The Guardian System: The strongest Summoner's quest to save his family-Chapter 359: Ancient Stone-Eater Behemoth (1)

An hour later, the notifications finally stopped, and Reidar watched the interface for a full minute to make sure the red text would not flash again.

While the temperature remained hot, resembling a sweltering summer day in the tropics, the searing, oven-like intensity had vanished, and the air felt thinner and less choked with particulates.

"Land," Reidar said, and as the raven descended, it flared its wings to break its speed before touching down on a grey stone plateau.

After sliding off his mount and feeling his boots crunch against the gravel, he took a deep breath that still tasted weird because of the planet's chemicals but that at least no longer burned his lungs.

He dismissed the raven to conserve his mana and sat on a flat rock to focus, closing his eyes to shift his perspective from his body into the network of minds he controlled.

Once he connected to the Vorathid Sky-Hunters, his vision shifted, replacing the grey plateau with a high-altitude view of the badlands miles in front of him.

Looking through the eyes of his summon, he saw Mara navigating ridges. She had stopped using teleportation, which hinted at her mana reserves being low or being saved for an emergency, as she climbed hand over hand up a steep incline.

Reidar adjusted the Sky-Hunter's position to keep distant. He was not going to repeat the mistake he had made in the cave near Ashwick. Mara was better than Silas at noticing spies, as she noticed his Vorathid Sky-Hunter, whereas Silas didn't.

Mara had taken advantage of that mistake, using it to lure him into the trap that stranded him on this planet.

<Not this time.>

He spread the Sky-Hunters out in a wide perimeter, making sure they weren't just watching her but also the miles of empty rock around her, creating a surveillance net that worked as a moving bubble.

The problem was that the terrain, with its deep shadows and blind spots, made tracking difficult, as he had to anticipate her movements and reposition the hunters to keep visual contact, but at least it allowed him to avoid his summons from being spotted.

<She looks tired.>

Through the link, he saw her stumble and catch her breath on a boulder, looking back the way she had come.

<She certainly is trying to figure out if I followed her.>

Yet she failed to see the Vorathid Sky-Hunters.

Reidar kept the connection open to monitor her every move while his body rested on the plateau miles away. Although he was safe for the moment, he understood that his survival depended on the woman he was stalking, and he needed her to feel safe enough to stop so that she could finally begin making the magic circle.

However, Mara did nothing of the sort; instead, she collapsed.

She simply sat down in the shadow of a large rock and didn't get up. She leaned her head back against the stone, closing her eyes. She was done.

Reidar watched her through the eyes of a Sky-Hunter. The area she had chosen was a small depression in the rock, sheltered from the wind but exposed from above. It was a terrible defensive position, which confirmed how really exhausted she was. She didn't have the energy to find a better alternative.

<Well, it's not my business. The more tired she is, the better it will be for me.>

Reidar felt a twinge of relief. If she rested, he could rest. He could summon the Sky-Hunters, dig his hole, and sleep for a few hours without worrying about losing her.

He was about to sever the connection and return to his body when the feedback from some Sky-Hunters got severed.

[Your Summon (Vorathid Sky-Hunter) has been destroyed.]

[Your Summon (Vorathid Sky-Hunter) has been destroyed.]

Reidar froze. There had been no combat log. No "Taking Damage" notification. Just an instant death.

He shifted his focus to the Sky-Hunters that were closest to the place. Then the creatures reached the place.

The landscape looked the same—grey rock, dark shadows, and the glow of magma. But then the rock moved. Only that it wasn't a rock.

<What the hell?!>

A massive section of the cliff face, measuring easily fifty meters across, detached itself from the wall, making a grinding sound so strong that Reidar could feel it from his position.

<Oh… shit…>

The creature revealed was a colossal quadruped whose body was shielded by plates of armor that appeared identical to the surrounding basalt.

It didn't have a normal head. Instead, its front shoulders rose to hold a huge, round mouth, which was filled with rows of stone-like teeth. When the interface finished analyzing the creature, Reidar felt his breath catch in his throat. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

—[Ancient Stone-Eater Behemoth—Level 532]—

"I'm fucked…"

On Earth, the strongest thing he had faced was Silas, and he was now stronger than him. This thing wasn't as strong as the world carver behemoth, but it was for sure the strongest thing he had met aside from that giant creature.

The problem, though, was that the monster was wandering around the badlands like a stray dog.

Reidar watched in horror as the creature paused. It swiveled its torso and sniffed the air.

<So, this thing killed the Vorathid Sky-Hunter. I wonder if it did it accidentally or not.>

He looked at the map. The location of the attack was miles away, near where Mara was resting. But "miles" meant nothing to a creature that moved that fast.

The creature was too close to Mara, and albeit he wanted to kill her, that had to happen after she made the magic circle. If the woman had died before, then Reidar would be stuck here.

Reidar sent a mental command to his remaining Sky-Hunters. They needed to fly away from the monster as fast as they could.

But some of them never had the chance, because as soon as the monster noticed them, it killed them.

[Your Summon (Vorathid Sky-Hunter) has been destroyed.]

[Your Summon (Vorathid Sky-Hunter) has been destroyed.]

[Your Summon (Vorathid Sky-Hunter) has been destroyed.]

The feed cut to black.

<Ok, it is hunting the Vorathid Sky-Hunters… This could play in my favor.>

He scrambled to connect to the other Sky-Hunters. It was the furthest one out, hovering high above Mara's position.

Through their eyes, he saw the woman. She was still resting, eyes closed, unaware that a mountain-sized predator had just eaten two creatures less than a mile from her position.

<I must lure it away.>