[Doesn't Work Anymore]

Chapter 27: [It Stopped Working]

When Du Wei woke, his neck felt as though it were about to snap. He merely moved his head instinctively, and a sharp pain shot through his neck.

At last, a trace of clarity returned to his mind. Du Wei felt his body pressed against the cold, muddy ground...

As awareness gradually returned, Du Wei confirmed that he was still alive.

He did not dare move recklessly. He lay still first, checking whether his limbs and every part of his body were injured, before struggling bit by bit into a sitting position.

His head was still spinning. All he remembered from before he blacked out was this: the dragon had finally been unable to withstand its injuries and fallen from midair, while that little fool—showing not the slightest bearing of a powerful eighth-level mage—had actually burst into tears like a little girl at that critical moment, crying for her mother...

In the final moment, the dragon had still managed to summon its remaining strength, beating its wings desperately and struggling to maintain a little balance. But it could no longer hold on, and could only carry the two people on its back as it plunged toward the ground at tremendous speed...

After that, all that remained in Du Wei's mind were fragments: falling, a thunderous crash, trees...

Rubbing his eyes hard and looking around, Du Wei sighed.

That enormous dragon lay not too far away. There was a huge crater in the ground. This had originally been a forest, but the dragon's fall had smashed down many trees. It now lay quietly on the ground. A dragon's scales truly were tough; it had not suffered many injuries, but the gash on its wing seemed to have worsened somewhat. It had probably aggravated its wounds by forcing itself to fly for so long.

Now, the giant dragon was asleep. Its scarlet hide and scales gave off a faint glow.

Even observing a dragon from so close while it slept, Du Wei could feel the overwhelming pressure this colossal creature exerted upon him... Perhaps this was the innate fear humans felt toward dangerous creatures.

Even the dragon's breathing sounded like a storm, and black smoke continued to billow from its nostrils and mouth. Remembering last night's fierce battle, Du Wei could not help feeling excited.

To witness such an intense battle with his own eyes had truly been a feast for Du Wei's eyes! It had happened right before him, vividly and for real! It was far more realistic than those movie special effects from his previous life!

Though in the end, unfortunately, that ice-and-snow beauty had been right.

Vivian, that kind-hearted little fool, had worried that the battle would harm innocent people. She had spent a great deal of magic power to create a teleportation magic array and moved the battlefield to Half-Horn Mountain far outside the city. Although doing so had saved many lives, after expending so much magic power, Vivian had indeed been no match for her sister in battle.

At the start, the two formidable mages had both used magic to command their dragons into battle. A fire dragon and an ice dragon had fought on equal footing, but later, Vivian's magic power had clearly begun to fail her, and she had been defeated.

This girl was almost too kind. Even while fleeing, she had not forgotten to drag him along with her. She was quite a conscientious little girl.

Besides, she had saved the lives of so many of his subordinates last night. Thinking about it, he seemed to have been somewhat wrong to treat her so harshly.

With a sigh, Du Wei looked at Vivian, who lay on the ground not far from him... The little fool lay there with her eyes closed, her eyelids trembling lightly beneath her long lashes. Fortunately, she was uninjured, and her breathing was fairly even.

Du Wei walked over and gently patted her face. Yet in her sleep, the little mage pursed her lips and mumbled indistinctly, "Mom... Dad... I'm... poor little Vivian..."

This little fool did not stutter when she talked in her sleep.

Du Wei smiled... She was still just a child.

Having survived such a disaster, he felt a little more grateful toward the little fool. He patted her cheek again and said softly, "Hey, wake up. Hurry and wake up."

Vivian finally opened her eyes groggily. The moment she saw Du Wei's face right in front of her, she suddenly cried out, her body springing upright at once. Then her little hands tightly clutched the collar of her clothes as she quickly shrank backward. Her huge eyes stared wide at Du Wei, as though terrified that he might bully her.

Seeing the little fool like this, Du Wei could not help but laugh. He stepped back slightly and said with a wry smile, "Mage, you're finally awake. Our situation is rather terrible right now."

Vivian shook her head and finally came fully awake. Then she suddenly screamed, "M-M-My dragon!"

She caught sight of the sleeping scarlet flame dragon not far away, leaped up, and ran over. Throwing herself onto one of the dragon's claws, she began shedding huge tears as she cried, "My Blazing Sun... B-Blazing Sun... M-M-Master gave me Blazing Sun..."

As she spoke, she saw the wounds on the dragon's body and immediately began rummaging through her robe. After searching for a while, however, she pulled out her empty pack... Everything inside had long since been extorted away by Du Wei.

Without a single magic material, Vivian could only spread her hands. A string of incantations swiftly flowed from her lips, and a faint milky-white radiance spread from her hands. Yet that thin gleam was extremely dim. Even Du Wei, who knew nothing of magic, could see that something seemed wrong with the spell Vivian had cast...

Vivian froze as well. She took a deep breath, her expression becoming much more solemn. This time, she chanted the incantation again word by word in a low, slow voice. The white glow in her hands became slightly stronger. Beneath that white light, the dragon's wound began to heal little by little. It seemed to be some kind of healing spell... But the white radiance was ultimately far too weak, only covering a tiny space around Vivian's palm.

Compared to the dragon's enormous body, such a feeble healing spell was nowhere near enough.

Moreover, Vivian's healing spell had only managed to heal less than half of one scrape on the dragon's claw from the fall before her body swayed. Her face pale, she sank to the ground. She shook her head hard and stared at her empty hands as though unable to believe her own eyes.

"M-M-My m-m-magic... i-i-isn't working!"

Du Wei was stunned. "What did you say?!"

"M-M-Magic... i-isn't working," Vivian said tearfully.

It was not working? Du Wei was rather taken aback. He had been counting on the female mage to quickly heal the dragon so they could leave this place.

All around them was a silent forest, and he had no idea where the hell they were. They had fled in chaos at the time, without knowing which direction they were heading, and had muddleheadedly flown for half the night.

"Did you run out of magic power? Is your spiritual power depleted?" Du Wei asked cautiously. "Meditate for a while first and replenish your magic power."

"No, it's not that. I-I can f-feel m-my own m-magic power, b-but I j-j-just can't cast magic!"

This time, Du Wei was stunned too.

After thinking for a moment, Du Wei frowned. "Your magic has stopped working? Try some other spells."

Vivian immediately tried several spells, but the results left them both utterly disappointed!

For some unknown reason, Vivian's magical ability had suddenly regressed countless times over!

For example, with fire magic, she could at most create one or two little fireballs before becoming exhausted. As for advanced spells such as Azure Flame Movement, she could not cast them at all! Even low-level spells took tremendous effort. Often, after using up more than half her spiritual power, she could only release the most basic spell... and its power was reduced by at least half!

This time, Vivian was truly terrified! Magic had been her sole innate talent since childhood, and her extraordinary magical strength was all she had ever been able to rely on.

But now, ninety-nine percent of her formidable magical ability had vanished! How could that not frighten the girl? Her eyes wide, she could not utter a single word for a long time!

Du Wei was also rather surprised. Unable to make head or tail of it, he could only finally attribute it to the possibility that the little fool had been struck by some spell from that ice-and-snow beauty during the battle, or perhaps had suffered some injury.

With her magical ability gone, Vivian—whose courage had already been smaller than a rabbit's—now had no more courage than a mouse. She did not even dare speak a complete sentence, only looking at Du Wei timidly, her face full of fear as tears dripped down. Helpless, Du Wei could only comfort her gently. "You must be injured... Or perhaps your sister cast some spell on you... It's all right. Your magical strength is so great; it will recover eventually. Besides, don't you have a very powerful master? Your master will certainly have a way to help you recover."

At the mention of her master, little Vivian finally calmed down somewhat. She seemed to have immense admiration and trust for her master, and immediately stood up. "I-I-I'm going b-back to see M-M-Master!"

"Good!" Du Wei said. "I need to head back too, but we have to watch out for that sister of yours. She chased us all the way and we only shook her off at dawn. Now that your magical abilities have vanished, if we run into her again, we won't be able to stand against her." As he spoke, Du Wei pointed at the dragon. "Can your dragon still fly?"

Vivian shook her head, then laboriously explained it to Du Wei: after a dragon was injured, even without external magic to heal it, it could slowly recover through the dragons' own magic. It was simply a rather slow process. Until this dragon recovered, it would be unable to fly again.

And with injuries this severe, if it were to recover on its own, it would probably need to sleep for at least half a year or a year before it got better.

The idea of riding the dragon away had fallen through. Du Wei could only sigh and decide to take a look around first, to figure out where they were.

Ideally, he could get out of this forest. If luck favored him, he might run into one or two locals, ask for directions, and then find the nearest town.

But the dragon could not move. It could only lie where it was, rest, and slowly recover. Vivian absolutely refused to leave her beloved "Blazing Sun." Helpless, and feeling that he owed this silly little girl a few favors now, Du Wei treated her much more kindly. He could only scout the surrounding area by himself.

Breaking off a branch to use as a walking stick, Du Wei chose a direction and headed forward. He did not dare go too far; he merely intended to scout the way ahead.

However, it was clear that Du Wei was both lucky and terribly unlucky today!

His plan had been to leave this forest first, then find one or two locals—preferably a village or town.

The plan to leave the forest went smoothly.

Because less than half an hour later, he had walked out of the woods, and an open expanse appeared before him...

The sea.

When he stepped past the last row of trees and saw the beach before him, Du Wei froze for a moment.

Had we flown all the way to the coast?

He did not think much of it at first. He immediately turned around and walked back for a while, but the farther he went, the more something felt wrong.

Unease surged up within him. Du Wei ran all the way back to where Vivian and the dragon were resting. Ignoring how badly he was gasping for breath, he shouted at the female mage, "Quick! Can you still use the Flight Spell? Fly up and take a look—look at the terrain around us! Quick!!"

Vivian was startled, but seeing Du Wei panting heavily with such a frantic expression, she did as he said.

The female mage's magic was failing her. The wind-element Flight Spell could only last for about a dozen seconds at most.

But... a dozen seconds was enough!

Vivian flew up, rising high enough into the air... then she practically fell from the sky in a panic!

Fortunately, Du Wei caught the silly little girl below. The two of them tumbled to the ground together, and the female mage even landed in Du Wei's arms.

But this time, little Vivian did not hurriedly push Du Wei away, because all color had drained from her face. She had discovered something even more terrifying!

"W-w-w-we're... o-o-on an island... an island!!"

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