Under siege

Amidst the cacophony of chaotic screams and wild, thunderous explosions, Kodesh was peacefully and sound asleep. Just a few hours prior, he was finding it really onerous to find sleep. Every fiber of his body was buzzing with adrenaline and contagious excitement because he was to be anointed the next day. It was customary for young boys marked as chosen to be anointed with sacred and precious oils on their 16th birthday.

For that reason, Kodesh was overjoyed to see the new dawn so much that he couldn't fall asleep. It could have been a lot easier if he waited for the morning while he was resting but his adrenaline level was as high as the tides under the radiating full moon. His blood pressure too was at its climax, ensued but the adrenaline pouring extensively into his bloodstream.

Time, however was unbelievable slow. So much that, his body finally gave in to the overwhelming drowsiness and his eyes forced themselves to shut, casting him into the unconsciousness state.

At the crack of dawn, before the sun could bless the land with its life giving rays of sunlight, Kodesh had a strange nightmare. Olive was under attack. A fierce army led by three Kings wearing different masks of predators were at the forefront, leading their numerous armies to battle. One of the three kings stood by the fortified gate of Olive and knocked three times. Immediately, the colossal and impregnable gate that had stood the test of time, crumbled to the ground and a terrifying army surged into the city reducing the grandiose of castles and towers to rubbles. No amount of resistance could stop such a devastating wave after wave of mountain crushing force. Street after street, Castle after castle, everything crumbled in the wake of the advancing army.

A cacophony of brutal battles and violent thuds got louder and louder on Kodesh's ear almost like the dream was real and in the next moment he abruptly woke up. As his mind began to wander, he realized that the dream was actually reality. He had been seeing the war in his sleep and the growing cacophonies indicated that the army was already upon his family castle.

Wildly getting out of bed, he rushed to the door to check on his parents and siblings. but his face paled with what he saw next. Parts of the castle had collapsed to the ground and the hallway was covered with rubble blocking his room from the rest of the castle.

'How did I not hear the castle collapsing?'

'What kind of dream did I have that it did not only show me the whole war as it was unfolding but also numbed all my senses?'

Gloomy and full of terror, Kodesh thought about his dear parents and two older siblings. He couldn't even fathom what could have happened to them, if they were okay and well but he hoped for the best.

He was left somber for a while, but after thinking things through he came to a conclusion that they might have survived because the castle had partly collapsed. It was almost more like a structural collapse rather than a demolition so their chances of survival were not as low as he initially thought.

Without time to ponder on the dire situation he had woken up to, he knew he had to find a way out of the besieged city and he had to do it fast.

Going back to his room, he quickly grabbed his pants and frantically put them on. The next moment he was already putting his boots on.

In front of him was a large mirror, reflecting him all too well. He had short copper hair. It is usually combed and neat but since he was just waking up it was more or less messy and disheveled. His golden yellow eyes were like two suns as they were reflecting the torch light. Deep within the depths of those sparkling eyes, there was a dark cloud of bleakness and uncertainty. He was petrified and with no one by his side, it only made it worse.

This day was supposed to be the day of his life. It was his birthday and he was supposed to recieve a powerful system just like the ones who were marked as chosen who came before him. But now it seemed to be the day of his untimely death. But he was not going to surrender to the world and its cruel will.

Grabbing his coat, he kissed a golden pendant hanging around his neck and dashed towards the window. As he glanced out the window, a cold shiver suddenly ran down his spine. Trembling at the gruesome and grisly sight of the besieged city and almost falling over the window, Kodesh's heart sank. What he saw was exactly as it was in the premonition he just had.

Piles of lifeless and maimed bodies were sprawled in the streets forming small mass graves. The great city and all its majestic buildings were now ruins that told a savage story of brutality and violent destruction. If Kodesh thought he was still dreaming all along, now he knew for sure he was not. It was all real. The enemy had infiltrated their city and now they were locked inside the walls with monsters.

The castles were burning to ashes and the hungry flames that seemed to never get satisfied more grew intense and sinister with the passing wind. Above the great flames were dark and proud clouds of smoke billowing up to the heavens.

The grisly sight was more than enough to make Kodesh tremble with fear. He was even hesitant to climb down the window but he knew it was he only way. With a heavy bellow, he started his descent. Grabbing and holding on to dented bricks, he started his climbing down his third floor bedroom window.

The sense of urgency and the violent convulsion of his body didn't make the descent any easier. It only made the whole bad situation even worse and a lot harder. It was almost like he was ascending, like he was carrying his weight up a perilously steep mountain.

A few moments later he was on the second floor, struggling to find a firm spot to hold on to. The next moment his left hand slipped, and the brick fragments clattered into the ground. In the next second, the pressure that was almost unbearable, doubled. He might have been just two floors from the ground but the fall was as bone crushing as it was life threatening. Running out of breath and options he frantically searched for a dent in the wall and just a second away from falling he clasped onto a dent and desperately hung on to it.

Moving his hands from one brick to another, he slowly descended down and not long after he somehow managed to reach the ground. His fingers were red, bruised, numbed and a throbbing pain was pulsating in both his hands.

No sooner had he reached the ground that about half a dozen men appeared in a distance. He knew a thousand more were coming behind those few men so he had to put as much distance between himself and them as possible.

By the looks of it, almost more than half the city had already fallen at the sword of the three kings and their warriors because his dream was too revealing and his family castle was located just in the periphery of the center of the city but a little closer to the northern wall.

Without wasting anymore time he dashed towards the north on the narrow street.

The narrow street was surrounded by residential castles on all sides like impregnable walls which made his progress slow as traffic of terrified and panicking crowds were pouring in all directions.

Knowing that there was no enemy north of the city, his modicum of confidence was renewed and his resolve to survive was restored but unfortunately that confidence and resolve didn't enhance his endurance. On the contrary, the lack of endurance diminished the confidence and resolve quickly and he knew he was in trouble.

Pelting down the narrow street, Kodesh was panting heavily. His long coat was soaking wet with sweat but he still ran like his life depended on it. Well it did, that was why he had no time to catch a breath. He simply had no option. Looking back he noticed the half a dozen men he had seen earlier. It almost looked like they were chasing after him and ignoring everyone else. On one incident, they just shoved a group of civilians into the ground and continued their pursuit. They didn't deliver any killing blow to them.

'Is it my paranoia or are they chasing after me.'

Observing them even more, it all became apparent that they were pursing him. He even changed course and headed east and they were still on his tail. By now his coat and pants were more like they were dipped in water. They were all wet with sweat, who knows what else.

'But why would they come after me?'

'Was this war waged just to kill one person?'

'Me?'

'And everyone else is just a casualty?'

'Is it because I'm chosen?'

'Whatever that means.'

His pondering was abruptly interrupted by a whizzing sound that grew louder and louder. Casting a gaze with the corner of his eye, a blazing arrow barely missed him on his other side and struck a house, reducing it to rubble.

Glancing back had saved his life because his head moved ever so slightly creating enough space for the arrow to fly past him and narrowly miss. The flames didn't though. As they breezed past his head, the heat scalded him and charred some parts of his disheveled hair.

He was extremely fortunate on that occasion but would his luck alone be enough? A kid like him who had not been anointed was just a sitting duck. He might be marked as chosen but without the precious oils poured on his head then he was just an ordinary person.

Felling the need to curse, Kodesh suppressed his burning rage.

'Why would they attack on this day?'

'Had they attacked tomorrow, I would have had the power to at least save myself and my family.'

They chose to attack on this day for a reason, it all made sense. If they chose to wage war just to kill him then the plan would be advantageous to attack before he was anointed. Before he had a system. And here he was, on the run, with no system and no weapon to protect himself with. Their cold and brutal plan had worked like a charm.

Growing up, Kodesh learnt archery. He was somewhat of prodigy himself, even going on hunts alone. He learned a bit of swordsmanship and a few battle styles but he wasn't too good or maybe too keen to learn it. His bow could've been of use to him now but it was somewhere beyond the collapsed hallway of his home and out of his reach.

As he was thinking about his slender bow, a barrage of flaming arrows descended on him rapidly. Doubting his luck this time, he rolled on the paved street and the three arrows narrowly missed him as they struck the castle ahead and reduced it to rubble in mere seconds. As a cloud of dust took to the air, the debris piled up and blocked the narrow street like a small mountain.

Kodesh had only two options. To go back and exit the street a few meters back or climb one of the castles and run on the rooftops.

He dismissed climbing the rubble because it would take him a considerable amount of time to climb the pile of debris and he would also be in the open and those arrows struck with terrifying accuracy. The only option that weighed more was ascending the castle. It's a mountain of a challenge but it also poses less risks because the angle is too small for them to have a good shot at him. Going back a few meters was not really an option because it was roughly 60 meters and the men were only just about 200 meters from him and they were much faster than him.

With that he ascended up the castle. He had carefully evaluated his approach. Holding on to a dented brick, he lifted his weight up and ascending as fast as he could. He estimated that he would make it to the rooftop in 5 seconds but after that time had long passed, he still had barely left the ground. And the pursuers were already closing in. His descent earlier was utterly slow and sloppy but his ascent was much much worse.

'Who would have thought I might need to climb up the castles again?'

Mustering some ounces of strength, he slowly but surely made some progress. His pursuers were closing in much faster than he would have liked and just one arrow was enough to decimate the whole building to the ground, sending him crashing into the ground.

'Don't think about that.'

He didn't want to be gloomy and pessimistic. So far he had managed to lock those thoughts far away in the dungeons of his mind but now and again they somehow found their way out of those bondages.

'By the way how did our sworn enemies get so powerful.'

'Was it the seven deadly sins?'

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud thud of a castle crumbling to the ground. A small tremor shook the buildings and Kodesh almost slipped.

'I gotta make it quick or else..'

No allowing himself to finish those thoughts, he mustered strength and ascended up quickly. Before long he was lifting his body up the roof and started running for his dear life. He had about 50 meters between him and his pursuers. It was not a lot of distance for comfort but it was something.

Jumping from castle to castle he ran with all his strength until he leapt on to one of the castles. Immediately as his feet landed softly on it, the whole castle crumbled as if he weight the entire earth. A few seconds later he was in awful pangs of pain and buried under a rubble.