Chapter 127: Sing
"Enemies ahead."
Cillian whispered to Aster, who somehow peeked down the path ahead, only to find nothing there. Still, he trusted Cillian’s words and nodded.
Mouthful Eye tried to say something as he looked ahead, only to be met with an endless path leading deeper into the ancient ruins, with no one in sight.
"Just how are you doing this...?"
Mouthful Eye’s whisper was blatantly ignored before Cillian checked his Inventory screen and saw that, aside from his Artifacts and the newly acquired items he had picked up along the way while leaving, he had no weapons to use.
He had dropped the clothes he was supposed to use for disguising himself just to make room for every Artifact he had obtained in his Inventory.
[Mimicry: 00:09:32]
’How should we do this? Aster and Mouthful Eye couldn’t see the opponent, and I couldn’t move properly from my injuries. I’m pretty much a baggage at this point since I still can’t use my mimicry. I also don’t want to risk overdoing my sleight of hand as well.’
Obviously, Cillian was putting this main character to work again.
However, what Cillian wanted from this upcoming operation was a swift execution without Aster having to exert too much strength. In fact, from this point onward, every action should be kept to the bare minimum until they met the bigshots.
Unless those two hidden Shepherds are already the bigshots they were looking for, that is.
Cillian began to analyze the situation with a silent sigh.
’This kind of situation is slightly advantageous to the Shepherds since, by the looks of it, they are pretty familiar with the geography inside. Does that mean this is one of the places they use as a hideout? Most likely. Aside from that, I can’t use the same method I used in Hensel earlier. It’s not the same as back at Hensel Hospital, where I created situations advantageous to me just to desperately survive. Hmm...’
After a while of listing the things that could be considered advantages, an idea entered Cillian’s head that matched everything he wanted.
He gave Mouthful Eye a look, which the Artifact didn’t fail to notice.
"Hey, listen up."
The two began listening to Cillian, who was only planning to sit this one out and let the two of them work together.
The more they listened, the stranger their expressions became. Aster’s frown deepened, while Mouthful Eye, who tried to be in the same boat, couldn’t help but attempt to frown as well, only to find that he was unable to do so.
After all, an eye alone doesn’t have eyebrows.
...
Whoosh—!
It didn’t take too long before their plan was finalized.
Aster started sprinting in the direction Cillian had told him about, with Mouthful Eye on his shoulder. The wide path soon echoed with footsteps, alerting the nearby Black Shepherds to his presence.
Still, the two hidden Shepherds remained quiet and let Aster continue running aimlessly... or at least, that’s what they thought until he began running toward the ceiling by sprinting along the arching walls.
Then, Aster redirected his sword toward one of the Black Shepherds, who was caught off guard by his sudden action.
The invisibility spell that the Shepherd had prepared for himself immediately disappeared as he dropped down from the ceiling.
’There’s really someone there!’
Aster, who wasn’t very good at sorcery or anything related to magic, couldn’t help but be surprised. He didn’t show it on his face before deciding to drop to the ground and engage in a fight with the Black Shepherd.
’There’s still another one, right?’
Aster asked himself that question before meeting the first Black Shepherd’s machete head-on, their weapons clashing together. His eyes tried to look around toward the spot where Cillian had told him the second Shepherd was currently hiding.
After all, Aster had to worry about the second Shepherd, who might’ve already positioned itself far from their fight to create some distance.
He remembered one important note from Cillian when they were discussing how this fight would eventually turn out.
-You need to watch out for projectiles. If you’re not being ganged up on by the two of them, expect that the second Shepherd is the type to throw out things. Be very careful since this deduction might be wrong.
-Oh, right, another thing. These Shepherds are very sly. They might try to pull some cheap tricks that could work on others if you let your guard down for even a moment.
One step, two step.
For the first several seconds of their fight, Aster knew he was clearly winning. His swordplay alone was enough to overwhelm the way the Shepherd clumsily wielded his weapon as the two of them fought.
However, something was strange.
’This guy...’
Aster couldn’t help but want to laugh inside, seeing that the Shepherd was deliberately lowering his strength. He understood that this Black Shepherd was trying to buy time, and by doing this, he expected Aster to lower his guard once he saw himself winning.
Yet Aster had never let his guard down even for a second.
Three steps, four steps.
Aster kept his composure and maintained his swordsmanship without any inconsistencies or mistakes, seeing himself winning in the short yet surprisingly long bout against the said Shepherd.
’It’s coming.’
Aster’s instincts told him that the more the Shepherd lowered his skills, the more convinced he became that an attack from somewhere was coming.
And it did come.
Whoosh—!
A metal rod came hurtling toward Aster, moving fast enough that if he hadn’t noticed it beforehand, he would’ve already been caught off guard by how unexpected the attack was.
Yet this unexpected attack was already expected from miles away by Aster, who dodged it by simply stepping to the side without much effort.
Then with a twist on his body, Aster grabbed Mouthful Eye from his shoulder and threw it towards the spot where the attack just came from.
"What?!"
The second Black Shepherd, who thought that their attack had been successful, instantly became flabbergasted when it failed. Then, his eyes darted toward the incoming eye heading straight for him.
It opened.
And it began to sing.
"***! ***! ***!"
The Black Shepherd instantly became irritated as he began to fall to the ground, the invisibility spell surrounding him having disappeared.
"What the fuck?!"
Scratching his ears in annoyance, the Black Shepherd failed to recover from the sudden fall. He had lost the invisibility spell given to him by the other Shepherd, along with his control over the position he had maintained above the ceiling.
However, that complaint was the last thing he uttered before a sword pierced through the front of his face.
"***! ***! ***!"
Aster, who was also frowning deeply and had the urge to smash Mouthful Eye to pieces, turned his gaze toward the other Black Shepherd, who was also struggling with Mouthful Eye’s erratic singing. With quick footsteps, he dashed forward and delivered the same clean thrust.
The two Shepherds died.
"***—"
"Ugh, shut up already! It’s annoying as shit! They are dead!"
Mouthful Eye looked toward Aster and couldn’t help but act as if he had shed a tear upon hearing criticism about his voice. Well, his voice wasn’t bad. It was just that the censored words were very painful to hear.
"Good job, you two. It looks like the other Shepherd is indeed focused on shooting things. Heh, we can continue using this strategy."
Cillian smiled devilishly as he appeared in front of them, thinking that this strategy was something spammable.
’Oh, I’m going to abuse this exploit of the censored word so badly.’
Watching Cillian smile like that somehow made Aster shiver.