The Defeated Dragon

There was still no cloud in the sky, or even a trace of light.

Only the ghost ship's flashing little green fire with the sheep flag was lighting up a little part of the sea.

“Left rudder! Turn! Turn!”

Captain Morrodo's voice pierced the silence, followed by the screeching sound of the rudder. He has been talking for a while but no one could feel the ship actually turning.

“We're haunted, Captain! We can't turn around!”

“Without wind and waves, we can't paddle!”

“It's over. It's the Devil's Cloud, it's the Ghost Ship of Marquis Cohen, coming to avenge us!”

“I shouldn't have watched the tavern lady Gaia take a bath, really, I knew there would be consequences!”

The sailors were frightened out of their wits.

There was nothing the captain could do. The ship was paralyzed, just waiting to collide with the ghost ship.

“Tremblingwoods ! Multiple rock thorns!” Seeing the captain's incompetence, Liszt suddenly decided to take the lead, pointing at the ghost ship and giving orders to Tremblingwoods .

But the magical beast was confused. It didn't even know what the ghost ship was and the atmosphere didn't help either. But Liszt was still forcing it to spit out magic.

Poof!

Poof!

Poof!

A series of rock thorns showed up on the ghost ship's deck, but it did not destroy the vessel. Instead, all thorns fell from the deck and the sound of it falling into the sea could be clearly heard.. thump..thump..thump..thump..thump..thump..thump..thump..thump..thump..

“This……”

Liszt wanted to say that this was not scientific.

But since seeing dragons, sprites, ghosts, and black dragons, what is even scientific? Perhaps for this fantasy world, the existence of these things was considered science, but this one cannot be explained by science at all.

Suddenly.

The sailors screamed at the tops of their lungs and even p.i.s.sed their pants.  The captain was slumped in the captain's room, the hip flask dangling in his hand, but he could not find the strength to put it near his mouth. Even the ever fearless and stubborn Lvera was shouting while clenching her long sword, “No!”

It wasn't stopping!

The crowd watched helplessly as the ghost ship collided with the bow of the ship bit by bit with no intention of slowing down or turning.

“Hold on!”

“It's time for battle!” Captain Leiden raised his knight's sword and shouted, “Knights, show your courage and charge with me!”

His performance was worthy of his knight status, brave and fearless.

However, the atmosphere was different from what they had imagined. The impact did not come. The decaying ghost ship pa.s.sed through the fast sailing ship like mist, like a layer of fog, without any substance.

"Uhhh…"

Captain Leiden, whole holding his long sword, was shocked and confused, 

At that moment, the originally nervous Levis burst forth with courage. "Liszt! Lvera! Stay with me! Captain Leiden, have the knights  stick to the deck. We are here to collide with these d.a.m.ned ghosts. We, the mighty and invincible knights!"

Liszt clenched the Red Blood Sword tightly, feeling overwhelmed with Levis' words. "I want to fight side by side with my brother and sister!"

While talking, he cast his Magic Eyes.

He could see the ghost ship burning with the green ghost fire, the hull outlined by magic, engulfing the fast sailing ship little by little. Or not really engulfed, but traversed like a phantom. In a blink of an eye, the decaying hull had already rushed in front of him.

The decayed wooden hull was completely destroyed  and one could even smell the decay.

It looked entirely real that this ghost ship had already “engulfed” several sailors who could not dodge it's path. They still could hear the calls of the sailors stationed on  deck calling for help.

Squeeeeeaaaaaaak!

A piercing sound pa.s.sed through their  eardrums, exerting an excessive force on Liszt's Magic Eyes. Some of them collapsed immediately.

———–

Liszt and others were also engulfed by the ghost ship, and everything in sight seemed to change instantly. Liszt was not standing on the deck of the fast sailing ship anymore, but on the rotten deck of the ghost ship. Everything was foggy and he couldn't see Paris, Levis and the others.

What he could see was just through his naked eye.

It was like he was trapped in a ghost ship. He even extended his foot and explored a hole in the deck. He could actually reach his foot in, that is to say, he was actually standing on the deck of the ghost ship.

“Why is this happening?”

Liszt was trying to think quickly despite his sullen mood. But he never understood why the first moment he was standing on the deck of the fast sailing ship, and was on the deck of the ghost ship a moment later. 

The ship's broken wooden deck looked real and was not an illusion anymore, it was creaking like it would break any moment.

“Levis!”

“Lvera!”

He shouted, but no one answered, only the creaking sound of the wooden boards.

“Tremblingwoods !”

“Paris!”

There was no response. 

The fog surged and everything was dim. He could not even see the green flame he had seen before. “I am trapped in a ghost ship? Why is this so? Have my five senses gone mad? Or is it that the matter and spirit are distorted at this moment? “

The triangle theory that the mage believed suddenly came to mind. He remembered the theory about the truth, magic, and matter that Granny had said. It is constantly changing and transforming from one form to another.

But the Red Blood Sword was still in his hands. He didn't believe that the big fast sailing ship and so many people  were transformed immediately.

“I must be hallucinating!”

“Yes, hallucinations!”

Liszt rubbed his eyes violently and felt his stress level go down. He immediately cast Magic eyes. In a flash, everything around has changed dramatically again. He saw where the people around him had gone and saw that he had not actually gone far.

People  just kept spinning in the same place, even brandishing weapons to fight and kill each other.

He saw Levis hacking his sword and cutting the air in front of him. He saw Lvera shaking with her sword. He saw Captain Leiden hacking a trainee knight to the ground.

And then he found Paris, behind him, less than a meter away.

Tremblingwoods was also there, but Paris and Tremblingwoods didn't seem to see each other. Paris held her big sword and looked around nervously, while Tremblingwoods kept opening his mouth like it was barking.

At this time, the movement of a magic figure  alerted Liszt that someone had fallen off the deck and fallen into the cabin of the ghost ship. 

These people, even himself, were in a state of hallucination.

However, they were all still in the ghost ship, not on the fast sailing ship. Only the ghost ship had a deck with a big hole.

Before letting too much time pa.s.s, Liszt immediately headed to Tremblingwoods and held the magical beast's back. "Tremblingwoods !"

Tremblingwoods  leaned forward and opened its mouth, spitting out a rock thorn.

Fortunately, Liszt was prepared, he turned away just in time. He continued to slap Tremblingwoods and kept calling, “Tremblingwoods ! You have forgotten your master!”

Tremblingwoods , however, seemed to have no response. The dog's eyes were confused and continued to release the rock thorns randomly.

It wasn't until Liszt took out a piece of jerky and found a chance to put it in the dog's mouth that he finally caught its attention. It gnawed the jerky, shook his head, and his pair of dog eyes restored clarity.

When it saw that the person in front of him was Liszt, Tremblingwoods barked in surprise. “w.a.n.g w.a.n.g w.a.n.g!”

Seeing that Tremblingwoods had awakened, Liszt was greatly relieved. It was a bit disadvantageous to only have a dog, but it was still rea.s.suring to have a Tremblingwoods  beside him.

“w.a.n.g w.a.n.g!”

Tremblingwoods had eaten all the jerky and was asking for another one. Liszt still couldn't clearly see his surroundings. Everything around him was foggy. He could only judge his situation through the outlines seen through the Magic Eyes.

However, his Magic Eye skill would dissipate from time to time and his vision would return to the foggy scene instead of the ghost ship scenario.

This was a result of his growing tired every time he used Magic Eyes. Immediately after he had woken up Tremblingwoods , he cast Magic Eyes again. After the Magic Eye effect disappeared, the boundary between reality and illusion was blurry once more, and they all went round and round on the deck, unable to contact anyone else.

“What kind of state am I in now?”

“How on earth can a ghost ship cause an effect far beyond an illusion?”

He tried to move toward Paris's direction according to his memory of her position on deck, but even after taking dozens of steps and walking past several holes on deck, he was not getting any closer to her.

Tremblingwoods , on the other hand, just kept on following him.

Since he woke up Tremblingwoods with the jerky, the beast has not continued to fall into the hallucination again. Liszt also held the dog chain firmly in his hand. Feeling unsure, he also tied one end of the dog chain to the belt on his waistband to prevent the chain from loosening if ever the beast falls into hallucinations again.

Although the situation was entirely unknown and  Liszt was getting too nervous, he seems to have adapted  his mind to the situation and has returned to his calmest state.

“The magic of the dragon infects the surroundings and produces treasures..The magic of sprites affects crops and makes plants flourish. Tremblingwoods' magic can create rocks and my qi is fire-attributed. All these show the existence of magic, which can not only create beautiful things, but also have magical effects. “

He looked carefully around the fog surrounding him.

He was beginning to feel the spirit of the ghost ship. “So in essence, this ghost ship of Marquis Cohen is also a demonstration of magic? To say that it is just an illusion is correct, since it is only magic. To say that it is also reality is also true, since magic can affect reality. “

The more he thought about it, the more  his speculation was making sense.

However, he only has a theory. They were all trapped in a ghost ship in illusion, and they were still there in reality.

“I should wait for the tiredness of my eyes to subside…and then cast my Magic Eye again. The ship is huge, I can hardly move around without the Magic Eye!”

The Magic Eye collapsed right then which caused him to look like he was being repossessed due to his tired eyes. Ever since Liszt became fully proficient using Magic Eyes, he has been able to do almost continuous combat techniques without experiencing fatigue.

As he rested to recover, he sighed quietly, “I hope people don't die.”

They should have arrived at Red Crab Island by now to celebrate the New Year's Day with joy. He might have already gotten some good things from Marquis Merlin. They never expected to encounter a ghost ship that was almost impossible to encounter in the first place.

Only luck can bring us home now.

I can't wait to eat a lot of hot tofu..

He did not immediately cast his magic eye, but instead waited for his eyes to recover from the fatigue. Moments later, thanks to the constant healing ability of his qi, his eyes became refreshed again without any feeling of fatigue.

“Almost there!”

Magic Eye was cast in a split second, and the vision wrapped in mist changed again. The ship outline and some silhouettes emerged one by one. In contrast to what he remembered which was Lvera trembling on her own, she was now being chased and hacked around by a trainee knight.

Bang!

Liszt kicked the trainee knight, and then grabbed Lvera. “Wake up, Lvera!”

Slap!

Slap!

Liszt kept slapping Lvera's face but she was not coming around.

In desperation, Liszt dragged her and shoved her into a cabin of the ghost ship … As to not make things any more difficult, Liszt threw her down the cabin first.

After rescuing Lvera, Liszt kept on moving with Tremblingwoods beside him. He grabbed Levis this time, and dragged him into the cabin as well.

The unconscious Levis was not able to fight back despite his elite earth knight level.

With both his brother and sister saved, it was time to drag Paris into the cabin. Paris is a strong warrior. Although Liszt and Tremblingwoods were able to defeat her, she still had her power of transformation. Liszt finally found her on deck but decided to just let her be.

With her fighting power, there was no worthy opponent for her on this ship.

“If I want to wake all these people up, I'm afraid I must get rid of the ghost ship first!” A ghost ship without ghosts was no threat to Liszt who has Magic Eyes as a secret skill.

“Go, Tremblingwoods , go to the place with the bright magic!”

He led Tremblingwoods  straight to the place where the ghost ship's magic was strongest. In the ship, the green magic would form a faint outline on some areas and there were three obvious areas with magical concentration.

One was the sheep head banner at the top of the mast. The magic green flame was still burning brightly.

Another was an image in the ship's bow section. There was a dragon sculpture, a sapphire dragon sculpture. People in the Sapphire Grand Duchy believe that the Sapphire Dragon can suppress all sea monsters in the sea and can also protect the crew. This time, however, the bow image burning with the  green flame was not like a dragon, but more like a bat.

The last place Liszt is supposed to go to  is in the middle of the cabin.

The magic in that area was not as strong as it was on the sheep head flag and the dragon's bow, but it seemed to be the heart of the whole ghost ship. Every magic line that draws the outline of the ghost ship would start there.

“w.a.n.g w.a.n.g!”

Tremblingwoods, with his huge body,  had a hard time following Liszt around over the decaying wood while making their way to the middle of the cabin. The creaking sound kept ringing at their feet, as if the boards would break down at any moment. Thinking about it, Liszt shouldn't have brought Tremblingwoods  down with him. The cabins and pa.s.sages below were very narrow.

It was not suitable for Tremblingwoods , but without him, Liszt wouldn't have had the confidence to walk alone in the spooky ghost ship.

“Almost there!”

A few more steps forward and they could finally  reach the cabin room with the strong magic light. But at that very moment, in the originally quiet ghost ship, a faint voice was suddenly heard.

They could not hear it clearly.

Liszt did not think this was another illusion, because Tremblingwoods raised his ears and looked in the voice's direction. “w.a.n.g w.a.n.g!”

“Tremblingwoods , shh!” Liszt tried to calm down the beast.

This time, Liszt tried to listen carefully.

The voice broke from time to time, and only a few incoherent words could be heard. “Chase….Dead….Andy….Loyal….Mom…Home….Magic…..Help…..Curtis…..Mad……No……”

Moreover, these words were not spoken by one person, but was noise coming from a shouting group of people.

“Andy? Curtis? It sounds like two names. ” Liszt was chanting these two names when suddenly the magic in front of him outlined a pale face on the wall.

The face seemed to be shouting at Liszt, but it was actually crying out to itself. “No!”

This unexpected scene frightened Liszt and made him grab his sword. The Red Blood Sword was plugged directly into the pale face, the fire-attributed  magic burst violently, the pale face bursting into shatters.

The face disappeared and the screams as well.

Withdrawing the Red Blood Sword, Liszt looked cold. “Go,Tremblingwoods! I want to see what stuff is pretending to be a ghost! We're gonna create a bunch of bad ghosts ourselves!”