The veteran, who was charred all over, with his hair and eyebrows burned off, and the left half of his body severely burned, was slumped under a broken pillar next to the ruins of the palace, being supported by several reinforcement soldiers who came from deep inside the city.
His eyes passed through the still smoking ruins, through the burning streets, through the firelight rising in the direction of the port, and saw the golden light spot in the sky.
His lips trembled, and he wanted to shout, but no sound came out.
His vocal cords were severely burned in the thick smoke from the Wildfire explosion, and were so swollen that they almost closed, and he could only make a hoarse, hissing sound like air leakage.
He supported the ground with his right hand and tried to stand up, but his left leg was cut open by a piece of flying gravel in the explosion, with a bone-deep cut open. Every time he exerted force, he was accompanied by heartbreaking pain.
He gritted his teeth, veins popped out on his forehead, and finally stood up unsteadily, leaning on the remaining pillar, looking up at the golden figure getting closer and closer in the sky.
But the fleet is gone, and so are the people.
His eyes were red. Not because of pain, not because of fear, but because he suddenly realized that he was the only survivor of this fleet.
Thousands of people, thousands of living people with names and families, now he is the only one left.
And the reason why he survived was not because of his bravery or wisdom, but because he made the right bet - he chose to run to Redd instead of running to the door sealed by the flames.
Reality did not give Dawg Russ time to continue thinking.
Redd There is no time to grieve, and neither is Dawg Russ.
Because while they were still in the air and next to the ruins, the ambush circle in the direction of the port had been completely activated.
It was not a makeshift fortification, but a carefully designed and prepared killing field specifically designed to deal with dragons and Dragonrider.
When Daemon and Tormund launched the stranglehold, they had already deployed all long-range weapons on building roofs, street corners, dock piers and even on the decks of moored merchant ships around the port.
Those weapons were not temporarily moved from the armory, but were hidden in Lys city months or even years in advance - giant ballistae, heavy catapults, Scorpion, as well as those wooden barrels containing Wildfire, kerosene and crude oil. The number was enough to turn the entire port area into a burning hell.
The first wave of crossbow arrows was fired at the moment King Ghidorah entered the sky above the port.
Not one or two, but dozens of them. From all directions, all angles, and all heights.
The shafts of those giant crossbows were as thick as an adult's arm, and the arrowheads were forged, barbed, and specially designed to penetrate dragon scales.
They shot out from the roof, from the windows, from behind the crenellations of the city wall, from the shadow of the pier trestle, and drew dozens of parallel, slightly falling arcs in the air, converging towards the body and wings of King Ghidorah.
King Ghidorah's three heads turned at the same time. The six golden eyes captured the trajectory of each crossbow arrow the moment before the arrow rain came.
The head in the middle opened its mouth, and Gravity Beams swept out a golden arc in front of it, turning a dozen crossbow arrows flying towards it into nothing.
The head on the left side spurted out light at the same time, shattering the crossbow arrows fired from the left wing one after another.
The head on the right side is responsible for defending against arrows from behind and below. The golden beam of light draws a constantly rotating ring around the dragon's body, intercepting all the crossbow arrows that try to shoot from the blind angle.
But there are too many crossbows. And they're not all of them.
The second wave of attacks came from catapults.
At least twenty catapults were launched simultaneously from various hidden positions around the port.
What they throw is not stones, but wooden barrels - huge wooden barrels reinforced with iron hoops and filled with various flammable materials.
Those wooden barrels were tumbling in the air, and the iron hoops on the barrels shone coldly in the sun. The liquid inside made a gurgling sound as it tumbled, like the heartbeat of some huge, gestating monster.
The first wooden barrel hit the base of the right wing of King Ghidorah.
The barrel shattered at the moment of impact, and the contents inside - a black, viscous, pungent-smelling liquid - exploded on the dragon scales and splashed everywhere.
That is crude oil, unrefined crude oil extracted directly from the depths of the earth. It is as viscous as asphalt and flammable like gunpowder.
It does not explode spontaneously like Wildfire, but once it is ignited, it will continue to burn at an extremely high temperature and is extremely difficult to extinguish.
The second wooden barrel hit King Ghidorah's back, and the liquid that splattered out after it shattered was a transparent, light yellow oily substance - kerosene.
Refined kerosene is purer than crude oil, burns more fully, has a higher temperature, and has extremely strong adhesion. Once it is stained, it will stick to the surface like glue until it burns out.
The third barrel did not hit King Ghidorah, but hit the water below it.
The moment the barrel shattered, the green liquid inside - Wildfire - came into contact with the sea water, made a violent hissing sound, and then exploded violently.
A red and green fireball soared from the water, almost touching the belly of King Ghidorah. The heat wave shock wave lifted the burning wreckage everywhere in the port.
Then the fourth, fifth, sixth...
Dozens of wooden barrels flew from all directions like raindrops, hitting King Ghidorah's body, wings, and tail, as well as the water in the port, the dock, and the surrounding buildings.
Crude oil, kerosene, Wildfire - three different combustibles burned at the same time in different locations. The color of the flames ranged from orange to bright green to dark black, and the temperature ranged from extremely high to higher to extreme. The entire port area changed from a smoking battlefield to a real sea of fire in just a few breaths.
King Ghidorah let out an angry roar.
Those wooden barrels cannot hurt it. Its scales are the strongest armor in the world. Whether it is crude oil, kerosene or Wildfire, it can only burn on the surface of its scales and cannot penetrate.
But the temperature of those flames is real, the power of those shock waves is real, and - what makes King Ghidorah most angry - these despicable humans actually dare to use this method to deal with it, using this dirty, sticky, foul-smelling liquid to stain its scales.
Its three heads opened their mouths at the same time, preparing to use Gravity Beams to clear the positions of all surrounding catapults and ballistae at once.
But at the moment it was accumulating strength, a wooden barrel hit it squarely in the face.
It didn't hit the scales, but the mouth of the head in the middle.
The moment the barrel shattered, the green liquid inside - Wildfire - splashed into its half-open mouth.