"Considered it done," Bu Fan said automatically, grinning malevolently. Then he blinked, a little startled. "Wait…your team? What team?"

"My Soul Beasts. The guys I summoned. I know they are extensions of myself, but I still refer to them as my team."

"Makes sense." Bu Fan nodded, and then he cracked his knuckles. I sensed the immense mana buildup as he began to cast his intermediate fire spells. The guy was now an intermediate mage…wait, wrong story. "All right, I'll begin right away."

"Wait!" I raised my hand and summoned a Constellation spirit that I had been preparing all this while. "Lupus will help you."

The gigantic wolf materialized beside me, growling. Bu Fan c.o.c.ked his head to the side, staring at my new Constellation spirit curiously.

"A…wolf? Why a wolf?"

"Because you are Bu Fan, so I thought a wolf summon would be more appropriate."

"Why would a wolf summon be more appropriate for me?!" Bu Fan demanded. Evidently he had not watched Versatile Mage. I took my smartphone, sent him the link to Webnovel's translated Versatile Mage comic series, and also added Tencents' link to the currently three seasons of the anime adaptation. Bu Fan stared at his smartphone for a moment, and then scowled at me. "I don't have time to watch dongman and donghua!"

"Watch those with your sister after you rescue her. You'll be surprised how much she enjoys that series."

 "How would you know about what Xin Chun likes?" Bu Fan snapped suspiciously, but then shook his head and pulled away. "I'm wasting too much time arguing with you. I'm going to go create the diversion now. You had better save my sister…"

"Yeah, I'll get her out. I swear. Lupus!"

Before Bu Fan could react, Lupus bounded right into the warehouse's territory, surprising the two sentries. They immediately raised their hands in reflex when the gigantic wolf landed right in front of them, hastily casting spells.

But Lupus had finished casting his spell before they did.

"Lupus, Yang Mun!"

The jaws of the great wolf yawned and a sonic howl erupted ferociously, was.h.i.+ng over the two sentries and hurling them into the bowels of the warehouse. All around the huge structure, gla.s.s shattered and windows broke from the sheer impact.

"What?! What's going on!?"

"Enemy attack! We're under attack!"

"It's a monster!"

The kidnappers who had been napping all this time were rudely awoken by the deafening noise, scrambling frantically to respond. Bu Fan hurried after Lupus, crusing under his breath when he realized that my Constellation spirit had beaten him to the first punch.

"d.a.m.n it, you stole my thunder!"

Considering that he couldn't howl like my Lupus, I doubted he would have made an equally thunderous entrance. Then again, he was capable of intermediate lightning magic, or powerful basic lightning magic at the very least, so he might just be capable of unleas.h.i.+ng thunder and lightning upon his foes.

"Let's go, Wolfy!" Bu Fan yelled as he burst into the scene, hurling colossal fireb.a.l.l.s at the kidnappers who were rus.h.i.+ng out in force, still bleary-eyed from their disturbed sleep and dazed over what was happening. Another huge explosion rocked several off their feet, and set them ablaze. Screaming, the incinerated foes ran smack into the wall and crashed down, desperately rolling on the floor to put out the flames.

"His name is Lupus, not Wolfy!" I shouted at him, but true to form, Bu Fan blatantly ignored me. That was fine, Lupus was going to ignore him if he tried to call him something other than his true name. In the background, I could hear the song, Huan Meng (Calling Dreams), being sung by Inory.

"Why the f.u.c.k are they playing the opening theme for Versatile Mage season 3 here?" I wondered out loud, irritated. Well, whatever. As long as they didn't play Jue Di by Drunken Snow (Zui Xue) during the ending credits, I couldn't care less. Honestly, I liked Jue Di better, but I wasn't doing a promotional chapter for Versatile Mage, the donghua adaptation. I swear.

Anyway, I left the diversion to Bu Fan and Lupus. When things got dicey and more of the kidnappers poured out in force, Lupus automatically withdrew, luring the bulk of the abductors away. He had been instructed by me, and I was still keeping a tight mental rein on him.

"Hey!" Bu Fan hollered, annoyed at being "betrayed." I did tell him beforehand to pull away and lure kidnappers away from the warehouse so that I could rescue his sister. It was his problem if he refused to stick to the plan. I didn't care if he was super-confident of defeating all the kidnappers by himself. The further he baited the d.a.m.ned abductors away from the warehouse, the less of a chance they would get to use Xin Chun as a hostage.

The idiot was putting his own sister at risk if he didn't stick to the plan.

"d.a.m.n it!"

Bu Fan realized that he couldn't handle over a dozen enemy mages on his own, and he reluctantly retreated, following Lupus.

While they were luring the dudes away from their hideout, I executed my rescue plan. Using the eyes of my Lepus, I saw that two of Xin Chun's captors had stood up to check what was happening, leaving just one guard in the room. True to form, and unable to resist the curiosity that was so ingrained within human nature, the guard stared out at the door.

While his attention was fixated on the noise above, my Constellation spirits sprang to life. They waited until the other two guards were quite a distance away, falling for the decoy that was Bu Fan and Lupus and pursuing them along with the other kidnappers. Then they burst from the ventilation shafts, just like the xenomorphs from the movie, Aliens, taking the guard completely by surprise.

"What the…?!"

That was the only thing he managed to spit out as he grabbed for his weapon, the sword that was lying by his chair.

Unfortunately, he didn't make it. One of my Lepus landed a drop-kick into his face, the hare twisting in midair to deliver a powerful strike. The guard grunted before he crashed into the table where he was playing cards earlier with his friends, sending the deck flying into the air. He scrambled for his weapon, which clattered several feet away along with his toppled chair, but an Ursa Minor stepped on it, pinning it to the ground.

"You…" the guard growled as he lowered his hands from clutching his broken nose, only to see a whole bunch of rabbits and teddy bears standing over him. His jaw dropped.

Then he got mobbed by the swarm of "cute" Constellation spirits, who promptly beat him senseless. The poor guy.

One of the Ursa Minor rushed over and swiped at the ropes that were binding Xin Chun, freeing her. She raised her head and stared at the horde of cute Constellation spirits in front of her, completely dazed.

"…huh? What's…going on?"

It wasn't as if she wasn't aware of what was going on. She had seen my Constellation spirits rain down from the ceiling and take out her captor. I guess she was still in so much shock that she hadn't registered what was going on. Her eyes were still blank. The color was only just beginning to return to her eyes and she was struggling to drag her mind out of the gutter.

"Eh? What are these? Monsters?"

Even as she murmured, Xin Chun didn't feel any fear. Most likely because she saw how cute and adorable my Constellation spirits were. They gestured for her to move, only able to signal to her because they were unable to talk. No, readers, I cannot summon Constellation spirits that can talk. It just didn't work that way. I couldn't simply grant them special abilities just because I "imagined" them. There was no such thing as convenient "utility" summons or whatever in reality. I had to work with what I had.

"Are you…helping me?"

When Xin Chun saw that my Constellation spirits weren't going to attack and devour her, she relaxed a little, and then glanced at her legs, looking a little forlorn. Raising her head apologetically, she grimaced.

"I'm sorry. I appreciate you helping me, but I'm afraid I can't walk. Without my wheelchair, I won't be able to move from here."

"That won't be a problem."

"…eh?!"

Xin Chun glanced up as I entered the room, flanked by a pack of Canis Minor. I would have brought Canis Major along, but he was too large to fit into the room, so I had him wait outside, in the main hall of the warehouse.

"You…aren't you…?" Xin Chun blinked, trying to recognize me, but failed to do so. Then her face lit up when she finally remembered. "You are one of Brother's friends!"

Well, I wouldn't exactly call myself a friend, but I wasn't going to deny that. So I smiled and nodded.

"Yeah. We're here to rescue you."

"Ah…thanks. Where's Brother?" Xin Chun craned her neck and tried to look for Bu Fan, evidently knowing that he would definitely come to save her. I tried not to smile when I thought of a prank, but decided not to break her heart and slander her big brother. Knowing Xin Chun, she would be furious if I insulted or cast doubt upon the integrity of her brother in front of her.

"Bu Fan is distracting the kidnappers for now. That's why you see so little of them right now. They are being taken out. Let's get you out of here before they come back."

"Oh, okay…but how?"

"Leave that to me."

Striding forward, I carried her out of the chair. She was surprisingly light, almost like a feather, and she squirmed – probably uncomfortable with the idea of anyone other than her brother carrying her like this. Ignoring her awkwardness, I focused on getting the h.e.l.l out of the warehouse. Rus.h.i.+ng out of the door, flanked by my minor Constellation spirits, I burst into the main hall of the warehouse where Canis Major was awaiting.

Loading her upon Canis Major, I then directed him to sprint out of here with his charge while I made up the rearguard. Just as we departed from the warehouse, I caught sight of a couple of kidnappers rus.h.i.+ng back.

Evidently they had wisened up to the possibility that Bu Fan's a.s.sault on the front door was staged as a diversion, or they realized they had lost contact with the lone sentry left behind to guard the hostage. Whatever the case, they caught sight of me and my Constellation spirits leaving with their hostage, and bellowed in rage.

I rolled my eyes and mentally issued a command to Canis Major. With just two dudes, there wasn't much for me to do. My huge Constellation spirit reared up, turned his head around and opened his jaws. A black bolt of freezing energy swept across the entire place, freezing the running kidnappers in place and entombing them in ice.

"This new version of Sirius is pretty cool," I remarked with a chuckle. Turning around, I patted Canis Major and then had him bound out of here while I followed suit.

"Xin Chun!"

"Brother!"

For some reason, Bu Fan had doubled back, with my poor Lupus keeping the bulk of the kidnappers at bay. While we had gained some distance, I noticed the two criminals breaking free of the ice and drop free, s.h.i.+vering uncontrollably from the deep cold. Even so, they weren't out of commission yet. Looked like I needed to up the strength of Canis Major's Sirius…

"!!"

Before I could have my Constellation spirits turn and fight, however, a sudden spell rocketed from above and almost literally nuked the pursuing kidnappers. I threw up my hands in reflex, even as the lenses on my gla.s.ses automatically darkened to protect my eyes, and squinted through the blinding flare.

All of Xin Chun's captors had been obliterated in that one strike, leaving nothing but skeletons or ashes.

"What in the…?" I murmured, and noticed that my Constellation spirits were instinctively shrinking away in fear. Looking up, I caught sight of a dark figure hovering at the rooftop of a building amidst the skysc.r.a.pers surrounding the warehouse. I frowned, magnifying my vision with my gla.s.ses, but still didn't recognize her. Oh, right. She was a lady with long, black hair, and was dressed on a dark one-piece. Even from this distance, I could make out her pretty features, thanks to my enhanced vision through my gla.s.ses.

Frowning, I tilted my head as I searched my memory. That lady didn't look like the police I had contacted once I ensured Xin Chun's safety. The same police whose wailing sirens could be heard from here. Considering that I had just only contacted them while exiting the warehouse mere minutes ago, they were pretty quick to respond. And since teleportation magic didn't exist, I doubted that lady was a.s.sociated with the police.

"…who?"

On the other hand, both Bu Fan and Xin Chun seemed to recognize her, the both of them looking extremely pale. The sister, in particular, brought her hands to her mouth in utter shock as a single word escaped her trembling lips.

"…Mother?"