The sunset descended from the horizon, casting the battlefield in a blood-red glow. Corpses were piled upon each other, blood soaking into a pool. The slaughter had ended, and the outcome was decided. Soon, over a thousand of the Kingdom's Warriors were escorting multiple times their number of Totonac captives out of the adobe fortress by the river.
The captives, with dusty faces, exhibited expressions of fear, submission, and numbness. As they exited the fortress gates and saw the Kingdom's army's copper cannons, they showed undisguised fear, as if facing terrifying ghosts and gods. At times, some captive warriors would kneel, praying to the golden 'Copper Beast' for divine mercy.
