parentshiftbook Chapter 415 - 333 Fire in the Backyard, Dragon Lizard Warrior
Chapter 415 - 333 Fire in the Backyard, Dragon Lizard Warrior
Chapter 415: Chapter 333 Fire in the Backyard, Dragon Lizard Warrior
Far away, 3,000 kilometers to the west on the archipelago’s westernmost edge, lies the crescent-shaped Yucatan Island.
In Rapid Stream Port, then the world’s only industrial city, dense smoke and steam billowed as the roar of hydraulic machinery heralded another dawn.
In the vast plains outside the city, Famine Hunters, lumberjacks, and spice harvesters also began another day of labor.
Thanks to the exceptional effects of the "Golden Toilet" and the number three Crystal Skull, "The Corn God," the corn, potatoes, Spices, and teak harvested here had once again yielded an abundant crop.
Day after day, they provided an endless supply of raw materials for the rapid development of Torrent Fortress.
SCREECH—!
With a high-pitched cry, five eagles soared into the sky from a tower at one corner of the fortress.
The "Artillery Expert" aboard the Golden Deer, Wayne Dote—also the heir to the throne of Chichen Itza City, one of the three city-states—transformed into an eagle and led his team on a routine patrol.
Recently, with Violet, the Governor of Rapid Stream Port, away, the pirate officers burdened with defense duties were even more vigilant.
Looking at the thriving city below and the indigenous people working hard, Wayne Dote felt sincerely delighted.
Especially the "Second-Class Relic: Iron-smelting Blast Furnace" in the steel factory, which could extract indestructible steel from brittle red stones, seemed like a miracle to every native.
The series of factories built around the shipyard, Dock One, and the Heavy Cruisers made him, as a participant, feel honored.
Wayne Dote still clearly remembered what his Captain had said:
"The significance behind the Heavy Cruiser is not just a ship.
"It represents the entire industrial system that has been built around it.
"Iron smelting, steelmaking, gunpowder, ammunition, milling machines, boring machines, cannons, muskets, timber processing, the tar chemical industry, shipbuilding... all these subjects need to be tackled.
"When the Heavy Cruiser is built, it will also mark the establishment of the primary industrial systems—such as metallurgy, shipbuilding, the coal chemical industry, and military manufacturing—in the territory."
Chichen Itza City, which had always had a good relationship with Byron, was one of the first beneficiaries of this industrial upgrade.
With inexpensive iron farming tools, a Composting Technique that surpassed the entire era, and various foreign trade weapons already quite advanced compared to other forces, he had witnessed firsthand how the lives of his people improved day by day. He firmly believed that under Byron’s leadership, the future would be even better.
The system established by the Captain is larger and more advanced than the Old Continent. He must be the "Son of Prophecy" from Taya Empire legends. One day, we Tenor People will also have the opportunity to become noble colonizers, to expand our territory and establish great achievements under the Captain’s leadership, and to reclaim the glory of the Taya Empire.
Wayne Dote led the patrol team south along the Candelaria River, the main transport artery of Torrent Fortress.
As Torrent Fortress became more prosperous, an increasing number of Old Continent colonizers from Hightins, Iris, and Castilia were sold over, and the demand for land and property grew.
Farmlands, Spice forests, teak plantations, various other plantations, and manors naturally expanded continuously.
Even when they encountered bizarre, active restricted areas, these would be obliterated on the spot by the "Physical Exorcism" technique Torrent Fortress excelled at.
Today, in the meteorite crater basin with a diameter of 180 kilometers, buildings and signs of human habitation could be seen every few kilometers.
However, the closer one got to the periphery, the scarcer human presence became, and the weaker the power of the "Golden Law" grew. This made the efforts of these Privateering Pirates and City Guards to patrol and fill any gaps all the more necessary.
After flying for half an hour, Wayne Dote spotted a brightly colored, dragon-shaped Totem Pole emerging from the forest ahead.
His brows involuntarily furrowed.
Have we already reached the outskirts of Tayapan’s territory? Before I knew it, our spheres of influence have overlapped. But those arrogant Tayapan fellows, who so blatantly claim orthodoxy, are the most annoying. I have no desire to deal with them at all.
It was common knowledge that after the collapse of the Taya Empire, it had splintered into more than 100 city-states, large and small, constantly embroiled in internal strife, with a total population in the millions.
Each city-state had its own interests and aspired to lead the restoration of the Taya Empire’s former glory.
If not for the ever-watchful Aztec Empire to the north, they would have long ago descended into bloody conflict amongst themselves.
With the fall of the Aztec Royal City, their great enemy had fragmented, and these signs of internal strife were beginning to re-emerge.
Such had always been the way of the native Taino people’s cultural heritage.
Death was never the end; the Guardian Spirits of their city-states and tribes constantly needed blood and souls for nourishment.
The Taya People, too, loved to wage wars of Blood Sacrifice and conquest.
They were only limited by their lack of power, which prevented them from being as bloody as the Aztec Empire.
Today, three major city-states stood prominent within the remnants of the Taya Empire, each preserving a Crystal Skull: Uxmal, Tayapan, and Chichen Itza.
Naively, they had once sought to achieve peace through marriage alliances.
This led to their own beautiful Princesses and Kings being lured into the Aztec Royal City to attend the wedding of the emperor before last.
In the end, they all became sacrifices for the creation of the "Golden Code"—an artifact centered on the Tenochtitlan Royal City, designed to consolidate the Taino collective subconscious sea.
Uxmal and Tayapan, in particular, had acted as vanguards in organizing the "Anti-Aztec Alliance."
They dispatched a large number of elite warriors who, alongside forces from the Kingdom of Castile, stormed the Aztec Royal City.
Ultimately, they lost not only their own Princesses and Kings; a considerable portion of their elite troops were also almost entirely wiped out by The Bury-the-Dead Plague Doctor.
If it hadn’t been for the Father of Healing’s intervention later, the entire indigenous population would have been annihilated.
Whenever Wayne Dote thought of his beloved Princess, Kyatre, who had been subjected to Blood Sacrifice, his heart couldn’t help but throb with pain.
My Princess! When will you return to my side? I am now the city-state’s heir; I am worthy of you now.
Byron had long ago delivered to him the reanimated human skin of that indigenous Princess.
When the Versatile Enchantress, Beatrice, had failed in her attempt to use a skin-switching technique to cheat death, the vitality of these animated skins had been preserved.
However, it still required a suitable Skin Wearer apprentice to fully resurrect her.
He was relying on a taboo from the ’Thousand Faces Rites’: "Low Order Transcendents cannot wear the skin of High Order Transcendents; otherwise, they risk being rapidly overtaken by the original owner’s Spirituality and personality, leading to resurrection through the borrowed body."
This side effect, described in the ’Thousand Faces Rites,’ had become his last straw.
Now, all he could think about was eagerly waiting for his Captain to soon take down The Skinners’ Church and help him choose a suitable "sacrifice" to resurrect his Moonlight.
Ah, or perhaps three "sacrifices."
The other two skinned Princesses from the different states also held the hope of resurrection.
Even returning them to their respective city-states in the future, to demonstrate the Might of the Father of Healing and win over the hearts of the natives, would be well worth it.
Unfortunately, not everything could develop as planned.
AH—!
A piercing scream suddenly echoed from the distant river.
Wayne Dote’s sharp eagle eyes immediately looked toward the direction of the sound.
He saw two inland coal transport ships from Torrent Fortress being attacked.
The fortress’s coal reserves were insufficient, so it relied on this abundant tropical river to transport coal from other inland areas.
These riverboats would be loaded with Torrent Fortress’s specialty iron tools or fertilizer when setting off, only carrying coal on their return trip to avoid empty hauls and wasted transport capacity.
These two boats had clearly just left the fortress, laden with iron tools—items extremely valuable to the indigenous people.
Their attackers were a group aboard longboats fashioned from hollowed-out logs.
And Wayne Dote happened to recognize these attackers.
"Dragon Lizard Warriors? From Tayapan?!"
The figures who had already leaped onto the coal transport boats and were now slaughtering indiscriminately were a group of three-meter-tall, half-human, half-lizard creatures.
That was Tayapan’s characteristic beast spirit, the "Multicolored Dragon Lizard":
"A Sub-dragon Species that, although long extinct in the Old Continent, is still very active in the Bantaan Archipelago.
"Calling them a Dragon Species might be a bit of a stretch.
"After all, the suffix of their name isn’t ’dragon,’ but ’lizard.’
"They come in five colors, each corresponding to a different attribute.
"The five types of colored lizards are not reproductively isolated; their eggs all possess multicolored patterns and look identical at first.
"However, inducing hatching in different environments will lead to the emergence of different types of dragon lizards.
"This Sub-dragon Species has also given rise to extremely formidable Beast Spirit Warriors: the ’Dragon Lizard Warriors’!
"Before the fall of the Taya Empire, these were the foremost combat force in the Bantaan Archipelago."
Wayne Dote also knew that Tayapan was precisely where the Number One Crystal Skull, the "Heavenly God" Itzamna, was worshipped.
Among the gods revered by the Taya People, the dragon-shaped Itzamna held the highest position, the chief of the Taya gods.
He was also the Lord of Heaven, master of night and day, the guardian god of Priests, and the creator of writing, science, and medicine.
This river flowed right through Tayapan’s sphere of influence; they were clearly plundering what they were supposed to protect.
Although the plunderers seemed to be just a mid-sized tribe from within Tayapan’s sphere of influence, rather than the city-state’s main forces, Wayne Dote and his team members were still filled with shock and rage.
While immediately signaling Rapid Stream Port for aid, he had already taken the lead and dived, his furious shout, sharp enough to pierce metal and shatter stone, ripping through the air:
"Damn lizards! How dare you raid a cargo ship of the Pioneer Guiding Colonial Trading Company?! Daring to rob us Pirates? Have you lost your minds?!"