In a way, the speaker's prepared for conflict (5)
I believe the answer is:
armed
'prepared for conflict' is the definition.
(armed with weapons)
'in a way the speaker's' is the wordplay.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'way' becomes 'rd' (short for road).
'the speaker' becomes 'me'.
'a'+'rd'='ard'
'ard' placed around 'me' is 'ARMED'.
(Other definitions for armed that I've seen before include "Prepared and equipped for a confrontation" , "Prepared for attack" , "Gave weapon" , "unlike the Venus of Milo" , "prepared to shoot?" .)