Panic stabbed me in the heart when I realized that the monsters had found another target. A helpless target at that, judging from the desperate cry for help. Sprinting after the retreating monsters, I left the rest of the horde still lingering in the clearing to my small army of hunting hounds, teddy bears and crows.
It didn't take me long to pursue the monsters into another clearing, which was thankfully less than a hundred meters away. I could see a wall of wood keeping the Phantoms and Ravagers at bay, but judging from its rapidly crumbling exterior as the latter gouged huge chunks out of it, I knew it wouldn't hold them off for long.
"Taurus!" I yelled. A gigantic metallic bull materialized from the heavens and smashed down onto the entire pack of monsters with the force of a meteor crushing and vaporizing a good number of them. I had been holding the stronger Taurus in reserve when I realized that I didn't need him to deal with the F-rank and E-rank monsters, but I was glad that I had completed casting his summoning spell a few seconds ago.
Diving in after him, I proceeded to finish off the few stragglers that were fortunate enough to not be in the vicinity of the crash. Backing toward the disintegrating wall of wood while fighting off a couple of Ravagers and a few Phantoms, I risked a glance over my shoulder and called out. "Are you okay?"
"Y…yeah. Thanks."
A shaky voice spoke up nervously. After slashing through a persistent Ravager with my Gemini twin swords, nearly beheading it, I whirled around and spotted the last of the wooden wall disappearing. I was surprised to see the young kid standing behind his fading barrier, looking no older than twelve. He had wavy black hair over a babyish face, and was dressed in a red sweater over blue jeans. The poor kid was trembling from fear and shock.
"Don't worry, kid," I assured him as I cut apart a couple of Phantoms, dispersing their mist-like bodies. "I'll get you out of here."
I swung my swords and unleashed another blast of Castor and Pollux to annihilate any enemy still lurking nearby. Gesturing to the kid, I issued a terse instruction.
"Stay close."
I then executed a standard fighting retreat, slowly moving out of the reach of the monsters while escorting the kid to safety.
"Taurus! Buy me some time!" I commanded the giant bull that was busily stomping around and head-butting the pesky little monsters who could do little more than irritate him.
Taurus grunted in reply before tossing a whole cluster of Phantoms and a single Ravager high into the air. He rose on his hind legs before falling onto a crushing stomp that obliterated a few other monsters that were unfortunate enough to be beneath him.
"Follow me," I told the kid. He obeyed quietly, his eyes still wide. At least he wasn't panicking and breaking away. He would be able to preserve his life as long as he listened to me.
Then I mentally ordered my army of Canis Minor, Ursa Minor and Corvus to return to me. I had made sure there was a safe distance between me and the melee between emerged monsters and summoned monsters, my cute little critters leading the surviving interdimensional creatures of the pack toward me as I commanded.
Good. The Phantoms and Ravagers still hadn't noticed anything amiss. They had stupidly followed my retreating army of Constellation spirits back toward my location.
Dismissing Gemini twin swords, I raised my hands to summon a new Constellation weapon.
"Sagittarius," I intoned softly. A huge black bow materialized in my left hand. "Alnasl." A flaming arrow appeared in my right hand. I lifted the blazing arrow and fitted it to my black bow, the pulled the string as far back as I could. Aiming at the advancing pack of monsters, I waited until they came within range before I smiled.
"Thanks, guys. You've done more than enough."
I nodded my head gratefully, and my entire army of corporeal animal spirits disappeared instantly, as if they had never existed in the first place. I then took a deep breath and released the bowstring.
Alnasl – the star that formed the arrow tip of the constellation of Sagittarius, and the astrological sign of Sagittarius bore the element of fire. Accordingly, the arrow carried the bright, blazing flame that best represented it in the night sky.
As well as the destructive power of a star.
I watched as the flaming arrow streaked forward like a comet before exploding upon impact, the inferno washing across the entire clearing and enveloping the entire pack of monsters in flames that not even these denizens from a hellish dimension could survive. I watched as they burned away into nothing more than black, charred bodies and dying gray cinders. I watched as the inferno began to consume the surrounding trees ravenously, licking up their trunks and reducing them into ash instantly.
"Phew…"
As the bow disappeared from my hands, I allowed myself to relax for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, the tension dissipating from my sagging shoulders. A quick, cursory glance, combined with the hi-tech sensors installed in my glasses (they came with the recording device) confirmed what I had expected.
That all the monsters were dead.
Hell, my glasses even recorded the tally of monsters slain. 536 Phantoms and 102 Ravagers. That was insane. Apparently it also counted the ones that my summoned beasts had massacred. What an incredible recording device.
"Amazing."
The kid was ogling at me as if I was some kind of god.
"Not really." I waved my hand dismissively, embarrassed. "I've seen far more impressive spells. Anyway, how did you end up here? Did you get separated from the convoy?"
"…convoy?" the kid asked blankly.
"You're not from Bi Nan Village?" I asked. Evidently he wasn't part of the line of refugees fleeing from the Ravagers and Phantoms. Come to think of it, he seemed a little too well-dressed for that.
"No, I'm not." Looked like I was right. The kid surprised me, however, with his answer. "I'm from Southampton City."
"Southampton City?!" it was my turn to gape at him. Wasn't Southampton City one of the wealthiest and biggest metropolises in the Global Federation? It was a commercial hub for countless conglomerates, and home to expatriates and billionaires. "Isn't that pretty far from here?"
Even as the question left my mouth, I knew how much of an understatement it was. To get from Southampton City to Jing Tian City, you'll either need to take a one-hour flight, or three hours through the high-speed super railway.
"Uh, yeah," the kid admitted. "I was traveling to Jing Tian City to visit a relative when I got separated from my family. I ended up getting lost in the forest while…um…trying to find my way there."
There was something he wasn't telling me, especially with the evasive manner in which he mentioned his family. I realized I wasn't going to get a straight answer from him, so I merely nodded.
"Okay. Well, I'll bring you to Jing Tian City, and we can find your family from there. For now, you might want to contact them."
"…"
"…"
The kid stared at me reluctantly. I frowned and was about to ask him what he was waiting for when he shook his head.
"I, uh, lost my smartphone."
"…I see." I offered him my smartphone. "You can use mine. There's still a signal, so call them so that your parents won't be worried."
"I rely on the contacts function to remember my family's numbers, so I don't remember what they are."
This guy was clearly giving excuses. I didn't press him, and instead just shook my head. Fine, if he wanted to do it that way, then I'll just bring him back to Jing Tian City and palm him off to the authorities so that he could be someone else's problem.
"Fine." I sighed. The kid brightened up when he realized I wasn't going to pursue the matter.
"I'm Adrian Stuart," he introduced himself brightly. "Are you from Jing Tian City?" he then blinked and studied my uniform. "Oh…you're from Jing Tian Magic Academy!"
"Yeah." I wasn't interested in conversing with him. If he didn't want to tell me the truth about his family circumstances, then I wasn't going to share with him my name and background. He mentioned that he was from the Stuart family, though, and that hinted of the complex circumstances surrounding one of the wealthiest and most famous families in the Federation – as usual, I didn't want to get involved in any of that. Instead, I dialed Bei Pan Zhe's number. "Okay, Adrian, I'm going to see if I can get us a ride."
Predictably enough, the call disconnected. I glared at my smartphone in frustration.
"What the hell? Did something happen?" I should have lured all the monsters away. Hell, I defeated hundreds of those damned monsters by myself. There were four of those guys escorting the convoy. They shouldn't have any trouble taking care of any of stragglers. Or were they and the convoy assailed by a group of even more powerful monsters on their way back?
"What's the matter? They're not answering your call?" Adrian asked innocently. I gritted my teeth, but knowing that it wasn't his fault, nodded.
"Yeah." I sighed angrily. "I don't get it. Did something happen to them? Why can't I establish contact at all?"
"Here, try this." Adrian offered me his smartphone. "Call them using a different number."
"…" I stared at him, a vein popping in my temple. "I thought you lost your smartphone."
"Eh? Uh…yeah. Sorry. Uh, this is a different phone. I lost the smartphone with all my contacts in it. This is my gaming phone, it has no contacts because I only use it to play games." Adrian forced a sheepish laugh.
I didn't buy it, but obviously I wasn't going to get a straight answer from Adrian, so I didn't bother pressing him. He probably had his own circumstances and didn't want to contact his family for whatever reason, even though his life was at extreme risk.
Using Adrian's "gaming" smartphone, I dialed Bei Pan Zhe's number. As usual, the call got through, but I half-expected it to disconnect like all the other times.
"Hello?"
Bei Pan Zhe's voice came over. I felt an immense wave of relief, followed by a tsunami of rage. Bloody hell, there was nothing wrong with him, after all!
"Finally!" I snapped. "I've been trying to contact you all this while! Why didn't you answer your phone?!"
"Eh?" Bei Pan Zhe's voice was filled with shock and disbelief. Then…
Click.
The line went dead.
"Bloody motherfucker," I swore, resisting the urge to dash the phone to the ground. Especially since it did not belong to me. Gritting my teeth, I returned it to a stunned Adrian.
"Wow…what did you do to that guy?" he asked.
"Me?! What did I do to him?! More like what he and his fucking teammates did to me!"
All along, the pieces were all falling to place as I had an inkling that I knew the reason why backup never came at all. And now, Bei Pan Zhe's refusal to answer my call had just proven what I suspected all along.
From the very beginning, those bastards had always intended to abandon me to the monsters!