When Duwei woke up, he felt like his neck was about to break. Just moving his head instinctively caused intense pain in his neck.
As consciousness slowly returned to his mind, Duwei confirmed that he was still alive. He didn't move recklessly, instead lying quietly to check if any part of his body was injured. After confirming that he was relatively unharmed, he struggled to sit up.
Feeling a bit dizzy, Duwei recalled his last memories before passing out: the dragon couldn't bear its injuries and finally plummeted from the sky. And that silly little girl, Vivian, showed no signs of being a powerful eighth-level mage, crying like a child and calling for her mother at the critical moment...
At the last moment, it was the dragon itself that rallied its remaining strength, desperately flapping its wings to maintain some balance. But it was too weak to support itself and could only dive rapidly toward the ground...
Later, all Duwei could remember were fragments: the fall, a loud crash, and trees...
Rubbing his eyes and looking around, Duwei sighed.
The huge dragon lay not too far from him, creating a large pit in what used to be a forest. The dragon's fall had knocked down many trees, but now it lay quietly on the ground. Its scales were thick, and it didn't seem to have suffered much except for the wing wound, which seemed to have worsened after the forced flight.
Now, the dragon slept, its entire red body emitting a faint glow.
Even at such a close distance, Duwei could feel the intense pressure emanating from the colossal creature, perhaps the innate fear humans have for dangerous creatures.
The dragon's breath sounded like a storm, and even black smoke emanated from its mouth and nostrils. Remembering the intense battle from last night, Duwei couldn't help but feel excited.
To witness such a fierce battle firsthand was truly exhilarating for Duwei! It was happening right before his eyes, much more real than any special effects in movies from his previous life!
Unfortunately, in the end, that kind-hearted little silly girl, Vivian, worried about injuring innocents, expended a lot of magic to create a teleportation spell, transferring the battleground to a distant location outside the city at Half Moon Mountain. Although this saved many lives, Vivian indeed proved to be no match for her sister in battle after expending so much magical energy.
At first, two formidable mages controlled the dragon with magic, with a fire dragon and an ice dragon evenly matched. But later, Vivian's magical power clearly waned, and she was eventually defeated.
This girl was perhaps too kind-hearted, even remembering to drag me along when fleeing. She's quite conscientious.
Moreover, last night, she did save the lives of so many of my men. Thinking about it, I might have been too harsh on her.
Sighing, Duwei glanced at Vivian lying not far away on the ground. The silly girl lay there with her eyes closed, her long eyelashes trembling gently beneath closed lids. Fortunately, she had no serious injuries, and her breathing was steady.
Duwei walked over and gently tapped her face. In her sleep, the young mage puckered her lips and muttered indistinctly, "Mom... Dad... I'm... poor little Vivian..."
This silly girl doesn't stutter when she talks in her sleep.
Duwei chuckled. She's still just a child.
Surviving such a great danger, Duwei felt a little more grateful to the silly girl. He patted her cheek again and whispered, "Hey, wake up. Wake up quickly."
Vivian finally opened her eyes drowsily. When she saw Duwei's face so close to hers, she suddenly exclaimed in alarm. Her body immediately recoiled, and her small hands tightly gripped the collar of her clothes, pulling herself backward. Her large eyes widened, as if fearing that Duwei would harm her.
Seeing the girl's reaction, Duwei couldn't help but chuckle. He stepped back a bit and said with a wry smile, "Respected mage, you're finally awake. Our situation is a bit dire now."
Vivian shook her head, finally coming to her senses, and suddenly shouted, "My... my dragon!"
She saw her sleeping sun dragon not far away, jumped up, and ran over to it. She threw herself onto the dragon's paw, tears streaming down her cheeks as she cried, "My Lierie... Lierie... the sun my teacher gave me."
Seeing the wounds on the dragon's body, Vivian immediately rummaged inside her robe. After a while, she pulled out her empty bag, as Duwei had already extorted everything from it.
With no magical materials inside, Vivian sighed in resignation. She opened her hands and began chanting a series of spells rapidly, and a faint milky-white light emanated from her hands. However, even Duwei, who knew nothing about magic, could tell that something was off about this spell Vivian was casting...
Vivian also paused, looking puzzled. She took a deep breath, her expression becoming more serious. Slowly and solemnly, she chanted the incantation again, her hands emitting a slightly stronger white light. Beneath this light, the dragon's wounds began to slowly heal, as if it were a magical healing spell... However, the white light was still too weak, only enveloping a tiny space around Vivian's palm.
Compared to the massive dragon, this weak healing spell was simply not enough.
Moreover, Vivian's healing spell only managed to heal about half of the wound on the dragon's paw from the fall. Vivian staggered and sat down on the ground, her face pale. She shook her head vigorously, staring at her empty hands as if she couldn't believe her eyes.
"My... my magic, it... it's not working!" she exclaimed with a trembling voice.
Duwei was taken aback. "What did you say?!"
"My... my magic, it's... not working," Vivian said with a quivering voice.
"Not working?" Duwei was surprised. He had hoped the female mage would quickly heal the dragon so they could leave this place.
The surroundings were all silent woods, and they had no idea where they were. They had fled in chaos during the escape and didn't know which direction they had gone, flying for half the night in confusion.
"Is it because you've depleted your magic power? Are you mentally exhausted?" Duwei asked cautiously. "Meditate for a while to replenish your magic power."
"No, it's not that. I can feel my magic power, but... but I can't cast any spells!" Vivian said, her voice trembling.
Now Duwei was stunned.
After some thought, Duwei frowned and said, "Your magic isn't working? Try casting other spells."
Subsequently, Vivian immediately tried several times, but the results were disappointing for both of them!
For some unknown reason, Vivian's magical ability suddenly plummeted!
The spells she cast, such as fire magic, could only conjure up one or two small fireballs at most, leaving her half-dead from exhaustion. Moreover, she couldn't even cast advanced spells like Teleportation. Even the low-level spells required great effort, often depleting most of her mental energy to cast the simplest spell... and their power was reduced by at least half!
Vivian was truly shocked this time! Magic had been her only talent since childhood, her only reliance being her extraordinary magical strength.
But now, almost all of her formidable magical abilities had disappeared! How could this not terrify the girl? She stared wide-eyed, unable to speak a single word for a long time!
Duwei was also somewhat surprised but couldn't figure it out. Finally, he could only attribute it to Vivian perhaps being affected by some spell from that ice and snow beauty during the battle, or perhaps she had been injured.
With no magical ability, Vivian's courage, which had been no greater than a rabbit's to begin with, was now at most that of a mouse. She couldn't even muster a complete sentence and looked at Duwei with fear in her eyes, tears streaming down her face. Duwei could only comfort her gently, "You must be injured... or maybe your sister cast some magic on you... It's okay, with your strong magical power, there will be a time for recovery. Well, don't you have a powerful teacher? Your teacher will definitely find a way to help you recover."
Mentioning her teacher finally calmed Vivian down a bit. It seemed that she had extreme admiration and trust in her teacher. She stood up immediately. "I... I want to go back to see my teacher!"
"Okay!" Duwei said. "I also want to go back, but we need to be careful of your sister. She has been chasing us all the way, and we only managed to shake her off at dawn. Now that your magical ability is gone, we won't be able to resist her if we encounter her again." With that, Duwei pointed to the dragon. "Can your dragon still fly?"
Vivian shook her head, then struggled to explain to Duwei: After the dragon was injured, even without external magical assistance, it could slowly recover through its own dragon magic, but the process would be slow. Before the dragon recovered, it would be unable to fly.
And with such serious injuries, it would probably take at least a year or more of self-recovery before the dragon could fly again.
Their plan to ride the dragon away was dashed, so Duwei sighed and decided to take a walk around the area to figure out where they were.
It would be best to get out of this forest, and if they were lucky, they might encounter a local and ask for directions to the nearest town.
The dragon remained motionless, unable to move, and could only lie there resting and slowly recovering. Vivian refused to leave her beloved "Sunfire," and Duwei, feeling indebted to the girl, softened his attitude toward her and decided to explore the surroundings alone.
Using a tree branch as a walking stick, Duwei chose a direction and started walking. He didn't dare to go too far, just scouting the area first.
However, it was apparent that Duwei was both lucky and unlucky today!
His plan was to walk out of the forest and hopefully encounter one or two locals, preferably finding a village.
The plan to exit the forest went smoothly.
In less than half an hour, he walked out of the forest and was met with a vast expanse of...
The sea.
When he reached the beach and saw the ocean in front of him, Duwei was stunned.
Did we fly all the way to the seaside?
Without much thought, he immediately turned back, feeling increasingly uneasy as he walked.
With a sense of unease welling up inside him, Duwei ran back to where Vivian and the dragon were resting, breathless. He shouted at the female mage, "Quick! Can you still use your flight spell? Fly up and check the surrounding terrain! Hurry!"
Vivian was taken aback, but seeing Duwei's anxious expression, she complied.
Her magic wasn't working, and her wind-based flight spell could only last for about ten seconds at most.
However... ten seconds was enough!
Vivian flew up to a sufficient height... and then she almost fell from the sky in panic!
Fortunately, Duwei caught the girl as she fell, and they both tumbled to the ground, with the female mage falling into Duwei's arms.
But this time, Vivian didn't rush to push Duwei away, as she had turned pale with fear, having discovered something even more terrifying!
"W-w-we're... on an island!!"