“How can that be! You have sworn to the gods!” Burkes entreated eagerly, “Leader Davos, please! Have your soldiers stay and help Thurii! Payment…we will double your payment! Lack of weapons…there are a lot more in Thurii, I will immediately get it for you! Lack of people…the battle today, as you can see, Thurii suffered more than 2000 casualties, there is no one left!” Burkes cried and nearly fell to his knees.
But the expression of Davos turned cold.
Burkes then said in a hurry, “Let me think again…think again…oh…although there is none left in Thurii, there are still enough slaves that are mining in the mines. They are all young men and are relatively strong, so we can give you as much as you want!”
Davos touched his chin and thought for a long time before he said with reluctance, “…hmm…but we don’t have food to support these slaves.”
“There is enough grains and meat in Thurii, so we can give you as much as you want!” As long as Davos promised to stay, he can put forward any request to Burkes, as he seemed to try his best to satisy Davos…
On that night, the whole of Thurii was busy. In order to survive, the people braved their grief and drove hundreds of cargo ship full of weapons, food, slaves and tents (Because Taranto’s reinforcements refused to enter the city and were willing to stay in the camp of the mercenary, so they had to prepare tents for them) and sent them to the simple wharf at the estuary…
Davos ordered Mersis to lead his men in the camp to take over the goods and let the soldiers rest early to recover their energy…
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Just before dawn, the mercenaries in front of Davos’ camp had finished their formation. Davos inspected them before the battle, and their high spirited morale made him nod his head.
“Matonis, are you ready?” Looking at his old comrades that is in front him, made Davos asked.
“I can’t wait!” Shouted Matonis.
“In a while, there will be plenty of enemies to fight, and on average, each of our brothers has to kill three enemies to ensure our victory. Are you sure?” Asked Davos with a smile.
‘YES!!!’ The soldiers around shouted in unison, mixed with the unwillingness of Matonis, “Three is not enough for me!”
Davos laughed, turned around and mounted the horse led by Asistes, he came to the front of the army, and in the face of countless excited and hopeful eyes, he yelled, “Brothers, I see hope in your gazes, and after today’s battle, I hope that you will turn that hope into reality! HADES WILL BLESS US!”
“FOR VICTORY!”
“FOR VICTORY!!”
“FOR VICTORY!!!”
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
In the endless shouting, Davos seriously said to Philesius, “I await for your good news!”
“Leader, rest assured, with the blessing of Hades, we will succeed!” Said Philesius excitedly.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Seeing his troops that were heading north disappeared in the morning mist, Davos took a long breath, and knew that the war that decide his fate was about to begin…
“Asi, let’s go back to the camp! Start our preparations!” He exclaimed in an energetic and excited tone.
“Yes!!” Asistes’ response was equally energetic.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
“Hey, do you hear that? There seems to be an army marching.” The guards on the walls of Thurii reminded their companions.
“Did the Lucanians came to attack us?!” Another guard, of course, heard the sound and said in alarm.
“Ring the alarms and inform the citizens!” The guards ran to the gate tower.
But when the citizen soldiers of Thurii reach the wall, the outside became silent.
Facing the fog outside of the city, the cavalry refused to go scout, so they had to wait until the fog disperse…
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
By morning, the sun had risen into the sky and the fog dissipated.
A horn resounded throughout the camp of the Lucanians, as the warriors began to prepare for their advance into the plains of Sybaris.
Just then, a guard rushed into the camp, “The enemy is coming! The enemy is coming!”
How could their enemy dare attack their camp? The Lucanian warriors curiously looked outside of their camp.
200 heavily armed Greek hoplites appeared outside, and under the gazes of tens of thousand of eyes, they stopped at a distance of a hundred meters and began throwing some round objects into their camp.
After those things landed, the warriors found that these are the heads of the Lucanian warriors that have died in the camp of the mercenaries (for fear of their casualties increasing, the Lucanian warrors did not dare take the bodies of their comrades from the traps outside of Davos’ camp yesterday). They were beheaded and their eyes were gouged out, and their death was tragic…
When the flames of anger of the Lucanian warrior was ignited, the Greek soldiers outside the camp raised their skirts and started urinating and shouting.
The Lucanian warriors were infuriated and broke through the obstruction of their leaders, as thousands of men rushed out of the camp and relentlessly lunge on the Greek soldiers.
The Greek soldiers immediately turned around and ran. But after going around the ridge, the pursuing Lucanian warriors were shock to find that there are nearly 2,000 Greek soldiers waiting for them. It was too late for them to escape, as a round of javelin rained on them and immediately caused the Lucanian warriors to fall. Then, it was followed by the Greek soldiers’ powerful charge, which completely destroyed the warrior’s morale.
Then, the Greek soldiers began pursuing them. Under the gaze of everyone in the Lucanian camp, the Greek soldiers quickly knocked down the escaping Lucanian warriors one after another, then they stabbed the fallen warriors a few more times to ensure that they are dead.
This cruel way of killing and the screams of their people made the Lucanian warriors and their leaders, who have witnessed all of this in the camp, unable to contain their anger. However, they were deterred by the number and ferociousness of the other side, and so they began to ask their Great leader.
Before Akpir could respond, Gennat suddenly shouted, “I know them! They are those damned mercenaries who we fought yesterday!”
Akpir said with wide-eyed, “Child, are you sure?”
“I won’t mistake them even if they were beaten to death!” Gennat who have suffered bitterly had his hatred grow.
“Great leader, let me lead 3,000 warriors to fight them and avenge our fellow warriors from Pyxous!” Seville came forward requesting to lead his men.
Gennat glared at him and went forward as well.
Akpir exclaimed, “How dare these Greek mercenaries leave their camp in order to harass us! This is just right, wipe them all out here and this will save us from once more attacking their camp!” The more Akpir spoke, the more enrage he got, “Immediately blow the horn to attack and form a formation outside the camp. After we defeat them, we will take advantage of this situation and march into the plains of Sybaris!”
All the leaders were equally excited, and only the leader of Vergae, Sedrum, remained silent.
Akpir glanced at him and said in a deep voice, “Sedrum, do you have any questions about my decision?” 𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝘭.𝘦𝑡
Sedrum said with a bitter smile, “Leader, I will absolutely obey your orders! It’s just that…after last night, the warriors of Vergae…refuse to fight…”
“Did such a thing happen?!” Akpir stared at him.
“My warriors said, ‘If you are not killed by the enemy on the battlefield, then you will be killed by your own people when you return. Anyway, it’s better to just lie in the camp and let your own people kill you, at least, we don’t need to get tired.’ I can’t persuade them, since they don’t even listen!” Sedrum lowered his head.
“Akpir, the Vergae doesn’t listen to your orders, so they must have some malicious intentions. We need to capture them immediately!” Cincinnag stood up and pointed to Sedrum.
Sedrum’s complexion changed slightly.
Akpir interrupted Cincinnag, “Alright, since the warriors of Vergae doesn’t want to fight, then they could just stay and guard the camp.”
Sedrum was relieved. Cincinnag wanted to say more, but with a wave of his hand, Akpir impatiently said, “The warriors of Pyxous have also suffered heavy casualties yesterday, and so they will guard the camp together with the warriors of Vergae. When we defeat the Greeks, you will go and deliver the cattle, sheep, tents, equipment and all the camp supplies to the plains of Sybaris.”
Cincinnag stopped making trouble, and accepted Akpir’s order and stopped the objection of his son, Gennat. However, this did not reduce the ill feeling of Akpir towards him. Originally, after returning to the camp yesterday, Akpir intended to let Sedrum kill some dozens of seriously injured Vergae, but Cincinnag insisted on killing 150 warriors of Vergae as sacrifice. This approached obviously made the Vergae distance themselves.
After looking at Sedrum, Akpir knew that it was time for him to seriously consider the issue of Vergae, but for now, the plain of Sybaris is his main target. Therefore, he need to make Pyxous monitor these outsiders for the time being.
The horn continued to blow, and the Lucanian warriors leave the camp and began forming up.