10 taking back the Outpost

When night strikes Xu and Gwynn arrive at the recruit camp just outside the Outpost.

"Halt! Who goes there?" A soldier asks, drawing his sword when he sees two figures in red cloaks approach and three others rush to his side.

"Bring the commander, there is a situation at the Outpost." Xu demands, pushing back his hood with Gwynn doing the same.

"Queen Rosmund." Two of the two men say and bow to her.

"Please fetch the commander." Gwynn aka Rosmund repeats the request.

"Of course." One of the two bowing men say and hurry off to find the commander.

"Lower your sword or loose your heads." Xu tells the two on guard soldiers who panic and quickly put away their swords.

"No need to be hostile Xu." Rosmund says.

"We can't be too careful with what's going on." He says, looking down at the girl around his chin height.

"Rosmund. We welcome you, how come Garret isn't with you?" The commander greets the blonde crown princess.

"Garret is away on a mission for me but while he was away the Outpost was overtaken by the order." Rosmund explains, following the man to the large tent in the middle of the camp with Xu following her.

"How many?" The soldier asks, looking at the tall warrior.

"He wasn't present during the attack either. It must've been about a hundred soldiers." Rosmund tells him.

"I see. Our men are many, but they aren't ready to launch an attack." The commander says.

"We need to hurry. Talon and the others are on their way back and will run right into a trap." Xu whispers to the blonde girl.

"Right... commander I know this is much to ask but we need to launch the attack tomorrow midday." Rosmund tells him.

"I understand. Of course my Queen." He says, bowing his head.

"I wouldn't ask you to rush if Garrett and our best chance against the Order wasn't in danger." Rosmund tells him sympathetically.

"If we can manage to sneak me in beforehand, I can weaken their forces before your men join." Xu suggests.

"Xu, what are you thinking?" Rosmund asks.

"Like I said. We should sneak me and the best men in ahead of time to weaken their forces, we need a way to get the gate open anyways." Xu says.

"Fine. Do you agree with that commander?" Rosmund asks.

"Yes." The man replies, looking at Xu and nods.

"OK then. Tomorrow we'll take back the Outpost." Rosmund says.

"Commander we should select the other men so I can make a plan with them." Xu says.

"Wait here. I'll get our ten best." The man says and leaves them alone in the camp.

"Are you sure about this? You could die." Rosmund asks Xu, while the man takes off the cloak and uses it to clean his axe, not minding his shirtless form.

"I'm fine with dying if it means Talon is safe." Xu says, glancing at Rosmund, who sits down on a crate in the tent and also takes off her cloak, folding it in her lap.

"I admire your feelings. I feel the same for Garrett, but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to show it." She says.

"You will. Garett is loved by all these men. They would support a union between the two of you." Xu tells her.

"That would be a dream come true." Rosmund smiles.

"So, Talon. Do you think she can summon a demon army for our cause?" Rosmund asks.

"I wouldn't underestimate her. But I'm not sure she wants to. The demon she had gave her much grief and caused more harm than good." Xu says.

"I understand. But our survival might depend on it." Rosmund says.

"In that case I'm sure she will come through." Xu says with a grin.

|The next day|

Xu and 8 of his infiltration group are waiting just outside the walls of the Outpost for the two soldiers in disguise they sneaked in, using the order clothing from the men Xu killed in the woods the other day.

"There they are." A soldier says, seeing two red caped order soldiers give him a hand sign.

"What's the situation?" Another one of the group asks when the two disguised people join them.

"It's bad. The people are about to be gathered in the main plaza because they are holding an execution for your friends and some more people who started a revolt yesterday." One of the two reports, looking at Xu, who also is costumed, his giant axe left in the commanders care for the time being.

"Alright. That's good. Security will not be focused on the outside then. We will move when they gather everyone. Wait here for me and I will inform the Queen." Xu tells his men, clapping the disguised men's shoulder.

"Good job." He praises them and hurries away to where Rosmund and her forces are gathered.

Two hours later the plan is on the way and Xu and his 10 men sneak over the wall, pretending to be three order soldiers who are leading away 7 civilians and within 10 minutes they have gained control over the gate, Xu having killed most men himself by breaking their necks and tossing them over the wall.

"Summon your demon. Summon your demon and I will let one of your friends live. Decide quickly because I'll start executing everyone one by one. Let's start with this one." Dred threatens Talon, looking at Garett.

"No don't fine. I'll call it out." Talon says folding after a second or two with the executioner holding the lever to hang Garett.

Talon then recites the summoning for her Lu-Qiri, but nothing happens since it died the other day at the greyskin camp.

"I told you nothing would happen." Talon says smirking cockily.

"Hang them all!" Dred orders furiously and the executioner gets in position.

While her dead is soon to come Talon looks at Garett, her feelings for him now clear for her. She turns forward and sees a large order soldier make his way through the crowd with a few cloaked men doing the same.

"I said execute them!" Dred orders the uncomfortable executioner who grabs one of the levers before flying backwards off the platform, an order sword pinning him by his chest to the wall behind.

"Kill everyone! We're under attack." Dredd orders and moves to the levers himself, only for the large order soldier to grab his wrist.

"What do you think you are doing?" Dredd asks angrily.

"Freeing my friends in the name of Queen Rosmund." Xu says. Talon, Garett and Janzo recognizing the voice.

The next moment Dred gets flung off the platform and the gates open with a loud noise and soldiers come pouring in lead by Rosmund and the commander, Rosmund dressed in a special uniform.

"Free the prisoners and take back the Outpost!" She orders and her men engage the order soldiers in combat.

"You're alive!" Janzo says relived.

"Let's not do this now." Xu says, taking his second sword, the first one being the one he tossed at the executioner and he severs their ropes starting with Talon.

When he freed Talon and Garett and is working on freeing Janzo he sees a soldier aim his crossbow at Talon from the top of a wall while the girl is freeing Janzo's mother, with Garrett working on freeing his father.

"Watch out." Xu says, leaving Janzo standing and rushes to Talon, wrapping his arms around her and Janzo's mother, shielding them and gets shot in the back of his left shoulder by the crossbow bolt.

Once the bolt hit him he grunts and rips out a piece of the wooden platform, tossing it at the soldier who shot him, impaling him with the sharp wood.

"Don't worry. Fight and free our comrades." Xu tells her, already moving to Janzo, Talon looking at his back and the bolt sticking out of it guiltily.

"Garett, Xu!" The commander yells when everyone of the platform is free and ready to join the fighting around them.

The man tosses them a sword and his axe respectively before he gets shot in his back by an enraged Dred.

Talon sees the man responsible for her people's death and follows him, nothing but revenge on her mind while she takes a sword and dagger from a corpse she passes while chasing Dred.

"Meanwhile the others all join the fight, Xu ripping off his armor before jumping off the platform and swings his axe at three soldiers rushing at him, splattering his red shirt with blood."

"Garett, leave him. Protect the Queen." Xu says, seeing Garett look over the commander, who was one of his best friends.

"You do it." Garett replies, killing enemy soldiers in a rage.

Xu quickly makes his way over to Rosmund who is still on her horse, struggling to keep an order soldier at bay with her sword.

"Rosmund, careful." Xu says, arriving just in time and swats away the soldier she was fighting with the flat side of his axe. He takes position next to her and sees a handful of men aim their crossbows at the rightful Queen. He quickly pulls her off the horse and runs with her behind a wall, the crossbow bolts clanging at the wall behind them.

"Stay here. I will protect you." Xu says, seeing that Rosmund is scared out of her mind. She nods quietly and Xu steps out from behind the wall, the five soldiers still focused on killing Rosmund approaching in a wild charge.

Xu takes his axe, holding his horizontally and jumps out from behind the wall, pushing against the five men, knocking them all over while getting slashed at his right side by one attacker.

Once the five men are on their back, attempting to quickly get back to their feet Xu stomps onto two of the men, crushing their throat between his foot.

"Just give us the girl and we'll let you live." One of the three men shouts.

"I won't show you the same mercy." Xu says, slashing clean through the first opponent with his ace before plunging the axe head in another' stomach, knocking the wind out of him and lifts him over his head, slamming him headfirst into the ground behind himself.

"Monster!" The last man shouts frightened and tries to flee, only for Xu to toss a rock at him, splitting his skull and killing him.

"Stay close." Xu says offering a bloody hand to Rosmund, who has a frightened expression on her face bur follows him as he requested."

About 3 minutes later the order soldiers are beaten and Xu, Garett and Rosmund go looking for Talon.

When they find her, she has Dred kneeling in front of him, her sword at his throat and dagger raised above her ready to strike down at the white haired man.

"Talon, don't. I want to see him Dead as much as you, but so want a lot of people. We need to have his punishment be in front of everyone. The people deserve it." Rosmund says.

"I can't take the risk." Talon says and swipes down to kill Dred, only for Garett to grab her arm, stopping her.

"What do you think you're doing?" Talon asks dangerously, freeing her arm and holding her dagger at Garett's throat.

"Following my Queen's orders as you should." Garett replies.

"Ahh!" Talon yells furious and pushes Garett over before leaving the house she trapped Dred in, Xu following her.

"Talon, wait!" Xu says, following the girl over what now looks like a battlefield.

"What?" She asks, angry at not being allowed to kill Dred.

"I understand your feelings. If you want to you can still kill Dred. We probably will have to flee the Outpost afterwards though." Xu says, grabbing her arm to stop her from walking away.

"No. I can't do that after everything that happened. But the thought of him being allowed to breathe within my grasp is killing me." Talon says.

"I know. Just say the word and we can get a fresh start somewhere else after taking care of Dred." Xu suggests.

"Xu... I. I kissed Garett." Talon confesses.

"You didn't know I survived. I understand." Xu says a bit disappointed.

"No. I knew you survived. I recognized your axe and your scars." Talon says guiltily.

"What happened to you anyways? You were a greyskin, head to toe and now you're back to normal." Talon says confused.

"I don't know. I almost died and woke up as a greyskin. But if you knew I was alive why...?" Xu asks hurt.

"I shouldn't have agreed to go out with you after Shax. I didn't think it through. I have feelings for Garett." Talon confesses, feeling terrible.

"Are those feelings stronger than what I made you feel?" Xu asks Talon dreadfully.

"... yes." Talon confesses after a long pause.

"I see." Xu says with a sigh and lets go of her before walking away.

"Where are you going?" Talon asks worried.

"To have Janzo remove the bolt in my shoulder." Xu answers before disappearing in the crowd of people.

"I'm sorry." She says loud enough for Xu to hear before disappearing from sight.

A few minutes later Xu finds Janzo telling his mother about the colipsum and she sees an opportunity, being able to produce her own colipsum but Janzo gets angry and warns her not to, before taking her supply and is about to leave when Munt stands in his way on order of his mother.

"I'm sorry Janzo. Mom said not to let you take this." Munt says grabbing the bag from Janzo, before an even larger hand than his grabs the bag.

"Leave Munt." Xu warns him dangerously, grabbing the bag.

"Thank you. We need to burn is immediately. Colipsum is the reason there are plaguelings." Janzo says, grabbing the bag from Xu.

"I don't understand but do what must be done. Can you help me with my back afterwards?" Xu asks, showing him the bolt sticking out of his back.

"Yes. Of course." Janzo agrees and brings Xu to his lab, where he tosses the colipsum into his furnace and asks Xu to sit down on a bench.

"Thank you for saving us." Janzo thanks Xu, while helping him out of his shirt.

"You're welcome." Xu says.

"This is odd." Janzo says, seeing grey skin around where the bolt pierced.

"What is it?" Xu asks.

"There is greyskin around your wound." Janzo says.

"It's hard to explain. But I can take the form of a greyskin. I don't know how or why but I was the one who helped free you from the greyskin camp." Xu tells the scientist.

"Aha." Janzo says shocked, his mind racing.

"Sorry I didn't tell you. It started with someone from the order experimenting with me when I was close to death. He implanted greyskin on my back and I have been different ever since. This was over 15 years ago." Xu says, grunting in pain when Janzo starts to pull on the bolt.

"I don't understand or can imagine an explanation, but you've saved us today. And I don't think humanities worst enemy would do that, so I trust you." Janzo tells him, before pulling out the bolt completely and while he's smearing some ointment on the wound it closes up with a patch of scaly greyskin.

"Impressive. Something is pushing your healing beyond what is humanly possible." Janzo notes.

"You think so?" Xu asks.

"It must be. It's the only thing that makes sense." Janto replies.

"I see. Well thank you Janzo. Take care." Xu says and walks to his exit.

"Why do you say that? Are you leaving?" Janzo asks worried.

"For a while. I need some space from Talon to get a grip on my emotions." Xu says.

"Why?" Janzo asks.

"She kissed Garett on your journey and she loves him, not me." Xu tells the brewer.

"She never kissed Garett." Janzo says confused.

"Why would she lie?" Xu asks.

"I honestly don't know." Janzo says.