The War: Strategies

In the beginning of the dawn, 4 nations led to war in claiming territory. They gathered people and picked sides, it was a war that brought death and shed a small light of hope for peace. It is now known as the cold war, where families were separated and people picking nations to settle in and start their family lineage. As thousand of hundred years gone by they finally settled in the respective countries and peace was restored. But soon, the north and west began evolving and discovering inventions while the east chose a path of tradition merging with innovation. It was only the south that remained in tradition. Soon the north began realizing the abundance of resources that the west, east, and south claimed, with a mind for opportunities and gaining power they carefully planned out their first opponent.

South is the was the weakest but in order to gain them they must pass first the east, which they are a nation of strategist and bright people, with nothing to risk they decided to charge with troops in their territory but was defeated expectedly. With the skills honed by the east, they realize with the amount of troops they have and their knowledge in war, they are no match for the strategist.

With that in mind, they realize that the west was a bigger nation with a history of battle and resources, they first need to claim the west in order to expand their nation and army. Once they claim the west they can form a battle plan and defeat the east and finally claim the south, uniting the 4 countries as one nation. In claiming the west, they knew it wasn't easy, it will take them at least 2 years to gather and train everyone in order to reach their goal. It became known that a war is coming for intensive and extreme training started taking place, spreading the news and reaching the west.

CHAPTER 1

Rykers P.O.V.

White pillars and white walls with beautiful murals spread on top of the ceiling, made by famous painters known from the whole west, displayed the battle from hundreds of years ago in how the west nation formed. Murals with colors still vivid, high walls adorn with stain colored glass and natural light, filling the room with warmth. A gold throne adorned with jewels was place in front, there a king is sited.

"War is coming" The oldest advisor said, this guy…. I remember his philosophical teachings, he was a man of peace and good reasoning. Combined them bought he sure has a way of talking. Advisor Jarden was a man of words but his loyalty was faithful

The advisor dress in red robes and blue, purple, and yellow trimming which indicates there status, blue was for the seniors serving more than 30 years, less than 30 was the purple trimming while yellow was for the younger ones the newly recruited advisors. While were facing the king, they gave opinions and ideas that could help flourish the nation even further, but when it comes to war they are not equip with enough knowledge so basically they are useless as an empty shell.

"The people in the North are preparing for an upcoming war with us" said the advisor Jarden, I could hear Colin giving a hard sight beside me. The 26 advisors continued arguing with one another. His majesty was looking across the group of old and newly scouted young men, he suddenly fixed to an upright position and rose one eyebrow.

"We will need to prepare the necessary weapons and men for this war" the king said looking at them, his tall statue and built body gave an intimidating message, his voice was none the less frightening.

"Your majesty if we do then they will take it as a sign of battle" one of the old advisor stated, advisor veran, he was the type of person who plays safe. I predicted he can one day betray this nation, the only reason the king kept him was because he is a man of knowledge. Or so they thought.

"We need to reason out and talk to them in why they are seeking for war. What is their goal and why are they doing this" said advisor veran. "Speaking to them is meaningless now, we all know how greedy the north is. They were never satisfied with the outcome of the cold war." a young advisor with yellow trimming spoked up.

"If we do nothing and show peace then they will take this opportunity to ambush us" he said standing up from the throne "I rather be prepared then be defeated in a battle within my territory" he glared at them

"Your majesty from what we gather from our information…. They have been preparing for the last 2 years, this is not an easy war" the young advisor said, this man from what I heard claimed to be gifted. Passed the test with an astounding score

"No war is easy" Colin said looking at me "Every war takes years to finish" I said leaning back "We must find a way to at least have a plan to hold them off and gather more troops" I said pinching my nose bridge. "This is getting messy" Colin slumped back

"Your majesty I have a suggestion" the young advisor spoke up again but this time looking hesitant

"Tell me" he urged

"If we get the east to side with us in this war then we might have a chance" he said holding his head down, the court room burst out in different opinions and argument

"Why do you think the east can help us?" his majesty replied back, raising his voice and silencing everyone

"They have the Haliteria…. The 4 strategist" he said. The king looked back at him and for a minute and sat in silence

"Hal? Halet what?" I asked "Haliteria, it's their 4 strategies that made them flourish for thousands of decades" colin said "This is why you need to listening to History back then" he smirked

"I admit, I was immature. But do explain please" I said intrigued

"The Haliteria, they are a group of 4 people that has a specific function, they are known to be gifted with knowledge and to be taught with knowledge. They carry the strategist from their ancestors and they create new ones to pass down to their next successors" he said

"So it's basically a family traditions?" I said

"Remove the family part, the east gather the youngest children and have them compete, whoever passes and shines are given the opportunity to find their role" he looked at me

"What are their roles?" I asked

"You seriously need to pay attention" he rolled his eyes

"4 strategist for 4 specific roles, the agriculture, that person is in charge of land and farming, it might not sound something grand but that role is basically a knowledge of the best type land, the knowledge about different type of plants even poison that to this date they know and we don't" he smiled

"Next is architecture, this is the role that a person looks and see if what needs improvement in terms of safety and advantages, this is a role that help the agriculture in developing their economy and from what I heard the east is a land of water and soil that collided, it's a beauty to see" he exclaimed

"Another one and personally my favorite is war, the battle strategist. This person carries the different war techniques in winning and from what I heard a few years back, they encountered a brief battle and the chosen strategist won a war and he was only 16" he looked at me "This person memorize all the war that their empire had and can even predict the moves of his opponent" he looked back at the advisors

"Lastly we have over all this person carries the basic knowledge of all three strategies, this person is in charge of overlooking all plans to see anything is wrong, this person collaborates with all of them and search back in history for similar plans and was it a success or not" he explained

"So basically what we need is to convince the war strategist?" I asked

"Ideally yes, but what we need is all four of them" he said "all four of them? Why?" I asked

"They are all connected, the agricultural will look at the area of the battle field and finds for any advantages whether there is an abundance of poison there or whether they can find resources, while the architect looks at the area itself whether they can find blind spots or higher areas and combining the three, the war strategist can compute to how many troops can fit and what are will they come from and the overall will view all of their plan as one to see for any holes or more opportunities. The battle strategist will form the stance and command their actions" he explained

"That's genius" it was really amazing to come up with this type of method, especially if it came from decades ago

"It is, that's why we need them" he said looking back at the court room

"We need to convince them….. This might work as plan" his majesty spoke back

"Your majesty! We only have a year left to prepare the war! How much more time can we lose?" The old advisor veran spoke

"If we send our brightest and honorable people to them and persuade them then we might have a chance. We need to take every bit of the opportunity as we can" The advisor Garliya countered him

His majesty looked at me and Colin, "He isn't serious…. About dealing with the East?" Colin asked me "If he will then this war must be a lot more important than we think" I said

"This meeting ends now, I therefore declare 6 of my advisors, a troop of men and General Colin and my son Prince Ryker to embark this journey before the haft moon ends" he got his scepter and bang it three times on the floor, signaling the end of this session.

Once the advisors filed out of the court room we were left with him majesty alone

"Again, I am thinking in sending a few of my advisor to help persuade them." King Serulia said both me and Colin stood in front of him while he was pondering in thoughts. "The two of you will accompany them in this journey, it is best to have 2 of my trusted men to join this trip…. The sooner you leave the better" his majesty closed his eyes and took a deep breath

"I can go but Prince Ryker can't" Colin said "No. My son needs to be there to show the severity of this war, I already thought hard about this and my decision is final" he said

"I understand father" I bowed "We need to convince them to either to join us in this war or to at least give us a battle plan to win this war" he said "There strategist is legendary, it will take some time to convince them" Colin replied. "Coming from you, General then it must something we really must gain" His majesty said

"Don't worry father, we will convince them" I said "I know you will son" he grab my hand and tightly held it.

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"You think will be able to convince them?" Colin asked as we exited out of the court room, we both stop in the middle of the white marbled stairs as I gave a look at him. "We need if we want to survive and win this war. We have everything to lose and everything we know and love may be gone, if this is an option then I am willing to take any option for this nation, this kingdom, and more importantly the lives of our people" I said looking over the view of the nation.

Colin suddenly grabbed both of my shoulder and said "Ryker, please share your burden with me, I know you, we've know each other since we were young. You can't keep all of the burden by yourself. Don't you think I haven't notice that you were quiet during the court meeting? I could see the smokes in your head" he said slightly shaking my shoulder "Thank you, brother. Hearing that from you makes me relieved" I said grabbing both of his hands "I know we can overcome this, we must hurry and pack to set sail to the east"