Waves layered upon waves, and the long coastline turned from north toward the east. The beach was broad, and blue smoke from salt boiling rose from the villages. This was already the northwesternmost edge of the Yucatan Peninsula, the salt village in the territory of the Canul Guardian Clan. It was a seaside village that produced sea salt, not large in area, but quite wealthy.
The sea breeze blew warm. Seven kingdom longships were mooring by the shore of the salt village, yet no one disembarked. The old Militia Chiwako stood at the bow, looking at the dense crowd on the beach more than a hundred paces away, listening to their uproarious shouts, so shocked his eyes went wide and his mouth hung open.
"What is this? What is this...? What are they doing?!"
The people on the flagship were just as at a loss, staring wordlessly at the beachhead. On the not-so-large beach outside the salt village, five large groups of Maya City-State Warriors, feathers stuck in their hair and throwing spears on their backs, were scattered and gathered. These Maya warriors seemed to come from different villages, led by different feather-crowned god-descendants. Each group of Maya warriors numbered more than two hundred at the fewest, and around four hundred at the most.
At this moment, the largest group of Maya City-State Warriors stood closest to the beach, waving the stone spears and javelins in their hands and shouting toward the ships. The two smallest groups of City-State Warriors had been shoved off to either side, watching from afar across the distance.
As for the remaining two forces of evenly matched Maya warriors, they were not even looking toward the ships, but were tensely facing off against each other. As they hurled abuse at one another, they brandished their