The setting sun sank westward, shining across the mighty river, dyeing the ripples on its surface a shimmering blood-red. But on closer look, that blood-red was real. Fresh crimson spread through the river in billowing clouds, accompanied by corpses sinking and drifting away, recording the slaughter that had just ended.
"Tsk, tsk! When these tribal allied armies fight, they always lack that drive to fight to the death. Mm, they're not even as crazed in their resistance as those militia were when we attacked Five Mountain City and Ancient Feathered Serpent City!"
Black Wolf Toltec stood by the riverbank, gazing far toward the downstream north. There, more than a dozen dugout canoes, packed full with the fleeing tribal chiefs, were speeding into the distance.
"What a pity. The Kingdom has no navy here, so these Pointy-hat tribal chiefs managed to escape with their lives!"
"Chief, it's exactly because those tribal chiefs fled that the remaining tribal warriors collapsed so easily. Anyway, only sixty or seventy people got away. It won't have much effect on the Kingdom's war situation."
Tupa held his Copper Axe, his whole body stained with blood, standing beside the Black Wolf commander. His face still wore a beaming smile, as if the life-and-death slaughter just now had only been some game that did not matter.
Behind him, along the riverbank, the corpses of Totonac warriors lay piled in layer after layer, sprawled in disorder. Many were face down with their backs turned upward, clearly killed in the massacre after the rout. Farther away, more than a thousand surrendered soldiers from Cone House City and Feather Bird City had discarded their weapons and knelt in the mud beside the river. Around the surrendered soldiers stood thousands of Kingdom legionaries, their long spears like a forest, surrounding them tightly.