Chapter 2264 - 1613: Another Ambush! The Demon’s Barbarians!
More than ten Large Ships lay anchored in the harbor of San Juan, the Firearms on their decks flashing in the sunlight. The batteries on both sides had been built to jut outward, and in the planned Queen Isabella’s Castle, two small forts had already been raised. Yet all these defensive arrangements followed the traditions of Europe’s ports, facing toward the northern sea.
"Almighty! We placed the focus of our defenses all upon the sea, guarding against a possible Eastern Fleet, guarding against the ships of Portugal... but who could have imagined that the true threat would come from inland, from those native tribes we had previously scorned?"
When several expeditionary army Leaders, brows knit, buckled on their Armor and hurried on foot to the southern side of the strongpoint, the carnage left by the Natives’ raid a few days prior once again unfolded before their eyes.
Half of what had once been a Taino Village no longer existed. The ground was covered in burned-out circular scars—foundations of grass huts—staring emptily at the sky like the eye sockets of the dead. The posts of the wooden houses had been charred into black columns; the half-burned palm fronds had turned to raven feathers that crumbled into ash at a touch. Shells, fragmentary Bone and shards of pottery lay half-buried in the soot, betraying not the slightest trace of what had been before.
The only thing fresh was the more than one hundred Taino Natives hanging from the withered trees further out. Flies swarmed around their decomposing corpses, breathing out the stench of death. This was not only a punishment for their nocturnal flight, but also the venting of the expeditionary army’s seething rage after being struck by the Kingdom’s surprise attack. Among these hanging bodies, there were of course fallen Kingdom’s Warriors and Red-haired Dog Descendants as well, the display of terror pushed to its utmost.
When it came to proclaiming cruelty, the colonizers who worshipped the Cross had always earned full marks. Yet even with these Native corpses dangling in the air, the crowds of expeditionary army Sailors and Soldiers guarding this burned-out ruin still showed sagging morale. The humiliation of being killed and routed by Natives had shattered their previously unrestrained indulgence and brutality. Now that the threat of death had gripped their hearts, tales of this Demon-ridden land spread in whispers... and an expeditionary army whose spirit was sustained by plunder and violence could no longer be held at a high pitch.
"Red-haired Cipangu Natives? Where are they?"
"Ah! Honored sirs, honored Priest... they’re to the south, right there on that little slope. Look at those two Long Spears standing upright—that’s where they are..."
The Leaders followed the direction the Sailor pointed, peering out over the fields to the distant south. Soon, a mile or two away, they spotted two Long Spears that were not particularly conspicuous. Seven or eight Red-haired Barbarians stood afar off like irritating beetles, flaunting themselves toward the strongpoint. A sharp-eyed captain stared hard and realized that at the tips of those Long Spears, there were actually two severed heads skewered upon them?!
"Those are... they look like...?!"
Men of the sea were always keen-eyed, yet at this moment, though they had recognized the heads, they did not dare speak. Father Ramon’s eyes bulged wide; though he could not see clearly, a sudden premonition seized him. His gaze turned icy, his face flushed as he forced down his fury and spoke in a low voice.
"Knight Captain Thomas, take a few chamberlains and carefully go to the south to take a look... see whether those are indeed the heads of Knights Inigo and Garcia. If possible, bring their heads back, so they may be buried in the grave together with their bodies..."
"Yes, Priest!"
Church Knight Captain Thomas de Montejo nodded heavily. Soon, he had donned the half-plate Armor of the Santiago Knight Order, took up his Knight Shield and Longsword, and led seven or eight chamberlains southward.
"Ha-ha! The Evil Demon is here, the Evil Demon is here! Come, look at what this is!"
"Ka-cha! I am the Demon’s Stone Man, Big Stone!"
"Ka-cha! I am the Demon’s Iron-headed Man, Big Iron!"
"Ka-cha, ka-cha! Our heads can speak!"
The seven or eight Red-haired Dog Descendants laughed and shouted, hefting the long Long Spears and shaking them again and again, the Knights’ heads skewered atop bobbing grotesquely. At the sight of this desecration of the Knights’ severed heads, even the ever-composed Thomas felt flames leap in his eyes, his hand crushing tightly around the Longsword.
"Damn you! Profane Barbarians! You deserve to have your heads struck off and be burned by the Almighty’s flames!..."
Thomas ground his teeth and quickened his pace. The Breastplate Followers around him were equally aflame with anger, some running even faster than Thomas himself. Yet once they closed within a few dozen paces, the seven or eight Dog Descendants seemed suddenly startled, hastily snatching up their Long Spears and turning to flee deeper to the south.
"Leave the Knights’ heads! Barbarians!!"
Thomas shouted at the top of his lungs and drove himself forward for another hundred paces. But soon, battle-hardened as he was, he sensed something amiss: how could these Barbarians in Light Armor be running at nearly the same speed as they were? Then faint cries drifted from the village behind.
"Thomas! Pull your men back! Fall back!"
Thomas glanced back to see the Priest and several Officials frantically waving flags. In that instant he woke as if from a dream: this was almost certainly a Barbarian ruse, a lure to draw them in—very likely an ambush!...
"Fall back! Fall back! Don’t pursue!"
The seasoned Knight Captain immediately raised his Knight Shield and bellowed. Yet six Breastplate Followers had already surged far ahead, on the verge of catching the Barbarians’ heels. Suddenly, one man’s foot slipped askew; he was tripped by something and went sprawling. Then another. That stumbling motion was like triggering some hidden signal: the Barbarians running ahead stopped dead, whirled around, and charged with raised Long Spears...