Thick smoke blanketed the arena. Cracked marble reflected the remnants of the firelight.
Amid the ruins, the giant dragon's body trembled faintly. Confusion flickered within its eyes, an expression rarely seen on a creature of such overwhelming size.
"What is happening to me?" it muttered in a deep voice that shook the air.
Its scales quivered, as though sensing a strange emptiness growing inside itself—an emptiness left behind by the loss of its soul fire.
From the upper balcony of the mythology faction's stands, Yue narrowed her eyes at the arena.
"How could those humans know Shen Long's weakness?" she whispered in astonishment.
On the opposite side of the battlefield, the Fire Fighter Squad struggled to stand among the wreckage of their charred truck. Small flames still licked the melted tires, while the smell of fuel mixed with foam smoke filled the air.
Jonatan looked over his team with a grim expression. Their faces were blackened with soot, their breathing ragged, and most of their equipment had been destroyed.
But his eyes—the eyes of a true leader—still burned with determination.
"Grab the chainsaws, axes, ropes, or anything we can still use!" he shouted loudly.
"We're not giving up that easily! We are not soldiers—we are rescuers!"
A faint cheer answered him from the remnants of his squad. Weak and hoarse, yet carrying more courage than the roar of hundreds of spectators.
Raisa lifted the fire extinguisher left over from putting out the truck fire earlier. Fredy hoisted the flamethrower with half its fuel remaining. And Carl carried a small chainsaw, the kind usually used to cut through debris and create escape routes inside collapsed buildings.
Seeing that their determination still had not faded—seeing the fire of spirit blazing in the eyes of his small team—Jonatan tightened his grip on a rescue rope tied to the end of a pickaxe.
The dragon stared down at them from above, its wings spread magnificently.
"Even if you have taken my fire," it rumbled, "I still possess wings, fangs, and claws. You have no chance left."
Jonatan met the creature's gaze, his jaw set hard. The determination burning in his eyes caused even the dragon to hesitate for a moment.
The wings spread even wider, casting a shadow that swallowed the four firefighters whole, as though daylight itself had been forcibly erased.
Shen Long leapt high into the air. A violent wave of dust and dried leaves crashed into their faces.
But before they could form another strategy, the dragon roared and lunged with terrifying speed.
Raisa's voice was heard first. The leaking extinguisher hissed like the scream of despair.
"Raisa!!!"
Fredy shouted in panic before immediately pulling the trigger.
Flames erupted from the flamethrower's barrel like an inverted fireball exploding into the sky.
Shen Long was engulfed by the blazing inferno. Its face burned once more, forcing it to fly higher immediately.
Carl, who stood closest to Raisa, instinctively rushed to evacuate her.
His hurried footsteps echoed as the chainsaw rattled against his heat-resistant uniform.
There, a massive slash stretched from Raisa's stomach all the way to her cheek.
Her eyes were wide open. Her mouth hung agape.
As though death had reached her before she even understood what had struck her.
Carl collapsed weakly to the ground, touching Raisa's cheek with trembling hands.
A cry of despair tore from the mouth that was usually full of jokes and laughter. It sounded agonizing coming from someone who was accustomed to laughing in the face of death.
Fredy snapped as well. He yanked the flamethrower trigger hard, sending another raging blaze into the air.
The smell of gasoline and scorching heat struck Jonatan's visor.
"Fredy! Control your emotions!"
But Fredy ignored him completely. Rage had drowned out everything else.
Shen Long twisted through the sky, beat its wings once, then dove once more toward the remaining firefighters.
Its gigantic shadow descended like a crashing aircraft, carrying waves of heat from the breath escaping its nostrils.
The flames struck Shen Long's face again, scorching its scales, yet it did not stop.
"GRAAAHH!"
The thunderous roar triggered Fredy's human instincts before reason could catch up.
His finger slipped from the trigger. His body turned instinctively, trying to flee.
"Fredy! No!"
Jonatan ran after him, trying to save his comrade even while knowing it was impossible.
Fredy glanced back once.
He saw the gigantic shadow covering the entire sky.
And for the first time since entering the arena, his face was completely consumed by fear.
Boom!
"No… no…"
Jonatan dropped to his knees.
All that remained were ashes, fragments of protective clothing, and waves of heat that scorched his skin.
Silence followed.
Only the crackling of fire remained.
Jonatan stood amid the ruins, his body trembling. Slowly, he dropped the pickaxe tied to the rescue rope—he no longer even knew why he had been holding it.
His body froze as he looked at Raisa and Fredy, both fallen one after another.
Shen Long landed heavily, shaking the arena and nearly knocking Jonatan off balance.
Jonatan spoke in a hoarse voice. Tears nearly fell before he quickly wiped them away.
"To you, this may be a war for the survival of your race. But for us, this is only duty. A responsibility. We did not come here to kill."
He stared at Shen Long, his face covered in wounds and soot.
"We came here to save."
Shen Long's jaw still growled faintly.
But the fierce light in its eyes had dimmed.
Jonatan continued, tears mixing with ash upon his cheeks.
"From the beginning, we never had a real chance of winning. But we stood here because there are people behind us who believed in us."
"They believed… even when everything was already burning."
"And that belief became the reason we fought you."
The dragon drew a long breath. A heavy hiss echoed from its gigantic chest through the silence.
"Perhaps… if you had not taken my brother's head earlier… things would never have come to this."
Jonatan's eyes widened.
The severed dragon head lying submerged in blood and water made his body tremble.
Regret and fear tangled together inside him. His mouth could no longer form words.
Jonatan inhaled deeply before looking at Shen Long again, his expression no longer filled with hatred.
"Then we are the same. You lost your brother. I lost my family," he said while glancing toward Carl, who still sat beside Raisa's lifeless body, sobbing quietly.
"But maybe… this fight was never about humans and dragons."
"Maybe it's only about who is brave enough to stop retaliating first."
The dragon fell silent.
Its glowing eyes slowly dimmed like dying embers.
For the first time, the sound of its breathing no longer resembled anger.
Shen Long stared at Jonatan standing before it.
The human's body was covered in wounds. Parts of his uniform had burned away.
But his eyes…
Still burned with a courage that many great creatures never possessed.
Jonatan's words about loss. About having the courage to stop seeking revenge.
They echoed within the dragon's chest like voices from a distant past.
Its claws—made only for destruction throughout its life—now trembled upon the scorched earth.
Inside the steel-scaled chest, something stirred.
A feeling it had never known before.
Compassion.
The dragon lowered its head slightly, looking closely at Jonatan.
"You may—"
But before it could finish speaking, the atmosphere around the arena suddenly changed.
The sky cracked with streaks of golden light.
And from the western throne, The Ancient One slowly rose.
Its wings spread wide like the unfolding light of the morning sun. The aura radiating from its body caused the air itself to tremble.
That aura.
The aura of pure wrath.
The aura of ancient power beyond defiance.
The dragon's breath caught. Its pupils narrowed upon seeing The Ancient One, who clearly would not tolerate any other outcome.
That aura was not a spoken command.
It was divine will forced upon its race—an absolute decree not to disappoint its master.
Its chest tightened. Its jaws slowly opened wide against its own will.
Jonatan raised his gaze toward the creature without fear.
"And besides…" his voice was soft yet clear. "From the beginning, our intention was never to kill…"
"…but to save—"
GRAAAAHHH!
In an instant, the dragon lunged.
Jonatan vanished beneath the massive shadow swallowing him whole.
Carl, still kneeling beside Raisa, looked up at the gigantic shadow looming over him.
He raised his head.
Yet his eyes still burned with the same fire of determination they had carried as their slogan from the beginning.
Carl opened his mouth, finishing the words his commander never got to complete.
"But to save."
A blur of darkness erased the figure that could no longer resist.
Only traces of a body remained among the fading embers.
The once-silent arena erupted again with victorious cheers from the mythology faction.
The dwarves raised their weapons. Trolls pounded their chests. And the sky above the Sky Colosseum trembled beneath the applause of mythological beings.
Libra gazed at the small golden scales in her hand. Both sides swayed slowly until they finally balanced perfectly.
With a gentle yet authoritative voice, she declared:
"The second match has concluded. Victory belongs to the mythology faction."
The Ancient One rose.
Its steps were majestic and unwavering.
Golden light wrapped around its armor as it looked down upon the arena now emptied of humans, gazing proudly at the dragon without hiding its satisfaction any longer.
But the dragon did not return the look.
Instead, it turned its face away and lowered its head in silence.
Not out of disrespect.
But because of the strange feeling still clouding its thoughts.
After giving a brief bow, its wings spread wide once more.
With a single beat, it stirred a violent storm of dust that swallowed the entire arena.
The cheers of victory continued to thunder.
But the dragon never looked back to celebrate.
It simply flew farther and farther away, leaving behind the arena—and the pride it had fought so fiercely to defend.
And beneath the fading shadow of its wings, the automatic hydrant continued to rotate slowly, spraying artificial rain over embers that had not yet fully died out.
The water pooled around burned firefighter visors.
As though even after their owners had fallen, their duty still was not finished.
"Our resolve is still here."