The Guardian System: The strongest Summoner's quest to save his family-Chapter 375: Straight Lines in a Crooked World (7)

Reidar ran.

The streets blurred past him as he sprinted through the industrial district. He turned left, then right, then left again, putting as much distance as possible between himself and the warehouse.

Behind him, far behind him, his summons were dying. They reached the Ignis already, and they were being decimated. But it didn't matter, as he sent them there for the simple purpose of stalling them while he got away.

[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 Sky-Hunters were buying him time, but not much, since the Ignis were tearing through them in seconds.

<Where the hell are those fucking ravens?>

He summoned the creatures quite some time earlier, sent them to scout the surrounding area, and even ordered them to go pick him up before he reached the warehouse, but the ravens weren't there yet, which meant something had gone terribly wrong.

Reidar connected to them.

The world shifted. He was no longer running through the streets; he was flying, high above the city, looking down at the ruins through the eyes of one of his ravens.

The view was disorienting. The ash clouds were thick there, swirling in the air like fog, and visibility was even worse. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Then Reidar saw why they hadn't come to fetch him yet, as something massive moved through the clouds—a creature with wings at least twice the size of the warehouse.

<Shit!>

The creature burst through the ash, and Reidar got his first clear look at it.

It was enormous, with a body that looked like someone had taken parts from different animals and fused them together.

The torso was reptilian and covered in dark scales, topped by a broad, flat, crocodilian head with a wide mouth full of serrated teeth, yet the neck was long and flexible like a snake's, moving with disturbing fluidity despite the creature's massive size.

The wings, however, were the strangest part; instead of being feathered or leathery like a bat's, they were membranous and segmented, appearing almost insectoid.

<What the hell is that?>

The creature dove at the ravens. Its jaws snapped shut around one of them, crushing the bird. Two other ravens scattered, diving away from the predator.

[Your Summon (Apex Raven) has been destroyed.]

One of the remaining ravens tried to gain altitude, but the creature was already on it. A massive clawed foot lashed out and caught the bird mid-flight, and the raven disintegrated under the impact.

[Your Summon (Apex Raven) has been destroyed.]

There were 8 ravens remaining. Reidar didn't even know how the hell they were still alive since quite some time had passed, but it looked like most of what they did was flee from the monster, actually trying to reach Reidar.

Luckily, they had been smart enough not to completely disengage, because otherwise they would have brought the monster to him.

<Keep it away from me!> Reidar said, then he pulled back from the connection and returned to his body. He was still running, still moving through the streets, but his mind was racing.

<That thing heard the commotion in the city and came to investigate.>

The screeching of the Ignis and the collapse of the mezzanine had attracted everything in the area; every predator, monster, and high-level creature within hearing range was now converging on the warehouse area, which also meant that more monsters could be hiding around.

<I need to get out of this place.>

However, getting out of the city wasn't going to be easy because the place was massive and Reidar was deep inside it; having moved toward the center to follow Mara's trail, he was now surrounded by ruins on all sides, knowing that the nearest exit was kilometers away and that he had no idea what lay between him and the city limits.

<Think. What do I know?>

The flying creature was somewhere above him, hunting through the ash clouds, while the Ignis were behind him, moving toward the warehouse; the problem, however, was that with all that ash on the ground, finding his footprints to the way out would be hard.

Reidar needed to be smart about this. Running blindly wouldn't work. He needed a plan.

<First priority: avoid the flying predator. Stay low, stay under cover, and don't give it a clear view of my sorry ass.>

Reidar adjusted his path toward the larger buildings, taking advantage of the factories and warehouses, most of which were out of the ground enough to provide some cover. If he stayed close to the structures, the creature would have a harder time diving at him.

<Second priority: lose the Ignis. They haven't found me yet, but they are fast, and following my tracks means I won't stay out of sight for long.>

He turned down a narrow alley between two buildings.

<Third priority: find a way out of the city.>

The problem was the ash. It was everywhere, blocking his view of the sky, obscuring the horizon. He couldn't see more than a few hundred meters in any direction, and everything looked the same. Ruined buildings, cracked streets, collapsed infrastructure. He couldn't even use the tracks he left at the beginning because the monsters had actually gone over them earlier.

<I'm lost. I have no idea where I am or which direction leads out.>

Reidar's thoughts turned to the map.

<Right, I have this…>

Reidar pulled the map from his spatial storage and unfolded it, scanning it and the crumbling structures around him to understand where he was. The ash made it hard to see far, but one building stood out—a tall tower.

After cross-referencing his location with the map, he identified the tower marking the edge of Sector 7, which meant he was farther north than he'd thought; meanwhile, the Ignis were approaching from the west behind him, and the flying creature remained somewhere above, circling through the ash clouds.

<If I head east, I can cut through the manufacturing district. It's more open, but it'll put distance between me and the Ignis.>

He folded the map and shoved it back into his storage. At least now he knew where he was.