Several years ago, Apollo had just barely escaped a group of humans who had tried hard to catch him.
"Catch him!"
"I think he went that way!"
"Hurry up! Don't let that demonic thing get away!"
The human voices could be heard shouting as young Apollo huddled up inside of a hallowed out tree. Cold winter snow blew through the trees as his body shivered. Sounds of footsteps could be heard from a distance as his elf like ears flicked back and forth trying to listen carefully. It was not a first that he had to hide from mortals who saw his demonic bloodline as something dangerous. Though the world was vast in species of demi humans many were still biased and as a half demon it was easy for him to run into those who saw him as dangerous and would try hard to hunt him down. From the day he was born he had been cursed with a life of evading attacks on his life.
"Under the moonlight, the stars shine so bright~" Apollo sang quietly to himself as he hugged his tail against his chest. Trying to calm himself down he could only sigh as he had long gotten use to the life style of others disliking him. Feeling as if he would always spend his life alone he could only see the idea of becoming close to someone as nothing but a mere dream among dreams. Even his family at the time had pushed him into an engagement to Prince Clyde that neither of them had wanted.
Snapping back to reality of the hell hounds around him he pushed the old memory aside. He did not like remembering his childhood but when he thought about how people would react to the change in Gunner he shoved the fact that he had just silently fed the innocent to the hounds behind Gunner's back. The man would never need to find out so he felt like he had only killed two birds with one stone.
"Under the moonlight, the stars shine so bright.. Tell me where my soul can rest, can I ask where a warrior can taste that gentle breeze~" Apollo could not help but sing to himself as he stood there watching over Gunner. Using his own fiery blaze to burn down hound after hound so that the man would not become over run.
"Apollo!" Gunner shouted as he noticed the demon had lost focus and was about to be caught by the jaws of a hell hound from behind. At a mere glance he could tell that Apollo was not going to be able to catch the attack in time so he had to react quickly on the demon's behalf.
Turning around at the sudden snap back to reality Apollo realized how close he was to being bitten by a hound. Before he could react Gunner had already pierced his blade into the vital point in the beast's throat. Shoving the beast away from Apollo the demon could only be taken by surprise. If the attack had landed on him he would not have been able to heal as easily as Prince Clyde. Apollo was very capable at taking care of himself if his focus was on point but if he was to become wounded he did not have natural healing abilities. The thought that a human would aid in protecting him was something unheard of. No mortal would naturally toss themselves in the line of attack for him so he felt shaken as the event sunk into his mind.
"Snap out of it!" Gunner shouted at Apollo. He was not sure what had gotten into the demon but he did not want more things to worry about. Standing by his side he did not leave the demon alone to fight until he was certain his focus had returned to the struggle in front of them.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
"Right. I lost myself a bit there." Apollo smiled kindly as his tail flicked about behind him. The fact that Gunner would help him cause his heart to race. Unsure of what the feeling was he could only force himself to ignore it. Warmth was flowing throughout his chest as he felt a burst of energy flow throughout himself. Pleased with himself he jumped back into slaying the beasts one by one. His hands burned them to ash while using the aid of his tail to strangle and slam their bodies against the ground.
The battle raged on through the night for the safety zone. Many lives were lost in the fight while many more beasts had fallen. It was not until well past sun rise that the last of the beasts were pushed out from the gate they had broke down. For those who were near the southern gate they were sworn into silence from spreading tales about how the gate became destroyed. The only ones who had come to know the truth were those on sight as well as Prince Clyde.
"Prince Clyde, are you sure we should not warn the people of this? What if we have another incident?" General Tao asked while they stood there gazing at the southern gate.
"No! If the people were to learn of how the gate fell tonight it will only cause more panic. They have already gone through a lot after the hell hounds invasion. If they were to learn of this it will only make matters worse. For now until we learn more we leave it alone." Prince Clyde was determined to keep things quiet. He knew that if Gunner found out he would probably try to look further into things himself and there was no way he was going to allow that if he could avoid it.
"Who would go so far as to deliberately blow out the southern gate?" Larka asked from behind General Tao causing the man to jump slightly. He had heard their conversation while aiding in the cleanup from the battle.
"God damn it, Larka, how many times have I told you to not sneak up on me?" General Tao scolded him. Larka always had a habit of making the man jump when he spoke because his steps were always so quiet that he never noticed him until it was too late. At times he wondered if the man did it on purpose.