As Ciel's figure weaved through the forest-
Whoosh! A Blue ray surged and pierced through a shadehound's body, the staff pulsing with lingering mana.
Ciel took a deep breath. A red firefly passed by her vision, as growls from atop a tree branch, and amongst the bushes to her right, echoed.
This marked the third shadehound encounter so far, and her stamina was nearing the bottom.
"Hehe… this human vessel was weaker than I imagined…"
Her ears perked up. Leaves rustled as a shadehound revealed itself and lunged at Ciel.
With a sharp duck, Ciel fell forward and rolled, soil muddying her clean white dress.
She pressed a palm onto the rough soil, her nails burning at the rough soil. Her staff then stretched and fired another moonblast, timed right when the shadehound landed.
Another flesh shattered apart, another crystal dropped. But Ciel had no time to celebrate as the one from above descended, its jaws opened wide with malicious fangs.
With a knee still planted on the ground, Ciel muttered.
"Lunar Shield."
A transparent dome formed, shielding Ciel as the shadehound's fang scraped against the circular shield. It tremoured, then bounced the beast off, as if space itself refused another occupant.
Ciel's eyes narrowed at this amusing sight. Then, moonblast.
Black fur scattered apart along with her dome-shaped shield, as Ciel stood up neatly while patting away the dust on her clothes.
Off in the distance, spires rose occasionally, 'deaths' occurring from either the students hunting each other, or simply taken advantage of by the mindless shadehounds.
She couldn't care less. For now, her gaze only drifted high up at a cliffside.
Picking up the only crystal dropped by the shadebeast, she bore no hesitation and chewed at the crystal.
[ MP: 55/165 - > 105/165; Your next spell will be enhanced with 50% proficiency. ]
Ciel then froze, the pieces of crystal melting away on her tongue.
Shadebeasts were incapable of taste, but when Ciel was in her monstrous form, she tried the corrupted crystals from her dead brethren.
Those, contrary to her tasteless bud, tasted like mud. Not the healthy kind, but the dead-solid mud.
This? It tasted exactly as she imagined: a cool springwater sliding over her tongue, paired with the smooth texture of egg yolk.
Ciel didn't have much reference, though. Besides her high school memory, the closest food and drinks were from her residence with Summer after all.
But the sweetness dulled as she recalled the dragon's vigilant look. She blinked awake, then checked her status screen to adjust for her current situation.
The last dome, cast as she was vulnerable, kneeling and unable to conjure a blast in time, cost her just about 20 MP.
For reference, Moonblast only costs 10 MP, the main reason Ciel has been sparingly using them until now.
Worse was that her mana recovery rate barred at only about 0.01MP per second, barely keeping up with constant pressure from the Nightfall.
'Right now, the Cliffside was an important strategic spot.'
Shades only invaded where shades could be, so where else was safer than a spot facing the moon, basking in the pale light where shadows rarely reached.
That, however, was common knowledge that other examinees would know too.
A scowl touched her lips before Ciel let the tension slip from her expression.
Assuming a fight at every turn was unhealthy, she shall approach this with a safe, non-killing mindset.
Because if there's one thing she learned from her past life as a monster-
"Humans are always the best killers of their own kind."
She pursed her lips; a pain crossed her chest, for some reason.
—---------
Before Ciel set her foot out onto the cliffside, she made sure to prepare after confirming the firefly's green glow.
With her bare hand, she tore a piece of fabric on her clothes, catching a breath at how easily she destroyed the dress gifted by Summer.
Regrets lingered as her finger tugged loosely at the cloth and wrapped it around her wrist like a bandage, hiding the spellbind at her wrist.
A neat butterfly tie intertwined with only one hand's ministration. Ciel would have found it difficult with two hands, but Summer's irritated mentoring edged out her skills.
She chuckled, reminisced, then patted the tie with her fingers. She may play dirty, but even then, she hoped Summer wouldn't think too much of it.
Her eyes glanced up, through the thick lushes of green leaves, then met the fiery glaring zeroes, filling the right side of the scoreboard.
Hiding her identity would have normally made others doubt if she had gained a point, but not when a single mimic has yet to be found and hunted.
Ciel also counted that only her stated name was without a surname, perfectly suspicious for being mistaken for a mimic.
Well, assuming that Summer didn't take her for a kind of 'mimic', with the faulty spellbind and all.
After treading up a slope, she retrieved the staff back to her sigil and soon arrived at her destination.
The cliffside sprawled across her vision, fully exposed to the moonlight's glimmer. Its edge, gradually narrowing till the end, pierced towards the night sky. The view was spectacular to bear.
Rough rocks, some large enough to be covers for an attack, while some so small one wouldn't realise their toes nudged them away, filled the dusty land. Few patches of green grew in the rocks' cracks, delivering news of this land's age.
Ciel counted at least three stares locked on her here. Examinees, one hiding behind a cover, another two seated by the right edge, refused to budge their hostility.
There used to be eleven more curious glances, but all moved away upon the loss of interest, either finding her harmless or simply the same as any other here.
Her steps moved themselves, drawn to the single person whose eyes never swayed from what she was doing.
"...hm… isn't this too unnatural…?"
Walking a distance, she arrived at the left of the cliffside, as a large rock curved and towered over her small figure, along with another who sat with her back pressed against the coarse wall.
She was a blue-eyed beauty with blonde ponytail hair and a perfect figure, her features displaying the most natural beauty, complemented by the pink lipstick on her lips and cream on her skin.
The two ears sharpened outward, peeking through the soft strands of hair. An elf, Ciel identified, which greatly confused her since she barely recalled elves using cosmetics.
The dissonance only grew stronger upon a look at her clothes: except for the traditional style kimono or village rags, stained red by Ciel's claws from the past, the girl wore a casual white blazer with a checker skirt, demonstrating a clean sense of fashion.
A gyaru? An elf gyaru? In this fantasy age?
How pretty! She wanted to make friends!
Though the elf was too occupied with the brush in her hand, not sparing a single thought on the innocent Ciel, whose eyes practically shone with an intense interest, masked by her cute demeanor as friendliness.
Ciel's eyes followed as the gyaru brushed a few strokes onto her wrist. The spellbind, what used to be shaped like a rose, had now withered into polished white, fading into the skin by thick, luscious cream.
The Queen blinked. Then muttered out.
"You want to hide your spellbind?"
An immediate reply came, the voice carrying a strange yet oddly endearing accent.
"Yeah… tch, did I buy the wrong thing from the old man? The damn thing had a discount so…grr…"
The elf's lips moved erratically as if to jumble a messy string of words, before sighing.
"So, what business do you have with an elf?" She paused, then continued with an edge in her voice. "If you want a fight, just don't. Your back will be opened the moment you raise your weapon."
Ciel scanned her surroundings. She met a few responding glances from before, but including those three, they all flickered with an examinitive intent, as if gauging her skill from every small gesture.
With a shrug, those glances turned away, as Ciel plopped down onto the rock, letting in a huge sniff of fresh air.
And as she exhaled, her lungs burned a little less, resting from the long journey from before.
"I'm not in condition to fight." Ciel folded her hands, her tired eyelids a slump. "So feel free to attack me instead."
A smile flashed on her face as she continued. "But your back will be exposed too. Maybe not, if you allow me to watch it for you."
The elf's brush ghosted over the skin. Intrigued, she settled it aside and scowled at Ciel, her heels clicking impatiently as her posture adjusted for the human.
"Are you offering peace or a threat? Make up your mind."
Ciel tapped a loose finger on her chin, her mind seriously pondering.
"Mmm… both?" Ciel teased, then chuckled. "I'm not used to speaking yet, so please forgive me."
"Sheesh… aren't you quite an actor for a mimic then?"
"I reckon yes." Ciel gave a brief nod. "Want to kill me for points?"
The Queen's face soon received a brush's tip, a river of cream spilling on her cheek in return for her provocation.
"No mimics sound so stupid and annoying."
The elf gave an arrogant, heartwarming grin. "Nor so cute either. You had me quite scared for a second, shorty."
Cute?
Ciel's memory drifted. The mimic's creepy smile. The shadehound's growling teeth. Then, eventually, the 'heartbroken' Shire.
"Yeah," Ciel tilted her head, eyes losing their light. "I suppose I am."
'Ignoring all the blood on my hands, that is.'