He was evaporated the moment the golden light pillar touched the sea surface, without even letting out a scream.
She felt the second, third, fourth... more and more, faster and faster, and finally turned into a vague and indistinguishable torrent of wailing.
The voices she was familiar with, and the clansmen whose names she could not name but remembered every face, were disappearing in pieces in the golden light.
The knuckles of her fingers turning white as she held the white conch.
But she didn't give the order to retreat. It wasn't enough. It wasn't time yet.
The favor she owed Tormund needed to be repaid with a real battle.
What Tormund wants is to delay time, what he wants is to cause enough casualties to those humans, and what he wants is to make that "Dragon King" suffer on the road.
If she retreats now, the attack will be just a joke and the favor will not end at all.
So she gritted her teeth and continued to wait.
Then she saw King Ghidorah.
A huge gap was torn open in the thick fog, and the three golden dragons swooped down from the sky. The three heads opened their huge mouths at the same time. Gravity Beams was like the sword of divine punishment, cutting open the sea water and her people.
Those rays of light were not fired randomly - she could see that the three heads were working independently but cooperating seamlessly, with precision, efficiency, and ruthlessness, as if they were carrying out a large-scale cleansing without emotion.
Nissa's breathing stopped for a moment.
She has seen many powerful creatures.
Leviathan in the deep sea, giant whales that can cause tsunamis, and even those legendary sea dragons that live for thousands of years.
But she had never seen such an existence before - it didn't look like a creature in this world, it looked more like something that had been sealed for thousands of years and should not be awakened.
And when she saw the figure of Redd standing on the back of the dragon, the feeling became even stronger.
That human being - if that could still be called a human being - stood on the back of that world-destroying beast, untouchable by wind or thunder, just like riding on the back of a docile horse.
He lowered his head and looked down at the carnage on the sea, his expression calm and almost indifferent, as if those who were dying were not his men, and those burning ships were not his fleet.
He was observing. Nissa suddenly realized.
He is not fighting, he is observing.
He was watching how the fishmen attacked, how the fleet responded, and how far King Ghidorah's power could be exerted.
The attack wasn't even a battle to him - it was just a test, a drill, an opportunity for him to gather intelligence.
This realization sent a chill down her back.
She raised the conch and put it to her lips.
The white shell was engraved with runes left by the fishman ancestors, and it glowed slightly when it came into contact with her breath. She took a deep breath, and then blew--
"Woo--"
The sound didn't sound like an ordinary screw horn.
It is low, long, and carries a tremor that does not belong to the air but to the sea water.
Sound waves emerge from the shell, pass through the sea surface, seep into the water, and travel in all directions at a speed much faster than any living thing can swim.
This is no ordinary retreat signal.
This is a dispersal order.
Within the reach of the sound waves, the giant sea beasts that had been summoned—sawtooth sharks, giant shell turtles, and deep-sea monster fish—stopped hitting the bottom of the ship at the same time.
Their bodies stiffened for a moment, and then they turned around and fled towards the deep sea, as if they were released from some kind of control.
A few smaller ones were still hesitant, but when the second wave of sound waves came, they turned around and left without hesitation.
As for those fishmen who were still alive, when they heard the sound of the conch horn, they seemed to be grabbed by an invisible hand. They let go of the side of the ship, turned over from the deck and jumped into the sea.
They no longer love fighting, no longer look back, and no longer even care about their companions - the sound of the conch horn means an absolute order to retreat, and those who disobey the order will be permanently expelled from the group.
Nissa blew until her lungs nearly burst before she put down the conch.
She gasped for air, her ice-blue eyes still staring at the sea in the distance.
The thick fog is dissipating, and golden sunlight penetrates the clouds and shines on the sea, illuminating the dark blue floating wreckage.
Her tribesmen were swimming desperately towards the deep sea, leaving streaks of indigo blood behind them.
"Mother."
A voice came from below the reef.
A young female fishman leaned half out of the water. Her appearance was similar to Nyssa, but she was more immature and her scales were darker in color.
She looked up at Nissa on the rocks, her amber eyes full of worry.
"Many of our people... died."
"I know." Nissa's voice was calm, but her hand holding the conch was still trembling slightly.
"Is it worth it?" the young fishman couldn't help but ask, "Is it worth it for the favor of Tormund?"
Nissa was silent for a long time.
She looked down at her daughter - this child was still too young and didn't understand what favors were, what debts were, or what the rules were for survival in this deep sea of jungle.
Tormund rescued her cub from the mouth of a pack of deep-sea hunting sharks three years ago.
The human diver - if that could be considered a human being - appeared in the deep sea in an incredible way, used a weapon she had never seen before to disperse the hunting sharks, and then pushed the frightened little fish man back into her arms.
"You owe me once." Tormund said at that time, with the cynical smile on her lips that she still remembers.
She did owe him once.
But now, she has paid it off.
"It's not worth it." She finally spoke, her voice so soft that it was almost blown away by the sea breeze, "But it's worth it."
She took one last look at the distant sea.
The human fleet was reorganizing, the damaged ships were towed to the periphery, and the ones that could still sail were gathered in the center.
The golden dragon has risen higher into the sky, and its three heads are still turning, as if searching for something.
Nissa's eyes met those six golden eyes, separated by several sea miles.
She knew he couldn't see her. It was too far away. Although the thick fog had dispersed, the distance was still there.
But at that moment, she had an illusion - those eyes were looking at her, looking at her through the wails of the dead tribesmen, through the dissipating thick fog, and through the trembling sea.
She shuddered.
"Let's go." She turned around and slid into the water from the other side of the reef, her movements so light that she didn't stir up a splash.
The seawater enveloped her body, and the familiar embrace of the deep sea made her feel a little more at ease.
"Go back to the deep sea. No clan members are allowed to approach the water until Dragon King leaves this sea area."
Her daughter followed behind and asked hesitantly, "Then... where is Tormund?"