The Guardian System: The strongest Summoner's quest to save his family-Chapter 377: Straight Lines in a Crooked World (9)

<Shit, everything is going down the drain!>

Reidar tried to count the Ignis in the leaving group, but there were too many. One thing was clear—they were all moving fast. Faster than his horse. They were already closing the distance, and that didn't even account for the Ignis that had left earlier.

<I need to slow them down.>

He reached into his mana and pulled, feeling the energy surge through him as he pushed it into another summoning skill to call the Archon Rift-Lords. The mana condensed, portals opened, and the Archons crossed the interdimensional gates.

Reidar sent them orders as soon as they appeared. <Set up ambush points.>

The goal here was to slow down the Ignis once again and to hit them when they passed. And they would.

It would not take much for the Ignis to reach the warehouse and from there to follow his tracks. The monsters lost all reason, but they were not stupid.

Even animals knew how to hunt, and so did the monsters, so there was no way the Ignis didn't know how to.

The Archons moved. They spread out and scaled the buildings' rooftops, waiting for the Ignis to come.

Reidar watched them prepare as he got farther and farther away from them. The Archons were strong, but they weren't going to survive a direct fight with the Ignis.

<That's fine. I just need a few extra minutes.>

He pulled his focus back to the road and kept riding, with the Quadraginta following. Reidar scanned the surrounding buildings, looking for the next set of landmarks.

Then he summoned the Shadow Sovereigns.

The Sovereigns served two purposes: first; they increased Reidar's mana regeneration, and second, they could create walls of solidified shadow that, while not indestructible against the Ignis, were strong enough to block attacks for a short time.

<Create walls and block the Ignis. Buy me every second I can get.>

The Sovereigns watched Reidar and the Quadraginta ride farther away before raising their hands, and the shadows surged out from their bodies to spread across the street behind Reidar, pooling and rising until they formed solid walls that blocked the street.

Reidar observed from a distance. <At least I should buy some minutes.> But somehow that didn't seem enough.

The barriers looked fragile if he thought about the Ignis' strength.

<Now for the reinforcements.>

The walls were, as things stood, the best defense Reidar could mount. They could buy him time, but the Shadow Sovereigns were not enough to defend them. The best thing would be for them to create new walls again if they got destroyed, but to do that, defenders were needed.

Reidar summoned the Undying Legion. The skeletons rose from the ground behind him as he rode, and he ordered them to the walls to defend them.

The Dread Shields assumed their posts without protest.

Reidar pulled his focus back to the road ahead, noting that he was getting closer to the edge of the city, where the buildings were thinning out and the ash clouds were denser.

Behind him, in the increasing distance, the Shadow Sovereigns erected more walls. The barriers rose one after another, stretching across the streets and alleyways.

Reidar checked the Archon Rift-Lords and saw that the Ignis were only a few blocks away. He kept looking until he saw the Ignis reach them, leaving trails on the ash-covered streets.

When the Ignis reached the first ambush point, an Archon appeared behind a collapsed wall. Because Archons only used ranged attacks, it fired a Tidal Surge, a water attack that, in theory, should have worked better than other elements against the Ignis.

The attack hit the Ignis's torso, causing it to screech and stumble, but the creature didn't fall. It lashed out with its bladed arm, leaping onto the rooftop where the Archon stood, and struck the creature across the chest.

The Ignis then swung again, and this time the blade-arm went completely through the Archon.

[Your Summon (Archon Rift-Lord) has been destroyed.]

The other Archons engaged. They spread out and attacked from multiple angles. Aside from the fire element, all the other ones were used. A Lightning Archon called down a bolt from above that struck the Ignis's back.

The creature turned and lashed out with its blade-arms, sweeping through the air and cutting down the Archons one by one. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

[Your Summon (Archon Rift-Lord) has been destroyed.]

[Your Summon (Archon Rift-Lord) has been destroyed.]

Only water seemed to work well against them, but it also turned the area into some kind of mire; the ashes turned into paste, and the ground itself, having not seen water in quite a while, turned muddy.

That didn't really slow down the Ignis in any meaningful way, but it was still better than nothing at all. Unfortunately, despite all the Archons' tries at stopping and killing the approaching monsters, they only gained a little bit of additional time for Reidar to make his escape.

They weren't even able to kill a single one of the monsters, which would have helped Reidar quite a bit with all the C.L.A.S.P. points he would have gained.

The fight lasted less than two minutes, though it felt much shorter given how quickly the Archons were being destroyed. The Archons hit the Ignis with everything they had at their disposal, unleashing their full arsenal of elemental attacks in wave after wave, but nothing worked to stop the advance of the creatures.

The group moved through the ambush like the elementals weren't even there, destroying every summon that got in its way.

By the time the last Archon fell, the Ignis had barely slowed down. Reidar pulled his focus back to his own body.

<Well done, guys…>

He said to no one, since the Archons were all dead, aware that the walls and undead were next on the list for the Ignis. More or less they were around 10 blocks away from the monsters, while he was 8 blocks away from the walls.

Reidar kicked his mount harder. The spectral horse surged forward and picked up speed.