White smoke still drifted gently above the arena—the lingering trace of the battle that had just ended.
From the highest seat upon the Throne of Technology, the President slowly rose.
His face still looked exhausted, yet there was a light he could not hide: admiration, pride, and a hint of disbelief.
He turned slightly toward Johan, his assistant standing firmly at his right side. Johan's smile was faint, but his eyes burned like a flame newly fed with purpose.
"How did you come up with such a crazy idea so quickly?" the President asked in amazement.
Johan answered with his usual calm demeanor, his gaze fixed upon the steaming battlefield below.
"We didn't need to break all the elephant's legs just to move it away, Sir," he said flatly. "We only needed to sedate it."
The President chuckled softly, looking at him with genuine respect.
"You're truly dangerous, Johan," he said while patting his assistant's shoulder.
"And I'm grateful you're one of us."
The atmosphere around the throne began to change.
No longer filled with fear or nervousness.
Instead, it carried the growing aurora of human pride blooming amidst a world of legends.
Libra, seated between the two thrones, slowly lowered the golden scales in her left hand.
For the first time, the way she looked at humanity was no longer simple pity toward mortals struggling in an uneven contest.
It was sincere admiration.
She whispered quietly to herself,
"Science and reason… who would have thought they could rival the miracles of magic?"
The starlight woven through her hair glimmered softly, as if agreeing with her own words.
A faint smile appeared on her face.
Not a warm smile.
But the smile of someone acknowledging the greatness of an opponent.
Yet on the opposite side, The Ancient One could no longer conceal his unrest.
He rose from the Solar Throne. His golden feathers stiffened, and his eyes burned like freshly ignited embers.
He exhaled sharply before staring at Johan with the piercing gaze of an eagle sizing up its prey.
"The same kind of cleverness… that once nearly destroyed their own world."
Across the mythological stands, the atmosphere froze.
The ancient beings who had been cheering moments ago now exchanged uneasy glances.
"H-Hey… isn't water not supposed to do that?" one minotaur muttered, instinctively stepping backward before the stadium steps halted him.
A kitsune swallowed nervously. Its voice trembled with an unfamiliar feeling it had not experienced in centuries.
"I thought… those tools must have had some kind of special mechanism or trick behind them."
Unease spread like a dark shadow.
For they were beginning to realize that the human mind was something impossible to predict.
High above the mythological stands, Yue stood motionless overlooking the arena.
Her honey-gold hair and eight tails swayed gently as her widened eyes watched the firefighters smiling amidst the inferno.
"Is this truly possible? Could the Sky Guardian really be brought down by creatures that once seemed so insignificant?"
Bai Zhen's voice suddenly echoed within her mind.
"Until you understand the meaning of loss, you will never recognize the true meaning of your strength."
Now, Yue understood a little.
Humans possessed no claws, no venom, no wings.
Yet the world itself changed within their hands.
Her expression softened, though sorrow lingered beneath it.
One side of her felt admiration.
The other, fear.
Because for the first time, she felt humanity might truly be capable of rivaling legends.
Down in the arena, Jonatan raised his hand high to issue commands.
"All units! Grab the foam equipment! Put out the remaining fire, now!"
His firm voice echoed through the dying flames.
Smoke billowed across the battlefield, cloaking the firefighters as they moved swiftly like trained soldiers in war.
White foam spread in every direction, swallowing the remaining fire until the air slowly calmed.
The moment the final ember died out, Jonatan shouted another command.
"Back into the truck! We're repositioning to the right side of the dragon's head!"
A synchronized shout rang out immediately.
The four humans rushed back into their war machine—the massive fire truck.
The giant red vehicle roared forward, its sirens echoing like emergency alarms racing through California streets.
The steering wheel turned skillfully as the truck drifted across the soil, weaving through scorched cannabis plants left behind by the earlier blaze.
The truck braked sharply, stopping right beside one of the dragon's heads and leaving deep tire marks across the charred ground.
Jonatan stood at the side of the truck, his sharp gaze fixed upon the dragon head that had already fallen asleep.
"Set the pressure to precision jet mode!" he ordered while gripping the fire hose tightly.
The others hurried to adjust the pressure valves on the main tank.
From her throne, Libra leaned slightly forward. Her violet eyes reflected the glimmering water in the air.
"What are they planning now?" she murmured softly, as though beginning to understand how humans fought with logic and tiny tools.
Meanwhile, The Ancient One narrowed his eyes as he watched the four humans coordinating their strange devices.
His wings trembled slightly, and his heavy voice rumbled like restrained thunder.
"They adapt far too quickly."
His gaze no longer viewed humanity as mere contestants.
But as a species evolving far too fast.
Jonatan pulled the lever.
A thin stream of water flashed blue beneath the sunlight, blasting from the hose at terrifying speed and producing a sharp whistling sound as it sliced through the air.
One.
Two.
Three.
Until dozens of obsidian scales the size of human palms began peeling away from the dragon's neck.
Water sprayed everywhere, pooling around their boots amidst the falling scales.
Libra's eyes widened in disbelief as a wound slowly spread across the dragon's neck.
"Water… can cut?"
Jonatan, standing firmly while struggling against the violently shaking hose, briefly turned toward his teammates with a faint smile.
"You know," he said firmly, occasionally wiping droplets from his visor,
"the sharpest thing in the world isn't steel."
"It's something incredibly soft."
"Water."
The stream continued battering the dragon's hardened scales.
Slowly but surely, it carved a growing wound into the beast.
Hot blood burst outward, mixing with water and creating a crimson rain over the arena.
"What… is happening down there?"
A heavy growl echoed weakly.
One of the dragon heads barely opened its eyes, though its body refused to rise.
It had not even realized that its twin head was being carved apart by water itself.
Upon the Solar Throne, The Ancient One's eagle claws tightened against the armrest until the stone creaked loudly.
"For the next twenty minutes, they'll remain like that."
Johan's quiet remark instantly drew The Ancient One's sharp gaze.
The ancient being desperately hoped those words were nonsense.
"What are you talking about?"
Johan slowly turned toward him. A dangerous coldness gleamed within his eyes.
"They inhaled too much smoke from the burning cannabis fields. The gases reacted together."
"It became both an anesthetic… and a natural opium."
The President immediately turned in shock.
"Opium? So that means the field—"
Johan gave a small nod.
The President fell silent, as though that brief gesture had already answered every question in his mind.
He looked once more toward the dragon's neck, where the wound had widened further.
Then his gaze shifted toward the charred plants still releasing thin trails of smoke into the air.
Meanwhile, from the high balcony where the mythological representatives observed the battle, Yue stood frozen.
Her eyes stared at the humans she once believed weak—
Humans now cutting dragon scales with water and subduing a Sky Guardian with poison born from the earth itself.
She whispered softly,
"Perhaps… their wisdom was never merely a legend after all."