“You choose to attack us when we seek naval support from Rome against the Parthian. This isn’t a fair match! You are taking advantage of…”

“This is called strategy, my dear maiden!” The admiral intruded Arete before she could finish her sentence. He disdainfully looking at the lady, then he continued to observe her fleet behind. The Syracusean main torches continued to flash. Although he unable to decode their communication, he did not wish to waste anymore time chitchatting with that skinny little maiden whom he thought was a mere messenger. “Go back and tell your admiral to surrender, or we shall ram down all your thirty puny little galleys without mercy!”

“Do not made light of Syracuse! We had been blessed by the Goddess of War!” Agitated by his attitude, Arete yelled.

“How mannerless! Priestess of Athena! Perhaps I should offer you to your Poseidon here to gain his favour!” The admiral replied. The Carthaginians pulled their bows and started to shoot and threw javelins towards Arete’s fleet. She dugged down, taking cover under the hoplites who carried the large shield. Ordering her fleet to row close to that quadrireme, she need to prevent the enemy support ships to use catapult against them. And she wanted to lay the corvus on that ship so that the Syracusean could hijack the ship.

While Arete’s troops positioned the corvus hook towards the Carthaginian’s quadrireme, their marines tried to push the corvus away.

“Ram the galley! Seize the enemy’s Admiral!” Arete ordered, the trireme hitting the Carthaginian quadrireme, and that surprised their Admiral.

“That crazy little bitch!” He was not expecting that move.

Seeing the unsuccessful attachment of the corvus, Matea ran towards the centre mast of their trireme, using her sword, she cut down the rope that held it, and kicked it to the side.

“What are you doing? You are destroying our own galley!” Arete yelled in anxious. Hoplites were supposed to follow her orders. But Matea had been acting on her own numerous times. Her behaviour challenged Arete’s authority.

The centre mast fallen on top of the Carthaginian’s ship, and the pole crash through the deck. Hooking the ship like a thin corvus, she charge into the quadrireme thought that fallen mast, running towards the Admiral who was guarded by his Carthaginian warriors.

I need to focus on guiding my fleets!

Arete was surprised by the use of their central mast as a corvus. She followed through, ran into the Carthaginian quadrireme through the fallen mast. Followed by other Syracusean hoplites. They gained access to the quadrireme. The Carthaginians light infantry and archers were no match with their heavy spearman in close distance.

“Take over the rowers!” Arete instructed while running to the signalling halyard of the quadrireme, charging and stabbing the enemy captain with her spear. The Syracusean captain ran into the galley with his followers. They attacked the enemy guards and drummer, taking over the rower slaves.

“Everybody move into the enemy ship!” Arete shouted, taking down the Carthaginian signal flag, and raised hers. The Syracusean rowers all ran out and picked up a buckler and a sword. They moved into the quadrireme through the fallen mast and the attached corvus. The main reason why Syracuse hired rowers instead of slaves. They can be part of the arsenal and turned into their light infantry when they abandon their own ship.

One Syracusean trireme, 160 rowers turned light infantries, 10 marines, 30 hoplites. One Carthaginian quadrireme, 300 slave rowers, 20 marines, 30 heavy and 70 light infantries, but their rowers were chained slaves who unable to fight. And thus, 200 Syracusean against 120 Carthaginians.

When the enemy quadrireme deck was in total chaos, the Admiral blew the salpinx asking for support. Guarded by his thirty warriors, Matea with the Syracusean hoplites tried to attacked them, but they were very well trained. Although the hoplites gained advantage with their spears and shield, those warriors masterfully defended their Admiral with their long falcata sword.

When another enemy’s quadrireme was getting closer, they extended a stair towards the captured ship. The Admiral ran towards them. Seeing him getting close to escape, Matea lifted the flamethrower at her back.

“Malakas, don’t use that on the deck!” Another nearby hoplite shouted at her. He too, carried a flamethrower. The Greek Fire, they would not use it on close distance and definitely not on deck. But she had pulled the trigger regardless of his warning, spraying the naphtha on the enemy warriors, setting them on fire. While they were in panic over the fire they unable to put off, the hoplites had to stabbed them and pushed them to the sea.

While Syracusean captain had instructed the slave rowers to speed up and sail away from the enemy support fleets, the Admiral had boarded to his support ship through the extended stairs. They continued to shoot arrows and threw javelins to attacked the hoplites after they had successfully rescued their Admiral.

Angered by his escape, Matea saw the abandoned trireme while they were speeding away from the enemy fleets. She angrily lifted the burning torch on the deck, loaded it into the nearby catapult, and released the payload towards the trireme.

“Sail away! Faster!” The hoplites shouted. They anxiously ran towards the centre and lifted up the quadrireme’s masts, activated the rig to make the ship sail faster, away from that trireme. The six Syracusean biremes rowed in panic.

When the payload hit the abandoned trireme, it broke into the galley’s deck, the trireme exploded, the naphtha in that ship burst out and burned furiously on the ocean. That explosion send the nearby enemy support ships accidentally ramming into each other. The waves pushes the captured quadrireme further. The fire causes the sea water to heat up, steam covering the surrounding as it further obstructing the visuals.

“What happened!” Arete yelled, stunned by the loud burst, things were not according to her plan and instructions. Noticing Matea kept tightening the catapult and loaded an ignited payload to it. And the 200 over Carthaginian fleets were now fiercely charging towards them through the sea of fire. Her troops were all in panic, trying their best to put the quadrireme to sail away as fast as it can.

“Ma’am, we already warned her, she’s not listening!” The hoplite reported to Arete. She replied him with a hand signal, and four hoplites ran towards the catapult. After Matea released the payload, the four slammed her down and locked her when she was unaware. Matea roared and trying to break free from those men.

“Listen!” Arete yelled at her, “We are in a war now! And we are outnumbered! It is not all about brainless attack and charging against the enemy! We are all together in the same galley! It’s either we all survive, or we all sink and die! Together!”

“You coward!” Matea shouted at her. The word stunned the hoplites and infuriated Arete.

“How dare you call me a coward! Am I not in the frontline defending our homeland?” She brawled, but she sensed a sudden silence. When she raise her head, gazing at the enemy fleets. Their movement was slow.

Is that the dead water effect? No! We are at the Melite Channel. There shouldn’t be any dead water region here. Why their ships travel such slow? Their oars are moving fast, their rigs are all positioned to sail. But why they move slow?

When she noticed that some of the Carthaginian’s ships were actually trying to pull something. Something under the ocean. They blew their trumpet in unison.

“Release that thing from the Three Elders!” The Carthaginian Admiral shouted. His fleet sailed to the side, pulling something under the sea.

Suddenly the large wave rolled the ocean, Arete and her troops were terrified, they had to duck down, grabbing on to something sturdy, then the wave hit them, some soldier being washed down to the ocean.

Strange large maroon tentacles appeared, curling and crashing Arete’s support biremes. Everybody was horrified. Arete’s marines threw the knotted ropes down for the swimming hoplites on the sea. They grabbed on to the knots, trying to pull themselves up to their safety.

Two large round eye balls appeared, and the creature revealed itself. They had never seen such ocean gigantic creature. Arete had heard about the myth told by the northern sailors. But she never expected to see one in her life. They call it the Kraken.

A giant squid-like sea creature that was larger than three fin whales.

Is that the reason why those over 200 fleets moving that slow? This monster… it can crush down our sea wall!

Arete pushed herself up and raised her flag, sending a signal to her 29 galleys lead by Arctus and Peatrus to retreat and guarding the wall. The tentacles coiled her quadrireme. Slowly the Kraken tightening the grip, crushing the ship little by little. All her troops screaming and praying. They tried to stab the tentacles, they fired the catapults and artilleries, they shoot arrows and threw javelins on the creature. But the creature did not bother to their pesky attacks.

Matea yanked away the hoplites who held her down. Barging towards Arete. “Away! Coward!” She pushed the skinny lady away before the tentacles able to grab her. She then snatched the flamethrowers from a few panicked hoplites and ran towards the monster.

Matea dump the flamethrowers at the front of the deck, “I need More!” She shouted, and the hoplites immediately took their flamethrowers to the spot.

Coward? Arete was challenged. Who was in charge? During the desperate time, everyone simply listen to whoever gave them hope to survive. But she knew what Matea was planning to do, to set fire on their own ship! The naphtha could burn on water, and that hopefully able to burn the monster, but that was not intelligent at all!

“Matea, that’s not going to work! You’ll burn all of us alive!” Arete yelled.

But Matea had set an arrow with fire, shooting it towards the pile of flamethrowers on the front deck in close distance with the head of the Kraken. The flamethrowers exploded, the fire spread on the ship wrecks and on the ocean water.

But the Kraken smashed the front deck with its huge tentacles. The fire immediately put off by the slime on its skin.

“I had a galley of my soldiers and a whole city-state of people I want to protect. This is not about surviving alone or outliving anyone. Not about glory of whatever empire.” Arete yelled. When everybody was in panic and emotionally hopeless, she calmly picked up a falcata sword.

“This is not an arena, you’re not a gladiator. You’re a hoplite! All hoplites have to work together! As a team!" Arete threw the falcata to Matea. “Bring down the centre mast!” She instructed, picking up a spear she ran towards the Kraken.

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The monster was attracted by the shinny golden cuirass, moving its head towards the lady. While Matea ran to the centre mast of the quadrireme, chopping down the ropes, the mast fell, Arete kept running aiming at the spot between the Kraken’s eyes. She jumped towards the monster “And I’m definitely not a coward!” She shouted, stabbing the spear in between the eyes of the Kraken.

She knew the spear might not reach deep enough to kill the monster, but she had successfully attract it to the right direction where the central mast of the ship would fall. She slid to the ocean, while the pole of the fallen mast hit and stab through the same spot between the eyes of the Kraken, like a pick hammer crushing the rock.

The whole body of the maroon Kraken instantly turned white. Its tentacles loosen. The weight further crashing the quadrireme into pieces. The hoplites struggled to grabbed themselves a piece of wreckage to keep themselves afloat. The Kraken fallen down to the ocean, sending a huge wave that caused a tsunami. That hit the Syracusean sea wall and the Carthaginian’s fleets.

It… It’s not yet… not yet the end! This is a war! Not a fishing trip! The Carthaginians are worst than the Kraken!

Arete removed her heavy golden cuirass, swam to the surface of the ocean, she boarded a wreckage, pushing herself to stand up. “Charge!” She raised her hand, shouting, and given a signal to Arctus and Peatrus to sail forward for their attack.

Seeing the fall of the Kraken, the Carthaginians were terrified. They had lost their confident on their siege. The admiral raised an olive branch tied with a piece of white cotton cloth. They surrendered.