The Duel

The Duel is one of the seven short films comprising the anime adaptation of the Halo universe, Halo Legends. Duel takes place sometime after 2142 as evidenced by the appearance of Unggoy as members of the Covenant.

It was made available to watch on Saturday November 21, 2009 on Halo Waypoint similar to the previous segment The Babysitter.

Summary
A Sangheili Arbiter named Fal 'Chavamee, who refuses to accept the Covenant Religion, is charged with Heresy by a High Prophet. By order of the Prophet, a Sangheili, named Harka, plans to find a way to bring Fal down. After dreaming about his meeting with the Prophet, Han, Fal's wife, asks him what it was that was troubling him. Fal then tells her that she should leave for a while, but she refuses as she wanted to stay by his side as his wife.

While training Sangheili warriors, Fal is approached by a close friend, Roh. Roh tries to convince him that The Covenant has only done good, and that by rejecting The Great Journey, he will surely be stripped of his rank as the Arbiter. However, Fal does not take heed to his friend's warning, and tells him that the Covenant will try to take him down by any means necessary.

Harka and Roh, under the orders of a high prophet, invade Fal's home and murder Han while he was away. Fal returns home to discover the bodies of his friend and Han. He is then provoked to face Harka in a fight, which was planned by the Prophet.

A boatman, who led Fal down a river to Harka's dueling place, warns the Arbiter that it is a trap. Fal ignores this, and stumbles upon a few of Harka's personal guards, who are subsequently killed. Later on his quest, an army of Sangheili, Kig-Yar, Unggoy, and Mgalekgolo (accompanied by Wraiths and Ghosts as well) charge towards Fal. The Arbiter's single Energy Sword, after slicing through waves of Covenant forces, is rendered useless when its battery is depleted, so he recovers two Swords from a pair of recently deceased Sangheili. Three massive Hunters, two Ghosts, and a Wraith then begin to bombard Fal at once. However, Fal annihilates the whole army, leaving only one cowardly Unggoy (who is soon killed).

Atop a Forerunner structure, Fal and Harka finally duel. It is a short lived fight, as Harka slashes Fal across his chest, mortally wounding him. To his surprise, however, Fal has impaled him on his own sword. Both fall, each having killed the other. Fal's last thoughts are of his wife, whom he had avenged.

As a result of Fal's actions, the rank of Arbiter is stripped of its former prestige, and is given only to Sangheili who have brought shame to both themselves and the Covenant.

Characters

 * Fal 'Chavamee
 * Harka
 * Han
 * Roh
 * The Boatman
 * Unidentified Prophet

Organizations

 * Covenant Empire
 * Covenant Army
 * Covenant Navy

Species

 * Kig-yar
 * Mgalekgolo
 * Sangheili
 * San 'Shyuum
 * Unggoy

Vehicles

 * Battleship
 * CCS-class Battlecruiser
 * Type-25 Rapid Assault Vehicle
 * Type-52 troop carrier
 * Type-26 Assault Gun Carriage

Weapons

 * Type-25 Directed Energy Pistol
 * Type-25 Directed Energy Rifle
 * Type-1 Energy Weapon/Sword

Trivia

 * Before its release, the short was said to be "around the time of the Prophet alliance" (852 BCE), but the presence of Unggoy indicates that it must be at least 2142 CE. Post-release, Frankie clarified that it takes place "quite late into the Covenant as a society".
 * The significant Sangheili characters are given much more human-like faces. This was a stylistic choice to make them more sympathetic.  Harka's warriors have faces more typical of Sangheili in the franchise.
 * The stylistic design of the main characters is also very similar to the original Saurian-style face shape and design of the Pre-Xbox Halo Elites.
 * After Fal says "But now the game begins and I must play." Roh is shocked and says "Fal.". But the Subtitles on the DVD instead mistakenly says that Roh called him "Thel".
 * Unusually, though he killed hundreds of enemies, his energy sword never depleted. This may be because he was using swipes rather than stabs, using much less of the battery, or that they are just modified swords. It may also be possible that he took energy swords from enemy Sangheili, and that this was simply not shown in the film.