Bitter Steel
Bitter Steel
The Crimson Keg, a tavern in the cold lands of Bergfrew, owned by a former pirate called Reese Redbeard. Reese opened this place after being kicked out by his crew and he drank heavily which made him get passionate about beer and decided to brew his own beer after not being able to find any new crew.
One day Reese was washing dishes in his tavern as he was the only employee there, which may lead you to think that he's prone to being robbed but his big strong physique and his frightening beard was more than enough for no one to mess with him. The tavern had a few customers, all talking and drinking while a black figure aggressively opened the tavern's doors, looking down with a blade by his side and a menacing grin on his shaded face. "Reese Redbeard, isn't it" the man said while looking down, "Who do you think you are walking in my pub like that acting like a menace? Scared to show yourself? Lift your head up." Reese said with his first clenched and an angry expression on his face.
The man pulled down his hood and looked straight into Reese's eye "Kahn... Kahn Vale, is that you?" Reese said, Kahn nodded his head and gave Reese a menacing smile once more "What do you need? Would a pint of my signature beer do you any good?" "No thank you, I heard that it's the most disgustingly bitter beer in town". Reese doesn't like bitter beer, he tries to make his own beer as less bitter as possible. Reese is good at making beer, but he hasn't learned how to properly mix in hops in his beer which sometimes results in extra bitter beer. "You have no say in this, you don't know a single thing about making beer!" Reese said, "Try putting a little less hops in your beer and oh, maybe try putting even the slightest effort into brewing?" Kahn said in a mocking tone.
Kahn Vale is a known scoundrel in Bergfrew, he tempts others on purpose (usually weaker targets) to get them to fight him, and with him being an experienced swordsman, he wins every time. Kahn wanted to boost his ego, he wanted to fight someone more powerful which is why he came to the Crimson Keg, he never met Reese before but he heard that he's a big scary fellow so he wanted to take him on considering that he retired from combat years ago. Reese snapped and jumped over the table while pulling his blade out, Kahn put on a mocking grin on his face as Reese was charging at him with fury. Both exchanged multiple sword blows, Kahn was a well trained fighter so his fighting style was elegant and more fencing-like, meanwhile Reese's was more clumsy as he was never properly trained and he hasn't had a serious battle in years. After a few exchanges, Kahn swung his sword from the top and Reese wasn't able to block it, Kahn's sword pierced Reese's right eye. Reese stumbled back in pain and kept pacing back in order to avoid Kahn’s blows as he tried to calm down and reflect on what just happened. Reese was squirting blood out of his eyes but he has a very high pain tolerance so he closed the injured eye and continued to fight Kahn even though he could only see through one eye. Reese was struggling to block Kahn’s blows as he was trying to bear the pain in his eye, he wasn’t able to block for long as Kahn struck him in his left thigh. Reese almost fell to the floor from having another source of pain, this time he didn’t try to calm down and take a break, he was fueled with nothing but anger that he didn’t have time to step back and bear the pain. Reese got up and slowly started pacing backwards while he was blocking Kahn’s blows, he was hoping that he had enough time until he reached the bar counter where a huge pint of Reese’s signature beer was. He was blocking and finally reached the counter, in a swift moment, he grabbed the pint and threw it on Kahn’s face, Kahn wasn’t able to open his eyes before closing them right after from the amount of sticky liquid on him. “How does it taste now, Kahn?” Reese said as before piercing his blade through Kahn’s heart, the whole pub cheered and hailed Reese as he got rid of the scum of Bergfrew known as Kahn Vale.
Reese fell down to his knees and arms to rest from the intense battle, smiling at all the cheering around him. A group of customers got up to help him up on a chair and they gave him a piece of cloth and string to apply pressure on his blood squirting eye, as well as on his thigh. After some well deserved rest, Reese got up and decided to pour Kahn’s blood into some beer and served it to everyone for free.