Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 158: Fist Bump

Chapter 158: Fist Bump

A small navy of ten strong longships. Crossing eras and technology into a single construction intended for war. Ten minutes remained till their departure. An hour remained till their inevitable battle.

The jetty of the harbour was surrounded by the longships. At the end of the long bridge of wooden planks was Kazi, feet in the cold water, relaxing. He peered over his shoulder to a nearby longship, where William and Max were. The work was done, so the two were talking about their respective lives.

Max was super chill. He listened to William’s complaints about high school and how he often went to the gym. The Templar had removed his helmet, nodding along kindly. He was middle-aged with short cropped brown hair and visibly dry lips.

William took a moment to sip from a small wooden mug, the warmth of the liquid contrasting with the semi-cold sea breeze. The locals, as their plundered servants, gave them their food and drinks. William took a strange concoction that was a precursor to the popular Guinness drink in the modern day. A dry stout that was not half-baked and without the quality or quantity of today’s standards. A local coincidence, so to speak.

The Templar Max refused to drink. Instead, while William was busy sipping, he muttered, "Open inventory," and pulled out a thick, black cigar and a lighter. In one quick motion, he lit the end of the cigar and took a puff.

Like a little kid, upon smelling the tobacco, William held his breath. Max took a long drag, and blew out the smoke into the air, looking over at William as he did.

William stammered out his question. "I-is smoking allowed for Templars?"

Another long drag. "Ah, no. Definitely not."

"Then why...?"

"Nerves. I’ve never been to sea." Max wasn’t looking at William, he had been gazing upon the sea. He snorted and continued to take deliberate drags from his cigarette, the ember casting a faint glow on his face as he exhaled a stream of smoke into the sea breeze.

"You said you were a boxer. Being afraid of the sea is a little weird."

’A boxer,’ Kazi thought to himself. ’That’s why he was bad with the horse. He’s a journeyman. His grip was too rough.’

"You’ll find most folks have odd habits," Max said. "Some pray, some drink, and well, I smoke. At least I used to."

"...used to?" William asked.

Through the smoke and the flicker of light was a smile. "Before my daughter grew up and told me to stop. She was in elementary school and she was always proud of me. But you know how it is. They teach at school that smoking is really, really bad for your lungs. When I came home, that was all she would say. ’Stop smoking, dad! Please! You’ll kill yourself!’ ’Dad, stop! It’s gonna make you old!’"

Max laughed to himself. He stared at the cigar, smiling. More than half of it remained. He tossed it into the sea anyway. At last, William exhaled.

"I miss her," Max admitted. "I miss her so much. My wife passed away during childbirth. I had to quit boxing and put all my efforts into raising her. I did factory work to make money." Another laugh accompanied by a smack to the chest. "These old bones are still good for labour."

William smiled back. "If you make it to the top twenty, then you’ll be rich when you come back."

"Yeah, crazy, right? Imagine that." Max stared off into the distance. "I could buy her whatever she wants. It’ll be great." He sounded awfully cynical about it. He stood up and put his helmet back on. "We should get warmed-up. It’s almost time."

"Let’s do it!"

Neither the Templars nor the Holy Knights were joining Kazi and the mages. It was the Sapphire Order of Spectre 4 led by Reggie, the guy with the Brooklyn accent. The twenty members of that specific Spectre specialized in shields. Put simply, one Sapphire Order player for each longship.

Kazi removed his feet from the water and let them dry on the wood.

"Good luck."

He pretended not to have noticed Cillian’s presence and perked up at his remark. "Oh, Cillain! Yeah, you too! Good luck!"

Here, they would be parting paths. While the Templars and Holy Knights would be going to invade Dublin City, the mages (including Kazi) and the Spectre 4 members were going to do an ambush to oncoming Vikings.

"Your friend Noor told me to tell you to join her ship," Cillian said.

So Noor wanted him on her ship? ’She must want something.’ He didn’t mind. In fact, out of all the mages here, she was the one he trusted the most.

"You do good work," Cillian praised. "So I’m curious: why haven’t you joined a guild?"

"Why? Hm. Since we might not see each other again, I suppose I can tell you." Kazi smiled up at him. "I don’t trust big organizations and governments. All of them are corrupt to the barest bone. You could squeeze them dry and end up with oceans worth of blood."

Out of all answers, Cillian didn’t expect that. "So it’s like that for you?"

"I’ve explored the world. I’ve done my fair share of work in various sectors. Blood is steeped everywhere. Everything is done through not sweat but agony, sorrow, and tears, and no one really cares about it." Kazi opened his inventory and brought out a towel to dry his feet. He smiled despite not looking at Cillian. "And once you run out of blood and tears, they go for your bones. Once your bones finally decay, they use what’s left of your corpse. After that, they throw you away. All of them. I just thought maybe I’d be able to create a small group where that wasn’t the case."

"Then you’ve succeeded," Cillian said. "I’ve met William. He is a bright young man."

’If only I was talking about William.’

"Thanks," Kazi replied. Now that his feet were dried, he put on his sailing boots that matched the black Garbs of Death. Cillian was intrigued though didn’t ask. Kazi got up and extended a hand. "Take care of him, will you? You have a good head on your shoulders. Keep it up and you might get promoted."

"I thought you said you didn’t like big organizations."

"I can dislike the organization but some of the people inside can be okay." Kazi grinned. Cillian gave a nod and accepted the handshake.

"Oh, there you guys are!"

Speak of the devil and he shall come—it was William. He jogged over. "Hey, Kazi. I’m going with Cillian, I hope you don’t mind."

"You don’t need me. You’ll be fine."

William rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. "Let’s make it out of this alive then."

Kazi smiled and held out a fist for him to bump. "It’s a promise."

"Yeah!" William was ecstatic about the fist bump. There was a type of innocence to him, especially when he grinned like that. It made everyone remember that at the end of the day he was just a teenager. "A promise."