As the sun rises, Alm's group heads towards the Southern Outpost. At a glance, the enemy group occupying it seemed small. Lukas stopped eveeyone from going in with an arm to his side. "Over there. Someone's already here aside from the enemies." he noted pointing at someone in a mask. The masked person sees the red soldier, glances around a corner, and then sneaks around over to them. Once close enough, they could see his appearence better. Short dark brown hair, seemed a bit average build with slight muscle, green eyes through the mask, and around as tall as Alm. "Who are you?" Kliff asks in his bored tone.

"I'll explain later. I overheard them talking about some prisoner they have cooped up here," the mercenary explained, "I'm planning to help save whoever it is. You all in?"

Kliff looked unamused. "And how do we know we can trust you?"

"Kliff, hold on. This might be the one," Alm said sounding like he may havw solved a riddle, "Were you the one that-"

"Who goes there?!" called out the appearent leader of this invading army fragment, "More rebels? Ha! Haven't you learned your lesson?"

Alm stood up and stepped forward some. "We're not rebels. We're the Deliverance!" He then drew his sword and pointed it skyward. "Everyone, to me!"

Kliff looked to their new ally. "You better prove your worth and explain everything after this."

"I will, I promise."

Lukas stood next to Alm. "A moment. The archer they have has a powerful weapon. Caution."

Alm nodded. "Got it."

The Deliverance advance as best they can to avoid any surprise attacks. Alm gestures for the new mercenary to go for the leftmost enemies while Lukas and Gray head for the rightmost. A lancer catches Gray, only to feel the newly made mercenary's power surge. Tobin took the chance to finish him off while Lukas continued his advance. Alm led the others towards the center for the ringleader. As they made their ways to the instructed targets, the archer with a steel bow readied an arrow aimed Gray and Lukas. The unnamed mercenary turned a corner becoming face to face with one of the lancers. "You were quick to get here, too bad it ends here." the lamcer taunted readying his lance. "Well see about that." the mercenary responded holding his sword ready.

Gray walked behind Lukas, who held his weapon ready to either strike or attempt to deflect an arrow. The archer just kept an eye on them before finally firing before they turn the corner. Lukas managed to deflect it yet it still scraped at a shoulder pad. Gray took this chance and charged for it steeling himself. Meanwhile, Faye and Silque had decided to split to help the two groups and now caught up to the left and right parties. Gray reached the archer and fought best he could while Lukas and Faye caught up. Silque managed to reach the mercenary just as he got the lance scraped against an arm. The healers began doing their healing as Alm reached the main soldier.

"So, you made it this far," the soldier chuckled, "How do you want it to end? At the end of my lance or running back home like a scared dog?" Alm gripped his sword tighter. "How about a third option?" he asked holding his sword at the ready, "You're the one that meets his end." With that, Alm felt a surge of strength slashing his sword down on the foe, who then fell to his knees then flopping over entirely. The outpost was recovered!

Everyone regrouped back at the entrance then looked over at the masked ally. "Oh, right," he sighed standing straight, "I came here to find something. I had dropped a valuable possession of mine, but I cannot find it anywhere. Not sure when I dropped it." Alm seemed to think over what he was saying. "I see. As for my question before, were you the one that saved us in the cave back near Ram Village?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I heard quite a scuffle happening as I passed by. Heard one of them mention some fun with a girl." He clenched a fist some. "I despise people like him. I went in to see what was going on and saw you all pretty roughed up."

"What did you even do to him?" Tobin asked curiously.

"Simply ran my blade through him. As for where his body went, that's not important. I'm just glad you all recovered."

"So Stranger, what's your name?" Gray asked with a smile, "Or should we just call you Stranger or Mask?"

"Right, call me..." He pondered for a moment. "Call me Sen."

Alm nodded. "Well then, Sen. We should go into the outpost before we talk much more."

Sen turned to the door. "Yeah, that prisoner likely wants out soon."

Lukas pat them both on the shoulder. I must thank you all. You were very brave and I would hope my fallen comrades think the same." he said with a smile, though you can tell it was a bitter one as he mentioned fallen comrades.

Kliff gave an almost annoyed sigh. "Save the waterworks soldier boy. Let's just go inside."

The group soon looks around the lobby and grabs a few items that may be useful later, like an iron lance. They then head into the War Room to find a few more likely useful things. Sen dug around more than they had, but told them they can go look for the prisoner without him, he'll join them again soon. After that, they head down into the cell. As soon as they enter the dungeon, Lukas runs over to the cell. "Lady Clair!" he called out to the blonde woman inside. "Lukas! How gallant of you to rescue me," she said happily before looking a little irritated, "How extricate me from this filthy cage at once!"

Alm searched around the room a bit before finding the key. Upon opening the cell, Clair offered a hand. "The boy will offer me his hand." she said in a regal tone. "Me? Oh, sorry." Alm responded taking her hand helping her up.

"It feels good to move around again." Clair then stretched a bit. "I thought I would be stuck in that disgusting pigsty..." She turned back to Alm. "You have my thanks...um..."

Lukas smiled. "This is Alm. He is our newest member of the Deliverance."

Clair returned the smile. "Wonderful news. Welcome Alm. You may address me as 'Lady Clair' or 'milady'."

Alm was taken aback. "Um, pleasure to meet you milady."

"Where do you hail from Alm?"

Alm seemed a little confused by her manner of speaking. "I...come from Ram Village."

Clair looked surprised. "A village? Truely? Where one would see the cows, the barns, and the fields yes?"

Alm chuckled. "I suppose you can say that."

"My word, I rarely speak to villagers!"

Lukas butted in some. "Lady Clair, perhaps you should consider Alm's feelings and ask more another time."

Clair looked surprised again. "Oh dear, have I done it again? Clive has lectured me about it before. Not everyone in the Deliverance is a nobile and we must treat them all as equals." She seemed a little saddened by this. "You must forgive this lady for her gauche breach in etiquette."

"It's alright. The peasant named Alm will get over it."

As Clair begins to say something else, Sen walks into the dungeon scratvhing his head. "Not here... Need to keep looking," he mumbled before looking up at the others, "Oh, am I interrupting something?"

Alm shook his head. "Not exactly." He then turned back to Clair. "I can tell you more about my village later."

Meanwhile, Tobin sighed and rubbed his hair a bit. "Sheesh, she's gonna be a handful." "Yeah uh, that's what I'm hoping for." Gray replied trying to sound like he means the opposite.

"Uh-huh..."

"What are you scheming?"

"What? Nothing."

Gray looked at Tobin. "Sure you aren't."

Tobin groaned. "What do you think I could be scheming then?"

Gray shrugged. "I dunno."

"Then don't accuse me of it!"

Sen looked off elsewhere. "Where could you be..." However, since he wasn't thinking he looked like he was staring at Silque. "W-Wait, I didn't mean to stare!"

Silque seemed to laugh some. "I could tell your mind was elsewhere."

Sen laughed nervously. "Y-Yeah, I was thinking about what I'm trying to find. Maybe...I'll tell more about it later..."

Alm called for everyone to get back outside so they can set up camp again for the night. Once outside, everyone gets their tent pitched and gets comfy for the time being. Thus ending the day of retaking Southern Outpost.

Another upload since I have the motivation to work on this again. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and finally meeting the one that saved them. Stay tuned for more!