Cillian secretly hugged one of the corpses, who didn’t even mind it, and rubbed himself against it to get the corpse’s blood on him to appear the same as them.

They continued slamming themselves against the wall Melissa was desperately trying to hold in place, in an attempt to break inside. Cillian knew he had to move quickly or they would be too late for it to hold.

’That look on Aster’s face... Killing fellow students won’t make you raise your sword?’

Cillian mused inwardly as he roamed around, thinking about how Aster had reacted when the shield was formed while he watched the students from the academy who had turned into zombies.

He was completely stunned.

Just by that alone, Cillian knew Aster would definitely hesitate the former students, and that hesitation might end up getting someone in their group killed.

It would’ve turned into a complete waste when that happened, especially when they are far more useful than they currently appear.

Especially the death flags above their heads.

If not for it as a final danger meter, Cillian would’ve definitely convinced Aster to fight and kill these corpses for the second time.

’A guy who relies on his strength is weak mentally. Well, he had a hard time making hard choices this time, and he’s not fit for it. This is why we’re different.’

When it came to Cillian’s greatest strength, he knew it was his mentality. He could be caught off guard sometimes by certain situations, similar to how Aster reacted, but he will definitely and always be able to adapt to them.

That was the only right way to face these kinds of situations.

No other reason was needed.

[Death Flag x12]

[Death Flag x13]

Thanks to his ability to make quick decisions in the current situation, Cillian was finally able to find the root of their current problem once he saw the count of his death flag added by one at the corner of his eye.

It was a Black Shepherd.

’Would you look at this idiot. Is she in a trance? And here I am about to act like a zombie just to get closer to her. Well, how could I have known? Tsk, shouldn’t have dropped my bow earlier.’

Cillian thought to himself as he drew closer carefully. The more he did, the more he realized the Ruiner was in some kind of trance, leaving her vulnerable to attacks.

It made him more confident.

[Death Flag x14]

That was until he saw a change on his death flags when it increased by one again.

’Another one?!’

Cillian decided to risk it by trying to take down the corpse Ruiner until a wooden fox materialized between them and blocked his attack.

This made him create distance and watch his attack fail.

"Tsk!"

Cillian clicked his tongue as he watched another Black Shepherd appear from the other side and looked unbothered.

"Hey there. You don’t look like the corpse she was controlling. Who are you?"

"Mimicry. Domino Trace."

[Mimicry Activated]

[Mimicry Failed]

[Domino Trace Activated]

[Mental Load: 20%]

Seeing that mimicking the wooden fox failed and getting the Domino Trace on standby, Cillian didn’t hesitate to activate his Gale spell.

Making his spell work to his feet at any time, Cillian knew the danger of the operation had increased.

He never thought that another Shepherd would appear to save his fellow kin, but what can he do?

It already happened.

’One enemy. I’m not faced with unfavorable situations, and that lady shepherd didn’t look like she was planning on joining in. Though, I still have to watch out for her. The space around is all right. I can move around. I have cards up my sleeve. This is pretty doable.’

Accurate, not perfect.

He knew what he needed to do.

Cillian smiled as he felt his heart fill with tension and thrill.

’I’m going all out.’

"Mimicry."

"Why do you keep blabbering something under your mouth!"

The new Black Shepherd lunged forward, summoning one more wooden fox that attacked first.

Cillian did hand seals before throwing a stone that materialized from his hand towards the new wooden fox.

"Buddy."

[Temporary mimicked activated: Buddy [Two]]

[1:00]

[0:59]

The Iron Golem of Vin’s Piece manifested and barged with the wooden fox and started attacking it.

"Mimicry."

[Mimicry Activated]

[Mimicry Failed]

Cillian muttered under his breath as he saw the system failing yet again to mimic the ability before finding himself defending from the Black Shepherd’s attacks.

[Sleight of Hand]

Cillian dodges an attack that goes towards his eyes by using the sleight of hand ability of his Faceless. By changing the trajectory of the hand, he was able to back away.

Cillian formed hand seals and readied his Fireball spell, but the Black Shepherd interrupted his casting by destroying his hand seals.

The Black Shepherd tried to catch him.

[Sleight of Hand]

Cillian returned by getting away from the Shepherd’s grasp and finally using the Gale spell from his feet to back away.

"Mimicry."

[Mimicry Failed]

Yet the summoner of the wooden fox matched his speed and chased behind. The summoner Ruiner ordered his other wooden fox guarding the corpse Ruiner to attack together, leaving the corpse Ruiner behind and aiming to gang up on Cillian.

"Water Wall."

Cillian covered the side of the wall, but it didn’t stop the summoner Ruiner from stepping forward and exchanging blows.

[Sleight of Hand]

Yet every time the Shepherd tried to attack Cillian and target his gaps, he always managed to defend at the nick of time while finding an opportunity to make a distance of even one meter.

The blows he wanted to land kept missing.

This made the Shepherd suspicious and laugh maniacally.

"You’re a Ruiner!"

[0: 39]

Cillian flashed the Shepherd with a dangerous glare and continued muttering under his breath.

"Mimicry."

[Mimicry Failed]

[Sleight of Hand]

The Shepherd doubled his strength, forcing his way through before grabbing something from his pocket and pointing it directly at Cillian’s eyes.

It was an Artifact, a pointy wand.

"Blindness!"

Whoosh!

Cillian felt a gush of darkness swarm his vision until he could no longer see, even with his eyes wide open.

This made it impossible for him to see the possibility flags with his naked eyes.

However, this was a different situation, one where even walls couldn’t block his ability to see them when a single skill was active.

In just half a second, his brain worked instantly for a solution, and he muttered under his breath.

"Nearby Flag Presence."

The skill he had turned off after activating Domino Trace was turned on.

[Death Flags x14]

Cillian traced the Death Flag incoming towards him and defended himself.

[Sleight of Hand]

"Huh?!"

The Shepherd, who had his artifact as a hidden ace, was surprised and thought it was just a coincidence, and tried connecting his attack.

[Sleight of Hand]

Yet, every single time.

[Sleight of Hand]

He couldn’t touch Cillian.

"Mimicry."

[Mimicry Failed]

"Mimicry."

[Reserved Mimicked Storage: Jack Trade’s voice, Buddy(currently in use), Squidler]

"Squidler."

[Temporary mimicked activated: Buddy [Two][0:19], Squidler [Three][0:30]]

[0:29]

Cillian activated the ability he had stolen from the duel sickle Ruiner from earlier and prepared himself, since he was still blind.

The wooden fox that the Ruiner summoned doesn’t have a death flag, after all.

"Kon!"

After finding that catching Cillian was getting harder, the summoner Ruiner tried to activate the active ability that made him feel pain inside.

And just as Cillian predicted, the wooden fox was called. The problem was that he didn’t know where the fox was attacking.

’Where is it?! Damn it, it doesn’t matter!’

This made Cillian use the mimicked Squidler ability to the max.

"What?"

There was only one at first, but there became too many when huge, long, squid-like tentacles emerged from all around Cillian, causing the summoner Shepherd to back away and maintain his distance.

[Buddy [Two] [0:00]]

[Squidler [Three][0:10]]

The Shepherd watched the loose tentacles that seemed to be going crazy as he couldn’t help but scoff.

"Did that guy lose control? How stupid of him to use his abilities like that."

Thinking Cillian had lost control by using a dodging ability and squid-like tentacles, the Shepherd watched the cold eyes that his opponent was giving him.

It was one single eye amidst the raging tentacles.

This made the summoner Shepherd laugh.

"Idiot!"

[0:01]

Soon, Cillian didn’t appear to have lost control of being taken over by his Piece, and he turned back to normal.

"Oh? I thought you lost control. Are you sure you wanted to do more—hmm?"

Suddenly, the Shepherd had to stop when he saw Cillian motioning with his hand in a dog sign.

Cillian ignored the system screen showing the failed mimicries out of the corner of his eyes.

[Mimicry Failed]

[Mimicry Failed]

[Mimicry Failed]

[Mimicry Failed]

However, one of those screens is different.

[Mimicry Success]

"Mimicry."

The Shepherd grew increasingly bothered when he saw Cillian copying the activation hand seals for his Wooden Fox [Three] as information on how to use them flowed into Cillian’s mind.

"Is this how you do it?"

Cillian slightly raised his head with a smirk as the Shepherd was unable to move due to utter shock.

"Kon."

[Wooden Fox[Three]: Kon[0:10]]

Splash—!

The Shepherd was caught off guard as a wooden fox suddenly appeared behind him and sank its teeth into his neck.

It was an active ability for his Wooden Fox: Kon.