear several times towards him, but he managed to parry every thrust. He also managed to push Achilles back for a brief moment.

Frankenstein charged in as well to catch him off guard and swung her mace at Achilles' head. But Achilles saw it coming, so he unleashed a flurry of swift strikes to overwhelm Siegfried, pushing him back as he dodged her attack.

She came in with another swing, but he ducked under her attack and kicked her aside, jetting in as though to finish off the mad Servant.

Siegfried took that opportunity to hit him at his blind spot. He rushed behind Achilles, using the Greek's blind spot to get close, and swung his sword at him.

Unfortunately, Achilles whirled around, catching the knight's wrist as he was winding up for another slash with his sword. His battle sense was astounding, being able to sense an attack from a blind spot.

"Close but not good enough." he taunted. "You're nowhere close to my level!"

With a smirk, Achilles stabbed his spear into Siegfried's shoulder with all of his strength. But it did not do any damage to him, there wasn't even a visible wound.

The Rider was surprised for a moment, which allowed Siegfried to break free from his hold, immediately taking a swipe at him. Achilles saw it and forced to retreat a bit as he studied his opponent.

'My attack hadn't been weakened just now, it's just that it hadn't even scratched his armor.' Achilles was impressed, chances are his opponent has an ability similar to his own invincibility.

"So, you are also an endurance fighter." Achilles remarked. "Looks like we're in for a long fight."

'Rider, I need you to keep Saber of Black from moving,' Atalanta ordered. 'Let's see if my arrows can bypass his armor.' Achilles nodded internally. She wanted to test the limits of Saber of Black's invulnerability.

Achilles saw Berserker of Black as she staggered back to her feet. She snarled at the Hero of Troy with fury. Siegfried however, remained completely stone faced, not a single emotion on his face as he held his sword.

Achilles shrugged. "If you can't laugh on the battlefield, you won't be able to on the Elysian fields either," he warned. "So, try to at least laugh a bit before you die."

Siegfried lowered his head for a moment before answering. "Sorry, but laughing on the battlefield could be seen as an insult to the opponent."

"I suppose that's true," Achilles agreed. "But it can also lead to salvation." As he said that, something whistled past his ear in an explosion of turquoise light.

Siegfried's eyes widened as the arrow pierced right through his shoulder, he skidded backwards as its momentum carried him along with it. He grunted as he smashed into a tree trunk, where the arrow had lodged itself.

Atalanta stood where she was perched at the treetops where her bow was aimed and she fired her arrow at him. 'So my arrows can hurt him, though the question is how many more would I have to fire to take him down.' She thought as she prepared to let loose another arrow.

Achilles smirked. 'So Saber can be hurt after all.' He thought. While he hadn't been torn in half like most would when struck by that kind of attack, he had still been wounded.

"I see that you've took Ane-san attack seriously." Achilles commented as he aimed his spear at the pinned Servant. "Anyway, our side just lost its Berserker, I think it's only fair that you lose yours as well. Don't you think?"

This is because since Berserker of Red went on his own, he fought against the army of golems and homunculi before facing the Servants of Black. As he was outnumbered, he was eventually incapacitated by them. Atalanta had commented that it is very likely that Berserker of Red is already lost, hence the Red faction is currently one Servant down.

Frankenstein roared, likely because of Achilles's words and wasn't happy about it. She opened up the head of her mace, opening up to reveal some form of mechanical chamber. A tempest of emerald electricity surrounded her as bolts of lightning sparked in random directions.

Achilles eyed her while pointing his spear at the Saber, he was ready to deal either Servant and from the looks of things, he'll handle Berserker of Black first.

Suddenly Siegfried moved, forcing himself to be freed as he pulled himself away from the tree. He eventually came free of the bark with the arrow still imbedded at his shoulder. That surprised Achilles as Frankenstein looked back in shock as well.

Now that Siegfried was freed, he unnaturally raised his sword to the sky and activated something. A gem on the hilt glowed, and a tower of blazing pale blue energy erupted from the blade.

Achilles grinned. "Your Noble Phantasm? Very Well! Show me what you're capable of!"

Siegfried face contorted with effort, sweat was dripping down his face as he resisted every inch of his movements as his sword rose. 'I can't stop it!' He thought. The reason is because his Master most likely used a Command Seal to force him to use his Noble Phantasm, hence the jerky, forced movement he currently has.

Not only that, he had deduced that his weapon would not be able to harm Rider of Red enough to defeat him. Which means he would be revealing his identity as soon as he unleashed his Noble Phantasm.

Siegfried's lips opened forcefully as he had no choice unleashing his trump card. "Bal—"

All of a sudden though, the blue glow of his greatsword was suddenly extinguished. Siegfried sagged in relief, staggering to his knees. It would appear that he was forced to stop using his Noble Phantasm all of a sudden.

A few moments later, he disappeared in a shower of sapphire sparks, retiring from the battle.

Achilles sighed. "That's a letdown." he remarked to Berserker of Black. "He may have been able to even hurt me with a god slaying Noble Phantasm like that."

He moved his attention back to the Berserker as she aimed his spear. "Now, where were we?" Berserker of Black snarled at him, her weapon at the ready. She was ready to go at him again but paused for a bit, as if someone told her not to act yet.

Just then, an arrow streaked through the sky and smashed into his armor, penetrating all the way to his flesh. "What?" He was surprised that something hurt him.

A hail of arrows came plummeting down on him. He used his fast footwork to dodge the arrows as they impact the ground with devastating impact. Frankenstein took advantage of his brief distraction and charged past him, howling at the trees as she moved through the forest.

Atalanta saw this as she remained perched at the treetops. "So, you're coming here, Berserker of Black." She commented as she saw her charging towards her location. Atalanta aimed her bow and prepared to fire another shot. The arrow glowed in turquoise light as she aimed her sights.

"For your recklessness…you'll pay in blood!" Atalanta fired her arrow, it flew through the air, headed straight for Frankenstein, but before the arrow hit its mark, another arrow in orange-brown light soared and broke her arrow. "What?"

Chiron used his enhanced vision to fire an accurate shot to stop Atalanta's shot and helped his fellow Berserker in advancing towards the other enemy Servant.

Atalanta was surprised that her attack was blocked before composing herself. "The other Archer, huh… In that case…" She commented as she drew and fired three more arrows at the charging Berserker.

Frankenstein dodged the first arrow, but couldn't dodge the other two. The two arrows embedded into her but that didn't hinder her in the slightest. She continued charging to where Atalanta is despite her attacks.

Atalanta, seeing how this are developing decided to put her bow down. "So that's how it is…" She commented as she moved from her current position.

Frankenstein slammed her mace at a tree where Atalanta was perched on. A chunk of the tree trunk was blown out as the tree fell to the ground. But no enemy Servant was there.

"I will not face you today, Servant of Black." Frankenstein heard the Archer's voice, and started looking for her presence but was unable to do so. She decided to retreat back to the castle, seeing that her opponent had also done so.

Meanwhile, Achilles was still avoiding the arrows being fired at him. Chiron had kept hum busy, firing his shots and a few managed to make their mark. He was not allowing Achilles to rush back to his ally's defence and eliminate Frankenstein.

Achilles twirled his spear and deflected the volley of arrows, but every now and then an arrow was able to be embedded in him. He was actually feeling excited that someone was able to hurt him.

Another shot flew and managed to hit Achilles's ankle, close to his weak spot which is his heel. 'So, the Archer can predict my movements?' He thought as he removed the arrow at his ankle.

He also didn't sense the presence of his Archer companion. 'Atalanta retreated huh, then I've got no reason to stay any longer.' He decided to retreat back to the church where the Red Faction resides, not before one last declaration.

"Wonderful, Archer of Black!" Achilles cheered. "You are capable if killing me, our battle is destined! May the gods of Olympus, bless us with glory and sacred honor in this battle!"

He whistled and a shower of emerald lightning erupted next to him. The Rider's chariot emerged from the glow, pulled by a trio of mighty stallions. He hopped onto the chariot as the chariot moved at a high speeds and jetted away into the sky. "Let us fight again! Maybe then I'll get to see your face!"

Unknown to anyone on the field however, Atalanta had not fully retreated. Rather she dematerialised into her spirit form as she watched the Servants of both sides made their retreat back to their bases. She perched on another treetop, avoiding the eyes of any familiars that recon the area.

"Master, you had better be out of their stronghold." She commented as she observed the area from her position. Since her Master said he would infiltrate the castle, she is going to remain there until she is certain her Master id out of there. If the need arises that she has to step in to save her Master, then she will do so in a heartbeat.

Meanwhile, Chiron kept his aim up, watching the silver trail of Achilles's chariot flew away until he was sure the Servants of Red had truly fled. Once he was sure of their retreat, he finally sighed in relief and put his bow down, knowing that the battle is now over.

'It's ironic, Achilles. Destiny will even bare its fangs at those who are already dead.' His mind drifted as he thought about facing his former pupil. Chances are, he is the only one in the Black Faction that can take on Achilles in a straight fight.

"Are you feeling okay, Chiron?" A kind voice interrupted Chiron's thoughts. He turned to face his Master, Fiore and gifted Fiore a gentle smile. "Yes. It seems I've determined the opponent I will be facing in this Great Holy Grail War."

"To all Masters and Servants of Yggdmillennia!" Darnic's voice rang through the Servant and Master's heads. "Rider is aiding the escape of a homunculus that is very valuable to us. Ensure that he is brought back to the castle alive."

Chiron could only sigh as the voice subsided. 'Astolfo, what did you do?' He thought as Fiore also sighed a bit hearing Rider's actions.

"It can't be helped, let's-" Before she could say any further, an explosion could be heard and they felt the castle shake a bit from the impact of it.

"What was that?" Fiore asked. "I have no idea, but it can't be good." Chiron responded.

At that time, alarms were ringing all over the castle as another voice rang through their heads, the voice was full of urgency. "Emergency! We have an emergency!"

"Caules?" She wondered why her brother is alerting the other Masters.

"We have a situation, a Red Faction Master infiltrated the castle! I repeat, an opposing Master is in the castle!" He said.

"A Master of the Red Faction? In the castle?!" Fiore exclaimed, surprised that an opposing Master managed to infiltrate the castle.

"An enemy Master, does this mean that the earlier assault was actually a distraction this whole time to allow the Master to sneak into the castle? If that's the case, that is quite the plan they had." Chiron commented.

The Yggdmillennia castle was now in high alert, homunculi were running all over, trying to take care of the situation. "Let's go, Archer. We should find this Master first, then search for Rider." Fiore said, determined to do so.

"Alright, just don't push it too far." He said.

~1 Hour Earlier~

"Ugh… does this place even have an office?" Adrian said as he sneaked inside the Yggdmillennia castle finding a suitable place to find records or files about their faction or their Servants.

After he took the elevator upwards, it led him to one of the rooms in the castle. However, that only was one of the many rooms that were in the castle. In fact, there were multiple rooms in the castle that you could get lost in it if it's the first time coming to this place.

"This kinda sucks, if I wasn't busy sneaking around, I would have definitely taken my own time to explore around inside the castle." Adrian commented.

For the past thirty minutes, he has been going through room after room, finding a good place that the Yggdmillennia family would keep their records. But he has not been getting much luck in finding even a room that looked like a study.

He also had to avoid the occasional patrols of the homunculi roaming around the castle, as well as golem familiars that watch the castle's interior. Since he has to keep hiding every now and then, it was eating up a lot of time he has in remaining hidden.

'I got to hurry and find any evidence of their workings soon. I don't have much time before the spell wears off and alert them of my presence.' Adrian thought.

Eventually, he reached a room that looked like what he was looking for. The room looked like an office with a wall of books and files on one side of the room and there was a table in the middle for work purposes.

Adrian didn't realised it but he actually found Darnic's room, which would definitely be housing all sorts of the family's classified information. Though for the time being, he was just glad that he found the place he wanted to find.

'Jackpot!' He thought as he began to start his search in the room. He was also being very careful in his search as he did not want the people who used the room to find out it had been broken into so easily.

Though in the end, he didn't have to search the whole room. Adrian first checked the desk that had a few files and drawers. When he checked the files on the desk, he was surprised that it contains the information about the Red Faction Masters.

The files had a lot of things, from their profile to magecraft specialty and threat level that the Yggdmillennia family ranked them. 'This means that there were spies in the Clock Tower that relayed the information back here. Damn that Darnic, he is very meticulous to a fault.' Adrian thought.

'Luckily, my profile is hidden thanks to Zelretch. So anyone who has to find information about me has to go to him, and no one would dare to pry into his stuff.'

He placed the files in his bag that he brought with him before continuing his search. He checked the drawers but couldn't opened them, that's when he realised something, "Hang on, there's a magic crest on the drawer that is preventing me from accessing it." He commented.

'That means that only Darnic and his family can open them…in that case.' Adrian placed his hand at the drawer, soon a green glow could be visible at his hand. Rune markings were forming around the desk as Adrian created them.

Several seconds went by until a 'clicked' sound was heard. The glow in his hand dimmed as he removed his hand, and reached the drawer and opened it.

He applied the rune magecraft to break whatever spell was placed, now he is able to open the drawers and see the contents inside.

"The fact that there is a spell to prevent people from accessing it means there is something important to hide. I hope it's worth it, anyone who is nearby would have sensed the pulse of mana I just released." Adrian commented.

The time he has to infiltrate the castle has gone much shorter as anyone close by could have sense him using his magecraft, so he had to hurry. Luckily, what he found inside made him using the magecraft worth it.

"Whoa… this file is the profile list of the Yggdmillennia Masters…and this file is what servant that they have summoned. This is exactly what I'm looking for!" Adrian was smiling internally as he finally found what he wanted to find.

'Good thing I don't have to look all over the room to find these.' He thought. If he checked the whole room, he would have wasted a lot of time and increase his chances of being in danger.

Wasting no time, he gathered the files and put it in his bag and prepared himself. 'Alright, now I just need to escape without getting caught.' He thought as he left the room.

Around the same time, a boy was walking around the castle, apparently looking for something. The boy, Caules Forvedge Yggdmillennia was walking while he had a slightly anxious expression on his face.

"I sense a faint mana pulse earlier and it came from this general area. But who was it?" He commented as he walked through the hallways. He sensed Adrian using his magecraft earlier and thought of checking it out, thinking it was one of the other Masters.

'And I have to do it quick, Darnic told us to look for and bring back a homunculus that escaped with Rider.' He thought as he quickened his pace to find the magic anomaly.

However, as he walked to a corner, something hit him as he fell on his butt. "Ahh!" He yelped as he fell down. "Ouch…just my luck…" Caules heard another voice as he slowly picked himself up.

"Next time watch where you're going…" Caules trailed off as he saw who bumped into him. At the same time, Adrian recovered quickly as he saw who bumped into him.

The two of them made eye contact as thoughts appeared in their heads. 'Crap, I didn't expect to bump into an enemy Master already.' Adrian thought as he saw Caules's file earlier.

'Who is this guy, he is definitely not a homunculus…' Caules thought as his eyes trailed to his hand. The person was wearing a glove but the glove had an open area where he could see a red tattoo, the marks of a Command Seal.

'On his hand… those are Command Seals! Wait a minute, then that means…' Caules was about to alert anyone nearby but Adrian was one step ahead of him.

Adrian moved quickly. He casted a magic circle that caused the wall beside him to explode, causing the castle to shake a bit and have a big hole in the wall. Right after, he erected a fire wall in front of him to prevent Caules from reaching him and immediately bolted the other way.

Caules had to quickly retreat from the flames in front of him and he quickly moved to another area before alerting anyone about Adrian's infiltration. 'I can't believe it! A Master actually sneaked inside the castle, that's ridiculous!' He thought.

He pressed the intruder alarm that was placed all over the castle as he used magecraft to alert all the other Masters all over the area.

"Emergency! We have an emergency!" He created a magic line to inform all the other Masters.

"We have a situation, a Red Faction Master infiltrated the castle! I repeat, an opposing Master is in the castle!" He said.

Alarms could be heard throughout the castle as Adrian was busy trying to escape. "Guess everyone in the castle knows about my presence now. Oh well, time to kiss this place goodbye!" He commented.

He was still running through the hallways as he avoided whatever is thrown at him so far. He has only encountered homunculi that were guarding the hallways. Since he was in a rush, there was no actual need to take them out.

Adrian drew several black keys from somewhere and threw those swords at the homunculi in front of him, but the swords weren't targeting them. The swords hit the homunculi's shadow instead and they find themselves struggling to move.

Black keys are mainly used to counter vampires. The specialty of a black key is that it can magically bind a person in place when it pierces a shadow.

Thanks to this, Adrian bypassed the guards rather easily as he simply moved around them as they tried to move. While all this was happening, he was thinking about something.

'While it is easy to deal and avoid them, the number of homunculi sent to stop me is increasing. Chances are I'll be surrounded by them soon enough. I need to get outside of the castle fast.'

He continued running through the hallways, avoiding any unnecessary fights. In his vision, the path he is currently on goes to another corner, but he didn't know that a huge number of homunculi and several golems were standing by there to trap him.

They would trap Adrian from in front and behind him. However, these preparations were fruitless as Adrian broke everyone's expectations.

Adrian drew his dagger and used its gun form to fire several shots at a wall in front of him, each shot being powered up by his mana. The shots hit the wall and cracks were forming from the impact each shot made.

Then, he pumped as much mana into his legs to reinforce them and moved faster. There were still a few guards in front of him but he used that to his advantage.

He jumped forward, nearly landing right in front of the guards. But before that happened, he reached his hand to grab a guard's head to support himself. Doing that, he propelled himself forward towards the half-broken wall with his leg extended, firing himself like a bullet.

"BBOOOOMM" From the castle's perimeter, the homunculi stationed there were surprised to see a part of the castle wall suddenly broke off and the broken pieces began to fall. As they saw the rubble falling, they noticed a figure that fell alongside it.

'Shit, I didn't think about the landing!' Adrian thought as he fell with the rubble. He only of getting out of the castle that he did not think of landing from falling. As such, he had to improvise.

He went to the nearest rubble close to him and used the rubble to send himself a bit higher, delaying his fall time. He did this a few more times until there was no other rubble above him.

Adrian was still falling, but his fall speed had decreased, hence he had just a moment to gather his thoughts again. Before the rubble he was on crashed, he jumped, causing the rubble to crash and he fell later.

But since his fall speed had been much slower, he reinforced his arms and legs and he braced for landing. His feet impacted the ground first before using his momentum to do a safety roll to spread the impact and successfully recovered.

"Whew…close call. Other than my legs hurting a bit, that went rather well." Adrian said. He wanted to rest for a bit, but he looked around him to see the homunculi posted outside were looking at him with uneasy faces.

That is when he immediately took off towards the forested area, soon the homunculi regained their focus and began chasing after him. But since Adrian already had a headstart, they could not really catch him.

Furthermore, he casted a wall of flames behind him as he ran towards the forest, making it even harder to chase after him and the ones chasing him would lose him fast.

'If I can get deep into the forest that is out of the castle's bounded field, I should be safe. But that's a big "if", I don't know if they would go look for me that far.' Adrian fought.

As he reached the forested area, he had an uneasy feeling and slowed down for a second, like he saw something coming for him. That was when he moved his body to the right as something flew by his left side before hitting the ground.

"Boom!" The impact caused an explosion that engulfed Adrian a bit and he was blown back a bit. But he still managed to regained his footing and only got pushed back a few meters.

Adrian breathe hard as his eyes were actually glowing blue. 'That was too close. If it wasn't for my Eye of Perception, that would have skewered me.' He thought to himself. He used his eyes just then and saw an attack headed straight for him, hence he was able to dodge.

When he looked at the damage, he noticed the crater left by the attack and in the crater was an arrow. "An arrow that causes this much damage…wait that would mean…" He said before he drew his dagger again.

He focused his senses as he eyes continued to glow, he managed to see a sight of another projectile that is headed for him, he needed to act fast.

Adrian swung his arm as fast as he could, reinforcing his arm and dagger as there was an impact. Another arrow flew to his direction and thanks to his quick thinking, he blocked the attack with his blade.

After he blocked it, he stood there, waiting for another attack so that he could avoid it or black it again. But it never came, as a voice was heard.

"You are an interesting one, you managed to you blocked my shot. I'm sure no one expected an enemy Master to infiltrate the castle while the Servants attacked it. But in any case, you're not going any further." A male voice was heard.

That was when Adrian saw a figure coming from the shadows, thanks to the moonlight, he saw who it was. Chiron appeared from his view, with his bow in hand.

"It really is a Servant…well shit." Adrian muttered as he prepared himself to fight for his life.

Here is the next chapter. Adrian is in quite the predicament, he fulfilled his objective but is in a tight corner.

Anyway, the next chapter is going to be quite the chapter and I will try to have it out as soon as I can. Also, I never gave out a bio of my OC, so here is a brief bio.

Adrian's Bio

Gender: Male

Age: 22

Hair colour: Red

Eye colour: Blue

Magecraft:

-Reinforcement

-Projection

-Gradation Air

-Pyromancy

-Rune magecraft

Personal skill: Eye of Perception- His eyes glow blue when in use, it allows him to see things from different points of view, which allows him to see any attack from all sorts of directions. He can also see a person's magic circuits, similar to an x-ray scanner.

Weapons:

-Star Trailblazer- A Mystic Code that acts as both a dagger and a gun

-Black Keys

This is not the full bio as it may be updated as the story continues.

If you readers are patient enough to wait for the next chapter, I'll be very grateful. Do leave me a review so that I know how is it I can improve on the story.

With that, thank you for reading!