Outside Black Pearl Harbor, a Black Spirit army of at least twenty or thirty thousand marched over in loose formation, dancing their native dances with wild gestures, beating wooden drums, and blowing ivory horns at an unhurried pace.
These Black Spirit Natives, with nothing but animal hides and grass skirts wrapped around their waists, had painted their bodies with bizarre magical patterns in colored mud. They flared their nostrils and glared as they made faces at Black Pearl Harbor, twisting around from time to time to slap their buttocks toward the city walls.
Some Black Spirit children, no more than ten or so years old, brandished javelins and sprang about like monkeys, darting to within less than a mile of the walls. Chattering noisily, they taunted the Dragon Mountain Empire soldiers atop the ramparts. Several low-ranking officers swiftly ordered the magical sniper ballistae on the walls to prepare, but at a single command from Enzo, all the soldiers suppressed the urge in their hearts.
A mile was an absolutely safe distance against the bows made by the natives of the Black Spirit Continent. But against the finely forged killing weapons of the Western Continent, not to mention magical sniper ballistae, even ordinary heavy crossbows made of hardwood and animal sinew could easily fire more than a mile with the advantage of the city walls' height.
If Enzo had not adhered to his moral bottom line of not slaughtering women and children, these provocative Black Spirit children would have long since been shot into hedgehogs.
Amid the melodious sound of horns, several Black Spirit native shamans sat in broad wooden chairs, each chair carried aloft by several burly Black Spirit men using long wooden poles. Swaying and bobbing, they arrived at the front of the formation. Squinting, these Black Spirit shamans