#569 - Nether Guardian (asking for monthly ticket recommendation ticket)

At this moment, the liquid beneath the phoenix's feet resembled red-glowing petroleum, exuding an aura of utter filth. Yet, the phoenix's snow-white jade feet stepped directly onto it, remaining completely untainted, as if the viscous fluid possessed a life of its own.

Across from her, Anduin was already working at top speed to clear away the spells fired by the phoenix, but he was still unable to prevent her from completing this magic.

At this moment, Anduin could sense that the magic she was using was extremely dangerous. He could perceive elements of 'space,' 'darkness,' and 'death' from the pool of liquid.

Moreover, rituals that require sacrificing one's own blood are often used in extremely evil dark magic. If he allowed her to continue, the threat of this magic would only increase.

So, as soon as Anduin had a free hand, he immediately unleashed several silent cutting curse sword strikes towards the phoenix, then closed the distance, attempting to launch an attack.

Just as the several invisible sword strikes flew swiftly, about to hit the phoenix, her ritual magic was preliminarily completed!

The filthy liquid under the phoenix's feet, resembling rotten mud, 'boom'ed and exploded, just like a sudden oil gusher.

As the mud gushed upwards, a chorus of wails and howls suddenly erupted from behind them, followed by withered hands reaching out from the viscous fluid, followed by arms, shoulders, torsos, and heads.

Soon, the complete appearance of the creatures summoned by the phoenix with her magic, or rather, what her previous spell referred to as [Nether Guardians], was revealed before Anduin.

These newly appeared humanoid monsters were different from the Yin Corpses he had seen before. Yin Corpses were somewhat similar to zombies, not particularly agile, and not particularly powerful, but if they were in large numbers, they could pose a significant threat.

But these monsters in front of him looked like elite monsters. Although they were also humanoid creatures, they wore close-fitting armor, and held either short or long-handled weapons in their hands. Their faces were gaunt and grotesque, their eyes gleamed with a chilling red light, and their skin and armor were covered in that disgusting, petroleum-like slime.

They looked like a bunch of wet, armored skeleton soldiers, but of course, these monsters weren't quite skeletons, just skin and bones.

The number of [Nether Guardians] that burst out of the mud fountain was very large, and their speed was obviously faster than Yin Corpses. Several of them rushed out in an instant, brandishing their weapons and roaring as they charged towards Anduin.

Of course, the power of the 'silent cutting curse sword strikes' that Anduin unleashed was not to be trifled with, instantly cutting the leading [Nether Guardians] in half.

But the bodies of these ghosts were also extraordinarily strong. Anduin's sword strikes were basically blocked by the guardians behind after cutting through one of them.

As the 'Nether Guardians' blocked Anduin's sword strike attacks, more and more guardians rushed out of the mud fountain, and soon there were more than 20 of them, almost filling half of the basement.

Seeing this scene, Anduin did not lose his composure, and his mind was still thinking quickly, "It seems I was right before, the magic the phoenix is using is indeed a summoning ritual, and the mud pit under her feet is actually similar to a one-way portal."

"And if the phoenix wants to maintain this portal, in addition to using her own blood for blood sacrifice, she must also continuously input magic into the ritual array. I don't know where the other end of this portal is, and whether there is an upper limit to the number of ghosts summoned."

"If there is no upper limit, or the upper limit is very high, then it will be troublesome. Continuous summoning tests the amount of magic reserves, and the phoenix, an old hag who has lived for hundreds of years, has the most magic, so now we must seize the time to stop this summoning ritual."

"Otherwise, if we continue to delay, the number of these summons will be endless, and it will be troublesome. Creating a 'Resident Evil' in the city center is no joke, and the phoenix will definitely take this opportunity to escape."

After Anduin made up his mind, he quickly thought about how to close the summoning portal. Directly attacking the portal was not impossible, but the consequences of magic disorder could be polarized.

It is possible to destroy the stability of the summoning ritual and close the portal, but it is also possible to make the space more unstable and expand the portal instead, causing a counter-effect.

If he wants to close this portal relatively safely, he can either attack the wizard who maintains the portal, wait until her magic is exhausted, or directly kill her.

But the style of the portal that summons 'Nether Guardians' is really unique, it is actually a surging 'mud fountain', and these monsters all come out of the fountain.

But now the phoenix is completely submerged in the 'fountain', and Anduin is not sure whether directly attacking the phoenix hiding inside the fountain will affect the stability of the portal.

In addition to directly attacking, starting with the caster, if he wants to close the portal stably, there is only one way left, that is to directly cut off the spatial channel of the portal, but this method is very difficult, because space-time magic is very complicated, and there are very few spells that can directly act on space, and more of them act on teleportation, rather than preventing teleportation.

However, Anduin does have one in his hand. When he rescued the phoenix from the Nordic transport team of the club, he learned a special rune that could isolate space from the birdcage used to imprison the phoenix.

At the same time, he has a talisman made with this rune in order to facilitate research. Originally, Anduin just wanted to deepen his research and then use it to upgrade his jammer, but the structural difficulty of this rune is not low, and it consumes a lot of energy, so he only made one sample to prepare for testing.

It seems that if he wants to close this portal, he will have to use the talisman in his hand that can block space, but because this talisman is a prototype, the range of influence is not large. If he wants to deal with the space door in front of him, he must throw it directly into the fountain.

"That means I have to get close completely?" Looking at the layers of 'Nether Guardians' blocking him, Anduin nodded firmly, "Then let me see the level of you guardians first, and then formulate a strategy!"

In less than a second, Anduin calmly completed a series of thoughts, and at this time, the roaring Nether Guardians had already charged in front of him and launched an attack, waving their weapons.