Soldier of Time

IX: Conflict of Interests (2)

When she faced the Deer, she said with a tone of voice much higher than she intended, “This proves absolutely nothing!”

Slevin grinned, “I bet you can do better, Lieutenant,” he said, staring at Karen, who, without the slightest anticipation, raised her hands to protect her face.

He then, smilingly, looked at the faces of the soldiers who were watching, and many of them were snickering. The confidence that his Lieutenant inspired was solid, but he just shook his head smilingly. Slevin wondered if they would act the same during real fights thought. Highly possible, he thought to himself.

 “You too will learn something today!” Karen declared with contempt. She was angry as she glared at the mercenary in front of her and wanting to rip his head out, but she knew that would only hinder her combat.

The young woman controlled her breathing and threw two jabs to test her opponent’s speed.

Slevin evaded them without the slightest problem, and he threw his own jab towards Karen, who could evade it easily. They both studied each other and kept their distance when Karen held her breath and began an attack full of intensity against her opponent.

She threw several consecutive blows and kicks that were intended to deplete her opponent’s energy, the Lieutenant’s combinations flew in the direction of the Deer, but he did not seem to present any problem when evading them. The young woman increased her speed as she advanced, but no attack hit the target. In fact, it gave the impression that the Deer found it easier to dodge the attacks of the young woman while the more speed she impressed on them.

The young woman stopped her attack from taking a breath, but at that moment, the Deer’s attacks began to push her back. The girl jumped to create distance, but the Deer anticipated that movement and, advancing, even more, managed to reach Karen with a blow to the stomach. The young woman felt the punch, and she, smiling, stood up asked mockingly, “You can’t hit a woman?”

Slevin looked at her for a second and then nodded. He responded, “Oh, you are right. I’m sorry. I’ll treat you like a soldier.”

The young woman raised her arms again, but before she could do anything, the Deer reduced the distance in a blink of an eye and struck again the same point where he had struck before.

The young woman felt the emptiness of the air leaving her lungs, and a gag of vomit reached her throat. She placed a knee and her right hand on the ground while her eyes saw how the saliva fell from her mouth.

The girl stood up as she could, and I look at Slevin, who was smiling, said, “You are tougher than you seem...”

Karen raised her hands once more. However, Slevin shook his head before he turned his back on her.

“I’m done, accept it. You can barely stand. You are also weak,” he commented casually.

Karen placed her hand on her stomach, breathing hurt, and the mercenary was right when he said that the fight was over, but taking a deep breath, she said, “This doesn’t prove anything!”

“Of course not!” Simon said, imitating her unintentional tone of voice, “This only shows that one of us is enough to kick your men’s ass.”

The girl bit her lower lip with such force that she seemed about to rip it off. However, she quickly gave it up and then insisted, “This doesn’t prove anything! Nothing! This is just the sample that your friend is...”

The silence lasted a second while the girl looked for an adjective to describe the brilliant fight that the Deer had presented, but when she did not find it, she changed the phrase.

“Listen,” she said, raising a finger to keep her anger high but controlling her breathing and tone of voice, “We won’t be in a karate fight with Hanibal. Tactic and strategy are needed, not the skills of a ponytail ninja.”

“What do you mean?” Slevin said, facing her, “Your men can’t beat me fighting, but they can stop King?”

“Exactly!” The girl immediately agreed.

The defeated soldiers were now standing with difficulty. Slevin’s strong blows had done a lot of damage. They all watched the discussion

“Hanibal King will not come to challenge us with boxing fights. He will come, and we will wait for him, and we will eliminate him with our specialty,” Karen continued.

After that phrase, her haughty position took control of her speech, and with a much more condescending tone, she said, “I’m not surprised you guys don’t understand it, but the training and tactics we were faced with during our training is not something to be taken lightly.”

Slevin ran his hand through his hair while he snorted like an exhausted horse, looked at the ground, and then raised his face.

“Karen,” Slevin called out, seriously, which immediately attracted her attention, “This is not a game. You are professionals, I understand you, but Hanibal has eliminated so many professionals that he doesn’t take them as a challenge anymore.”

“He has never faced us...” the young woman said with a confidence that despaired Slevin.

He saw the eyes of the Lieutenant and observed such absurd certainty that she was up to the challenge that her death would be a tremendous surprise because of the disappointment that her incompetence would throw in her face.

“He has faced everything he could face. And won…”

“He didn’t beat you.”

“It’s useless, Deer!” Simon said, looking at everyone present. “It’s useless. They all want to die.”

Karen turned on her ankles, ready for her to launch another threat to a Simon who was looking in frustration towards her direction, but before she could speak, she heard Slevin said, “Well. Good, I understand. If I am able to defeat your team in a tactical exercise. Will you listen to what I have to say?”

The girl looked in disbelief at the Deer, who kept his palms open, leaving the question that he had already asked in the air, to which the girl replied, “If you beat us in a tactical exercise, I will personally give you the command of this mission.”

“Well, then,” Slevin said with a wry smile, “Prepare the exercise...”

“You will regret that Mercenary,” Karen said, staring at Slevin, but behind her, she heard Simon say.

“You don’t understand, do you, Lieutenant? In this country, the Deer season does not exist.”

Later that day, while the afternoon still showed vestiges of a light that could end at any moment, the Deer and Simon were preparing for a battle.

“Can you believe this s**t!?” Simón said while he finished tying his field boots, “This woman prefers to do this stupidity than to take our word for it.”

Slevin breathed hard before he replied, “You can’t blame her, buddy. She has to trust what she knows….”

“I understand that!” Simon said as he took the replicas of the weapons and began to arm himself, “But an exercise with paint bullets to prove that she is right?”

“I just hope you accept our help at the end of this...” Slevin responded. The least he could do was to make sure that those soldiers could survive longer.

Simon looked at him with a complicated gaze before he spoke, “Deer, for someone as distrustful as you, sometimes you are very naive...”

On the other hand, Karen was in her own dressing room surrounded by the men and women of her squad. She talked to her subordinates, trying to enlist them to prove her point, which in her perspective needed no proof.

“These amateurs believe that they know everything that can be known about conflicts, but the truth is that although they are skilled mercenaries, they are still just that, simple mercenaries who will never understand what commitment is. Do you understand it?”

“Yes, Lieutenant!”

“I can’t hear you, do you understand!!?”

“Yes, Lieutenant!!”

“You guys get it!!!”

“Yes, Lieutenant!!!”

“Very well, let’s make them understand...”

It was just a short time before that exercise began. Slevin and Simon were at the starting point for their team, waiting to understand what the rules of this challenge would be. Out of nowhere, a general sound was heard in all corners of the training area.

“Good mercenaries,” said a metallic voice that sounded strangely similar to Jolanda’s, “According to Lieutenant Karen’s instructions, these are the rules of the exercise. It will be you two against her entire regiment. You will play Hanibal and any other possible threat, and your mission will be to find and assassinate an officer of the Lieutenant’s regiment who will act as Chancellor.”

At that moment, the voice was silent, and Simon asked, “Why do victims always have to be girls?”

“Does it bother you that they chose a girl?” Slevin asked as he tried to downplay all that conversation.

“It doesn’t bother me, and it’s just that it feels a bit sexist, right?” Simon asked.

Slevin looked at him with a small smile and said, “We also fight against a woman. She is the victim and aggressor that should make up for it, right?”

“Maybe, but I don’t like shooting girls...”

After that, the closed door in front of the young people was opened, and the metallic Jolanda said, “To complete this test they you finish the task in an hour and a half. Good luck, friends.”

Both the Deer and Simon marked their remaining time on their clocks, grabbed their paint guns that looked like the original rifles and pistols, and headed out onto the exercise yard.

“By the way.”

“What?”

“Not wanting to shoot them just because they are girls... that’s sexist.”

“I thought I was nice...”

A gigantic space with rocks grove and a small building at the end appeared in front of them. Slevin studied the whole panorama and then commented, “Karen chose the correct exercise.”

“She also chose the wrong side!” Simon retorted.