The Carthaginian army waited a week for anymore of the triremes to limp into port. Very few did. The army had left Carthage in one hundred and thirty ship, only seventy had made it to land. Thousands had drowned in the storm including the cream of Carthaginian nobility, young men from from prestigious families that had sunk to the bottom of the sea.

Hamilcar, the general of the army, had a service for the departed and sacrificed three fat oxen to appease the gods so that another storm would not destroy them again. Hamilcar also sent out messengers to the native Sicels to ally with him and to the other Carthaginian cities to send troops. He hired mercenaries and sent out the fleet to battle the Syracusans.

He had also begun the march of the army to fight Agathocles. Danel with his band of a hundred heard all of this news while on the march. The army moved like a bloated cow. It made enough noise to wake the dead and left behind a cloud of dust. After every day of marching Danel would continue his exercises and continue his training in the dream-scape.

The army hugged the coast line and marched to Mazara. Mazara was founded nearly six hundred years ago by Phoenicians but has changed hands multiple times with greeks so the people are a mixture of the two cultures.

The next city was Selinus, the most western of greek colonies on Sicily. It had less than thirty thousand people including slaves. A hundred years ago the city had been free and independent but a war between Carthage and the city had resulted in the city being sacked and half the population dying. They had only recently regained their numbers.

The next spot of note was the Thermae of Selinus several more days east. Boiling sulfuric waters bubbled up and made wonderful hot springs. It is technically under the control of Selinus but only a small town was located at the springs. Danel had taken a dip and found it immensely enjoyable. All the aches and pains he had accumulated had disappeared.

On the march to Heraclea Minoa Carthage had its first victory of the war. A naval battle had resulted in twenty Syracusan ships being captured. A mighty blow, but it is expected. Carthaginians are some of the best sailors in the world. Athenians say they are the best in the East while Carthaginians are the best in the West.

At Heraclea Minoa apparently there is debate on who founded the city. In one myth Heracles defeats a mighty opponent and claims the land and in another the king Minos of Crete while pursuing Daedalus chased him to Sicily and lost his tracks on the island and founded the city where he first landed. The people prefer to just call their city Heraclea but there are many cities with that name and only add Minoa to specify.

Next was Agrigentum, the largest Greek city under Carthaginian control. Over two hundred thousand people live in the city if you include slaves, freemen, women, and children. They were not as happy to see us as the other cities which was not much. The Agrigentum people looked at the army with suspicious eyes and angry frowns. They ripped off soldiers blatantly or even refused to sell. They were assholes.

While camped outside the city the army received troubling news. Agathocles had taken Gela. He had snuck his troops into the city until they outnumbered the Geloan soldiers then killed them. When the city had been taken Agathocles had made sure they could not resist him in the future and had four thousand citizens executed. He seized the property of the slain citizens and strong armed the remaining survivors to hand over their silver and gold. Darker rumors say the Syracusan soldiers had raped the wives and daughters of the executed citizens and now they are camp followers.

This news had disturbed the army. It is a brutal time but Agathocles had already taken the city, killing the citizens after the fact was seen as cruel.

Agathocles left behind a garrison in Gela to control the remaining citizens and began to march west to meet the Carthaginians. Hamilcar had the army march so fast that they had quickly passed by a small city called Inycum which George found hilarious.

Hamilcar was able to take Mount Ecnomus a hill that overlooks the mouth of the Himera River. Apparently one hundred years ago a greek tyrant called Phalaris would roast people alive in a brazen bull on the hill. Agathocles on the other side of the river took over an old stronghold built by Phalaris called the Phalarium. Real modest guy he was.

Then both sides just hunkered down and waited. Neither side wanted to expose themselves in a dangerous river crossing with a angry army on the other side. Danel thinks it is smart. Hamilcar keeps getting reinforcements from all over Sicily. in fact the army had swelled to forty thousand infantry and five thousand cavalry. Agathocles's army has roughly forty thousand soldiers he didn't know how many cavalry or infantry but they are experienced and deadly. The problem Agathocles has is that he can't call on any more reinforcements. The people he rules over hate him and if he takes anymore soldiers away entire cities will rise up in revolt while the Carthaginian cities are mostly happy with their leaders.

Both sides started to send out skirmishing parties to weaken the other and maybe find a weakness to exploit. That's were Danel and his crew come in.

The tall grass hid Danel and his soldiers from site and he waited. He eyed the road that their target was supposed to come down. A supply caravan was coming too Phalarium on this road. Feeding forty thousand men and their camp followers is a monumental task of logistics and Agathocles is pushing it to the breaking point. Almost the entirety of eastern Sicily is needed to feed that many people along with the thousand of people that farm it, ship it, and cook it.

The creak of wagons woke Danel from his thoughts. A caravan slowly moved its way down the road. At the sides soldiers in heavy armor kept a lookout for trouble while slaves and their overseers marched the food by. Danel waited until they were right in their center then sent the signal, a bird call was related down the line. He started running then, the soft footfalls of Kanmi were right behind him then he burst out out and stabbed the nearest man. A bald overseer with a whip gripped in his hand made an O with his face then fell of his spear tip.

"Enemies!" was shouted in Greek but it was too late we were already among them. From the other side of the road Baltser and Arisha charged with their fifty men and women and cleaved through the men. Arisha let out a piercing cry as her knives cut throats and Baltser thundered out a roar and cleaved a head with his axe. Kanmi flighted here then there stabbing out with his spear finding unprotected armpits and groins.

Danel strode through the battlefield and took down any man that came against him. A captain with fancy plume had a spear go through his side into his heart, a screaming soldier silenced with a blade through the head, two men tried to take him but Danel simply skipped back and as they moved forward he threw a dagger at ones foot, it was only superficial but it slowed him down. The unharmed one charged him but Danel side stepped out of the way and tripped him, he didn't fall but the spear went in the back of his neck and out of his mouth. The injured one screamed something at him but didn't charge instead taking a defensive stance. Danel probed his defenses but the Syracusan knocked him away. Danel then charged him and they were shield to shield too close to use their spears but thats what he wanted. He kicked down at the injured foot and felt a crunch of breaking bone. The soldier screamed and fell to the ground. Danel danced back and surveyed his enemy. Looking closer his appearance is very similar to the man he just killed. Brother? Cousin? Didn't matter, he picked up a discarded spear, hefted and threw. The spear skewered the downed soldier like a roast pig.

Danel looked around at the battle. It was coming to its conclusion, the soldiers lye dead or dying and the slaves and overseers were either running for their lives or surrendering.

"Kill all the animals and burn anything you can't carry! If you want a nice new sword get it after you're done!" Danel shouted. If they didn't destroy the food supplies then this raid was meaningless. Then shining bit of metal caught Danel's attention. A young dead Syracusan had a shining falcata sword have drawn from the scabbard. Poor thing didn't even draw his sword before he was killed. Danel took the sword and inspected it. It's a nice weapon, he'll keep this one.

The fires started on the wagons were beginning to blaze up.

"Retreat, back to camp!"

The soldiers obeyed, this was not their first raid and they knew when to leave.

"First rounds on me!" Danel shouted to applause.