Before a day of the war, Sigma Country led by General Khairi was preparing the defence in front of the wall. Making preparation to defend from the Alpha kingdom's attack. From a record that I read, Alpha Kingdom always attacks from above. Which is from the air. That's why we built a few missile launchers that I learnt from Sphinx. We hide the missile launcher with sand. In this case, they will not know about this secret weapon. As for soldiers, General Khairi has led all of them. It might be a day for him to fight alone without his teammates.
In this war, all those on the battlefield need to take their role. The engineer needs to make sure the pieces of equipment are in top condition. The vanguard, which is a defender and an attacker, was prepared with a strong shield and a sharp blade. Meanwhile, the rearguard prepared for an attack involving range and healing for injured soldiers.
"Hulaif, are you prepared yet for this war?" Laura asked me.
"A bit nervous, this is my first war in my life."
"Just listen to me. Be relaxed, like when you fight with a man-eater or spar."
"Wait, that's a different matter."
"See, your worries are gone."
"Oh, it seems what you said is true. I should go look at the weapon with Aifa first."
"You are coming with me. We are going to go fight with the enemy because that's our tradition."
"Why should we do that?"
"To increase the morale of the soldier." Suddenly, a man that I didn't recognise showed up near me.
"Who are you?" I asked him.
"Do you not recognise me? I have been with you since you trained your archery skills." Seriously, I don't know this guy. I am not socialising with other soldiers. That's why I don't really know anyone else. I think that I became a soldier because of my luck alone. I escaped death from a man-eater and the dream realm. I shook my head because I didn't know him. "I guess I should introduce myself to you in a formal way. My name is Karim and I am Laura's apprentice." From my perspective, I can see that this guy is an amateur and doesn't have what it takes to become Laura's apprentice. Why did she take this guy?
"Hey, Laura. Are you sure you trained this kid?"
"Yeah, I am indebted to his father, who was my master. Before I met you, he insisted on training under me, and he can't even do what you can. That's why I don't really care much about him."
"Master, why did you say something like that?"
"Okay, you are my apprentice, but you should survive this war because I have to train you more after this." Why could I feel a negative vibe from her?
"So, Karim. I think you know me. I am Hulaif, and it is nice to meet you. I am busy right now. I have work to do. See you later." Laura took me to General Khairi. We entered the general tent. When we met him, we discussed the duel with the enemy.
"Are you sure that he can duel with the enemy? It's a decisive match to give a moral to our soldiers." General Khairi asked Laura.
"You know that he passed your trial. Does not it answer your doubt?"
"Hmm...you are correct. You have to win the fight. If we win the match, we have a greater chance of winning the war. Are you understanding?"
"Yes sir, I am." This is worse. What should I do when fighting them? Also, that guy who said he was strong. I should not use chesscraft in this war if I fight with a human. Ah, what should I do? If I use it, they might say that I am a man-eater too. I should avoid any misunderstanding. Just in case, when I use it, I have to make sure it won't be seen by others, including the enemy and the general. Maybe a bare hand is enough. Look at tomorrow. What will happen?"
"Then, it is decided that you will fight tomorrow. You know the rules, don't you?"
"Rule? What kind of rule?"
"How can you be a Sigmarian when you don't know the rules? Elar, tell him the rule and make sure he knows it by tomorrow."
"Haish, let me tell you about the rule. In a duel, each side needs to send three representatives to fight. One person will be sent to fight each other until one of them gives up or loses. You can kill your enemy or knock them out. This is a war, so they are a tough person that they will send. Don't be a sympathy."
"So, no time limit, is it?"
"Nope. You fight until one of you dies or is knocked out."
"Wow, that's pretty brutal."
"It's not brutal."
"What weapon should I use? Should I use a melee or range weapon?"
"It's up to you. You can even use a gun or anything dangerous." Damn, this is the worst fight that I have ever entered. How could I win with people who use guns in a duel? "But most people will fight using a sword or magic. Sigma doesn't use magic, so we don't know if Alpha will use the magic or not. Let's just hope that they don't use it."
"Are you really serious about this fight?" I asked her.
"Yeah, I am."
"I think you have told him everything. Tomorrow, make sure that you are ready." I nodded.
Then, I said to them that I wanted to leave the tent and continue my work. I helped Aifa with the technology. Don't think that the tech person has to fight. When I helped Aifa, she asked me about the Sphinx.
"Are you sure that we can depend on that Sphinx?"
"Why not? Sphinx is an AI and she creates this country's barrier. We can use it. Some people say that AI is smarter than humans. I have asked her to help me for tomorrow."
"If you said that, I think you are right." After I finished making preparations for today, I took a rest as a preparation for tomorrow's war. I hope that all my plans are going to work.
As for tomorrow, the day of the war. All the soldiers were prepared for their place and stayed in their position to get ready to hear a command. All the soldiers there are ready and pumped up for this war. This is the first time in Sigma Country's war without all the generals. Hopefully, everything will work according to plan.
This early morning, General Khairi, Laura, and I went to the front lines of the battle, which is in the abandoned city of Sigma Country. Before we went there, we communicated with the Alpha through radio to meet there. We wanted to ask Alpha for a duel before starting the war.
"Well, well. What do we have here? Did the Sigma country want to surrender? Sorry, but I have decided in my mind to not end this war." This guy looks young. Is he the same age as me and Laura?
"Hey, you. We did not come here to ask for defeat. You were at war with us. You need to follow our rules." Laura said to him.
"Hey, I have a name. I am Commander Kaez, the supreme of the supreme in the Alpha Kingdom. I wonder why a beautiful lady like you joins in this futile war. The rules? You make me want to laugh. Hahaha. I'm feeling generous. What kind of rules is it?" It seems he wants to know the rules.
"The rules are that when you war with Sigma Country, you need to duel with the representatives first. As we send the three people, you too need to send three of your people too. After the duel, the war can start when we get back to our base," Laura said. Talk about Alpha sending their representatives, I don't see any of the Alpha units except the aircraft fighter in front of us.
"So, I can't fight with all three of you at once. I guess I don't want to enter this duel. It does not benefit me. But, I will send my unit to fight the three of you."
"I can see you don't have a unit with you. Did you come alone?" Suddenly, it blurted out of my mouth.
"Nice question for a mere soldier. It seems the three of you are ready for a duel. Then I will call them here." I can see the three large metal chunks that were just dropped in front of us from his aircraft. Then, he pushed a button on some high-spec device on his right wrist to call his unit. Suddenly, the three metal chunks in front of us grew and turned into a robot. The robot looks like a human wearing a robot suit. All three of the robots look exactly the same.
"What is this? What kind of golem are you summoning?" General Khairi asked.
"That's a robot. So, I will wait in my aircraft and look for your duel. Good luck." I kind of wonder if I sensed any humans around. Did he fight by himself? We have to win this. Then, Kaez disappeared from our sight. It seems he is using his hologram again. After Kaez disappeared, the duel started when those three robots shot at us using their guns.
The three of us split up in this city to make sure to fight those robots by ourselves. We should follow the rules as we are the ones who said so to them. Right now, I'm fighting with a robot that always shoots me when he detects me. That robot's sensors are pretty strong. That's why I can't attack that robot even once. All I do is run and dodge the bullet from hitting me. I hide behind a few collapsed buildings' walls, waiting for the right moment to attack back.
"Mia, can you do a search? I want you to find a blind spot for that robot."
"Sure, you can wait for a moment." I waited a few moments and escaped from that robot attack. "I have found it."
"Send me the data." As I get the data from Mia's search. I hurried to use it to attack that robot. Before I got out of hiding, I shot the explosion arrow that I created not far from it. When the explosion from that arrow exploded, that robot fell to the ground. At that moment, I hurried to get out of hiding and shot the arrow at its head. As I hit it on its head in a near direction, Mia said something to me.
"Hulaif! Get out of there." That robot suddenly exploded. It was quite an explosion, bigger than my arrow exploded. It is pretty weird why it did not explode with my arrow earlier. I went to that robot to see if there was any loot that I could take. It seems there is nothing I can do because all the metal is burnt to a crisp. They don't want their technology to be copied. What a clever decision. Oh, no! I have to tell Laura and General Khairi about the explosion. I hope that they did not get any injuries.
After I was done with my duel, I searched for them. I met Laura first. She's on top of the robot's body that she fought, waiting for someone. Is that robot not exploding yet? "Oh, Hulaif! It took you so much time there. What did I teach you?"
"Hey, that robot is going to explode."
"Huh! You mean this explosion fuse?" It seems she has defused the explosion from that robot. She is quite a prodigy. It seems what Aifa said is true. "Why do you look at me like that? In military school we learned about how to defuse a bomb, so I am pretty knowledgeable about this."
"Eh, where is General Khairi?" Laura pointed her finger behind me.
"I am here, looking at Laura's duel." I was quite shocked when I heard his voice.
"So, you have finished it."
"I finished it before we split up. I don't think you can survive. That's why I didn't see you." Even in this duel, he still acts cool in front of me. "Do you want to duel with me right now?" I shook my head.
"I think I don't want. How about we get back and prepare for the enemy's attack?"
"Let's get back." Laura said to us. Then, we get to our base to wait for the enemy to attack. The Alpha Kingdom might attack from above. That explains why there is no one in front of us. They can do any kind of attack on us. That's why we need to do everything we can to protect ourselves and this country. As we get back to our base, we get a message from Alpha. It said that we would start to attack.