The Post-War

"Great Chief, when Acipirus returns and sees this sight, he'll probably go mad!" Saru stood at the mountain pass, gazing at the still-burning camp, a sense of indescribable satisfaction in his heart.

"So what! Even a mad Acipirus can still command a great army and break into Vergae!" Sedorum said worriedly, harboring resentment toward Saru for taking it upon himself to attack Pyxous, forcing him to take action.

"Vergae isn't so easy to assault. As long as we build defenses on the mountain paths, they'll have to attack uphill, and it's hard to say if they can even reach the city walls!" Saru too had his grievances. "We never should have bowed to their threats in the first place and joined this damned alliance!"

"Saru, easy for you to say! The men of Laüs know our terrain very well, and we have no reinforcements. Every warrior we lose is one gone for good, our food is running short—we can't afford this war!..." Sedorum voiced his helplessness.

"Great Chief, don't worry! I doubt this Lucanian tribal alliance will ever come back!" Saru confidently reassured Sedorum. "Didn't you hear what that messenger—Acipirus's guard—said? The Lucanians fell into an ambush and even had to send for reinforcements! That shows how bad things are!"

"I hope so." Sedorum sighed and said solemnly, "Now our top priority is to return to Vergae immediately, gather our people, strengthen our defenses, and send someone to Cosentia to beg for their help!"

"Beg for help from Cosentia?!" Saru was shocked.

"These past days, I've come to realize... If the Bruttians keep fighting among themselves like before, the Lucanians and the Greeks will always lord over us!" Sedorum said in a low voice.

"Right, we should unite with Cosentia, just like the Lucanian tribal alliance." Saru was still young and didn't hold as deep a grudge against the other Bruttian tribes.

Sedorum didn't respond, lost in thought.

Just then, Saru said excitedly, "Great Chief, since we've already made enemies of the Lucanians, when we pass by Laüs, shouldn't we take the chance to plunder it?!"

"I think you've lost your mind! If you don't care about the lives of your tribesmen, are you still fit to be a chief? Think Avinogis of Laüs is easy to deal with! Just getting through the lower Lao River without arousing their suspicion is going to be a problem, and you still want to plunder!..." Sedorum scolded him harshly, finally making the excited young chief lower his head. As they walked with the column for a while, he couldn't help adding, "I didn't expect that Thurii, after suffering such a heavy defeat, could still ambush the Lucanian tribal alliance. Could they have received reinforcements from Tarentum or Croton again?"

Sedorum didn't reply, but turned back to look at the sky billowing with smoke, and couldn't help feeling a thrill himself: If the Lucanian alliance really suffered heavy losses in that Greek ambush, the situation in this region would undergo a huge change! What should the men of Vergae do now?...

...

Sicinag led his remaining tribesmen eastward in retreat, his heart burning with grief and anger, focused on only one thought: find Acipirus, lead a great army to wipe out Vergae, and avenge his dead kinsmen!

On the way, they encountered Acipirus's defeated soldiers.

Acipirus had hoped to rush back to camp, bring reinforcements, and turn the tide. When he learned from Sicinag that the men of Vergae had rebelled, Pyxous had suffered heavy casualties, and the camp had been burned to ashes by fire, the shock hit him so hard that he fainted on the spot.

And Sicinag, learning that more than nine thousand warriors had fallen into a Greek ambush and were still missing, stood there dumbfounded...

The generals at Thurii's city hall had received reports from the wall sentries early that morning: a large force seemed to be moving outside the city.

After the morning fog cleared, scouts went out to investigate. Soon they returned with word: there was nothing unusual around Thurii, but the mercenary camp was nearly empty.

The generals were stunned: Last night, Bourkos had come back saying the mercenaries were willing to stay. Thurii had spent the whole night preparing the supplies those greedy mercenaries demanded—and now these faithless hirelings had fled under cover of darkness?!

The generals cursed the mercenaries, and some even proposed sending warships to the sea to track them down and strike them hard, forcing them to return.

Just then, the scout who had ridden west returned.

"What?! The mercenaries joined forces with the Tarentine reinforcements and attacked the Lucanian alliance?!" Kynogoratas couldn't believe his ears.

The generals in the city hall erupted in uproar.

Neonxis cursed loudly, "Davos is a madman! He's trying to destroy Thurii's last hope!"

"Yes! Without the protection of the mercenaries, Thurii will have to face the Lucanian attack alone! What do we do?!" Polyxides said worriedly.

Kynogoratas made a decisive decision: "Send Bourkos immediately, at any cost, to persuade the mercenaries to come back! Thurii will not allow them to act recklessly!"

However, Bourkos returned empty-handed. Davos, who had always been friendly to him, firmly rejected his request and sent people to drive away the still-pleading Bourkos, telling him to return to the city and await news of victory.

"I think Davos is quite confident about defeating the Lucanians. Shouldn't we trust him?" Bourkos tried to comfort the generals, though he himself had doubts.

His words immediately drew a torrent of abuse from the generals.

Kynogoratas criticized him for misjudging people.

Polyxides, out of friendship, didn't directly blame him but complained that the mercenaries were like wolves that could never be tamed, untrustworthy.

Neonxis angrily accused him of wasting the city's treasury and supplies on a bunch of mercenaries who had done nothing, and threatened to propose his trial in the Council.

The generals of Thurii spent the whole morning stewing in complaints, curses, and anxiety, but none had the courage to send the city's only two thousand citizen soldiers out to help.

By afternoon, the sentries on Thurii's walls again heard the rumbling of footsteps. The scouts spotted the returning mercenary column: though their armor was broken, their bodies covered in blood and grime, and they helped wounded comrades, they showed no signs of defeat. Instead, they were spirited, laughing and talking loudly. A dozen oxcarts in the column were piled high with armor and weapons, and many slaves each carried several sets of armor, held shields, spears, and helmets, also walking tall with pride. At the rear of the column, several hundred naked men, under guard, stumbled obediently toward the mercenary camp. Their tangled long hair showed they were not Greeks...

The scouts' hearts raced. They guessed a possibility—an almost impossible one!

Just then, a mercenary cavalryman rode toward them, raising both hands to show he carried no weapons, so as not to scare off the Thurians.

The Thurian scouts stood still. The mercenary reined in his horse, lifted his head proudly, and said, "Our chief Davos asks you to tell the generals of Thurii: our mercenaries and the Tarentine reinforcements annihilated the main force of the Lucanian alliance at the Great River Beach. We have driven them out of Thurii's territory!"

"You... you really defeated the Lucanians?!" the scout asked in disbelief, his voice trembling.

"Of course it's true! Do we have any reason to lie?!" The mercenary cavalryman pointed proudly at the prisoners in the column and added, "Also, our chief told me to remind you Thurians: the Great River Beach is now covered in corpses. You'd better deal with them quickly, or they'll cause a plague in time!"

Before the scout even reached the city gates, he waved his hands and shouted excitedly, "Victory! We've won!! The Lucanians have been annihilated!!!..."

In the city hall, the generals had exhausted their strength in long hours of anxious torment.

Just then, cheers from outside came wave after wave, growing louder, jolting the drowsy generals awake.