Kings On The Horizon (Vol. 1-3) ✓

PROLOGUE

The Beginning

ONCE UPON A TIME, there lived an ambitious young boy who grew up in a world where the fusion of power and wealth was the ultimate formula to success. It was such a simple formula, yet the complexity of its process had forced others to cheat their way through it.

    People sought the right answer. They threw away the things that were a hindrance to them like they were miscalculated numbers that had to be erased. They were willing to bleed buckets for a chance to have a single drop of this so-called success. But ignorance is bliss. There was no such thing as a formula. Success was not so easy to achieve that there would be a step-by-step process that one could easily follow. There was no fixed procedure, and that young boy was aware of it.

     Funny enough, the answer they sought in desperation was, in fact, the ambition that burned inside this ambitious yet ignorant young boy. Success for him was innate, almost as if it was a God-given talent that would lead him to hundreds of terrifying victories.

    "Give me a reason why I shouldn't get mad about the fact that you just spilled your cheap soda at me." A boy said with a taunting expression as he looked at the smaller student who was trembling in front of him.

     The two young men were surrounded by other students who were hungry for drama. On a sunny day like today, instead of doing something more productive, the students were outside the courtyard of their school, hoping that a fight would break out so they could witness something entertaining. But the boy who was being asked couldn't even move a muscle. His timidness started to bore them.

     "For heaven's sake just beat him up already." One of the spectators suggested.

     The boy in question started to sweat. He bit his lower lip, hoping the others wouldn't see how much he was already shaking. He didn't want them to make fun of his weakness any further than that.

     "Please forgive me." He begged as beads of sweat streamed down his face. He only spilled his soda on him by accident, but the guy was acting as if he had done it on purpose.

     "I asked you to give me a reason. That's not a reason at all." The larger student said with a dimpled grin. It was almost as if he was waiting for him to mess it up or to say just a single word that would become a reason for him to "beat him up," like how the others wanted him to do from the very beginning.

     Fear crossed the boy's face as his taunter took a step closer to where he was standing. There was silence for a moment, but after a couple of seconds, the student with the soda-stain on his shirt stretched his arm and punched the terrified boy right at his jaw, causing the students to start cheering. This was what they'd been waiting for, ever since they started watching them.

     The fragile boy fell with that single blow. When he was down, his attacker started kicking him mercilessly. All the students that were surrounding them cheered even louder as the two boys continued their one-sided fight.

     The pitiful boy couldn't do anything but hug himself as a form of protection. The voices around him echoed inside his head. 

     He felt like he was falling into an endless dark hole where there were no means of escape. Tears started forming in his eyes. He couldn't even utter the word stop. He started gasping for air, and he didn't know if it was because of the kicks that he was receiving or because of the dark hole that he was already in. He thought he was going to die then and there, but in an instant, the kicking stopped, and there was complete silence. It was like everyone, and everything around him vanished with the wind.

     The boy gulped and slowly lifted his head to see what had happened. To his surprise, he saw another boy clutching his attacker's collar with little to no effort.