Chapter 84

Chapter 84 \nBy this time, the Lucanians entered Davos’ sight.\n“Act according to the defensive deployment that we have trained previously!” Davos immediately gave his orders to the captains.

The captains began to orderly command their subordinates to go to their designated positions:

“FIRST HOPLITE UNIT, follow me to the north gate’s eastern wooden wall!”

“BROTHERS OF THE SECOND HOPLITE UNIT, follow me to the south gate’s northern wooden wall!” (T/L Note: Errrrr)

“BROTHERS OF THE THIRD HOPLITE UNIT, follow me to the training ground! Damn it, move faster!”

“The archers of the first peltast unit will be led by their team leader!”

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Soon, the soldiers were in place, and only the group of defeated soldiers are left and are surrounded by the guards.

“How many?” Asked Davos to Philesius, who had just been placated.

“Quite a lot! Nearly 400 men, and most of them are free men and are unarmed.” Said Philesius.\n“Mersis!” Shouted Davos.

Mersis came in a hurry.

“How many javelins do we have left?”

“Five hundred and twenty-six. These two days, the blacksmith shop in Thurii urgently made them, and all the money we made in the market was spent on making these weapons…” Complained Mersis.

At this time, Davos is not interested in listening to his nagging, and said to Philesius, “Give each of them a javelin, then assign several people to each unit and have them participate in the defense!”

“Understood!” Philesius then walked towards the defeated soldiers.

Mersis stood still.

Davos understand what he was hesitating about, and immediately said, “Once the javelin is used, we will retrieve them back. Besides, the Lucanians will send us their weapons!”

This immediately made Mersis smile, and he immediately told the slaves to carry the weapons in the camp. Out of his trust in Davos, he did not consider at all that the mercenaries might not be able to defeat the enemy, and their camp would be occupied.

The mercenaries stood behind the wooden wall without any worries, as they calmly watched the enemies who were flooding towards their camp. They even have the time to educate the new recruits.\n“Now, do you think that it’s not necessary too build such a complex camp?” Asked Matonis with a smile.

“It’s necessary!” He said excitedly, “Now, I hope that these savages can taste the traps that I dug!”

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

While relying on the wooden wall, the mercenaries seize the time to recover a bit of their stamina, while preparing to happily watch a play. The fifth hoplite unit of Hielos, because they did not participate in the previous battle, wish for the enemy to rush over and start fighting them.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Once the warriors of Pyxous separated from the army of Grumentum, they immediately pursued eastward.

Gennat ran at the forefront, and the mercenary camp entered his sight, and he roared, “CHARGE! KILL THEM ALL!!”

The warriors roared in succession, and their fatigue seemed to disperse with their roar, and charge faster.

“Captain, the Lucanians are less than 200 meters away from the camp!” The leader of the archer troops shouted to Arpernst.

“Remind me once they enter 100 meters!” Replied Arpenst, then he turned around and gave orders to the slingers behind him, “Get ready!”

The slingers had to wait under the wall due to the walkway behind the wall being too narrow for them to spread out. At this time, they, one by one silently took out an egg sized rocks from their leather bags and place them into the net pocket in the middle of their slings.

\nAfter struggling for tens of meters, they encountered a more terrible trap – the mercenaries called it the “tombstone”. It’s a hole about 1.5 meters deep, under which are sharp wooden pikes buried, and was covered by loose soil. If they step on it carelessly, and with the effect of gravity, the sharp wooden pikes is enough to pierce through the soles of their feet…

When Cincinnag, the great leader of Pyxous, arrived. He saw countless warriors falling to the ground and covering their feet. The voice of mourning resounded most of the time, and the other warriors standing hundred of meters away from the enemy camp, have their face filled with fear and hesitated to move forward…

“What’s the matter?! Why are you not attacking?!” Cincinnag asked angrily, and looked at the countless warriors who fell on the ground.

“Father.” Using the spear as his crutch, Gennat walked up to him step by step and said as he lament, “These despicable Greeks have laid out many traps outside of their camp, we…many of our warriors have gotten injured and yet, we still couldn’t get into their camp.”

“Warrior?! So all of you can also be called warriors!!” Cincinnag’s swearing made everyone around him look down in shame.

Looking at his most highly regarded son, made him in a difficult position and embarrassed. His son’s normally vigorous expression was replaced by tiredness and loss. Cincinnag became more distressed and his tone became softer, “How is your injury?”

“It’s okay father, this is just a flesh wound.” Gennat forced himself and said, “Just that…there are too many casualties among our people…can’t…we can’t attack anymore…”

Cincinnag nodded a bit, and looked at the mercenary camp not far away, and thought of the casualties that these mercenaries had caused to his soldiers. A sense of hatred welled inside him, “Have the Brutians attack!”

After the defeat of the Greek army, the warriors of Vergae did not have the same impulse as the Pyxous for revenge, and so their speed in pursuing was not fast. Therefore, they arrived at the same time as Cincinnag, and the tragic appearance of the warriors of Pyxous entered into their sight. However, under the low eaves they must bow their heads*, and as the leader of the city of Vergae, Sedrum accepted the order of Cincinnag, but he made a request to borrow the round shield of the warrior of Pyxous. (T/L note: chinese proverb meaning that they are controlled by others and so they have to bow their heads and obey.)

And Cincinnag agreed.

Pyxous gave orders to Vergae and in order for them to not make them angry, they could only endure it and prove to them that they are better than Pyxous. They learned from the experience of Pyxous and did not walk on the grassland. Instead, they only charge in the narrow and flat passage in front of the enemy camp. They protected their heads tightly with their round shields and formed a long line, then advance cautiously.